KX's Character Thread

[KX_Mushashi]

Since the character I am currently playing in a game is less then effective in every combat he has been in it was suggested that I post my builds here to get feed back. I am working with the standard 400 with 75 matching and am building these characters to fit into a Champions game, though no game in particular so anything that would be GM approval I am ignoring for the most part of the time being. The fist character I am posting is the rebuild of the trouble character; things that I have changed is taking him from a more rounded stat base to a speedster stat base along with other things. The character doesn't have much of a background yet other then his powers are more magical in nature, born of magic, and possibly a member of a secret group. Given that I don't have any complications for him picked out and plan on taking a full 75 worth.

 

Thanks for any help in advance, and if this goes well I will probably post the other two characters I am wanting to build after I start on them.

[Christopher]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

As general idea, using text format in addition to .PDF and .hdc files is a good idea when discussing builds. That way everyone can pick his "format of choice" for viewing.

 

He seems like a speedster/martial artist.

I would personally think his CV's are a bit high. His SPD is definetly too high for me (Speedsters cap out at 7 for me and not at these CS's).

It is especially critical that he can become a 60 STR, 20 Defense combatant with his 10 Levels of Density Increase. Don't forget that a GM can and will enforace the limitation on that (100 tons is a lot for any surface).

But that depends heavily on the campaign and environment.

 

His endurance seems excessive as well. I would drop it a little and give him more Recovery (or use the points elswhere). A good measure is the "two turn test" (I think it comes from forum member Tasha):

Can he make two full turns, making half moves and an attack every phase (including post segment 12 recovery Recovery), without running out of juice in between?

 

The 6d6 NND:

Aside from the GM not liking it (it might be too good at stunning targets, especially master villains and bricks), it has other problems.

It works bad against low defense targets. It can be completely negated by having a movement power.

Barrier is not a viable NDD defense, as Barriers in 6E tend stop NND's anyway.

 

He could need an alternative Damaging attack. Something like a normal blast/hth-attack. Maybe something like a 1/2 END attack? Something that works well against mooks and agents, without draing much Endurance. It would also double as backup the second he faces a teleporter.

 

I am personally not a fan of teleport UAA. I would propably require you to built it as Telekinesis with Limitations instead. But a lot of others here like it.

 

I would built his Great Leap as 1m T-port with second level megascale (1m = 10 km). Megascale T-port is a tricky power for some stories, and taking only 1m means it is less acurate on a miss-port.

On that thema, I see no way to avoid a miss-port on this power. He has no fixed locations and no megascale targetting sense.

 

The Life-Supports sound odd on a Teleport Speedster (rather the Brick stuff), but I can see how they make sense with his miss-teleport chance and that you seem to build him with "dimension walker" as background activity.

[KX_Mushashi]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

The stats are the agile Speedster from the Champions book. Is that generally not a good place to base stats from or more a personal taste. He is meant to be more a speedster/battle field control using his teleport UAA to move focus away when he can or put the opponents face first into the ground.

 

The blast was from the Champion's Powers book, actually I think I just loaded up the teleport HDP files and selected it from there.

[Christopher]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

The stats are the agile Speedster from the Champions book. Is that generally not a good place to base stats from or more a personal taste.

Used them on my first tries as well, but noticed a problem:

Thoses stats are for character that are combat oriented only. There is literally not a single point left for any non.combat skills.

 

He is meant to be more a speedster/battle field control using his teleport UAA to move focus away when he can or put the opponents face first into the ground.

Such a thing as a side role is certainly nice. But every character can do those things to some degree, simply by using the combat maneuvers.

Basing them exclusively on that could mean he can't do anything on his own.

 

The blast was from the Champion's Powers book' date=' actually I think I just loaded up the teleport HDP files and selected it from there.[/quote']

Okay, wierd. Don't have the book so I have no idea what they meant. Propably not updated by the switch from 5E too 6E.

[KX_Mushashi]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

I spent some time going over the Villains books 2 ad 3 and I have to say I probably agree with you on the speed. There are a few that break the rule but most that have speed of 7+ are normally 600+ point characters. Probably will also drop the Megascale movement mode for a 1/2 endurance blast in his teleport pool as well.

[KX_Mushashi]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

Was there anyone else whiling to give input so I have a more options to go off of?

[esampson]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

Biggest problem I see is that if you catch him off guard he can be in really big trouble. His Density Increase is so high I'm assuming he doesn't just have it on when he's not Desolid. Like Christopher said, 100 tons on a surface area of the size of two human feet is about 1 tons per square inch. Back of the envelope calculations tell me that's roughly the same amount of pressure as being 1 mile underwater so he's going to cause a lot of damage using it. 26 points of normal attack would stun him with it off, which is an average roll on only 8 dice.

 

With his DI tuned down he's got pretty much two attacks; the NND and the teleport. Your NND is an all or nothing so you'll either be in good shape against someone or horrible shape with it. Because the UAA teleport shares the same defense if the NND is blocked so is the teleport.

