Wolverine, revised

[browwiw]

This is mostly an exercise in advanced character building and an excuse to shoe horn Logan into my OCD CAD format. Basically, I've streamlined the Wolverine CAD in the main book into something I consider rules compliant.

Changes that I have made:

1. Speed has been raised from 2 to 3. Logan's a quick dude and teammates/opponents have often commented on it.

2. Added Acrobatics to the Actions list. Logan jumps out of helicopters and lands on his feet all the time. Not to mention the 'cat-like reflexes' schtick.

3. Lowered Social Skills from 6 to 5. Logan's a persuasive guy, but he's not '6' persuasive.

4. Increased Mental Defenses from 1 to 4. Logan has always been described a tough nut to crack due to his 'psychic scar tissue' from years of brainwashing. It's probably higher than 4, but I prefer to make a character's INT and Mental, Defense be equal by default.

5. Added Extended Life modifier. This is a no brainer. I don't know why they didn't add it in the official CAD

6. Added 'Polyglot' as a Modifier. This is just the basic version of 'Translation' from the X-Men Guide (51). Logan speaks like 9 languages. This is also why I removed the Language/Culture specialties from Social Skills, which were causing AN bloat, anyway.

7. Filled out his challenges. Those should be self explanatory.

I considered adding Technology or Computers to the Action list because every official Wolverine biography I've ever read says that he has extensive training in these areas from his Weapon X days. But, in 20 years of reading Marvel comics I have never encountered Logan actually doing this, so I left it out.

Of course, I also filled out Action specialties to be more common sense and descriptive. Feel free to comment on anything. I'm looking to revise this further.

Wolverine
Real Name: James Howlett aka Logan
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 300 lbs.
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Black
Species: Mutant

ABILITIES <16w>
INT: 4 <2w>
STR: 4 <2w>
AGI: 4 <2w>
SPD: 3 <1w>
DUR: 5 <9w>

Health: 5
Energy:15

ACTIONS <36w>
Acrobatics: 4 <2w>
[AGI Bonus]

Black Ops: 6 <6w>
- Assassination
- Covert Ops.
- Extraction
- Infiltration
- Intimidation
- Surveillance

Combat, Close: 7 <15w>
[AGI Bonus or Weapon Mod.]
- Bushido
- Hand-to-Hand
- Krav Maga
- Martial Arts
- Streetfighting
- Weapon X Training
- X-Man Multi-Style

Combat, Ranged: 4 <2w>
[Weapon Mod.]
- Assault Weapons
- Handguns
- Sniper Rifles
- Special Weapons

Hunting/Tracking: 7 <5w>
- Follow Trail
- Outdoor Survival
- Spot/Set Ambush
- Spot/Set Traps
- Stalk
- Trace Scent

Social Skills: 5 <3w>
- Blue Collar
- Bushido
- Military Protocol
- Streetwise
- Underworld

Vehicle Ops: 5 <3w>
- Aircraft
- Civilian Vehicles
- Military Vehicles
- Motorcycles
- Watercraft

MODIFIERS <39w>

Adamantium Claws: (+3) <9w>
- Armor Penetrating
- Retractable

Adamantium Skeleton <3w>

Animal Senses: (7) <6w>

Defense, Mental: (+4) <2w>

Extended Life <3w>

Healing Factor, Accelerated: Heal 1 <12w>
white stones per 2 Panels, Regenerate
3 red stones per 2 white per Panel

Polyglot <2w>

Reflexive Dodge: (+1) <1w>

Wealth: (3) <1w>

Challenges <9c>
Appearance, hirsute <1c>

Haunted Past, amnesia, brainwashing, Weapon X, Romulus, etc <3c>

Mutant <3c>

Tragic Love, his women always die <2c>

16w + 36w + 39w - 9c = 82w

[dorkknight23]

I wouldn't give him the appearance challenge. But seriously, other than that...

[browwiw]

I'd make the argument that he at least has a 1 point challenge in Appearance. He's a short, hairy, hirsute little troll of a man with pronounced incisors. How many bar fights have we seen him in where some drunk thug comments on his appearance?

Sabertooth would definately have a 2 point challenge in Appearance.

[dorkknight23]

I will agree to that.

Maybe give him 1 stone instead of 2 then? He's weird looking, but not as blatantly odd as other 2's (like Gambit.)

[WildKnight]

I disagree COMPLETELY on the mental defense. Wolverine is the poster boy for having his brain screwed with, and theres no evidence at all that he's resistant.

The things you refer to as him being a "tough nut" have NEVER shown him as being resistant to having his mind read or controlled... only that its difficult to sort out his memories, and thats because many of them simply aren't there, or were repressed by powerful means.

