New poster here, Character help needed too!

[Blacklamb]

Hello all!

 

First post here, I sighed up because I will be joining a Champions game soon. I have familiarized myself with the rules but I am here seeking help and suggestion none the less, also I lurked for quite a while to get a feel for the community, and I like it a lot!

 

The character is stated/perked/talented out. I have 248 points left to spend on powers with none being able to cost more than 85 Active points.

 

Here’s a small description of where his powers are coming from.

 

He has a pair of enchanted manacles and chains and a wide leather belt and chains wrapped around his waist

When using the Chains a Mask appears that makes him a mute(Disadvantage?)

None of these can be removed(They are cursed)

 

I was thinking of a multi power pool. For the bracers, but I don’t know yet.

I also have Hero designers 2 to help with the math =X

 

For the manacles I wanted these things.

Stretching(up to 3” so I would need to buy 6” I think)

HTH attack

Swinging(15")

Entangling

And a Str enhancement (I think 30 Str is what I want)

Missile deflection and reflection(but I want the reflection to be end heavy)

I would also like to be able to grab things, but not have fine control.

 

The Chains are animated(Think Spawn) so any other Ideas would be great. The Waist Chains will just act as Armor that I can turn on and off.

 

Other powers will be:

END heavy desoldification

The ability to see spirits and sense magic

And teleportation in shadows to shadows

Leaping or slingshoting myself with the chains(would this be covered with the swingging?).

 

Also and Unused points are ok with me, as I can use them to boost stats. =)

 

Thanks in advance for your help and Suggestion!

(Also any suggestion as to how I would build this in Hero Designer would be awesome!)

 

Blacklamb

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Though I'll try take the time to deal with some of your specific questions shortly - I wanted to tell you right off the bat that I you should happen to have access to "Champions Worldwide", there's a fellow called "Corrente" who's got a lot of chain-related powers that might provide a lot of inspiration for you in terms of mechanics.

 

It sounds like you've got a very good idea of what you'd like your character to do, which is always a good thing. Having a solid concept often speeds things up a lot for me - what time I lose thinking about how to create a very detailed power is more than made up for by not being indecisive

 

On the other hand, even with 285 points, you'll have a hard time squeezing all these powers in (at a glance, anyway) - be prepared to scale back a bit!

 

If you could give us some idea of what his stats are, that may potentially make quite a bit of difference - particularly with his manacles. I've only just begun to realize much of the intricacies of mixing STR with stretching with HA (see the thread I started in the Hero System section: Autofire STR + Stretching - how would you handle it? If you want details on my ignorance...).

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Welcome to the forums, by the way! I hope you find them fun and enlightening.

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Alrighty - I'll give this a shot, though I'm having to work off of memory for a lot of this (I lent my precious Hero System core rules to a friend just tonight)...

 

To start, I'd suggest organizing some of your powers under either an Elemental Control or a Multipower (you can have both, and more than one of both, too - as long as they make sense). How exactly you do this will depend on what exactly you want to do, and what you GM will let you do - but any amount of either will make things a lot cheaper! Multipowers are cheaper to buy multiple powers with, but are generally fairly restrictive with using more than one of those powers at a time. ECs aren't as cheap as MPs, but don't place any restictions on using more than one of the powers in it simultaneously.

 

To start with the simple stuff, Swinging will cover pretty much all of the effects I could forsee with "Slingshotting", and some of the effects of Leaping. Swinging is generally treated like limited flight, with the limitation that you've got to have objects to attach to. As a result, you can usually travel straight upwards at half your normal move. If you want to move faster than normal, Using "Noncombat Speed" (if you're not familiar with it, it basically means "moving and nothing else, relatively heedless of combat around you) could represent taking that extra time to really strain against the chains for a good takeoff, like a cartoon character with a giant rubber band. Extra noncombat multiples will give you the ability to REALLY launch yourself with a little prep time (take a full phase to do nothing but move, or perhaps buy the multiples with the "Takes extra time" Limitation to represent that the setup takes more than normal effort - Like Spider-Man webbing a couple flagpoles in the first movie and then slowly straining backwards).

