Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Ed (not a recruiting thread YET)


Recruitment

51 to 89 of 89 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>
Sczarni

Is there a obsidian portal link?

I saw the link for blaze but did not see a campaign or an easy way to search.


Heroes of Freedom City


Not really sure I want to run a Teen Hero Game just to let you guys know.


Quantum (name pending) can easily be scaled to mid-twenties, having graduated from Claremont and now trying to strike out in the big leagues.


I'm not interested in being a teen hero, so we'll have at least one old man kicking around :)

I dig the different classifications a lot, what threat level is your standard PL 10 character?


Alpha metahuman PL 17+
Beta Metahuman PL 15-16
Gamma Metahuman PL 12-14
Delta Metahuman PL 9-11
Sigma Metahuman PL 8 or less or a well trained human

This is a close estimation of where the powerlevels are for each rating

So how I think I will level you guys up will be every 25 power points so at 175 you guys will be at power level 10


In that case then, i'll stick to my guns and make Tremor college age!


Any of you have ideas for enemies or rivals?
I can try to make some of them and put them on the portal


Weeeeeell:

Diamondhead (Egotistical Foreman, Carl Sanchez) and Cement Man (Long Suffering Flunky, Pete Hudson): The two remaining members of what was once the 'Terra Trio'. Over the years these two have been headaches for a great number of freedom city heroes, even time to time becoming legitimate threats.

Along with the original Tremor, all three were once disgruntled construction workers, before coming across and alien mineral that gave then earth based abilities. Diamondhead's body composition was changed to that of living diamond, while Cement Man was changed to a pool of living wet cement.

While Cement man is still out for his big score, Diamondhead has grown ever more desperate for the world to his power and has become a rather unstable and erratic individual. After hearing rumours of a new Tremor, the two of them are determined to wipe the floor with this imposter of their long lost friend... okay, they may have left that friend for dead but still.


Some sort of superpowered crime lord would be cool.
Johnny Miasma

Spoiler:
Run of the mill mook John Masiatto found himself caught between a rock and a hard place:
The Family wanted him dead. He knew it, but he could let them know that he knew. Unsure of how to break free, he knew that his days where numbered, after all, no one flubs on the Boss like that and gives out vital information.
While stuck running surveillance at a museum sting, John started hearing voices, those of his daughter's and wife's. Unable to shake the dread, he ran into the museum's basement where the screams seemed to have been coming from. He couldn't shake the thought that this was their payback. It wasn't fair, he kept telling himself, that it was just an accident. The moment he hit the basement, a wave of nausea washed over him and he saw what was calling him: a powerful black relic from an unknown time, glowing with an eerie purple flame. The relic, an obsidian statuette of an old god, called John closer, demanded that they become one.
Driven insane by the beckoning statuette, Masiatto drew out a knife and began making a home for it within him. Soaking in blood, he hefted the statuette and brought it close to his chest, where it sucked itself in, imbedding itself within his chest cavity.

John Masiatto was found three days later floating along the bay, unsure of what had lead him there. What he did know was that he was a changed man. From what he could gather from his oldest friend, The Family tossed him out and left him for dead. "Today", he thought to himself, "we play by my rules".

John Masiatto
AKA Johnny Miasma

Appearance: Olive skin tone, slick black hair with greying temples, purple tinted eyes. Large scar across his chest. Always wears a suit.

Personality: Cool, Calm, Collected. Doesn't seem too concerned most the time because he usually has a few back up plans. Every move he makes is calculated due to his high intelligence. Despite the evils he is capable of committing, he is still a family-minded man and is often seen running charities for orphanages and other needs.

Organization: Masiatto is the head of the Black Cloud Collective, an organized collective of super-powered villains.

Powers: As Johnny Miasma, Masiatto is capable of controlling his shadow as though it were a secondary fighter. His shadow can stretch out a great distance away and physically interact with those around him, often choking miasma's victims while he gives a speech. His shadow grants him control of a fog-like darkness and he is capable of invisibility.

Super Human strength carrying capacity of 4 tons. Highly skilled marksman and hand-to-hand combatant. His speed and reaction time has increased to super human levels. He typically fights with two handguns.

He possesses a high level of intelligence and charisma, often winning the hearts of many people in his daily life while calculating how else his organization can run the city.

Silver Crusade

My curiosity is killing me... In this system could one feasibly make a 'power absorbing' character? Akin to Cell from the DB universe (As an example) Or Peter/Syler from Heroes?


Yes, mimicking powers is an option.


So I have some really good word files I got along time ago on the mutants and masterminds boards about how to make a character and how combat works they would be giant walls of text but would you guys be interested in them? I can just post them on here


Sure! Thinking about converting my mm3e character over two 2e once you start recruiting. I think it'd be fun to play him out, though I would have a bunch of questions and would require help.


Time for a detailed walkthrough of creating a starting PC at Power Level 10, with 150 power points. I created this example a while ago for a different ATT thread and gave it to my players, who were new to M&M, as an example of character creation that would help them learn the rules.

The first thing he looks at are his trade-offs (see page 24). He’s playing in a PL10 (150 pp) campaign, so by default, the maximum attack and damage (or save DC modifier for a non-damaging power) he can choose are 10 each. The maximum defense bonus and toughness save he can choose are also 10 each (but the base defense score is 10, so his maximum adjusted defense score defaults to 20).

"Well," he says to his GM, "I'm no trained martial artist, so my attack bonus shouldn’t be that high, but I should still be pretty good at hitting things (just because I’m so strong). I am super-strong, so I should pack a devastating punch. A damage of about 13 seems right- I hit noticeably harder than a tank cannon (which does +10 damage).”

"OK," responds his GM. "By reducing your maximum attack bonus by three - from ten to seven- you can increase your maximum damage by the same amount, from 10 to thirteen."

"+13 to damage suits a powerhouse pretty well."

"Yes - but remember, we have just altered your maximum, not your actual bonus. You'll need to buy a lot of strength to get that damage”

Bob nods, and they look at defense.

"Well, it’s the same thing... I'm a man of steel, not an agile martial artist. I should rely on being hard to hurt, not hard to hit.”

With that in mind, Bob decides to trade off his maximum toughness save with his defense by the save amount as his offensive powers. He chooses Toughness save +13, and maximum defense= 17 (a +7 defense bonus). He’ll look into becoming bulletproof later.

Bob thinks about the ability scores he is going to need - taking into account his previous decisions about trade-offs. Physically, he needs to be incredibly strong and tough. Bob decides to buy his maximum toughness save and damage by simply increasing his Strength and Constitution to 36 each, for 13 damage unarmed and a +13 modifier to his Toughness save (this will also increase his Fortitude save to +13, but that’s fine since the non-Toughness saves are limited to PL+5, 15 in his case, rather than PL).

The next question to ask is how much of his Strength and Constitution is due to his powers (coming from the Enhanced Strength power) and how much comes from his innate abilities. Bob decides that his character was well above average in both strength and constitution before getting super-powers, but nothing too extraordinary, so he gives himself base strength 16, base constitution 16, and enhanced strength and enhanced constitution of 20 apiece. So he has 16 strength even when his powers are nullified and 36 strength (16 base + 20 enhanced strength) when his powers are active.

Should his character be the lumbering kind of brick, or should he be more agile? Bob decides that he’s pretty quick for a brick and gives himself 14 Dex. For mental scores he decides that his character isn’t the type for book learning, so he keeps his Int strictly average. Bob decides his character is more perceptive and charismatic than most people (you’d be genial too if you had his powers!), but not much more so, so he makes Wis and Cha slightly above average.

Next Bob turns to powers. He already decided to buy Enhanced Strength 20 and Enhanced Constitution 20 when looking at his ability scores. Now he has to figure out how much Super-Strength to buy. Super-Strength affects lifting capacity but not melee damage, so it isn’t limited by his PL limits. Note that powers are not limited in rank directly. For example, a character at any PL can have as many ranks in Flight as he wants. But your Toughness save is limited to your PL barring tradeoffs and the Protection power adds to your Toughness save, so it will be limited based on the limit on your Toughness save.

So Bob just needs to decide how much he can lift! He decided that the heaviest object his character can lift is a 747 (not too shabby!). This requires a lifting strength of 70 according to the table in the book, so Bob needs a strength for lifting about 70. He already has 36 Strength and each rank of Super-Strength increases your strength for lifting by 5, so he buys 7 ranks of super-strength for a total of 71 strength for lifting (heavy load: 235 tons). How does Minotaur stop a runaway train? Here's a brilliant Official Rules Question answer from Steve Kenson that no one should be without.

Bob looks at the power feats for super-strength and decides that Shockwave and Ground Strike seems appropriate for his character, so he buys them.

“Oh boy,” Bob says. “A +13 damage effect with Shockwave!”

“Not so fast”, his GM reminds him. Shockwave is an Area Attack and Area Attacks don’t require an attack roll, so as a result even though Bob’s strength modifier is +13 he’s limited to doing 10 damage (his PL) with Shockwave because the tradeoff rules don’t apply. The GM is kind, though, and says that since Ground-Strike only trips people rather than damaging them he’ll let it be a full rank 13 effect (unless this proves problematic in play, which it shouldn't).

Note that though there's nothing about Trip being limited as if it forced a save DC in the core book, but Steve has said Trip should probably be limited as such. However, the errata hasn't been updated to reflect this, so the whole issue is somewhat murky at the moment. Also note that these power feats of Super-Strength are based on your strength bonus (+13 in Minotaur's case; your Super-Strength ranks don't add to the effects of the power feats).

Next Bob looks at the Impervious power (Impervious Toughness, the equivalent for Constitution of the Protection power with the Impervious extra- see pg 96) “OK”, Bob says, “I want my character to be completely bulletproof and more- bullets can’t hurt him, grenades can’t hurt him, heck, even a bite from a Tyrannosaurus Rex or a blast from a Tank Cannon (+10 damage) can’t hurt him!”

The GM is a little disquieted by this (what can hurt Bob’s character if none of that can hurt him?), but eventually agrees that Bob can make his entire Toughness save impervious (so that only attacks with a damage bonus of +13 or higher can hurt him)—but if this proves too strong in play, he’ll ask Bob to scale back his Imperviousness to 10 (his PL, in effect not letting Impervious benefit from the tradeoff Bob has taken). As Bob has already bought his Toughness to +13 from Constitution, he pays 13 pp to make all 13 points of his Toughness Impervious. Side note: Many published villains have the Power Attack feat, and making liberal use of it should ensure that Minotaur's Impervious isn't a problem in play.

Lastly, Bob decides his character can jump! He can’t jump the grand canyon, but he can jump any building in a single bound. That means he should have a high jump around 1000-1500 feet, so Bob takes 7 ranks of leaping to boost his Leaping distance to a high jump of 1440 feet, with a long jump of just over a mile!

Bob then turns to his combat abilities and buys his attack and defense bonuses to their maximum allowed values of 7. Note that half of your ranks of Defense bonus (rounded down) are a Dodge bonus, which is lost is certain circumstances, like when your character is stunned, flat-footed or otherwise unable to defend himself normally (see pg 32). So Minotaur has 3 points of Dodge bonus that he can lose under these circumstances, and 4 points of Defense bonus that aren't lost under these circumstances. Note that I'm listing this sheet with Minotaur's Defense score, which is 10+his defense bonus (see page 150).

His sheet looks like this:

Maximum Attack bonus: 7
Maximum Damage: 13
Maximum Defense bonus: 7
Maximum Toughness: 13

STR 36 (16 natural) (+13) (+3 without powers) (6 points on base ability)
DEX 14 (+2) (4 points)
CON 36 (16 natural) (+13) (+3 without powers) (6 points on base ability)
INT 10 (+0) (0 points)
WIS 12 (+1) (2 points)
CHA 12 (+1) (2 point)

Attack Bonus +7 (14 points) (MAXED OUT)
Damage +13 (from strength bonus) (MAXED OUT)

Defense 17 (10 base + 7) (14 Defense when flat-footed) (14 Points) (MAXED OUT)
Toughness Save +13 (from Con Bonus) (MAXED OUT), Impervious Toughness 13

Powers:
Enhanced Strength 20 (20 pp)
Enhanced Constitution 20 (20 pp)

Impervious Toughness 13 (13 pp)
Leaping 7 (7 pp)

Super-Strength 7 (strength for lifting: 71) (16 pp including the two power feats)
Power Feats: Shockwave, Ground Strike

Initiative +2 (From Dex)

Fortitude Save +13 (from Con Bonus) (max is +15)
Reflex Save +2 (from Dex Bonus)
Will Save +1 (from Wis Bonus)

Total PP spent: 20 abilities + 76 powers + 28 combat= 124 pp spent, 26 pp unspent.

Now Bob turns to skills, which he can buy at 4 skill points per power point. Since his character is more charismatic than average and street savvy, he decides to give him some ranks in Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information and Knowledge: Streetwise to reflect this (plus knowledge of Spanish, which costs 1 skill point). He’s pretty perceptive, so he also picks up ranks in Notice and Sense Motive. Bob decides that Minotaur is very intimidating and gives him 12 ranks of Intimidate.

Language- 1 skill point:
Spanish

Int-based skills: 6 skill points
Knowledge: Streetwise 6

Wisdom-based skills: 14 skill points
Notice 7
Sense Motive 7

Charisma-based skills: 27 skill points
Bluff 5
Diplomacy 5
Gather Info 5
Intimidate 12

His skills end up being 48 skill points, so he spends 12 pp on skills.

Now Bob looks at feats. He takes only a handful of feats, including Power Attack to hit even harder at the cost of being less accurate, Takedown Attack to throw hordes of minions flying, Interpose to step in front of attacks, Startle to throw enemies off balance, and Ultimate Effort (Ultimate Toughness Save) to withstand hits of staggering ferocity. He ends up spending 6 pp on feats. Note that Ultimate Effort (Ultimate Toughness Save) lets him, once a round, spend a hero point before rolling a Toughness save to be treated as if he had rolled a 20 (but it's not a natural 20).

This leaves Bob with only 8 pp for saves. He looks at his saves and realizes his Fortitude save is plenty high already, but his Reflex save is +2 and his Will save is +1. He decides to distribute the points 3 pp to his reflex save and 5 pp to his Will save, reasoning that a +5 total Reflex save fits with being pretty quick for a brick and the +6 Will save reflects his being strong-willed. His total of Fort/Reflex/Will saves is 13 +5 +6= 24, which is right around the average of the core book archetypes (23-24).

That’s it-Bob’s spent all of his points, and doesn’t want to take any drawbacks to obtain more power points. His final character sheet is:

Minotaur (PL 10, 150 pp)
Abilities: (20 power points)
STR 36 (16 natural) (+13) (+3 without powers) (6 points on base ability)
DEX 14 (+2) (4 points)
CON 36 (16 natural) (+13) (+3 without powers) (6 points on base ability)
INT 10 (+0) (0 points)
WIS 12 (+1) (2 points)
CHA 12 (+1) (2 points)

Combat: (28 pp)
Attack Bonus: +7 (14 power points) (MAXED OUT)
Damage: +13 (Unarmed, from Strength bonus) (MAXED OUT)
Defense: 17 (10 base + 7 Defense bonus) (14 Defense when flat-footed) (14 Points) (MAXED OUT)
Initiative +6 (+2 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Grapple Check +27 (+7 Base Attack + 13 Strength modifier +7 ranks in Super-Strength)

Saves: (max is +15 for non-Toughness saves) (8 pp)
Toughness Save +13 (from Con Bonus) (MAXED OUT), Impervious Toughness 13
Fortitude Save +13 (+13 Con )
Reflex Save +5 (+3 base, +2 Dex)
Will Save +6 (+5 base, +1 Wis)

Powers: (76 pp)
Enhanced Strength 20 (20 pp)
Enhanced Constitution 20 (20 pp)
Impervious Toughness 13 (13 pp)
Leaping 7 (7 pp)
Super-Strength 7 (Strength for lifting: 71) (Heavy Load: 235 tons)
Power Feats: Shockwave, Ground Strike (16 pp including the two power feats)

Feats: (6 pp)
Improved Initiative, Interpose, Power Attack, Startle, Takedown Attack, Ultimate Effort (Ultimate Toughness Save)

Skills: (12 pp)
Bluff 5 (+6)
Diplomacy 5 (+6)
Gather Information 5 (+6)
Intimidate 12 (+13)
Knowledge: Streetwise 6 (+6)
Notice 7 (+8)
Sense Motive 7 (+8)
Language- Spanish

Total Points Spent: 150 (20 Abilities + 12 Skills + 6 Feats + 76 Powers + 28 Combat + 8 Saves = 150)


Bob decides to create a martial artist character.

One that has no superpowers whatsoever, not even ones that could be justified by the concept such as "Strike" to represent martial arts punches. He will, instead use feats to do that.

The first thing he looks at are his Trade Offs (page 24).

This is a PL10 campaign, so by default, the maximum attack and damage he can choose are 10 each. The maximum defense and toughness save he can choose are also 10 each.

