The Bohemian, Ageless Counterculture Hero

An somewhat tongue-in-cheek hero concept ported in from another game system, Supers RED in this case.  Not quite as true to the original as the previous Syracuse Seven ports from Tiny D6 Supers were, but an interesting project. 

The Bohemian

Jack Samson was born in the late 1940s, grew up alongside the Beat Generation and was just the right age to really appreciate the Summer of Love, which is when he developed his powers through experimentation with super-science recreational drugs. One side effect stopped his aging, so he's a perpetual 20-something and has spent decades as a minor street level hero whose image and priorities evolve alongside the counterculture of the day.  While he currently goes by his original supranym as the Bohemian, he's also done the hero thing as the Beat(nik) Artist, Longhair, Tranquility Jack, just plain Samson, and Mohawk Max (during his punk phase).

Never a big fan of "the Man" and other authorities, he's also staunchly opposed to criminals who victimize their own - although he's more likely to try to redeem them than leave them for the courts.  A generally laid-back soul, he'd rather use his empathic ability to influence emotions to settle conflicts.  If he has to resort to force, his motile hair is as strong as steel cable, can extend almost fifty feet, and can regrow itself with alarming speed.  More than a few criminals have found themselves "cuffed" by his locks over the years.

Jack came to [campaign city] way back in the 70s to help with [big historical crossover event story] and its aftermath, and while he's gotten the urge to go travelling many times he always seems to drift back eventually.

Description: A picture is worth a thousand words, and here's a reasonable image of him in his Bohemian persona.

Gender: Male     Age: Looks 20-something (born 1948)     Height: 5'11"     Eyes: Brown

Hair: Brown, Motile     Skin: Caucasian     Build: Thin

Background: Unremarkable   Power Source: Experimentation   Archetype: Wild Card

Personality: Cheerful     Health (G/Y/R):  26/20/9

Powers: Presence d10, Elasticity d8, Wall-Crawling d8, Strength d6

Qualities: Persuasion d10, Ageless Counterculture Hero d8, Conviction (The world can be a better place, but we have to work for it) d8, Finesse d8, Insight d8

Status: Green (26-21) - d10 / Yellow (20-10) - d8 / Red (9-1) - d6

Abilities:

Green

A Little Karmic Justice (I) At the start of your turn, remove a penalty on yourself.

Good Vibes, Bad Vibes (A) Boost or Hinder using Presence.  Use your Max die.  If you roll doubles, also Attack with your Mid die.

I Could Do Better (R) After rolling your die pool during your turn, you may take one irreducible damage to reroll your entire pool.

Principle of the Hero (A) Overcome in a situation where innocent people are in immediate danger.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: Your immediate need to help someone causes you to drop the ball in your personal life.  What was it?  Major twist: You're given an ultimatum between your life as a hero and something else you value.  What do you give up?  RP: Because of your abilities, you have a calling to protect others.

Principle of Levity (A) Overcome in a dire situation where your good humor can prevent demoralization.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: Who did you offend with your ill-timed levity?  Major twist: What just occurred to finally break your good spirits?  RP: Your spirit is nearly impossible to break.

Yellow

Hair Everywhere (A) Attack multiple targets using Elasticity.  If you roll doubles, one nearby ally is also hit by the Attack.

The Power of Self-Affirmation (A) Boost yourself using Presence.  Use your Max die.  That bonus is persistent and exclusive.

Watch Out Or You'll End Up Like That Guy (R) When a nearby ally in the Yellow or Red zone would take damage, Defend against that damage by rolling your single Elasticity die, then redirect any remaining damage to a nearby minion of your choice.

Red

It Grows Back, You Know (A) Hinder yourself using Elasticity.  Use your Min die.  Recover Health equal to your Max + Mid dice.

See the World In Slo-Mo (I) When you use an ability action, you may also perform any one basic action using your Mid die.

Shared Trip (A) Boost another hero using Presence.  If that hero has already acted this round, use your Max die and that hero loses Health equal to your Min die.  That hero acts next in turn order.

Out

Keep On Keeping On (A) Boost an ally by rolling your single Presence die.

Tactics

Bohemian is at his best in the Green when things are still relatively chill, and he'll spend his time in it working on challenges with his Principles if he can, or using Good Vibes, Bad Vibes to hand out mods as he nudges the emotions of those around him.  He'll use I Could Do Better to reroll particularly bad results, which also helps fish for doubles and get off some early Attacks - none of which will be all that harmful, and anyone defeated by his damage is either hopelessly snared in hair or so mellowed out they don't want to fight any more.  A Little Karmic Justice lets him shed penalties with ease, and he'll often take minor twists for risky actions or to use abilities early with the hope that they'll result in effects that are more hindering than injurious.  GMs shouldn't let that happen all the time, but he shouldn't be penalized by never getting penalty-related twists just because he has this ability.

In Yellow he'll try to set up a persistent bonus on himself using The Power of Self-Affirmation if he didn't already twist to use it early, then continue with generating mods or switch to physical offense with Hair Everywhere, carefully rerolling doubles if he has to limit harm to allies while clearing out softer targets.  Otherwise he prefers to reserve his reaction for Watch Out Or You'll End up Like That Guy, which is phenomenal ally defense as long as there are deserving minions around to deflect to.  He may also twist to pull off one of his Red action abilities early, either of which can quite powerful when timed right.

Finally, when he reaches Red he can prop himself back up with It Grows Back, You Know.  Bohemian's low Health makes it quite possible to heal from Red all the way into Green with a good roll and/or bonuses, although sadly his status die won't recover if the scene tracker is past Green.  If he doesn't, he can use Shared Trip to grant an ally a second turn in the same round with a hefty bonus, although he's more likely to do this in Yellow with a twist.  In either case, when he's actually in Red himself he also gets a free basic action with See The World In Slo-Mo, making already solid abilities even stronger and potentially making it safer to loiter in Red by Defending or Hindering.

Even when Out his allies will Keep On Keeping On thanks to his positive attitude.