 

As for Simulating leaping? A high STR will cover some of this (extra STR means extra base inches of jumping), and swinging will cover some of the rest. If you want to make sure your character can launch himself quickly when there are no objects around to grab onto (just the ground to push off of), then that's when extra Leaping would be called for.

 

My personal suggestion? A multipower with one slot for inches of swinging, and one slot for extra leaping (if you want it). I'd keep these in a separate MP from at least some of your attack powers - mobility cannot be underrated, in my mind. You may not want to be a speedster, but swinging and leaping are pretty cheap, and being able to move to the best of your ability and wallop the bad guy is always good. Being able to do only one or the other is often less so!

 

eg.

 

15) Chainy-speed MP (16 point reserve)

 

1u) 15" Swinging

1u) + 5" Leaping

 

 

 

 

 

On to some of the rest:

 

With the Stretching, I'm not quite sure what you mean by the comment "I want 3", so I'll need to buy 6". If that means you want to be able to attack with two chains at once at a range of 3", then I think you might be right (though I'm not sure). If you mean something else, you've lost me, and I'd assume you would only need to buy 3" of stretching until you told me some specific reason why not.

 

Personally, I'd buy the stretching separate from any attack multipower that included extra HA damage so that you could stretch and wallop a guy, unless said MP has enough reserve points to activate both at once. "No fine manipulation" is worth -1/4, and could be applied to the stretching. I'm not quite sure how versatile you want the chains to be, but extra limbs (no fine manip.) could be cheap (4 points), and easily justified as well. If you want to have fairly finite limits on the length of chain you've got on hand, "No NC multiples" seems appropriate, as does making sure you can't use the extra limbs feature at the same time.

 

Here's an idea for an attack-based multipower (don't quote me on the values of enhancements/limitations, as I'm working from memory. You'd better double-check these if you want to use them...). Obviously, feel free to ingore some of them if they contradict what you have in mind for the chains, like how many you can bring to bear at a time.

 

Master of Chains MP (60 point reserve)

 

3u) Metal's good fer bashin' stuff: + 8d6 HA (HTH attack, -1/2) - 40 active points

 

3u) Round and round she goes: + 4d6 HA (HTH attack, -1/2), Area of effect (radius, +1) - 40 active points (you might need to reduce the radius to the length of the stretching)

 

3u) Lotsa chains to bash with: + 4d6 HA (HTH attack, -1/2), Autofire x5 (+1/2), 1/2 END (+1/2) - 40 active points

 

2u) Bolstering chains: + 30 STR, No figured characteristics (-1/2) - 30 active points

 

4u)You aint goin' nowhere: Entangle (6d6, 6 DEF), no barriers (-1/2?) - 60 active points (incidentally, the limitation "set effect - arms or legs only" could be appropriate, esp. if it's manacles you're using for an entangle)

 

4u) Nuthin gets past 'em if I know what's comin': Missile Deflection, any ranged attack (20 points), plus Missile Reflection (x4 END, -1 1/2) (8 points), plus + 4 OCV with missile deflection/reflection (8 points) - 48 active points (I think that should cover what you wanted legally - Missile Deflection costs normal END, but Reflection sucks the END very quickly)

 

 

Some options/comments:

 

1)The base cost of the MP is based on the highest cost power - in this case, the entangle. If you can stand for that being less effective, you could save 12 points on the reserve.

 

2) I deliberately made sure that all of the slots were exclusive to one another and ultras, so you couldn't stack the powers. Feel free to change that at your whim.

 

3)If I remeber the explanation correctly, HA's and STR stack in this fashion (give Hyper-Man the credit on this call): You can only add as much damage from your STR to an advantaged HA as you have dice in the HA. For example: 4d6 HA (area of attack, radius), 60 STR - you can only add up to 4d6 dmg from the STR, even though the base damage for that STR is 12d6.

