[Villain] Threshold

[OctoberRaven]

Background:

"Eric Brian Sanders Junior, get down from here this instant!"

"But Mommy, I'm a superhero!"

"ERIC! Oh my God, baby are you hurt?"

"No Mommy, I'm fine, see?"

"But Eric, dear, your arm..."

"I'm fine, Mommy, it doesn't hurt at all, honest!"

Eric Sanders first learned he was special that day, when he jumped off the roof of his house, and, despite breaking his arm, was able to get up like he simply dove into water. It took his mother three hours to convince him to stop running from her and go to the hospital. In the hospital, he saw people complaining about their injuries and illnesses, and thought of them inferior, weak beings. What were they complaining about?

He grew to have a facisnation with people experiencing pain, and he would become the school bully, beating up anyone he wanted to just to watch them writhe like the worms they are.

Eventually, he decided that he was superior to everyone else, and if he wanted to take something, nobody was going to stop him. After all, what are they going to do, shoot him? Ha. Calling himself Threshold (as in threshold of pain), he began looting whatever he felt looting, whoever he felt like hurting.

 

Personality: Threshold believes himself to be an invincible, supreme being. He's seriously mistaken, as while he cannot feel the damage done to his body, the damage still exists. He does appear to be almost invulnerable, as he seems to be able to shrug off bullets and other attacks with ease. His strength is built up by constantly lifting weights. With no pain barrier or discomfort, he can work out for days on end, taking breaks only to loot, eat, and sleep.

 

Quote: "If you think that puny attack was enough to stop me, hero, you are sadly mistaken."

 

Powers/Tatics: Threshold's mutant ability is that his body secretes anesthetic, making his body numb to pain. For him, pushing is nothing, and most attacks don't seem to do anything to him. His very high defenses reflect this, however, even if an attack doesn't do any damage, his body will still be injured. He's simply capable of shrugging off the punishment.

He fights with no regard to defend himself (he feels like it's a waste of time), and instead uses his martial maneuvers to constantly assault someone until they stop moving. He doesn't care if the person he's targeting dies or is knocked unconsious.

 

Campaign Use: Threshold is a brick who works alone, or if he does team up with another villain, will do so in a self-serving way, with no regard for the safety of his accomplice. He is also an example of having superhuman abilities can severely damage someone's mental-well being.

Threshold almost never Hunts, he has no desire to. Even if there's another brick who is seemingly more resistant than him, he will be satisfied by seeing them even wince in pain. After all, in his mind, he's truly superior because he would never do so.

 

 

Val Char Cost

50 STR 40

15 DEX 15

60 CON 100

20 BODY 20

15 INT 5

14 EGO 8

30 PRE 20

8 COM -1

30 PD 20

30 ED 18

4 SPD 15

25 REC 6

120 END 0

75 STUN 0

6" RUN 0

2" SWIM 0

10" LEAP 0

Characteristics Cost: 266

Cost Power

7 Numb Mind: Mental Defense (10 points total)

10 Numb Body: Power Defense (10 points)

60 Numb: Damage Resistance (30 PD/30 ED/10 Mental Def./10 Power Def.), Hardened (x2; +1/2) (60 Active Points)

90 Go Ahead, Shoot Me Again.: Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 75%, Hardened (x2; +1/2) (90 Active Points)

20 Pain Is Weakness And I Have Neither: Lack Of Weakness (-20) for Normal Defense

20 Pain Is Weakness And I Have Neither: Lack Of Weakness (-20) for Resistant Defenses

2 Life Support (Immunity: Neutralizing Agents)

Powers Cost: 209

Cost Martial Arts Maneuver

Brick-Fu

3 1) Martial Grab: 1/2 Phase, -1 OCV, -1 DCV, Grab Two Limbs, 70 STR for holding on

5 2) Offensive Strike: 1/2 Phase, -2 OCV, +1 DCV, 16d6 Strike

4 3) Crush: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +0 DCV, 16d6 Crush, Must Follow Grab

4 4) Choke Hold: 1/2 Phase, -2 OCV, +0 DCV, Grab One Limb; 3d6 NND

4 5) Charge: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, -2 DCV, 14d6 +v/5 Strike, FMove

