Mr. Fixer is designed to be played as the archetypal character who makes do with what is around him As a weapon. Think old Jackie Chan movies. The problem is that there are always tools for Jackie Chan in the movies, but Mr. fixer does not play as well as that. As for him being old, doesn’t that make him more like the martial arts master who is still more powerful than the student because of his experience?
A Mr. Fixer Jackie Chan movie would be him facing off against bad guys in a mostly empty warehouse, dodging around and finding a useful tool every five minutes or so. He’d occasionally punch a guy in the face but rarely KO them, and would occasionally change up his style. It would be a disjointed combat and sad to see.
Okay thought of a better example as my Jackie Chan one made little sense.
He is supposed to be the tool using martial arts dude but plays more like inspector Cluseau (sp?). “where’s my tool box?” “oh there it is.” “let’s see, what’s this, a jack handle? Too bad there’s only one enemy in play.” “I know there’s a pipe wrench in here somewhere”
He’s not more powerful; he’s more skilled and knows how to better utilize his weakened strike capacity to perhaps get better results than he otherwise should, but in terms of raw output he is outclassed by younger/stronger bodies.
Thematics and Mechanics are two very different things. I love Absolute Zero as a character, but find his delicate nature really slows down games and reduces his ability to effectively contribute in a game. The same goes for Fixer and his Styles/Tools. Do the mechanics represent a real life distribution of damage? Does Expatriette’s Shotgun really hurt more than Young Legacy’s Atomic Glare, which is stronger than Ra, God of the Sun’s Pyre attack? A Gun Power can deal more innate damage than any of Ra’s Powers (except, of course, for the four Psychic damage he does to himself with Solar Flare), Powers which represent him harnessing the Sun that he is the patron deity of.
Let’s look at what one damage represents in Sentinels. Ra’s Flame Spike deals one Fire damage to a target, and the Blade Battalion does one Melee damage for each member in the team (5HP=5 members). This means that Fixer’s damage is equivalent simultaneously to a single Blade Battalion Minion, a gout of flame from the mighty God of the Sun, Tachyon punching someone while speeding around a room with a Nimble Strike, the third Grenade on Bunker’s Grenade Launcher, Absolute Zero burning his absolute zero temperature body with the blinding heat of everyday life Thermodynamics, the one Melee damage from Citizen Blood, and a zap from The Wraith’s Stun Bolt or one of her Throwing Knives. Also the one Projectile damage that represents Police Backup shooting something with guns.
I personally find that Mr. Fixer, the only hero (until EE Fanatic’s Divine Sacrifice) capable of dealing or allowing other heroes to deal Irreducible damage, would not mechanically be conveyed as a weakened elderly man. His cards seem to represent otherwise, considering the damage he can put out with tools and styles (which deal damage equal to or above anything from minions to Gene-Bound aliens to military weaponry to civilian weaponry to mystical flames from the God of the Sun). I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t really see how one Melee damage compared to two would effectively convey him as an elderly hero that is weaker than the others. It just seems to slow him down more, putting him on par with Absolute Zero (a young man in a very expensive containment suit that allows him to rip chunks out of himself to take on baddies with Cold damage equal to temperatures that are unheard of in nature). While age could be an explanation for the one Melee damage, I would find it a very disappointing and inconsistent one.
Hmm, ya know, I wanted to dispute that, seeing as AZ is actually 44, and based on his backstory, I didn’t really think of him as “young”. However, looking at the ages of many of the Sentinels… it puts him above most of the “normal” heroes, but well below Haka, Tempest, and maybe Fanatic (not sure how long she’s been around). I imagine Mister Fixer is probably older, but we don’t know atm.
Absolute Zero: 44
Bunker: 28
Expatriette: No ages for Rook City heroes
Fanatic: Unknown
Haka: Unknown
Legacy: 47
Mister Fixer: No ages for Rook City heroes
Ra: 43
Tachyon: 38
Tempest: 136
Visionary: 17
Wraith: 23
Very true, broccoli. I suppose I should clarify by saying younger man than Mr. Fixer. Either way, if you’re gonna be a hero in the mean streets of Rook City, you can’t be worrying about brittle hips and poor eyesight. At least, not enough that it can’t be offset by being awesome.
What Mr Fixer needs, I think, is something that allows him to draw more quickly. He has lots of great combos, the problem is, he has a 40 card deck and combats rarely last 40 turns. If I was to gut his deck, I would add a few “draw a card” texts for some of his his styles, or maybe even for harmony, to give it a reason to be in play when his set up is not complete. Literally give it a ‘When Mr. Fixer does not have both a style and an equipment in play, draw an extra card during your draw phase.’
The toolbox is an interesting card with an interesting mechanic- one I replicated in a different sense for a custom character- but it’s less useful on the whole than a lot of cards that say ‘do this thing, and draw a card’
Granted, it’s useful because it’s a repeatable trick, but for some reason, it feels less useful to me than it should.
Now, I love Mr. Fixer, especially when he gets his sweet combos going. It’s just hard to get them going, it feels like.
Weird, my problem with Mr. Fixer is rarely drawing cards. Then again, I use Toolbox a lot. What I would really like for him is a way to PLAY more cards, in particular, something that would let him swap both his style and tool on the same turn. That would be awesome. However, we come back to that same problem. If he gets a power that lets him do that (play both a style and a tool), how will he deal damage?
Hmm, then we come back to that same problem of “It’s strictly better than his base power.” Maybe if it was
Strike
Power: Discard any number of cards. Deal X damage to 1 target where X is the number of cards discarded.
Then you could still discard 0 cards once you have some buffs out, but you could also discard a ton when you needed it. Hmmm, I really like that actually.
Okay, then I expect he is experienced enough to change his stance more often then he tends to.
While I get that tools go back to hand because they are in his tool box, wouldn’t it have made more sense for stances to instead. The way it plays now, he can have some difficulty changing his fighting style, but he has plenty of tools (depending on the draw).