Design Notes

Bohemian started out as a Supers RED character in a play by post game, the first one I'd built for the system in years.  It showed too, because I had too firm a concept in mind (goofy though it might have been) and tried to do too much with too few points.  The result was a character with decidedly sub-par die pools for the game's 5D cap, and he's been staying alive largely through luck so far.  For anyone who plays Supers RED, here's his starting writeup:

Name & Supranym (largely interchangeable based on his mood and wardrobe at the moment)

• Jack Samson, aka Beatnik Artist, Bohemian, Longhair, Mohawk Max (during his punk phase), Tranquility

Concept

• Un-aging Counterculture Hero Fighting the System

Background

• Altered Human

Resistances (7)

• 3D Composure
• 3D Fortitude
• 2D Reaction
• 3D Will

Aptitudes (2)

• 2D Investigation
• 2D Streetwise

Powers (15)

Altered Body

• 1D Invulnerability: Minor (Aging) - Free per GM
• 4D Super-Aptitude: Athleticism

Expanded Mind

• 3D Absorption (Conditional: Mental Defense only)
• 3D Emotion Control

Glorious Head of Hair

• 3D Additional Limbs (Multi-Power: 3D Ensnare)
• 3D Stretching (Limited Use: Hair only)

Advantages (0)

Disadvantages (-4)

• Mental Hindrance: Minor (Intolerance of Bureaucracy)
• Mental Hindrance: Minor (Vain)
• Vulnerability: Major (-2D to defend against Fire)

Yeah, not so hot.  That's what happens when you're rusty with a rules set.

Porting him to Sentinel Comics proved to be a challenge, although I've mostly managed to keep to a similar (lackluster) level of power and the character is still recognizable.  He leans more on his "emotion control" (represented by Presence and aided by Persuasion and Insight) here than his motile, extensible, super-strong hair (represented by Elasticity, Wall-Crawling and Finesse), and only keeps a vestige of his former super-athletics (which I took mostly for defining speed and lifting capacity).  In Sentinels he's got a decent but but not amazing "mod warfare" game, a solid multi-target ability in Yellow, and an efficient set of Red zone "emergency" powers.  Likely to work best when taking twists to use some abilities a zone early.

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OGRE & OGRESS, Super-Thug Power Couple

Going to be needing these loutish lovers for a future post, so here they are in all their dubious glory.  They usually work together (with or without other villains) but I've also included a solo version and a lieutenant writeup for times when they're not getting the spotlight.

OGRE is an homage to the identically-named villain from the combat example in Champions 1e all those years ago.

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The Loving Couple

OGRE

Description: A big green-skinned brute in a black wrestler's singlet and oversized combat boots.  His physique has a weird doughy look, but those lumpy muscles are impressively powerful.  Has a deep, rumbling voice and tends to shout a lot.  He's got a surprisingly good vocabulary when he feels like using it - usually to boast about his own might.

Gender: Male     Age: 33     Height: 7'2"     Eyes: Muddy Brown

Hair: Patchy Orange Spikes     Skin: Olive Green     Build: Muscularly Lumpy

Approach: Bully                   Archetype: Squad

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Strength d10, Leaping d8, Vitality d8

Qualities: Banter d8, Imposing d8, Mercenary Super-Thug d8

Status: (# of other Villains) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

One-On-One (A) Attack one target using Strength.  Use your Max die. Defend against all Attacks from the target until the start of your next turn with your Mid die. 

Showing Off (I) Increase the damage you deal by the number of nearby non-minion allies.

Two-Fisted Beatdown (A) Attack two nearby targets using Strength.  Use your Max die against one target and your Mid + Min dice against the other target.  If either target Defends against this Attack, both targets benefit from that Defend effect.

Watch It, You Dope! (R) When another villain is Attacked, Defend against that Attack by rolling your single status die.  Boost yourself using the amount of damage reduced.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Villainous Vehicle +15 Health.  Add a Monster Trike d12 Lieutenant with the following abilities to the scene:  Escape Plan (R) When OGRE is Attacked, roll this vehicle's die.  If it rolls higher than OGRE's current Health, both OGRE and the vehicle escape the scene.  Sturdy (I) When making saving rolls against damage, add a +2 bonus.

Master Mercenary (I) If you have a contract for a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome where your payment is at stake.

OGRESS

Description: A big green-skinned woman in a black one-piece skinsuit and oversized combat boots.  Her physique has a weird doughy look, but those lumpy muscles are impressively powerful.  She has a low, gravelly voice and spends a lot of time complaining about whatever subject catches her fancy - often any other villain she's working with.  She's very creative about her insults, borrowing from other languages that she otherwise lacks any real knowledge of.

Gender: Female     Age: 32     Height: 7'1"     Eyes: Lusterless Blue

Hair: Scraggly Orange Mane     Skin: Olive Green     Build: Muscularly Lumpy

Approach: Bully                   Archetype: Squad

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Strength d10, Leaping d8, Vitality d8

Qualities: Banter d8, Imposing d8, Mercenary Super-Thug d8

Status: (# of other Villains) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Get On With It Already! (A) One ally makes a basic action now.  Use their Max die and reroll all ones during this action.  

One-On-One (A) Attack one target using Strength.  Use your Max die. Defend against all Attacks from the target until the start of your next turn with your Mid die. 

Two-Fisted Beatdown (A) Attack two nearby targets using Strength.  Use your Max die against one target and your Mid + Min dice against the other target.  If either target Defends against this Attack, both targets benefit from that Defend effect.

Watch It, You Dope! (R) When another villain is Attacked, Defend against that Attack by rolling your single status die.  Boost yourself using the amount of damage reduced.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Villainous Vehicle +15 Health.  Add a Monster Trike d12 Lieutenant with the following abilities to the scene:  Escape Plan (R) When OGRESS is Attacked, roll this vehicle's die.  If it rolls higher than OGRESS' current Health, both OGRESS and the vehicle escape the scene.  Sturdy (I) When making saving rolls against damage, add a +2 bonus.

Master Mercenary (I) If you have a contract for a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome where your payment is at stake.

Tactics

Not so much.  When working as a duo, they rely on Watch It, You Dope! to cover each other (and Boost themselves with "You Owe Me on" bonuses) while beating on foes two at a time with Two-Fisted Beatdown.  If that doesn't work, they'll pick the most annoying target and single them out for a little time One-On-One.  OGRE gets a little extra damage out of Showing Off, especially when working with lieutenants or other villains.  OGRESS prefers to order allies (particularly OGRE) around with Get On With It Already! instead.

Their upgrades are a pair of custom armored trikes with semi-AI autopilots, built-in weapons and manipulator tentacles, and an emergency Zoom Gate escape teleporter.  OGRE's is a reverse trike (two wheels up front) which OGRESS this is stupid-looking, so rides a traditional model (two wheels in back).  They're usually being paid by someone else for whatever havoc they're wreaking, hence their mastery.

