Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

Actually, IMHO the Thanos/Apocalypse comparison is not that unreasonable, considering that both characters have received a fair amount of Mary Sue treatment from the comics writers who favor them, and a fair amount of undercutting from writers who don't like them.

 

For my part, I find that neither character has displayed enough depth and growth as characters to really engage me, which is an issue of greater concern to me than power level. (Thanos did have some interesting flaws and personality quirks in his early appearances, but in later years Jim Starlin started writing him as "the perfect villain," without weakness.)

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

To try to get back on topic, I have a tough time coming up with a top 5 list for my last campaign. I was running a Champions Universe-based campaign at a high power level, and drawing in cosmic-level characters from Galactic Champions and the various "mystic" books to at least make an appearance. When you have the likes of the Examiner, the Dragon, Mechanon 3000 and the Kings of Edom in your world, it's hard to decide who occupies the highest rung.

[OddHat]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

Five more powerful beings in my campaign, that may one day appear on stage but haven't yet:

 

The World Eater - My Galactus homage character. So far only seen once in the 1960s and driven off by a massive organized effort of most of North America's most powerful Supers, both law abiding and criminal.

 

The Empress of 10,000 Worlds - Homage to the Robert Heinlein character and also to the many Evil Empress types in B Movie sci-fi (as a campaign trope, she was most of them). Not personally that powerful, but controls almost unlimited resources both technological and mystical.

 

The King in the Hill - The last king of Atlantis, who rescued a portion of his people by takin the city of Balkaris to an alternate world when the Atlantean wars caused the fall of the world. His power comes from his access to an Atlantean psionic technology that has had another 10,000 + years to develop, and to his many thousands of years of practice in the use of psionics.

 

The Jade Emperor - One of the original Nine Unknown, who transcended his physical form and became something very close to a true god, he now watches over and rules the Spirit World of China.

 

The Ancients - My homage to the EE Doc Smith, Piers Anthony, George RR Martin, Arthur C Clark and Terry Pratchett versions of a race of world builders and species shapers, with a healthy dose of The Celestials and the Guardians of Oa. The return of a single Ancient Seed Ship to the Earth is a major sub plot in the campaign.

[proditor]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

Top Five in raw unfettered power?

 

Doctor Destroyer

Epoch Aeon (PC in my game)

Lady Arcane (Another PC in my game)

Menton

Firewing or Gravitar

[Pariah]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

RE: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign?

 

For my list, I'm using my long-running (and now retired) Tempest campaign. In no particular order:

 

Surge: I'd never GMed someone with a VPP before, and I had NO IDEA just how devious and resourceful one of my players could be. The said player voluntarily retired this character because he could sense that Surge's presence was unbalancing the campaign (or at least the GM).

 

Black Cat: Who says martial artists have to be about stealth and finesse? Black Cat was designed for one purpose: to beat the living cr@p out of anyone who deserved it. And she did. She became particularly obnoxious when her Darkforce powers started to overcome her personality and turn her toward the dark side, at which point she went from 'powerful superheroine' to 'lethal threat to the rest of the team'. Probably my greatest and most challenging GMing experience.

 

Gibraltar: 'Tempest' was an excellent name for this hero group, because the changes in personnel in both players and characters was almost mind-boggling. Through it all, one constant remained, and that was Gibraltar. She started out as a private detective with density-altering powers and ended up as Brick #1 on the planet. Yes, she was that tough. We used to joke that her character quote should be something like, "Don't get mad at me. It's not my fault you want to change characters every 50 points."

 

Mister Owen: Magus Supreme (and mayor) of the extradimensional city of Byzantium. He was impervious to most forms of magical and mundane harm, but had no offensive abilities whatsoever. Hence, he recruited Our Heroes. I never actually built him, but his defenses would have been a bugger. Plus, he would have had more than a hundred points in Contacts. Everyone knows Owen.

