Character Review: Doctor Phenomenal

[Dust Raven]

My girlfriend has recently started running a game, and I thought I'd share the character I've been playing here on the boards and see what everybody thinks of him. In addition what whatever standard critiques you may have, I'm open to opinions for what to do with him as he gains XP.

 

Well, here he is:

[b]Doctor Phenomenal - Dr. Allan Fenneman[/b]
[b][u]VAL[/u]   [u]CHA[/u]   [u]Cost[/u]   [u]Total[/u]   [u]Roll[/u]      [u]Notes[/u][/b]
60    STR     50   60      21-       HTH Damage 12d6  END [6]
18    DEX     24   18      13-       OCV 6 DCV 6
30    CON     40   30      15-
15    BODY    10   15      12-
23    INT     13   23      14-       PER Roll 14-/16-
14    EGO     8   14      12-       ECV: 5
20    PRE     10   20      13-       PRE Attack: 4d6
16    COM     3   16      12-
26    PD      14   26             26 PD (12 rPD)
26    ED      20   26             26 ED (12 rED)
4    SPD     12   4                 Phases:  3, 6, 9, 12
18    REC     0   18
60    END     0   60
65    STUN    5   65
15    RUN      0   15"                END [3]
2    SWIM     0   2"                END [1]
12    LEAP     0   12"                12" forward, 6" upward
[b]CHA Cost: 209[/b]
[b][u]Cost[/u]   [u]POWERS[/u][/b]
6     [b][i]Durable[/i][/b]: Hardened (+1/4) applied to PD - END=
6     [b][i]Durable[/i][/b]: Hardened (+1/4) applied to ED - END=
15     [b][i]Durable[/i][/b]: Damage Resistance (12 PD/12 ED), Hardened (+1/4) - END=0
18     [b][i]Strong Stride[/i][/b]: Running +9" (15" total) - END=2
5     [b][i]Resistant[/i][/b]: Power Defense (5 points) - END=0
2     [b][i]Sharp Hearing[/i][/b]: +2 PER with Normal Hearing - END=0
21     [b][i]Spatial Sensor Goggles[/i][/b]: Spatial Awareness (Unusual Group), Discriminatory, Range; OIF (-1/2) - END=0
3     [b][i]Neural Shielding[/i][/b]: Mental Defense (8 points total); OIF (-1/2) - END=0
12     [b][i]Last Man Standing[/i][/b]: +20 STR; Only When Character Is The Last Man Standing (-2), No Figured Characteristics (-1/2) [b]plus[/b] Armor (6 PD/6 ED); Only When Character Is The Last Man Standing (-2) - END=2
11     [b][i]Stronger Than A Locomotive[/i][/b]: +40 STR; Only To Stop Moving Objects (-2), No Figured Characteristics (-1/2) - END=4
[b]POWERS Cost: 99[/b]

[b][u]Cost[/u]   [u]SKILLS[/u][/b]
12      +4 with Punch, Grab & Thrown Objects

0      AK: U.S.A. 8-
3      Acrobatics 13-
0      Acting 8-
3      Breakfall 13-
2      CK: Millennium City 11-
0      Climbing 8-
3      Combat Piloting 13-
0      Concealment 8-
0      Conversation 8-
3      Deduction 14-
3      Electronics 14-
3      Inventor 14-
2      KS: Sensors & Detection Equipment 11-
1      KS: The Superhuman World 8-
1      Language:  Brail (literacy)
0      Language:  English (idiomatic) (4 Active Points)
1      Oratory 8-
0      PS: Scientist 11-
0      Paramedics 8-
0      Persuasion 8-
3      Power:  Strength Tricks (DEX-based) 13-
3      Scientist
1      1)  SS:  Holographics 11-
2      2)  SS:  Mathematics (INT-based) 14-
2      3)  SS:  Particle Physics (INT-based) 14-
2      4)  SS:  Physics (INT-based) 14-
2      5)  SS:  Quantum Mechanics (INT-based) 14-
0      Shadowing 8-
0      Stealth 8-
3      Systems Operation 14-
0      TF:  Grav Vehicles/Hovercraft, Small Motorized Ground Vehicles
3      Teamwork 13-
0      WF:  Clubs, Fist-Loads, Thrown Rocks, Unarmed Combat
[b]SKILLS Cost: 58[/b]
[b][u]Cost[/u]   [u]PERKS[/u][/b]
2      Access (Millennium City University)
[b]PERKS Cost: 2[/b]
[b][u]Value[/u]  [u]DISADVANTAGES[/u][/b]
10     Distinctive Features:  Mutant (Not Concealable; Always Noticed; Detectable Only By Unusual Senses)
10     Hunted:  Blue Moon 8- (As Pow, Harshly Punish)
20     Hunted:  IHA 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, Capture)
20     Hunted:  VIPER 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, Capture/Kill)
15     Physical Limitation:  Blind (Infrequently, Fully Impairing)
20     Psychological Limitation:  Code Versus Killing (Common, Total)
15     Psychological Limitation:  Hero's Code (Common, Strong)
10     Psychological Limitation:  Terminally Optimistic (Common, Moderate)
5     Reputation:  Obsessive Scientist, 8-
10     Reputation:  Overconfident, 11-
15     Susceptibility:  Alderite, 1d6 damage per Phase (Uncommon)
[b]DISADVANTAGES Points: 150[/b]
Base Pts: 200
Exp Required: 18
Total Exp Available: 21
Exp Unspent: 3
Total Character Cost: 368