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OGRE or OGRESS (Working Solo)

Description: They look just like their descriptions above, but there's just the one big brute.

Approach: Bully                   Archetype: Bruiser

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Strength d10, Leaping d8, Vitality d8

Qualities: Banter d8, Imposing d8, Mercenary Super-Thug d8

Status: (Personal Health Zone) Green - d6 / Yellow - d8 / Red - d10

Abilities:

Mocking Boast (A) Defend using Banter.  Use your Mid + Min dice.  Recover using your Max die.

One-On-One (A) Attack one target using Strength.  Use your Max die. Defend against all Attacks from the target until the start of your next turn with your Mid die.

That All You've Got? (R) When Attacked, use the amount of damage taken to Boost yourself.

Two-Fisted Beatdown (A) Attack two nearby targets using Strength.  Use your Max die against one target and your Mid + Min dice against the other target.  If either target Defends against this Attack, both targets benefit from that Defend effect.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Villainous Vehicle +15 Health.  Add a Monster Trike d12 Lieutenant with the following abilities to the scene:  Escape Plan (R) When Ogre is Attacked, roll this vehicle's die.  If it rolls higher than Ogre's current Health, both Ogre and the vehicle escape the scene.  Sturdy (I) When making saving rolls against damage, add a +2 bonus.

Master Mercenary (I) If you have a contract for a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome where your payment is at stake.

Tactics

Similar to when they're working together, start with Two-Fisted Beatdown and if that doesn't work, go One-On-One with the most irritating hero.  Supplement that with reactionary Boosts from That All You've Got? and take an occasional break to use Mocking Boast for Defense and some healing if you're starting to get low (about 5 x H).

Upgrade and masteries are the same as above.

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OGRE & OGRESS d10 (in a pair) or d12 (solo) lieutenants

Description: As above.

Tough As Nails: You gain a +2 bonus when rolling saves against damage.

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Odd One, An Alien Exile Who's Come to Help Humanity

Your basic weird alien hero type, this one leaning very hard into a team support role in exchange for having almost no offense.

Odd One

obligate transport terminus: a small blue planet / SELF appears / reeking of loss and trauma / OTHERSELF squirms in confinement / esoteric thought masters the ALL by mastering nothing / isolate must pursue new connections / return disallowed

> life approaches in freethought / communication? <

...did right to call us in...Jane says the species is enlightened..whatever that means...

> loud thought / leakage not communication? / self means no harm / understanding? <

...ah, natural telepath...can work with that...

"Telepathy?  I can "hear" you but not "speak" well.  We use sound centered in this frequency.  Does this register?"

< vocalization? / quaint >

"Yes / Can understand / Communication possible / Connection desired / Peaceful"

...from telepathy to speech that fast...enlightened indeed...

Understood.  Welcome, stranger.  You are an odd one, aren't you?"

 < odd one? / Odd One? / ironic / deserved / fitting >

"Odd One is self / self is Odd One / designation acceptable / Connection desired / Must communicate hazard"

...there's always something...

"Well, let's go someplace and discuss that, shall we?"

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Odd One is an exile from a distant alien world, apparently banished for developing some form of mental schism...or pursuing a  some form of persecuted philosophical belief...or maybe it suffers from some kind of incomprehensible psychic deformity?  Still not entirely clear, but after first contact and months of vetting by Team Paragon it was decided that Odd One's desire to be helpful (within the tenets of its alien belief system, which seems benevolent if not quite pacifistic) was sincere.  Its desire to achieve "connection" to the other inhabitants of its new world lead to probationary membership in a small super-team that had suffered a recent mortality, and since then Odd One has become an accepted (albeit aptly named) member of the hero community.

Description: To human eyes, a tall androgynous form, humanoid but with a thin, stretched out look and almost cylindrical dome-topped skull.  The creature is pale except for glittering opaline eyes and a long fringe of glossy black hair that forms a mane of sorts that runs along the jawline and rises to arc around the head just above small, mobile ears.  Its fine facial features are very human but still strangely repellent.  Its voice is high and musical, but you mostly hear it in your mind.     

Gender: Not A Cultural Concept     Age: Unknown     Height: 6'2"     Eyes: Opaline

Hair: Black, Leonine Fringe     Skin: Alabaster White     Build: Inhumanly Thin & Elongated

Background: Exile     Power Source: Alien     Archetype: Psychic

Personality: Nurturing     Health (G/Y/R):  34/25/12

Powers: Presence d8, Remote Viewing d8, Telekinesis d8, Telepathy d8, Transmutation d8, Flight d6 

Qualities: Conviction d10, Deep Space Knowledge d8, Insight d8, Master of Esoteric Thought d8

Status: Green (34-26) - d6 / Yellow (25-13) - d6 / Red (12-1) - d12

Abilities:

Green

An Ordered Mind (R) After rolling during your turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire dice pool.

Atavistic Connection (A) Boost using Telepathy.  Apply that bonus to all hero Attack and Overcome actions until the start of your next turn.

Principle of Great Power (A) Overcome in a situation using one of your highest rated powers.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: How do you restrain yourself from unleashing your full power?  Major twist: What major damage do you inflict in the process of saving the day?  RP: Your powers are so strong they frighten even you, but you work hard to control them.  You can wield those powers to intimidate others.

Principle of the Inner Demon (A) Draw upon your dark psyche to Overcome a problem.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What sinister act comes from tapping into your dark side? Major twist: What havoc does your dark side inflict as you allow in to take control?  RP: You have a darkness within you you strive to keep suppressed.  You can reach out to this shadow to connect with similar forces.

Yellow

Contemplation of the All (A) Boost yourself using Conviction.  Either use your Max die, or use your Mid die and make the bonus persistent and exclusive.

Enduring Gestalt (A) Attack, Boost, Defend, or Hinder using Presence.  You and all nearby heroes in the Yellow or Red zone Recover Health equal to your Min die.

Esoteric Empowerment (A) Boost all nearby allies using Telepathy.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Hinder yourself using your Min die.

Transcendent Form (A) Overcome using Remote Viewing.  Use your Max + Min dice.  You do not need to be physically present in the area you are Overcoming at.

Red

Esoteric Ward (R) When an opponent Attacks, you may become the target and Defend yourself by rolling your single Red status die.

