Because why should supervillains be the only ones who overdo the self-experimentation thing?
He came out as more of a tech-hero in the port than the nimble superhuman brawler he started as, but he’s still got the “jump around and kick you in the face” thing going and he’s a lot less fragile the his Tiny Supers incarnation. Takes full advantage of the Genius power source’s incredible Reaction and self-Boosting abilities to make the Armored archetype’s Mid- and Min-die effects do more than expected, and Push Your Limits really doubles down on the concept in a crisis.
First time I’ve ever built a hero that used their retcon to swap different die into an ability, but the difference between a d12 and even a d10 is huge when you’re using a single die to reactively defend and boost yourself - especially when you’re probably adding a persistent bonus to it as well. The odds of getting that big 12+ result wind up meaningfully different.
Keeping with the Syracuse Seven thing, today I’ve got two related characters. Literally related, since they’re the superhero parents of last post’s Leaping Lizard.
Two-for-one villain post today, with both forms of the Parallel Man, a baddie who exists across countless alternate timelines. The “Infinite” version is a Mastermind/Legion type with a screwball time machine that calls on his possibly-infinite other selves for aid. The “Isolated” version is the result of his time machine getting broken, leaving him cut off from other timelines and hungry for revenge as a nasty Mastermind/Guerrilla type.
Non-zero chance that he was inspired mostly by silly villain villain names like the Many-Angled Ones, Triangle Man, and of course Angle Man (both Angelo Bend and Funky Flashman). None of them have any power at all over the might of parallels, of course. Presumably he has a nemesis called the Intersector, though.
Arno is a member of the technocratic conspiracy SIN, and you can find links to the earlier post with more of the organization’s members in the new one.
Inspired by all those old monster comics where some museum display turns out to be a slumbering menace. Marvel did a lot of those interspersed with random alien invaders like Groot, although DC had their share as well.
Nice. I like the usage of orichalcum for the statue’s material; did you intend that to imply that it has some connexion to Atlantis? Or did you simply use it in a more general, “ancient mysterious metal” way?
Also, I can’t help but feel that the feel of this villain reminds me of the Court of Entropy.
Could be either. I was thinking Shadowrun’s version of the stuff, but Atlantis or generic mystery metal works fine too. The real stuff is kind of dull, just an alloy of gold and (probably) copper the last time I checked.
Effigy might be an old ally or enemy of the Court, sure. Not all magical baddies are pals and the Effigy is pretty self-absorbed. Probably knew Ymum back in the day, and might have crossed paths with FourEver in my loose setting. If he existed in the GTG setting I’m sure Argent Adept (or one of his ancient peers) would have opposed him at some point, and he wouldn’t be real popular with Mistweaver or the Scholar.
What other folks do to make my villains fit their games is up to them. I mostly put in backstory because raw stat blocks are as boring as boring gets.
Another new villain, this one the field commander of a radical anti-supers paramilitary group. He’s built to act in concert with large die-size lieutenant-grade agents while being resilient enough to stay in the fight, although regular minions and other villains can benefit from him being around as well.
This particular build is better than most at showing off how heroes get more powerful as the GYRO zone advances. Pretty much everything about her scales up steadily.
While I love most of your builds, I am not so convinced about this one.
Not to rain on your parade, but to my experience, but I’d worry that this particular build would rarely, if ever, be able to go through those nicely escalating GYRO zones before the scene tracker does!
With no less that 3 damage-mitigating traits and an additional healing power, damage control seems a wee bit over-emphasized While this impedes MAC from using her advanced abilities early, all those redundancies also clog up most of her green zone, so there’s actually very little she can do before things generally start going south.
If a player came up with this sort of build, I’d warn them that Health is usually much less of an issue than time running out.
But yeah, she won’t be taken down easily - that’s for sure
Normal scenes you’ll spend one, maybe two turns in Green before the tracker ticks over. Unless you get dogpiled or are really fragile you’ll usually go to Yellow about the same time the tracker does, although some heavy hitter villains or bad minion management might push that earlier. She might get to Red later than more fragile heroes (or not at all) but her go-to Yellow ability is Atomic Beam, which has a significant chance of self-inflicting irreducible damage on doubles. She also lacks a Yellow defensive reaction, which is something most hero builds look for and really isn’t fully offset by the inherent damage reduction - which only stack with physical attacks, and are bypassed completely by mental/social/exotic damage. Atomic Beam is very strong as long as there are 2+ targets to hit, which is why it has such a savage drawback on doubles, good enough that twisting yourself to use it in Green might be worth doing. As long as she gets to Yellow she’s fine, and barring a strange scene tracker or a Calming Aura upgrade that’ll happen early enough.
There’s two Green inherent abilities (both with all the usual damage reduction issues - frequently bypassed, limited initial impact) and the Red zone reaction, which is as likely to be used covering a teammate as anything. That’s her big team support trick right there, and she will sometimes be using it in Yellow by twisting if it’s the difference between an ally going Out or not. The overall mitigation focus exists partly to avoid killing herself (or having to drown herself in twists) using high-risk abilities like Atomic Beam, Armored Rampage, and Damn Foolish Heroics.
