Help a n00b with 6e super build?

[dialNforNinja]

The concept has been approved with the caveat that some of it may have to be developed as the game progresses with XP. The campaign is set to Standard Superheroic with a soft total point limit ("About 400 plus Complications") and a strict power limit of 60 Active Points, but I barely undrstand what those mean let alone all the options and modifiers in the system, and I'd rather not be the guy who shows up and eats half the game session getting the other players to help build a character. I'm not looking for someone to do all the work for me - I can handle four-function arithmetic just fine - rather for how to get the most effect for the points spent, and the best way to do things that may be less obvious, or tips on things that look simple until you try to use it.

I'm working from Champions Complete only, because I don't have the RES to buy half a dozen $40 to $50 books. Here's the concept as it currently stands, with a few notes about mechanics from discussion:



Digital Zoom

An advanced quantum computer's anti-malware routine with a feminine interface avatar diverted to a gadgeteer's digitizer device guring a cyber-attack, Digital Zoom has taken to defending the real world against misappropriation of resources and harmful intrusion much as she did in cyberspace. She has discovered that she enjoys using custom avatars that resemble various fictional characters, and seems to get a positive response from others to most of them as well.



Appearance: Hollywood-average female (aka somewhere between model and supermodel) build, black bodysuit with softly glowing orange circuit traces and a few lime or pink details, shiny, solid white chest, waist, and shoulder armor with lime and pink details, disc-shaped side elbow and knee pads that match the bodysuit. Her head sweeps back to a short teardrop shape and looks like the rest of the bodysuit, featurless except for an orange visor with a black frame across the top which extends to a pair of "ear fins" that conform to the surface of the overall teardrop rather than sticking out. The lower legs sweep out like bellbottom trousers to the soles of her feet, with have glowing lime "tread" patterns.

This is her default/heroic ID, but she can adopt a "normal human" appearance if desired, or any other with time to design the avatar (at least an hour for anything that can't be done as a skin/hair/face change to a default human male or female model, more like four to six for a specific person or nonhumanoid.) She has a limited library of alternates that can be changed between immediately, including her default heroic and civilian IDs plus a few cosplay characters. (maybe five total? One of them should be a pair, a robot such as TFG1 Arcee and the matching vehicle form, at human size and with no actual change in capabilities except the lack of arms and hands as a vehicle. Growth/shrinking for different-sized avatars will come later if at all.) Common cosplay targets are anime girls and fantasy or space opera characters, or characters being played in the theatre club's production of the month, and can include clothing or be just a base body to wear real costumes over.



Powers:

Overclocked: Able to run at supersonic speeds. (May develop up to lightspeed or FTL in the future, depending on campaign direction.)

Gigahertz: Can perform hundreds or thousands of attacks/actions in the time a normal person could do one, super-dodge/bullet time. (?)Lightning Reflexes

Double Data Rate: Super-study, enhanced perceptions, Lighning Calculator and possibly general INT and Mental defense bonuses, (?)extra SPD with END cost. Telescopic vision would also fit with the codename if there's points for it.

Physics Engine: Can arbitrarily define any surface as "the floor" to run or stand on, though liquids or flying debris are more difficult. (Clinging for most purposes, Flight with Only In Contact With A Surface and a turning mode for liquids/rubble/missiles in flight/etc. (may have to be developed later with XP.))

(FTL running would require microscopic/telescopic perceptions to detect particles of interstellar dust or hydrogen to be the "suface" she "runs" on, or else be some kind of Speed Dimension hyperspace sort of thing. Maybe a combination, where going FTL requires partially phasing into a speed dimension to operate under its rules, also making the mass of single particles or atoms enough to run on. FTL is only in space either way, though, so she'd need either enough Superleap to get out of the atmosphere or a second gear of flight-as-running without the "only on a surface" modifier to represent running on the air itself. Maybe? This is stuff to be developed much later, but suggestions on how to handle it are also welcome.)

Rapid Refresh: Because Digital Zoom's apparent form is actually constantly being recreated it is difficult to damage (PD/ED) and recovers quickly (high REC and regen in the BOD/day rather than BOD/month range.) Doesn't require air/water.

Custom Avatar: shapechanging (as described under Appearance,) (?)no hit locations (maybe later, if so then hit locations represent code modules that have their data disrupted by damage,) (??) Does Not Bleed (probably later)



Gadgets:

Logic Probes - a pair of energy batons that do STUN only, for non-lethal takedowns. Putting them away to attack barehanded means the fight just got serious.

Super-cellphone/team communicator



Contacts: (gadgeteer), local cosplay/theater club



Skills: Disguise, Act, Study, Cyber-security, Knowledge: Porn and Cat Videos, JOAT, Linguist



Complications: (apparently, I shouldn't need more than about half of these)

(Maybe not a complication as such, but low Resources)

Requires electrical power as food

Not familiar with human culture (except for porn and cat videos)

No legal identity (possibly not even recognized as a person?)(Apparently, this can be a Perk, but I was thinking of not having so much as a library card as ID, let alone driver's license etc. DiZ is not the team mate to send out on a beer run, super-speed or no.)

