First time making a character would like some advice

[star]

Ok so my gaming group is going to be playing a super hero game. We will be using the Hero system and I am trying to help my girlfriend make her character. We are converting her old GURPS super character.

 

Now this is our FIRST time using the Hero system. I was hoping we could get some advice on the character build to make sure we are not leaving out any major area of the character. I know that the character doesnt have many skills, but then again the character is a cat.

 

Basic character concept she came up with was she is a cat who was a test animal for a bio tech company doing research into new super serums. The super serum worked on her and gave her character awareness and telekinetic powers. The cat broke out and has been trying to avoid them ever since.

 

Mainly worried about leaving out anything major that would totaly make the character hard to play. I attached a pdf of the character sheet (I hope lol) let me know if it doesnt show up.

[star]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Also when she uses her TK attack powers what does she use to make the attack? I am pretty sure that is one area we are going to have to adjust so she can use them lol.

 

Also i uploaded the wrong pdf, the final multi power the binding one has been replaced with TK str 40.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

A lot of my comments are going to be subject to what the standards of your campaign are, but using the standard published Champions character as a guideline:

-With only 3 OCV you won't be able to anyone but normal humans unless you get very lucky.

-You have to lower your Telekinetic Forcefield to use most of your attacks and without the Forcefield up an 12d6 attack will knock you out in one hit.

-Even with your TK Forcefield up a slightly above average 12d6 roll will Stun you with CON that low and with STUN that low taking 2 or 3 average attacks will knock you out unless you get a Recovery.

-If the 90AP attacks the character is sporting is closer to the average of the campaign a single hit is likely to knock them out and, if the Forcefield isn't at full power, possibly put them into negative Body.

 

 

Perhaps you could give us an idea of the average CV, DC, DEF of the campaign...

[star]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Heh well the characters are to be 400 points with at least 50 points of complications. Not sure what the average CV, DC and DEF will be. Got the main book and the HD program. The GM gave us the points and told us it would be a super hero game. We are just trying to get a head start on her character now and figure out the system. Guess the way things are looking, we will probably have to majorly drop the TK abilities some to get the other stats up.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Also when she uses her TK attack powers what does she use to make the attack? I am pretty sure that is one area we are going to have to adjust so she can use them lol.

 

Also i uploaded the wrong pdf, the final multi power the binding one has been replaced with TK str 40.

Perhaps you can explain this question. Not sure what you mean.

[star]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Perhaps you can explain this question. Not sure what you mean.

 

Well after I made the character I was wondering what ability Telekinesis used to attack. Is it OCV ot MOCV? I asume that it doesnt just auto hit.

 

LoL I have 2 weeks to try and figure out these rules before the game and learn a new system.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

TK uses OCV.

[Tradewind]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

The first thing I see is that you should probably buy persistent shrinking, I'm assuming that's what the hard to perceive power was supposed to indicate. 3 levels of Shrinking will only give you -6 on your opponent PER rolls, but will also give you +6 DCV which this character could use.

[Tradewind]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Actually I just looked and saw you bought DCV, so yeah definitely buy 3 levels of 0 END, Always On, Persistent shrinking. Much more efficient and represents the character better.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Actually I just looked and saw you bought DCV' date=' so yeah definitely buy 3 levels of 0 END, Always On, Persistent shrinking. Much more efficient and represents the character better.[/quote']

Did Persistent become legal on Shrinking and Growth in 6E? I didn't think it had. If not, you should probably at least warn a new player that's still trying to learn the game that what you are suggesting is a House Rule. If that has changed since 5E, than sorry, my bad.

[concord]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Shrinking and Growth are for characters that can change size in 6E - if the character is always small or always large then you just buy the benefits and take the complications of that size - no need for Persistent on Growth or Shrinking any longer

[Checkmate]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

The first thing you want to do is make sure your GM is okay with a PC who's a cat. Personally as a GM I'd veto it. It just causes way too many complications. I mean why would a cat stay with a group of people? How does a cat talk to the group without the proper lips, tongue or vocal cords. You have to think like a cat with a cat's motivations making it very difficult to run a group centered game.

 

That said, I'll get to some of your questions:

 

OCV is used to hit with everything except mental powers.

 

You have a 16 DCV most of the time*, making the cat extremely difficult to hit, which can certainly make up for the lack of defenses.