 

Earthmover: My world's Juggernaut clone. He was designed to be a threat to the whole team and did a pretty good job of it right up to the end.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

Surge:

 

Black Cat:

 

Hey I made two of his 5. :D

 

I have to think about an answer to this one. I'll post later when I'm not at work.

 

Black Cat: he became particularly obnoxious when her Darkforce powers started to overcome her personality and turn her toward the dark side, at which point she went from 'powerful superheroine' to 'lethal threat to the rest of the team'. Probably my greatest and most challenging GMing experience.

 

As we were running a "turned evil" plot, Pariah allowed me to indulge all of my minimaxy tendencies, so she could be a credible threat to the rest of the team. And I cut loose. Months after she was depowered (the "Radiation Accident" was something I wanted) a villian showed up leaving bodies behind that looked just like what BC had done when she was possesed by her Darkforce powers.

 

The evil GM took my writeup, defined it as living darkforce, and sent it after us. I knew what that character sheet looked like and I responded "Hey, no fair". Pariah of course, just grinned an evil GM grin at me. Made a great archnemesis though.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

I'm going back to my last long running game.

 

Aside from the default CU characters that fit in that catagory (Dr Destroyer, Archimago, Viperia) the biggies in my game were, in no particular order:

 

Psyche - the worlds pre-eminent telepath. Had a somewhat nasty disposition, and a very strong power set. She fell in and worked with the "Dark detective" on the team as they had a tendency to have similar attitudes and approaches. Her love insterest was a idealistic martial artist with a cosmic pool.

Golden Avenger - in my world he went rogue (as there were no mutants, all the supers started at the start of the game he was anti-super, so that darkened him up some). He ended up as the Black King's Knight in Genocide.

 

While not the "most powerful" in raw power/damage but one of the overall most versitle and effective would be Jack Diamond. He was the "Dark Knight" of the team. He also had a habit of stealing bad guy's foci and incorperating them into his own stuff. In thier first combat he threw a gas grenate at Vengence (the Golden Avenger gone rogue) - which triggered a vulnerability, and he went down. Diamond stole his "AP Gloves". That started off a beautiful long running rivalry, and a free hunted.

 

Native Sun - he was an NPC that filled the "Greatest Hero" niche a la' Superman. He was the worlds first superhero.

 

Bayoushi - Part of the backstory of my world was that humans in the dawn of humanity all had huge cosmic pools, and one of them figured out how to breed it out of the rest, and caused most to lose thier powers (my justification for the classic Greek and Norse gods ect). Bayoushi lived through it, and had lived the entire history of the world. The character had a major cosmic pool, and the player was as bad (if not worse) than I was at utilizing every last bit of a pool*.

 

 

* See Pariah's comment about Surge above.

[BcAugust]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

In vague terms, given the party hasn't really run into them. And yes, all but ones are the enemies of such. Oh, and no particular order, either.

 

1) The spreading darkness- Before this world, there was another. Before the Worm, there was corruption. Do you think the division of time lines was a mistake? It was the only way that those who watch could keep it from reforming. But now, some poor fool has given it focus. Some poor fool who searches each place for the pieces of it's body that will let it become a little more solid. And devour each world into everlasting corruption.

 

2) Order of the Eye- Now, say you knew the above. Oh, not all the details, just enough to know what the poor fool is and that he can't come in without having that hold. Now tell me, would genocide be enough? If it was to save your world? Or would you have to go further, that the others can't stop you like they did last time? After all, after you're done, everyone will understand why.

 

3) Lords of Chaos- What is in a name? Power, a hold, a promise. Curse those who follow the outer dark, for giving such. Curse them, for all they've tried before, we took that hold to bind them from the light. But the Nerphandi have named better this time, to prevent that. Can the world face them unbound by light?

 

4) Antediluvians- The Grandchildren of Cain. Power beyond most mortal dreams, plans that span millienia. The end of such comes.

 

5) ???- What would you sacrifice to let the world keep going? Your name, your life, your chance of ever having love or friends? And if you did, would you say anything?