Her Green Mobile Cover ability is more intended to be a Min die Defend for others than herself, although I suppose she could if she wanted. Not much help, but if someone’s vulnerable it might be a lifesaver, especially with bonuses to pump into it. Gives her something team-friendly to do before her Red reaction and mobility trick.
You could swap that out for Armored’s “Attack one target Mid, a second target Min” ability, but I’d only do so if the team was light on minion management - and even then, I’d seriously consider just twisting to use Atomic Beam early if the situation really called for it. With (probably) a Green d12, d8, d6 pool to use your Min die effects aren’t going to be terrific until you get some bonuses in the mix.
It really doesn’t limit her Green options at all, that’s just how a Power Suit/Armored build is going to be. The only other Green option for Power Suit is another inherent ability that might, if you’re lucky, remove a couple of penalties per scene. It’s real bad compared to the limited damage reduction option, and the Yellow reaction option is a self-Booster that doesn’t actually Defend. That might be worth taking, but I’d rather have the unique Mid+Min P+E Boost action. Her archetype has no Yellows at all and instead has four Greens, one fixed and three optional. The solitary reaction is pretty terrible (although it would quite decent if it was an inherent), and every other option is a Mid Attack with a rider. You could argue that I should use a different PS/Arch pairing, but within the limitations of the ones I’ve used this is about as good as it gets.
That’s probably the gist of it - this pairing is definitely leaning heavily into damage reduction. So I suppose you’re right; within a PowerSuit+Armored pairing, this is what it’s going to be.
If you can make it work in the wild (and it looks like you’ve already thought that through), all the better!
Well, let me see if I can break down what I expect her to do during a typical action scene using the 2/4/2 scene tracker.
Green:
Look for challenges to Overcome with one of her Principles so you’ve got a Max die on a pool ranging from d12, d10, d6 (Suit, Tech, Status) to d10, d8, d6 (MAC-Pack, Tech/Leadership, Status). If you can’t justify those pools or no Principle will work I’d look for something else to do unless some ally can toss you a bonus - rolling d8, d6, d6 (RP quality, tertiary power, status) is asking for it.
Pick a Green Attack ability with the best rider and sock someone. Rocket Ram with d10, d8, d6 will avoid defensive reactions and ignore any penalties on you while dealing a pretty reliable 4-5 damage. Mobile Cover will put a Min Defend on someone with d12, d8, d6. You probably don’t need to heal, but Charge and Recharge will be more useful later on. You could also swap one of those for the dual Attack Green ability for Mid to one target and Min to another - most likely if your team just doesn’t have any squishy heroes (letting you drop Mobile Cover) or desperately needs sweep Attacks.
If the situation justifies it, grit your teeth and twist to use one of your Yellows early. Atomic Beam probably isn’t worth it with just a d8, d6, d6 pool (RP quality, nuclear, status) unless you are drowning in small minions, but getting a d12, d10, d6 (suit, tech, status) Mid+Min P+E bonus up round one will help a lot until it gets scrubbed off - probably more that the twist will hurt.
Yellow:
If you haven’t done Reactor Overload or its bonus has been removed, start with that. It’s now up to d12, d10, d8 Mid+Min, which isn’t bad at all. You might even be able to justify doing it multiple times, either while the bonus is still active to establish a backup (with a slight buff from being able to use the existing bonus), or to replace the bonus if it’s been removed.
Atomic Beam is now d6, d8, d8 and hopefully has a a P+E bonus from Reactor Overload to use with every shot, plus anything your team might contribute. This is probably your go-to Yellow as long as there are at least two targets that deserve an Attack, and you’ve got the Health to get bitten by doubles a fair few times.
If there’s only one worthwhile target (especially if they’ve demonstrated a mean reaction) or if you’re having penalty woes, Rocket Ram may be a better choice. Mid die with no penalties, no reactions, and no Defend effects is often better than Max with all that tech in place.
If your Health is dropping too fast (dogpiling, too much exotic damage bypassing reduction, or too many doubled Atomic Beams) Charge and Recharge with bonuses on healing will offset that at the cost of delaying you reaching the Red. Tough as you are, going to Red health on turn four or something is still not great for you.
Mobile Cover can help prop up a vulnerable ally (or yourself if you’re greedy, I suppose - the wording is a bit odd), again with bonuses on the Defend rider.
As before, if the situation calls for it twisting for a Red ability earlier is always an option. Armored Rampage is a big mass Attack even with “just” d12, d8, d8 Max+MIn. Thruster Rush with (at worst) d10, d8, d8 is a solid Max hit, a mass Mid Hinder and a sudden free repositioning trick for you and two allies - just the thing to get whether you need to Overcome a key challenge somewhere else right now, or to catch a slippery foe. Damn Fool Heroics is worded so that it gets its d10 Defend even in Yellow, and it can catch Attacks on anyone, not just yourself.
