Another Batman Write-Up

[Beacon]

Some notes:

Batman may be a strategic genius but when it comes to actually working with others he’s really lacking. I find it hard to justify his current leadership score when at least three of the people he’s trained (Dick, Barbara, and Tim) have all shown themselves to have superior leadership skills. The only people he’s ever really been that effective with in terms of giving orders are a handful of heroes who know him well enough to not be put off by his personality. You almost need to give him two separate leadership ranks; one for when he’s working with the Batfamily (minus the black…er…purple sheep like Huntress and Spoiler.) and a handful of his JLA teammates (Superman, Green Arrow [Ollie], ect) and another, lower, leadership ranking for when he’s working with everyone else.

I thought Intelligence was meant to be a measure of innate mental abilities while actions such as General Knowledge, technology, various sciences, ect reflect specialized knowledge acquired through study (or, in cases such as Forge, superpowers but that’s neither here nor there). If that’s the case then I have to join the people who say his Int of 8 is WAY too high. In my opinion, a seven year old Peter Parker could think rings around a seven year old Bruce Wayne (not that it’d do him much good since mini-Bruce would then proceed to beat the snot out of mini-Pete).

Don’t you think some of the Strengths of 3 are too high? I’m having a hard time picturing Tim or Selena benching 250+ pounds*.

Tim has the best technical skills out of the Robins but his write-up here doesn’t even have that action.

Dick Grayson is arguably the best leader and best (human) acrobat in the DCU but his stats don’t really reflect that. With his agility score it’s kind of tempting to treat him like they did with characters like the Kingpin or Daredevil by giving him a borderline superhuman ability (in this case, an agility of 4).

I can’t help but think that Jason ought to have some personalized social skills specialties to reflect his unique background.

Also can we give characters negative abilities? I was thinking that 3 was too high an intelligence for Jason but, now that I think about it, 1 is too high an intelligence.

And I really do like the write-ups. I don’t want you to get the impression that I don’t. I just think some of them could benefit from a little tweaking.

*Edit: Come to think of it, the same is true for the Joker.

[dorkknight23]

No, that criticism is really helpful. I'm always looking to perfect these things.

Maybe I'll drop Bruce's Intelligence to 7 (is that too high? 6 feels kinda low to me) and give him a special option to leadership to make it easier to lead those he's worked with.

Tim and Selina's strengths will be lowered. Dick's agility will be put up to 4, and Jason will have different social skills specialties.

Anyone else have anything to add?

[Rushlock]

I'd like to see someone knowledgeble enough to do write-ups for all 3 Robins, so we could see a comparison

[Beacon]

Four Robins

More if you count alternate realities/futures and pre-Crisis Earths.

Edit: And I wouldn’t trust myself to do Robin write-ups just because of the even numbered Robins.

I hate Jason Todd. Pre-crisis he was a carbon copy of the original Robin and, while I do like Dick, we only need one per Earth. Post-Crisis he was … well I think Dick summed it up best in Nightwing: Year One when he described him as “A sneaky, mean little punk. Maybe you hired him before the Joker could”. He was the kind of kid that Robin should be chasing down, not the kind of kid who should be Robin.

Stephanie Brown was written horribly out of character in the years shortly before her death. After her creator (Chuck Dixon) and the handful of Bat-writers who understood the character left after NML. She was really impressive by real world standards but she tended to fall short by comic book standards (Ted Kord/Blue Beetle would also be another example of that type of character). She also had the whole Huntress thing going on (though Steph was more stable) what she was doing a lot of what she did just to atone for her father’s crimes and didn’t give a damn what Batman thought. Recently they’ve reduced her to just being completely incompetent canon fodder who’s desperate for Batman’s approval.

[bawonsamdi]

I post here anothe member of the bat family, i hope that dorkknight don't mind

Nightwing
Dick Grayson

Eye Color Blue
Hair Color Black
Species Human

Abilities
Int 4
Str 3
Agi 3
Spd 3
Dur 3

Health 3
Energy 9

Actions

Ninja 6
(Intelligence bonus and Weapon modifier or Two Weapon Modifiers)
Master of Multiple Martial Arts Forms, Battle Staves, Hiding, Moving Silently, Wing-Dings, Escape Artist

Private Investigating 6
Breaking and Entering, Deduction, Physical/Forensic Evidence Gathering, Gotham City Police Procedures, Shadowing

Acrobatics 6
(Agility bonus)

Vehicle Operations 5
Batvehicles, Cars, Motorcycles, High Tech Vehicles, In Gotham Streets

General Knowledge 4
(Intelligence bonus)
Criminology, Psychology, Occult Lore, Scientific Disciplines

Technology 4
(Intelligence bonus)

Leadership 6

Social Skills 6
Charm, Criminal Underworld, Police Protocol, Gathering Superheroes, Various languages

Modifiers:
Mental Defense (+2)
Reflexive Dodge (+2)
Wealth (3)

Equipment:
*Twin Battle Staves: two 2' poles, +3 modifier to Ninja (close and ranged combat), +1 modifier to Acrobatics
* Wing-Dings (+2) weapon modifier to ranged combat (like batarangs)
* Nightwing Body Armor: +2 modifier to Defense, no 2x damage from firearms or projectiles, +2 modifier to Ninja when he want to be unseen, +4 energy defense against fire and electricity
* Nightwing mask: radio treansmitter/recever, infrared vision (+3)
* Utility Belt, contains the following:
- Grappling Hook: +2 modifier to Acrobatics
- Miniature Smoke Grenades: (+4) area attack vs. durability, all damage taken out of red stones, first in current actions, then in energy reserve
- Basic Forensics Kit: +1 modifier to Private Investigating (when gathering of forensics)
- Laser Torch: Heat Blast 3 (armor penetrating, point blank range only, free stones)
- Lock Picks: (+1) to Private Investigating (when breaking and entering)
- handcuffs: D: 4 R: 5, to break
- Gas Mask/Rebreather: allows him to remove need to breathe
- First aid kit

Challenges
Deadly Enemies (his own and batman's ennemies)
Need to prove his abilities to himself and to batmam

Dick Grayson's story