"Well," he says to his GM, "I'm no Wolverine with slashing claws, or Superman with a devastating punch, so my damage shouldn't be that high. But I am a highly trained martial artist, so I ought to be able to hit harder than the average guy. A damage of about 4 should be fine - I can do that just using strength bonus."

"OK," responds his GM. "By reducing your maximum damage by six - from 10 to four - you can increase your maximum attack bonus by the same amount, from 10 to sixteen."

"+16 to attack suits a martial artist pretty well."
"Yes - but remember, we have just altered your maximum, not your actual bonus. You'll need to buy levels of attack, or perhaps feats, to actually get that attack bonus."

Bob nods, and they look at defense.

"Well, it’s the same thing... I'm no Man of Steel, or Colossus. I should rely on not getting hit, so I should take a high defense and a low toughness save"

"True" replies the GM. "Although I should point out two things. Firstly, half of your defense score is a dodge bonus, which you won't always get. Secondly, no matter how good you are at defense, sometimes you *will* get hit, so don't get carried away with defense and leave yourself too vulnerable to damage."

"Watch out for area attacks too - they use a reflex save rather than an attack roll, and if you get hit with one of those and have a poor toughness..."

"Well... I can be really acrobatic to avoid area attacks, maybe." says Bob. "It just doesn't suit the character to have armor or super-tough skin..."

"No, but you might want to look at the Defensive Roll feat - it assumes that you have the skill to roll with punches, reducing how much damage they do even if you do get hit. But it still counts towards your maximum Toughness save value."

With that in mind, Bob decides to trade off his maximum toughness save with his defense bonus, but not as much as he did with his offensive powers. He chooses Defense Bonus 13 (his Defense score will be 23, 10 plus his 13 Defense Bonus), and decides to that he will use a combination of physical fitness (constitution) and the Defensive Roll Feat to avoid damage, for a maximum damage save of seven. Bob goes ahead and buys his Attack Bonus to +16 for 32 pp (2 pp per point of Attack Bonus) and buys his Defense Bonus to +13 (giving him a Defense Score, which is 10+Defense Bonus, of 23), for 26 pp.

Bob thinks for a while about the ability scores he is going to need - taking into account his previous decisions about trade-offs.

Physically, he needs to be very strong, even more dexterous, and quite fit. Mentally, decides he isn't the type for book learning or clever wit, and keeps his INT and CHA strictly average. Martial Arts does take some dedication, though, so he decides a reasonable WIS score would be a good idea.

So far then, Bob has only set his trade-offs, and bought his ability scores and attack and defense bonuses. His character looks like this.

Maximum Attack bonus: 16
Maximum Damage: 4
Maximum Defense Bonus: 13
Maximum Toughness: 7

STR 18 (+4) (8 points)
DEX 20 (+5) (10 points)
CON 16 (+3) (6 points)
INT 10 (+0) (0 points)
WIS 15 (+2) (5 points)
CHA 11 (+0) (1 point)

Attack Bonus +16 (32 points) (MAXED OUT)
Damage +4 (from strength bonus) (MAXED OUT)

Defense 23 (10 base + 13 Defense Bonus) (26 Points) (MAXED OUT)
Toughness Save +3 (from Con Bonus) (We haven't bought any feats yet)

Initiative +5 (From Dex)

Fortitude Save +3 (from Con Bonus)
Reflex Save +5 (from Dex Bonus)
Will Save +2 (from Wis Bonus)

Points spent so far: 88

*******************************

Bob isn't buying any powers, so he decides to look at feats next. After all, they will be playing such a large part in his character build.

In fact, some might even say that the real thing that represents combat training such as that of a martial artist isn't Base Attack Bonus, but the number of combat feats you have.

Remembering his need to roll with attacks, Bob starts by taking 4 ranks of Defensive Roll (thus maxing out his toughness save). He also takes Uncanny Dodge so that it will be hard for ordinary thugs to take him by surprise - so that he will get his full defense bonus and defensive roll bonus more often. He decides that Uncanny Dodge is based on his hearing (Uncanny Dodge can be somewhat confusing; see Steve's answer here where he explains exactly what Uncanny Dodge protects against).

Bob then thinks about his favorite martial arts movies, and what the heroes in them do.

He wants to be able to handle large numbers of foes at once, and use their numbers against them, and so he takes Takedown Attack and Redirect (and his DM suggests that since Redirect requires you to “trick” the opponent, he takes Acrobatic Bluff, too, so he can trick with his high Acrobatics skill rather than his low Bluff skill). He wants to be very hard to hit - especially by gunmen, so he takes Defensive Attack, and Elusive Target. Kicking weapons out of peoples hands, tossing mooks around like confetti, even fighting in the dark, he goes on until his list of close combat feats is very impressive, spending another 28 points.

His sheet now looks like this:

Maximum Attack bonus: 16
Maximum Damage: 4
Maximum Defense Bonus: 13
Maximum Toughness: 7

STR 18 (+4) (8 points)
DEX 20 (+5) (10 points)
CON 16 (+3) (6 points)
INT 10 (+0) (0 points)
WIS 15 (+2) (5 points)
CHA 11 (+0) (1 point)

Attack Bonus +16 (32 points) (MAXED OUT)
Damage +4 (from strength bonus) (MAXED OUT)

Defense 23 (10 base + 13 Defense Bonus) (26 Points) (MAXED OUT)
Toughness Save +7 (from Con Bonus and Defensive Roll 4) (MAXED OUT)
(Note that if he is caught flat-footed, he only gets his CON bonus)

Initiative +9 (From Dex and Improved Initiative)

Fortitude Save +3 (from Con Bonus)
Reflex Save +5 (from Dex Bonus)
Will Save +2 (from Wis Bonus)

FEATS
Accurate Attack, Acrobatic Bluff, Assessment, Blind-Fight, Chokehold, Critical Strike, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 4, Elusive Target, Grappling Finesse, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Improved Throw, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Luck 2, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Redirect, Stunning Attack, Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

Points spent so far: 116

*******************************

"Don't forget your saves" says Bob's GM. "You don't have any special immunities to poisons or anything, nor any kind of gas mask, so you are going to need a good Fortitude save."

"If somebody throws a poison dart at me, I'll just dodge" says Bob.

"I wouldn't count on it. Remember area attacks? Even if you make your reflex save, you still take half damage. If somebody throw tear-gas grenade at you, you have to make a fortitude save versus a minimum of 12, even if you make the reflex save..."

Realizing that even a simple off the shelf tear-gas grenade is a significant threat, Bob decides to up his saves.

Firstly, he concentrates on the not-getting-hit. He puts an extra 8 points into his reflex save. He puts another 5 into his fortitude save, and then - since he has a martial artists dedication, he also puts 4 points into his will save.

"Very wise" adds his GM, grinning evilly. "Even the most physically adept character can suffer from mind control and other mental effects, happens in the comics all the time."

After that crack, Bob wonders if he has made his saves high enough... but he still has skills to buy, and wants quite a lot of them, so he decides to leave it for now.

His sheet now looks like this:

Maximum Attack bonus: 16
Maximum Damage: 4
Maximum Defense Bonus: 13
Maximum Toughness: 7

STR 18 (+4) (8 points)
DEX 20 (+5) (10 points)
CON 16 (+3) (6 points)
INT 10 (+0) (0 points)
WIS 15 (+2) (5 points)
CHA 11 (+0) (1 point)

Attack Bonus +16 (32 points) (MAXED OUT)
Damage +4 (from strength bonus) (MAXED OUT)

Defense 23 (10 base + 13 Defense Bonus) (26 Points) (MAXED OUT)
Toughness Save +7 (from Con Bonus and Defensive Roll 4) (MAXED OUT)
(Note that if he is caught flat-footed, he only gets his CON bonus)

Initiative +9 (From Dex and Improved Initiative)

Fortitude Save +8 (from Con Bonus and direct purchase)
Reflex Save +13 (from Dex Bonus and direct purchase)
Will Save +6 (from Wis Bonus and direct purchase)

FEATS
Accurate Attack, Acrobatic Bluff, Assessment, Blind-Fight, Chokehold, Critical Strike, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 4, Elusive Target, Grappling Finesse, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Improved Throw, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Luck 2, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Redirect, Stunning Attack, Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

Points spent so far: 133

*******************************

Finally, skills. Once again, Bob draws inspiration from his favorite movies, but first he checks to see if any of his chosen feats rely on skills. His "Acrobatic Bluff" will require lots of Acrobatics, but he was planning on taking that anyway. Being rather cunning, Bob also checks to see if what skills, if any, would help him resist people using combat maneuvers on him.

"You get 4 Skill Ranks for each power point" says his GM.
"So all my skill ranks have to be in multiples of four?" asks Bob, frowning.
"No, no. You can split the points up, so if you spent one point on skills, you could buy 2 ranks in two different skills, or 3 in one and 1 in another."
"Right, Got it."
"Don't forget to check the Ability that the skill relies on. You've got a high dexterity score, for example, so you may not need to take as many ranks in Dex based skills."
"I see how that works, I think." replies Bob. "In fact, if I had loads of skills using the same ability, it might be cheaper to simply raise the ability score."
"Its possible" says his GM "But don't forget, some skills you cannot use untrained - you have to have bought at least one rank in them."

Bearing all this in mind, Bob purchases the following skill ranks:
Dex based skills
Acrobatics 11, Escape Artist 10, Stealth 11
Wis based skills
Concentration 10, Notice 8, Sense Motive 8,
Cha based skills
Intimidate 10
(Total ranks - 68. Power point cost 17)

Note that skill ranks are limited to PL+5 (15 for this character), but a skill's total bonus can be higher than PL+5 because the total bonus includes skill ranks and ability score modifiers. So Bob's 11 ranks in Acrobatics and 11 ranks in Stealth result in total bonuses for Acrobatics and Stealth of +16 counting his +5 Dexterity modifier, and that's fine.

If Bob is stunned, he can roll a Concentration check (DC 10+ ranks in Defensive Roll, so 14 here) to keep use of his Defensive Roll feat even though he’s stunned. And look at that- with his 15 Wisdom, Bob has a +12 Concentration check so he only misses the DC 14 roll on a 1! Since he does not have a large number of skills in any given Ability score, he decides to leave his Ability scores alone. Lucky really, since he has just spent all of his points.

"Why Sense Motive?" asks the GM. "I've always associated that with more investigative characters."
"Ah" says Bob. "I checked the rules, and it's what you use to resist combat feints. I'm supposed to be the martial arts master; I don't want to get faked out by some cheap punk."

The GM Nods. "Sure you don't want to take any drawbacks? Could get you some extra points."
"Not likely" grins Bob "My character is striving for physical and spiritual perfection, I don't want anything that damages that concept. I might take some complications, though, but they don't give extra points, do they?"

The GM confirms that they do not, and since he and Bob are happy with the character, Bob decides that the character is finished (at least mechanically).

The Martial Artist now looks like this:

Maximum Attack bonus: 16
Maximum Damage: 4
Maximum Defense Bonus: 13
Maximum Toughness: 7

STR 18 (+4) (8 points)
DEX 20 (+5) (10 points)
CON 16 (+3) (6 points)
INT 10 (+0) (0 points)
WIS 15 (+2) (5 points)
CHA 11 (+0) (1 point)

Attack Bonus +16 (32 points) (MAXED OUT)
Damage +4 (from strength bonus) (MAXED OUT)

Defense 23 (10 +13 Defense bonus) (26 Points) (MAXED OUT)
Toughness Save +7 (from Con Bonus and Defensive Roll 4) (MAXED OUT) (+3 Flat-Footed)
(If he is caught flat-footed, he only gets his CON bonus)

Initiative +9 (From Dex and Improved Initiative)
Grapple +21 (+16 Attack Bonus + 5 Dex from Grappling Finesse feat)

Fortitude Save +8 (from Con Bonus and direct purchase)
Reflex Save +13 (from Dex Bonus and direct purchase)
Will Save +6 (from Wis Bonus and direct purchase)

FEATS
Accurate Attack, Acrobatic Bluff, Assessment, Blind-Fight, Chokehold, Critical Strike, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 4, Elusive Target, Grappling Finesse, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Improved Throw, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Luck 2, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Redirect, Stunning Attack, Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

SKILLS
Acrobatics 11 (+16)
Concentration 10 (+12)
Escape Artist 10 (+15)
Intimidate 10 (+10)
Notice 8 (+10)
Sense Motive 8 (+10)
Stealth 11 (+16)

Total Points spent: 150

Note that he can choose to use ranks of Defensive Roll to add to his Reflex save for half effect against any Area Attack, but if he does he cannot use it on his Toughness save against that attack, if that attack forces a Toughness save. If you are hit by an Area Attack that forces a Toughness save chances are you won't want to use Defensive Roll, because even if you make the initial Reflex save you'll still have to roll a Toughness save against half damage. If you had Evasion, this would be a different story- then you'd probably want to use Defensive Roll against Area Attacks that force Toughness saves (since making the initial Reflex save means you don't even have to roll the Toughness save).


Here is a Demo Combat between the X-Men and the Brotherhood

Grumman Space Technology Center: Redondo Beach, California

The Blackbird sets down outside the facilities. “Good thing we were visiting Warren in New Mexico,” Cyclops says. “Let’s hope we’re not too late to stop whatever’s happening.” Professor X had contacted the X-Men amidst reports of an attack on the defense contractor’s satellite design headquarters.

Bamf! Nightcrawler reappears. “Find out anything, Kurt?” Cyclops asks. Kurt’s habit of teleporting to scout around while Scott was landing the plane was a little distracting to Scott, but having a scout as quick as Kurt was always useful.

“Lots of cops stationed outside the front entrance, but it seems like they’re waiting for backup before going inside. They weren’t paying much attention to anything coming from this direction—none of them saw me. A Northrop Grumman security vehicle was overturned and looks as if it had been thrown quite a ways.”

Wolverine holds up a fist and snarls “Well, looks like they’re still here”, his words accompanied by a pointed metallic *SNIKT* as his blades extend. “Don’t worry, Scott. I’ll try not’ta kill’em”
“all” he adds under his breath, the word hidden by the sound of the claws sliding back into their sheaths. A single drop of blood falls to the floor as he rubs his (now-whole) knuckles. Cyclops just glares at him, or you presume he would be glaring if you could see underneath his omnipresent visor.

Rogue, the last of the four, steps forward. “Yeah, Logan, you’re sure tough. Now, the two of you want to come with, or are Kurt and I going to have to do this by our lonesome?”

The X-Men surmount the walls of the facility, with Rogue grabbing Cyclops and Wolverine each by an arm and flying and Nightcrawler teleporting. As they get closer to the center, Wolverine looks quizzical “Someone’s been eating McDonald’s here. Recently, too—since the time when Professor X contacted us. Seems familiar, but I can’t figure out who it is.”
When the X-Men reach the center of the facility, they see a hangar used for loading and unloading. The doors are open. Well, make that broken off the hinges. A large truck is parked in the middle of the hangar. Rogue settles to the ground and drops off Cyclops and Wolverine—at least they can behave themselves a little bit! As she does so, two familiar figures, one dwarfing the other, emerge from the facility.

Wolverine exclaims “Blob. I knew it! I could smell you a mile away, you fatso!”
Blob looks hurt. "Hey, don't call Blob fat! Blob have glandular issue."
Cyclops is irritated once again. "Wolverine, is that really necessary? We're here to stop them, not insult them."
Wolverine grins “Whatever you say, your Royal Majesty.”

The silence is broken by the other familiar foe. “If it isn’t you meddlesome twerps,” Pyro sneers. “You should be helping us—we’re here to steal working copies of these satellites, which are being designed to track mutants, so that Magneto can disable them in the future.”

“Not so fast, mein freund”, the perceptive Nightcrawler replies. “If this was really a project critical to mutant security, and only that, then why wouldn’t you have sought our help? You have darker motives here.”

Pyro smirks. “Very well. Stand aside if you want to live.”

“You’ll know we’ll never do that,” Cyclops responds. “And you’re outnumbered.”

The smirk doesn’t leave Pyro’s face. “All the better. And you can’t count.” Rogue gets a tingling sense in her head and tries to shout a warning as a streak of gooey spittle comes hurtling through the air!

