Aekis

[Ragdoll]

Here's a concept character that'd been kicking around my head the last week. So I decided to take the plunge.

 

Aekis - The Old Hero. (Means Sheild or Ageis).

 

15     STR  [05]
15     DEX  [15]
15/30  CON  [10]
10     BOD
11     INT  [01]
10     EGO
15     PRE  [05]
12     COM  [01]
5/35   PD   [02]
4/35   ED   [-01]
3      SPD  [05]
8/10   REC  [04]
30/60  END
35/42  STUN [10]   [57 points]

POWERS  [108 points]
12 Elemental Controls: Aekis Chest Piece [15 points] OIHF (-1/4)
12a Characteristic: +30 PD
12b Characteristic: +30 ED
12c Characteristic: +15 CON
12d Damage Reduction Physical Resistant 50%
12e Damage Reduction Energy Resistant 50%
16f Resistant Defenses 35 PD/35 ED
16g Find Weakness with all Attacks 12-

4  Longevity/5; OIHF (-1/4).

SKILLS  [85 points]
20 Generic Combat Ability (Martial Arts from Core Book)
15 +3 CSL with Hand To Hand Combat.
1 AK: Small Town in South America 11-
2 PS: Soldier 11-
5 PS: Mechanic 14-
5 KS: Mechanics 15-
9 Mechanics 14-
5 Rapid Attack (Hand to Hand)
3 Streetwise 12-
3 Traveler
3 Scholar
2 WF: Small Arms
2 TF: Small Ground Vehicles
2 KS: World War Two 12-
8 DC +2 with Martial Arts

DISADVANTAGES  [100]
Code vs. Killing (Common, Total) [20]
Sense of Responsibility - Code of the Hero (Very Common, Strong) [20]
Protective of Innocents (Very Common, Strong) [10]
Social Limitation - Secret Identity (Frequently, Major) [15]
Age: 40+ [5]
Normal Characteristic Maxima [20]
Distinctive Features: Very 'ancient' Etruscan Aura of Sorcery (Not Concealable, Always Noticed caused a major reaction, Unusual Senses only) [10]

Total: [250 points]

In short, Mike is a haunted man. Taking up the mantle of Akeis from it's former owner, Mike spent a large majority of the the late forties to early eighties as the fifth person to be the hero Aekis. In '86 he married and gave up the mantle, willing to pass it on, but unsure of who to give it to. In 2001, Mike lost his wife and two children in the events of 9/11. Mike closed his successful Auto Garage in Minnesota after 6 months of aimless depression and dropped out of sight, leaving the states to loose himself in another place as far from his roots as he could manage with the money he had left.

 

For the last 7 years, he's wallowed in the past and too unfocused or unwilling to call upon the powers of Aekis. A run in with a team of heroes is the one thing that's spurred him to return to the states and once again return to service.

 

Mike's a relic. Despite his living through the eras, he holds onto some very four color attitudes and would likely be in for a shock once he returns to 'duty'. The world around him, especially the world of Heroics has changed, and Mike may struggle to exist within it.

 

With the powers of Aekis at his command Mike is highly resistant to damage. He can mix it up with the best of them. He has no superhuman strength, but Mike's years of combat training make him a devastating hand to hand combatant. Mike can find the inherent weakness in virtually anything he concentrates on and is virtually ageless. Bearers of the Aekis only age when they are not in their heroic form. Mike has racked up a few years in the time since his marriage, but he's still a vital 42 year old. Mike has no powers outside of the Aekis armour, save for his years of fighting skill and his wits.

 

In his Hero Form Mike looks the same, except for the ornate Bronze chest piece that magically appears around him and a strange mystical aura about him. He wears no mask, and Aekis seems to screen others from realizing that Mike and Aekis are one in the same.

[Bloodstone]

Re: Aekis

 

That's not a book legal Elemental Control...

[Trebuchet]

Re: Aekis

 

That's not a book legal Elemental Control...

It's practically the book definition of what's illegal. Not a single Power in it uses END.

 

He's also poorly balanced as a character; he's all defense but no CV or attack worth speaking of and that SPD 3 makes him slower than molasses in January. Any well balanced mentalist or character with a Penetrating or NND attack would eat him for breakfast.

[braincraft]

Re: Aekis

 

In a 250-point game, he might be a pretty reasonable character, actually. Depends on the campaign guidelines.

 

But yes, I would smack the hell out of any player that tried to pass that EC by me. This sort of thing is one of the reasons I generally just disallow ECs altogether.

