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?"
_________________________________________________________________________
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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