Invisible Man

[GCMorris]

I'm building a character whose main abilities are invisibility and desolid and I'm having trouble spending all my points. We are using the 4e 375 point characters. Aside from jacking up all his stats I don't know how to use all the points. I just want him to be a normal guy aside from those two abilities. Any advice on invisibility tricks or desolid tricks I can spend about 100 points on?

 

Thanks.

[Tom Cowan]

maybe not tricks per say.  Life support for when you are in sold matter.  Flight to stop free-falling damage if you are moving to fast to want to hit the ground.

[DasBroot]

Cheap character concepts are awesome.  I'd take advantage of the 'free' points to buy up things I normally can't afford (like contacts, followers, bases, vehicles, skill levels...)

 

That said there are always 'offensive' invisibility tricks that few people consider.  Being invisible would wreak hell on someone's fighting ability and even ability to move around an environment: proprioception only goes so far.  Presumably characters who take invisibility are either used to it or can see themselves but what about poor Joe Mugger? Suddenly he doesn't know *exactly* where his arm is when he throws a punch or goes to block.  He can't see the bat in his hand - is he really close enough to hit a hero when he swings it?

 

That sounds like a possible dex or ocv drain to me.

[Netzilla]

Phase hand into target and turn it solid: AVAD Killing Attack (possibly with Side Effect of you also taking damage).

Phase other (Desolid Usable By Others/Usable As Attack)

-> Then leave them in a solid object (again an AVAD Killing Attack; linked to the Phase Other ability)

Turn others invisible (again, Usable by Others/Usable as Attack)

Walk on Air (Gliding, linked to Desolid)

 

In general, if you're talking about a superheroic character, you're going to want one or more attacks, a defense (which you've got covered via Desolid and Invisibility) and a way to get around just to be able to keep up with the other PCs.

 

If you don't want your character to have too many "superpowers" you can also invest in gear (vehicles, bases, computers, weapons, armor, communicators, etc) plus friends & allies.

[Doc Democracy]

What is the basis of the character's invisibility and desolid? The theme often suggests additional powers.

[Christopher R Taylor]

stretching and indirect on stretching lets you get into stuff through walls (if a GM is smart and kind, they'll let you just buy indirect on strength).  Desolid can let you do a lot of fun stuff, if you buy "affects solid world" on strength.  Its pretty cheap, because you don't have a lot of strength, so you can ghost out and still do things like grab a pack of cheetos out of the machine or start a car.  More spendy but cool is "desolid usable as an attack" which lets you grab someone and yank them through a wall, for instance.

[JmOz]

Flight equal to your running (walking on air)

 

martial arts (w/naked advantages usable while desolid...that's 80-100 points right there): This is what I would go with. 

Assuming basic martial arts (and an offensive strike doing 8d6)

  80 points affect desolid

[GCMorris]

He has undergone a scientific experiment which mutated his cells, he's permanently invisible. He remains very solid until he chooses to go desolid. I don't really want him to be a stretch guy and I'm not wanting to pile on other powers. Just looking for tricks. I spent 20 points on his martial arts and I'm thinking of giving him a blade and maybe a crossbow. I'm also thinking of giving him a backstab ability perhaps with the Find Weakness talent. I want kind of simple, old school character.

 

Thoughts?

[Hyper-Man]

It sounds like you are still looking for a unifying special effect to explain permanent invisibility and controllable desolidification. Why can he control one and not the other? The only one I know of that fits that bill off the top of my head would be supernatural based.

 

HM

[GCMorris]

The permanent invisibility is due to cell damage, a side effect of the procedure. I want him to be normal aside from the desolid and invisibility. That's why I'm asking for tricks.

 

We are building a team of relatively normal characters who are pulp-ish on a supers point base. We found someone else who wants to GM and he had this idea and we ran with it. We have so far:

 

Invisible Man

Circus Strongman

Seductress

Action Gun Guy

Gypsy Seer

 

One more player hasn't decided yet.

[BoloOfEarth]

One warning -- I've found that "untouchable" characters lose their appeal after a while, particularly in combat if there's no real threat.  But to answer your request as to tricks, here are some off the top of my head:

 

As Netzilla suggested, an AVAD attack (defense being Power Defense) of him partially phasing his hand into somebody. 

 

If you consider his desolid ability something he can, with effort, cause to affect something or somebody he touches, a Desolid Usable Against Others is interesting.  If you put it into a multipower, you might even write it up as a short (2-4m) Teleportation UAO (of pushing someone through a wall or floor, or reaching through a wall and grabbing something on the other side to phase it to his side).  Also a Dispel vs. technological devices of reaching in and grabbing wires / gears / etc.

 

If he has medical skills, you might justify a small (1d6) Healing with some sort of Limitation, of him reaching through someone's skin and removing a bullet / setting a bone / etc.

 

A bonus to Lockpicking / Security Systems (of phasing his face through a lock / alarm to see the inner workings).

 

A relatively small (say +10) bonus to PRE for presence attack purposes, since people may be spooked out by, effectively, a ghost.

 

A no-range Suppress DCV as he shoves a foe into a friend's attack.

 

Armor Piercing on his martial arts as he partially phases his fist / feet through a target's defenses.  This can add up quick since with by the rules you can't just buy AP on your STR; you have to effectively buy AP on each maneuver's damage.  (For example, lets say he has an 8d6 Punch and a 10d6 Kick.  That means 10 points added to the Punch cost and 12 points added to the Kick.)

[Ninja-Bear]

Look at life support because if he is desolis permanently, then he can't breathe or eat naturally.

[Doc Democracy]

Look at life support because if he is desolis permanently, then he can't breathe or eat naturally.

 

Being lazy, is that in the rules?  It feels like it is against the spirit of the rules but there are so many little wrinkles that I never concern myself with until I have to....(which is again due to laziness!).

 

Doc

[BoloOfEarth]

It's a moot point here.  The character is only permanently invisible.  He's normally solid, but can go desolid at will. 

 

I didn't notice that the character is 4th edition.  This may reduce the cost of the AP with martial arts, as he may only need to buy the AP on his STR.  I'm not sure with 4e. 

[DasBroot]

The eating thing is definitely within the spirit of the 'always on' disadvantage for Desolidification - which you don't technically have to take to have a power be 'always' on (just many people do for the 1/2 limitation rebate): 0 End and Persistent are all you technically need (but it means you *can* turn it off ... unless you take a psychological complication stating your character thinks they can't).

 

Desolid characters do breath, however - I believe it states under the power itself that whether they're affected by breathing based attacks depends largely on GM opinion and special effect.

 

What you really need, though, is bump of direction so you don't get lost trying to walk through more than a few meters of something solid.

 

That said he's only permanently invisible.

[Amorkca]

I have a ghost based character named Whitechapel who has Damage Negation 5 DC to represent her ability to not always be in the physical world.

 

She has the walking on air mentioned above as well as "Intangible Extraction" - an AVAD that does body (Reaching into your chest and pulling out your beating heart)

 

She also has a classic ghost power of Fear presence Drain Pre 4d6

 

---------

 

I've thought of a "Possession" power where she melds her intangible body with yours and takes possession of your body based as a Mind Control power...