Character for Review: Ilyusha

[Zeropoint]

Hi, everyone. I just wrote up this character, and was wondering what Herodom Assembled thought of the build.

 

Alexandra Viktor, AKA "Ilyusha"

"Sasha" to her family and "Alex" to her close friends.

 

Val Char Cost

 

60 STR 50

15 DEX 15

20 CON 20

18 BODY 16

13 INT 3

13 EGO 6

20 PRE 10

12 COM 1

 

12 PD -

10 ED 6

5 SPD 25

16 REC -

60 END 10

58 STUN 10

 

Total Characteristics cost: 162

 

Cost Skill

3 Bureaucratics, 13-

3 Computer programming, 12-

3 Conversation, 13-

3 High Society, 13-

3 Land/Air Navigation, 12-

3 Paramedics, 12-

3 Persuasion, 13-

3 Seduction, 13-

3 KS: Superhuman World, 12-

3 AK: Campaign City, 12-

3 Language: Russian, Fluent With Accent

- PS: Charity Fundraiser, 11- (free professional skill)

 

5 CSL: +1 DCV vs. All Attacks

5 CSL: +1 With HTH Combat

 

Total Skills Cost: 43 pts.

 

 

Powers

 

4 Naturally Tough: Damage Resistance for 4 PD/4 ED

 

48 Even Tougher: Armor, 16 PD/16 ED

 

50 Flight Powers: Multipower Reserve, 50 AP

5u Levitate: 10" Flight, Zero Endurance (+1/2), Invisible Power Effects vs Sight and Hearing (+3/4)

5u Full Flight: 20" Flight, x8 Non-Combat Multiplier

1u Underwater Flight: 15" Swimming

 

3 Bump of Direction

 

3 Superior Myoglobin: LS: Extended Breathing 1 END/5 Min.

 

4 High Flight: LS: Safe Environment--Low Pressure/Vacuum, Cold

 

5 Fast Healing: Regeneration, 1 BODY/6 Hours

 

5 Tough Eyes: 5 pts Flash Defense, Sight

 

5 Tough Ears: 5 pts Flash Defense, Hearing

 

7 Base/Vehicle Contribution

 

Total Powers Cost: 145

 

 

Disadvantages

 

20 Hunted: Institute for Human Advancement

15 Hunted: VIPER

15 Secret ID

15 Code vs. Killing, Common, Strong

15 Claustrophobia, Common, Strong

15 Protective, Common, Strong

10 Medical Resistant Skin, Infrequently, Greatly

5 Heavy Sleeper, Infrequently, Slightly

20 Vulnerability: Toxins, x2 STUN

5 Distinctive Features: Mutant, Not Concealable, Unusual Senses

5 Distinctive Features: Big Girl (AKA "****ing Amazon!")

10 DNPC

 

Total Disadvantages: 150

 

 

Background/History

 

The history of Russia is a bloody one (not that any other country is much better), and the Viktor family was involved in many of those conflicts. One side of the family helped push Napoleon back from Moscow. During the Caucasian War, they fought, ultimately in vain, to keep their homeland independent. In World War I, Alexandra's great-grandfather was wounded pushing back an Austrian advance. Her grandfather flew an IL-2, hounding German tanks in WW II. After the war, he decided that too much of the family's blood had been shed, and he managed to move the family to the United States. Alexandra's mother grew up in the US, and Alexandra was one of the first generation to be born a US citizen.

 

When Alex was 13, the aliens came. Her family narrowly escaped destruction, thanks to grandfather Anton's choice of a rural lifestyle, and as "little Sasha" began to grow into a woman, her personal struggle was echoed by a world trying to recover. She was offended on a visceral level by the destruction and loss inflicted on so many innocent people, and used her free time to work for various charity organizations, helping people rebuild. In this, she felt that she had found her calling.

 

Alex entered college as an awkward, gangly girl, tall for her age, but soon found that she had a gift for talking to people, for getting people on board a cause and smoothing over red tape. Although her major was Computer Science, her true path was learning how to put her personality to good use in Making a Difference.