[Narratio]

Re: Aekis

 

His history is... not good. The Time line appears skewed.

He spent a large majority of the the late forties to early eighties as the fifth person to be the hero Aekis

but he's only 42? 2008 minus 42 gives us 1966 birth and married in 1986 at 20 years age, lost wife and 2 kids in 2001's 9/11. BUT he has a KS for WW2, so he was in WW2 military, which would account for the above quote. But it makes him around (born say 1928, makes him 16 for 1944, and he lied about his age?) 58 when he married and 80 now. This needs cleaning up.

 

Owned a

successful Auto Garage in Minnesota

, but wife and 2 kids were in New York... Why? Family, business? And yet he has, for no reason I can see, an AK for a small town in South America. Why? How does it link to Minnesota, his KS of WW2 or the device that gives him his powers?

 

Traveller and Scholar? As a mechanic or as a very slow hero? Streetwise I could go with, even in Minnesota Traveller, okay, except running a successful business, staying married and raising 2 kids, studying & training in martial arts and being a hero must have left him real short on sleep time. I can accept these, but scholar? With an INT of 11?

 

Still don't see anything on the "Etruscan" artifact.

 

If this is your first pass at a HERO build, then it's a very '81 first edition look and needs some work, character explanation and fleshing out of history.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Aekis

 

BUT he has a KS for WW2' date=' so he was in WW2 military, which would account for the above quote.[/quote']I don't think that follows. Perhaps he's just a serious student of World War 2 history rather than a veteran.

 

My own conversations with WW2 vets suggest few of them know more about WW2 than what their own unit was doing during the war; I wouldn't consider most of them to rate a KS on the war.

 

EDIT: On rereading the backstory, I think Ragdoll means the character is physically a healthy 42; not chronologically 42 years old. If that's the case, then it's kind or refreshing to see a quasi-immortal character who didn't freeze his age in his 20's. So he might be a WW2 vet after all; albeit one who hasn't aged normally.

[Ragdoll]

Re: Aekis

 

I knew I shouldn't have shortened the history section like I did. It sees to have caused some 'massive' confusion.

 

1. As to the EC. Didn't realize that. At times I've gotten conflicting info on whether or not it's allowable to put a no end power into an EC, so I didn't think of it as illegal.

 

2. The Etruscan artifact is the chest piece. It's a bronze chest piece that appears or disappears on him when he wills it. That's the Only in Hero ID thing.

 

3. The year thing.. I may have gotten wrong. I changed the time line for his retirement and moving to South America several times when I was writing his history and it may have gotten mixed with another date. *pause* No, wait I see where the problem is. Further into the story their's an explanation ...

Mike can find the inherent weakness in virtually anything he concentrates on and is virtually ageless. Bearers of the Aekis only age when they are not in their heroic form. Mike has racked up a few years in the time since his marriage, but he's still a vital 42 year old.

See I sort of wanted to build a rough and tumble character that wasn't based around 'superhuman strength'. I wanted something very tough.. difficult to hurt, but a very good hand to hand fighter with mostly 'normal' strength. =) He was 20 in 1945 when he originally got the Aekis powers from the last holder of the chest piece. He spends from 1945 to 1986 battling crime. In '86 he finally settles down with a woman he'd been dating for years and marries. At that time he gives up his career as a superhero. So he was not active between '86 and 2001. He was a married man, eventually built his garage business to a successful pinnacle and was 'daddy' to three children, his oldest a boy, and two twin girls.

 

He looses his family in the 9/11 attacks. Stays in Minnesota for about 6 months in a depressed state, until finally he just decides to leave for South America. I picked South America because:

 

1. I was looking for some place 'different' from the traditional places.

2. I thought it might be an interesting place to simply give up and lose

oneself in. I think I settled on Brazil. A small coastal town that was often

the sight of Tourists heading deeper into the Amazon.

 

4. As to the point level. Yeah, I've got an aversion to the 350 point level that came with 5th ed. I started on 4th ed at 250 and most of my experiences are with 250 point characters. So when I make a character, my point total more often then not is 250. The speed issue is just my own person preference. I've always liked more realistic speeds (2-4) for instance. I usually only go above if a character's power concept specifically makes sense (like a speedster, or someone with inhuman reflexes, etc). And also this character is a mostly 'normal' guy, I wanted to keep that flavor of the 'everyman' even in his super human ID.