Mass Reality Manipulation (A) Hinder any number of targets in the scene using Transmutation.  Use your Max + Min dice.  If you roll doubles, also Attack each target using your Mid die. 

Strange Dualities (I) When you use an ability action, you may also perform any one basic action using your Mid die.

Out

Enduring Weal (A) Boost an ally by rolling your single Conviction die.

Tactics

Odd One has a lot of support options for a team, but they're really hurt by dreadful die pools before Red.  It's almost always going to be worth taking a twist on round one to use Contemplation of the All, rerolling with An Ordered Mind if your Mid die isn't getting a +2 P+E bonus.  If that still fails just take the Max die instead and repeat the combination next round, dedicating the temporary bonus to shoot for a +3 P+E.

Once you've got at least a +2 P+E bonus in place, if you're still in Green Atavistic Connection is a solid team assist, and you might take a stab at an Overcome yourself with either of your two extreme flexible Principles.  If we're being honest, your dice make getting clean 8+ successes on those iffy even with a +2 added.

Things really open up for you in Yellow.  Your status is stuck at d6, but you have a stronger Overcome option with Transcendent Form and an incredible team Boost option with an almost trivial drawback through Esoteric Empowerment.  Expect to do that one a lot, because it's going to have to make up for the fact you aren't contributing damage.  Enduring Gestalt is effectively a basic action stapled to Min die group healing, and best saved for times when you can throw a lot of bonuses at it.  Finally, you could do Contemplation of the All to either take bonuses from the Max die or fish for a better P+E bonus (or a replacement for one that's been removed).  Not a very efficient use of your turns, but never forget your reroll options.  You actually want to get in the Red early if you can rather than wait for the tracker.

Red is where most heroes are at their best, but you really feel it with Odd One.  Going from d6 to d12 status takes all those good-to-great abilities held back by weak dice and cranks them up to 12+.  You gain Mass Reality Manipulation for reliable -4 global penalties and the occasional multi-target Attack.  Strange Dualities grants a free basic action every turn for incredible efficiency.  And you gain Esoteric Ward for d12 Defensive reaction that can not only keep you upright, it can cover allies in a pinch.  

This is why you want to get to Red early and gamble on staying in action at such low health, topping up with some bonus-fueled mass healing when possible.  Every Red turn you get is worth a good two from Green and Yellow, but it's a tricky act to pull off.

If you do go Out, Enduring Weal will keep right on Boosting one of your allies.        

Design Notes

This character exists for two reasons.  

Firstly, its checks off the last background (Exile) and last personality (Nurturing) that I haven't used in a build somewhere.  Since I've already finished all the power sources and archetypes that's at least one of every one of the four categories you'll be rolling for (or making choices about, with method 2) in character creation.  So that's done and I can stop trying to fill out the roster with options that have become increasingly unappealing, mechanically speaking.

Secondly, I wanted to take a stab at doing another style of "healer" hero, the previous one being Marshal Starblaze and his dedicated "self-and-single-ally" healing trick.  Odd One uses the other type of big Recovery ability, which I believe recurs only twice in the game and is an "every-hero-in-Y/R Min die" multitarget trick.  This really would be too weak to be very meaningful by itself, but with Boost support and a good P+E bonus it can be effective, especially with a larger team where damage is being spread around evenly.

Comparing the two, the Marshal also has a fair amount of damage output when he doesn't need to be healing others, a defensive reaction for allies to reduce the need for healing, and some serious utility tricks down in the Red including a very versatile attack-and-self-heal ability that get him back into Yellow pretty fast if need be.  Odd One is almost pure support, with only two abilities that even include the word Attack in them - one purely voluntary, and other accidental.  In theory they can go a whole scene without ever dealing damage, instead mass Boosting and healing allies, performing Overcomes, efficiently Boosting himself, and partially offsetting weak dice pools with rerolls.  In the Red they add a strong defensive reaction that can cover any hero, self or ally, and the improved status die is almost overkill with some of their abilities.

Of the two, I suspect Starblaze is better on most teams.  Damage output is just too important to skip in as completely as Odd One does, and too much of their real strength is gated behind Red status.  With the right allies (and especially on larger teams where their multi-target support is stronger) Odd One could be the superior choice, but they really need to keep their allies from going out even then.

If I were going to play Odd One myself, I would drop Nurturing for any of the many 6/8/10 personalities, losing a bit of Health and Red zone punch but greatly increasing effectiveness in that long Yellow zone.  But that wouldn't have helped me finish my checklist, so instead we get the extreme version here.

Worth noting that only Naive and Nurturing have that 6/6/12 status spread, and Midas, the one hero I used Naive with, avoids most of the problems of a Yellow d6 by having d12s in both powers and qualities - and by just making minions to do the real work for him.

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KILL-A-TON, Arms Dealer Who Loves Her Own Merchandise

A super-tech arms dealer who's definitely sampling her own wares.. 

KILL-A-TON

Cleo Akamai has loved firearms since she first handled her father's pistol at the tender age of five, and she's only become more enthusiastic over time.  Not content to simply fire them (although that is the fun part) she quickly moved on to use her super-genius intelligence to improve on the and then eventually design her own.  At some point after her college days the expenses for new material and repairs to her workspace exceeded her legitimate income.  Deciding to join the super-crime community was not a difficult decision for the young Miss Akamai.

In the ten years since she's established a reputation for reliability and built a well-paying clientele in the market for advanced weaponry and gadgetry.  Unlike some "tech head" villains she also takes irregular "road trips" operating under the supranym KILL-A-TON.  Her principle goal during these outings seems to be getting an opportunity to shoot her big-ass cannon conduct field testing on her latest upgrades, but she'll usually have some scheme in the works as well.  Whether she's looting exotic materials or technology she can't get otherwise, doing a favor for some villainous ally, or attempting to proactively eliminate some hero that's annoyed her somehow, she regularly varies her approach.  Sometimes it's just her a pack of robot minions or guns-for-hire (often being paid in her own weaponry), sometimes it's another villain, and once in a while she'll show up with a whole team made up of her customers.

KILL-A-TON's casual approach to mass destruction has many heroes looking for her, but she doesn't reciprocate their feelings and has no real nemesis.  The closest she gets to ongoing enemies are the agents of the Science Integration Network (SIN), who have repeatedly attempted to recruit or steal from her and continues to do so despite their failures and some fairly vigorous chastisement from KILL-A-TON.   

