GM review please, Talos

[Pizza Man]

I have returned from a 5 year hiatus. I opened up my old Hero designer and made Talos. But I installed a new computer and HD3 will not translate to Windows 10. So I will purchase a new HD soon. Anyways, I would love your input as a GM on Talos, as if he was submitted to your campaign.  I liked the concept enough to commission art for him.

 

Please click on the PDF link to see his write up. Thanks. (thought it would post)

Talos  updated profile

15 STR    5

20 DEX 20

25 CON 15

13 INT      3

13 EGO     3

20 PRE   10

7 OCV    20

7 DCV     20

3 OMCV

3 DMCV

6 SPD      40

2  PD  (22/20r)

2  ED   (22/20r)

20 REC  16

60 END     8

15 BODY  5

50 STUN  15

----------------------------------------------Total Characterisics 180

9 +3 CSL with the three Punch attacks in Multipower

3 Streetwise 13-

3 Charm 13-

3 Conversation 13-

3 Persuasion 13-

3 Interrogation 13-

3 Stealth 13-

3 Shadowing 12-

3 Breakfall 13-

3 Criminology 12-

2 Campaign city:  KS 11-

2 Super human world:  KS 11-

2 Ambidexterity -1 with offhand

------------------------------------------------------ 42 total Skills

POWERS

3 Nightvision (5 Active Points); OIF (OAF Visor; -1/2)

3 Sight Group Flash Defense (5 points) (5 Active Points); OIF (OIF Visor; -1/2)

3 Mental Defense (5 points total) (5 Active Points); OIF (OIF visor; -1/2)

 

 

  9 +20 PRE (20 Active Points); Conditional Power (Only usable for Presence attacks; -1), Gestures (Must use Gauntlets; -1/4)

13 Gauntlet hit points:  +20 BODY (20 Active Points); Only for Gauntlets Power does not affect Characteristics (-1/2)

 

 

20 Power Defense (20 points)

60 Resistant Protection (20 PD/20 ED)

1 Life Support  (Longevity: 200 Years)

17 Gauntlet Flight:  Flight 30m (30 Active Points); Restrainable (-1/2), Physical Manifestation (-1/4)

 

 

34 Fists of the Collosus:  Multipower, 60-point reserve,  (60 Active Points); all slots Restrainable (-1/2), Physical Manifestation Physical Manifestation (Gauntlets; -1/4)

*** the gauntlets have 12 PD/ED and 20 hit points

 

3f Gauntlet Punch:  E Blast vs PD 12d6 (60 Active Points); Restrainable (-1/2), Physical Manifestation Physical Manifestation (Gauntlets; -1/4)  6 END

3f Pulled Punch:  Drain STUN 6d6 (60 Active Points); Restrainable (-1/2), Physical Manifestation Physical Manifestation (Gauntlets; -1/4)  6 END

3f   Devastation Punch:  Drain BODY 6d6 (60 Active Points); Restrainable (-1/2), Physical Manifestation Physical Manifestation (Gauntlets; -1/4) 6 END

3f Gentle hands: Telekinesis (40 STR) (60 Active Points); Restrainable (-1/2), Physical Manifestation Physical Manifestation (Gauntlets; -1/4)  6 END

3f  Unstoppable. Tunneling 8m through 26 PD material (60 Active Points); Restrainable (-1/2), Physical Manifestation Physical Manifestation (Gauntlets; -1/4)

 

 

-------------------------------------------------Total Powers 178

------------------------------------------------ Total Total 400 points

Complications 75

15 Secret ID

15 Overconfidence

15 Hunted:  IHA Infrequently (Mo Pow; Harshly Punish)

15 Hunted:  The Hellions Motorcycle Gang (known to use supers as leaders) Frequently (As Pow; Harshly Punish)

 5 Enraged:  When innocents are harmed, go 8-, recover 14-

10 Distinctive Features: MUTANT:  (Shines like a neon light on mutant detectors)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Height: 5’9”

Weight: 180

Eye Color:  Blue

 

Hair Color: Brown

Background/History: Steve Drake was born in Phoenix, Arizona. He grew up camping and fishing all over the west. But his great love was boxing. He joined Golden Gloves as a child and excelled until his teens. He only quit when his powers began to manifest. His natural armor was making him harder to hurt. Realizing he may be a mutant, he quit to preserve his secret...Steve has reason to be cautious. A major IHA cell was hidden somewhere in the Phoenix area.

