Continuing this series with a look at three more villain Archetypes.
Formidable
Formidable villains have an unusual 4/8/12 status die spread that's tied to whatever their specific weakness is, which is defined by the GM during creation. If they have no penalties related to their weakness they get that big d12, a mix of weakness penalties and bonuses that might offset them is a d8, and only having weakness penalties with no bonuses drops them to d4. They have an above-average Health bonus and choose two abilities from this list:
Channel Greatness - Creates a strong persistent and exclusive bonus with a moderate Attack as a rider.
Cleansing Elevation - Very strong Boost action that also removes all penalties on you.
Expended Negation - Unusual offensive action that lets you destroy one of your bonuses to deal light damage to every opponent. That damage isn't an Attack, and therefore doesn't trigger most defensive reactions, nor is it affected by mods.
Share In Your Glory - Efficient Boost action that affects yourself and one or two nearby allies.
Unrivalled Paragon - Allows you to take any basic action using your Max die. Despite the name, several other Approaches and Archetypes have the same trick, so it's more like "plenty of rivals" really.
Untempered Grit - Reaction that lets you ignore all penalties for the turn in exchange for taking damage equal to the total value of your penalties. This does mean you won't shed any of those penalties either, but it not only avoids their effects for now, if any were degrading your status die you'll be back up to a d12 for this turn's action.
Four of these abilities are useful for manipulating the Archetype's unique status die mechanic, creating bonuses and removing or ignoring penalties, and one of the others lets you sacrifice the many bonuses potentially being generated for multi-target damage. You also have a strong ally-friendly Boost option and a versatility trick that includes your highest single-target Attack. The Archetype can be paired with any Approach, but the best choices will ones whose own abilities benefit most from ready access to bonuses and the potential for that excellent d12 status die.
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Fragile
Fragile villains have a 6/8/10 status die spread that starts at d10 and degrades as their personal Health drops through the GYRO zones. They actually have a Health penalty rather than a bonus, and select two abilities from the following menu:
Careless Smash - Very high-damage Attack that also does minor damage to you. Your low Health makes even minor damage a concern, though.
Cheese It! - Defensive reaction that lets you move anywhere in the scene if you cancel out all the damage. Relies on your status die, so it becomes much weaker as you take damage.
Dismantling Jab - Moderate Attack that removes all bonuses from the target.
Escape Plan - Innate ability that lets you move anywhere in the scene whenever your personal zone changes. If you have access to healing this can trigger when you health increases as well as when it drops a zone.
Shrouded Attack - Solid Attack with a weak but multi-use self-Defend as a rider. Even modest bonuses can make the defensive side of this quite hard to breach.
Versatile Strike - Solid Attack with a wall of text that gives one of four different riders (most using the Min die) varying based on your Health. It's a lot of words for not very much actual effect.
With four different Attack abilities this a very offensive list, and its other two abilities lean into granting mobility and a modicum of self-defense. Fragile villains tend to be just that, very effective as long as they remain healthy but falling apart as they drop through the GYRO scale - and their low initial Health makes that process faster than normal. They can benefit from Approaches that offer healing, more reliable defensive reactions or damage reduction. Approach abilities that Hinder foes, especially multiple foes, can be very useful for diminishing incoming damage.
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Guerrilla
Guerrillas have a 6/8/10 status die spread that increases based on the number of opponents currently engaged. This is a bit of an issue since "engaged" is not a tightly defined term, mechanically speaking. As a GM I'd certainly treat all active enemies who are able to potentially Attack or be Attacked by the villain as engaged for status die purposes, whether they're in the same cramped indoor room or sniping from the roof of a building down into a distant outdoor plaza. The intent might be that only heroes count toward status dice here, but the wording does technically mean hostile NPC minions and lieutenants would be included as well. The Archetype has an average Health bonus and the usual two ability choices from the following:
Close Quarters Combat - Moderate multi-target close-range Attack with a weak Hinder against the same targets.
Even Odds - Innate ability that generates a bonus at the start of your turn based on how many opponents Attacked you since your last turn. Quite efficient, especially if combined with a defensive reaction or damage resistance from your Approach.
Fighting Rhythm - Efficient Attack that uses all three of your dice, one against up to three targets. If you have three targets, the damage becomes irreducible as well, which is very good.
Human Shield - Strong Attack with a very nasty defensive rider. You get a moderate multi-use self-Defend against everyone but the target, and any damage stopped by that Defend is dealt to your target. This usually means you just won't be Attacked at all for a turn except by your victim.
Malicious Deflection - Status-die based defensive reaction that deals equal damage to another nearby target. Quite strong when engaged with multiple foes, rather weak one-on-one.
Tangled Fray - Solid innate damage reduction whenever you're outnumbered by nearby foes.
So three nice Attack options including a multi-target one bundled with a Hinder, a good strong reaction that both prevents and deals damage, a potentially quite strong innate bonus generator, and some damage reduction. It's a pretty solid list overall and doesn't really need much help. An Approach with some healing or dice manipulation would be helpful but not vital, or you could look for something that offers more ally support, which is one thing the Guerrilla really lacks.
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Continued in Archetypes part 3.
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