Villain Trio posted - Descendants of Black Paladin, Black Magus, and Malais the Dragon

[fdw3773]

Hi, Everyone! One of the story arcs I developed was to feature the descendants of Black Paladin, Black Magus, and Malais the Dragon. The result was the creation of Shadowblade, Mistress Arcane, and Duraig the Dragon. The character write-ups and Hero Designer files are available for download as a Zip file here:

 

 

[Steve]

My immediate reaction to the post title was, "With each other?" 😱

[fdw3773]

7 hours ago, Steve said:

My immediate reaction to the post title was, "With each other?" 😱

Not quite, considering the originals are all male. 😇 In the storyline, it's Black Paladin's daughter, Black Magus's niece, and a member of the Malais's dragon brood. 🙃

[Lord Liaden]

The current official Champions Universe has a version of the Black Paladin that doesn't follow his New Millennium continuity, whom I personally like better than the NM version. However, I did adapt Malais the Dragon to be one of the lieutenants of Takofanes the Archlich. For my purpose I defined Malais as the brother of Brangomar the Shadow Queen (Champions Villains Volume One), who teamed with her to conquer the Shadow Realm in the dimension of Faerie. But then Brangomar tricked and betrayed him, trapping him beneath a lonely mountain. Takofanes found and freed Malais, and promised to help him get revenge against Brangomar, in exchange for his service to the Undying King.

 

My write-up for Malais blended elements from his Fourth Edition Hero character sheet and Brangomar's 5E one. He's more physically powerful than the Shadow Queen, but less skilled in magic.

[Steve]

1 hour ago, fdw3773 said:

Not quite, considering the originals are all male. 😇 In the storyline, it's Black Paladin's daughter, Black Magus's niece, and a member of the Malais's dragon brood. 🙃

 

It was just a bit of whimsy and weirdness on my part when I read it. I’m actually intrigued by Black Paladin having offspring, since he was a recurring villain in my last Champions campaign.

 

However, anything is possible with magic. 😆

[fdw3773]

7 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

The current official Champions Universe has a version of the Black Paladin that doesn't follow his New Millennium continuity, whom I personally like better than the NM version.

 

Champions: The New Millennium was where I drew inspiration and the baseline stats for those new characters. I didn't have Champions: Villains Volume One, but am a little curious to compare between the two versions. I definitely preferred the New Millennium write-ups for Quantum and Solitaire over their original 4th Edition versions.😀

[Mr. R]

I like the take on them EXCEPT for one point.  An 8d6 KA!  WOW!  When everything else about him is about 75 active points, this comes to a 120 point ability.  I know it is a dragon, but unless you want a few flipped tables, that attack better be justified, real good.  

 

As it is when he hits with it he does on average 24 body and 48 stun.  If he rolls good 32-35 and anywhere from 64 to 105 stun.  I know it is in a MP, but seriously, if I were in a game and the GM brought this out and we got a TPK, I would leave the game.  OR I would ask that we can do the same, then watch as the game spirals into a wild west who shots first type game with a lot of collateral damage.  But this is just MHO!

[fdw3773]

On 5/21/2020 at 4:24 PM, Mr. R said:

I like the take on them EXCEPT for one point.  An 8d6 KA!  WOW!  When everything else about him is about 75 active points, this comes to a 120 point ability.  I know it is a dragon, but unless you want a few flipped tables, that attack better be justified, real good.  

 

As it is when he hits with it he does on average 24 body and 48 stun.  If he rolls good 32-35 and anywhere from 64 to 105 stun.  I know it is in a MP, but seriously, if I were in a game and the GM brought this out and we got a TPK, I would leave the game.  OR I would ask that we can do the same, then watch as the game spirals into a wild west who shots first type game with a lot of collateral damage.  But this is just MHO!

The power level of a villain's attack I would employ as the GM depended on the players' power levels. If they were heavy hitters (e.g. Hulk, Thor, Superman), then Duraig may hit with the full force for a full KA. If their player power level was mid-range to standard (e.g. Cyclops, Iron Man, Vision), then a lower KA would be employed. Additionally, I've had players with a mix of power levels (e.g. Justice League members that with street level heroes like Huntress teaming up with heavy-hitters like Superman and Green Lantern) take on Doomsday-level villains that had higher KAs at conventions for the past few years and didn't have people flipping tables and arbitrarily leave the game as you described. 😉 Even if someone did act that way, that individual would have probably been told to leave the event by the staff; that sort of overreaction is uncalled for at the very least.

 

As a reference point, I used the Champions: New Millennium write-up for Malais the Dragon that was based on 4th Edition rules as my starting point. In that rules set, Malais the Dragon's claw strike is also an 8d6 KA when he uses his full strength, so I didn't arbitrarily make that up (screenshot).

 

If you feel that Duraig is over-powered, that's fine and is why I included the Hero Designer File for you and others to modify to suit your respective campaigns. 🙂