And, of course, always look for chances to do Principled Overcomes. Challenges often happen throughout a scene, and your status die keeps getting better.
Red:
You’re going be using Red abilities almost all the time now, and they’ve only gotten better as your status die is now d10.
Your damage reduction abilities make it safer to use both Damn Fool Heroics and Armored Rampage. You’re down to a dozen Health or less at this point and every bit helps. Just be careful about jumping in front of energy or exotic damage types that bypass half or all of that reduction, and remember to put any bonuses you have left on the d10 Defend roll.
If you reached Red early in the scene (like, say, before turn six), it may be worthwhile to resort to Charge and Recharge (hopefully with bonuses) to keep from going Out altogether. Juicy as Red abilities are, if you were taking damage that fast something is getting around your defenses reliably and twelve health will not last long at all.
Similarly, Rocket Ram remains a viable option in the same circumstances discussed up in the Yellow zone. Some villains just drown you in penalties, others have reactions that will kill you (or an ally) in the Red zone if they get to use them, and a really solid Defend (maybe bolstered with bad guy bonuses) can deflect even an Armored Rampage hit.
I can’t say it enough, but any Challenges still running need to be dealt with and you’ll never be in better shape to do it in terms of dice pools. If you’re somehow way out of your wheelhouse and rolling d10, d4, d4 that’s still not a hopeless Hail Mary if you can get a Principle involved (like, say, Detachment because I am not in the least concerned about the slavering hellspawn trying to devour my leg while I finish chanting Tatoo Baretta Nicotine or whatever that magic formula was) and maybe a bonus or two. Thruster Rush could let you move two more competent allies over to do it instead, potentially dragging them out of whatever bad situation was keeping them occupied in the first place - and leaving less-mobile enemies unable to chase and Attack them immediately to boot.
Out:
If you have to go Out, you might as well be rolling a d12 to reduce damage on an ally every round thereafter. Odds are they’re hanging on by a thread too, and every point stopped will matter.
Of the stuff I look for most in a hero build, prior to Red she’s lacking a mass multi-target Attack or Hinder (both immensely useful for handling minion swarms), a defensive reaction (either for herself or allies), and anything in the way of party-friendly Boost or Hinder abilities (although she can provide her own decent P+E bonus in Yellow, taking some strain off support heroes). Her Red abilities were selected with those shortcomings in mind, even if they won’t always come up without self-twisting.
She’s also lacking a Max die Green Attack (always nice to have, but fairly rare) or any kind of Max Boost/Hinder ability, but as noted she’s got a marked durability skew as opposed to going hard on offense or mod support. And again, a Green ability like Rocket Ram is often going to outperform a vanilla Max Attack, so that particular missing piece doesn’t really sting much.
Giving a little more thought to Big MAC, if you wanted to optimize the build a bit, you could swap powers linked to her two Yellow abilities, putting d12 Power Suit on Atomic Beam (and maybe renaming it to Overload Integral Weaponry or something) and d6 Nuclear on Reactor Overload. That would have a fairly dramatic effect on her main offensive ability (Yellow lasts a long time), increasing it from dealing ~12-13 damage spread over three targets to ~15-16 damage, as well as increasing the potential Max die damage quite a bit, thereby making it better when there aren’t the full three targets to hit.
In exchange, your Mid+Min P+E self-Boost will suffer a bit, going from a d12, d10, d8 pool in Yellow to a d8, d8, d6. It should still reliably generate a +2 bonus, but reaching a +3 bonus goes from “fairly common” to “needs a lucky roll” and getting a +4 will require almost rolling max possible results. This will give you a bit less to work with for the same action cost, as well as making it easier for foes to generate penalties to strip away the persistent bonus altogether.
I don’t personally like the tradeoff, but I tend to overvalue bonuses a bit and objectively it’s likely the better build. This is even more the case if there’s a solid source of efficient bonus generation in your team. Having more damage output in Yellow is very meaningful when your overall job is to trade damage favorably with enemies, which is Big MAC’s schtick.
Going that route probably means you’d be better off also swapping the Green Attack+Defend ability out for the unused dual Mid and Min Attack option. With smaller and less reliable bonuses to augment Min die riders dinging someone for Min die is likely to be more useful, since even trivial damage will at least degrade a minion or force a save. Bit less versatile in terms of what you can do, but more emphasis on damage dealing.
New villain on the blog, although he’s a bit past his sell-by date since he was killed by the person who’s now using his supranym some time ago. Still, you know how comics are, so some stats for him when he was less, ah, inanimate might be helpful:
Today’s menace answer the question “What if flesh-eating bacteria were big enough to bite your hand off?” Be careful where you point that experimental growth ray, folks.
Also an experiment with an inversion of the Legion archetype, with a lieutenant that can sacrifice itself and some minions to “trade up” to a villain form. A really, really fragile villain, but still…