Description: Seen outside her power suit, she's a short, lightly built woman of native Hawaiian ancestry, including a slight Islands accent.  When working, all you'll see is a menacing anime-style battlesuit studded with thrusters and auxiliary equipment pods and holding a massive energy cannon that links to one shoulder via an articulated armature.  The gun glows and hums more and more ominously the more it builds up a charge.  The suit is all-concealing and modulates her voice into an obviously artificial tone. 

Gender: Female     Age: 30     Height: 5'2" (6'9" suited up)     Eyes: Dark Brown

Hair: Black, Cut Short      Skin: Golden Tan     Build: Slim

Approach: Mastermind     Archetype: Inventor

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Mk. 25 Doom-Cannon d12, Inventions d10, Power Suit d8

Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Criminal Underworld Information d8, Gun-Crazy Schemer d8, Imposing d8, Science d8, Technology d8

Status: (# of Inventions/Mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Intimidation Ploy (A) Attack one hero using using Technology.  Hinder all heroes using your Max die.

Overcharger (R) At the start of your turn, if you have no bonuses in play, roll your single Science die to Boost yourself.

Warning Shot (A) Boost using Mk. 25 Doom-Cannon.  Hinder using your Max die.  Attack using your Min die.

You Were Warned (A) Attack using Mk. 25 Doom-Cannon and at least one bonus.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice.  Add all your bonuses to the Attack, destroying them.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Defense Shield (I) You cannot be damaged by anything except yourself until the defense shield is destroyed.  The shield has 40 Health, or can be deactivated with three Overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist working on the shield, you can use a Reaction to Attack that hero by rolling your single Mk. 25 Doom-Cannon die.  Gain Reestablish Shield (A) Overcome using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  On a success remove one success from the deactivation challenge.  Alternatively, instead of an Overcome, use your Max die to Recover that much of the shield's Health.  This ability cannot be used if the shield has been completely removed.

Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.

Tactics

Unless KILL-A-TON has a strong reason to be subtle about things, she'll happily spend her time cutting loose with her ridiculous powerful energy cannon turn after turn.  That said, she's a decent tactician and does everything she can to make every shot count.  When possible she spends her bonuses as fast as they come so she can get all the mileage possible out of Overcharger.  She often opens a fight with an Intimidation Ploy (using the bonus from her reaction, of course), loosing brilliant, noisy and  confusing micro-pulses while building up her status die with the penalties handed out.  She'll then take a Warning Shot at whatever the greatest threat appears to be, which can generate more mods for status effects if she uses Science or Technology instead of Ranged Combat.  KILL-A-TON follows that up with her signature move, a full-power shot using You Were Warned on the same target, repeating until they've learned their lesson.

Her upgrade significantly improves her durability, either through blocking damage or costing the heroes time doing Overcome actions, the latter of which may also grant her a chance to take a few snap-shots if her reaction is available (in which case she'll at least be less focused on exploiting Overcharger since it's a reaction too).  She has zero qualms about using her mastery when it might help, and is overall pretty casual about killing or seriously injuring innocents and heroes alike.

Trivia

Almost all of the bonuses she generates will be "Ominous Hum" with the number of m's at the end equal to the size of the bonus.  Yes, this is a Schlock Mercenary reference.

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KILL-O-BOT Minion d8 minions

Description: Basic humanoid automaton, not fancy (and certainly not smart) but well equipped and programmed for mayhem.  KILL-A-TON doesn't put much effort into these things, robots aren't really her passion.  They do get issued with her usual high-quality guns, though.

Made Them Myself: Each group of H (or fraction thereof) of these minions counts as an invention for purposes of KILL-O-TON's status die.  You can only take Attack and Defend actions.

Only the Finest In Zap Guns: When you Attack, any rolls of one can be rerolled once.

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Praevalidus, A Roman Supersoldier

Metatextually, this character was a Sixties creation that made irregular appearances for years afterward, most often appearing in badly-researched time-travel pieces from the start of the Roman Empire forward.  Eventually some bright spark got the idea of having him appear in the modern day as a costumed hero rather than a resident of the past.  He showed up more often in this role but never got a solo book.  As a nod to his creator, his first appearance in costume was established to be the same date in the Sixties that the character was originally published - in a story set far in the past.  

Praevalidus  (civilian identity: originally Mercurius Atticus Octavianus, modern day Atticus Roman)

Three years after becoming Emperor Augustus, Octavius Caesar initiated a project meant to enhance his soldiers into veritable demigods.  A hidden college of scholars and priests from across the known world was assembled, and the Imperial Legions were dispatched to gather the esoteric materials, strange relics and cryptic writings they called for.  Before long the first experimental processes were ready, meant to meld divine powers with mortal men.  The test subjects were legionaries were who "volunteered" (often by dissatisfied commanders) and losses were high, but eventually there were successes.

The first "Praevalidus Miles" (roughly "Mighty Soldier" in English) was a ten-year veteran named Atticus, who survived being immersed in a vat of carefully-diluted water from the river Styx.  Previous attempts had left the subject either simply dead or frozen into a still-living statue of iron that took weeks to starve to death.  Atticus not only came out unharmed, he'd acquired a portion of the Greek hero Achilles' invulnerability.  Sage advice ("Get in there and really wallow around. Dunk your head.  Keep your eyes and mouth open.  Maybe spread your cheeks a bit.") had avoided the weak spot problem, but the protection wasn't as total as the legend claimed and he could still be cut or bruised if hit hard enough.  The process was far from perfect and the survival rate was still very low, but it was a success, and spurred further experiments.  By the time Augustus passed away the Roman Emoire had over a dozen super-soldiers with a variety of powers and the college became a fixture that would last almost as long as the empire itself.

For reasons unknown, Atticus remained the most successful of his kind and underwent other procedures that granted him the reflexes worthy of one of Mercury's offspring, bonds with  a variety of exotic Egyptian divine weapon/tools that somehow merged into a strange gestalt  form, and the power to change his shape into a bull-like Greek monstrosity.  Someone eventually noticed that he'd acquired immortality at some point, which started a brief furor as the mortal scholars struggled to discover how to duplicate the effect.  Nothing came of it, nor (as far as anyone knows) did any of the other Praevalidus Miles through the centuries become ageless, though none died of old age.