Next…

The X-Men (Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Wolverine) vs. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Avalanche, Blob, Pyro, Toad)

Tale of the Tape:
Cyclops, Power Level 10 (150 pp)

Abilities: STR: 12 (+1), DEX: 14 (+2), CON: 18 (+4), INT: 12 (+1), WIS: 16 (+3), CHA: 18 (+4)

Skills: Acrobatics 8 (+10), Concentration 9 (+12), Diplomacy 4 (+8), Drive 4 (+6), Knowledge [Tactics] 11 (+12), Notice 10 (+13), Pilot 8 (+10), Sense Motive 10 (+13), Stealth 4 (+6)

Feats: Assessment, Attack Focus [Ranged] (2), Attack Specialization [Optic Blasts] (2), Defensive Roll (3), Dodge Focus (6), Evasion, Improved Initiative, Inspire (4), Luck, Leadership, Master Plan, Power Attack, Teamwork (2), Uncanny Dodge [Sight]

Powers: Optic Blast Array (28 pp)
Blast 10 (Extra: Targeted Line Area, Partial Extra: Penetrating +6, Flaw- Uncontrolled), AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire, Partial Extra: Penetrating +6, Flaw- Uncontrolled) (26 pp), AP: Deflect 13 [All Projectiles; Extras: Ranged, Action—Move Action; Flaws- Uncontrolled, Limited: No Melee Attacks] (26 pp)

Immunity 1 (Own Powers and Havok’s Powers)
Device 3 [Ruby Quartz Visor, Easy to Lose; Feature: Cyclops gets +4 (+5 total) on opposed rolls to avoid being disarmed] (10 pp)
Ruby Quartz Visor: Removes Uncontrolled Flaw to each power in Optic Blast Array (10 pp); Also, adds Power Feats to Blast powers: Accurate Attack, Improved Aim, Precise Shot (2), Ultimate Effort [Ultimate Aim]

Combat: Attack +4 (+6 ranged, +10 Optic Blasts) [Unarmed 1 dmg; Optic Blast 10 Autofire dmg; Area Optic Blast 10 dmg], Defense 23 (14 flat-footed), Init +6, Grapple +5, Knockback -3, Move 30 feet move action
Saves: Toughness +7 (+4 flat-footed), Fortitude +6, Reflex +9, Will +9

Nightcrawler, Power Level 10 (140 pp) (edit- I accidentally built Nightcrawler on 140 pp instead of 150 pp and I used the 140 pp build for this fight)

Abilities: STR: 16 (+3), DEX: 26 (+8), CON: 16 (+3), INT: 12 (+1), WIS: 16 (+3), CHA: 14 (+2)

Skills: Acrobatics 12 (+20), Bluff 8 (+10), Climb 5 (+8), Concentration 4 (+7), Diplomacy 4 (+6), Knowledge [Theology & Philosophy] 4 (+5), Notice 8 (+11), Pilot 1 (+9), Sense Motive 8 (+11), Stealth 8 (+16), Languages (English, Latin; Base: German)

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, Attack Focus [Melee] (7), Attack Specialization [Unarmed] (2), Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll (3), Dodge Focus (7), Elusive Target, Evasion (2), Extra Limb [Tail], Grappling Finesse, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Initiative, Luck, Martial Strike (3), Redirect, Set Up, Sneak Attack, Takedown Attack, Taunt, Teamwork, Ultimate Defense, Uncanny Dodge [Hearing]

Powers:
Super Movement 1 (Wall Crawling), Super Senses 1 (Low-Light Vision)
Teleport Array (15 pp)
Teleport 8 (Flaw: Short-Range Only, 800 feet as move action, Power Feats: Change Direction, Change Velocity, Progression 2—can carry 500 lbs, Turnabout) (13 pp)
AP: Teleport 4 (Extra: Accurate; Flaw: Short Range only, 400 feet as a move action, Power Feats: Change Direction, Change Velocity, Progression 2—can carry 500 lbs, Turnabout) (13 pp)
AP: Stun 12 (Flaw: Full-Round Action, Drawback: Fails if target over 500 lbs) (11 pp)

Combat: Attack +1 (+8 melee, +12 Unarmed) [Unarmed +6 dmg, Stun Fort DC 22 //+2 dmg on Surprise Attack], Defense 24 (14 flat-footed), Init +12, Grapple +16, Knockback -3

Saves: Toughness +6 (+3 flat-footed), Fortitude +6, Reflex +11, Will +7

Rogue, Power Level 10 (150 pp)

Abilities: STR: 34 [9] (+12), DEX: 12 (+1), CON: 36 [14] (+13), INT: 10 (+0), WIS: 12 (+1), CHA: 14 (+2)

Skills: Bluff 8 (+10/+14), Computers 4 (+4), Diplomacy 4 (+6/+10), Intimidate 8 (+10), Knowledge: Streetwise 5 (+5), Notice 8 (+9), Pilot 4 (+5), Sense Motive 5 (+6), Languages 2 (French, Russian; base: English)

Feats: All Out Attack, Attractive, Evasion, Improved Initiative (2), Interpose, Leadership, Power Attack, Takedown Attack, Teamwork

Powers:
Enhanced Strength 25, AP: Fatigue 12 (Flaw: Full-Round Action) (12 pp) linked to Drain 12 (All Mutant Powers; Flaws: Full-Round Action, Distracting; Power Feat: Slow Fade) (13 pp)
Enhanced Constitution 22, Impervious Toughness 11,
Super Strength 3 [Strength for lifting 49; Heavy Load 11.2 tons], Flight 5 (250 mph), Super-Senses 1 (Danger Sense [Mental])

Combat: Attack +8 [Unarmed +12 dmg, Fatigue/Drain Fort DC 22], Defense 17 (14 flat-footed), Init +9, Grapple +23, Knockback -12

Saves: Toughness +13 (Impervious 11), Fortitude +13, Reflex +7, Will +7

Wolverine , Power Level: 10 (150 pp)

Abilities: STR: 20 [16] (+5), DEX: 16 (+3), CON: 28 (+9), INT: 12 (+1), WIS: 20 (+5), CHA: 8 (-1)

Skills: Climb 0 (+3), Handle Animal 5 (+4), Intimidate 13 (+12), Notice 10 (+15), Sense Motive 7 (+12), Stealth 9 (+12), Survival 6 (+11), Swim 0 (+3), Languages (Chinese, Japanese)

Feats: All-Out Attack, Animal Empathy, Attack Focus [Melee] (8), Diehard, Dodge Focus (6), Fearless, Improved Initiative, Rage 2 [10 Rounds], Power Attack, Startle, Takedown Attack (2), Uncanny Dodge [Scent]

Powers: Container 4 (Adamantium Skeleton; Power Feat: Innate) (21 pp)
Adamantium Skeleton: Permanent Density 2 [+4 Strength, Protection 1 (Extra: Impervious)]; Protection 2; Strike 4 (Extra: Penetrating; PF: Improved Critical 3, Mighty; Drawback: Only Lethal Damage), AP: Super-Movement 1 (Wall-Crawling 1)]

Regeneration 22 (Bruised 1 per round with no rest, Injured 1 per round with no rest, Staggered 1 round, Disabled 1 round; Ability Damage 1 hour, PF: Persistent)
Immunity 2 (Aging, Poison), Speed 1, Super Senses 7 (Scent [Extended, Acute, Accurate, Track], Low Light Vision, Extended Hearing)

Combat: Attack +3 (+11 Melee) [Claws +9 dmg, 17-20 Crit], Defense 19 (12 flat-footed), Init +7, Grapple +16, Knockback -6

Saves: Toughness +11 (1 Impervious), Fortitude +12, Reflex +5, Will +9

Drawbacks: Vulnerable [Magnetism; Uncommon; Major Intensity; 3pp]

VS
Avalanche, PL: 9
Abilities: STR: 16 (+3) DEX: 12 (+1) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 12 (+1) WIS: 12 (+1) CHA: 10 (+0)

Skills: Bluff 10 (+10), Climb 7 (+10), Concentration 4 (+5), Drive 8 (+9), Intimidate 8 (+8), Knowledge [Earth Sciences] 8 (+9), Notice 4 (+5), Sense Motive 4 (+5), Stealth 4 (+5), Survival 4 (+5), Languages [Greek]

Feats: Defensive Roll (2), Equipment (2), Improved Block (2), Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Luck, Teamwork (2), Weapon Break

Powers: Disintegration 9 (Flaw: Ineffective vs. Organic Material) (27 pp), AP: Environmental Control 9 [Distract DC 10 & Hamper Movement—one half speed], AP: Shapeable Area Trip 9 [Extra: Range Perception, Drawback: doesn’t work against flying targets], AP: Nauseate 9 (Extra: Ranged)

Super-Senses 3 (Tremorsense—Accurate Ranged Touch)

Combat: Attack +9 [Gauntlets +4 dmg, Nauseate Fort DC 19], Defense 19 (15 flat-footed), Init +5, Grapple check +12, Knockback -4, Move 30 feet move action

Saves: Toughness +9 (+7 flat-footed), Fortitude +7, Reflex +7, Will +6

Equipment: Uniform & Helmet [+4 Toughness; 4 ep], Gauntlets (Mighty Strike 1) (2 ep), 4 more ep

Drawbacks: Vulnerable [Reflected Vibrations; Uncommon Occurrence; Moderate Intensity; 2pp]

The Blob, PL: 9
Abilities: STR: 32 [14] (+11) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 14 (+2) INT: 08 (-1) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 08 (-1)

Skills: Bluff 13 (+12), Intimidate 13 (+12), Notice 7 (+7), Sense Motive 7 (+7)

Feats: All-Out Attack, Chokehold, Crushing Pin, Distract [Intimidate], Improved Grab, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Improved Pin, Interpose, Power Attack, Stunning Attack, Taunt, Teamwork, Ultimate Effort [Ultimate Toughness Save]

Powers: Density 9 (+18 Strength, +4 Toughness, Impervious Toughness 4, Immovable 3, Super-Strength 3; Permanent, PF: Innate)
Immovable 5, Protection 8 (Extra: Impervious, Drawback: Impervious can’t “bounce” critical hits), Super Strength 2 (Heavy load: 33 tons)

Combat: Attack +7 [Unarmed +11 dmg], Defense 14 (12 flat-footed), Init +6, Grapple check +23, Knockback -21, Weight 1250 lbs, Move 30 ft as a move action

Saves: Toughness +14 (12 Impervious), Fortitude +10, Reflex +6, Will +4

Pyro, PL: 9

Abilities: STR: 12 (+1) DEX: 16 (+3) CON: 14 (+2) INT: 14 (+0) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 16 (+3)

Skills: Acrobatics 6 (+9), Bluff 9 (+12), Concentration 6 (+6), Intimidate 7 (+10), Notice 8 (+8), Search 8 (+10), Sense Motive 8 (+8), Stealth 5 (+8)

Feats: Defensive Roll (2), Dodge Focus (2), Evasion, Improved Initiative, Taunt, Teamwork, Tough, Uncanny Dodge (Sight)

Powers: Device 8 [Fire Suit with flame-thrower; Hard to lose; Restricted—Flame-thrower functions as the equipment chapter flame-thrower for anyone else]
Fire Suit: Protection 2, Immunity 6 (Fire damage—Limited: Half effect; Heat environment), Sensory Shield 1 (Dazzle: Visual)
Flame-thrower: Blast 8 (Extra: Line Area) (Power Feats: Progression 7- reduce range), AP: Leaping 4

Fire Control Array: (Power Feats: Accurate, Accurate Attack, Homing, Power Attack, Precise Shot (2), Split Attack; Drawback: Requires a source of flame)
Fire Control 9, AP: Blast 9, AP: Flame Objects (Create Objects that are made of fire and deal 4 dmg)

Immunity 1 (Own Powers)

Combat: Attack +7 (+9 Flame Blast) [Unarmed +1 dmg, Blast +9 dmg], Defense 21 (15 flat-footed), Init +7, Grapple +8, Knockback -3, Move 30 ft move action, Leap 275 feet running long jump/ 137 feet standing long jump/ 68 feet high jump

Saves: Toughness +7 (5 flat-footed), Fortitude +6, Reflex +8, Will +6

Toad, PL: 9

Abilities: STR: 16 (+3) DEX: 24 (+7) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 14 (+2) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 14 (+2)

Skills: Acrobatics 12 (+19), Bluff 8 (+10), Climb 5 (+8), Computers 4 (+6), Craft [Electronics] 3 (+5), Craft [Mechanical] 3 (+5), Escape Artist 3 (+10), Knowledge [Technology] 3 (+5), Notice 8 (+8), Perform [Comedy] 4 (+6), Sense Motive 8 (+8), Stealth 8 (+15), Swim 9 (+12), Survival 8 (+8)

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, Challenge (Fast Taunt), Defensive Roll (2), Dodge Focus (8), Elusive Target, Evasion, Grappling Finesse, Improved Initiative (2), Improved Trip, Move by Action, Redirect, Set Up, Sneak Attack, Taunt, Teamwork (2), Uncanny Dodge [Hearing]

Powers: Additional Limb 1 (Tongue; Power Feats: Extended Reach x2, Innate), Super-Strength 1 [Mighty Tongue] (Heavy Load: 460 lbs)
Super-Movement 1 (Wall Crawling 1), Leaping 3, Strike 3 (Power Feat: Mighty) [Leaping Attack]
Dazzle 8 (Vision) [Spittle]

Combat: Attack +10 [Strike +6 dmg, Dazzle Reflex DC 18 // +2 dmg on Surprise Attack], Defense 23 (13 flat-footed), Init +15, Grapple check +17, Knockback -2, Leaping distance 130 feet running long jump/65 standing long jump /33 high jump

Saves: Toughness +5 (+3 flat-footed), Fortitude +6, Reflex +11, Will +5

The players: Carl (Cyclops), Nick (Nightcrawler), Rachel (Rogue), Will (Wolverine).
The GM: Greg (GM).

Everyone rolls initiative. Initiative Counts:
Toad 32
Rogue 26 (1 HP)
Avalanche 20
Cyclops 15 (2 HP, due to Luck)
Nightcrawler 13 (2 HP, due to Luck)
Wolverine 9 (1 HP),
Blob 9 (in case of a tied initiative score, the character with highest Dexterity goes first and Wolverine with 16 beats Blob with 14)
Pyro 8

It’s the start of the session, so the players have 1 HP each, plus 1 additional HP for Cyclops and Nightcrawler because each has the Luck feat.

GM: To keep things simple, this is a normal start to a fight—that was just a description of Toad winning initiative. Toad has been hiding just inside the window of a nearby building on the second floor (out of four floors). He emerges, stands on the edge of the window-sill, and shoots his Spittle at Wolverine.

Will: (Normally when you haven’t acted yet at the start of combat you’re flat-footed and lose your Dodge bonus to Defense). Assuming I can smell him coming, Uncanny Dodge means that I’m not flatfooted. So Defense 19.

GM: You definitely can. He’s about 60 feet away from you in total, so no penalties due to range (range penalties won’t start until he gets past 80 feet, the normal range increment for a rank 8 Ranged Power). Attack Bonus +10, rolls a 7 for a total attack roll= 17. A miss! Wolverine smells Toad coming and ducks as the goop shoots past where his head used to be.

Then Toad uses his Taunt feat on you as a move action—“Not bad for one so clumsy. You’ll make the Special Olympics yet.” The GM rolls for Toad at +10 Bluff (thanks to the Fast Taunt Challenge feat, he takes no penalty to Taunt as a move action) against the best of Wolverine’s Bluff, Sense Motive or Will save (Sense Motive at +12). Toad rolls a 6 for a total of 16; Wolverine rolls a 7 for a total of 19. Wolverine keeps his cool. Rogue up next.

Rachel: Wolverine won’t be able to reach Toad up there, so I’ll go after him. “That’s not the way you greet a lady, Toad. You need to learn some manners.” Rogue flies up and punches him. Attack bonus +8, I roll a natural 20! That’s an auto-hit! Now I roll to confirm the critical, right?

GM: No, you don’t roll to confirm critical hits in M&M. A 20 auto-hits and if it would have hit without the auto-hit rule then it’s automatically a critical (pg 153). His Defense is 23, so your total of 28 would have hit him without the auto-hit rule. So you hit him and deal your normal damage plus 5. Toad is caught off guard by Rogue’s speed and she lays into him with a vicious haymaker.

Rachel—Rogue does 12 damage normally, so that’s 17 damage. Toughness Save DC 32. Note: the DC for Toughness saves= 15 + amount of damage dealt (see pg 70). For non-Toughness saves, the DC is 10+rank (and a critical hit would add 5 to the DC as well).

GM: Wow. Toad has a +5 Toughness save bonus, so he can’t possibly make this. A natural 20 doesn’t auto-make a Toughness save, but if he rolls a natural 20, then he only takes a bruise no matter what the attack’s DC is (pg 163). He rolls a 13, for a total of 18. Miss by 14- so he’s Staggered and Stunned. Greg considers using GM Fiat to let Toad reroll the save (the Improved Roll hero point function), but he’d have to get a roll of 18 (really, 8,9,10,18,19,20 since you add 10 if the reroll is below 10) to improve on the current result, and that’s probably not worth it. Plus, it’s very thematic for Toad to get leveled by a good hit, which is what just happened here.

He’s knocked back—17 damage -2 Knockback modifier= 15. Greg looks on the Progression table—rank 15 is 50,000 feet. He decides that’s a little much and doesn’t count the critical hit damage when figuring Knockback, so rank 10 for 1000 feet. It won’t really matter in this case because Toad will hit something before long (and it won’t be super-hard, as Knockback damage is limited to the minimum of the Toughness of the object Toad hits or the Knockback result, so if the object was really hard having a higher Knockback would have let Rogue deal more damage), but it’s good to keep in mind whether Knockback makes sense before announcing it (see pg 165). Toad can try to reduce the Knockback with an Acrobatics check, but that can’t possibly affect anything so the GM skips it. He decides that Toad gets thrown into the building and hits a wooden table with Toughness 3, so he takes 3 damage.

