Saturday, July 1, 2017

Playing in Light City: Halo and Firestar

So as I noted along with the Ray's writeup, I planned on doing a Sidekick next.  But then Ross over at Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues posted this gem today (seriously, click the link and check it out!), so I figured it couldn't hurt to have one more post with a pair of hot Elementals (SWIDT?).

You can check out Halo and Firestar at their respective companies' wikis...

(Quick note: One thing I'm realizing is a potential downfall of the Elemental class is that "unchecked" flying doesn't come around until 6th level.  I think this is cool for building a character over time, but I don't necessarily like that any established character I stat up as an Elemental must be at least 6th level or have at least a small issue flying now and then.  Might be something to address at some point...)

Halo

Level 6 Elemental
First appearance:  Brave and the Bold #200 (1983)
Real name:  Gabrielle Doe

STR 11     DEX 11     CON 15     INT 12     WIS 8     CHA 15
4+5 HD (19 HP)     Saving Throw 10     Flight (48 ft.)
AC 7[12] (light aura)

Attack:  Heat Beam (Red Halo), +3 to hit, 1d6 light damage, range 60 ft.
Elemental Powers (6x/day):  Hold (Green Halo), Light I (Yellow Halo), Orange Missile (Orange Halo, a la Magic Missile).


Firestar

Level 6 Elemental
First appearance:  Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (TV series) Episode #1 (1981)
Real name:  Angelica Jones

STR 13     DEX 16     CON 12     INT 11     WIS 16     CHA 13
4+1 HD (15 HP)     Saving Throw 10     Flight (48 ft.)
AC 6[13] (-2[+2] from fire aura, ineffective vs. water)

Attack:  Fire Blast, +4 to hit, 1d6 light damage, range 60 ft.
Elemental Powers (6x/day):  Knock/Lock, Light I, Microwave Missile (a la Magic Missile).

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Hmm.  I realized while writing these up that the Ray should maybe get Invisibility rather than his Photon Missile (a la Magic Missile) power...

Now, I really do think I'll stat up a Sidekick...

10 comments:

  1. I like both of these ladies. Plus Halo is another Outsider (along with Grace). It makes me think I need to stay another member of the team.

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    1. I'd love to see it! Thinking about that also makes me realize there's a bit of irony in the fact that the Outsiders have included at least a couple more characters that could be good Elementals (Black Lightning and Geo-Force), while Metamorpho (The Element Man) doesn't really work as one...

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  2. It's great to see your process at work, identifying things that aren't working and admitting that they need changing.

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    1. Thanks man...I really do think of this as an experiment!

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  3. I like your classes but the damage output for them is far too low to be considered as "super" i understand you're trying to keep it simple and in the flow of SWL but the characters all feel very weak and regular.

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    1. That's probably going to be central tension within the rules that may turn off a lot of people unless I address it. I think Justin likes the Guardians method of extra HD at 1st level, which would then free up the rules for higher damage output as well. I tend to like the SWL consistency, but I understand how it doesn't feel very super to others. (I kind of think of it like mixing Mage Knight and HeroClix in a game...there's already enough suspension of disbelief put into distilling these ideas into game form that a bit of power scale concern isn't a huge deal...)

      Definitely something I need to keep in mind going forward though...there might at least need to be some optional power scale rules developed.

      Thank you for stopping by!

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    2. I'd love to see how a regular person like a thug differentiates from one of these characters

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    3. Well, of course there's the flight, the elemental powers, and the built-in "weapon" and "armor"...but I'm thinking what you're getting at is, if I were to match these characters up against a random thug, is there all that much that would differentiate them in terms of strength...?

      Which, really, is an exercise I need to take on. (At the very least, I do need to throw down some villains, don't I?) Thanks!

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  4. I'm sorry I meant no offense of course..I've actually reworked the brawler class (so far) to make them better then the average joe at the beginning and powerful by level 12 (i added 5 more levels) at level 6 they have an option to gain some super powers in the form of devices. In my opinion it really doesn't matter how much damage they do if you take something like the monks unarmed damage from the complete rules as an example and you have comparable baddies that scale with the heroes. The benefit being that you can still throw in weaker opponents and really give the players a sense of how powerful they've become every once and a while.

    the reworking allows for characters like this:

    Heroes that fit this class: Captain America, The Shield, Shieldmaster, Ironfist, Daredevil, The Hangman, The Flame, Black Terror, Black Jack, Captain Commando, Patriot, Red Raven

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    1. Oh, I took no offense at all! I appreciate the feedback. (And I'm quite interested in knowing more about your reworking of the Brawler! You can always hit me up on G+ or over email...which is a gmail account that starts with jlinneman...if you'd rather go to a different forum...!)

      I like that you reference the Monk's damage output...I do think it's useful as a guideline for how much damage one might expect typical OD&D-style characters to do in a round (with SWL probably leaning a little weaker than Complete characters, of course).

      And...it's funny you mention Cap and the Shield...I actually have a holiday post coming tomorrow musing on a Supersoldier class (which would also include someone like Deathstroke), some of which is definitely influenced by your thoughts on power in Light City...!

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