 

By the time she finished college, Alex had FINALLY stopped getting taller, and started to fill out. When she started hitting the gym to help the process along, she was a bit surprised to see the other girls working with such small weights, but assumed that the difference stemmed from their smaller size, and a desire to tone rather than bulk up, and never brought it up. Several months into her program, she was pleased with the results--she was almost rid of the scarecrow look, and her lifting capacity had improved quite a bit. She didn't really appreciate how much, until she noticed a well-built male bodybuilder get on the weight machine she'd just used . . . and reduce the weight to half of what she'd been using. Later that night, she came back to the gym, and discovered that she could move the entire weight stack, if she pushed herself. Two weeks later, she could do it one-handed. There was no rational way to deny that her body was developing in unusual

ways, but she tried . . . until the night she dreamed of flying and woke up when she hit the ceiling.

 

Alexandra realized that with her gifts, she could do more than just raise awareness and gather funds--she could perform physical labor on a superhuman scale. She could personally contribute to disaster cleanup, supply distrubition, rebuilding--the possibilities were nearly endless. Fond memories of listening to her grandfather's heroic war stories suggested a theme for her alter ego, and she took the name "Ilyusha" after the affectionate nickname of the IL-2, and created a costume patterned after the aircraft's paint scheme. With a name and a costume, she was ready to make a public debut, but wasn't sure how.

 

About then, Hurricane Katrina flattened New Oreleans. She responded without hesitation, and found that there was more than enough work to keep all the relief workers, normal and super, busy around the clock. By the time she left, she had blossomed into a striking Amazon of a woman, capable of lifting nearly a hundred tons, and flying at speeds over 300 MPH. She finished every day exhausted and loved every minute of it.

 

She kept it up when she returned home . . . and eventually started to wonder if she might be a little more proactive. Helping people recover from disasters was good, but wouldn't preventing disasters in the first place be better? Maybe she should look into joining a superhero team.

 

 

Personality/Motivation

 

Alexandra grew up enjoying the warmth of a large and friendly extended family, and learned to value the connections that bring people together. She's a very warm and outgoing person who enjoys meeting new people, and has a gift for making friends. These attributes serve her well in her civilian career, where she makes a living in the non-profit world, helping to organize, smooth ruffled feathers, help people work together for common goals, and convince wealthy patrons that the various causes are worth donating to. She's equally at home schmoozing at a fancy ball or handing out blankets in the mud. While she has a strong idealistic streak, she also tries to be practical, and focus on what does the most actual good.

 

Quote

"Why do we HAVE powers and abilities, if not to help people?"

 

Powers/Tactics

 

Ilyusha's powers are straightforward: she's very strong, very tough, and she can fly. Her first instinct is to use these abilities to either evacuate civilians from danger, or prevent danger from reaching them. She has not had much combat experience, but has found that placing large/heavy things on enemies (if they're tough enough to take it) is a good way to take them out of a fight. Beyond that, her tactics are extremely basic: find the opponent who seems to be the biggest threat, fly over, punch.

 

Appearance

Alexandra is fair-skinned, with brown hair down to her shoulder blades and green eyes. She turns heads when she enters a room, not because she's exceptionally beautiful, but because at 5'11" and 170 pounds, she's a strikingly large woman. She's not in any way fat, though, and her athletic build leads people to underestimate her weight. In her professional life, she wears business suits most of the time, with occasional evening dress. In the field, jeans and a t-shirt. As Ilyusha, she wears a half-mask and spandex suit. The suit is light gray on the front of the torso and legs, and camouflage elsewhere. She also wears light boots and gloves.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

I like her - but then I've got a soft spot for Russian heroines.

[Beast]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

pretty much just a FB MK1

my only question is why have 4 pts of damage resistance when you have armor

you could have not added to Ed and sold back 4 of Pd and added 4 ro armor for the same result

[nexus]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

Commie huggers!

 

Wait... that's over?

 

Why does no one tell me these things!?

 

Looks pretty cool to me. I like her illo too.

[treynog]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

I like her...but then again I like all Heroines.