As Toad is stunned, he can make a Concentration check to keep use of his Defensive Roll feat (DC 10+ ranks in Defensive Roll, so 12). Toad has no ranks in Concentration and 10 Wisdom, so he’s rolling at +0. Toad rolls a 2 and fails it. So Toad takes 3 damage, for a DC 18 Toughness save, and he rolls an 11, for a total of 14. Toad takes a Bruise, leaving him Staggered, Stunned, and Bruised. He’s lying prone on top of the table from the Knockback and the table has a huge crack down the middle, where the impact nearly split it in two! Toad moans pathetically.

Rachel—Rogue stifles a giggle. “That ought ta show ya!”

GM: Avalanche is up next. He moves out from behind a shed on the roof and appears at the edge of the roof, two stories above Rogue. “Hey, Toad, you idiot, you just got beat by a woman!” No response. No one besides Rogue realizes quite how hard she hit Toad.

Avalanche uses his Area Trip power on all of the X-Men on the ground. It’s a Shapeable Area and can hit any 9 5-foot cubes as long as they’re all touching each other, so he can get you all. He makes a Trip roll at +9 and rolls a 5, for a total of 14. Best of Str/Dex to avoid being tripped—you don’t get a Reflex save for half effect because it’s a Perception Area attack.

Carl: “Nice work, Rogue.” Cyclops uses his Acrobatics score to resist the trip (one of the lesser-known functions of Acrobatics—see the skill description). Acrobatics +10, plus a roll of 6—made it with a 16.

Nick: Nightcrawler also uses his Acrobatics score and at +20, he can’t possibly miss this. So he makes it.

Will: Wolverine rolls his Strength score at +5. Roll of 19, for a total of 24.

GM: The X-Men easily keep their balance despite the shaking ground beneath them. Cyclops is up next.

Carl: Cyclops knows he should deal with Pyro, as he’s the most ruthless and attacks for lethal damage with his blasts of flame. So I’m going to attack him while he’s flat-footed, using my Autofire Optic Blast power. +10 to hit, with attack roll= 15, for a total of 25. 10 damage if it hits, plus any extra from Autofire.

GM: Pyro has Uncanny Dodge (Sight), just like Cyclops, so he keeps his normal defense score of 21. But that still hits, and it hits by 4 extra over what it needed to hit, so Cyclops does 2 extra damage, for 12 damage total. DC 27 Toughness save. Pyro has a +7 to save and rolls an 18 for a total of 25- he only takes a glancing blow from Cyclop’s optic blasts and is left with a bruise. Nightcrawler is up next.

Nick: Blob is really tough and Nightcrawler doesn’t do that much damage, so I probably shouldn’t attack him because I won’t be able to hurt him. But Avalanche doesn’t seem that tough and attacking him is better than attacking Pyro and risking getting hit by both Blob and Pyro in return. So I teleport onto the roof and kick Avalanche as I appear next to him. Attack bonus +12, roll a 7 for a total of 19. 6 damage if it hits.

GM: You hit his Defense exactly. So he has to make a DC 21 Toughness save. His bonus is +9 and he rolls a 5, so that’s a total of 14—Stunned and Bruised. OK, I’m using GM Fiat to reroll that. Nightcrawler gets a hero point. Reroll is 3, but you add 10 to that since it was below 10, so 13+ 9= 22, and Avalanche is unharmed. Avalanche’s armor absorbs the kickfrom Nightcrawler. “That all you got?” he taunts. Wolverine is next.

Will: Wolverine is going after Blob. He’ll show him who the toughest melee combatant around is. Wolverine extends his claws and charges--+2 attack and -2 Defense for a round. Attack at +13, roll a natural 1!

GM: A natural 1 is an auto-miss, so that misses even though an attack roll total of 14 would have hit Blob. Wolverine stumbles as he charges Blob and his slashing claws catch only air as he regains his balance. Now Blob is up. Blob is confident now. “Trip over your own shoelaces? You are no match for the Blob” he crows. Blob swings a meaty hand at Wolverine. Attack at +7, attack roll of 17 for a hit. 11 damage, so Toughness DC 26.

Will: +11 Toughness save, I roll an 11, so a total of 22. Take a Bruise. Wolverine gets hit in the shoulder by Blob and feels the force of the blow but his adamantium skeleton absorbs most of the impact. With his healing factor he’ll be fine within moments.

GM: Pyro is up now. He steps back and lines up Wolverine with Cyclops and then uses his flamethrower to shoot a huge gust of fire that catches both of them in the blast.

Will: Are we standing in a line?

GM: Two points determine a line—the only question is whether Pyro can get on a point along the line as well to use the attack and he can since Wolverine charged pretty much head on and Cyclops is only at a slight angle behind him, so he doesn’t have to move much.

Will: Well, won’t that hit Blob too?

GM: Right, it will. Blob is amused. “That tickles,” he laughs as the fire spreads around him. Reflex DC 18 for half damage, 8 if you miss the save and 4 if you make it. Damage is lethal.

Carl: Reflex save at +9—roll an 8 for 17. Darn, missed by one. I have Evasion, so if I’d made the save I wouldn’t have taken any damage. Toughness save DC 23, rolling at +7, I roll a 16—made it exactly!

Will: Reflex save at +5—roll a 13 for 18, so I make it exactly. I take 4 damage, so Toughness save DC 18. I'm still rolling at +11 despite having a bruise from Blob, because Bruises only penalize saves against nonlethal damage. Rolling at +11—I roll an 8, so I made it by one!

GM: Wow, my villains are totally ineffective. At the end of the first round, Wolverine has a bruise, Nightcrawler has gained an HP to be at 3 HP, Toad is staggered, stunned and bruised, and Pyro is bruised. Next round- Toad would up, but he’s stunned until Rogue’s action. So Rogue is up.

Very important side note: Toad recovers from Stun on Rogue's initiative count before she gets to take an action. This means that if Rogue tried to attack Toad now, he would not be stunned when defending against her attack.

Rachel: Rogue will fly down to help Wolverine against the Blob. He’s probably quite tough but easy to hit so I’ll power attack for 2. Rolling an attack roll at +6, 14 damage if it hits: 11, for a total of 17.

GM: That hits. Toughness save DC 29—Blob rolls at +14—oh, no, a natural 1! Can’t these guys do anything right? Rogue gets a hero point (for 2 total) as I use GM Fiat to have Blob reroll. 17—that’s better—total of 31 so Blob is unharmed. Rogue almost punches him in the head, but Blob gets his arm up and deflects her attack.

Next, Avalanche growls at Nightcrawler—“now you will feel my power.” He sends waves of vibration energy at Nightcrawler. Nauseate power, attack at +9, attack roll 5=14. Nightcrawler easily teleports out of the way. “Not with aim like that, I won’t!”

Carl: Cyclops will spend a Hero Point to use his Inspire feat as a full-round action. Since I’m at rank 4, all of the others get +4 to attack rolls, checks (skill checks, ability checks and power checks), and saves until I’m up again next round (I can affect a number of allies up to my charisma bonus, 4). Cyclops calls out encouragement to his allies, which they shouldn’t need too much since we’re kicking their butts already.

GM: I know. Like you guys needed even more bonuses. Nightcrawler is next.

Nick: Might as well take advantage of Inspiration. I’ll spend a hero point to gain Power Attack for the round. Then I’ll Acrobatic Bluff to feint Avalanche as a move action- normal bonus of +20, -5 for doing it as a move action and +4 from Inspire, so I’m rolling at +19. I roll a 13, for a total of 32.

GM: Well, he can’t possibly beat that. So he loses his dodge bonus against your next attack and also gets -2 to Defense (and can’t use his Defensive Roll feat, he thinks, but he doesn’t mention that to Nick!)

Nick: Plus I get Sneak Attack bonus damage. I’ll Power Attack for 5 and attack with my standard action, +12 base -5 Power Attack + 4 Inspiration= +11. I roll a 17 for a total of 28! So that definitely hits. Damage= 6 base + 2 Sneak Attack + 5 Power Attack= 13. Nightcrawler goes after Avalanche with a furious assault.

GM: Uh oh. Nightcrawler teleports all around Avalanche and Avalanche loses sight of the blue mutant, who pops up in the air right behind him and delivers a vicious kick to the back of the head. DC 28 Toughness save, rolling at +7- I roll a natural 20! Finally some luck! It doesn’t make the save, but it’s a bruise both because it missed by 1 and because when you roll a natural 20 the worst that can happen is a bruised result. Avalanche’s helmet absorbs almost all of the energy of the kick.

Nick: I’m not done yet. I’m going to use Extra Effort to surge and take another standard action and kick him again. Attack roll at +11, roll a 15.

GM: OK. Acrobatic Bluff only caused him to be surprised against the first attack, so he sees this one coming. But that still hits. Nightcrawler teleports around and kicks Avalanche again. Avalanche sees the second kick coming, so he gets to roll this Toughness save at +8 (+9, his regular Toughness save, -1 for the Bruise he just took). Since he sees this one coming, you don’t deal Sneak Attack damage. That makes it DC 26. I roll a 17, for a total of 25. Avalanche takes another Bruise from a second kick to the stomach, but he’s still up. What a great set of rolls for once! Nick, you’ll have to spend a hero point next round or be fatigued. Will, over to you.

Will: Wolverine regenerates his Bruise (Wolverine recovers from bruises once a round with no rest and no check required—note that if he had a more serious injury he’d have to recover from that first and he only gets one recovery check in a round).

(Side note: Note that a character with Regeneration that normally requires an action (Standard or Full round) can regenerate while stunned/unconscious. See Steve's answer here)

Then Wolverine will unleash a fearsome roar at Blob and attack him with a slashing frenzy. Once Cyclops uses Inspiration it’s a good time to try feints because your skill bonuses are higher, and to use Power Attack to take advantage of your extra bonuses to hit. It’s also a good time to use Extra Effort to Surge to take an extra attack so you get the Inspiration bonus twice in a round. Startle as a move action, Intimidate +12 -5 +4= +11. I roll a 6, for a total of 17. Best of Intimidate, Sense Motive and Will save to resist.

GM: Blob rolls a 15 and beats you with a total of 27.

Will: That’s fine, he’s still easy to hit. Power Attack for 5, so I’m attacking at +10 (+11 – 5 PA + 4 Inspiration). Roll of 16- total of 26. That’s got to hit. Damage of 14—and it’s Wolverine’s claws, so it’s lethal.

GM: It does. Blob is rolling the save at +14 against DC 29. Natural 20! No damage. Wolverine’s claws bounce off of Blob’s tremendous stomach as Blob laughs. “Nothing hurts the Blob!”

Will: Darn. Well, I’ll use Extra Effort to Surge and attack him again. Attack roll of 9, for a total of 19. 14 more damage if it hits.

GM: That hits too. Blob rolls another save at +14 against DC 29. Roll of 11, for a total of 25. Injury plus Bruise. Wolverine’s claws rake across Blob’s stomach. “Ouch!” Blob says. “That hurt!” Now he’s up.

Blob will try to grapple Wolverine. Attack roll at +7- he rolls an 18, so a total of 25 hits your Defense of 19. Give me a grapple check. Blob rolls at +23, and rolls a 15 for a total of 38.

Will: Inspire applies to grapple checks since it increases your attack bonus. So Wolverine would normally roll at +16 but he’s rolling at +20 here. I roll a 4- total of 24. He’s got me.

GM (grinning evilly): Blob is going to throw you, which takes his move action as well. He picks Wolverine up and heaves him at Cyclops. “Blob not dumb. Blob know about Fastball Special!” His Strength for lifting is 57; it takes about 18 Strength to lift you and throw you 5 feet, so 33 Strength can throw you 50 feet and 48 Strength can throw you 500 feet. So this is a real short throw for him—his range increment is one-fifth his maximum throwing distance, which will be well over 100 feet (see pg 162).

Attack roll to hit Cyclops- he rolls an 18, for a total of 25 and hits your 23 Defense. Both of you take 11 damage for his +11 Strength modifier. DC 26 Toughness save.

Carl: That was a surprisingly clever tactic by Blob. Too bad Inspiration doesn’t benefit me as well. Rolling at +7, roll of 15 makes 22. Cyclops takes a Bruise as Wolverine smashes into him.

Will: +4 to my normal Toughness save bonus from Inspiration, so rolling at +15. Roll of 17 for a total of 32—Wolverine is unharmed.

GM: Wolverine is on the ground, prone, in the same square as Cyclops, who managed to roll backwards and absorb most of the impact. Pyro chortles “Like sitting ducks. And soon to taste like roasted duck, too! You were never much good at dodging, one-eye!” Pyro taunts Cyclops as a move action, best of Sense Motive, Will Save and Bluff check to resist. Pyro rolls bluff at +7 (12 usual – 5 for doing it as a move action), rolls a 3 for a total of 10.

Carl: I can’t miss that with Sense Motive +13.

GM: OK, Pyro launches another Line Area Flame Blast at the two of you. 8 lethal damage; Reflex saves DC 18 for half damage, then Toughness saves.

Carl: Natural 1, for a total of 10 (natural 1s don’t auto-fail saving throws). That misses. Toughness save rolling at +7 (note that Bruises only penalize saves against nonlethal damage, so his Bruise doesn’t subtract from his roll here) against DC 23. Rolled a 19—made it!

Will: Reflex save at +5—rolled a 12, missed it. Rolling the Toughness save at +15 against DC 23—rolled a 17, so I made that too.

GM: End of the second round. Nightcrawler has 2 HP, Cyclops 1 HP, Rogue 2 HP, Wolverine 1 HP. Cyclops is bruised. Nightcrawler and Wolverine will become fatigued when their next turn rolls around unless they spend a hero point to avoid the fatigue. Toad is Staggered + Bruised, but no longer stunned. Pyro is Bruised. Blob is Injured + Bruised. Avalanche has two bruises. Inspire bonuses are still running. But the Brotherhood is still in this fight after a round of good rolls!

GM: Toad finally gets to do something. He springs to his feet, using a DC 20 Acrobatics check (see skill description) to stand as a free action—his bonus is +19 so he automatically makes it. As he’s staggered, he only gets a move action or a standard action—he’ll jump to the edge of the window where he was perched when Rogue punched him. “One lucky punch, woman! You won’t hit me so easily again!”

Rachel: “We’ll see about that!” Rogue flies up and swats this annoying upstart. With Inspire, attack roll at +12 (+8 base +4 Inspire) for 12 damage. Attack roll 11, for a total of 23.

GM: Oh no, that hits exactly. Toughness save DC 27, rolling at +4 due to one previous Bruise. Rolls a 15, for a total of 19. Stunned and Bruised. Knockback kicks in. Toad almost dodges her punches but then she connects with one to the chest, throwing him back into the building, into the same desk he landed on before. I’ll be nice and say he doesn’t take any more knockback damage. He moans pathetically anyway.

(Side note: the description on page 171 of the core book- "any further damage to a staggered character shifts the character's condition to unconscious" is wrong. You can see that this sort of conflicts with the information on page 164 under the Tracking Damage section, as there would be no reason to tell you that a staggered character who is staggered again becomes unconscious if any damage to a staggered character rendered that character unconscious. Page 171 has received errata- page 171 — Staggered: Change the second sentence to read: “A staggered character who is staggered again is rendered unconscious.”)

Rachel: “You think he’d have learned! Men! Never leave a girl alone!”

GM: Avalanche sees a lamp-post across the street from Rogue and gets an idea. He uses his Disintegrate power to cause the base of the lamp-post to crumble, sending it hurtling towards Rogue. Let’s call this a 9 damage attack, with a Reflex save for Rogue (DC 19) for no effect.

Rachel: Reflex save is a natural 1, for a total of 12 (+7 base + 4 for Inspiration). Oh, look- I have 11 Impervious Toughness, which lets me ignore any (Toughness save) attack that does 10 damage or less. So it doesn’t do anything.

GM: You’re right. The lamp-post hits Rogue dead on and bounces off without even coming close to harming her. Avalanche looks disquieted. Cyclops is up next and all of the Inspire bonuses wear off.

Carl: Cyclops is pissed. “I took your best shot, Blob, now you can take mine.” Attacking Blob, +10 to hit, roll a 16 for a total of 26. +1 extra damage for every 2 it hits by, to a maximum of +5 extra damage (Autofire maxes out at +5 extra damage, or half the rank of the attack, rounded up, whichever is higher, so since this is rank 10 it maxes out at 5 extra damage) from Autofire if it hits by 10 or more.

GM: Normally his Impervious would make him immune to a 10 damage attack (and the extra damage from autofire doesn’t help overcome Impervious), but you have Penetrating as a rank 6 partial extra, so he’d need to have Impervious 17 to bounce that attack! That hits by 10 or more, so 15 damage total. You know, I’m going to have Blob use his Ultimate Toughness feat with a use of GM Fiat instead of rolling (at +13, +14 base -1 for the bruise he already took). So he gets an auto-20 on his save (but it doesn’t count as a natural 20), for a total of +33 and since the DC was 30, he’s unaffected. Blob’s prodigious gut withstands a direct hit from Cyclops’ Optic Blasts, but it definitely looked like he could feel it. Cyclops gets a hero point.