[Pariah]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

I'm going back to my last long running game.

While not the "most powerful" in raw power/damage but one of the overall most versitle and effective would be Jack Diamond. He was the "Dark Knight" of the team. He also had a habit of stealing bad guy's foci and incorperating them into his own stuff. In thier first combat he threw a gas grenate at Vengence (the Golden Avenger gone rogue) - which triggered a vulnerability, and he went down. Diamond stole his "AP Gloves". That started off a beautiful long running rivalry, and a free hunted.

 

 

Ah, Vengence. Those were the days.

 

I think that twit from PSI who went on to take over TAROT should have made the list. Diamond's brain still hurts.

[stmichaeldet]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

Well, since virtually all the characters in my universe are of my own design, at least I won't (hopefully) be kicking off any long-running arguments over my rankings. And, I think I'll give the most powerful by category, to give a better overview.

 

Most Powerful Mystic Extradimensional Menace: Vastator

Vastator eats entire dimensions, by infiltrating the symbolic language of his chosen beachhead (in this case, Earth, of course). Said dimensions then become part of his extradimensional "form." Plus, he has loads of extremely powerful lieutenants drawn from the dimensions he has absorbed. He's currently collecting a number of objects (the keys of St. Peter, the Horn of Roland, and one item yet to be named), which will allow him to "storm Heaven," subverting the belief systems of a good chunk of humanity, thereby allowing him access to our dimension. So far, SUPA has been able to defeat his various minions, but haven't been able to stop his plans from moving forward.

 

Most Powerful Cosmic Entity: The Vortex

Little is known about this alien creature. Essentially a sentient, barely-humanoid black hole, it first arrived on Earth over 20 years ago, and was put down only by a concerted effort of both heros and villains of the time. Since then, it's been held prisoner in a special containment cell designed by Engram (see below) and all information about it was classified. Eventually, Stronghold was built with this facility as its foundation. He briefly escaped when Stronghold was destroyed in a massive breakout (the villains released him to cover their escape), and was only barely recaptured by SUPA with help from others responding to the Stronghold situation.

 

Most Powerful Supergenius Villain: Engram

Engram started out as a janitor in a Soviet research facility. A scientist there was attempting to create a telepathic device that could be used for long-range communication, interrogation, etc., but it wasn't working properly - it emptied the brain of the "sender" and implanted all their knowledge in the "receiver." The man who would become Engram overpowered the scientist, and stole his knowledge, then went on to do the same to many other top Soviet scientists and developed an unsurpassed intellect, but side effects from the device warped his body into a deformed, huge-headed dwarf. At the height of his power, he had bases worldwide, armies of robot soldiers, and a technological sophistication that was off the scale by Earthly standards. He's recently lost most of his infrastructure after a sound defeat by SUPA, but after the fall of Stronghold, he's out there, somewhere, rebuilding... and plotting his revenge.

 

Most Powerful Mastermind: The Toymaker

With a name like Toymaker, you wouldn't think he's that much of a badass, would you? But Dr. Ian Winston views supers as his toys, and wants to possess (and control) them all. For many years he worked for the government as their #1 expert on superhuman abilities, while recruiting an organization and plotting behind the scenes to break out on his own. When he made his move, a good chunk of the gov't's top people simply vanished, going underground to begin work on the Toymaker's plans to enslave Earth's super population and forge them into an unstoppable army.

 

Most Powerful Hero: Jamie Justice

A flying brick with a variety of star-spangled costumes and a childlike innocence, Jamie easily fills the "Superman" role in my campaign world. The public face of SUPA, much beloved by the general population, and capable of beating the tar out of anyone short of a really major villain.

[Catacomb]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

Then he should have taken up the "I've changed things" option that I mentioned in my very first post.

 

 

 

Man I just had to come back to this. What part of 'Ultimate Universe Sans 'hippy' Thor' did you not get?

