Please help me make this character

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Glistam
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Please help me make this character

Unread post by Glistam »

I was inspired to finally put some stats to a throwaway hero name I accidentally generated an canonized many years ago: The Crimson Scarlet. The idea is that this hero manages to just appear when needed, and once the peril has passed he disappears just as mysteriously. He's very much the traditional hero in action, almost as if he's striving to be the embodiment of what a hero is, or the ideal.

I envision this character as an Immortal Ghostly Spirit, with Clairvoyance as one of his psionic powers (the reason he knows where he's "needed"). In his Human form I see him looking like some sort of cross between the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Three Musketeers, Zorro, and any other hero/swashbucklers with that design - all in a red color theme. Despite this, I don't actually envision him as a swordsman. What I can't envision though is what powers the character should have in Human form.

I've always thought the character should be quick/fast, but I don't just want Sonic Speed or Extraordinary Speed. I can take one Major power or two minor powers with this power category, and I thought maybe the Black Vault would have some cool powers. So far though, nothing's stood out to me in this regard.

That's where I could use some help. Anyone have any good ideas for powers this guy can have? He can also have a handful of psychic powers (no super psionics though) but I haven't given them much thought yet beyond Clairvoyance. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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NMI
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by NMI »

Lightning Reflexes is a decent option for one of your minors.
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Snuffy
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by Snuffy »

Should this spirit maybe posses an already existing character or NPC? When the the time is right somehow a character is chosen to stand up?
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Glistam
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by Glistam »

When I posted this I thought I had settled enough on the idea to begin working it, but I've continued bouncing around since then (it's been less than a day!). I have no idea anymore where I'll be going with this.
Zerebus: "I like MDC. MDC is a hundred times better than SDC."

kiralon: "...the best way to kill an old one is to crash a moon into it."

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NMI
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by NMI »

Lightning Reflexes and...
Shadow Shaping [or is it called Shadow Weapons??]
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by Regularguy »

Glistam wrote:The idea is that this hero manages to just appear when needed, and once the peril has passed he disappears just as mysteriously. He's very much the traditional hero in action, almost as if he's striving to be the embodiment of what a hero is, or the ideal.


I've always thought the character should be quick/fast, but I don't just want Sonic Speed or Extraordinary Speed.


Anyone have any good ideas for powers this guy can have? He can also have a handful of psychic powers (no super psionics though) but I haven't given them much thought yet beyond Clairvoyance. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


I've mentioned before how much I'd like to see a hero who pairs Clairvoyance with Pause Temporal Flow: always showing up as the right guy in the right place at the right time, and then mysteriously disappearing until he's needed again -- and performing swashbuckler-y 'luck and skill and quickness' tricks in between, despite not actually being able to move like a speedster; it's just that he somehow pickpocketed you, or deftly handcuffed you to the radiator, or whatever, when you looked away for a moment, though how he managed to slip the bullets out of your gun I'll never know.
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by say652 »

Mystically bestowed Abilities.

Teleport. Flight Wingless. Energy Expulsion: Force Blades. Hand to hand Expert.

A sword wielding Hero who disappears.
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Glistam
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by Glistam »

I am intrigued by the prospect of this character having the powers of Pause Temporal Flow and Stretch Time. Of course, the Power Category sub-type I initially settled on can't take both powers, but I am starting to consider other Power Categories now. A third power I like for this character currently comes from the Black Vault, it's called Flashstep. That would make three majors, which limits my Power Category options to either Empowered, Immortal (one of the other sub-choices), or Experiment. This bears further thinking.
Zerebus: "I like MDC. MDC is a hundred times better than SDC."

kiralon: "...the best way to kill an old one is to crash a moon into it."

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Temporal Wizard O.C.C. update 0.8 | Rifts random encounters
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say652
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by say652 »

If you choose Experiment, I would handwavium that instead of Beastly your alternate form is "Musketeer like" maybe include the "battle dress" be even gnarlier if it was a genderswap to use powers and further conceal secret identity.

The Crimson Scarlet defeats the enemies then vanishes......nobody notices the petite brunette sneaking away...
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NMI
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by NMI »

Another idea for a heightened speed/reflexes type would be to take the Psionic Power of "Intuitive Combat" - consider it a minor and state that it is always on.
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Glistam
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by Glistam »

I like the cut of your jib!
Zerebus: "I like MDC. MDC is a hundred times better than SDC."

kiralon: "...the best way to kill an old one is to crash a moon into it."