 

At 16, he got a job, purchased a motorcycle, and camped out in remote areas of the desert to practice with his powers. It was on one of these trips he encountered the Hellions. They were a motorcycle gang that tattooed their faces to look demonic and wore prosthetic horns. They also had a habit of making supers their leaders. Steve heard them coming a long ways off. The gang was looking for a bit of fun, but never expected a full fledged Super to contend with. This gang had a super with fire powers as their leader: a man named Pyre. Steve won the day, destroyed their bikes, ripped out their horns, and drove the unconscious Pyre to a nearby town to wait for pick-up. All he had was a pair of shades and some gloves to conceal his ID. But he does sport a nice souvenir necklace made up of Hellion horns.

 

Since then he has had several run ins with both the Hellions and the IHA, but mostly he kept busy saving people from burning high rises and such. at 18, Steve got a much better job saved up for a year, and left Phoenix for the campaign city to learn real hero work.

 

Steve did share his secret with his parents, and they are proud that their upbringing produced a hero.

 

Personality:  Steve is a real easy going guy. He gets along with everyone. But. He knows when to throw a punch. He has seen every super hero movie ever made. He took up boxing to be more like a super...and now he has a couple of giant boxing gloves.

So Steve has inadvertently trained to be a hero all his life...this is his big opportunity.

 

Quote:  Shut up! You talk too much! (Steve is not very good with playful combat banter)

 

Powers/Tactics: The Fists of the Colossus are two Giant Gauntlets with a steampunk look to them. They appear to be made of steel and leather. They act like they are solid steel, but are in fact mental constructs. The parts of his brain that grant this ability are the same parts that provide mental defense - Steve will always be weak in that area.  The upside is Magneto can't do a thing with them.

Steve is no fool, he is not as invulnerable as he would like to be. He prefers to fight at range.

 

Campaign Use:  As a hero, Talos is just that. His mobility means he can be in for an adventure and out again

As a Villain, Talos can lead or be part of a mutant motorcycle gang. But he would likely hire out for any villain that paid well.  As a hunted …please make note of his PRE skills, they are 13-. Steve will use all his information gathering skills to learn of every weakness the hero has…including DNPCs. And he is certainly smart enough not to take your hero when there is a whole team to back him up.

 

Appearance: The gauntlets are huge. Three and a half feet from brass knuckle to brass knuckle and six feet long.

As Talos, Steve wears a leather jacket, a colored t shirt, jeans, gloves and a visor that Defender made for him. Talos isn't into that whole spandex thing, he doesn't trust his clothes, wallet and keys will be where he left them. His goal is to blend into the crowd and disappear.

 

 

 

[steriaca]

Looks ok to me.

[phydaux]

I'd allow him.  CV is a little high, IMO, but that's dependent on the other PCs & NPCs as to what the campaign norm is.

[Pizza Man]

1 hour ago, phydaux said:

I'd allow him.  CV is a little high, IMO, but that's dependent on the other PCs & NPCs as to what the campaign norm is.

I bought it that high to simulate how difficult it is to dodge a giant fist. 

Thank you for the feedback.

[steriaca]

42 minutes ago, Pizza Man said:

I bought it that high to simulate how difficult it is to dodge a giant fist. 

Thank you for the feedback.

Lower it, then add Combat Skill Levels for Block, Punch, and "Punching" Haymaker.

[Pizza Man]

1 hour ago, steriaca said:

Lower it, then add Combat Skill Levels for Block, Punch, and "Punching" Haymaker.