 

I hate to get the 'ol dander up but Thanos hasn't done alot in the Ultimate Universe whereas Apoc has done things along the lines of his Saturday morning self and is indeed deserving to be on a list where the end all be all powers of the over saturated mainline marvel universe haven't even been introduced. See, I DID respond to your little query originally, you just chose to ignore it. Call it whatever you want, but you're arguing with yourself here becaue beyond pointing out that you're just plain WRONG in your grandstanding I don't much care what you think. How's this? Next time I GM I'm giving Ka-Zar the cosmic cube and then I'm giving paste pot pete the powers of all of the Galactic Champions so they can use Thanos as a footstool.

 

Anyway, I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Catacomb]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

This whole "Apokalipse/Thanos" debate reminds me of the circular "Superman/Hulk" arguments from the "Superhero Hype Boards" ! Comic characters WILL vary in power during their "lifetime" depending on the needs of the story and/or the wims of the writer. One issue "Thanos" will fight all the gods of Asgard to a standstill' date=' a month later he will be handed his backside by "Squirrel Girl" in the space of two panels, That is the nature of comics.[/quote']

 

Oh you think that's bad let me introduce you to Thor vs. Superman.

 

Let the games begin!

[Susano]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

Oh you think that's bad let me introduce you to Thor vs. Superman.

 

Let the games begin!

 

No, no. Son Goku versus Superman!

[Catacomb]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

No' date=' no. Son Goku versus Superman![/quote']

 

Asked and answered.

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mtkV_yz4oS4&mode=related&search=

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

We got an answer to Superman vs Thor too, in the JLA/Avengers crossover - Supes after a tough fight. Not that I expect that to satisfy Thor's partisans.

 

Me, I wanna see Superman against Count Nefaria!

[Guest steamteck]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

I run a relatively low level campaign. My premier hero is basically the golden age Superman if he had been originally Doc Savage and transformed into golden age Supes physically about 100 years ago. Their are a few cosmic entities like Zeus but they only have cameo apperances. I've been running the game so long that it started on first edition with him as a young guy.

 

 

Strongest hero is NEBULA. Basically an incredibly arrogant exiled samurai honorable alien princess with the power of the Silver Surfer and cool looking superhero skin which looks like space with moving stars and galacies on it.

 

FIONA LISSELLE actually originally from my old Traveller campaign. A genetically enhanced human who was sent to an other dimensional hell for several hundred years and took over. Int he current universe she has existed since ancient times and invented firearms and started the scientific revolution. Not a personal powerhouse in the conventional sense but she could out tech and outplan a Thanos or Darkseid and her combination of magic, technology and eons of experience make the players cringe when she appears. One of my wife characters has manged to befriend her. She is worshipped as a death goddess by some. Moves freely between my Steamteck and Champions worlds.

 

 

MALOK TAH the oldest living human over 9000 years old. He is also known as the Eternal Pharoah or The August Personage in Jade. He was originally a Vampire king but he betrayed them absorbed ALL their life forces and became the first human immortal. Again not a conventional powerhouse but with his mental and magical powers and vast experience The players consider themselves lucky to survive and direct confrontation and extensive bragging rights for actually landing a blow.

 

 

WARGOD I made Ares the secret mover behind the Warlord. His godly prowess and experience makes him both a secret mastermind and a team buster

 

XTREME kind of a Dr. Manhattan meets Captain Atom. He combines sense that defy spacetime with vast cosmic/atomic powers. He desires to recreate the experiment that created him to make a worthy mate so the next step in evolution can take place.

[Fedifensor]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

A bit of thread necromancy, but I'm reevaluating the heavy-hitters in my campaign and am curious if anyone else wants to chime in...

[Enforcer84]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

For Else Earth, and we swing very high powered here, my top five at the moment would be:

 

1.Empress she's my Dr. Doom Analogue, only more stable and less greedy. She lacks the magic skill of Doom, but she is the most intelligent person on Earth, I believe. She also has the resources of a technologically advanced nation who are fanatically loyal to her.