 

5. As to the WW2 thing. Yeah..he was 20 in 1945, and between 1943 to '45 I imagine as a soldier he might have taken part in the Italian Campaign of WW2. I'd intended him to come into the Aekis power somewhere in Europe so this would be a good place I think. He later joins the National Guard years later in his civilian ID mostly as a way to continue to help out. I'd intended him to be 'very' four color. So he's 42 now physically by virtue of being out of his heroic form for so long between '86 to '08. So in '08 he's 42.

 

In brief, I was looking to make a non-traditional immortal type character and a non-traditional brick type of character. Someone 'very' hard to hurt but a brawler/hand to hand combatant with nothing in the way of super human strength, and someone not the usual 20 something immortal that's been around for 500+ years. I wanted someone that had been around a few decades and to use that to explore the changes in his society as he lived through them, how he reacted to them and how he deals with even more of the changes to his nation (the US) and the changes to superhuman society in a world that might not be as four color as it used to be. I'd intended him to be quite old fashioned in some of his attitudes about super human combat, etc, etc.

 

I'd originally written up a much looooonger in character story that takes place between some Primus investigators and a sort of head of operations, and it was basically a vehicle to explain the history of Aekis in more detail the previous owners of the chest piece and how long they lasted etc, etc. And a sort of thing where they lose track of mike in '86 and now they see he's returned to the states etc, and they want to know why and where he's been, and they note the age change, etc, etc.

 

And it ends with the investigators being dismissed to find out these things, and the senior agent at his desk looking over this sparse file on Aekis, then putting it away in a desk draw and the reader sees these bronze Etruscan designed bracers in the draw, leaving some ambiguity as to whether or not their's more of the Aekis armour then any of the previous holder's believed, etc.

 

But as I typed this up, I started to feel it was too long and no one would take the time to read all of it, so I decided to just give a short and sweet exposition of the history and his powers.

 

I think perhaps I should have expanded on it, a bit more.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Aekis

 

1. I was looking for some place 'different' from the traditional places.

2. I thought it might be an interesting place to simply give up and lose

oneself in. I think I settled on Brazil. A small coastal town that was often

the sight of Tourists heading deeper into the Amazon.

 

4. As to the point level. Yeah, I've got an aversion to the 350 point level that came with 5th ed. I started on 4th ed at 250 and most of my experiences are with 250 point characters. So when I make a character, my point total more often then not is 250. The speed issue is just my own person preference. I've always liked more realistic speeds (2-4) for instance. I usually only go above if a character's power concept specifically makes sense (like a speedster, or someone with inhuman reflexes, etc). And also this character is a mostly 'normal' guy, I wanted to keep that flavor of the 'everyman' even in his super human ID.

 

5. As to the WW2 thing. Yeah..he was 20 in 1945, and between 1943 to '45 I imagine as a soldier he might have taken part in the Italian Campaign of WW2. I'd intended him to come into the Aekis power somewhere in Europe so this would be a good place I think. He later joins the National Guard years later in his civilian ID mostly as a way to continue to help out. I'd intended him to be 'very' four color. So he's 42 now physically by virtue of being out of his heroic form for so long between '86 to '08. So in '08 he's 42.

 

In brief, I was looking to make a non-traditional immortal type character and a non-traditional brick type of character. Someone 'very' hard to hurt but a brawler/hand to hand combatant with nothing in the way of super human strength, and someone not the usual 20 something immortal that's been around for 500+ years. I wanted someone that had been around a few decades and to use that to explore the changes in his society as he lived through them, how he reacted to them and how he deals with even more of the changes to his nation (the US) and the changes to superhuman society in a world that might not be as four color as it used to be. I'd intended him to be quite old fashioned in some of his attitudes about super human combat, etc, etc.

 

I'd originally written up a much looooonger in character story that takes place between some Primus investigators and a sort of head of operations, and it was basically a vehicle to explain the history of Aekis in more detail the previous owners of the chest piece and how long they lasted etc, etc. And a sort of thing where they lose track of mike in '86 and now they see he's returned to the states etc, and they want to know why and where he's been, and they note the age change, etc, etc.

1. Cool

 

2. Great choice. Since I also play a "non-traditional immortal" I've given a bit of thought over the years as to where she might decide to hole up for a while at some point in the future. I must admit South America had never come up on the list.

 

3. There isn't any 3.

 

4. There's nothing wrong with DEX 15/SPD 3 except in most Champions campaigns (even 250 pointers) he'd be badly outclassed. That's slower than most agents.

 

Backstories and short stories are always welcome here. Go ahead and post 'em.

[Qelan]

Re: Aekis

 

I like your character idea and story, I am going to snatch it up but will make sure you get full credit when asked by any of my friends.