I don't think I get those skills do I? I bought his main punch as a 12D6 blast vs PD...I can only buy Levels in Blast and  Drain. Right?

OK and whats a good starting OCV/DCV? Its been years since I played. Thanks.  (PS this is exactly the feedback I was looking for.)

Thanks!

[Doc Democracy]

8 hours ago, phydaux said:

I'd allow him.  CV is a little high, IMO, but that's dependent on the other PCs & NPCs as to what the campaign norm is.

 

I wouldn't say that the stats are too high for a 400 point character.  He covers all the bases, can fight for almost two turns before he starts spending STUN as END though - his last action in the second turn would take him to -2 END.  Might want to look at either boosting END, boosting REC or reducing the END cost of those powers.  :-)

[Doc Democracy]

12 hours ago, Pizza Man said:

I have returned from a 5 year hiatus. I opened up my old Hero designer and made Talos. But I installed a new computer and HD3 will not translate to Windows 10. So I will purchase a new HD soon.

 

I notice you have already bought a new HD, I do not think it was anything to do with Windows 10 as such, it might simply have been that you did not have Java installed.  

 

It looks like a cool character and it would make a pretty cool comicbook character.

[BoloOfEarth]

Great pic, by the way.  I'm a sucker for good character artwork.

 

And please don't take anything I say as being too critical.  I'm just trying to look for things I might do differently.  YMMV, and feel free to ignore anything I say.

 

I would argue that "giant fists" would mean that "Fine Manipulation" wouldn't make much sense on the TK.  Unless he can summon different sized fists, in which case it could work.

 

I think the 26 PD on the tunneling is a bit high.  You might want to consider increasing the distance and decreasing the PD.  Or make it Armor Piercing.

 

I can't see why you wouldn't have "Physical Manifestation" on the Multipower and its slots as well.  (Possibly Restrainable as well, like you have on the Flight, but for some reason that feels vaguely like double-dipping to me.)  If they can attack a giant hand to take away his Flight, why couldn't someone attack the same hand to stop the TK?  Or Entangle it to stop a Blast (requiring it to Blast out before it can attack)?  That said, I'd consider putting some of the points saved into additional PD / ED or (preferrably) BODY, only on the physical manifestation.  (As a GM, I'd be more inclined to allow additional BODY, as foes can chip away at the giant hands, providing more dramatic tension.  And I wouldn't allow him to immediately re-summon the hands if they're destroyed.  At least require a few Phases of down time.)

 

Do the giant hands only mimic his own hand movements?  (It looks that way from the picture, but maybe that's not required.)  If it is required, Gestures would be applicable.  But as a player, that might not be a good idea, since a simple 3d6 Entangle AoE 2m Radius on him basically takes him out of the fight, since he can't then control the giant fists to break him free.  Personally, I'd say moving his own hands in conjunction with the giant hands is just something he does subconsciously, but isn't technically required. 

 

With 10 EGO and no Mental Defense, he's gonna be an all-day sucker for any mentalist that comes along.  But I suspect you already know that (see Susceptibility comments below.)  Seriously, 13 EGO and 5 Mental Defense would go a long way.

 

With that all-day sucker in mind, I'm not a fan of your Susceptibility to Mind Control.  I look at that as a shady way of getting a lot of points (a full third of his total Complications!) while also keeping him from getting controlled to attack his friends for too long.  (BTW, as a GM I would deal with that by having him Mind Controlled to "Fly up as high as you can as fast as you can."  That removes him from the fight with a command that he shouldn't be violently opposed to -- and with a noncombat Flight straight up, the Susceptibility should make him pass out high enough that he'll hit terminal velocity on the way down - requiring one of his teammates to save him or risk serious injury.  Also note that the Mind Control doesn't end when he passes out from the Susceptibility -- so he could be comatose for hours or days until he makes his EGO roll to break free, even if he's just commanded to "stand still and do nothing.")

 

No Psychological Complications?  What is his personality like?  What drives him?  As GM, I'd ask you to cut the Susceptibility 10-15 points and put those points into a PsychComp.