 

2. Atlas he fills the "greatest hero" role. Paragon Archetype.

 

3. Blackguarda twisted version of DC's Captain Marvel. An old man who was given vast powers by five demon princes. He's brilliant and superpowerful. Loves to corrupt heroes (and particularly Heroines) and ruin their lives. Then kill them. He's Bad.

 

4. Ulysses Smith (?) I can't remember the name. He's the head of the Hyperion Institute and one of the most powerful Mentalists ever. Only Emperia gives him pause.

 

5. Harvester a cosmic "Noah" who believes he needs to save certain lifeforms from a cosmic cataclysm that will destroy the universe. Has an extradimensional "Arc"; can summon any of his previous "collection" or his Demonic or Angelic Servitors.

 

 

This doesn't take into account the heads of various Pantheons who have returned to Earth, Zeus his rival Jupitor, Marduk, Modi (Sovereign of New Asgard), etc. But it's close enough for Top Five lists.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

Hmm... well, I just finished statting an "upgrade" to Valak the World Ravager from Champions Universe: News Of The World, whom I hope to introduce as a major villain in a future campaign, which puts him in the Dr. Destroyer/Takofanes class in a throw-down.

 

Essentially I blended the official Valak with Galaxia, another cosmic villain from Villains, Vandals, And Vermin. Although having a very different design from Valak, Galaxia sounds from her background description to be intended to serve a similar function in a campaign, but IMO neither character as written has the necessary heft compared to other CU heavyweights. I used both sheets as templates for the type and magnitude of abilities, Limitations, Disads and the like for the composite character, but did a fair bit of tweaking as well. "Valak Mark II" doesn't have a lot more raw power than Mark I - he had plenty of that already - but is all over his predecessor in versatility, skill, and staying power. Also IMO, he's appropriate for a wider range of campaign uses than just PC-stomper.

[zakueins]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

Five most powerful characters in the Third Age?

 

First place is tied between The Covenant and Lord White. In terms of power, the Israeli superhero The Covenant is one of the most powerful beings on the planet, but a good number of his abilities are non-combat (senses and movements, mostly). Lord White, on the other hand...pure combat monster with some social skills, but he's mostly pure toughness. Lord White, if he haymakers his HTH attack, can one-shot Grond into -30+ STUN. And, he takes blows from Grond with only a bit of suffering.

 

Second place is held by Ra-a very powerful supervillan. It should be noted that while he thinks he's a god, nobody else does-but his Sun Disk power is more than enough to instantly fry all but the most powerful vampires (which he does, regularly).

 

Third place is Jeremy Storm. Think John Constantine with less restraint and more willingness to use magical power. He might not be the most powerful mystic period on Earth, but there are very few with his level of ability on the mystical battlefield. Oh, doesn't smoke but does drink like a fish.

 

Fourth place is The Lone Gunman, a Chinese/Hong Kong superhero whom combines martial arts with a penchant for pulling out firearms and never missing a single shot. He pretty much is THE guy whom does GunKata as a major combat martial art.

 

Finally, Fifth Place is to Black Bolt, a guy whom wears a pretty kick-ass suit of powered battle armor, when he isn't the guy running MicroSim (think of it as Google on steroids), and his super-powered brain lets him build what his money can bring in...

 

This, of course, assumes somebody doesn't just show up (there are rumors that there is only two vampires in England-one Master and one disciple. Some say that he's good enough to beat out Ra.), and these are all "reasonably public" superheroes.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

So Vampires are Heroes? Or Does Ra just like killing his fellow villains?

[Corven_Ren]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

I should note my campaign world is a mixture of Marvel, DC, Champions and my own write-ups.

 

1: Kill Ratio By far the most physically intimidating villain in my campaign world. 1403 points. 100 R.O.C.'s (150 pt robots) plus 3 loyal cybernetic supervillain followers..Psi-Bar (550pt mentalist), Titanus (483pt Brick) & Razor (553 pt martial artist). Most notable event..killing Reed & Susan Richards.

