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Post by venkelos on Aug 21, 2007 9:51:26 GMT -5
As I read Swarm thread, I mentioned the Shadow King, and now that I think about it, I kind of wonder how some others would create him. To my knowledge, the books don't do a great job of pure energy beings. Human Torch doesn't become flames, so much as he is covered in them. Hydro Man is slightly better, but nothing really covers his lack of solidity in his write-up, either. At best, if he had Reflexive Dodge, and/or someone otherwise misses him, it can be dramatically described as "Hydro-Man warps his water form around the attack, avoiding being harmed."
Beings like Shadow King are pure energy, however, or pure psyche. His body is gone, and I don't know the most balanced way to cover it. He shouldn't have Durability, but then he'd have no Health. He might have Physical Invulnerability, but that's kind of expensive, when people wouldn't be able to perceive him, to attack him, to fail to harm him. For powers, he's easy, but his form is not so much, to me. Any suggestions would be nice, since they elected not to include him in the X-Men Guide. Otherwise, I may just use a bit of Onslaught as my base, and go that way.
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Post by dorkknight23 on Aug 22, 2007 3:11:29 GMT -5
Well, I'd give just give him Phase Shift, make it a modifier, and give him a disadvantage making him incapable of interacting with anything not on the Astral Plane. Topped off with a high intelligence (6 maybe?), 1's in all the physical stats, Telepathy at 9 or so with all the options Professor X has (and Possess Others,) Immortality, and a decent level of Social Skills (4 maybe? Specialties that come to mind are Egyptian language/culture, Charm, Professional Criminal, Intimidation) and a bit of Leadership (3 tops.) Pretty cut and dry.
Ideally, in my opinion, it should never come up how to stat the Shadow King, other than perhaps the options to Telepathy he has. He's more an oblique challenge to possess PCs and nearby NPCs and give them trouble if they try to go through the Astral Plane.
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Post by venkelos on Aug 22, 2007 8:52:14 GMT -5
The biggest trick was that I play D&D, and there I need to know the "level" of something, or the effective level, at least, so that I don't accidentally waste them. In this case, I just wanted to try and estimate SK's stone cost, to see what sort of groups it would be against him. With his high Telepathy and physical intangibility/invisibility, only a few, very powerful beings might be able to take him, but I wanted an estimate, regardless. Also might give him psycho-centric power template, as he MUST use Telepathy and others to accomplish many feats. One so familiar with telepathic powers might have the extra energy kick, so he can compete with Xavier.
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Post by venkelos on Aug 22, 2007 10:57:22 GMT -5
How about his Durability? It doesn't need to be as high, if he will have SI energy, but he has no BODY; he's energy, so what might one do for his Health. I think Xavier is D 2, so maybe Shadow King doesn't need more than that, but I don't know.
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Post by jayeh on Sept 17, 2007 23:27:59 GMT -5
you could use like shadow composition and of course the shadow king is the telpathic master of darkness so everything he creates is through the mind i dunno if that helps but i hope it does. i guess what im trying to say is that I'd give him his durability and the ability to physically appear to move objects with his hands and stuff but really using his mind to do it and yeah as posted by someone else he gets his power through the astral plane. I don't think he'd be as strong in the physical world unless he posses someone but then it isnt his stats its the person hed posses.
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Post by limski on Nov 8, 2007 10:46:56 GMT -5
i think shadow king is really cool because he is so evil
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Post by Stark on Nov 9, 2007 18:14:23 GMT -5
Most evil guys are cool because they're evil, limski... But Shadow King is a psychic abomination that looks like a demon from hell; that's why I see him as cool. As for his Durability, I wouldn't give him one at all. Nor to any physical ability, in fact. (He can't really be killed at all.)It appeared, in the books and in the games, that S.D and the professor X (as well as other telepaths) were nearly altering reality on the Astral Plane, so I would give them both a Durability equal to the level of their Telepathy power, with energy to match (in the professor's case, that would make it Durability of 10 while on the Astral Plane, Health of 10, and 30 of Energy). It seems extremely high, but Telepaths do are extremely powerful on that plane, and it fits with stories related to them. A battle between Xavier and the S.D on the Astral Plane truly takes epic proportions, as both alter the Plane's reality to suit their own will, trying to beat down their opponent. I am currently planning an entire set of rules for battling on the Astral Plane that will include this one. What I mean is, since Shadow King can't even set a foot on the normal, physical plane, it is unrelated to give him physical abilities. If he possess someone, he would possess the target's physical aptitudes, as jayeh suggested it.
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Post by Stark on Nov 9, 2007 18:17:17 GMT -5
And the Human Torch doesn't really turn to flames, he is really only surrounded by them. He can still be hit or touched (except you burn if you do), and touch people or pick up stuff (except he burns them down too).
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Post by Kaimontfendo on Nov 28, 2007 19:21:31 GMT -5
Well, I dug up some stats for him in the old Marvel System, and then converted what I could into MURPG. The result looks like this. There are so many problems with that it's not even funny.
For starters, that disgustingly high AN for Astral Projection. He could easily take it as an option for his Telepathy, and I would suggest it.
Secondly, his Telepathy AN is still higher than his energy reserve, which could be addressed by lowering his AN, and giving him some Psycho-Centric Power Template. Although you could give him a better intelligence score to produce more energy, nothing I have read indicates he's all that smart.
Finally, although there was no mention of his physical stats being irrelevant, since he never uses his own body anymore, it's just obvious. Similarly, Shadow King gets a special rule stating that "Because he is unable to return to his own body, any body he posesses will funtion as his own for purposes of prevent his death." (It's sorta mentioned in that challenge, but I felt it needed to be explained in more detail.)
EDIT: Wow! I've got over 700 posts already?! Cool!!
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