 

Assuming your GM says 90 Active Point powers are okay (which is A LOT) assuming, your powers cost 9 END. Assuming you use your TK every phase, you'll be out of END in 2 Turns, I don't think that's going to be enough.

 

You have your Claws defined as Hand-to-Hand Attack, now besides defining a sharp object as a HA (it would typically be a Killing Attack) you've made it Persistent, which really makes no sense at all. Add to that, that you've just spent 8 points to give yourself a 1.5d6 attack. That equates to about the damage you'd do if a regular person picked up a cat and threw it at you. To put it into game mechanics terms: If you tied up Aunt May (from Spiderman) and kept hitting her with this attack, it would take you over 2 Turns to knock her out (assuming she has a 2 PD and 20 Stun) Uncle Ben would take you over 11 Turns (assuming 3 PD and 20 Stun). Guess that's a long way to say "That's a completely useless power"

 

Nightvision: Why go through all that trouble with Skill Levels, when you can just buy the enhanced sense "Nightvision"?

 

What makes the Force Screen inherent when none of the other TK powers are?

 

90 Active Points are HUGE attacks, talk to your GM early to avoid a lot of wasted work.

 

*You don't have Defense Maneuver which means at the start of combat (or before combat starts) you're Skill Levels with DCV aren't assigned yet. You can't assign them (meaning get the benefit of them) until it is your turn on Phase 12. If anyone goes before you on Phase 12 you only have a 10 DCV, which is still pretty impressive.

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

The first thing I see is that you should probably buy persistent shrinking' date=' I'm assuming that's what the hard to perceive power was supposed to indicate. 3 levels of Shrinking will only give you -6 on your opponent PER rolls, but will also give you +6 DCV which this character could use.[/quote']

 

Actually I just looked and saw you bought DCV' date=' so yeah definitely buy 3 levels of 0 END, Always On, Persistent shrinking. Much more efficient and represents the character better.[/quote']

 

Did Persistent become legal on Shrinking and Growth in 6E? I didn't think it had. If not' date=' you should probably at least warn a new player that's still trying to learn the game that what you are suggesting is a House Rule. If that has changed since 5E, than sorry, my bad.[/quote']

 

No it didn't. Don't do that. What you've got is just fine.

 

Some other things to think about:

 

• Telekinesis is indeed targeted with OCV.
  
• You'll want to bring up your Stun and Constitution scores at the minimum.
  
• If it were my character I'd drop DCV by about 2-3 (since you've bought the +6 for small size anyway) and put those points into OCV
  
• Since you have no offensive Mental Powers, if it were me I'd probably drop OMCV to 0 and split those points up among Stun, Constitution, and OCV.
  
• For the Entangle, you probably want Costs END To Maintain (-1/2) instead of Constant.
  
• You probably want to make the Claws a HKA (in the software as Killing Attack - Hand-to-hand) instead of a Hand-to-hand Attack.
  
• I'd probably put the Telekinetic Flight into the Multipower, either reducing the points in the Flight to fit or increasing the pool to take it. That will save you some points, which you'll probably want to put back into Characteristics.
  
• I might reduce all of the attacks some to save points and END usage; you're running about 18DC on all of them, when you could probably do with 15.
  

[SteveZilla]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Ok so my gaming group is going to be playing a super hero game. We will be using the Hero system and I am trying to help my girlfriend make her character. We are converting her old GURPS super character.

 

Now this is our FIRST time using the Hero system. I was hoping we could get some advice on the character build to make sure we are not leaving out any major area of the character. I know that the character doesnt have many skills, but then again the character is a cat.

 

Basic character concept she came up with was she is a cat who was a test animal for a bio tech company doing research into new super serums. The super serum worked on her and gave her character awareness and telekinetic powers. The cat broke out and has been trying to avoid them ever since.

 

Krosp, from Girl Genius!

 

Mainly worried about leaving out anything major that would totaly make the character hard to play. I attached a pdf of the character sheet (I hope lol) let me know if it doesnt show up.

 

I haven't read much of my 6E books yet, but I don't think that will affect my questions/points below.

 

Why does the 90 Active Point Multipower Pool cost 105?

 

In what culture(s) would "No arms has 4 legs" not be distinctive?

 

With only a 3 OCV, and no CSLs, she's either going to be using her AoE attacks a lot, spreading her non-AoE's a lot, or missing frequently IMO. But that mainly depends upon the average DCV in the game.