 

2: Dr. Destoyer Same as CKC. Most notable event: Battle of Detroit which resulted in the deaths of Iron Man, Angel, Iceman and many others.

 

3: The Hulk Professor version. Onslaught never happened so the hulk has remained this way. Most Notable Event: Along with Superman (who died)..destroying Doomsday.

 

4: Proffesor Muerte: Enforcer84's write up. Most Notable event..returning from the dead.

 

American Avenger Got powers after 9/11. Second most powerful hero after the Hulk. Most Notable event...Helping loate Saddam Huseein and Osama Bin Laden.

 

For write ups {except Dr.D (see CKC) and Prof Muerte (talk to Enforcer84)}follow the link in my signature. For the timeline in which these events occured follow the other link in my signature.

[Balabanto]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

#1 Archyve, Master of Time. Archyve is possibly the most dangerous supervillain the PC's have ever seen, which is why he doesn't appear very often. The last time he was seen, Millennium Guard fought him in Athena's Parthenon on Mount Olympus, and disarmed the Spear of Destiny from him while he was desolidified.

 

There was an explosion. A large explosion. A temporal displacing explosion. No one has seen him since, but he's still out there.

 

#2 Warstar...The world's mightiest master villain is THOUGHT to be dead. A smarter, more patient version of Doctor Doom style armored masterminds, death really isn't a barrier for this guy, is it?

 

#3 Abraxas: This six and a half foot tall humanoid alien sperm whale creature's sheet can be found in Digital Hero #27. He threatens the world from his base in the Marianas Trench. Since the PC's can't get down there with any degree of certainty, he can plot against the world until they do.

 

#4 Set, Lord of Evil, Serpents, and the Night: Well, he's a classic evil deity, complete with cultists, necromantic wizards, and guys in hoods who follow him and do his bidding. I've always loved that "Yes, Mighty One, No Mighty One" and taking orders from weird pools of green water stuff.

 

#5 The Psiconic Man: You'll have to read Mind Over Matter when I finally get it out to discover the secret of the Psiconic Man.

[Querysphinx]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

Hmmm.... The last really super long campaign I ran was called the Omega Games. And the five most powerful people in it were called the Omegas. None of them had c-sheets. They had little inifinty marks instead.

 

Think Tank Raw intellect. She could keep track of every single molecule on the planet without really trying, and her power of prediction were god-like. She frequently left the PC's transcripts of conversations that hadn't happened yet. The only "good guy" among the omegas. If not for her enforcing the compromise the other Omegas would have destroyed the world.

 

Alpha Prime Raw Emotion. The living (dis)embodiment of all human emotion. Sort of the ultimate psychic vampire. Fed one human emotion and the more extreme the better.

 

Dictator Pure Order. Usually embodied in a mechanon-style Nazi war robot. All technology was its to command, and it despised the randomness of life.

 

Kaos Pure Chaos. Rarely embodied. Was consistently inconsistent and had a tendency to make life look like a Salavdor Dahli painting on acid. Only goal was to break down order

 

Ex Pure Disbelief. Another insubstantial Omega was sort of the ultimate nihlist. Did not actively participate in the Omega games because that would have required a purpose. Tended to act as a power sink to the other omegas just by virtue of his existence.

[hfergus]

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

 

1 Doctor destoyer, even though the destruction of Detroit has not happened yet. He's killed more people and heroes than any other villian.

 

2 Mechanon Large in power, has not really done much yet.

 

3 "The Dragon lady" Her real name is unkown, and she is very behind the scenes. Her power is in her followers and organizations more than personal power, although she has enough. Very long lived; think Ra's Al Ghul. (yes she can literally change into a dragon.)

 

4 Doctor Albert Masters. Think Lex Luthor before he became president and has battle suit.

 

5 Sheer power, Firewing. More Pain-in-the-neck than a real threat (He merely want to duel - undefeated so far.) Power in infulence, some personal - the head of Demon.