Nick: I’ll buy off the fatigue by spending a hero point. Then I’ll grab Avalanche and try to use my Stun power on him (switching my Teleport array to the Stun power as a free action) by rapidly teleporting in place to cause him to pass out from the strain. It’s a full-round action so I can’t do anything else. Attack at +8, attack roll of 6 for a total of 14.

GM: That misses. Nightcrawler can’t get a hand on Avalanche for long enough to activate his teleport and take Avalanche with him. Wolverine is up next.

Will: Wolverine is really mad now. That was embarrassing. Hero Point to buy off fatigue. Stand up as a move action. Go into Rage for +4 Str, +2 Fort/Will saves, -2 Defense for 10 rounds. Use Extra Effort to surge and charge at Blob, All-Out Attack 5 and Power Attack 5. Attacking at +13 (+11 base + 2 Charge +5 All-Out Attack – 5 Power Attack), for 16 damage (9 base + 5 Power Attack + 2 from the extra strength from Rage). Defense is 10 (19 base – 5 All-Out Attack -2 Charge – 2 Rage). Wolverine gets up and launches himself at Blob in his best imitation of what a fastball special would look like if Colossus were here to throw him. Attack roll= 10, for a total of 23. That’s got to hit—16 lethal damage, DC 31.

GM: Jeez. Too bad Blob already used Ultimate Toughness this round. Rolling at +13 from his previous Injury—rolled a 19! No damage. Wolverine’s claw sinks into Blob’s paunch and don’t do anything—but Wolverine is caught off balance!

Blob is going to return the favor, punching you, Power Attacking for 5 and All-Out Attacking for 4 (note that since Blob only has a +4 defense bonus, he can’t All-Out Attack for 5 because he doesn’t have 5 points of defense bonus to trade off!). Attacking at +6 (+7 base, -5 Power Attack, +4 All-Out Attack), for 16 damage. Blob’s defense is now 10. Roll of 16- that’s a hit. Give me a DC 31 Toughness save.

Will: Rolled a 4 for a total of 15. Uh-oh, I’m out of hero points. I guess being a crazed berserker has its downsides.

GM: Miss by 16—Unconscious! The Blob backhands Wolverine with his left arm sending him reeling backwards, and then lands a perfect uppercut right on Wolverine’s chin! Wolverine goes flying across the facility and comes down (since Wolverine is out, it doesn’t much matter what the GM picks) over a hundred feet away, crushing the roof of a nice Toyota Camry. He doesn’t stir—Wolverine is out! "See ya!" Blob exclaims.

Will: Ouch. This is what happens when everyone is rolling d20s, I guess. That makes me the person who should go pick up pizza for dinner. See you all in a bit!

GM: Pyro is up next. “One down”, he sneers. He launches a regular Blast of fire at Cyclops. +9 to hit, attack roll of 7, for a total of 16. Cyclops ducks under Pyro’s bolt of flame but is astonished to see the flame arc around and head back towards him (Pyro’s Blast has the Homing feat, so he’ll get another attack with it next round).

End of the third round. Wolverine is out (0 HP). Cyclops is bruised, 2 HP. Nightcrawler and Rogue are both unhurt, Rogue with 2 HP and Nightcrawler with 1. Blob has 1 Injury + 1 Bruise; Pyro has 1 Bruise, Toad is stunned and staggered and has 2 bruises. Avalanche has 2 Bruises.

Toad would be up again, but as usual he’s stunned. Rogue’s turn.

Rachel: “You can handle Wolverine, Blob, but I bet you can’t handle lil’ol’me.” Rogue will fly down and punch Blob, power attacking for 3. Attack roll +5 (+8 normal -3 Power Attack), for 15 damage if it hits. Attack roll=15, so that hits for 15 damage.

GM: Blob has to roll another Toughness save—DC 30, at +13 again. Rolled a 19—Blob takes no damage as Rogue’s punch fails to move him in the slightest!

Rachel: I’m using Extra Effort to Surge and attack him again. Rolled a 15 for a total of 20- take another 15 damage, bub.

GM: Blob rolls an 18, so no damage yet again! This isn’t even my weighted dice! Rogue continues her attack to no effect. Blob is sure living up to his image. Rogue will need to spend an HP next round or suffer fatigue.

Avalanche is up. He tries to demoralize Nightcrawler with Intimidate—“your clawed friend can’t save you now!” Avalanche rolls a 10 for a total of 13 (+8 base, -5 move action). Best of Will save, Intimidate and Sense Motive.

Nick: Sense Motive at +11 with a roll of 10—21.

GM: Well, these taunts aren’t working out too well. But at least the Toughness saves are. Avalanche uses his Nauseate attack on Nightcrawler once again. Attack roll of 14 for a total of 23—still misses Nightcrawler’s 24 Defense. Cyclops is up.

Carl: I’ve got to take out Pyro before this attack comes back in and hits me. I’ll use Bluff to feint as a move action to try to get Pyro to think I’m attacking Blob. Looks like I don’t have any ranks in Bluff, so I’m rolling at -1 (+4 from Cha, -5 from doing it as a move action). Oh, rolled a 5 for a total of 4—that’s got to be pretty obvious. Resist with best of Bluff and Sense Motive.

Edit: This initially said that a Feint could be resisted by best of Bluff, Sense Motive, or Will save. That last part is incorrect. You can resist a use of the Taunt feat, Distract feat, Fascinate Feat, or Startle feat with your Will save but not a plain Bluff-based Feint.

GM: Yeah, he resists with his Bluff score, which is much higher than that. You don’t fool him in the slightest.

Carl: OK, Accurate Attack for 2, attacking Pyro with the Autofire Blast. Oops, rolled a 1! I’ll reroll it with a hero point. Down to 1 HP. Roll of 13 for a total of 25 (attack +10 normally + 2 Accurate Attack). What’s his Defense? 21? So that hits for 10 damage (10 base -2 Accurate Attack + 2 from hitting by 4).

GM: Pyro has a bruise, so he’s rolling at +6 instead of his usual +7, DC 25. Oh no, I rolled a natural 1. That would be a KO and I don’t want him out of the fight yet. GM Fiat to reroll that- you get a hero point. Reroll is a 15, for a total of 21—just bruised again.

Carl: Well, now that I have my second hero point back, I’ll use Extra Effort to attack him again. Rolled an 8, for a total of 20. Darn, just missed him.

Nick: Nightcrawler is up. I’m going to try the same Acrobatic Feint as before. Rolling at +15 as a move action; he gets +1 to better of Acrobatics or Sense Motive to resist, since I’ve already tried Acrobatic Feint on him before. Rolled a 15, for a total of 30.

GM: You got him; he can’t beat that.

Nick: I’m going to teleport right inside of his guard and punch him to try to knock him off the roof. Attack roll=16, for a total of 28. That’s got to hit. 8 damage counting Sneak Attack, so DC 23.

GM: Avalanche is at +5 on his save (+7, his flat-footed Toughness save bonus, -2 for the two bruises). Rolled a 5, so a 10 total leaves him Staggered and Stunned! Sneak Attack shouldn’t add to Knockback, but since he was flat-footed he doesn’t get Defensive Roll to reduce it. So 6 damage – 3 Knockback= 3, so 5 feet. You knock him straight off the roof!

He gets a Concentration check to keep defensive roll while stunned—rolls a 16 for a total of 21, so he makes it: It’s 40 feet down, so the fall does 4 damage. Toughness save at DC 19, rolling at +7 (+9 - 2 for the two bruises). Avalanche rolls a 2, for a total of 9. Fail by 10-14; that would be another staggered condition but since he already has one staggered condition the next staggered condition knocks him out! Avalanche hits the ground with a thud and doesn’t move.

Blob is up. He tries the same maneuver on Rogue that he did on Wolverine, but this time he uses Bluff to try to Feint Rogue first. Bluff as a move action at +7—natural 20! Resist with best of Bluff and Sense Motive.

Rachel—My best is Bluff. I don’t suppose Attractive will help me resist a feint, so it’s just +10. Rolled a 4—I’m fooled.

GM: “Little old you is about to get crushed!” Blob moves with quickness that catches Rogue off guard and launches an uppercut right at her chin. Power Attack for 5, All-Out Attack for 4. Attacking at +6 for 16 damage. Your Defense is 12 (regular defense -2 and losing your Dodge bonus, see "Surprise Attacks" on page 163). He rolls a 7, for a total of 13—just barely hits. Toughness save DC 31.

Rachel: Good thing I’m uninjured. Rolling at +13—rolled an 11, for a total of 24. Stunned and Bruised. I can live with that.

GM: I’ll say that Power Attack only adds 1 to Blob’s Knockback, so that’s 12 Knockback, the same as your resistance to Knockback, so you aren’t knocked back at all. Rogue is caught off guard and hit on the chin, but she takes the punch and remains standing.

Now, Pyro. He’ll get his Homing Attack on Cyclops. Roll of 15 gives a total of 24 which hits his 23 Defense. DC 23 Toughness save.

Carl: Rolling a Toughness save at +6—rolled a 5. I’m going to reroll that. Rolled a 2! That gets increased to 12, so I get an 18—Injured, Bruised and Stunned. 1 HP left.

Edit: I made a mistake here. Cyclops had already used the Improved Roll function of hero points on his turn to reroll his attack roll and he's limited to using Improved Roll once in a personal round- from his initiative count on one round to the next. So he shouldn't have been able to use it again here.

GM: Pyro laughs as his attack scorches Cyclops. Then he turns to Rogue and launches a powerful stream of fire, Power Attacking for 5!

Rachel: I don’t like the looks of that. I’m going to spend a hero point on the Recovery function to recover from being stunned before you resolve that attack.

GM: Good idea. Attack at +4, roll of 10 for a total of 14 misses you. It would have hit but for your quick thinking! Rogue just barely dodges the fire, which like it did with Cyclops, arcs around and comes back towards her. Pyro taunts her “My fire is too hot for you, girl!” Bluff at +7 as a move action, resist with best of Bluff, Sense Motive and Will save. He rolls a 1—never mind, that’s below your +10 Bluff check, so it will certainly fail.

End of round 4. Wolverine and Avalanche are out! Cyclops is Stunned, Injured, has 2 bruises and has 1 HP but will need to spend one or be fatigued next round. Rogue has 1 Bruise; she has 1 HP and will have to spend it or be fatigued next round. Nightcrawler is still unharmed and has 2 HP. Blob has 1 Injury and 1 Bruise. Toad is Staggered and has 2 Bruises. Pyro has 2 Bruises.

Toad is up first. He again picks himself up off of the desk with Acrobatics as a free action and jumps back out to the window. “Two lucky shots, woman. But you’ll never get a third!”

Rachel: “Oh, for crying out loud! You’re worse than some of my ex-boyfriends. That’s it!”

I'm not going to spend my last hero point on avoiding fatigue. So Rogue is fatigued, has -2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, -1 to attack and defense and can’t move all-out or charge. Rogue flies up and All-Out Attacks Toad for 5, forgetting about Pyro’s fire which is homing in on her. Attack roll at +12 (+8 base +5 All-Out Attack, -1 Fatigued). Darn, I rolled a 5, for a total of 17, which would miss his 23 Defense. I’m rerolling that. The reroll gives a 6, which goes up to a 16, for a total of 28, which hits for 11 damage due to the Fatigue. Rogue punches Toad yet again.

GM: Toad has to make a Toughness save at DC 26, rolling at +3. He rolls a 15, for a total of 18—Stunned + Bruised! Toad goes flying back into the room, where he crashes into the stone wall! Concentration check of +0 against DC 12 to keep his Defensive Roll feat active—failed! Damage of 5, and he saves at +0 (+3 from Con, -3 from Bruises). DC 20, roll of 6—fail by 14, so another Staggered result. Toad is out! The piteous moaning finally ceases.

Rachel: Rogue pauses to catch her breath. “Finally! Good night, sugah!”

Carl: Cyclops will shake off the stun with a hero point so he can act. I don’t care about the fatigue. I’m going to move so that I line up Blob and Pyro and shoot a Line Area Targeted Blast at both of them. No Power Attack or Accurate Attack. Attacking at +9 due to Fatigue. Attack roll of 2. Well, that’s what I saved the last HP for (edit: I made a mistake here, Cyclops should actually be out of HP at this point). Rerolling that. Got a 12! That’s better. Total of 21 should hit both of them for 10 damage, so DC 25.

GM: It does. Cyclops unleashes an incredible wave of energy, hitting Blob and sweeping past him to hit Pyro who is a ways behind him. Blob rolls at +13 (again, this attack has partial penetrating 6 so it gets past his Impervious), rolls a 6—Stunned and Bruised. He’s the Blob, though—he’s not knocked back in the slightest.

Pyro rolls at +5 from his 2 Bruises: Uh, oh, rolled a 2—he’s out! Pyro doesn’t see the Optic Blast coming and it hits with him tremendous force and throws him against the wall of the hangar. He falls limply to the ground. The fire tracking Rogue dissipates.

Nick: Nightcrawler teleports down to the ground as a move action. He uses his Taunt feat on Blob as a standard action—“Surrender, mein freund, you are outnumbered.”

GM: Nightcrawler gets +2 to his roll because of what just happened to Pyro.

Nick: Rolling at +12 (+10 base +2 circumstances), rolled a 15 for a total of 27.

GM: Blob also rolls at +12. He rolls a 12, for a total of 24. He’s demoralized for a round.

Blob is stunned and has had enough of this in any case—he looks around at his defeated friends (and up at the room where Toad has so often vanished into) and surrenders. “But you never really hurt me! Only my friends!” he adds. “Nothing hurts the Blob!”

THE WINNER: The X-MEN. The fight was made much more difficult by some spectacular toughness saves on the part of the Blob. Toad never got to do anything in the fight thanks to that critical hit on round 1 by Rogue. But he did provide comic relief, which he’s always good for. I’d like to use him again so I can see the build in action. Wolverine also had a poor showing, due to the Blob rolling so well and Wolverine getting that 4 on his Toughness save when he was out of HP. But don’t worry; he’ll bounce back before long!


Daniel Foreman, better known as the loathsome supervillain White Knight (from the Freedom City source book), was spotted around the Washington, D.C. area. The Avengers were contacted about this development and the team decided to dispatch Beast, Black Widow and Luke Cage (a longtime foe of White Knight) to bring him to justice.

The players: Leon (Luke Cage), Brian (Beast), Bethany (Black Widow). The players all start with 2 Hero Points, as each has taken the Luck feat.
The GM: Greg (GM)

Bethany: Black Widow has Knowledge: Current Events at +10, so I’m going to take 10 on the skill to get a total of 20. Are there any events happening that would cause the White Knight to particularly want to be in the DC Area?

GM: Nothing in particular that you know about—no Nazi-themed supervillain conventions, for example. Washington D.C. is a majority black city, so it would probably provide a natural target for him.

Leon: Is there anything going on in the DC underworld? Luke Cage has Knowledge: Streetwise +9, so I’ll take 10 as well for a 19.

GM: There is a growing presence in the DC area of skinhead gangs—still small, but present on the scene, which wasn’t true a couple of years ago. There have been an increasing number of hate crimes against blacks, Jews, and gays reported in the city.

Leon: OK, let me use Gather Information to see if I can find out more about White Knight and these skinhead gangs. Can I take 20?

GM: Normally you can’t take 20 on Gather Information checks. However, due to your Contacts feat, you would be allowed to take 20 (see the feat description), but the Gather Information skill description says that you may draw attention to yourself by repeatedly pursue some kinds of information. So if you take 20, White Knight will probably be aware of what you’re doing. You can take 10, though.

Leon: I’ll just roll in that case. Rolled a 6! That’s not very good—total of +16.

GM: All that you find out is that people have seen the White Knight in an area of town that is associated with the skinhead gangs.

Bethany: I’ll try Gather Information as well. I’ve got a +10 bonus—rolled a natural 20! Total of 30.

GM: Wow. Through your contacts you are put in touch with a reformed member of one of the minor skinhead gangs, who tells you that one of the bigger skinhead gangs seems to be gearing up for a major event on the 70th anniversary of Hitler’s re-militarization of the Rhineland, which is March 7. The White Knight is reportedly involved.

Leon: “Sweet Christmas! That’s next Saturday.”

Brian: Beast will go to the authorities and tell them what we’ve learned so far and request that they increase the number of officers on security duty in the city that night. I guess that might involve Diplomacy—roll an 8, for a total of 18.

GM: They get a lot of threats in DC. They’re not too convinced by talk of a threat on the anniversary of a military reoccupation (isn’t that a little obscure for a major attack? Seems more likely they’d hold a rally and burn books somewhere), but they’re always glad for your assistance.

Bethany: Black Widow has Benefit: Security Clearance, so I’ll see if I can get access to some of their resources based on that.

GM: They agree to help you out.

Dupont Circle, Washington D.C., 10 p.m, March 7, 2006

A camera picks up a group of skinheads exiting the subway at the Dupont Circle exit, right across the street from a just closed Baja Fresh. The employees of Baja Fresh, mostly Hispanic, step back into the kitchen area away from the street upon seeing them.