8 6) +2 HTH Damage Class(es)

Martial Arts Cost: 28

Cost Skill

5 CK: Millenium City 14-

3 Contortionist 12-

5 Hoist 13-

3 Streetwise 15-

3 Stealth 12-

3 Acting 15-

12 +4 with Martial Maneuvers

Skills Cost: 34

Cost Perk

2 Reputation: The Man Who Cannot Feel Pain (Millenium City and those with CuK: Supervillains) 8-, +2/+2d6

Perks Cost: 2

Cost Talent

4 Resistance (4 points)

Talents Cost: 4

Total Character Cost: 543

Pts. Disadvantage

5 Distinctive Features: Mutant (Not Concealable; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable Only By Unusual Senses)

25 Psychological Limitation: Sociopath with sadistic tendencies (Very Common, Total)

25 Enraged: When Mocked Or Insulted (Uncommon), go 14-, recover 8-

15 Social Limitation: Public ID: Eric Sanders (Frequently, Major)

25 Psychological Limitation: Believes He Is Truly Invincible, Will Continue Fighting Even If Obviously Injured (Very Common, Total)

10 Hunted: Millenium City Police 8- (Less Pow, NCI, Limited Geographical Area, PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find, Capture)

25 Hunted: Random Hero 11- (As Pow, NCI, PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find, Capture)

10 Reputation: Dangerous Sociopath, 8- (Extreme)

Disadvantage Points: 140

[Psylint]

Re: [Villain] Threshold

 

Were I a player and this monstrosity showed up for dinner, I'd kill him and not think twice about it.

 

The only tactics that immediately come to mind are, call my namesake and turn him into his Butler or use martial choke at 6d6 NND until he passes out and dies (which you have to do because his recovery and Stun total are so high, he'll just pop up and kill you if you don't). Unless there happens to be a handy nuclear reactor core or active volcano about.

 

But that's assuming he's a stand alone antagonist against a team of 350's or 250's. When even a maxed out, pushed attack does no more than 12 Stun, against a target with that much Con, Stun, and Rec, you're gonna have a lot of frustrated players.

 

What I would ask you is, "How would you deal with Threshold under your campaign limits?" If your strategy requires a particular environment, a particular uncommon power like entangle based on ego combat value, etc. then I'd say Threshold is a poor choice. I like the concept, and the build has some fidelity to the concept but the total package ends up being, in my opinion, unsupportable. You've got a character throwing out 16d6 attacks, at an OCV of 7, who has spent well over 200 points on defenses and as a result can likely one punch or two punch anything that could be a threat (assuming he could catch up to the threat, he's kinda slow) and effective ignores everyone else.

 

Players like to feel omni-capable, they hate it when they're stuck in a situation where they can't do anything to effect the outcome. What are bricks going to do in a situation against Threshold? or martial artists? or weapon masters? or physical energy projectors?

 

If I were to quibble, the "Believes he's truly invincible" is just part and parcel of being a super villain, they all keep fighting even though obviously injured. Just like heroes.

 

If you can find meaningful things for each of your players to do against Threshold, great, but if not, I'd rewrite him until they do.

 

Peace

[Victim]

Re: [Villain] Threshold

 

It seems weird that someone who's power is being immune to pain has such strong defenses, especially since the intro text clearly mentions that he still takes the injuries, he just doesn't feel them. Slapping a Stun Only lim on some of his defenses seems like a perfect fit. Or even go the automaton route and buy Take No Stun.

[jkwleisemann]

Re: [Villain] Threshold

 

Agreed with Victim; when I read the description, my first thought was "takes no stun." Of course, that makes him invincible to, say, knockout gas, so the Stun Only lim is probably more useful for him. As is... yeeck. The worst part is the Damage Reduction that's totally unlimited. Ripper has a similar build, but he's *less* invulnerable than this guy; no MD, no PowD, and an Act. roll on his insane levels of PD/ED.

 

If I kept his defenses that high, I'd at least drop his DC... he's a full-scale brick, really, just slightly weaker than the 'true' bricks and his MA more than make up for that.

 

But, if your players can actually take him (BTW - keep in mind, that requires getting a whopping *300* stun past his defenses, even ignoring Recoveries!), then maybe that's what you need....