Need some character help

[The Artist Formerly]

So I have NPC bank robber. Mutant, APS Mercury, Metal Manipulation. OTJ training. He's done and on paper.

What I need is another mutant with a power set that could intimidate (and pose a reasonable, lethal threat to) the first character. It's also helpful if those powers would make him a threat to annoying PCs (which is all of them, if you're wondering). I have a vague idea that he should be some kind of berserker sort of build. Can not use Invulnerability, APS Plasma or Control Radiation (they are on semi-banned list).

Kind of wrote myself into a corner here...

[Looonatic]

One of the scarier power combinations I've seen is Growth and Sonic Speed.

[Regularguy]

So I have NPC bank robber. Mutant, APS Mercury, Metal Manipulation. OTJ training. He's done and on paper.

What I need is another mutant with a power set that could intimidate (and pose a reasonable, lethal threat to) the first character. It's also helpful if those powers would make him a threat to annoying PCs (which is all of them, if you're wondering). I have a vague idea that he should be some kind of berserker sort of build. Can not use Invulnerability, APS Plasma or Control Radiation (they are on semi-banned list).

Kind of wrote myself into a corner here...

I don't know what the PCs have up their sleeves, but you could probably do worse than combining Negate Super Abilities and Create Force Field: the liquid-metal-master-of-metals loses all his powers when near him, and annoying folks looking to interfere get walled off -- unless they can teleport in, or phase in intangibly, or whatever, in which case they lose their powers too.

Anyhow, the idea is that the Negator and the Negated square off in a gladiator match inside the domed arena he creates around them -- and one combatant has a personal forcefield, and his opponent doesn't, so figure that's when he'd go berserker on the guy, and figure that's what makes him so intimidating.

[ShadowLogan]

So I have NPC bank robber. Mutant, APS Mercury, Metal Manipulation. OTJ training. He's done and on paper.

What I need is another mutant with a power set that could intimidate (and pose a reasonable, lethal threat to) the first character. It's also helpful if those powers would make him a threat to annoying PCs (which is all of them, if you're wondering). I have a vague idea that he should be some kind of berserker sort of build. Can not use Invulnerability, APS Plasma or Control Radiation (they are on semi-banned list).

Kind of wrote myself into a corner here...

There is of course the "Negate Super Powers", or "Mimic", or Mind Control (Super Power or Psychic or Magic).

Gravity Control might also work being in the mix (Gravity is increased by a factor of 50, likely immobilizing their opponent).

Control Insects (swarm them).

Someone with Tentacles (and mid/high level) could be dangerous (especially with other minor powers boosting them).

A Berserker will likely involve some type of PS focus that builds it up from Skills, powers (if any), and other factors (like being from a high gravity world). It should also be able to ignore resistances.

Could also have the person be a high level psychic, and doesn't appear in person but via Astral Projection/Avatar and uses their powers. (thinking something along the lines of one of the classes in Rifts SB3 Mindwerks, want to say Ecto-Traveler but could be wrong on the name, I know its in SB3, maybe even factor in things from Psycape to give them a further boost feel you are looking for). In this way they can not target you effectively, but you cat target them effectively.

[Glistam]

So I have NPC bank robber. Mutant, APS Mercury, Metal Manipulation. OTJ training. He's done and on paper.

What I need is another mutant with a power set that could intimidate (and pose a reasonable, lethal threat to) the first character. It's also helpful if those powers would make him a threat to annoying PCs (which is all of them, if you're wondering). I have a vague idea that he should be some kind of berserker sort of build. Can not use Invulnerability, APS Plasma or Control Radiation (they are on semi-banned list).

Kind of wrote myself into a corner here...

Very cool combination of powers there, and potentially very powerful! What I note is that a "weakness" the character has is to energy. APS: Energy or APS: Light would produce characters who are similarly invulnerable to physical attacks, but are also able to damage the mercury character. APS Shadow is similarly fun in this vein as well, especially when combined with some of the other minor shadow powers.

Here's another fun route: Explosives! I note the Mercurial character can be blown apart harmlessly by explosions which do more than 50 points of damage. What a great way to annoy the character and take them out of a fight long enough for the villain to achieve his/her goal!

You can have a superhuman with powers such as Self-Explosion (Major, PU3), Detonation (Minor, PU1), or Exploding Spheres (Major, PU3), and then rule that other powers combine with them for added (awesome) effect! Consider combining the effects of Power Channeling (Minor, HU2), Force Strike (Minor, PU3), and/or Knock Back Attack (Minor, PU3) with Detonation or Self Explosion. Or combine Orbital Spheres (Major, PU3) and Manipulate Kinetic Energy (Minor, HU2) with Exploding Spheres.

Alternatively you could have a non-powered villain with high Demolitions skill, the black market contacts to obtain all sorts of fancy explosives, and the will to use them in his crimes. Remember that explosive effects are additive and typically bypass A.R. - so a 4D6 explosive may not seem significant, but 10 of them will be!

So, those were my thoughts.