 

Alternatively, you could have 20 STR, and a 12d6 AOE HA, and they would stack fine. The HA dmg is way more than the STR dmg.

 

Also, if you have no advantages on the HA, I believe you can stack it with any amount of STR with no issues. Keep this in mind if you have a huge base STR (over 45) and want to combine it with say, the +8d6 HA - you'll break that 85 point limit! Same goes if you adjust the MP to be able to use the + 30 STR at the same time as any other powers.

 

 

I'll type more later (assuming this wasn't too much to digest already) - sleepytime....

 

Let me know if this is helpful, too much too take, or too simple for you!

 

 

(Actually, this looks cheaper than I originally assumed it might...)

[Blacklamb]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Wow, thanks a lot Spidey88!

 

I will have to go over it in closer detail later but I wanted to say thanks before I head out for the day, you rock!

 

Blacklamb

[Blacklamb]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Ok remember, I'm new, no making fun of my stats!(I know they might need to be revised)

15 Str

20 Dex

20 Con

15 Body

17 Ego

15 Pre

10 Com

5 PD/ED

4 Spd

45 END/Stun

I see the character as More agile than strong, and capable of taking a beating. He won't have any Martial arts, and all HTH will be with the Chains(Hence the extra str on them)

[jkwleisemann]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Erm... *trust* me, you'll want Armor and some extra PD/ED desperately, from what I'm seeing. Alternately, a Force Field in the Multipower (or separately) that can be defined as the chains intercepting attacks. 5 for your defenses will leave the average joe on the streets beating him down with relative ease.

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Thanks, man! I hope you find this useful when you get a chance to go over it in detail...

 

 

As for the other powers you mentioned:

 

The protective chains could be bought in many different ways. Again, without my book, I'm unsure of some of the details; but you could go for things such as a force field (which would turn off if you were unconscious), Combat Luck defined as the chains helping defend you (again, you pass out, no protection) or Armour (which would stick around, if I remember correctly). You've got a lot of options - what works best will depend on how thorough you want the defense to be, whther you want it to cost END, etc. A forcewall, limited range could represent whipping the chains around in such a way as to create a barrier.

 

One particular thing that comes to mind: If you want to save a few points on the defense by having it so that the chains don't provide perfect coverage (ie. they wrap around you, but have slight gaps that get hit every once in a while), the defense could have the limitation "activation roll". If you don't want to worry about that, that's fine. Technically, you could purchase armour, define it as a belt buckle; and if you don't put the activation roll limitation on it, all attacks against you will be magically drawn to it without fail!

 

 

Incidentally, another way to save some points on a lot of these chain-related powers might be to apply the limitations "Obvious, inaccessible focus". Obviously, the chains are the source of a lot of these powers, but thanks to the curse, you can't deprive him of their use for very long.

 

 

The teleporting through shadows thing? Easy. Buy however many inches of Teleport you want, then apply the limitation "Only in shadows/darkness". If I remember correctly, it's a -1/2 limitation - you can find it in the "Advanced Sneakiness" power in the sidebar beside Invisibility (if you've got the book, that is).

 

The Desolidification? Just apply "increased END cost" limitation if you feel that 4 END a turn isn't enough.

 

Without the book here, I don't think I could take a shot at the Detect Magic thing - but it sounds fairly straightforward. Detect would be the base, then you'd have to decide if it was discriminatory, targeting, etc.

 

I'm also at a loss to figure out the "see the spirits" thing at the moment. You could do a search on the forums for that - there's probably someone who's talked about it already.

 

 

A few tidbits to consider:

 

Extra STR (only for grabs, -1/2) would seem to make sense for a guy with lots of animated chains at his command, esp. if you've got a fairly low STR to begin with (though I'd be careful combining it with the +30 STR in the MP). You could hold HtH combatants 3" away from you (though you'd be at reduced DCV) while your buddies blasted him. This could cover certain Entangle-type effects, if you didn't want to be flinging independent pieces of chain or separate manacles or something at your enemies (the chains that wrap the enemy up are still attached to you). This would dovetail in a really devastating way with having chains act as extra limbs - you could grab a guy with a couple chains and pound on him with some more while he's held.

