Statting Up Worm Characters

[S1C0]

At Sanctaphrax

I think it would work with a variety of bonuss, the more related to math stuff IE science i would give a +12  and

have the value drop the less math that is involved, +12 is just an example i have little idea how to use math in game or

how much it can come up.

[Mrmdubois]

The problem is that damn near anything could be done like that with math.  Say you've been working in a bar and following mixed drink recipes, you're ability to immediately quantify things is going to make you amazing at that.  Mechanical stuff tends to be math-y too, though I guess less so up front nowadays with computers being used so heavily.

Dunno, maybe a flat bonus with a situational declaration or maneuver for tags?

[Belial666]

For knowledge powers that give a usable bonus, there's the precedent of a Fists-based Stunt that allows you to roll a skill as a free action to make an Assessment about your enemy or the battlefield.

The Numbers Man would simply have Powers that worked like this for the skills of Lore, Investigation and Alertness. Each power would be a -4 refresh power rather than a -1 refresh stunt because it would apply to very broad fields and conditions (almost anything).
Thus, for -12 refresh, the Numbers Man could make 3 free assessments/declarations per round - which he could then tag to get up to +6 in skill checks. Add "A Few Seconds Ahead" as a power and a "Reading The Pattern" stunt for +2 to any precognition rolls and you're good to go.



BTW, I sent Sancta my own powersets for the Endbringers. Given the powers each of them has, I think they need a significant boost - especially toughness-wise. For example, they can do the following;

1) Face dozens of opponents in prolonged fights, each opponent being a superhuman at Submerged level on average.
2) Survive a nuclear explosion - nukes have been used against them in the past.

Specifically for each Endbringer;

Leviathan is the fastest thing on the surface of the world; he can move faster than any speedster and as fast as the speed of sound underwater. He combines hydrokinesis in relatively confined quarters to his own physical attacks. He can destroy vast areas - but it takes hours.

Behemoth is immensely strong. He is also invulnerable to energy in the scientific term i.e. elemental and kinetic attacks, he is capable of controlling such energy and also to outright project it up to a couple hundred feet apparently without effort. (he does so 4 times in a row in the first few moments of his very first appearance). Last but not least, he can slowly turn areas into radioactive wastelands.

The Simurgh has awareness of both peoples' secrets/thoughts and of stored information/telecommunications and that awareness extends even through barriers at least fifty miles away. She is powerful enough telekinetically to lift multiple house-sized objects to use for offense or defense. She is a very powerful precog/illusionist capable of deceiving and avoiding the attacks of even Scion. And last but not least, she can slowly corrupt the destiny of people, setting them up for terribly destructive ends.

[Sanctaphrax]

The Numbers Man would simply have Powers that worked like this for the skills of Lore, Investigation and Alertness. Each power would be a -4 refresh power rather than a -1 refresh stunt because it would apply to very broad fields and conditions (almost anything).
Thus, for -12 refresh, the Numbers Man could make 3 free assessments/declarations per round - which he could then tag to get up to +6 in skill checks. Add "A Few Seconds Ahead" as a power and a "Reading The Pattern" stunt for +2 to any precognition rolls and you're good to go.

That sounds like a pain in the neck to play. Four rolls per turn? No thanks.

Also AFSA is a badly written Power that I refuse to use.

BTW, I sent Sancta my own powersets for the Endbringers. Given the powers each of them has, I think they need a significant boost - especially toughness-wise.

Worm Toughness caps out a lot higher than DFRPG Toughness. I noticed this issue right when I started this project, but I figured Mythic Toughness was close enough for government work.

Behemoth is immensely strong. He is also invulnerable to energy in the scientific term i.e. elemental and kinetic attacks, he is capable of controlling such energy and also to outright project it up to a couple hundred feet apparently without effort. (he does so 4 times in a row in the first few moments of his very first appearance). Last but not least, he can slowly turn areas into radioactive wastelands.

I'm not sure if he's actually immune to energy. He might just be really resistant. Which is why he has armour 10 here.

He's got Dangerous Aura for the wasteland thing. I'm not sure if that's enough, though, because it ends when he leaves.

The Simurgh has awareness of both peoples' secrets/thoughts and of stored information/telecommunications and that awareness extends even through barriers at least fifty miles away. She is powerful enough telekinetically to lift multiple house-sized objects to use for offense or defense. She is a very powerful precog/illusionist capable of deceiving and avoiding the attacks of even Scion. And last but not least, she can slowly corrupt the destiny of people, setting them up for terribly destructive ends.

I think I covered most of this pretty well, but she does lack a Supernatural Sense to read stored information. I should probably add that.