[Zeropoint]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

my only question is why have 4 pts of damage resistance when you have armor

you could have not added to Ed and sold back 4 of Pd and added 4 ro armor for the same result

 

Well, it never occurred to me to sell back any characteristic, which prevented me from thinking of what you suggest. The reason I bought the damage resistance instead of just buying more armor is that the prospective GM has placed a campaign limit of 30 on total defenses, and I wanted to have enough resistant defense to stop a .50 BMG round, which can do up to 18 BODY of killing damage. To get that much rPD without exceeding the campaign limits, I had to make some of her natural PD resistant.

[OddHat]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

Nice character background, and a character build that should work pretty well. Always like a heroic Super who figures out what she can do to help people with her powers beyond just hitting bad guys.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

Wouldn't it make more sense for her Russian to be her free 4 point Native language and to have 3 points of Fully Fluent English as her second language instead?

 

With such a low CON for a brick, an investment in some Hardened defenses might be a good idea in the near future.

[Narratio]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

The family history doesn't read quite right to me. So part of the family was Russian, the other came from Georgia, Chechniya or Circassia say, in the Caucasus. (Somewhere in her is mixed Rus and Turkomen bloodlines?) The family then stayed in the Caucasus until they managed to escape to the USA.

 

Given the way that conquered cultures manage to keep some of thier history alive, as well as thier languages, I assume that she would have learnt the language of her chunk of the Caucasus from her grandparents. So she needs another language skill. English base line, accented Russian as as extra, accented Chech/Georg/whatever as an extra.

 

Not sure about the seduction skills. She's a "strikingly large woman". How/why would she use this skill? And to have it and Persuasion together seems like overkill.

 

High Society. Again, daughter of a rural immigrant family... Even with all the charity work, this doesn't quite fit. If she'd been born into that society or grew up beside it, studied it, then yes. As it is, I think 'Contacts' (from that charity work) would do the same thing and fit the concept better especially alongside the Persuasion talent.

 

But I do like a Russkie - Especially a Mk1 Flying Brick.

[bubba smith]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

Hi, everyone. I just wrote up this character, and was wondering what Herodom Assembled thought of the build.

 

Alexandra Viktor, AKA "Ilyusha"

"Sasha" to her family and "Alex" to her close friends.

 

Val Char Cost

 

60 STR 50

15 DEX 15

20 CON 20

18 BODY 16

13 INT 3

13 EGO 6

20 PRE 10

12 COM 1

 

12 PD -

10 ED 6

5 SPD 25

16 REC -

60 END 10

58 STUN 10

 

Total Characteristics cost: 162

 

Cost Skill

3 Bureaucratics, 13-

3 Computer programming, 12-

3 Conversation, 13-

3 High Society, 13-

3 Land/Air Navigation, 12-

3 Paramedics, 12-

3 Persuasion, 13-

3 Seduction, 13-

3 KS: Superhuman World, 12-

3 AK: Campaign City, 12-

3 Language: Russian, Fluent With Accent

- PS: Charity Fundraiser, 11- (free professional skill)

 

5 CSL: +1 DCV vs. All Attacks

5 CSL: +1 With HTH Combat

 

Total Skills Cost: 43 pts.

 

 

Powers

 

4 Naturally Tough: Damage Resistance for 4 PD/4 ED

 

48 Even Tougher: Armor, 16 PD/16 ED

 

50 Flight Powers: Multipower Reserve, 50 AP

5u Levitate: 10" Flight, Zero Endurance (+1/2), Invisible Power Effects vs Sight and Hearing (+3/4)

5u Full Flight: 20" Flight, x8 Non-Combat Multiplier

1u Underwater Flight: 15" Swimming

 

3 Bump of Direction

 

3 Superior Myoglobin: LS: Extended Breathing 1 END/5 Min.

 

4 High Flight: LS: Safe Environment--Low Pressure/Vacuum, Cold

 

5 Fast Healing: Regeneration, 1 BODY/6 Hours

 

5 Tough Eyes: 5 pts Flash Defense, Sight

 

5 Tough Ears: 5 pts Flash Defense, Hearing

 

7 Base/Vehicle Contribution

 

Total Powers Cost: 145

 

 

Disadvantages

 