Across the city:
From their perch in a room provided to them by the government, the Avengers monitor selected points around the city through hidden cameras, including the Dupont Circle subway exit. (Beast and Black Widow have used their Computers skill to set this up).

Bethany: Dupont Circle. That’s a prominent gay night district. Uh-oh.

Leon: “Better haul ass—White Knight is sure to be there. We have to stop that mo fo!"

Brian—“Let’s head for the car. I’ll drive—and fast.”

The heroes head for their government-provided police car and turn on their siren. Beast uses his +8 Drive score to blaze a path to their destination.

Back at Dupont Circle:
The White Knight swoops out of the sky to greet his followers. People who see him scatter. He turns to his men “My Sturmabteilung! It is the anniversary of the Fuhrer’s first bold move in his quest to purify Europe for the Aryan Race! Tonight we honor his memory by eradicating the perversion of the homosexuals to cleanse this befouled city!”

He turns and looks at a small video store. “Is that a video store dedicated to pure and true Americans, or godless sodomites?

One of his men chimes in “I got lost there once and stopped for directions. They were friendly, but I thought, ‘Gee, all of the videos feature big buff male leads. And what's that large back area of the store for?’”

“Godless sodomites!” White Knight summons a ball of flame in his hands and hurls it into the store’s window, where it explodes with a low roar. Screams can be heard. He points towards a bar down the street by the name of ‘Larry’s Lounge.’ “Destroy the sodomites! Starting there!” His men draw their guns and advance as White Knight, surrounded by his flame aura, turns the street into a conflagration…

Shortly thereafter
A police car pulls up on the street, siren blazing. White Knight sneers as he looks down on it. “Police officers? You are no match for me!”

It screeches to a halt and the doors pop open. Then White Knight sees Luke Cage and Beast in the front seat and roars in anger. “Luke Cage! I will enjoy watching you die! Sturmabteilung, destroy them!”

Coming up next: Avengers (Luke Cage, Black Widow, Beast) vs. White Knight
Tale of the Tape:
Luke Cage, Power Level 10 (150 pp)

Abilities: STR: 30 (+10) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 30 (+10) INT: 12 (+0) WIS: 14 (+2) CHA: 14 (+2)

Skills: Bluff 4 (+6), Drive 2 (+4), Gather Information 8 (+10), Intimidate 12 (+14), Investigate 4 (+5), Knowledge [Pop Culture] 4 (+5), Knowledge [Streetwise] 8 (+9), Notice 6 (+8), Sense Motive 8 (+10), Stealth 4 (+6)

Feats: Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Attack Focus [Melee] (5), Chokehold, Contacts, Defensive Attack, Diehard, Dodge Focus (1), Fearless, Improved Critical [Unarmed], Improved Initiative, Improved Throw, Interpose, Luck, Power Attack, Startle, Stunning Attack, Takedown Attack (2), Teamwork, Ultimate Effort [Ultimate Toughness Save], Uncanny Dodge [Sight]

Powers:
Impervious Toughness 8, Speed 1 (10 mph)
Super Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 12.8 tons)

Combat: Attack +5 (+10 melee) [Unarmed 10 dmg; 19-20 Crit], Defense 20 (15 flat-footed), Init +6, Grapple +24, Knockback -9

Saves: Toughness +10 (8 Impervious), Fortitude +12, Reflex +6, Will +6

Black Widow, Power Level 10 (150 pp)

Abilities: STR 12 (+1), DEX 20 (+5), CON 18 (+4), INT 14 (+2), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 18 (+4)

Skills: Acrobatics 5 (+10)*, Bluff 10 (+14/+18)*, Computers 8 (+10), Diplomacy 4 (+8/+12), Disable Device 8 (+12)*, Disguise 4 (+10), Escape Artist 5 (+10), Gather Information 6 (+10), Knowledge [Current Events] 8 (+10), Notice 8 (+10), Search 8 (+10), Sense Motive 8 (+10), Stealth 8 (+13)*, Languages (English, Russian [native], Spanish)

Feats: Attack Focus [Ranged] (6), Attack Specialization [Firearms], Attractive, Benefit (security clearance), Contacts, Defensive Roll (2), Dodge Focus (6), Equipment (4), Evasion (2), Fascinate [Bluff], Fearless, Improved Aim, Improved Initiative, Jack of all Trades, Luck, Quick Draw, Quickness 1, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Set Up, Skill Mastery [Acrobatics, Bluff, Disable Device, Stealth], Sneak Attack, Teamwork, Tough, Uncanny Dodge [Hearing]

Powers: Device 6 (widow's bite, easy to lose) (18 pp)
Widow's Bite: Stun 10 (Extra: Ranged)

Equipment: Assault Rifle: Blast 5 (Extra: Autofire, Feature—Masterwork: +1 to hit), Widow's Line Grapple Gun (Super-Movement 1- Swinging 1), Masterwork Tools (Disable Device, Disguise)

Combat: Attack +4 (+10 ranged, +13 Assault Rifle) [Unarmed 1; Rifle 5 Autofire dmg; Widow’s Bite Fort save DC 20 //+2 damage on Surprise Attack], Defense 23 (14 flat footed), Initiative +9, Grapple +5 (use Escape Artist +10 to resist/escape grapples), Knockback -3

Saves: Toughness +7 (+5 flat-footed), Fortitude +6, Reflex +10, Will +6

Beast, Power Level 10 (150 pp)

Abilities: STR: 26 [16] (+8), DEX: 26 [16] (+8), CON: 26 [16] (+8), INT: 22 (+6), WIS: 18 (+4), CHA: 14 (+2)

Skills: Acrobatics 8 (+16), Climb 5 (+13), Computers 4 (+10), Craft [Chemical] 4 (+10), Craft [Electronic] 4 (+10), Diplomacy 8 (+10), Knowledge [Life Sciences] 8 (+14), Knowledge [Physical Sciences] 4 (+10), Knowledge [Technology] 8 (+14), Medicine 4 (+8), Notice 8 (+12), Perform [Keyboards] 2 (+4), Sense Motive 8 (+12), Languages (German, Latin, Japanese, Russian, Spanish; base English)

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, Ambidexterity, Attack Focus [Melee] (8), Defensive Roll (2), Dodge Focus (3), Eidetic Memory, Evasion, Grappling Finesse, Improved Grab, Improved Overrun, Inventor, Jack of All Trades, Luck, Move by Action, Power Attack, Sneak Attack, Takedown Attack, Teamwork

Powers: Enhanced Strength 10, Enhanced Dexterity 10, Enhanced Constitution 10
Super-Strength 1 (Heavy load: 1840 lbs), Super Senses 2 (Acute Scent, Low Light Vision),
Speed 1 (10 mph), Leaping 1, Super-Movement 1 (Wall-Crawling 1)

Combat: Attack +2 (+10 melee) [Unarmed +8 damage //+2 on Surprise Attack], Defense 20 (14 flat-footed), Initiative +8, Grapple +19, Knockback -5

Saves: Toughness +10 (+8 flat-footed), Fortitude +8, Reflex +9, Will +7
GM: It’s a normal start to a fight. There are 25 minion Thugs (straight from the core book, pg 229), mostly scattered around in groups of 3-4 and White Knight, who is hovering in the air about 30 feet up. Time for initiative rolls.

Initiative:
Black Widow: 28 (2 HP)
Luke Cage: 21 (2 HP)
Thugs: 19 (Greg decides to roll for all of the thugs as a group, separately from White Knight)
Beast: 11 (2 HP)
White Knight: 5

GM: Black Widow is up first.
(Greg is using White Knight straight out of Freedom City, except that he doesn’t have Sneak Attack- he does plenty of damage without it. Instead he has Immunity 1-Own Powers)

Brian: Beast rigged a system where the car doors would spring open at the push of a button with Craft: Mechanical/Electronics. This is just a 1 pp Feature, so given that Beast had several days to do it with his Inventor feat, his skills are easily sufficient here (inventing rules on page 131). In game mechanics, it’s a move action to open a door (pg 157, Manipulate Object), so this is a helpful innovation.

Bethany: Black Widow is on the passenger’s side in the back. She’ll exit the car using her 5-foot step (pg 154). What’s around here?

GM: There aren’t any thugs real close to you on this side of the car, but there are about 12 thugs within pretty easy shooting distance, including four thugs in a cluster across from you on the other side of the car.

Bethany: “We need to take out some of his thugs before they can harm more innocent people.” I’ll Quick Draw my assault rifle off my back and will use a full-round action to use the Multiple Targets feature of Autofire attacks to shoot at the nearest group of thugs on the same side of the car that I’m on (pg 160).

GM: OK. They’re scattered over 6 squares, so you’ll have a -6 penalty to hit because of that (see pg. 160—note that it’s -1 per square, including the first square you attack). But they’re about 40 feet away, so no penalty for range since the assault rifle has a 50 foot range increment.

Bethany: That’s fine. I have a +13 attack bonus, so I’ll take 10 on my attack rolls, which I can do since they’re minions (pg 163). So that’s a total of 17 to hit against all four of them. Black Widow has Stun Ammo in the gun, so 5 nonlethal damage to anyone it hits. “Lights out, suckers.”

GM: You hit all of them. You don’t get the bonus damage from Autofire when you use the Multiple Targets feature, since you’re spreading out the fire. They all have to make Toughness saves at DC 20. All misses—they’re all knocked out by a hail of bullets. Luke Cage is next.

Side Note: The Thug stat block has a typo—the toughness save should be +3: +2 for Constitution and +1 for the Leather Jacket, but it’s only listed at +2).

Second Side Note: any failed toughness save knocks a minion out—pg 163. This extends to powers that don’t force Toughness saves as well. From the FAQ:
FAQ wrote:Should minions be assumed to always suffer the worst effect of a failed save on all saves and not just Toughness saves versus damage?
Yes. Generally, if a minion (for example) fails to save against Snare the minion is bound, failing to save against Stun results in unconsciousness, and so forth.)

Bethany: Wait a second. After firing, I drop prone as a free action (pg. 156, “Drop Prone”) and use the car as cover.

Leon: “White Knight! You won’t escape me this time! You and your fascists-in-training are going down!”

Luke Cage exits the car. He gets 100 feet as a move action (you go your listed miles per hour speed with a move action, Luke Cage has Speed 1, and the game is using the 1 mph= 10 feet per round approximation). I’ll run up to the closest group of thugs and take them out! I’m taking 10 on attack rolls and I’ll also Defensive Attack for 4, since I know I’ll hit anyways. Damage of 10. I’ll use Takedown Attack 2 if possible.

Bethany: Good idea. I have Power Attack and Defensive Attack and I probably could have used a couple points of one of them while still being assured of hitting.

GM: There’s a group of 3 thugs almost directly in front of you. Your attack rolls will all hit. Minions don’t get any special benefit from rolling a 20 on a toughness save like heroes do (Impossible Toughness Saves rule, pg 163), so they can’t possibly make this save. They’re close enough together that you can hit them all thanks to Takedown Attack 2. Luke Cage knocks out three fascist thugs with one mighty swing!

The thugs are up next. 18 left. Five of them will move over and spray Beast with bullets through the windshield. Four of them will shoot at Luke Cage. Six of them will use all-out moves to get around to the side of the car where Black Widow is in two groups of three, and three will move towards the car from behind it on the driver’s side and take shots at Black Widow.

Brian: “Oh my stars and garters.” Right now I’m flat-footed (all combatants started flat-footed, see pg 150) which means I’d lose my dodge bonus to Defense and with it my Defensive Roll feat. So I think I’ll spend a hero point on the Dodge function to keep my Dodge bonus to Defense.

Side note: Beast would not be “surprised”, just flat-footed. See pg 153, Surprise—“when a combat starts, if you are not aware of your enemies, but they are aware of you, you’re surprised.” If the thugs were attacking Beast like this in a surprise round and he hadn’t noticed them and thus hadn’t rolled initiative for the surprise round, then he’d be surprised and would also get a -2 to defense. By the time you’re in a non-surprise round, even if you haven’t acted yet you’re only flat-footed, not surprised.

GM: That’s a good idea, although you don’t have to be that concerned about pistols as Beast, since even without Defensive Roll, your Toughness save is still +8. Three of the thugs shooting at Beast are within 30 feet, so no attack penalty—the other two are within 60 feet, so -2 on the attack rolls. They all miss, but two would have hit you otherwise. The thugs shooting at Luke Cage and Black Widow all miss, since they can’t hit even on a 20. Beast is up.

Edit: I did this wrong. A natural 20 does auto-hit for a minion; it's just that minions can't critical hit non-minions.

Brian: Beast manages to dodge all of the bullets whizzing at him as they shatter the car’s windshield. I’ll jump out of the car and attack the group of three thugs that was just shooting at me. Takedown Attack to try to hit all of them. Take 10 on attack rolls and power attack for 2.

GM: They’re not right next to each other, so you’ll only be able to hit two of them. Again, you make the attack rolls and they can’t make the Toughness saves, so you knock them out.

Brian: I’ll use my Move-by Action feat combined with Wall-Crawling/Leaping to leap/climb 10 feet up onto the wall of a nearby building after my attack.

GM: Sure. White Knight is up next. He scowls at the incompetence of his minions. “You fools! You couldn’t hurt the black savage even if you could manage to hit him! Leave him to me!”

White Knight hurls a bolt of fire at Luke Cage. Attack at +10, attack roll of 11 for a total of 21. But your Defense is 24 from having used Defensive Attack, so it misses as Luke Cage ducks under the hissing flames.

Side note: White Knight is listed as having a ranged attack that does 11 damage. However, he has nothing on his stat-block that directly corresponds to this. Fire Control, listed on his character sheet, is a controlling flames power, not a Blast power like (for example) Cosmic Energy Control. I've taken this to mean that Steve just forgot that Fire Control wasn't a Blast power and have simply assumed that White Knight also has Blast 11 [Fire] in that array.

“My flame too hot for you, boy? You should have never left the cotton fields!” White Knight will try to use Intimidate to demoralize Luke Cage as a move action. Unfortunately for him, Luke Cage has the Fearless feat and automatically resists (see here). Luke Cage stares at White Knight in defiance. End of round 1. Black Widow is up again.

Bethany: There are 9 guys who could be firing at me this round and I won’t have cover. That’s a little too much. I’ll get up from prone with a DC 20 Acrobatics check to stand up as a free action—I have a +10 modifier and Skill Mastery, so I can take 10 even when under pressure in combat and make it automatically. Then I’ll use my grapple gun and cast it up to a nearby rooftop and swing up there.

GM: It will take you a double-move to get up there, since you only go 30 feet with a move action. Luke Cage is next.

Bethany: Fine. Next round I’ll take a shot at White Knight from here.

Leon: Luke Cage will attack the group of four thugs who shot at him. Can I get them all with Takedown Attack 2? Same procedure as last round, using Defensive Attack for 4.

GM: You send all of the thugs flying. Thugs are up. 12 left. Two near Beast move towards him and shoot at him and three behind the car on his side also move towards him and attack, taking a -2 penalty for range. Two natural 20s in those five rolls! Those aren’t auto-hits (and they aren’t criticals, since minions can’t critical hit non-minions), but they both hit his Defense- the rest miss. Two Toughness saves at DC 18.

Brian: Rolled a 15 and a 12, for a total of 25 and 22. Made both of them.

GM: Beast rolls away from the bullets and is only barely grazed. The six thugs nearest to Black Widow take shots at her using Aid Another in groups of 3—for one thug to aid another, he has to make an attack roll that hits Defense 10 and success gives the person he’s aiding +2 to hit (pg 154). -2 penalty on the main attack rolls for distance. One attack roll is at +2 and would only hit on a natural 20; the other one is at +4 and also misses.

(Edit/Side Note: I messed up on Aid Another here and throughout this fight. The Aid Another action only helps a character engaged in melee (see page 154). However, you are allowed to use Combined Attack (pg 155) with ranged attacks.

This is somewhat strange, because Aid Another is much more genre appropriate for minions with pistols than Combined Attack, since if a whole bunch of thugs with pistols used Combined Attack on the Powerhouse archetype, for example, they could seriously injure him despite his Impervious Toughness 10, which usually makes him completely immune their pistols. So it would be reasonable for a GM to let thugs with guns use Aid Another, but not Combined Attack.)

The last thug near Beast runs into the restaurant he’s in front of and holds a gun to the head of a woman cowering under a table. In game terms, this is a covering attack (pg 156); the woman is prone but he’s essentially using the gun as a melee weapon since she’s lying right there and not really trying to defend herself—so she’s at Defense 6 (10 base as a PL 0 bystander -4 for being prone). Attack roll of 9 for a total of 11—that would hit, so he’s holding the attack as a readied action. He looks over at Luke Cage—“make one move and she’s dead.” The woman cowers in fear even more and starts to stammer incoherently. Beast is up next.

Brian: “How uncouth.” Beast will try to attack that thug without letting him see Beast coming. Will Acrobatic Bluff to feint as a move action work?