After this discovery, Atticus was increasingly used to hunt down likely resources for more and more extreme experiments, something which earned him the (largely ineffective) wrath of minor deities, spirits, and stranger things.  He kept coming back with the goods, and lived through dozens, hundred, and eventually thousands of procedures.  Few of them added discernably to his abilities, but the options available to him for shapechanging and with his equally morphic weapon grew and grew.  The only major change came, ironically, from a failed shattering curse that let him send out short-lived duplicates of himself to aid himself and his allies.

Regrettably, for all his growing power he couldn't be everywhere, and his fellow super-soldiers never achieved the same heights, nor did their ranks ever exceed twenty active members at a time.  There were less than eight others just before Rome was sacked in 410 AD, and from then till the final fall in 476 Atticus fought alone.

He survived to mourn the glory of Rome, but in the end he moved on to a wandering life, fighting for what causes he deemed worthy, dealing with occasional manifestations of his many curses, and encountering the strangest people.  Many were oddly-clothed people who demonstrated powers akin to his own, all of whom claimed to have come from other times in the past or future when questioned.  Some seemed confused at first, having expected to appear somewhere else, and a few were quite hostile about it.  Atticus and the more friendly travelers eventually worked out that something about him seemed to attract those who were out of place in time to his vicinity, perhaps another of the curses laid on him.  He found he was anchored in time himself, and could only travel through it by passing passing one day after another.

Having eventually reached the present day of the campaign, the modern Atticus has adopted the rather grandiose supranym of Praevalidus and joined the hero community.  After thousands of years spent fighting he no longer takes things as seriously as once did, although he's still quick to take action when needed.  

If encountered earlier in his long lifetime (a likely occurrence) he'll be very different, almost always a mysterious military man of some kind, and often unhappy to see yet another lot of strange meddlers cross his path.  That said, he knows good from evil, and will aid time-lost heroes as best he can.

Description: A solidly-built man, a little short by modern standards.  His outfit varies depending on the era you meet him in, but always has a military feel to it if it isn't an actual uniform.  If he's caught up to the current day of the campaign he'll have adopted a costume for show, with blue pants, black boots, and a red tunic top with blue detailing.  His signature weapon is polymorphic (even splitting into multiple blades or ever-loaded bows and infinite javelins) but can't adopt the form of anything more recent than 476 AD.  His voice is powerful but coarse, with what might be an Italian accent.  Most of the many languages he speaks are dead, or barely recognizable to modern speakers.    

Gender: Male     Age: Born 50 BC (appears ~25)     Height: 5'8"      Eyes: Brown

Hair: Dark Brown, Curly     Skin: Deep Mediterranean Tan     Build: Sturdy

Background: Adventurer     Power Source: Cursed     Archetype: Close Quarters Combatant

Personality: Decisive     Health (G/Y/R):  28/21/10

Powers: Arsenal of the Gods d10, Agility d8, Duplication d8, Shapeshifting d8

Qualities: Close Combat d12, Eternal Roman Super-Soldier d8, History d8, Leadership d6

Status: Green (28-22) - d8 / Yellow (21-11) - d8 / Red (10-1) - d8

Abilities:

Green

Millennia of Practice (I) Whenever you roll a one on your dice, you may reroll any number of those dice.  You must accept the results of those rerolls, 

More Than Mere Weaponry (A) Take any two basic actions using Arsenal of the Gods.  Use your Min die for each.

Principle of Mastery (A) Overcome in a situation that uses your powers in a new way.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: How did your powers fail you in the moment?  Major twist: What side effects are you suffering from your powers?  RP: You have thoroughly studied your own powers and are proud of your mastery of them.  You understand a good deal about the metaphysics of your powers.

Principle of the Veteran (A) Overcome a tactical challenge using knowledge of a previous conflict..  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What about the current conflict affected you emotionally?  Major twist: How are you withdrawing from the current conflict?  RP: You remain clear-headed under intense combat situations.

Unmatched Skill (A) Attack using Close Combat.  Use your Max die.

You Actually Fell For That Trick? (A) Attack a minion using Shapeshifting.  Whatever that minion rolls a save also becomes an Attack on on another target of your choice..  

Yellow

Call Up the Legion (A) Boost all nearby allies using Duplication.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Hinder yourself using your Min die.

Chimeric Form (A) Boost yourself using Shapeshifting.  Then, either remove a penalty from yourself or Recover Health using your Min die.

No Defense (A) Attack using Close Combat. This Attack ignores all penalties and Defend effects, and no reactions can be taken against it.

Red

Countless Lives Within Me (A) Hinder yourself using Duplication.  Use your Min die.  Recover Health equal to your Max + Mid dice.

Monstrous Evasion (R) When you are Attacked, Defend against that Attack and Boost yourself using your single Shapeshifting die.

Unshaken (I) When you use an ability action, you may also perform any one basic action using your Mid die.

Out

Aid My Allies! (A) Boost an ally using Arsenal of the Gods.

Tactics

Praevalidus has spent almost 2000 years training himself in the fighting arts and his own supernatural powers, but he's still pushing to improvise and master new tricks.  This shows up first in his Millennia of Practice dice-fixer and recurs in the supremely versatile More Than Mere Weaponry ability, which he'll often use to Attack and Boost, storing up small bonuses for later use.  If there are minions (especially strong ones) he loves using You Actually Fell For That Trick? to use them to attack a more durable threat while also wearing them down.  If he needs big single-target damage his Unmatched Skill in melee provides it.  Principle of the Veteran is quite easy to use thanks to his long and conflict-filled life, and Principle of Mastery encourages innovative uses for his grab-bag of powers.

In Yellow, No Defense lets him deal with even the trickiest foes under the most difficult situations.  Chimeric Form offers a stronger Boost option combined with either penalty removal or self-healing, often with some bonus support from earlier turns.  Call Up the Legion summons temporary duplicates that grant powerful bonuses to his allies at the cost of some strain to himself, and is one time he might not want to reroll a one.

Red opens up a chance to make a quick return to Yellow Health with the combination of Countless Lives Within Me and Unshaken.  His Monstrous Evasion reaction improves the chances of living long enough to do that combo. and provides yet another moderate bonus for him to work with when he does.

Even when Out his morphing, semi-sapient driven weapon continues to hand out bonuses with Aid My Allies!

Design Notes

This hero got a rather extensive writeup because he was a birthday request from a fellow player my current PbP game, and I figured I'd better give him some extra effort.

