Critique of my villain?

[GAZZA]

I'm starting up a brand new Champions campaign on Friday, and I'm not using the Champions Universe or any of the "standard" NPCs. (We'll see how well I stick to that - I'm lazy at heart - but for now that's the intention).

 

Anyway, I've always liked the idea of Mechanon (if not the actual character himself), and I was also wondering how effective a martial artist of normal Strength could be (ie, everything with extra DCs). So here's one of the villains of my new campaign, presented for dissection - I'm interested to hear any ideas anyone might have for changing or fleshing him out.

 

(Incidentally if posting characters here is inappropriate please let me know; I couldn't see anything in the code of conduct to prevent it, and I can't see any other forum that seems more appropriate).

 

Warning: Some of this will look a bit weird; I have a couple of house rules that are explained below.

 

Centipede

10 STR 0

29 DEX 57

- CON -

20 BODY 20

18 INT 8

14 EGO 8

20 PRE 10

10 COM 0

0 PD -2

0 ED 0

4 SPD 11

- REC -

- END -

- STUN -

 

Char Cost: 112

 

Cost Power

30 Rigid Armour +6 PD/+6 ED

63 +76"/Turn (100" Total) Running plus 0 END on

100"/Turn Running [25"/Phase]

7 0 END, Indirect (+1/4) on STR

5 IR Vision

5 UV Vision

15 Radar (Radio Group)

12 High Range Radio Perception (Radio Group)

3 Ultrasonic Hearing

20 360 degrees for Sight group, Radar, Ultrasonic Hearing

(so all senses are 360 degrees)

9 +3 Enhanced Perception (all senses)

5 Extra Limbs (Hundreds of pseudopods)

5 -5 Lack of Weakness for Rigid Armour

(generic construction)

50 Life Support (Full)

22 Regeneration: 3d6 Healing BODY, Standard Effect,

0 END Persistent (+1), Extra Time: 1 Turn (-1 1/4),

Self Only (-1/2)

 

Powers Cost: 251

 

3 Absolute Range Sense

3 Absolute Time Sense

9 Ambidexterity (no off-hand penalty)

3 Bump of Direction

5 Eidetic Memory

3 Lightning Calculator

3 Perfect Pitch

8 Speed Reading x1000

24 Universal Translator 17-

 

Talents Cost: 61

 

66 Martial Arts Aikido

Choke Hold Grab 50 STR, 5d6 NND

Defensive Strike 10d6 Strike

Killing Strike 2 1/2d6 HKA

Legsweep 11d6 Strike, Target Falls

Martial Block Block, Abort

Martial Dodge Dodge, affects all attacks, Abort

Martial Escape 65 STR vs Grabs

Martial Grab Grab Two Limbs, 60 STR to hold

Martial Throw 10d6 + VLF Strike, Target Falls

+8 DCs (figured in)

 

5 +1 DCV

6 +4 Penalty Levels with Sweep Defensive Strike (attack 3 at once)

3 Acrobatics 15-

3 Breakfall 15-

3 Climbing 15-

3 Computer Programming 13-

10 Defense Maneuver I-IV

3 Electronics 13-

2 KS: Aikido 11-

5 Rapid Attack (HTH; can Sweep as a 1/2 phase)

3 Stealth 15-

3 Tactics 13-

 

Skills Cost: 115

Total Cost: 539

 

Disadvantages (250 point base)

20 DF: Caterpillar like robot (Not conc, major)

10 Hunted: WhizzKid (As Pow, 8-)

20 Psy Lim: Code vs Killing (Common, Total)

15 Psy Lim: No respect for human laws (Common, Strong)

15 Soc Lim: No rights in human society (V Fre, Minor)

10 Vuln: 1 1/2x BODY from AP or Penetrating energy attacks

199 Villain Bonus

 

Relevant House Rules:

• I use the Incomplete Character Rules that were invented by James Jandebeur and Tony Vargas for 4th edition (still completely compatible). This is a sort of expanded technique to develop things like Automatons, Spirits, Vehicles, Bases and so forth. This character Lacks CON, REC, END, and STUN, which means that he cannot be STUNned, never recovers or heals naturally, cannot Push or otherwise use END in any way, and cannot be knocked out. The latter also means that he must buy all defences as Rigid Armour or Force Wall.
  