 

Any regular maneuvers or martial maneuvers will stack just fine with the bonus HA slots in the MP I typed up before, as far as I know. There'd be a lot of possibilites with the radius one in particular - "Legsweep" in the middle of as many agents/goons as you like, and p-p-p-p-pow! You've got the potential to trip as many guys are in the radius (with successful rolls, of course) - leaving those foes at half DCV until they have their action and can get up (and making them easy pickings for your buddies, if their actions are at the right point in the phase - potentially a good time to consider holding your action to give your pals as much time as possible to pound the tripped foes).

 

I think the same might apply for something like a Martial Disarm, though if you don't go with the "chains as extra limbs" thing, that wouldn't really feel right to me special effect-wise.

 

If you like, to better simulate the slingshotty thing you could apply the enhancement "no gravity penalty (+ 1/2)" to the swinging or leaping - this would mean that you could travel upwards at the same speed you could travel laterally, instead of your upward movement being halved.

 

If the chains can act independently of you and attack without you doing anything, you could set them up as a HA damage shield - anybody who gets too close gets whacked!

 

(Sorry - I don't have Hero Designer, so I'm no help there!)

 

Cheers!

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

I'm with jkwleisemann:

 

Some extra defenses will help a lot - presumably that's where the belt chain-armour thing comes in.

 

 

I don't have any critique with the stats you posted, but be sure to get a good idea of what the other players are doing! Nothing sucks so much like having the concept of a nimble, quick guy and finding out you're 5 DEX and 2 SPD behind everyone else. It's all relative.

 

I'm not saying "boost those stats!" What I mean is: make sure your concept matches up scale-wise with the other players. It doesn't have to mean one-upmanship with them, either - just make sure that if you see your character as being in a particular niche attribute-wise, that that niche is protected.

 

I hope that makes sense!

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Also, you could easily afford to have that +30 STR (presumably with the chains only, at a slight discount) out of the MP I posted (now that I know what your base STR is). The first MP slot would stack with 40 points worth of that STR, leaving you with potentially doing 16d6 damage (at 80 active points) - ouch! That, by pretty much anyone's definition, is a mighty powerful attack - maybe too powerful, depending on what you feel about it (I have no idea of your intentions with the character, so I leave that judgement in your hands). If you wanted to max it out completely, you'd need to up the HA damage by 1/2 d6 (which would allow an extra 1/2 d6 of STR dmg to stack with it).

[Blacklamb]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Ok question.

 

Do I need to up my PD/ED on stats or will the armor from the chains be enough say (20pd/20ed)

 

Also with armor at 20/20(chain wrapped around body{No END}) would it be redundant to get a force field maybe 10/10 (Chains lashing out to interupt attacks {little END})

 

Also should I invest in a reserve END pool or will my recover 11 and end 45 be enough for prolonged fights?

 

 

By the way Spidey88 you are the most helpful person I have ever meet on a Forum. Thanks a bunch!

 

Thanks for your contribution as well! jkwleisemann

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Wow - that's high praise! Thank you! - though, to be honest, I think most of us on the HERO forums are cut from the same cloth in that regard...

 

For the armour: buying that separately (as per the "Armour" power) has exactly the same effect gamewise as buying more PD and ED (directly adding to your stats) and making them resistant (via damage resistance). It's two ways of doing the same thing.

 

As for the force field/force wall thing: considering your GM has an active point cap of 85 points, that means that you could reasonably expect to see attacks of that power thrown your way - so an attack of 17d6 against you might be expected at some point, with an average of 60 damage. Granted, that's probably around the upper range.