Some of his powers are worth further description:

Arsenal of the Gods is a collection of multiple weapons and implements stolen from the divine regalia of half a dozen pantheons.  It manifests as whatever weapon or tool Praevalidus desires, with the limitation that nothing more recent that the early 5th century AD is available (which is when he stopped getting regular upgrades).  The thing can do miraculous staves or paired blades easily enough, but any sort of firearm is far beyond its time.  It's also become semi-sentient and can follow instructions to a limited degree.

Duplication creates temporary copies of Atticus, usually dressed in Roman Legionary uniforms.  He can vary their appearances to copy later periods of his lifetime, up to and including his hero costume, but the days of Rome are just easier for him.

Shapechanging is limited to any of a wide variety of mythological creatures captured from fables across the breadth of the Roman Empire.  The menu of available forms is largely drawn from Greece, Rome and Egypt with a few additions from Western Europe.

      

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Omegavolt, A Self-Defeating Dynamo

A specialist villain today, this one quite deliberately built to be a fearsome threat but prone to overloading himself so badly he practically defeats himself with self-inflicted damage.  If your heroes can hold out long enough he becomes a pushover to finish off, but he hits mighty hard until then.

Omegavolt

Ramon DaSilva was an unremarkable lab assistant in the OmegaCorp High-Energy Testing Facility until the accident that left him supercharged.  Possibly unhinged by the incident, or perhaps just greedy and amoral, he was quick to adopt the villainous persona of Omegavolt and go on a spree of robberies until confronted by a team of heroes who tricked him into overloading himself.  He's proven to be difficult to contain long-term, and has repeatedly broken out of prison to repeat his crimes, often with more tactically-minded allies.

As Omegavolt he displays remarkably potent control over electricity, which he can also leverage to create stunning blasts of thunder or propel himself through the sky by "riding" lightning bolts.  He's surprisingly vulnerable to the same kind of energies, although he can (and usually will) simply power his way through such hindrances with a costly display of his own might.  His impulsive personality and hot temper are even more of a drawback, and many of his defeats have effectively been self-inflicted.  

Description: Muscular man of Hispanic descent, wearing a matte-black bodysuit with only his hands and head exposed.  His costume is covered in metallic cabling that helps him direct his powers, and he sports a short black half-cape with an omega symbol on it.  Has a powerful baritone voice and likes to use it to deride anyone who gets on his bad side.    

Gender: Male     Age: 27     Height: 5'11"     Eyes: Brown, Full of Sparks

Hair: Black     Skin: Dark Hispanic Tone, Crawling With Lightning     Build: Burly

Approach:  Overpowered

Archetype:  Formidable (Weakness: Electrical or Sonic penalties, including his own)

Health:  60 + (5 x H)

Powers: Electricity d12, Flight d10, Sonic d10

Qualities: Arrogant Powerhouse d8, Imposing d8, Science d6

Status: No Weakness Penalties - d12 / Both Penalties & Bonuses - d8 / Only Weakness Penalties - d4

Abilities:

Beyond All Hindrances (R) Ignore all penalties on you for your action.  Take irreducible damage equal to the total of those penalties.

Crashing Thunder (A) Attack multiple targets using Sonic.  Use your Max die.  Hinder each target using your Mid die.

There Is Nothing Beyond My Power! (A) Take any basic action using your Max die.

UNLIMITED POWER! (A) Attack using Electricity.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice.  Hinder yourself using your Max die.  Take damage equal to your Mid + Min dice.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Quality Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Quality dice sizes except Arrogant Powerhouse by one (max d12).

Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.

Tactics

Omegavolt is tremendously powerful, but he's held back by his own overconfidence, impatience and lack of restraint.  He always intends to fight intelligently, taking some time Boost himself with There Is Nothing Beyond My Power! and then softening up multiple foes with repeated uses of Crashing Thunder before finishing them off one by one but that never happens.  Someone will Attack him, put a penalty on him, or just make him angry by being disrespectful (possibly by not bothering to Attack or Hinder him) and BAM!, he'll immediately use Beyond All Hindrances and UNLIMITED POWER! to teach them a lesson, and then continue to use his reaction over and over rather than letting his accumulating penalties bleed off naturally.  This results in a death spiral of mounting damage exacerbated by his own hardest-hitting ability.

He just doesn't have the self-control to play smart, and will wind up draining himself to the point of collapse far quicker than he ought to.  Doesn't mean he won't take a hero or three down with him, but he does tend to underperform for his Approach/Archetype combination.

Omegavolt's upgrade isn't much help (it won't improve Arrogant Powerhouse any, which he uses for most offensive abilities) either, although the added Health might buy him another round or two in action.  His mastery reflects his hot-headedness, and rarely gets used for anything really productive unless his allies can get him to stick to some kind of plan.

Trivia

For unknown reasons, Ramon deeply objects to being called "Sparky" and tends to fly off the handle if taunted with that nickname,  This has led to several "incidents" with fellow supervillains.

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Crosstown Hammer, Street Level Vigilante Hero

This is an attempt at a low-powered "street vigilante" style hero, as well as a chance to mark the godawful lousy Struggling background off my bingo card.  He suffers from some truly dire die pools that really hold back otherwise decent abilities.  If a teammate hands him a decent persistent bonus early on on it would make a big difference in his performance, but he can't do it himself.

Crosstown Hammer

Lou Crupp was an unassuming taxi driver until the night he was robbed and beaten senseless for the seventh time.  While he was unconscious a Presence came to him and declared that he would be granted the power to fight back against the city's criminals and bring justice to the streets.  Being unconscious and badly concussed, he only dimly recalled the incident when he woke up in the local ER, and he kept his mouth shut to the authorities about what was probably a hallucination anyway.

It wasn't.  The night after he got out of the hospital he was awakened by horrible visions of a brutal crime, and the certain knowledge that he could stop that crime from happening if he acted now.  Slipping out of his basement apartment into the night he found himself stopping an assault with unexpected ease, casually bludgeoning a half-dozen drunken thugs with his bare hands and walking away with nothing but a few bruises.  Even got a sincere thank you from the young couple he'd saved from God knows what - and with the voice whispering in his head, maybe there was a god involved.

So now Lou is a superpowered taxi driver that takes some nights off to fight crime as the mysterious vigilante Crosstown Hammer.  He didn't ask for this, but it's a lot better than getting robbed for an eighth time.   