20 Hunted: Institute for Human Advancement

15 Hunted: VIPER

15 Secret ID

15 Code vs. Killing, Common, Strong

15 Claustrophobia, Common, Strong

15 Protective, Common, Strong

10 Medical Resistant Skin, Infrequently, Greatly

5 Heavy Sleeper, Infrequently, Slightly

20 Vulnerability: Toxins, x2 STUN

5 Distinctive Features: Mutant, Not Concealable, Unusual Senses

5 Distinctive Features: Big Girl (AKA "****ing Amazon!")

10 DNPC

 

Total Disadvantages: 150

 

 

Background/History

 

The history of Russia is a bloody one (not that any other country is much better), and the Viktor family was involved in many of those conflicts. One side of the family helped push Napoleon back from Moscow. During the Caucasian War, they fought, ultimately in vain, to keep their homeland independent. In World War I, Alexandra's great-grandfather was wounded pushing back an Austrian advance. Her grandfather flew an IL-2, hounding German tanks in WW II. After the war, he decided that too much of the family's blood had been shed, and he managed to move the family to the United States. Alexandra's mother grew up in the US, and Alexandra was one of the first generation to be born a US citizen.

 

When Alex was 13, the aliens came. Her family narrowly escaped destruction, thanks to grandfather Anton's choice of a rural lifestyle, and as "little Sasha" began to grow into a woman, her personal struggle was echoed by a world trying to recover. She was offended on a visceral level by the destruction and loss inflicted on so many innocent people, and used her free time to work for various charity organizations, helping people rebuild. In this, she felt that she had found her calling.

 

Alex entered college as an awkward, gangly girl, tall for her age, but soon found that she had a gift for talking to people, for getting people on board a cause and smoothing over red tape. Although her major was Computer Science, her true path was learning how to put her personality to good use in Making a Difference.

 

By the time she finished college, Alex had FINALLY stopped getting taller, and started to fill out. When she started hitting the gym to help the process along, she was a bit surprised to see the other girls working with such small weights, but assumed that the difference stemmed from their smaller size, and a desire to tone rather than bulk up, and never brought it up. Several months into her program, she was pleased with the results--she was almost rid of the scarecrow look, and her lifting capacity had improved quite a bit. She didn't really appreciate how much, until she noticed a well-built male bodybuilder get on the weight machine she'd just used . . . and reduce the weight to half of what she'd been using. Later that night, she came back to the gym, and discovered that she could move the entire weight stack, if she pushed herself. Two weeks later, she could do it one-handed. There was no rational way to deny that her body was developing in unusual

ways, but she tried . . . until the night she dreamed of flying and woke up when she hit the ceiling.

 

Alexandra realized that with her gifts, she could do more than just raise awareness and gather funds--she could perform physical labor on a superhuman scale. She could personally contribute to disaster cleanup, supply distrubition, rebuilding--the possibilities were nearly endless. Fond memories of listening to her grandfather's heroic war stories suggested a theme for her alter ego, and she took the name "Ilyusha" after the affectionate nickname of the IL-2, and created a costume patterned after the aircraft's paint scheme. With a name and a costume, she was ready to make a public debut, but wasn't sure how.

 

About then, Hurricane Katrina flattened New Oreleans. She responded without hesitation, and found that there was more than enough work to keep all the relief workers, normal and super, busy around the clock. By the time she left, she had blossomed into a striking Amazon of a woman, capable of lifting nearly a hundred tons, and flying at speeds over 300 MPH. She finished every day exhausted and loved every minute of it.

 

She kept it up when she returned home . . . and eventually started to wonder if she might be a little more proactive. Helping people recover from disasters was good, but wouldn't preventing disasters in the first place be better? Maybe she should look into joining a superhero team.

 

 

Personality/Motivation

 

Alexandra grew up enjoying the warmth of a large and friendly extended family, and learned to value the connections that bring people together. She's a very warm and outgoing person who enjoys meeting new people, and has a gift for making friends. These attributes serve her well in her civilian career, where she makes a living in the non-profit world, helping to organize, smooth ruffled feathers, help people work together for common goals, and convince wealthy patrons that the various causes are worth donating to. She's equally at home schmoozing at a fancy ball or handing out blankets in the mud. While she has a strong idealistic streak, she also tries to be practical, and focus on what does the most actual good.