[Dust Raven]

Re: Character Review: Doctor Phenomenal

 

Or not... why isn't the heroboards export template from HD working?

[TaxiMan]

Re: Character Review: Doctor Phenomenal

 

We could debate the value of a Disadvantage: Blind when you have Spatial Awareness, but I think it's good as is.

 

He's an awesome scientist / inventor, does he have some angst in his background? Expose any friends to cosmic rays? Want to free humanity from disease?

 

He could use future XP to learn Biology in its myriad forms.

 

He could get 'rich' - either through hiring out his science skills or inventing something or from gov't subsidies for his work.

 

He could build a base with super-science labs.

 

He could develop a healing machine (Bulky OAF, requires Megawatts, etc. etc.) - cool for future 'radiation accidents'.

 

I suppose the best answer is, what do you guys do when playing? If it's always combat and you like that, boost combat options. If you roleplay, do you want to change the world? Decide how and plow points into it (with the GM's understanding and approval of where you're going!).

[TaxiMan]

Re: Character Review: Doctor Phenomenal

 

Oh, and re: posting HD heroboards export - all I got was a bunch of html text when I tried earlier! If you figure out why, please let me know. I figured I had html turned off (says so at the bottom of the page), but I don't know how to turn it back on.

[Zed-F]

Re: Character Review: Doctor Phenomenal

 

It's the forum owners that can turn HTML formatting on and off. And they decided to turn it off. So you'll have to use Vb code such as Dust Raven has used above, or else link to a sheet stored elsewhere.

[Sunday_Gamer]

Re: Character Review: Doctor Phenomenal

 

For starters, very nice.

 

Not obscenely powerful, well rounded, reasonable amount of skills, skill choices reflect a solid background, nice work.

 

You've got the blindness at infrequent impairment, which with perma awareness (no focus:goggles, they're just theatrics) is entirely correct.

 

Where to go? Wherever you want =)

 

Build his combat side with defense maneuver, for the man who likes to be the last guy standing in a circle of baddies but doesn't want to get buried in rear attacks and multiple attacker bonuses...

 

Build his powers/scientist side with some images and hologram themed foci based powers. Holographic masking (instant change, shapeshift) Images, Hypno beams, whatever tickles your fancy.

 

Up to you really, nice character, shouldn't have any problems building on a solid foundation.

 

Sunday

[Dust Raven]

Re: Character Review: Doctor Phenomenal

 

Thanks guys!

 

About the blindness. It is infrequent, and I run the character with goggles on only when fighting crime. He's gotten used to being blind and I can't really see anyone wearing bulky goggles 24/7. On top of that, he can't distinguish color at all, and has some small problems with textures. He also tends to walk into things more often with the goggles on than with off as he tends to accidentally just look through some objects without realzing they are there (no other targeting senses to sense them).

 

I love the idea of buying Defense Maneuver. I don't really want to upgrade his combat talents just yet (not enough recent experience), but it's definately something to consider when the time comes. The Last Man Standing power is actually a result of his optimistic Psych Limit. He just knows everything will work out, and if it ends up all on his shoulders for some reason, he works that much harder to get the job done. The Locomotive power is along similar lines.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Character Review: Doctor Phenomenal

 

You know what, I hadn't realized that the background/personality stuff didn't get exported on that template. That sucks. I'll have to figure out how to add that stuff in for later use. In the meantime:

 

Background: When Allan as fourteen, he was taken to his father's lab at RTI. His father was working on a new laser using alderite crystals that may become an excellent non-lethal weapon for law enforcement. Theoretically, it would atrophy the muscles in living flesh by causing microscopic alderite crystals to form in the body. The crystals would quickly decay and be harmless absorbed, but while in place the victim's muscles would be useless. Fascinated by all of this, Allan eagerly explored the lab. While looking around the lab, an accident triggered the laser and a beam of dark blue light struck Allan directly in the eyes.