Description: Short, thick-set man of Southern European ancestry with oddly forgettable features, usually dressed in cheap civilian clothing and a local team's baseball cap.  When engaging in vigilante heroics he dons a domino mask that he bought from a theatrical supply store, which inexplicably makes him nigh-unrecognizable even to close associates.  He doesn't really have friends any more.  Speaks with a gruff voice in whatever accent is native to [campaign city]. 

Gender: Male     Age: 37    Height: 5'7"     Eyes: Brown      

Hair: Brown, Thinning     Skin: Swarthy Caucasian     Build: Burly

Background: Struggling     Power Source: Higher Power     Archetype: Shadow

Personality: Fast Talker     Health (G/Y/R):  30/22/11

Powers: Agility d8, Invisibility d8, Precognition d8, Vitality d6

Qualities: Stealth d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Finesse d8, Haunted Vigilante d8, Banter d6, Fitness d6

Status: Green (30-23) - d6 / Yellow (22-13) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d10

Abilities

Green

Ambush (A) Attack using Stealth.  Remove one physical mod, Hinder a target using your Min die, or maneuver to a new location in your environment.

Blur of Motion (A) Attack using Agility.  Use your Min die to Defend yourself against all Attacks until the start of your next turn.

Driven (I) At the start of your turn, remove any -1 penalties on you.

Principle of the Everyman (A) Overcome when using a bonus from another hero.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: Which hero did you just make look good at the expense of yourself?  Major twist: How are you utterly, totally out of your league?  RP: When needed you can make yourself just another face in the crowd.

Principle of Stealth (A) Overcome to infiltrate somewhere or avoid detection.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What evidence of your presence did you leave behind?  Major twist: What just happened to identify you as an obvious threat?  RP: You always know the most efficient method to enter or leave a location.

Yellow

Elusive (R) When you would take damage, Defend against it by rolling your single Stealth die.

Foresight (A) Attack using Precognition.  Boost all nearby heroes taking Attack or Overcome actions using your Min die until the start of your next turn. 

Go All Out (A) Attack multiple targets using Agility.  Hinder each target damaged by this Attack using your Min die.  Hinder yourself using your Max die.

Red

Can't Stop Now (A) Hinder yourself using Vitality.  Use your Min die.  Recover Health equal to your Max + Mid dice.

Just Making Me Angry (I) At the start of your turn, change any penalty into a bonus.

Remember Our Arrangement (A) Select a minion.  That minion is now entirely under your control and acts at the start of your turn.  You may release control at any time, and also lose control if you are defeated.  At the end of the scene, that minion is defeated.

Out

Superstitious Nonsense (A) Hinder a minion or lieutenant by rolling your single Stealth die and increase the value of the resulting penalty by -1.

Tactics

In Green, Crosstown Hammer usually relies on Blur of Motion for a little bit of damage reduction it will produce (usually only 1-2 points per instance, but it adds up).  Ambush has some very useful riders options though, and if an ally has a big physical penalty or he needs mobility it may be the better choice.  Going to stand somewhere you can't be Attacked at all is the best defense.  If he needs bigger damage to crack a lieutenant save he may have to resort to a risky basic Attack for Max damage to start the death spiral.  Despite some solid principles his lousy die pools make Overcomes difficult, although Driven may help if he winds up being Hindered by twists from them - or from risky actions.

Once he reaches Yellow he gets a solid defensive reaction from Elusive and his dreadful status die improves, making Overcomes slightly more feasible.  Foresight offers mediocre damage output coupled with a team-wide Boost, but it's almost always going to be a meager +1 bonus so not outstanding except for helping fuel someone else's Charged-Up Blast or Principle of the Everyman or similar ability.  Go All Out is Crosstown Hammer's best ability by far, dealing good damage for a multi-target attack and following it up with small penalties on the survivors - at the cost of a bigger penalty on him.  His bad dice pools actually help a bit here, since he'll rarely exceed a -2 self-penalty and he might well wind up in Red the next turn, letting him turn it into a bonus.

His Red zone abilities are designed to invert troublesome penalties (like from Go All Out) with Just Making Me Angry and some comeback ability in the form of Can't Stop Now, which you can probably pool your Stealth with as you slip away to lick your wounds, and your penalty may very well just fall off thanks to Driven.  It honestly may not be worth healing up right away if your enemies aren't focusing on you, since Go All Out is a lot better in Red than Yellow and your reaction might be enough to keep you on your feet.  You could also use the time to grab minions to serve you with Remember Our Arrangement, but odds are you'll pull that one forward with a twist to use it in Yellow on a nice, fresh blackmail victim.  If your GM is feeling generous (and they ought to, with this wretched build) the twists you generate might even create more minions to use the ability on.

Your Out ability is weird and very narrow, but it may be the nastiest thing you ever manage to do to a powerful lieutenant.

No matter you do, this hero is always going to be feeling their bad die spread.  Be wary of playing him without a taste for being the underdog.

A lot of people have experimented with fixes for Struggling (which is generally seen as very sub-par as Backgrounds go).  The most interesting one I've seen in action is to add text to the background so that when you later choose your Personality, your Yellow zone status die gets bumped up by one die step, eg from d8 to d10 or d6 to d8.  A d10 in Yellow would be unique and go a long way toward balancing out the lack of d10 powers and qualities from Struggling, but I haven't seen it at the table enough to be sure it doesn't go too far, or that it might have some broken combo (maybe with the Impulsive Personality?), but it might be worth trying out at your table if you have a Struggling character who's underperforming too badly.

Design Notes

Conceptually, Lou's powers are all subtle to the point where it's hard to be sure they even exist.  There are times when he's not sure if he's just getting really lucky and the voices and visions are actually the result of serious head trauma.  His Agility feels like time is out of joint somehow, the Invisibility is tied to the way people just seem to get distracted and fail to notice him sometimes, his Precognition always shows him awful things that haven't happened yet instead of anything nice like tomorrow's lottery numbers, and his Vitality might just be cumulative nerve damage from previous beatings coupled with how accustomed he is to long nights behind a wheel.

That said, there's definitely something driving him and rewarding him with power.  No matter how inattentive a crook might be, it doesn't explain how Lou doesn't ever leave fingerprints or other evidence behind, or how that stupid domino mask perfectly conceals his civilian identity.  He just can't bring himself to really believe it.

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