GM: Normally you'd have to spend a move action to Acrobatic Bluff and feint, a move action to move over to him, and a standard action to attack, which would require using Extra Effort to Surge to do all that in a round. However, you can auto-knock out this guy without needing a feint in mechanical terms, so let’s just say that you roll an Acrobatics check at -5 for doing it as part of your move action to get over there, and if you beat the best of his Notice/Sense Motive then he doesn’t get to pull the trigger because he doesn’t see the attack coming.

Brian: Sure. Feint at +11 (+16 base -5 for doing it as a move action). Natural 20! Total of 31. Taking 10 on the attack as usual, Power Attack 2.

GM: He can’t beat that roll—he doesn’t see it coming in the slightest. Beast leaps down, swings onto the ceiling then jumps right behind the thug and cracks him over the head—he’s down before he can even cry out. The woman stammers her thanks and crawls further under the table than before. White Knight is next.

Leon: “Sweet move, Hank. But so unnecessarily gentle!”

GM: White Knight is pissed that Luke Cage dodged his last attack. He’s going to All-Out Attack for 5 and fly down and take a swing at Luke Cage. Attack roll is a 15, plus 13 because of All-Out Attack (he has Base Attack +8 and Attack Focus 2- Ranged)- that hits. You have to make 2 simultaneous Toughness saves; one at 8 damage against his punch and another at 11 damage because of his fire aura.

Leon: Ouch. Too bad my Impervious isn’t one higher—Impervious 8 only protects me from attacks dealing 7 damage or less. First save rolled a 7 for a total of 17 against DC 23—Stunned, Injured and Bruised. Second save rolled a 9 for a total of 19 against DC 26—Stunned, Injured and Bruised again. So that’s 2 Injuries, 2 Bruises, and Stunned.

GM: Both attacks stunned you, so both could cause Knockback. His Aura has enough of a damage bonus to cause you Knockback, but it makes sense that his punch would cause Knockback and his Aura wouldn’t- and his punch isn’t high enough damage to knock you back. End of round 2. 12 Thugs still standing. Luke Cage has 2 HP (2 Injuries and 2 Bruises), Beast 1 HP, Black Widow 2 HP. Let's take a break and get something to eat- Black Widow is up again when we come back!

Bethany: Black Widow sees an opening. I’ll Quick Draw my wrist-mounted Widow’s Bite energy weapon (it slides out from under her costume) and aim it at White Knight.

GM: He’s between 100 and 200 feet away, so you’ll have -2 to hit for range.

Bethany: Attack roll at +8 then. Rolled a 6.

GM: That would barely miss (White Knight's Defense is 15 from All-Out Attack). But you can reroll it with a hero point.

Bethany: Sure- I have two of them. Reroll is a natural 20! Critical hit! Stun 10, +5 to the save DC for Fort save DC 25. A bolt of electricity arcs towards White Knight and strikes him dead-on at an incredible, paralyzing voltage.

GM: Rolled a 12, with a +7 Fortitude save for a total of 19. That would leave him stunned. I think I’d better use GM Fiat and try to do better. Reroll is a 14—not great, but total of 21 keeps him only dazed. The critical hit shouldn’t count towards his subsequent breakout rolls (see Steve Kenson’s answer here). Black Widow gets an HP for the use of GM Fiat, so she's still at 2 HP.

White Knight can no longer perform free actions, so he has to make a Concentration check immediately to maintain his powers with a sustained duration (see Steve’s answer here). Unfortunately for him, he has a +1 Concentration check and the DC to maintain his Strike Aura is 21 (10 + its rank of 11). So only a natural 20 would let him keep it up, and he doesn’t get it. He misses the check by enough that his Flight 4 (DC 14) also drops, but he had landed so that doesn’t matter. The electricity jolts White Knight and disrupts his concentration—his flame aura fades away.

Bethany: Black Widow will drop prone after her attack to avoid the attacks by the thugs below.

Leon: Luke Cage pulls himself back together. I’m spending a hero point to shake off the stun so I can get my action for the round, before he gets his Flame Aura back up. Attacking him, Power Attacking for 5! Darn, rolled a 2. That would have done real damage if it had hit.

GM: Luke Cage sees an opportunity, but White Knight dodges his wild haymaker. Thugs are up—11 still standing. Five fire at Beast again, all missing. The six near Black Widow realize they have no shot to hit her. Three of them move towards Beast. The thugs are a little worried seeing White Knight without his Flame Aura but at least that means he won’t incinerate one of them by flying by them—there have been some close calls.

Greg decides that White Knight is getting beaten fairly badly now, so it’s time to have his minions help by attacking more civilians. Three of the thugs who were menacing Black Widow move to a nearby bar and use covering attacks on the patrons there. One trains his gun on a Caucasian man hiding behind a bar stool; another aims at an Asian man who has been unable to take cover because he is in a wheelchair, and the third targets his gun at an African-American waiter, who is standing up trying to get the patrons to move into a room further away from the street. These aren’t hostage taking situations, exactly—I’m essentially giving you a round to deal with them or they’ll shoot the patrons when their next turn rolls around. None of the thugs is adjacent to each other. Beast is up.

Brian: “Oh my, not again.” Beast will use a Charge to dash all of the way over to the other side of the street and land a leaping kick on the first thug. Power Attack 2, taking 10.

GM: Beast sees what’s happening and springs across the street on all fours. As he gets near the bar he jumps into the air and clears a parked car, landing with a crash caused by the impact of his foot and the thug’s back. The thug is thrown 25 feet, lands against a table, and doesn’t move. White Knight would be up, but he’s dazed. End of round 3. Luke Cage has 1 HP (2 Injuries/2 Bruises), Beast 1 HP, Black Widow 2 HP.

On Black Widow’s action, before she goes, White Knight gets a roll to recover from the Stun and he gets a +1 bonus (see page 70- "An Instant Lasting power allows a new saving throw each round on the initiative count when the effect occurred"). Natural 20! White Knight recovers from the electricity coursing through his system!

It makes sense that he can activate his Flame Aura now, since it dropped immediately the last time. Edit: I did this wrong. It's a free action to activate White Knight's Aura, so he should have to wait until his turn to reactivate it).

Black Widow can tell by hearing and from the Thug’s actions what is happening at the bar, but she doesn’t have a line to attack the thugs on at the moment.

Bethany: Black Widow has to stop those guys. I’ll throw my grappling hook onto a nearby building and swing down to the ground. While I’m in the air, I’ll use Extra Effort to surge and take 2 attack actions with my rifle to shoot both of the thugs in a hail of bullets. Power Attack 5 so I know they’ll miss the Toughness saves, but with +8 attack and taking 10 I should still hit fine.

GM: Wow, what a cool move. Black Widow swings towards the thugs and hits both of them with a furious barrage from her assault rifle. They crumple to the ground. I’m giving you a hero point for that one.

Bethany: I’m allocating that one towards avoiding the Fatigue from Extra Effort caused by that maneuver, which will kick in on my action next round.

GM: White Knight’s flames reappear and he looks over at Luke Cage with disdain. “Want to take another swing now, boy?”

Leon: Are there any parking meters around? I want to rip a parking meter out of the ground and hit him with it

GM: Sure. There’s one right near you. You can rip it out of the ground with a DC 25 Strength check as a move action. Of course, your ranks in Super-Strength count as bonuses to strength here.

Leon: I’ll go for it. Rolling at +14- rolled a 14, total of 28. Got it! Taking a swing at White Knight, rolled a 9—total of 19.

GM: Just misses—his Defense is 20. White Knight barely gets out of the way as the parking meter spins in a wicked arc that almost hits his head. The parking meter is a little singed by his aura. The rest of the thugs are up—8 of them now.

Four of them have forgotten about White Knight’s instructions, or never heard in the first place—they’ll shoot at Luke Cage. Four others will move towards Beast and Black Widow and take shots at them, two apiece—they all miss. Beast is up.

Brian: Well, Beast isn’t going to be very effective against White Knight now that he has the flame aura back up. So let my try a different approach. I’ll Acrobatic Bluff as a move action to try to Trick (see the Bluff skill description) White Knight into attacking me because he thinks I’m vulnerable. Rolling at +11 (+16 base -5 move action), rolled a 12 for 23. Opposed by highest of Sense Motive and Acrobatics.

GM: He got a total of 19 (rolled a 12 with +7 Sense Motive)—you beat him. White Knight thinks he sees Beast trip as Beast tries to move back towards him.

Brian: Now I’m going to use my standard action for Total Defense (pg 159), which boosts my Dodge bonus to Defense by +4.

GM: White Knight is up. He’ll fly into the air about 30 feet and launch an attack at the “vulnerable” Beast, power attacking for 2. Attack roll at +8, rolls an 8—that’s a miss. Too late he realizes his mistake. “Mutant scum! You will not evade me again!” White Knight is distracted and doesn’t remember to tell his minions not to attack Luke Cage. End of round 4. Black Widow has 3 HP and has to spend one in a moment or suffer fatigue from Extra Effort, Beast 1 HP, Luke Cage 1 HP and 2 Injuries/2 Bruises.

Bethany: Black Widow spends a hero point to counteract the fatigue, so I’m back to 2 HP. I’m going to use Bluff to feint him so he loses his Dodge bonus against my attack. Bluff at +9 as a move action—Attractive probably doesn’t help for Feints in general (that wouldn’t make much sense). Rolled a 15 for a total of 24. Opposed by best Sense Motive and Bluff check.

GM: He’s using his Sense Motive skill. Roll of 11, for a total of 18—you beat him.

Side note: the book doesn’t say if you should tell a player whether a feint/trick has worked before they go to make an attack/take some other action based on the results. I personally think you should tell the player, but the GM for a game I’m in right now does the opposite. I asked Steve Kenson about this and he said that the policy is just up to the GM’s discretion- see here. White Knight doesn’t have Uncanny Dodge, but while I’m at it, note that Uncanny Dodge does not protect against feints: see here.

Bethany: Blast Widow seems to take aim at the thugs with her assault rifle but she actually aims the Widow’s Bite at an unsuspecting White Knight! Attack roll=10, for a total of 20. Since he loses his Dodge bonus and gets a further -2 to Defense, that should definitely hit. Fort save DC 20

GM: Fort save roll is 6, for a total of 13. I’ll have him reroll that with GM Fiat. Black Widow gets another hero point- up to 3 now. He rolls a 13 for a total of 20—makes it exactly. White Knight is hit by the energy weapon but is able to resist the electricity coursing through his body.

Bethany: Well, no point in having so many hero points floating around. I’ll use Extra Effort and take another shot at him. Rolled a 19 for a 29 total—another hit.

GM: Rolled an 18 for 25 total. We can call that part of the same attack that he resisted last time. Good thing, too, because GM Fiat is limited to gaining the effects of Improved Roll once a personal round for a villain in the same way a PC can only use Improved Roll once a round.

Leon: Man, 30 feet. That’s out of my reach even with this parking meter.

Brian: Luke Cage weighs about 400 lbs, right? Then Beast can throw you 25 feet in the air—wait for my action and we can do that.

Leon: Sure. Luke Cage will delay until Beast’s action.

GM: OK. Since he’s throwing you we’ll say that you’re on the same initiative count as Beast, but go after him—and you’ll be there in all rounds. Thugs are up again. Four take aim at Luke Cage, harmlessly. Two take aim at each of Beast and Black Widow, using Aid Another. All misses. Beast and Luke Cage are up.

Brian: Beast will move over to where Luke Cage is and throw him 25 feet in the air towards White Knight. Can I use Teamwork to aid another with that?

GM: No, since you moved this round. A throw is a move action on its own and you used your move action to get up to him, so you have to use your Standard Action for the throw. Otherwise you could use the Standard Action for aid another and a Move Action for the throw as part of one maneuver.

Leon: I’m using All-Out Attack for 5 and Power Attack for 5. Rolled a 13 for a total of 23! 15 damage—DC 30 Toughness save! “Eat parking meter, villain!!”

GM: That’s a hit. Luke Cage goes flying through the air and hits White Knight a with the parking meter with tremendous force. Luke Cage can feel the heat sting his hands as the parking meter melts. White Knight rolls a 12—total of 24—he’s stunned and bruised. Concentration check to keep his Sustained powers up- rolled a 10, for 11 total. He’s knocked out of the sky and his flame aura dissipates. He hits the ground with a crash. 3 falling damage, so DC 18 save. Rolls an 11—makes it.

Leon: Luke Cage lands and sort of catches his balance. “Sweet throw, Hank!”

Brian: “A most excellent swing as well. You could play major league baseball yet, my friend.”

GM: White Knight shakes off the Stun with GM Fiat for Recovery. Luke Cage gets a hero point. White Knight reactivates his Flame Aura and sends a roaring fireball at Luke Cage. “Die, scum!” Blast, Power Attacking for 5—he rolls a 3. I don’t want him to go out so easily. I’ll use GM Fiat for Improved Roll to reroll that. Natural 20! A critical for 21 lethal damage! DC 36 Toughness Save. Ouch! Luke Cage gets another hero point—up to 3 now.

Leon: Holy crap! This is a good time for my Ultimate Toughness feat. I’ll spend a hero point and use Ultimate Toughness to get an auto-20 instead of rolling (but it doesn’t count as a natural 20). Rolling at +8 due to 2 previous injuries—total of 28. Stunned and Injured and Bruised.

GM: This ought to qualify for some Knockback. Luke Cage is hit by a huge ball of flame and the heat sends him reeling and drops him to his knees, but amazingly he isn’t burnt to a crisp!

White Knight can’t believe it. “Why won’t you die!!?” End of round 5. Black Widow has 3 HP and will have to spend one to avoid fatigue. Beast has 1 HP; Luke Cage has 2 HP and 3 Injuries and 3 Bruises, and is Stunned.

Bethany: “Time to end this.” Hero point to avoid fatigue. 2 Hero Points left. Attacking him with Widow’s Bite, power-attacking for 2, so attacking at +8. Rolled a 9—that would miss, so I’m rerolling it. Rolled a 7—Improved Roll increases that by 10, so total of 25. Fort save DC 22. 1 Hero Point left.

GM: Rolled a 5, for a total of 12. I can’t reroll it because he already rerolled the attack roll at the end of last round (and he can only use Improved Roll once in a personal round—see pg 153, “one round= span of time from one initiative count to the same initiative count in the next round.” The beginning and end of “round 4” is almost always irrelevant in game terms—it’s just a way to demarcate the combat). Miss by 10—that’s Unconscious. White Knight is out! Black Widow sets her Widow’s Bite on high power and shoots an especially powerful bolt of electricity at the White Knight. It hits him in the chest and overloads his body completely—he slumps to the ground, unconscious and his Flame Aura winks out.

Seeing their leader crumple to the ground, the eight remaining thugs drop their guns and flee. Black Widow and Beast knock them all out in short order as Luke Cage manages to pick himself up. Ambulances are already responding to the scene.

Leon: Luke Cake growls, “I told you not to @#*& with me, $^*#%!” I go over to the police car and report that we have White Knight ready to be taken into custody at Dupont Circle. They’d better send a superhero containment unit, and fast.

GM: Beast and Black Widow each get 1 HP for dealing with thugs shooting at innocents. Luke Cage gets 1 HP for the enemy complication, as White Knight targeted him with almost every attack. A handful of people were killed and several dozen more injured, but you stopped a major terrorist attack on the nation’s capital. Well done!

THE WINNER: THE AVENGERS White Knight lasted a long time because I didn’t use especially good tactics on the part of the players and because his minions helped out by distracting the heroes at the right times. The thugs were pathetic, as you’d expect--+2 attack and +3 damage does not threaten PL 10 characters. But they took time to take out. You can see the difficulties a lone villain faces—White Knight has an incredibly powerful flame aura that makes him very hard to fight in melee, but his average Fortitude save, lack of ranks in Concentration, and not being hard to feint helped do him in.


Did the wall of text scare you all away LOL

So what other info do you guys need I know I want to create a recent timeline before I start recruiting is there anything else you guys need?


Echos here.
This is my old mm3e character, Kid Wonder. I'd like to play the character as an adult, having graduated from the Mutant academy a decade or two prior.
His main mutation is the ability to resurrect from anything. Secondary mutations include super human physique, strength, agility, senses, slowed aging and most importantly a computer-like mind that processes weaknesses, vulnerabilities, angles, physics, and regulates body activity, among other things.
He'll be a darker character, having witnessed a lot more than even most heroes have, but he won't be too grimdark.
Give him a look over in preparations and give me some ideas on what direction to go with in regards to similar 2e powers.

A time line would be awesome!
Would the team have a name or is that up them once chosen?


No team name not even a team yet
So are you growing up to bs wonder man?


Time Line would do me just find! Can't say they're not a little bit intimidating, but also very useful! Still might need help designing Tremor but i'll prolly take a lot of inspiration from the stats of Avalance in the third paragraph.


Enjoyed the two examples of play!

But I think I may need some help to create Militia, if you're still looking for players...

Sczarni

So my basic concept is:

Genius level intellect, specialized in chemistry and applied engineering. Essentially a gadgeteer who uses a "utility belt" style power to toss smoke bombs, sticky grenades, acid, explosives, and the like.