 

Again, please don't feel offended or take any of this as being hyper-critical.  Just my thoughts.  Take or leave them as you wish.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I'm a fan of characters with holes in their defenses specific vulnerabilities or weaknesses that can be problematic for them, myself.

[phydaux]

Quote

I wouldn't say that the stats are too high for a 400 point character.  He covers all the bases, can fight for almost two turns before he starts spending STUN as END though - his last action in the second turn would take him to -2 END.  Might want to look at either boosting END, boosting REC or reducing the END cost of those powers.

 

 

I've never had an in-game fight go two full turns.

[Doc Democracy]

I must admit that fights rarely go three turns, but they often hit two.  Maybe I balance things too much! :-)

[BoloOfEarth]

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

I'm a fan of characters with holes in their defenses specific vulnerabilities or weaknesses that can be problematic for them, myself.

 

Excellent point.  My suggested boost to Mental Defense is easily (and possibly best) ignored.  Though I'd still suggest buying EGO up to 13, if only because it seems a hero should be of stronger will.

 

2 hours ago, phydaux said:

I've never had an in-game fight go two full turns.

 

I've only had them go that long a few times.  They're definitely the outliers.  Then again, once a fight reaches a point where it's certain the bad guys are going down and there's no real chance of escape, I tend to hand-wave the end of the fight rather than having the heroes pound the last guy or two into the ground.

[dsatow]

I don't see anything wrong with the build.  Its refreshing to see a character whose main powers don't have lots of limitations on them.  

 

I wonder about a 6d6 Stun Drain as its a special defense attack to simulate a pulled punch or if it was an excuse to get a power defense attack.  I'd still let it in as combat wise, the build would be within combat parameters and in game, the effect would be about the same as any other attack.

[Pizza Man]

Mannnn, this is a lot of good advice. Just what I wanted (hadn't played Champions in a decade). OK a rewrite is coming up but it will have to wait until Friday. I work M-T 10 hours days so I always have a three day weekend.

In the mean time, here is another of my commissions:

 

 

[phydaux]

Did he just punch Space Ghost?

[steriaca]

14 minutes ago, phydaux said:

Did he just punch Space Ghost?

Either Sppppaaaaaccccceeeee Ghhhhhooooosssssttttt or...

 

Power Crusher.

[BoloOfEarth]

More great art.  (And it looks to me like he's picking up Space Ghost by the collar of his cape, but I could be wrong.)

 

Actually, PM, I just realized there's a bigger worry with your Susceptibility.

 

It's a potential suicide pact.

 

I had forgotten that with a Susceptibility, the damage goes from STUN (without defenses) to STUN + BODY (without defenses) once he goes unconscious.  And at 2d6 per Segment, that means he's probably negative BODY eight Segments after he passes out (assuming the Mind Control is still in effect).

 

Let's say he's hit with a 12d6 Mind Control in Phase 10, and the command is EGO+20 effect.  Average 12d6 roll is 42 points, giving Talos a 9- roll (just a bit over 1/3 chance) to break free.  Assuming he doesn't break free (pretty good chance of that) and the GM is nice so he doesn't start the damage until Phase 11, that means he's down an average of 14 STUN by post-12, which he handily recovers.  Talos gets another Breakout roll at post 12.  The GM's still being nice and the lazy mentalist didn't continue spending END on the Mind Control, so it's now a 10- roll (a 50-50 shot).

 

If Talos doesn't make that roll, he doesn't get another Breakout roll until a minute later (60 Segments).  But he'll never get there.  By the end of Phase 8, he's most likely unconscious, and by the end of that Turn, he's probably past -30 STUN (so no post-12 Recovery) and down an average of 8 BODY.  By segment 4, just a Turn and a half after getting Mind Controlled, he's negative BODY.

 

Granted, depending on the command, the mind control might end once he's out (e.g. "Go beat yourself unconscious.")  But if it doesn't ("Leave here immediately and fly to Toledo"), and he doesn't have a mentalist friend to break him free, he could be seriously screwed.