 

I could see the character reasonably possessing Tracking Scent.

 

Out of 400 total points, you only need 60 in Complications? o.0

[SteveZilla]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

No it didn't. Don't do that. What you've got is just fine.

 

Some other things to think about:

 

• Telekinesis is indeed targeted with OCV.
  
• You'll want to bring up your Stun and Constitution scores at the minimum.
  
• If it were my character I'd drop DCV by about 2-3 (since you've bought the +6 for small size anyway) and put those points into OCV
  
• Since you have no offensive Mental Powers, if it were me I'd probably drop OMCV to 0 and split those points up among Stun, Constitution, and OCV.
  
• For the Entangle, you probably want Costs END To Maintain (-1/2) instead of Constant.
  
• You probably want to make the Claws a HKA (in the software as Killing Attack - Hand-to-hand) instead of a Hand-to-hand Attack.
  
• I'd probably put the Telekinetic Flight into the Multipower, either reducing the points in the Flight to fit or increasing the pool to take it. That will save you some points, which you'll probably want to put back into Characteristics.
  
• I might reduce all of the attacks some to save points and END usage; you're running about 18DC on all of them, when you could probably do with 15.
  

 

The +6 DCV isn't on top of the 10 DCV shown in the Characteristics section -- it's the reason for it with only a single 5 pt purchase in that location. Still... A 10 is pretty darned high.

[Checkmate]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

The +6 DCV isn't on top of the 10 DCV shown in the Characteristics section -- it's the reason for it with only a single 5 pt purchase in that location. Still... A 10 is pretty darned high.

Ah I missed that... Although when you consider that any time the cat uses its MP to attack, it only has 2/2 Defs, a 10 doesn't seem that high.

[SteveZilla]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Ah I missed that... Although when you consider that any time the cat uses its MP to attack' date=' it only has 2/2 Defs, a 10 doesn't seem that high.[/quote']

 

True. That is the eternal quandry faced when putting defenses and attacks in the same Multipower.

[star]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Ok I looked over a lot of the suggestions and comments. (Thank you everyone for the comments and suggestions) We have redone some of the powers and moved some points around.

 

The GM is fine with her playing a cat, and I did adjust the claws power, made it so she just does +1 point of damage....not much but as a cat she does have claws lol. Not really worth the points we know but we figured it was something she should have.

 

Anyways any final thoughts??

[Checkmate]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Here's the problem you're running into with the conception, you're a cat, but in order to survive you need superhuman stats. I think you need to decide which way you're going to go. Is it going to be a normal cat, or a superhuman critter. Here's what I'm talking about, you have a 2 STR which I suppose could be considered Cat-like but you have a 10 PD. Mike Tyson (in his prime), could hit this "Cat" as hard as he could, and on an average roll, the cat would barely feel it.

 

You're claws are still wrong, you've bought Hand-to-Hand Attack again (which typically simulates a blunt instrument). What you want is Killing Attack- Hand-to-hand. You also don't need Constant or Persistent on it.

 

You're 6 DCV Always On isn't a limitation (and not entirely sure even legal). You could probably add Constant and Persistent to that to make it more legal.

 

You've spent a ridiculous amount of points on Flight. While there are no "Levels" like in other games, these are still starting characters, I would seriously consider cutting this back (I would cut it in half to 20m). The other thing you could do, is since it's all based on TK, you could add the Unified Power limitation to pretty much all your TK powers.

 

Why does your 80 Point Multipower cost 90 points?

 

You have a TON of Body. Champions games, heroes rarely take body. You could drop this considerably and still be fine.

 

If you take any of my point saving suggestions, I would increase the SPD to 5 if not 6 and probably up the DEX, PRE (pretty hard to impress a cat), and EGO ('cause their strong willed).

[star]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Why does your 80 Point Multipower cost 90 points?

 

Ok that was a mistake when using the HD program. Thought I had to put in how many powers total where in the multi-power, was adding a quantity to it.

 

And yes the idea is the cat was a experiment with super serums. Thus her character IS tough and has powers and thus the higher PD and ED.

 

Your probably right about the DCV so will change the points around and not try to twink the HD program lol.

[Checkmate]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

Something I forgot to mention was END. Assuming your GM won't let you walk around with the Damage Negation on all the time, you're going to run out of END QUICKLY.

