Master Villains in Champions that can survive a point blank Nuke

Arc Esu · January 5, 2011

While waiting for the Golden Age Champions playtest to begin last night, I decided to try to calculate which Master Villains would survive a point blank 1 Megaton nuclear blast (as built in the Hero System Equipment Guide) assuming they were not specifically prepared for it and assuming the nuke rolls average damage. I certainly didn't get through all of them, and I'm at work so I can't post my exact math, but here's what I figured:

Anyone without Life Support: Immune to radiation is almost certainly dead. The initial radiation damage of Drain 20d6 Body and Drain 10d6 Con is just brutal. This means the first guy I tried to calculate, Holocaust, is dead. It's a shame given his name, but he isn't actually immune to radiation.

So next I only looked for the super tough guys that were immune to radiation. I was able to get through Doctor Destroyer, Mechanon, and Takofanes before the game started.

Destroyer: I assumed he would have his Barrier power active (either by aborting or just having it up as a default), but had no VPP points in any defensive gadgets. The brilliant flash of light half-blinds him. The initial wave of heat does no Body to him, but destroys his Barrier. The pressure wave, which lasts for 6 segments, does an average of 11 Body a Segment to him. This would kill him since he has 30 Body, but if the Stun doesn't Stun him or KO him, he could activate his Tactical Adaptation during this time, increasing his damage reduction from 50% to 75%, which would be enough to save him.

Result: A high damage roll for the nuke on an unprepared Destroyer MIGHT kill him; in any case, it will almost certainly at least significantly injure him.

Takofanes: I assumed his VPP was allocated to non-defense powers when the nuke first goes off. He has lower Resistant defenses than Destroyer, but he always has 75% Damage Reduction. He is also about half-blinded by the flash, but unlike Destroyer does take some Body from the initial heat (about 5 or 6 as I recall). Each Segment of the Pressure wave he would take more Body, which after the 6 Segments would kill him if I remember correctly. However, if the initial blast doesn't Stun or KO him, he'll just change his Cosmic Power pool to something appropriate (Megascale Teleport, Healing, massive Barrier, etc) and escape or survive the rest without further harm.

Result: Unlike Destroyer, Takofanes is hit or miss with a nuke. If the initial damage rolls are high enough to Stun or KO him, he will likely be destroyed. If not, he'll take a small amount of damage and just negate the rest with magic.

Mechanon: Mechanon has higher resistant defenses than Takofanes and has 75% Damage reduction. He was the last calculation I did, and thus was a bit rushed, but as I recall he was pretty much ok. He would take some Body, but not enough to destroy him. And in any case, even if one robot body was destroyed, he has plenty of others.

So if anyone else who owns both Hero System Equipment Guide and the Master Villains book and wants to take a crack at calculating the survival rate for a nuke, go nuts! And once I get home tonight I'll try to post my actual math.

randian · January 6, 2011