Some increased mobility (rocket skates or something) and high-tech armor with some sensors/computer interface ability.

Like Honey Lemon, here

Not sure how to best do the number crunching for her though...much more accustomed to 3ed/DC universe M&M


No text wall frightens me!


Oh no, Kid Wonder's turn of events isn't so kind on the boy.
He becomes Deathless Jack. Morally ambiguous, he seems to be rather ruthless. He has no problem switching sides and working for the bad guys if it will give him the information he'd need to later take them down.


Here is another Text wall here is the start of the Time line

1989
Two members of the Freedom League—Tectonic and Halogen—die stopping the rampage of the Katanarchists, led by the Crimson Katana. Centurion disbands the League before more lives are lost.

Freedom City celebrates its bicentennial

Loma Prieta Earth Quake racks the west coast at 8.0 Magnitude destroying most of the San Francisco and the surrounding areas. The Champions save thousands of lives and become a famous Hero Team during the after math of the Quake

1990
Franklin Moore elected Mayor of Freedom City on a platform of “zero-tolerance” for crime and vigilantism. Costumed heroes are outlawed, and even some stalwarts like Centurion are forced to stop operating in Freedom City.

The wedding of Andrea Atom and Prince Mentac marks the end of the original Atom Family’s adventuring careers, The Atoms move from Freedom City to New York. Jack Wolf leaves Freedom City to become a mercenary. The Goodman Building was also sold.

The Bay City Project was in Full tilt to rebuild the Greater San Francisco area and reorganize it into Bay City.

1991
Following an epic battle against the forces of the Hierophant, a group of young heroes decide to band together in a new incarnation of the Sentinels team.

The “final” battle between Horus and Serpent Queen Results in the apparent deaths of both of them, as well as Killjoy and the Queen’s erstwhile allies Blight and Daeva. The Sentinels are present but unable to recover the bodies of either hero.

Castle Comics starts up in New York City and buys up the rights to the pulps and comics properties of the long-defunct Aurora Press and Aurora Publishing Group.

Anne Atom dies from complications due to cancer.

In defiance of the Moore Act, Archer forms FORCE Ops, uniting a young (sometimes brutal) cadre of heroes to fight Mayor Moore’s political machine as well as more standard menaces and enemies. The new heroes are branded outlaws.

1992
After the Fall of U.S.S.R. a group of loyal communists Metahumans led by Blazing Star took the battle to the Kremlin itself, where they were accosted by a small band of international heroes led by Protonik. The two former friends resolved the conflict with words rather than fists. After Blazing Star abandoned the plot he shamefully left the planet for the stars.

The Terra King tries to stop the building of Bay City and is stopped by the Champions

1994
Franklin Moore is reelected to a second term in office, despite rumors and accusations of political corruption, misappropriation of funds, and nepotism within the administration. Once again, the support of CODE and similar citizen-action groups is pivotal. It’s later revealed the Moore campaign has aid from criminal organizations, from the Freedom City Mob to shell political action committees funded by SHADOW and VIPER.

Kismet of The Sentinels sacrifices her life to destroy a hyper dimensional processor core being constructed by the Assembly from captured alien technology, preventing it from taking over the world, and thus eliminating the terrible future timeline from which she originally came.

1995
After several incredibly successful years, the bottom drops out of the comics market and Castle Comics nearly implodes. Publisher Harry Wiseman takes the helm of Castle Comics and immediately plans to move its central publishing house and offices to Freedom City.

Bay City Project is almost bankrupt and could be a failure

Crimson Mask steals the Mirror of Souls from Eldrich’s sanctum and uses it to restore Overshadow’s shattered mind, allowing the arch-villain to seize control of SHADOW once more.

1996
The End of SHADOW? Overshadow returns, armed with the Tapestry of Fate, and attempts to kill AEGIS Director Jack Simmons. The former Patriot overcomes his old foe. After Overshadow falls to his apparent death, it’s widely believed that SHADOW is broken and defeated. In the wake of Simmons’ retirement and SHADOW’s appar¬ent defeat, public and administration support from AEGIS begins to wane. The cost of operating the agency is increasingly called into question and AEGIS is in serious danger of being de-funded or incor¬porated into other federal agencies.

1997
With the help of Savage Solutions and The Marksman of the Champions Bay City is finished and becomes a great modern Mega City

The POF-SWAT squad kills a super-powered teenaged gang member called Captain Blood after AEGIS captures him in a raid in Southside. POF-SWAT members claim the mutant teenager was killed during an escape attempt, but video evidence later surfaces showing the officers beat and then shot him while he was still helpless in pow¬er-dampening manacles. Although placed on trial, the officers are acquitted due to irregularities in the chain of evidence. AEGIS and some Freedom City heroes narrowly prevent a riot in Southside from growing out of control in the wake of the decision.

1998
Michael O’Connor’s “No Moore” campaign wins him the Freedom City mayoral election by a landslide—particularly after FORCE Ops exposes some of Franklin Moore’s ties with organized crime. The newly elected O’Connor devotes his efforts (and considerable personal fortune) toward rebuilding people’s trust in their leaders and in Freedom City. He also begins working to repeal the Moore Act.

1999
Viper creates a Weather Satellite that will allow them to control the world’s weather and black mail all the world. The Satellite is destroyed from a joint effort of the Sentinels and the Champions.

2000
The Terminus Invasion: The forces of Omega invade the world with major out pouring in Freedom City Detroit, The West Coast. China Eastern Europe/Russia and Western Europe the largest alliance of heroes ever seen unites to repel the interdimensional invaders. In Freedom City many heroes not seen for years within the city. The Champions were in route to help Freedom when they found out Dr. Destroyer was leveling Detroit. The Sentinels were on the West Coast luckily because the Champions were heading towards Freedom. China used their own heroes to stop the invasion while Protonik and his group of saved Eastern Europe and Russia while surprisingly the combined force of the villain teams the Eurostars and Terror Inc. saved Western Europe. Many heroes are seriously injured, killed, or lost in the ensuing battle. Centurion sacrifices himself to shatter Omega’s support armor, forcing the dimensional overlord to retreat back into the Terminus. Freedom City and the world mourn the loss of their greatest hero. Destroyer killed all of the Champions besides The Marksman before he was sucked into the Terminus. FORCE Ops is no more in the aftermath of the invasion, leaving Freedom without a team of resident heroes once again.

I Am Metropolis: Dr. Metropolis makes his presence known in Freedom City and lends his powers to the reconstruction effort, allowing it to occur at tremendous speed.

Jack Wolf returns to Freedom City, with Andrea Atom and Mentac missing and presumed dead following Omega’s defeat. Dr. Atom, himself dying of cancer, transfers his intellect into a holographic computer system. Jack becomes the legal guardian of the Atom chil¬dren and returns to New York.

The sacrifice of AEGIS agent Luke Bonham (killed in action during the invasion) and the clear threat posed by the Terminus revitalizes support for AEGIS and helps to heal rifts between the organization and the superhero community.
Mayor O’Connor officially repeals the Moore Act, making costumed heroes legal in Freedom City once again. Many of the heroes who came to fight Omega choose to remain and help with reconstruc¬tion. A grateful city welcomes their return with open arms and the so-called “Iron Age” draws to a close with the reestablishment of the Freedom League by Captain Thunder.

Silver Crusade

Ok I'll have another go,

My new idea is

Johnny Panic,
Origin: Unknown [Other plan]
Powers: Plans shifting, time shifting [Forward/self or target only], Teleportation, Psionic, Super Int.

He's a drafter and plans shifter movement and freedom is his thing,
Rather then a core super power, he uses Time shifting, teleporting and Plans shifting as weapons as well as movements.

He's human-ish with an odd stuff from other plans and things about his person.

Just like the idea of a kind of wanderer/Trickster out of Moors Top10 over a mega powerful Superhero like PC.

Silver Crusade

For A bad guy thinking of a kind of Diminished vampire race, they pop in and kidnap beings so they can consume their life force. Stronger the being the moor food etc, they hunt alone or in packs, with a very basic culture, cunning and smart. Think tall man / fazing Vampire from another reality, Scary bogeymen.

Silver Crusade

Jonny Panic:

Super Hero/Villain
Dimensional [Porting] Shifting Psionic

Description:
Name Jonny Panic AKA The Shifter
Height 5’ 11"
Sex: N/A
Weight 132 Lbs
Hair Changes
Eyes Changes
Occupation Playboy, Trader, Hero/Villain
Affiliations: Anyone willing to pay, The PSI on a nice day
Power Source Alien
Power Level N/A
Threat Level N/A

Stats 50p Skills 0p Feats 21p Powers 69p Combat 10p Saves 0p items 0p

Stats
STR 10, All others at 20 [50 Point spend]

Powers
Linked power <Alien Body> 16p
Immunity 12p - Ageing 1 Life sport9, Thrust and hunger1, Sleep1 /Innate
Regeneration 2p- Regeneration 1/day Drawback [In another Dimension] /Innate

Linked power <Alien Movement> 35p
Super Movement9 - Dimensional /3 [all] Temporal 2 [Future] Permeate 1 Air walk 1 / feats Attack + Self + Range 4
Alt power - Space Travel9/Insubstantial3/communication
Alt power - Teleport 9/easy Feats Attack + Self

Linked Power <Alien Mind> 18p
Comprehension - Your understood, you understand/ read all.
Telepathy - 2 100' Communicate 2 mind read 2
Super Senses - Precog +4 Time Senses+2 Dark Vistion +2

Feats
Jack of all Trades
beginners luck
Luck 1
Indent memory
Ult effort [save]
Ambidex
Benefit [Rich] 1
Contacts
Connected
Defensive Attack
Blind fight
Evation 2
Fearless
Inventor
Master Plan
Seize Init
Ritualist
Trance
Well Informed

Skills
All skills but STR at +5

Johnny shifts things to other places, Times and plans
That's how he attacks. Jonny likes best to shift things away or into the future to a paint he got away or sorted with the problem.

He's a Pisonic Pre-cog and so when its working has a good idea when things may go to the bad.


Here is the 2nd half of the timeline

2001
The Millennium City project begins in an effort to rebuild Detroit.

The Sentinels permanently move to Bay City and with backing from Steele Omnitech through the newly-formed Sentinels Foundation, construction begins on Fortress in San Francisco Bay.

A group of heroes led by Captain Thunder re-establishes the Freedom League, and it quickly becomes one of the world’s premier superhero team.

Mayor O’Connor establishes Honor Day, the annual citywide holiday to commemorate the defeat of Omega and the sacrifice of the Centurion and other fallen heroes, with the dedication of the Sentry Statue in Riverside Park. Through the years many of the other cities hit during the Terminus Invasion follow suit and create their own Honor Days.

2002
Mayor O’Connor wins re-election.

Savage Solutions moves to Freedom City and purchases the Goodman building as its new Global Headquarters.

2003
Jack Simmons, the Patriot, passes away in a government hospital. His memories and personality are downloaded into an advanced android, allowing Simmons to continue working as a government agent behind the scenes.

With Millennium city slowly being rebuilt The Marksman sees a need for a super hero team and begins to recruit The New Champions

2004
Stronghold and Blackgate prisons are the target of huge metahuman attacks that cause rampant escapes at both locations.

2005
The President announces the formation of a US government “super team,” the Arsenal of Democracy that will be a part of AEGIS

Stronghold and Blackgate get a huge upgrade and remodel so there isn’t another breakout like the ones in 2004

The New Champions make their debut in Millennium city saving the city from The Terra King and his attempt to sink Millennium city

Duncan Summers, the original Raven, opens the Claremont Academy in Bayview. He begins teaching the next generation of super-powered youngsters about the deeds and the sacrifices of all those who came before them

2006
Michael O’Connor Jr. wins re-election to a third term in office.

The Centurion reappears, claiming to have been trapped in the Terminus for years. He turns out to be an imposter created by Omega to infiltrate Earth’s heroes. The false “Alpha Centurion” is defeated and trapped in the Zero Zone.

The Arsenal of Democracy makes their debut, they barely stop an attack by Terror Inc on Washington DC

2007
Millennium City is completed

An alliance of super-villains destroys Freedom Hall and seriously wounds or disables most of the Freedom League. Daedalus defeats the villains apparently by himself, though unconfirmed rumors suggest he had aid from the mysterious Foreshadow. The League rebuilds Freedom Hall to its current splendor within the year.

2008
The Freedom League and the Sentinels stand off against Atlanteans preparing to invade the surface world. The Next-Gen travels to Atlantis with their teammate Nereid to help free her father and the rest of the Atlantean royal family from the clutches of the Deep Ones, who have seized control of Atlantis using the Serpent Scepter. The Atlanteans are freed and the invasion averted.

Mastermind makes his return and almost takes over most of the United States only the combined efforts of The Freedom League, The New Champions, The Sentinels and The Arsenal was the scheme stopped.

2009
Fletcher Beaumont III, the fourth Bowman, graduates from the Claremont Academy being one of the first graduates at the school and starts being a hero on the streets of Freedom

Nancy Gardner dies after being abducted by Dr. Stratos

The Marksman passes away both Millennium City and Bay City Mourn

Fisk Industries begin to buy casinos in Freedom City

2010 Current Year
10th Anniversary of the Terminus Invasion

Michael O’Connor Jr. seeks re-election for a fourth term as mayor of Freedom City.

Silver Crusade

Had a little think about Jonny and I think I can get more of the core idea, if I use time control [super speed, Super movement ->, plans [all] emporal <future> and sportsl control. Pre cognition ]

I have a question, can a 9th level PC have sporttel 12 power, if not I'll use range to boost it. I'm seeking to give him the ability to sportal to near by star systems [full round action], so I can do away with space travel.

Jonnys weapon then is to displace things into future time location, alt plan location or close earth location, I think it's 900' for sportal 12

All his powers are based around super movement and Alian body/mind
Three linked powers, boy ones being innate.

New power brake down:

Alien movement [speed, temporal, sportal]
Alien body [imunitys, regeneration, ]
Alien mind [super senses <pre cognition drake vision time/ location sense > telepathy 2 100' communication <understood, understand, read all>

Key feats
Ultimat effort saves
Jack of all tools
Hero
Beginners luck,
Contacts
Connected
Fearless
Benefit wealth
Defensive attack
Then others

Silver Crusade

Location with in Fredome City, thinking penthouse overlooking Liberty Park and a place out at Lake MacKenzei


I made an alt just for fun

Description:
Johnny Looks like an elf out of some fantasy or film, depending in Johnny mood he can be a he or she, [Johnny's many lovers have never said which conclusively]
Johnny stands some 5'11 and is thin with large elf like ears. He wares flamboyant clothing and sees to be a play/boy/girl most of the day. Often seen at party's, art show and other events in Freedom city. Is a bit of an enigma, Johnny do's not hid the fact hes not of this earth, but just where he is from, depends of when you ask him/her, hes/she has been know to say, that He/she is from outer space, another reality, another plan, the past and the future. Witch one is true is anyone's guess. Johnny thinks its all a bit of a joke, like most things. The one thing Johnny dos seem to care about is when some one or things brake the Time Law of going back in time. He talk of a group called the "Arrow of Time" both from the past and future who take a very dim view of anyone playing around with past time. he has never said if he is part of this group, but he dos seem to act with simpler aims.

Actions:
Johnny hate to do harm, Saying its 'rude' much better to take a problem and shift it to a place it can do little or no harm. That is what he dos, shifting things to other places, future time or other plans of reality.
he can also craft a time bubble, placing things and others within it to observe but not interact with the world as time passes. In one Famous case placing a whole shopping mall outside of time, while an toxic gas cloud was being dealt with.

Silver Crusade

So GM what ya think of Johnny


He doesn't seem like much of a hero by reading the discriptions and I'm some what confused on his powers and not sure why he has no skills at all

Silver Crusade

Johnny is a good guy, he/she is a hero, being a member of the Arrow of Time, I group that stops others messing with the time line, buy going back into the past. He himself has a rule that he never go's back in time or places other back in time. Its just he keeps that to himself as other may not like the fact with in the Super worlds,

His hidden identity is from other super's not Normals, that's why its hard to tell.

He has Default 5 ranks in every skill but Str ones
GM, I went Jack-of-all-Trades.

You posted 20 Point spend in Feats and Skills, I spent 21 points in Feats to give him that :) if you mean we need to spend 20 Points on Skill and 20 points of feats then I will have to remake her.

He's powers come in three forms

Alien body
Immunity and Regen
Alien mind
Reads minds and talks to and understands them
Alien move
The last is his main power and weapon, His not a mack down slap down hero, he displaces things to other locations in time and space.
The Save DC is 19 -9 Toughness for her displacing things. But he has to make contact Touch to do that.

Johnny is very powerful, if his touch's you, you have to make a Toughness DC roll or be send to another. location, Reality or future time.

Johnny is Built 100% to the rules and in Hero Lab.


After I think guys I'm dropping, just to complicated a system
I'm more a pathfinder player


Recruitment is Live

Heroes Of Freedom City

51 to 89 of 89 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Online Campaigns / Recruitment / Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Ed (not a recruiting thread YET) All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.