All of Marvel's top mind readers can get into his head without trouble (at the very least, we've seen Jean, Xavier, Emma, and Mastermind not only read his thoughts, but control his body...)

[browwiw]

Jun 6, 2009 20:00:03 GMT -5 WildKnight said:

I disagree COMPLETELY

I've finally figured out that the only way you know how to say "I love you".

You do make a valid argument. The influence of psychics on Logan and his 'psychic shields' has been something of a flip-flop point for writers over the years. In some adventures he's easily manipulated. In other situations Logan has been shown to be able to sneak up on psychics.

It's something to ponder.

[WildKnight]

1) I love a lot of things, including many of the people on this board. I try to love everyone.

2) I disagree with a lot of things people say here, but so does everyone else. I just post a lot more so its more pronounced

3) Wolverine can sneak up on Telepaths because most of the time, Marvel's Telepaths are not shown to be "constantly aware" of their surroundings, including minds in the area. Its not 100% true (nothing is in comic books), but most of the time they need to be actively searching for something.

4) I don't know if they talk about this anymore, but years ago when they were revealing some of Wolverine's background, they showed that in Japan he learned a "mind clearing" technique that made him "invisible" to mind readers, but he had to actively use it. I think Wolverine is a prime candidate for the Action "Iron Will" anyway... perhaps he should have some kind of option that lets him spend stones to create temporary mental resistance (I would base it on Iron Will, but it could be Social Skills or even Close Combat - I certainly studied tons of meditative techniques as part of my martial training)

[browwiw]

Well, then, maybe a Mental Defense of +4 is about right. It's enough to represent his training and 'psychic scar tissue', but not so much that a determined psychic attacker couldn't have a reasonable chance against him.

[dorkknight23]

Hmmm..."stones spent can act as a Sit Mod against mental detection" would be worth a +1 option maybe (Logan could definitely have Iron Will, it could represent his meditation and Samurai training.)

[WildKnight]

Ya. It should have a duration in order to be useful (you don't want to have to spend stones into Mental Defense every panel in hopes you're going to get hit with Telepathy).

What I like about the "active use" Mental Defense is that its based in his ability to quiet his emotions... which is not his usual state of being. Typically, Wolverine is a constant swirl of emotion.

I also think Wolverine qualifies for the "Rage" Mod from HRA

[browwiw]

I really know nothing about house rules.

[WildKnight]

Rage is actually pretty simple. It lets you add 1 to your Strength after so many panels of combat (just for instance, every 3 panels). It has options that make you more resistant to mental attack while raging, and that mimic "berzerker" style fighting (you can't defend yourself).

Iron Will is basically the same as Concentration, except more expensive and you can add to ANY action, not just non-combat ones.

[vjcsmoke]

Adamantium Claws: (+3) <9w>
- Armor Penetrating
- Retractable

There's no way that his claws cost only 9W.
Claws modifier is MN+4. Add +3 for modifier, add +3 for AP, add +1 for retractable. Total CL is 11 = 20W.

If his hunting/tracking is 7, the cost should be 6W not 5W. And he has room for another specialty.

Also, considering how often Wolverine mixes it up, gets beat up and keeps going, I'd think he'd have at least some level of toughness even with his healing factor. Also a guy as agile as Wolverine probably has higher than mere +1 in reflexive dodge. JMO.

[regrs]

Consider that when wolvie made his initial CAD, he didn't had neither the adamantium skeleton nor his claws were covered with the stuff, so consider their initial cost without Armor Penetration advantage.
As it has been seen in the comics the bone claws are as sharp as when they were covered with adamantium, but they are not unbreakable therefor if the armor is tougher than bone then they snap into pieces... result no AP for bone claws.

In other words the AP and adamantium skeleton are gained through LoE.

[browwiw]

The cost for the claw's Armor Penetration is factored into Wolverine's Combat, Close cost as per the RAW. Hunting/Tracking has a discount because Wolverine has Animal Sense. In fact, it should be 4w, so we are both wrong on the cost. If you can actually think of another specialty that isn't somehow covered by the other six (which are rather exhaustive), the be my guest.

Toughness denotes some kind of puncture resistant skin or absurd muscle density. Wolverine has neither. He gets flayed quite often, if fact. Reflexive Dodge denotes that the character is constantly on the lookout for incoming attacks. Wolverine doesn't really care if he gets hit or not. In fact, you could argue that he isn't naturally conditioned to avoid injury like the rest of us are. His agility are represented by his Agility stat and the Acrobatics Action I included.