 

If your character's schtick is being fairly tough, I wouldn't think it unreasonable to have that 10/10 force field too, considering you probably wouldn't have it on all the time due to the END use. 30 defense is impressive, but not impenetrable. Again, a lot depends on relativity. Objectively, your DEX is okay, but not stellar by what I expect most people's standards would be - so in order to avoid having your butt kicked by average supervillains you would need to: a) play very tactically (a perfectly viable option - but you need to be careful, and it might not be the best way to go for a starting player), buy a few CSL's that youd could put at least some of into DCV, or c) buy some more defenses. More defenses is usually the least work!

 

Talk to your GM - he may have a vague idea of what sort of opposition you'll be facing - and talk to the other players, too. If there's a guy who's making a character who's supposed to be nigh-invulnerable and super-strong, and only has a PD of 32 (and the GM feels that's a good level to set his defense at), you might want to back off on your defenses a bit to protect his shtick.

 

Also, though it's not foolproof by any means, your missile deflection (particularly if you go with bonus CSLs with it, on top of any other ones) will mitigate a lot of ranged attacks. Using the missile deflection does keep you on the defensive and unable to attack, but it's something to keep in mind.

 

Short answer: no, it probably wouldn't be redundant!

 

 

As for how much END you need? Well, I'd say that you've got a lot of different abilities that could all add up to a lot of end. In a long fight, you'll probably need to take an extra recovery or two here and there (but most people do!) Your SPD as is will mitigate that somewhat (it's very respectable for any well-trained "normal", but not super-fast), but I'd personally want to buy reduced END on some of your powers, particularly the stretching and movement - both of which will be cheap to do so for anyway (and also fairly justified, since the chains are doing the work), and eliminate a lot of bookkeeping for you.

 

If your GM will allow an END reserve for you (presumably based on the chains being animated by some magical source that's separate from your regular END and REC), then you can get a lot of REC and END very cheaply - so that's another way to go. It's slightly harder to deal with two pools of endurance at the same time (esp. if one is for the character, and one is for the chains), so I'd suggest buying reduced END on some of the powers, at least the cheaper ones that aren't close to the 85 active point limit you've got. It's just simpler to keep track of. My opinion, anyway. Less END usage = less work. One option in this regard could be a HA in the multipower with 0 END. A lot of MPs you'll see in official writeups are like this - you've got a low END attack that you can use on the mooks, and a high-powered one you can pull out when the poop hits the fan.

 

You may not even really need to worry about it, anyway - END tracking is usually one of the first things to be dropped when things get complex, anyway! I tend to ignore it when I run more than couple of villains at once.

 

If I was you, I'd want to try out the characters in combat in a couple different scenarios with the other players - just a straight-up fight, no consequences for failure - as kind of a shakedown. Good practice. I know I've done it more than once! (A map of some kind always helps. Not just for practicality - it's more fun, too.) It'll give you a much better feel for what the character is capable of, and how to utilize his different abilities quickly when it counts. It should also give you a much better feel for his END expenditure! After the fight's over, you can then tweak your character a bit if you feel it's necessary (maybe with some unused points on the side for that).

 

HERO system combat has so many options that even if you never do anything other than miniatures combat with it, you should still have a lot of fun. I ran a combat session last week with my group that lasted five hours - I set up a representation of a whole subway station on my coffee table out of Lego, and we used Heroclix for the characters and villains - though if we weren't having such a blast and cackling at the top of our lungs constantly we could've probably done it in two!

[Blacklamb]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Ok all, here he is finished, Thanks a ton for all the help Spidey88!

 

Wraith

Val Char Cost Roll Notes

15 STR 5 18- Lift 12.8tons; 9d6 HTH damage [4]

30 DEX 60 15- OCV: 10/DCV: 10

20 CON 20 13-

15 BODY 10 12-

12 INT 2 11- PER Roll 11-

17 EGO 14 12- ECV: 6

10 PRE 0 11- PRE Attack: 2d6

10 COM 0 11-

5 PD 2 Total: 5/35 PD (0/30 rPD)

5 ED 1 Total: 5/35 ED (0/30 rED)

6 SPD 20 Phases: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12

13 REC 12

45 END 3

45 STUN 12 Total Characteristics Cost: 161

Movement: Running: 6"/[Noncombat]"