[Regularguy]

Here's another fun route: Explosives! I note the Mercurial character can be blown apart harmlessly by explosions which do more than 50 points of damage. What a great way to annoy the character and take them out of a fight long enough for the villain to achieve his/her goal!

You can have a superhuman with powers such as Self-Explosion (Major, PU3), Detonation (Minor, PU1), or Exploding Spheres (Major, PU3), and then rule that other powers combine with them for added (awesome) effect! Consider combining the effects of Power Channeling (Minor, HU2), Force Strike (Minor, PU3), and/or Knock Back Attack (Minor, PU3) with Detonation or Self Explosion. Or combine Orbital Spheres (Major, PU3) and Manipulate Kinetic Energy (Minor, HU2) with Exploding Spheres.

Alternatively you could have a non-powered villain with high Demolitions skill, the black market contacts to obtain all sorts of fancy explosives, and the will to use them in his crimes.

Heh. You could also split the difference, for more of that 'berserker' persona he was going for; just imagine a guy who has incendiary grenades and, say, Impervious To Fire & Heat -- and now imagine him rushing in with a crazy look in his eyes while triggering an explosion that both of them are at ground zero of, because he never even tosses the thing?

Doing both halves of that with a major power -- both the blast and the immunity -- works just fine, but seems elegant. But brandishing a device like any mad bomber/explosives expert could before then surviving the taking-you-down-with-me effect? That seems more, I dunno, hands-on.

(At that, you could work the same trick with Gem Powers -- which also gives him an end-run around that ban on Invulnerability, and temporary mental powers if that's what he needs to keep "annoying PCs" at bay.)

[Shadowknight]

People always look at attack powers as the end all. But a Power like Control Others & Invisibility or Control Others & Shrink can make a wonderful role-playing experience when a powerful team member is being controlled and the controller is nowhere to be found. Afterward the hero can scream all day long he was being controlled except outside of his word their no proof. A clever GM can easily concentrate on 1 hero and besmirch his reputation. Even his team mates might start to wonder about him when there's no proof, they might wonder if the hero is suffering from a psychotic breakdown or are they suffering from a case multiple split personality. It would require a lot of role-playing, using skills and clever ideas to ever prove the character is truly innocent and after discovering it finding the person who framed the hero. Of course this requires a player who's into role-playing a hero who's life is gone to crap and his reputation is besmirched. But the GM can give the hero extra experience points above and beyond what the table listed for going through all the hell the villain put him through if and when he proves his innocent and capture the villain.

[Regularguy]

I like the idea of a subtle life-ruiner -- but given what the OP said about an intimidating berserker, how about countering APS: Mercury in the simplest way possible?

I mean, sure, he can dish it out and take it as a liquid-metal guy who can pour himself through a keyhole or shimmy down a drainpipe or whatever if the need arises -- so put him up against an equally liquid opponent, someone who's immune to anything that guy tries but can injure or kill him just fine: someone who can flow to follow him wherever he goes, only faster; and who can fly into a blood rage at will.

Because that's the beauty of APS: Blood, right? Give him whatever else he needs -- but figure he already has a horror factor to reflect how he has an answer for every one of his opponent's powers, shrugging at every attempted attack and attempted escape while smacking the guy around. And, again, don't make him angry; you wouldn't like him when he's angry.

[Daniel Stoker]

So I have NPC bank robber. Mutant, APS Mercury, Metal Manipulation. OTJ training. He's done and on paper.

What I need is another mutant with a power set that could intimidate (and pose a reasonable, lethal threat to) the first character. It's also helpful if those powers would make him a threat to annoying PCs (which is all of them, if you're wondering). I have a vague idea that he should be some kind of berserker sort of build. Can not use Invulnerability, APS Plasma or Control Radiation (they are on semi-banned list).

Kind of wrote myself into a corner here...

Does it have to be a berserker type build? Because if not Gravity Control is still one of the better ones especially as it could pretty easily lock down your APS: Mercury character. Another option might be to go with Control Others or pull out a character that can use the Domination spell as a Super Power (or has access to a few spells and give them that one.) My other thought would be Create Force Fields and have him create a bubble around the character and since the bubble is air tight and you still need to breath in the Mercury form have him threaten to let him choke to death.


Daniel Stoker

[Regularguy]

Heh. Guiding off what shadowknight suggested, how about a guy with something like Animal Metamorphosis and, oh, say, Gateways?

"So there I was, halfway through a bank robbery just down the street from here -- and suddenly the floor opens up and I'm somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean; I swam until I was exhausted, it was more than a day before I made it to land. Anyhow, the next time that guy crossed my path I was in the middle of a heist in Manhattan -- and then I was way up in the air, hurtling down to slam into the pavement in Hong Kong; if I'd been any higher up, figure I'd have died right then instead of waking up in the hospital. So, what, you think I'm going to go for a third strike anywhere in New York City? I don't know who he is; I don't know what he looks like; I never even saw him coming. But if I pull another job in his territory, who's to say I won't find myself falling into the heart of a volcano?"