• Rigid Armour is a new power based on Force Wall. It costs 5 points for 2 points of resistant defense. It works similar to Force Wall but for personal protection - that is, a character with Rigid Armour takes no STUN from any attack that fails to do enough BODY to penetrate the defense (but unlike Force Wall it does not fall when so breached). Rigid Armour has to be the "outside" layer of all defenses with the sole exception of Force Wall. Rigid Armour encases the character; the character's own attacks must be Indirect in order to penetrate the armour without going through it; likewise, Indirect attacks bypass Rigid Armour.
  
• I'm using the Velocity Based damage with an additional house rule that movement powers like Running and Flight are bought per Turn (2"/Turn costs 1 point, so it works out identical in cost for a SPD 4 character).

If anyone wants to examine these house rules in greater detail, I'll try and track down James or Tony to get permission to post their work (it might still be around on the web somewhere).

 

 

Character Concept:

A supervillain Whizzkid created this multijointed robot as a personal bodyguard and general minion; however, he did his job too well, and CPD-01 (Centipede's official designation) achieved full sentience, escaping from his creator and pursuing its own goals.

 

It looks like a human sized caterpillar, but it has "legs" all over its body (there is no "up" or "down", being composed of fully generic modules), enabling it to run at 120km/hr. All of its limbs are perfectly usable as hands, and while it does not possess more than normal human strength, it was constructed originally as a bodyguard and as such has considerable knowledge of human anatomy and combat techniques. While it has a sturdy construction, it is not by any means invulnerable but it is fortunately self repairing. Running on cosmic energy, it has no obvious weaknesses to even electrical attacks, although energy attacks that are particularly narrow focussed are able to cause minor malfunctions (hence the Vulnerability).

 

CPD-01 has a strong prohibition against taking human life (consider it like an Asimov First Law) and will generally avoid even seriously injuring opponents, but it has no real understanding of human laws (in other words it does not have any sense of guilt - it will rob banks or commit thefts without any sense that it is "wrong" to do so). In the campaign in which this takes place, superbeings are a fairly new phenomenon and there are no laws granting obvious non-humans like CPD-01 any rights; it has about the same legal rights as any machine would have (which is to say none - it's considered to be property).

 

CPD-01's long term goals are to permanently sever its relationship with WhizzKid probably by attempting to manipulate superheroes into arresting its creator. While the materials it requires for self maintenance are not uncommon or difficult to acquire (hence no disadvantage points), it will occasionally steal such objects without any remorse. Centipede has no use for money (it's stolen some mostly to analyse what it's for, rather than with any real intention of spending it), but this could change if it teams up with more human-looking villains.

 

OVERALL FIRST CUT IMPRESSIONS:

It comes in fairly expensive, but it's not really overpowered (10d6 attacks, which is the same or even a little less than the standard for the PCs). A lot of points are spent on "signature" abilities that it would logically have as a robot (such as Full Life Support and all the talents). It's not intended as a "master villain" type, and the reason it has a comparatively low SPD is because I wanted to experiment with making a martial artist that was effective in combat without having a 6 SPD. Obviously things like Autofiring attacks are a possibility, but I'm not really sure it's necessary - if Centipede could place itself in HTH range of 3 PCs, it could effectively attack all three, which is all I can really ask for a non-master villain type.

[1EyedJack]

Re: Critique of my villain?

 

I like it but, IMHO you should just give it generic martial arts rather than Akido, as any human stlye martial art is based on human kenistics and physiology. it is missing the automation powers and I think (not 100%) that it's defenses should cost tripple.

[GAZZA]

Re: Critique of my villain?

 

I like it but' date=' IMHO you should just give it generic martial arts rather than Akido, as any human stlye martial art is based on human kenistics and physiology.[/quote']

Yeah, that's probably true. It's just that almost none of his maneuvers are actually on the Generic list.

 

it is missing the automation powers and I think (not 100%) that it's defenses should cost tripple.

That's because of my house rules that replace the automaton stuff; in effect, his defences cost 5/3 times as much (Rigid Armour) but they're vulnerable to Indirect attacks (and his own attacks must be Indirect).