Fastball and Flaw

[Tuscarora]

I am working on developing two old characters (I was suggested to use follower for the sister or duplication with can not be recombined, opinions?) I used in an old campaign (with some new ideas) into the new rule system (6th Ed).

 

It's a young brother and sister, telepathically linked. The brother, fastball, I am planning on developing a bunch of abilities around baseball analogies. The sister, flaw, was originally designed with Find Weakness (usuable by others, telepathic link to the brother, roll for others to use via verbal cues). However, find weakness is no longer offered in the ruleset. Any suggestions on how to simulate this.

 

The concept is as follows: Flaw is a young girl virtually unnoticed (invisibility, detect on a roll) carrying a doll. She watches as her much more aggressive brother gets into trouble doing stuff he should not be doing, mommy would not approve. During the battle, he gets insights from her that make him more and more effective as time passes. It's all unintentional, neither of them realize it happens. There telepathic link is only emotional, no thought projection. He knows when she is in trouble, vice versa. The other ability I plan on giving her will be simplified healing (with ressurection, roll for it to be effective bonus to roll for those she cares about, less so for someone mean) - she cries and her tears can heal others. And lastly, a psionic area effect attack if someone is really mean (ie, hurts her brother (with a BIG bonus to damage if god forbid you try to take her dolly away).

 

My original concept for Fastball was friction control. He could reduce/amplify the effects of friction on any object or person. The primary purpose was to create effects like a blast (baseball) thrown which rather than doing less damage at distance did the reverse as the ball would speed up. He would carry a few baseballs - but a rock would suffict for his ranged attack (blast): fastball, slider, curve (the only differences being OCV bonuses) and the ranged increase to damage. A bat with a few different swings: bunt - low knockback attack, home run - EXTREME high knockback attack, base hit (standard attack) and foul ball (indirect attack). Originally, using friction he could amplify the running speed of someone, slow someone, reduce effective damage, etc... Not certain I want to stick to that original concept anymore.

 

I was thinking of giving him a few different abilities now that I am going to play him in a campaign (originally he was a filler character).

 

"Play Ball" - verbal and somatic requirements to summon (duplicates) a team. I have not decided if I should just make 8 duplicates or give them specific abilities (catcher, short stop, first base, etc... open to ideas).

Possibly a sptiting chew, blindness attack. Might not fit, but I like sensory deprivation attacks.

Entangle based on tossing a leftover piece of chewed gum and getting the enemy stuck.

 

Fastball will have a high DCV. Kids are always difficult to hit and catch.

 

I need to flesh these kids out, but I am looking for ideas from anyone who has anything to add/suggest. Or if you have any ideas of things I have not considered, throw them in the mix.

 

I was going to give fastball a glove as well, but really could not figure out what I would do with it. I also considered reflection/deflection with the bat, but I am having a hard time picturing it.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Fastball and Flaw

 

Catcher's Mitt: Technically you can now block ranged attacks but there are still a lot of attacks you can not block, AoEs and such.

 

Build a catcher's mitt damage negation, or drain (requires a DEX roll) OIF - basically you can 'catch' incoming attacks, negating them, even ones that are not normally blockable or deflectable. This thing can catch anything...

[the fox]

Re: Fastball and Flaw

 

Your not including the "Fastball Special"? Fastball, Slider, Curve could be differing attacks: AP, Accurate or limited Indirect Blast. If the only difference is OCV bonuses, why have 2 attacks with lower bonuses? How is that not useless?

 

Kids aren't always difficult to hit and catch; kids aren't always anything, though I would say their generally smaller and thus would get a bonus vs. ranged attacks.

 

Invisible little girl? Is this an actual power? If Find Weakness is usable at range, and a mind-link relays the data, how about the girl actually hiding? Unusual would be her continual observations of Fastball's battles...

[Utech]

Re: Fastball and Flaw

 

Does Flaw need to exist? Can she be sfx for Fastball's powers?

[Tuscarora]

Re: Fastball and Flaw

 

Utech, How do you mean?

 

the fox, it's not so much she is invisible as she is effectively invisible since no one notices her - a roll exists to realize she is there so that perceptive villians might become aware and thus create a storyline where she might be nabbed. As for watching her brother's battles. Don't you think a little girl would be worried about her brother if he were to be in battle. I have no objection to the hiding concept though and will explore that next. If I give her a size reduction and I could give her an effective bonus to hiding. That might be better in the long run. Hmm... more to consider. Now the different pitches, yeah I think I need to explore that further as well. Makes sense and I am not taking as much advantage of that as I should.

 

Sean,

"Build a catcher's mitt damage negation, or drain (requires a DEX roll) OIF - basically you can 'catch' incoming attacks, negating them, even ones that are not normally blockable or deflectable. This thing can catch anything..." that's a good idea.

[Tuscarora]

Re: Fastball and Flaw

 

Another thought, should I use martial arts for some of the abilities pitches/bat attacks? or stick to blasts/hth attacks?

[Utech]

Re: Fastball and Flaw

 

Utech' date=' How do you mean?[/quote']

 

This is rather a radical approach, mind you... I mean that if she's not going to be a target for the bad guys in combat, she does not need to be written up at all. Write up her brother and give him whatever benefits Flaw would have given him. Add Limitations to say that Flaw must be nearby, perhaps require a skill roll, etc.

 

Now, if you want Flaw to be able to help people besides her brother, this doesn't work at all.

[the fox]

Re: Fastball and Flaw

 

Anonymity, for not being an obvious combatant; pay the points and there's no way for villains to 'blow her cover', with mind-link they don't need to blab about detect weakness, ever!

Her healing/resurrection can be kept under wraps, only used out of combat, or made Invisible, and it would never occur to someone to take her dolly away!

Even the way she comes to his aid, the psionic area effect attack; you can 'stack advantages' w/ invis. effect, 0 END on that slot and use it continuously and make the other one full END, Damage and visibility, rarely used, but then all her END will be there to use multiple one-shots.

Then give Fastball Mental Defense to protect him from her psionic area effect attack- standard effect, so it never effects Fastball, simplifies record-keeping and one less die roll for invisibly deducting stun; now she doesn't have time to 'detect weakness', unless you want to make this another slot, Transform, Suppress or whatever.

Flaw's mental shields might give her away, and her code-name!, but prevent most mental attacks and easy discovery mentally.

How about a regular name for Flaw?

[mattingly]

Re: Fastball and Flaw

 

Yay! This character(s) will be used in my new campaign by my new player. Tuscarora.

[Tuscarora]

Re: Fastball and Flaw

 

I neverwanted Flaw to be unnoticable or untouchable. Just overlooked (perception roll). Could be part of her mental powers really. It's supposed to be invisibility to sight group based on a perception roll.

[torchwolf]

Re: Fastball and Flaw

 

I neverwanted Flaw to be unnoticable or untouchable. Just overlooked (perception roll). Could be part of her mental powers really. It's supposed to be invisibility to sight group based on a perception roll.

You could also do the a bit cheaper with Images [- x PER], Only To Be Unnoticed (-1) or Only To Simulate Empty Space (-1), and/or Psionic (-1/2). The last would get her caught on camera etc.

The Images Power stops affecting a person making the PER Roll once the Roll is made.