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Temporal Wizard O.C.C. update 0.8 | Rifts random encounters
New Fire magic | New Temporal magic
Grim Gulf, the Nightlands version of Century Station

Let Chaos Magic flow in your campaigns.
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by Regularguy »

Glistam wrote:That would make three majors, which limits my Power Category options to either Empowered, Immortal (one of the other sub-choices), or Experiment. This bears further thinking.


Well, there's also the Imbued category (and, technically, Alien).

That said, Pause Temporal Flow plus Stretch Time plus Flashstep seems like overspecialization: three separate powers for zipping from Point A to Point B, at the cost of losing (a) the Clairvoyance you mentioned for knowing when to do it, plus (b) a grab-bag of other psionic tricks? (Like maybe Sixth Sense and Telekinesis, for subtle feats of wait-is-he-that-lucky-or-is-he-that-skillful swashbucklery?)

I mean, if you want Three Major Powers to slap unrelated stuff atop the Pause Temporal Flow schtick of appearing and disappearing and pulling off quick little feats of deftness -- sure, I can see that. (Heck, it's actually kind of hilarious to picture a dashing and nimble hit-and-run skirmisher who acts like he forever needs to swirl his cape around while roguishly eluding attacks by the skin of his teeth -- but who in fact always has Invulnerability up his sleeve, and who is only so danged charming by dint of his Divine Aura.) But to double down and triple down on an eggs-in-one-basket routine? Not quite seeing it.
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

instead of the Clairvoyance psi power maybe the char might have Criminal intuition superpower.
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by Incriptus »

A thought, Unnoteworthy - Forgettable from PU1

He really was there the whole time, but when he's not wearing his colorful garish Crimson Scarlet costume he's below your notice. When the threat is over he removes his red cape and mask, and he's just a normal dude who wonders off into the sunset

"Who was that masked man"
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say652
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by say652 »

Ok here goes.

Mystically bestowed Abilities.

3 minor powers and 5 minor psionics.

Force blades.
Army of one.
Resilient.

Minor psionics.
Clairvoyance.
Sixth sense.
Tk leap.
Tk Punch.
Summon inner strength.


A fast powerful hero that appears when needed in costume, then just as mysteriously vanishes.

The mighty Crimson Scarlett puts the whoop ax on em..
for the alternate or normal identity, since gender bender got voted down. How about an old Vietnam Vet, maybe missing a limb or something.
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by Regularguy »

Glistam wrote:I am intrigued by the prospect of this character having the powers of Pause Temporal Flow and Stretch Time. Of course, the Power Category sub-type I initially settled on can't take both powers, but I am starting to consider other Power Categories now. A third power I like for this character currently comes from the Black Vault, it's called Flashstep. That would make three majors


Heh. You know, I can't help but think of the other thread that's going on right now.

So, sure, you're now thinking of ditching Clairvoyance, but still want to know to be there when something big goes down. So imagine a group of crooks are in the middle of pulling a heist together or whatever, except all but one of them actually are our hero, because Multiple Selves plus Transfer/Possess.

So they tip off the costumed Self before doing their best to make his swashbuckler act look good: it's like he's yanking a rug out from under a stuntman who obligingly windmills his arms and 'falls' into the crook du jour -- which prompts another stuntman to clock that crook with haymaker that 'missed' the laughing rogue who twirled out of the way -- and that gets our hero's cape swirling like a matador's just as Stuntman #3 'blunderingly' rushes past to collide with the now-kayoed crook -- and while the slapstick only gets wackier if we're talking about possessed supervillains with bona fide powers, hold that thought for a moment because Stuntman #1 has finally gotten (a) back up on his feet, (b) into a wide enough stance for our hero to somersault between his legs and pop up to conk him on the head with an improvised weapon -- at which point maybe the possession ends, and a glassy-eyed crook staggers around in a daze as if he honestly doesn't know what day it is or how he got here? And the crowd goes wild.

If you still want that third power, you could take something for especially cinematic feats of quickness -- though if he's an alien with the triple-normal-speed perk, and can mysteriously disappear by getting reabsorbed into the original, you maybe don't need to, and so can take something else altogether. (Heck, you could even take Invulnerability just in case a secretly-outnumbered crook ever somehow manages to land a clean hit on him; it'd be a pretty good passive defense for his vacant-minded bodies, and provide enough superhuman strength to lug said bodies around.)
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say652
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by say652 »

Juicer Glafiators in costume??
A we make people look invincible squad.
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by Regularguy »

Coming back around to the original idea...