Leaping: 9"/[Noncombat]"

Swimming: 2"/[Noncombat]"

 

Cost Powers END

20 Strength of Will: +30 STR (30 Active Points); No Figured Characteristics (Chain's STR only; -1/2) 3

36 Binding's Reach: Stretching 6", Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (45 Active Points); Linked (Strength of Will; -1/4)

10 Swinging 15" (15 Active Points); Linked (Binding's Reach; -1/2) 1

32 Master of Chains: Multipower, 48-point reserve, (48 Active Points); Restrainable (Only by means other than Grabs and Entangles; -1/4); all slots Linked (Strength of Will; -1/4)

1u 1) Aegis of Links: Missile Deflection (Thrown Objects), Missile Reflection, Reflect At Any Target (35 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x4 END; -1 1/2), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4), Linked (Strength of Will; -1/4) 12

2u 2) Chain lash: Hand-To-Hand Attack +8d6 (40 Active Points); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), Linked (Strength of Will; -1/4) 4

2u 3) Whirling Frenzy: Hand-To-Hand Attack +4d6, Area Of Effect (One Hex; +1/2) (30 Active Points); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), Linked (Strength of Will; -1/4) 3

2u 4) Chain barrage: Hand-To-Hand Attack +4d6, Autofire (5 shots; +1/2) (30 Active Points); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), Linked (Strength of Will; -1/4) 3

40 Binding's Embrace: Armor (20 PD/20 ED) (60 Active Points); Only In Heroic Identity (-1/4), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4) 6

16 Binding's Shroud: Force Field (10 PD/10 ED) (20 Active Points); Only In Heroic Identity (-1/4) 2

23 Walls are nothing: Desolidification (40 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -1/2), Only In Heroic Identity (-1/4) 8

16 Teleportation 12" (24 Active Points); Only in Shadows/Darkness (-1/2) 2

5 Clinging (normal STR) (10 Active Points); Linked (Binding's Reach; -1/2), Only In Heroic Identity (-1/4), Conditional Power Power does not work in Uncommon Circumstances (Chains penerate wall/surface. Does not work on glass.; -1/4)

 

Perks

9 Contact (Good relationship with Contact), Organization Contact (x3) (9 Active Points) 11-

 

Skills

6 KS 15-

3 Acrobatics 15-

3 Concealment 11-

4 PS: Mage 13-

3 Shadowing 11-

3 Stealth 15-

3 Tactics 11-

Modern

0 1) AK: Home country or region 8-

0 2) Acting 8-

0 3) Climbing 8-

0 4) Concealment 8-

0 5) Conversation 8-

0 6) Deduction 8-

0 7) Native Language (idiomatic; Literate) (4 Active Points)

0 8) PS: Choice (Everyman Skill) 11-

0 9) Paramedics 8-

0 10) Persuasion 8-

0 11) TF: Small Motorized Ground Vehicles

 

Total Powers & Skills Cost: 240

Total Cost: 400

 

250+ Disadvantages

20 Hunted: Vampire covens 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, Harshly Punish)

15 Hunted: Order of Chaos 8- (Mo Pow, Harshly Punish)

15 Hunted: Ordos Luminos 11- (Mo Pow, PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find, Watching)

15 Hunted: Black Spiral Dancers 11- (As Pow, Harshly Punish)

20 Enraged Black Spiral Dancers: On sight (Uncommon), go 14-, recover 11-

15 Psychological Limitation: Endangered women and children (Common, Strong)

5 Social Limitation: Secret Identity; Darius King (Occasionally, Minor)

10 Distinctive Features: Large Manacles, Thick leather belt. (Concealable; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)

15 Psychological Limitation: Code vs Killing (Uncommon, Total)

10 Social Limitation: Bitter/Apathetic (Occasionally, Major)

10 Reputation: Haunted past. History is known to the magic world., 14- (Known Only To A Small Group)

 

Total Disadvantage Points: 400

[Blacklamb]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Oh and heres the back ground I had before I asked for help to make him.