 

That high NND is going to force your GM to do one of a couple of things but the two simplest responses are A) letting his villains get beat up or neutralizing the NND (and in the process your UAA teleport). Guess which one is likely to happen? True, there are some other possible solutions such as Damage Reduction and Damage Negation but if your GM is less experienced or even simply annoyed the odds are good that you're going to find yourself limited to punching people and not being able to utilize your full Density Increase most of the time.

[esampson]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

This morning I started thinking about how much damage Shade would do on an 'average turn'. I've been fiddling with formulas a bit to try and work out a better system for evaluating how strong a character is and part of that is the damage in an 'average turn'.

 

The way I do that is by figuring the chance to hit (based on average DCV for the campaign and assuming all levels are set offensively) * the character's speed * average damage per hit. Average damage per hit for a normal attack is dice * 4 minus average defenses. Why times 4? Because if you have 10 dice and you hit a person with 40 defense your average damage is still positive. It's not 0 and it is certainly not negative. It stems from the fact that high rolls do some damage and low rolls do none (but they don't add back health). It is possible to model average damage more accurately but it is a real pain.

 

So doing that with the three characters given in the 6e2 I get a range from about 60 for Taurus to 95 for Eagle Eye. Taurus' is probably low because I don't have a good way to take into account the area of effect on his strength which means he can hit multiple people at the same time.

 

Adjusting the formula to deal with NND (making the average roll 3.5 instead of 4 and removing any defense) and his average is about 105, which truthfully isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but which is still about an extra 10% over the top example starting character.

[KX_Mushashi]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

You are correct on the DI end, it was never my intent to use it all the time though I have read (Unless I misread) that you don't have to use a character's full DI and can use any levels in between, Now I would still have to allocate the full MP points to the one power but the ones I don't use for the DI I believe would just sit there allocated but not used. If that is incorrect then I do defiantly need to lower it, since I did intend on it being more of a trick in his hat of things to do and it does give him a bit more defense and hitting power should he encounter someone that is immune to his attacks or able to hit him when using his DCV boost. I did drop the MegaScale movement for a more basic 9.5d 1/2 Endurance cost blast, I just haven't gotten to update the files on the thread yet since. I will make sure to get them updated since I am getting more then one reviewer now.

[esampson]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

No, you don't need to use DI at full force (unless you've got some kind of limitation that says you do). It's just that as you cut it back to levels less likely to make you sink into the center of the earth you're going to lose a lot of strength. That would have left you with your 6d6 NND and your teleport.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

What's the special effect of his Teleportation abilities? Just Magic or is there more to the description?

[KX_Mushashi]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

Right now it is just magic to enter different Dimensions that are different distances from the main one and can affect him or the main dimension in various ways. I might change it if I find something better, the original version of the character was more shadow based and only really hopped though the shadow realm, so I might go back to that and alter things up like having him use solid or semi solid shadows to attack.

[BNakagawa]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

The Interdimensional Movement with extra mass is a non-starter for me. Waaaaay too many ways to abuse this power.

[Blau Stern]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

I think he's a incredibly frail. His DCV isn't amazing, his defenses aren't very high, and he's only got 30 stun. You have more points, spend them on those, because at this level, you are going to be taking lots of body, even against people in your "weight bracket". I also think his damage might be a little low. I'm almost not sure I see the purpose of your Teleportation ability, it's only slightly faster than your Basic Teleportation, and I think someone with the ability to teleport to other dimensions should be able to go significantly faster than that. I also think your "between the planes" powers could simply be swept into you teleportation multipower.

[KX_Mushashi]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

His base DCV isn't amazing, he has a 2 endurance +8 DCV in his between the plains power pool, if your saying a 16 DCV isn't amazing I haven't seen in my current game many people if anyone be able to hit that with any reliability. Since that is the case I couldn't see him having a high defense when that is active and it will be most of the time. I have been playing with the idea of changing his DI to a compound power that ups his HTH and Defense as apposed to using DI since he will be easier to hit. I will have to reread the endurance rules on Non-combat movement but I think he can move at the full rate for no increase in endurance, though it isn't like I don't have room to up the multiplier.

 

The Between the Planes powers where originally rolled in with the character's teleportation powers, but then I got to thinking if Cost Endurance to Activate and Cost Endurance to Deactivate really warranted the ability to move points out of the slot into something else and keep that slot active. I decided that a net -/+0 wasn't so since I still wanted use of my Teleportation pool with those active I moved them to thier own pool. I could be wrong on that call and if I am I do think they fit better in the Teleprot pool.

 

BNakagawa, what things do you see in the Dimensional Movement that I missed? I looked at it as a way to get the party of Heroes to another plane to help fight there if needed.

[Blau Stern]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

I did miss the 8 DCV, but that's not going to help you against area affect attacks, the moment someone spreads to a hex the character is dead.

[Greywind]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

Dive for cover.

[Christopher]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

Dive for cover.

Even with the extra DEX it will only get you so far.

And even with the reduced damage (AoE = less dice for same DC) it will hurt. If we talk about 6E 400 point (kinda loosing track), anything less than 8-10 PD means he looses Body if he does not dodges a 8D6, AoE (+1/2) attack.

[Blau Stern]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

Heaven forbid it's something like a frag grenade, an area effect KA.