Glistam wrote:The idea is that this hero manages to just appear when needed, and once the peril has passed he disappears just as mysteriously. He's very much the traditional hero in action, almost as if he's striving to be the embodiment of what a hero is, or the ideal.

I envision this character as an Immortal Ghostly Spirit, with Clairvoyance as one of his psionic powers (the reason he knows where he's "needed"). In his Human form I see him looking like some sort of cross between the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Three Musketeers, Zorro, and any other hero/swashbucklers with that design - all in a red color theme. Despite this, I don't actually envision him as a swordsman. What I can't envision though is what powers the character should have in Human form.

I've always thought the character should be quick/fast, but I don't just want Sonic Speed or Extraordinary Speed. I can take one Major power


...how about Gem Powers? There are other ways to get the Appears When Needed, Disappear When His Work Is Done bit -- but this way, his schtick only lasts for minutes, so he pretty much has to leave in short order.

So, sure, for the duration of a fight he can nimbly swashbuckler around as an inhumanly swift and skilled acrobat, with extra attacks and a bonus to strike/dodge/parry -- but he'll never be as fast as he would with Sonic or Extraordinary Speed, and he can't use it for long overland travel or whatever. Granted, you could pretty much do that with, say, Spin At High Velocity, with added swashbucklery from being bulletproof so long as he toreadors around while flinging whatever's on hand at his foes...

...but here's the beauty part: figure he's big on Empathic Transfer, since Believe-Whatever-He-Says trust would be a fairly cheap fight-ender for him -- but (a) note the second saving throw, with a bonus, to life-threatening suggestions -- and so (b) figure he always plays the true-blue hero who doesn't kill but prankster-fights like a swashbuckler -- except he doesn't even carry a weapon as per that oeuvre, because, hey, I won't kill you when you peacefully surrender, I can't stress that enough; nobody has to die here, just put down the gun and come with me and everybody lives, okay?

So one by one, his quirks don't merely line up with his abilities, but follow directly from them!
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by ShadowLogan »

Glistam wrote:I was inspired to finally put some stats to a throwaway hero name I accidentally generated an canonized many years ago: The Crimson Scarlet. The idea is that this hero manages to just appear when needed, and once the peril has passed he disappears just as mysteriously. He's very much the traditional hero in action, almost as if he's striving to be the embodiment of what a hero is, or the ideal.

I envision this character as an Immortal Ghostly Spirit, with Clairvoyance as one of his psionic powers (the reason he knows where he's "needed"). In his Human form I see him looking like some sort of cross between the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Three Musketeers, Zorro, and any other hero/swashbucklers with that design - all in a red color theme. Despite this, I don't actually envision him as a swordsman. What I can't envision though is what powers the character should have in Human form.

I've always thought the character should be quick/fast, but I don't just want Sonic Speed or Extraordinary Speed. I can take one Major power or two minor powers with this power category, and I thought maybe the Black Vault would have some cool powers. So far though, nothing's stood out to me in this regard.

That's where I could use some help. Anyone have any good ideas for powers this guy can have? He can also have a handful of psychic powers (no super psionics though) but I haven't given them much thought yet beyond Clairvoyance. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What about instead of using Super Powers, you go full on psychic. Rifts Source Book 3 has the Ecto-Travler OCC. It might require a bit of conversion/adaptation, but it seems like it might make a place to start.

They could also just have Astral Projection to scout around, and then teleport (a Major Power) in/out when needed. Strictly speaking Range might be an issue with Teleport, but you could have the character have found away to use the Astral Projection's sliver cord to get around that (snapping the body to their location, instead of the reverse)...
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Glistam
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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by Glistam »

Lots of great ideas! Thanks everyone for the suggestions and inspiration! I've had to backburner this guy for the immediate future but I'll be back to him as soon as I can.
Zerebus: "I like MDC. MDC is a hundred times better than SDC."

kiralon: "...the best way to kill an old one is to crash a moon into it."

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Re: Please help me make this character

Unread post by Sir_Spirit »

There is also the Wanderer PCC from rifter as well....
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