 

Although the strength draining effects wore off quickly, Allan's sight never returned. The doctors discovered that millions of alderite fragments had developed in Allan's optic nerves, and were inexplicably not dissolving. There was no hope of operating, and no known technology could cause the alderite to dissolve without completely destroying the optic nerve.

 

Allan did not despair. Being blind only made life more interesting. He was a dedicated young man who wasn't going to let something like a loss of sight keep him from accomplishing anything. Of course, he didn't make the gymnastics team in high school, and try as he might, he never did get that black belt in karate. Although it seemed Allan was destined for a purely academic life, he never stopped the athletics.

 

Then again, Allan had discovered another result of the accident. As his strength returned, it returned in greater supply. All throughout high school, he kept getting stronger. It wasn't hard to keep it secret, as nobody expected him to do much physical work.

 

After graduation, Allan finally relented that he would never be accepted by any sports team, professional or otherwise. Allan figured that if an accident of science had taken away his sight, then perhaps another could restore it. An academic life it would be then, and Allan would excel at it. By his mid twenties, he had received two doctorates in physics and was working on a third when he stumbled on a possible answer.

 

He got a job at Millennium City University teaching quantum mechanics and as a scientist on a grant for research and development into spatial sensing technology. It was here when Allan earned the nickname “Doctor Phenomenal†when he was witnessed thwarting a mugger on campus by taking away his gun and then throwing him across the lawn. Allan thought that if he could not restore his sight, he would replace it. The next four years he had almost perfected a spatial sensor and an interface that would allow him to use it to see. Unfortunately, his financial backers were growing impatient. More unfortunately, it turned out his financial backer was VIPER, who just wanted a sensor that could see through walls.

 

When VIPER, under the disguise of a benign scientific research company, came to collect the research, they attempted to kill Allan and torch his lab to make sure only they had the technology he had developed. Allan discovered at this time he was also extremely resilient to damage, and was unharmed by the VIPER blasters.

 

He managed to rescue the prototype goggles he had built, however, and quickly went about testing them. When the local superheroes arrived, Allan insisted on accompanying them to recover his technology from VIPER. After all, with his new goggles, he could “see†again and his strength and toughness could make in an asset to a team of supers.

 

Since that time, Allan has been fighting crime in Millennium City using the name Doctor Phenomenal.

 

Personality: Allan has always been a highly moral and upstanding individual, but his most prominent trait is his almost infectious optimism. It simply never occurs to him that bad things happen to good people, and even with something that seems bad happens, it’s just something good in disguise. To Allan, the glass isn’t just half full; it has potential to hold more water. He is almost always smiling and in a good mood, and it is very difficult to make him truly angry or frustrated.

 

If there is something that needs doing, Allan is always ready to volunteer for any difficult or physically demanding task. This may be from a feeling of uselessness due to his blindness, or simply because the feels capable. He’s not overconfident, as he knows his own limits, and will ask for help just as often as he asks to help others.

 

Quote: “Don’t worry; we can all work this out.â€

 

Powers/Tactics: Doctor Phenomenal’s powers stem from the alderite particles that developed in his optic nerve during the accident. Over the years, they have increased his strength and durability to staggering levels. As a side effect, they block his eyes from sending information to his brain, causing blindness. To compensate for this, he has invented a pair of spatial sensing goggles to replace his sight. The goggles allow Doctor Phenomenal to perceive the world as a grayscale three-dimensional wire-frame representation of the physical world. Because of how the goggles work, he can actually perceive through physical objects, giving him a sort of “x-ray†quality to his vision. The only things his goggles cannot perceive though are energy fields, such as most force fields.

 

In combat, Doctor Phenomenal tries to help out his fellow heroes as much as possible. He’ll typically attempt to restrain a villain rather than simple punch him. He’ll sometimes try to trap a villain under or behind something heavy so he is free to attack other targets. Unlike most “brick†like characters, Doctor Phenomenal tries to avoid full on toe-to-toe fighting and prefers to use his strength in more clever or unpredictable ways. Still, he’s an excellent hand to hand fighter, having trained in karate and gymnastics his entire life despite his blindness.

 

Appearance: Allan is a tall, muscular man in his late twenties with shoulder length wavy blonde hair he keeps in a pony-tail. His light-blue eyes are often hidden behind his bulky goggles when fighting crime, but he typically goes through his normal day-to-day activities without them. His crime-fighting costume consists of a white lab coat over a black shirt and pants, with heavy black boots.