Thought you might like to check it out.

 

Darius King, A mage...once. Now? A victim. A victim of success and power.

 

As I said he was a Mage, an up and coming Knight-Lieutenant for the Ordus Luminos.

His duty? Leading strike groups into dangerous situation to keep the world safe. He did this well, so well that he, rather than his Order, became the focus of The Black Spiral Dancers. I groups of Magic using chaos infected lycanthropes bent on turning the world into a charnel house, or at least into pack members.

 

They set a trap for him and his strike team. The Spiral Dancers are not smart, but very cunning. They caught him off guard, never before had the show fore thought. He paid for it. With his magic, his life and his love.

 

I won’t bore you with the details on how they caged his powers within the bracers and chains that kept him pinned. Fitted a Mask to keep him from uttering any spells. Etched into his skin runes, to bleed off his gift. His magic was coursing on his skin, the runes, the chains, all touching him, and totally unresponsive to his call. A torture unto itself.

 

Then they brought Lillyan in. Soft, beautiful, fragile Lillyan, he’d rescued her years earlier. She had been under the compulsion of an insane mage, she was a spirit made corporeal by that mage, the spirit of innocence. Now she was here, just out of reach, his whole world was just out of reach.

 

They started the ceremony then, to turn her. He watched them carve into her flesh the night black spirals and the great poisoned, seeping claw marks that show on every Spiral Dancers. He watched her…die. Innocence dead.

 

He died then, at least in spirit, with Lillyan. It was him giving up that allowed a brush of his magic to catch hold. It was not enough to cast a spell, but it was a trickle he could funnel. And funnel it he did, into the chains that bound him. His binding were now the conduits of his powers. They formed his armor and vengeance now. The runes continued to glow their pale blue but they no longer bleed his magic. The Mask that rendered him mute did nothing but silence his rage filled screams.

He doesn’t remember the rest of that night, or the weeks later. He was found by another patrol of the Ordus Luminos. Wasted and thin, uncaring for anything. They tried to help. They could not remove the chains, could not restore his magic.

 

They were no help.

 

He stayed with them for a while, learning what he could of himself. How he’d changed.

 

Was he even that person he remembered? Was he ever him?

 

Being surrounded by what he had known and not being able to be what he was drove him away. He knows Lillyan it out there. He dreams about her, their connection having not been severed through the tragedy they suffered. He seeks her, waiting for new dreams to lead him, but still he can not ignore the call of the needy, and while he may not be a mage any longer, he can still help, so he does. While at night he dreams of Lillyan and getting his magic back, two things he wants and will die for.

 

If only he had his magic…if only, he could reach it. But it remains locked in his chains, so he has to make do. For now.

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Looks pretty good overall.

 

I see you did use some of the points to boost his stats (most noticeably DEX and SPD). Again, how "good" these are is somewhat subjective - but I'll tell you this much, I can think of only one published villain with a DEX higher than 30, and he's supposed to be one of the world's fastest men! So that's pretty darn good in my book. That's top-flight for the Champions Universe, and equals or beats out my interpretations of Daredevil, Batman, and Captain America slightly - no mean feat! - and nips at the heels of guys like Beast and Nightcrawler (who I peg at 32 - 33). That DEX score will serve you well - though at some point in the future, you may want to consider buying come CSL's (though I'm probably preaching to the choir).

 

The only things I'd want to do would be:

 

- try to squeeze out an extra point for making the Whirling Frenzy slot have that radius of effect, but that's just me. I liked the idea, but you probably nerfed it for a reason - and that's entirely your perogative!

 

- you could easily justify putting the limitation "chains only" (-1/2, if I remember the "Steel Tentacles" sample power correctly and using it as an example) on the Strength of Will, and that should not be redundant with "no figured characteristics".