 

In Phase 12 (all combats start at Phase 12) assuming you turn on your Negation, and attack, you'll be down 17-18 END. You get 10 of that back at the end of Phase 12 so you'll be down say 7. If you attack your remain 3 phases (assuming you don't use an 8 END attack at all) you'll be down 28 END for a total of 12 at the end of Phase 9. Phase 12 Attack you're down to 5 END, end of Phase 12 you're up to 15, which means by Phase 6 you're completely out of END. That's less than 2 turns. If the GM does let you run around with Damage Negation on, that only gives you 1 extra Phase so you'll be out by Phase 9.

 

Again this is a starting character, you don't need to throw around 75-80 Active Point powers. You could lower that to 60-70 active points, and still be very competitive.

 

A 4d6 Armor Piercing Killing Attack is BRUTAL. 1 in 6 times you're going to roll a 6 in the Stun Multiple. If you roll an average Body roll (14 Body) that's 70 Stun, now add Armor Piercing on top of that... Ouch.

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

The way Multipower works is that it is a reserve of points that you can use on the powers in it. The Active Points in the reserve are allocated to whichever powers you want to use during your Phase. The base cost of the reserve (before Limitations) has to be at least as many Active Points as the highest Active Point power in it. So, if the biggest power in it was 90 Active Points, you'd need at least a 90 point Multipower.

 

A good way to save points would be to consider if there are any Limitations common to all of the powers in it; those Limitations can be applied to the reserve as well as each of the slots. There might not be any in this case, though

 

There are two kinds of slots: fixed and variable. A fixed slot is all or nothing; for any slot in it, you have to have either the full number of Active Points or none (which means the power is not active and doesn't work). A variable slot means you can choose how many Active Points to allocate to the slot, up to its maximum.

 

As written, your Multipower Reserve should cost you 80 points for an 80 Active Point Multipower; spending 90 points on it would make it a 90 point pool. Some recommendations I would make would be to get them all down to, say, 60 Active Points, and make at least one or two of them (maybe more) variable slots. Also: a 60 Active Point Variable Slot would cost 12 points, keep that in mind. I might also switch some of the powers around; maybe drop one of the attacks. I'd strongly consider putting the Flight into the Multipower as well, as a variable slot; the slot would cost 17 points, saving you 70 points to put elsewhere (maybe to make one or more of the other slots variable). Making it an even 90 would make it big enough to hold the Flight as well as the other stuff.

 

I notice you took the Telekinetic Forcefield out; I'd recommend keeping it. A good rule of thumb for a spread of powers, and especially for a Multipower, would be a defense power, a movement power, and one or more attack powers. I might drop the Damage Negation in exchange; if you put the Flight in the Multipower and dropped the Damage Negation, that would free up 127 points, which would easily pay for increasing the Multipower, making some of the other slots Variable, and giving you more left over to put into other things (Characteristics).

[star]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

This is a LOT to think about lol. I admit I have been playing RPG's for 25 years now. Hell 10 years ago I was working for White Wolf Publishing out in Atlanta. But I must say this system is the hardest to make a character in for a new player I have encountered lol.

 

I REALLY do appreciate you taking the time to help explain this to me.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

If you have the Hero System Bestiary I would probably try to combine the basic template of a house cat with this character: I-Mind (built for 5th ed.). Without knowing what the level of seriousness/detail of the campaign this is for I would be prepared with a backup plan to the idea of a 'talking cat'. 'Telepathic' communication via Mind Link is one alternative. Another thing to remember, the HERO Power Telekinesis is not Invisible by default, so if your vision of the ability for this character is something like that of 'Jedi Force TK' then you need to purchase the powers with that Advantage (Invisible Power Effects/IPE).

[star]

Re: First time making a character would like some advice

 

If you have the Hero System Bestiary I would probably try to combine the basic template of a house cat with this character:

 

No I do not have that book been trying to do what I could though lol. On the up side with everyones advice I do belive we have a FINAL character for her.

 

Trying to keep it simple for her also, while she loves to play when it comes to doing the math for a variable multi power I cringe to thing of the bog down we would have lol. Thats why I kept the flight out of the multi power. The way it is set up she is able to do the stuff she wants but does not have to try and min max it each round.

 

Next project is my character lol. Been reading some of the advanced power stuff and I love what they have for teleportation.