Watched by (gadgeteer), who would feel (be legally?) responsible for questionable activities

Hunted by (someone who wants to study/reproduce the phenomenon to create disposable super-soldiers)

Job: Expected to perform in the club's productions one weekend a month plus a few rehersals, her share of the admissions take pays for the room and electric bill where she lives.

Sense of Duty to stop criminals (Having equated them to malware, Digital Zoom cannot fail to react to a crime in progress - it's her primary function. At the same time, she has no actual animosity for them, they're only fulfilling their own functions after all... though there may be (are w/Enrage below) exceptions)

(?) Enraged by murderers and rapists - they not only appropriate resources without the proper permissions but degrade or destroy normal functions. Their operations must be immediately stopped. and be erased or at least rendered nonfunctional to remove to quarantine. (If the other Complications aren't enough)

[Hyper-Man]

It looks like you've got a pretty cool special effect description worked out so it's just a matter getting the mechanics figured out within Total Points budget and Active Point limits.  If you really want to learn the system, the best way is to just do your best 'good enough' build for the first game and tweak the build as needed the first 3 or 4 game sessions (with GM approval of course).  I've found that a good speedster build is highly dependent on a GM enforcing 'Shtick Preservation' so other characters don't outshine the character in Speed, Dex or Movement.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Overclocked: Able to run at supersonic speeds. (May develop up to lightspeed or FTL in the future, depending on campaign direction.)

 

This can be done a lot of ways, in combat you won't need to go much faster than 30m, but you can use megascale to make you go really, really fast.  The best way I've found is a multipower with various run types (don't forget the "run on water and up walls" using flight, only on a surface).

 

Gigahertz: Can perform hundreds or thousands of attacks/actions in the time a normal person could do one, super-dodge/bullet time. (?)Lightning Reflexes

I've done this in the past with a transformation: task to completed task, usually cosmetic (for cleaning and rearranging) or minor (for fixing, changing, etc).

 

Double Data Rate: Super-study, enhanced perceptions, Lighning Calculator and possibly general INT and Mental defense bonuses, (?)extra SPD with END cost. Telescopic vision would also fit with the codename if there's points for it.

 

Sounds like cramming, rapid sense modifiers, and some mental defenses.

 

It looks like you have most of the build already figured out though

[dialNforNinja]

Hyper-Man:

 

Well, yes, but what I'm asking for is help figuring out what mechanics to use. Which things can/should be put in a multipower? How to handle the shapechanging so it's not a points hog for something that's meant to be a secondary power with mostly cosmetic effects? Do I need seperate attack powers for the Logic Probes and unarmed, or is there a modifier to use the same geneeral set of attacks with both?

 

Christopher Taylor:

 

I figure "throw hundreds of punches" will just be SFX for a high-damage physical attack, but the transformation mechanic sounds like something for a variable power pool, much like if she was using "household magic" rather than trying to define every task before hand. Modeling the ability to rapidly disassemble a weapon or gadget was suggested as a Dispel vs. Technology to go in something like that.

 

If anyone wants to contribute their own favorite speedster tricks or things that didn't work out, that would be helpful too.

 

Edit for typos.

Edited December 16, 2014 by dialNforNinja

[Hyper-Man]

First, get yourself a copy of the Hero Designer character creation software.  It makes creating characters like this so much easier.  Here is a link to a version of a famous speedster that you are welcome to mine for construction ideas.  However, note that it is a VERY complicated build since it is based on an iconic character.  I strongly recommend starting off with a Multipower instead of a Variable Power Pool to begin with.

[dialNforNinja]

(Boggle)

 

Yowza, when you say it's a complicated build, you're really not kidding! I follow... maybe 75% of that. Maybe. I do see some things to draw on for DiZ, though - and as a starting speedster rarther than one with decades of backstory, it's fitting if she's a little lighter on Stupid Speedster Tricks than a highly experienced hero like Barry.

 

As for Hero Maker... maybe in a month or two, $25 is not a trivial expense either, even if it's not as bad as more books. Is the format of the page as linked output from that, or just how you set it up for your web site?

[Hyper-Man]

That's a fan made export format (one of many different ones) available from this website here:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/files/category/2-export-formats/

 

The rest of my content can be found here:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=user_activity&sid=3b9a9830520108c3646065aeecab2572&mid=2288&userMode=all&search_app=downloads&search_app_filters[downloads][searchInKey]=files&search_app_filters[downloads][files][sortKey]=date&search_app_filters[downloads][files][sortDir]=1

[Christopher R Taylor]

Hero Designer is well worth the cost.

[dialNforNinja]

Here's an image, or pretty close. It'll probably work if you load it in the CO client, for that matter, though I'd prefer if no one else used the costume design.