Villain Design Analysis: Upgrades

Continuing on with this series of posts, today we're moving from Archetypes to villain Upgrades.  These are an optional part of creating a villain, and adding one turns a basic villain into a difficult scene element rather than a moderate one.  A villain can be assigned more than one Upgrade if you want to make them an even greater threat, with each extra Upgrade counting as another difficult scene element when designing an action scene.  A GM should consider what grants a villain an Upgrade and whether there might be a way to remove one, perhaps through creating some kind of countermeasure during a montage scene.

Most Upgrades modify a villain's Base Health as well as granting some other benefit.  The core book includes the following ten Upgrades (which, weirdly, aren't in alphabetical order, unlike Approaches and Archetypes):

Mook Squad - This is one of only two Upgrades that don't improve Base Health, and grants the villain an action ability that lets them add enough signature minions to the scene to bring their number up to H, ie the number of heroes in the scene.  Obviously gives the most benefit when you have no minions in play.  While it's nice to be able to spawn more henchmen during a scene, the benefit has to be weighed against using the villain's action for the Upgrade rather than one of their other abilities.  As such, this is often best on a villain with relatively weak die pools or otherwise lackluster abilities.  The lack of bonus Health doesn't help either, and as Upgrades go this is one of the less impactful ones.

If you wanted to make it stronger, changing the ability it grants to allow it to spawn Hx2 minions would help balance quite a bit.  This is more on par with the minion-creation abilities found in the Creator Approach and Legion/Overlord Archetypes, and might be too strong if you regularly play with a lot of heroes.  The danger to going to Hx2 is that you may find the upgrade now outshines Creator, Legion and Overlord villains at the their own game.

Hardier Minions - Grants a very small Health bonus, and the villain gains an action ability that increases the die size of one group of minions in the scene by one step, to a maximum of d12.  The term "group" isn't really defined in the rules, leaving the GM leeway to decide how many are affected by each use of the ability.  I would recommend limiting it to a maximum of Hx2 minions, or simply H if that proves too strong for your particular team.  This Upgrade requires minions in play to do anything at all, so it's best paired with abilities or allies that can create minions.  As with Mook Squad, you also have to weigh the benefits of buffing/healing some minions or using the villain's action for one of their other abilities.      

Group Fighter - Provides a very large Health bonus and gives the villain an inherent ability to use their Mid die to make a free Attack whenever they use an action ability that includes an Attack.  Simple, straightforward increase in durability and damage output, making it a popular "generic" choice on any villain that plans on making Attacks regularly.  Worth noting that it doesn't work with reactions that include an Attack, since you aren't taking an action there. 

Villainous Vehicle - Grants a fairly large amount of extra Health, and adds a very customizable vehicle (treated as a lieutenant mechanically) to the scene with anywhere from two to four of its own abilities from a menu of seven options.  Depending on which ones you take the vehicle may simply add some independent combat power, or it may provide key support synergies for the villain by providing healing, deploying minions, or letting a badly damaged villain escape the scene altogether.  Another Upgrade that can be helpful for almost any villain, although it is likely that players will focus on destroying the vehicle quickly if its abilities are impacting the scene heavily.

While described as a vehicle of some kind, this Upgrade can easily be re-skinned into other autonomous threats such as a living war-beast, steed or "junior villain" sidekick.  Actual mechanical versions of this Upgrade could reasonably be counted toward an Inventor Archetype's status die.    

Power Upgrade - Offers a very large Health bonus and increases the die size of all the villain's powers.  If this would improve a given die past d12, they gain an extra ability chosen from their Archetype's list instead, although only four of the eighteen Approaches have d12 powers to gain that variant benefit.  Most useful on villains who have many abilities dependent their die pools, especially those that Boost or Hinder a lot where die steps make a big difference to generating larger mods.

Quality Upgrade - Offers a very large Health bonus and increases the die size of all the villain's qualities except their d8 roleplaying quality.  If this would improve a given die past d12, they gain an extra ability chosen from their Approach's list instead, although only two of the eighteen Approaches have d12 qualities to gain that variant benefit - and Ancient will gain two extra abilities.  Most useful on villains who have many abilities dependent their die pools, especially those that Boost or Hinder a lot where die steps make a big difference to generating larger mods.

Defense Shield - Doesn't directly improve Base Health, but gives the villain a force field that prevents the first forty points of damage dealt to them by any source except themselves.  That's an enormous bonus to durability, but the field can be removed by three Overcome successes from the heroes, with any minor twists rolled dealing damage to them as a reaction as well as the usual twist effect.  As long as the field is still active, the villain can spend actions removing successes from the Overcome to remove it, or repair damage done to it.  Heroes are usually better off doing Principled Overcomes to remove the field than powering through it with raw damage, but that's still eating up actions in the scene.  Worth noting that it doesn't alter the villain's Base Health, so Bruiser and Fragile Archetypes (whose status die depends on personal Health zone) will be in Green longer than usual.

This is another Upgrade that could be counted toward an Inventor Archetype's status die, at least while it lasts, and the three that follow might also be "inventions' if they're technological in nature.

Calming Aura - Grants a moderate bonus to Base Health and forces all heroes to act as if they were in the Green zone until the aura is removed by three successful Overcome actions.  Minor twists let the villain use a reaction to Hinder the hero in response, which discourages doing another Overcome right away.  Obviously not very impactful at first, but if the players don't get rid of it fast the effect quickly becomes a serious handicap.

Power Dampening Field - Another moderate bonus to Base Health, and a complicated wall of text that basically results in hero power dice being reduced more and more as the scene tracker advances.  Can be removed with three Overcome actions, but minor twists mean the hero loses access to a power completely until the end of the scene.

Brainwashing Zone - Nearly identical to the Power Dampening Field above, but it affects qualities rather than powers.  It also has an added rider that means any hero who goes Out while the zone is still in play becomes a mind-controlled villainous minion with a die size equal to their largest power die.  Not really likely to happen unless you really focus down one PC, but it certainly is colorful.

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Ten Upgrades is probably plenty, but it would be nice to have a little more variety so here are a couple of homebrews to consider:

Ability Upgrade - Experience, training and practice has expanded the villain's bag of tricks.

Health +10  You may pick one extra ability from either your Approach or Archetype.

Modest Health bonus, counterbalancing the fact that this opens up a tremendous number of new synergies.  After nearly two hundred custom villains I've lost count of how often I wished for just one more ability choice.  Some villains would be better off with the Power Upgrade or Quality Upgrade above, but this is more versatile if all you want is an added ability.

Amped Up  - The villain is at the top of their game, giving 110% and dialing it up to eleven.

Health +10  On your turn, when you roll your dice to take action you may reroll one die before determining the outcome.

So, moderate Health bonus but a strong dice fixer to go with it.  Most impactful for the few villain abilities that look for doubles or triples, but generically useful for anyone.

This series is nearing its end, with the penultimate post on Masteries.

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