[Pizza Man]

Thanks Bolo, I will be dumping that.  I like the idea of the "Physical Manifestation" on the multipower.  But I was playing with the Armor/BODY for the Gauntlets and it is really expensive.  Is there a limitation for "Only on Gauntlets?" 15 PD/ED adds up. So does buying BODY for each one.

[Pizza Man]

8 hours ago, phydaux said:

Did he just punch Space Ghost?

Yep. I couldn't think of anyone else at the time.  So I went with the talk show host.

[Ninja-Bear]

9 hours ago, Pizza Man said:

Mannnn, this is a lot of good advice. Just what I wanted (hadn't played Champions in a decade). OK a rewrite is coming up but it will have to wait until Friday. I work M-T 10 hours days so I always have a three day weekend.

In the mean time, here is another of my commissions:

 

 

Bolo, that pick looks like fine manipulation to me! 

 

I thought he was picking up Soace Ghost.

[BoloOfEarth]

34 minutes ago, Pizza Man said:

Thanks Bolo, I will be dumping that.  I like the idea of the "Physical Manifestation" on the multipower.  But I was playing with the Armor/BODY for the Gauntlets and it is really expensive.  Is there a limitation for "Only on Gauntlets?" 15 PD/ED adds up. So does buying BODY for each one.

 

Your GM would have to provide a value for such a limitation, as I don't know of an example in published work.  My suggestion would be -1/2 or -1, but he may rule differently.

 

Keep in mind that a Physical Manifestation on a 60-point Multipower would have an automatic (and free) 12 PD / 12 ED, similar to a Breakable Focus, so you may not want to bother paying points to buy that up.  As to BODY, how that works is a kinda gray area.  (There have been discussions/arguments about rules on destroying foci like armored battlesuits.  I don't want to rehash them here.)  Looking at the rules on breakable foci, each hit doing BODY past the defenses destroys (or removes) one power.  Perhaps just talk the GM into letting you buy a few 1-point bogus multipower slots with the understanding that they get "destroyed" before he starts losing actual powers?

 

That doesn't even consider the fact that there's two giant hands there.  I'm not sure how to handle that bit.

 

21 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Bolo, that pick looks like fine manipulation to me!

 

LOL.  Yeah, it looks like he's using kid gloves on SG (pun fully intended).

 

PM already said it's a punch, but even if it wasn't I'd still argue against Fine Manipulation.  Picking something (or someone) up isn't the same and, say, retying his cape.  Look at the writeup for Telekinesis: 

 

Base Telekinesis is inherently clumsy. The character can manipulate great force, but not with any fine control. He can flip most switches and punch some buttons, but can’t, for example, hit a single key on a keyboard, pick a lock, or do precision tasks that requires a DEX Roll.

 

Could you see those giant hands trying to type a text on a smartphone?  Would you want them trying to zip up your pants or button up your shirt? 

[Ninja-Bear]

Bolo I believe that if he wanted to use martial arts down the road with those giant hands, then you should have fine manipulation. ?

[BoloOfEarth]

Y'know, I didn't think you could use Martial Arts maneuvers with TK, but then read the rules closer and saw that you're 100% correct.  (I was going to suggest Stretching, Doesn't Cross Intervening Space, but TK does allow for using Combat Maneuvers if you have Fine Manipulation and GM permission.  You learn something new every day.)

 

However, I'd still argue that the sheer size of those hands precludes fine manipulation.  C'mon, they're larger than he is!

 

The fact of the matter is, whether or not it's allowed is between Pizza Man and his GM.  I'm just giving my opinion.  As I said in my first post:  YMMV and feel free to ignore anything I say.  (Then again, maybe you ignored that part.  )

 

On another note, I'd think some additional PRE, Usable only for Presence Attack (-1) would be fitting based on those big mitts. 

[dsatow]

Curiosity: Why the susceptibility to Mind control?