 

Quote

"Why do we HAVE powers and abilities, if not to help people?"

 

Powers/Tactics

 

Ilyusha's powers are straightforward: she's very strong, very tough, and she can fly. Her first instinct is to use these abilities to either evacuate civilians from danger, or prevent danger from reaching them. She has not had much combat experience, but has found that placing large/heavy things on enemies (if they're tough enough to take it) is a good way to take them out of a fight. Beyond that, her tactics are extremely basic: find the opponent who seems to be the biggest threat, fly over, punch.

 

Appearance

Alexandra is fair-skinned, with brown hair down to her shoulder blades and green eyes. She turns heads when she enters a room, not because she's exceptionally beautiful, but because at 5'11" and 170 pounds, she's a strikingly large woman. She's not in any way fat, though, and her athletic build leads people to underestimate her weight. In her professional life, she wears business suits most of the time, with occasional evening dress. In the field, jeans and a t-shirt. As Ilyusha, she wears a half-mask and spandex suit. The suit is light gray on the front of the torso and legs, and camouflage elsewhere. She also wears light boots and gloves.

nice work zeropoint

[Zeropoint]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

nice work zeropoint

 

Thanks!

 

Wouldn't it make more sense for her Russian to be her free 4 point Native language and to have 3 points of Fully Fluent English as her second language instead?

 

She's ethnically Russian, but was born here in the US. I'll take a look at what I wrote for the background and make sure that's clear.

 

The family history doesn't read quite right to me. So part of the family was Russian, the other came from Georgia, Chechniya or Circassia say, in the Caucasus. (Somewhere in her is mixed Rus and Turkomen bloodlines?) The family then stayed in the Caucasus until they managed to escape to the USA.

 

Well, part of the problem here is that I was just skimming over Wikipedia for Russian defensive actions that her ancestors could have been involved with. I'd neglected to consider how little people moved around back then, so the wide geographical area that I described didn't seem all that unusual to me. Also note that at least some of her ancestors were in Moscow during the Napoleonic era.

 

Not sure about the seduction skills. She's a "strikingly large woman". How/why would she use this skill? And to have it and Persuasion together seems like overkill.

 

I included Seduction specifically on the grounds that it also works for "making friends". As far as being a large woman, I notice that I forgot to include her height and weight--she's 5'11" and about 165 pounds. If she's wearing any kind of heels, she looks slightly down to most men, and she's visibly muscular, even if you don't know about her superstrength. By "strikingly large" I was meaning "Amazon goddess", not "the blob".

 

High Society. Again, daughter of a rural immigrant family... Even with all the charity work, this doesn't quite fit. If she'd been born into that society or grew up beside it, studied it, then yes. As it is, I think 'Contacts' (from that charity work) would do the same thing and fit the concept better especially alongside the Persuasion talent.

 

High Society is there so she knows what fork to use at high-priced charity fundraising dinners. I figure with her PRE score, she picks up on this stuff quickly.

 

EDIT: I don't mean to imply that I think that the points raised are not valid; I'm just trying to explain my thinking. I thank you all for your thoughts and critiques.

[Mr. R]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

I like it. Nice simple. Follows the KISS principle. And has some pro-active ideas. Man I would love this character as a GM.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

She's ethnically Russian' date=' but was born here in the US. I'll take a look at what I wrote for the background and make sure that's clear.[/quote']D'oh! I just missed that completely.

 

She's a great character IMO. Good background, simple in design and execution, well conceived motivation, and enough points of interest/plot hooks to make her a pleasure for any decent GM to run.

 

She's a bit lower on CON than I'd build most Champions bricks, but that's probably as much campaign caps as design.

 

BTW, 5' 11" tall plus heels would look down on most men. One of my sisters is 5' 10" and she's taller barefoot than any man she's ever dated, including her husband. She never wears heels when she goes out with him. You could even make that a good 0 point Disad as Alex constantly struggles to find a boyfriend who isn't intimidated by her being " a ****** Amazon. (My character Zl'f has exactly the opposite problem since she has to look up to a typical 12-year-old boy, never mind most men.)