 

- as min-maxer, I'd be inclined to up Wraith's INT and EGO by one apiece, so that his INT and EGO rolls would go up by one as well - but that's just my personal taste.

 

- watch that stretching closely: as-is, you don't have the "no velocity damage" (-1/4) limitation, so you could concievably add some extra damage dice to your HtH attacks. Coupled with Chain Lash, that would break your 85 active point limit (as the attack would be over 17d6)! Maybe your GM won't care for something this specific, but it's a good reason to take the "no velocity damage" lim and get a couple points back.

 

Don't forget about the indirect effects of stretching, either - not that there's a problem, just that you can use it for a lot of surprise attacks and such! Very handy, indeed.

 

Congratulations! "You've just taken your first step into a larger world."

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Wow, dark background (and well-written)! It's nice to see some of that reflected in his Disads, without you making him into a walking pile of psychoses. Having a superhero that acts like a superhero is always good for some brownie points in my book.

 

Incidentally, I might be somewhat leery of all those Hunteds if the rest of your group didn't share most of them. Even at 8-, that could be a lot to juggle, esp. if the other PCs have their own Hunteds!

 

My two cents - carry on!

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Whoops! One more thing - the reserve points on the multipower is too high. The highest Active point cost of any of the abilities is 40 points, and you've got 48 - so there's another few points you could shave off and put somewhere else.

[Blacklamb]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Good Eye!

 

I'll be sure to make those adjustments.

 

One thing though

2u 3) Whirling Frenzy: Hand-To-Hand Attack +4d6, Area Of Effect (One Hex; +1/2) (30 Active Points); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), Linked (Strength of Will; -1/4) 3

I thought area of effect was radius, I am guess I am wrong by what you wrote so I'll fix it. But I had thought I got it with how it was written up.

 

Again, thanks for the Fine tuning!

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Oh, my pleasure! I hope I presented myself as just expressing my opinion, rather than telling you what must be done...

 

 

FYI: the "area of effect, one hex" would still be useful, esp. coupled with the stretching (which should allow you to place that single hex anywhere within 6" of your character), but for one point more you could effect a much huger radius around you, as opposed to just one hex. Where AOE: one hex would be useful is hitting high DCV targets (or at least making them abort to a dive for cover, thus setting them up for a whumpin' by your pals), but it wouldn't really let you attack more than one target (which AOE: radius would). IMHO, a well-spent point!

[Blacklamb]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Yup, saw where I missed it and it has been corrected. I wanted the AoE for sure!

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

With that handful of points saved (at least 8 or so, assuming we're on the same page), you could get a CSL or three with the chains MP, an extra MP slot, an extra skill or two, and boost his INT and/or EGO - possibly all at once!

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

So - is everyone in your gaming group new to HERO?

[TheSneakySmalls]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Yes we are al new to Hero, but we have all been gaming for many years together and seperately. I am almost done with my character and am planing on posting him for comments and advice. Hopefully sometime tonight.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Best advice I can give is to pass on some given to me: spend more points on non-combat skills, talents and perks.

 

Even now, I never feel like my characters ever have enough skills. And if just 1 player in the group ignores this and spends XP on combat related abilities it forces the GM to increase the combat ability of his villains as well. Then you get stuck in a neverending escallation spiral which is really not necessary to have fun. IMHO a 350-400 character should have between 35-100 points dedicated to non-combat related abilities of some type. They can still be 'powers' but should be things to help save innocents. I believe there was a recent thread regarding this called something like "supers as fireman instead of cops".

[Spidey88]

Re: New poster here, Character help needed too!

 

Good call, Hyper-Man - I'm in the same boat with you there.

 

You don't necessarily need a boatload of skills to start, but XP should make you more versatile as much as (or more than) increasing your power.

 

I don't think this attitude necessitates changing a thing with your character, Blacklamb (like I said, he looks just fine) - but it's something to keep in mind as you play and get more experience.

 

 

Oh, and welcome aboard, TheSneakySmalls!

 

(Can I assume you're making a stealthy guy with shrinking powers? lol)