[KX_Mushashi]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

Well as far as I know he still has abort to intangible for area attacks, again in the game I am in currently other then the other player characters I don't think I have seen an AoE attack so I am really not sure how common they are and how many turns I will end up losing since every time I abort I actually could lose two turns since he has to pay endurance to turn the power off so it might be better to buff up his armor some. If I am remembering right you are allowed to shift points around on an abort action.

[KX_Mushashi]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

Ok I have done a major overhaul on the character. By my calculations he can last into a third round using one of his 0 endurance attacks, his blink teleportation, and his combat teleportation or his flight every phase. I removed his Dimensional movement figuring since he is now a more shadow based character I could just pick it up later. I haven't added to his Defenses since I still think that his speed and being able to Desolidify probably make up for it, more so since it doesn't lock him out of his movement so he can get away easy enough.

[quozaxx]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

Your Kindly GM here, FINALLY getting a chance to look over your character...

Personally, if you are trying to go for the Speedster look; I'd raise the DEX and lower something else. Well, at least past a 23 DEX. A lot of basic characters have DEX of 23.

 

A SPD of 7 is not over the top for the game. 8 would be. So, I'll allow that.

You mentioned in the text above in raising your DCV, but your sheet shows you raising your DMCV. Which did you want to raise with your Blink Teleport?

 

A quick thank you for actually giving me more than 3 martial arts maneuvers. I hope you don't step on Cougar's schtick.

 

On your Shadow Bo (I'm assuming that supposed to be Shadow Box) and Shadow Naginata, shows your Stretching as always on. but it's in a MP. So I'm not convinced it's worth the full - 1/2; because you CAN turn it off by switching slots.

 

I think your Apotation (Teleport UAA) needs to have something more common to bypass the attack. I've always thought that some UAA's were too powerful. This is one of them. Maybe magic since it's magic based?

 

And on your Form Alteration. You don't have Imitation, so you can't look like someone specific. Did you intend for this?

 

Both your Desolidfication and your Life support (Shadow form) are both in the MP. The MP max is 50 points. Your Desolid is 50 points. You can't have both on at the same time. Thus you can't link one to the other. Personally, I'd move the Life support out of the MP.

 

10 more points in Complications!

Another Psychological one? 2 Hunteds are good. So... Secret ID? Public ID?

[KX_Mushashi]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

In his starting 400 point build he might not be able to hit 23+ dex, I have added an element to him called Prana and it would be good to drop it in there so I will play around with it. The DCV being bought as DMCV actually did change the cost a bit so I have to make a few changes to correct for that.

 

Shadow Bo(Japanese for Staff) and Shadow Naginata are Pole Arm weapons just made out of Shadows, if trained to use them you can actually get them to effectively attack out the the just short of the full 6'ish plus your arm. If I need to change them I can, if the point total goes over I can probably shuffle a few more things around to see if I can make room for them.

 

I can add that though how should it be defied, Just having magical powers, having any magical movement, or Magical PD and or ED?

 

Form Alteration was written mostly for altering his clothes but it looked easier to do just a standard shape shift so I did that, so it isn't intended to be a inmitation power. I do have an updated build I will post after checking it over again, it wraps alterform, 2 points of speed, and his always on life support into a linked the Prana abilities, since they are all magical but different then his Shadow Magic that he mostly uses. I did have a question on one thing I did, I bought the Extra Time with the "Only to Activate" mod in it, not sure if that is valid or not if it isn't then I can lower the time it takes.

 

It is a little confusing on the PDF but his Shadeform Life support is outside of his 50 point MP already, otherwise it would be 7)Shade Form...

 

Swapped some of his Complications around too in the new build, Psychological fascinated by tech, matched hunted by Viper to Shaphire's Hunted from Champions Handbook and his hunted Demon is matched to Talisman's Hunted. Swapped Honorable for Code vs Killing as well since he can actually fight without killing and I found a great way to work it in.

 

Build will be up a bit later since I have a bit of point shuffling to do and I need to add in what he did to become hunted; forgot to do that when I was reworking his story to fit the new build.

[KX_Mushashi]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

Character files updated, doesn't look like changing or even getting rid of the Always on for stretching will alter the powers point cost, if I remember right reach for weapons should be 1 Character point/1 m. I will hunt that down and make sure I am right on that.

 

I didn't add magic to the UAA teleport yet since we need to decided what is a good definition for that, and I have been able to get him to a 22 Dex I will keep playing with it and see what I can do. I don't want him too handicapped if his Prana abilities get drained, let alone if both his shadow and Prana abilities get drained then he is probably a deadman.

[quozaxx]

Re: KX's Character Thread

 

Better. much better. I think the DCV (with the extra) reaching 16 is very, very high. I am a little worried about abuse on that one. Let's face it, you'd hardly every get hit with anything but a mental, or area attack. Or a surprise attack. You don't have it on all the time.

 

Other than that, you need to change your history to include Demon and VIPER. They are chasing you for a reason.

 

Mental note: Have either Demon or VIPER have a villain specifically designed to drain Shroud.

 

Now, can you start posting again?