The decoy was probably just a Discipline maneuver using her enormous skill.

[Mrmdubois]

I don't think nukes have been used on them...when Tattletale mentions that nuking Leviathan probably wouldn't work no one is going, "Oh, we already knew that!" Which would have been the case if they had tried.

Also, yeah Leviathan is fast but there are those who can move as fast or faster, notably Legend and Alexandria.  Plus he really only hits those speeds in or on water.

Sancta, for Behemoth's aura you could add a new upgrade that creates duration, or at least leaves a heavy duty sticky scene Aspect.

In the interest of continuing to provide a challenge, how about Prism?  Not sure I've seen any duplication powers.

[Sanctaphrax]

I think Wildbow said something in the comments about nukes being used.

And honestly, nukes aren't as deadly as people make them out to be. Roughly three-quarters of Hiroshima survived and none of them had superpowers. So I doubt nukes would be terribly effective against the Endbringers.

Well, actually, Simurgh might be fragile enough to be significantly harmed. But she'd see it coming, and so she'd find some way to protect herself.

And I doubt that either Alexandria or Legend is faster than Leviathan in combat. Legend no doubt has a higher max speed though, what with his musings on space travel.

For Prism, I'd look at Revlid's multiple bodies Power. It's on the list.

[Mrmdubois]

Damn, so there is a Power for that.  I guess from there you would just build in Inhuman Powers with a Limitation of collapsing all other bodies and throwing in a time limit for the Inhuman Powers.

Does the multiple bodies power cover all but one of them being rain out?

Alexandria is capable of keeping a comparable speed to Legend, and you could speculate that at the very least he can hit light speed since like you said interstellar travel.  You could be right though about them having difficulty maintaining those speeds in combat.

To hit Simurgh with a nuke would take a lot of work but be doable.  Basically the whole thing would have to be accomplished with precogs to block her own precognition.

[Sanctaphrax]

Okay, here's Super Math.

Pretty happy with everything except the name. It just sounds dumb.

Any ideas for a better name?

Other feedback is also welcome, but the name is what bothers me most about this Power.

SUPER MATH [-3]
Description: You're good with numbers. Really good. You have the creativity and intuition of a great mathematician mixed with the speed and precision of a supercomputer.
Skills Affected: Scholarship, Lore, Craftsmanship
Effects:
Calculator Brain. You can do arithmetic and design graphs near-instantly and you never miscalculate. You effectively have a graphing calculator and a spreadsheet in your brain.
Perfect Measurement. You can count perfectly at a glance, and your estimated measurements are almost flawless. You never need more than a single action to Assess something numerical. Add 4 to your Scholarship skill when using it for a numerical Assessment or Declaration.
Good With Numbers. Add 8 to your Scholarship skill when performing pure mathematics. Add 6 to your Scholarship skill for physics, computer programming, and other forms of applied math. Add 4 to your Scholarship skill for economics, chemistry, engineering, and other math-heavy disciplines. Add 2 to your Scholarship, Craftsmanship, and Lore skills when doing anything that involves math in any meaningful way.

EDIT: The new name is Numerical Prodigy.

[Mrmdubois]

I dunno, I kind of like Super Math.

Cool power though, I feel like I should take advantage of it for a character sometime.

Thinking about it, the first part of the power could almost certainly be a Supernatural Sense, right?  Man, I could see getting a lot of mileage out of the first part of the power.  Weight guessing, counting jelly beans in a jar, pouring perfect shots...

[Sanctaphrax]

If you do make a character with Super Math, I'd be interested in seeing them.

I'd let you take most of Perfect Measurement as a Supernatural Sense, but I wouldn't include the +4 to Declarations.

Calculator Brain and Good With Numbers wouldn't work so well as a Supernatural Sense.

[Sanctaphrax]

Meet the Number Man.

(click to show/hide)

Number Man (Snorkelling)

High Concept: Cauldron Operative With Math Powers
Trouble Aspect: Sociopathic Monster
Other Aspects: Friend Of Jack Slash, They Called Me Harbinger, Mathematical Philosopher, Supreme Precision, Supervillain Banker
Skills:
Superb: Scholarship, Alertness
Great: Fists, Athletics, Lore
Good: Investigation, Discipline, Endurance
Fair: Intimidation, Deceit, Stealth
Average: Presence, Might, Conviction
Stunts:
Small Pointy Things (Fists): Use Fists to wield knives and improvised weapons similar to knives.
Supervillain Banker (Scholarship): Use Scholarship to perform maneuvers based on moving other people's money around and to notice changes in the political/financial situations of supervillain groups.
Analytical Fighter (Fists): Attacks inflict +2 stress after he's seen his target act at least three times in the current fight.
My Power Is More Effective At Range (Athletics): +2 to dodge any attack that comes from at least two zones away.
Powers:
Precognition [-2]
Numerical Prodigy [-3]
Total Refresh Cost:
-9
Refresh Total:
4

I wasn't sure whether it was a good idea to keep him in positive Refresh, but he's clearly the kind of guy who Invokes a lot of Aspects. And maybe he's a horrible monster out of his own free will. So in the end I didn't make any particular effort to drive him down to 0 Refresh.