[Zeropoint]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

Well, I apologize for bumping my own thread, but I wanted to give an "action report", now that I've actually used this character in combat.

 

She's a good solid build, capable of taking everything thrown at her in this first adventure without significant effects, completely ignoring most of the attacks that hit her. Of course, I have no way of knowing how that compares to what we'll be facing later in the game, but she's shrugging off 3d6 RKAs just like I intended.

 

However, it's looking like a 6 OCV is NOT enough, as she was having a lot of trouble landing punches.

 

Also, with her relatively low EGO and no Mental Defense, she was a sitting duck when the mental attacks and powers started flying around, and was pretty much useless for a lot of the fight. Ah, well, that's a traditional brick weakness.

 

We also got to fight a cheap IHA Minuteman robot, and that was Ilyusha's time to shine. Using full-speed movethroughs, she was able to take it out in two hits. Of course, the next one we face won't be so easy.

 

With a little more combat training, she'll be a powerful asset to the team. I'm also thinking about a little mental defense, just so she doesn't get totally punked by every mentalist she encounters. I'll have to think of a way to justify it, though.

[Mr. R]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

Does your team have a mentalist? If so then pointers from said person in how to protect your mind from intrusion might be in order.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

Well, I apologize for bumping my own thread, but I wanted to give an "action report", now that I've actually used this character in combat.

 

She's a good solid build, capable of taking everything thrown at her in this first adventure without significant effects, completely ignoring most of the attacks that hit her. Of course, I have no way of knowing how that compares to what we'll be facing later in the game, but she's shrugging off 3d6 RKAs just like I intended.

 

However, it's looking like a 6 OCV is NOT enough, as she was having a lot of trouble landing punches.

 

Also, with her relatively low EGO and no Mental Defense, she was a sitting duck when the mental attacks and powers started flying around, and was pretty much useless for a lot of the fight. Ah, well, that's a traditional brick weakness.

 

We also got to fight a cheap IHA Minuteman robot, and that was Ilyusha's time to shine. Using full-speed movethroughs, she was able to take it out in two hits. Of course, the next one we face won't be so easy.

 

With a little more combat training, she'll be a powerful asset to the team. I'm also thinking about a little mental defense, just so she doesn't get totally punked by every mentalist she encounters. I'll have to think of a way to justify it, though.

One more point of EGO would increase her ECV, making her harder to hit with EGO-based attacks. Some more DEX or HTH Combat Levels would help her hit. Overall Levels would help all of these.

 

In the meantime, she's strong enough to use "flyswatters" (i.e., large objects such as cars or dumpsters) to hit opponents with higher Combat Values. Not only does it work well, but it's a wonderfully bricky thing to do and fun to boot.

[Zeropoint]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

In the meantime, she's strong enough to use "flyswatters" (i.e., large objects such as cars or dumpsters) to hit opponents with higher Combat Values. Not only does it work well, but it's a wonderfully bricky thing to do and fun to boot.

 

An excellent idea, which I plan to use in the future. This time around, the only handy "flyswatter" was the team plane that we were planning on riding back to base in. I think I would have been unpopular if I'd broken it.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Character for Review: Ilyusha

 

An excellent idea' date=' which I plan to use in the future. This time around, the only handy "flyswatter" was the team plane that we were planning on riding back to base in. I think I would have been unpopular if I'd broken it. [/quote']I really enjoy running bricks, although I haven't played one in years. There's something about being well-nigh-invulnerable, throwing cars and opponents around like toys, and just causing major property damage that just really rocks.

 

You have to think tactically when you play bricks, since they're usually slower and have lower Combat Values than most other archetypes. Every Phase is important because a brick usually doesn't have as many of them. Fortunately it's also an archetype that usually allows a few mistakes simply because bricks are usually pretty tough. Just keep in mind that the purpose of bricks on a team isn't necessarily to be the heavy hitter; although they often are. The real purpose of a brick is to be a damage sponge and take (hopefully with minimal effect) hits that would hurt their less-tough teammates more seriously.

 

In our Champions campaign our brick can totally ignore (as in 0 Stun getting through) an attack that will Stun my martial artist. I've lost track of how many times she's saved my character's butt in a fight.