[Sanctaphrax]

Judging by the most recent interlude, I underestimated Lung. Ah well.

So now I'm going to write up Prism and Myrrdin. We don't know much about either of them, so these writeups are gonna be pretty guess-work-heavy.

I've thought about it some and I'm pretty sure the best way to represent Myrrdin is with Self-Sponsored Magic. He never does ritual stuff on-screen, but we don't know for sure that he couldn't have done so. And hey, maybe his brand of Sponsored Magic doesn't grant much in the way of rituals.

I'm not going to write it up fully, but I do have an extra benefit in mind for it. It lets him cast Evocations that block everything a target does by removing that target from existence temporarily. Until the spell ends or the target manages to overcome the block with an action, the target is trapped in a pocket dimension and impossible to attack or otherwise interact with.

I dunno whether Myrrdin's staff is actually a focus or not, so Myrrdin may or may not deserve Behemoth's Internalized Foci Power. That's why there's a question mark there.

He might also deserve Magical Compartment, but maybe his Sponsored Magic can handle that.

(click to show/hide)

Myrrdin (Submerged)

High Concept: Superhero "Wizard"
Trouble Aspect: Head Of Boston's Protectorate
Other Aspects: Manipulates Pocket Dimensions
Skills:
Superb: Conviction, Discipline
Great: Presence, Lore
Good: Endurance, Athletics
Fair: Contacts, Might, Alertness
Average: Rapport, Investigation, Empathy, Intimidation, Fists
Powers:
Wings [-1]
Sponsored Magic (Pocket Dimensions) [-4]
Refinement [-2]
Internalized Foci [-2]?
Total Refresh Cost:
-7/-9
Refresh Total:
3/1

Prism (Submerged)

High Concept: Self-Triplicating Superheroine
Other Aspects: Ex-Gymnast, NYC PRT, Sort-Of Dating Triumph
Skills:
Superb: Athletics
Great: Guns, Fists, Alertness
Good: Endurance, Alertness, Conviction
Fair: Discipline, Rapport, Presence
Average: Empathy, Contacts, Might
Powers:
Multiple Bodies [-7]
We Are Many [-1]
Hive Mind [-2]
Limitation (Must take an action to create clones, can't sustain clones from scene to scene) [+2]
Inhuman Strength [-2]
Inhuman Speed [-2]
Limitation (Must recall clones to use Inhuman Speed and Strength for a turn) [+3]
Total Refresh Cost:
-9
Refresh Total:
1

[Sanctaphrax]

In light of Belial's comments and some recent revelations, I've adjusted the stats of Behemoth and Simurgh.

I gave Behemoth a custom upgrade for Dangerous Aura. It costs 2 Refresh and causes his aura to linger in a zone after he leaves the zone. Once the scene is over, the entire area in which Behemoth used his aura becomes more-or-less permanently dangerous.

I gave Simurgh some Supernatural Senses and an Incite Effect that lets her scramble computer programs.

Leviathan is next up.

[Mrmdubois]

If you do make a character with Super Math, I'd be interested in seeing them.

I'd let you take most of Perfect Measurement as a Supernatural Sense, but I wouldn't include the +4 to Declarations.

Calculator Brain and Good With Numbers wouldn't work so well as a Supernatural Sense.

If I ever do then I will let you know.  I'm thinking a sniper with Teleportation or one of the Speed powers.  I rarely make combat monsters but making someone that good with numbers highly mobile with projectile weapons just sounds like a ball of fun.  I have nothing to justify that with though.  Scion of Maxwell's Demon maybe...

High stakes gambler with a penchant for Kennedy assassinations perhaps.

In his downtime he could do completely frivolous things with his power, like tell people the exact number of hairs on their head...

[Sanctaphrax]

Maybe the Teleportation and the speed could be a narrative extension of the Super Math. Using a superhuman brain to exploit irregularities in time and space, letting you move in impossible ways.

Anyway, I doubt such a character would be too combat-monster-y. Super Math is primarily a non-combat Power, and it's a big chunk of Refresh. Limits how murder-hobo you can go, you know?