ASH: ASH character ideas in City of Heroes/Villains

[Dave Van Domelen]

     Academy of Super-Heroes characters in City of Heroes/Villains 

                         Updated 7/24/09

     This is just a bit of idle musing on how to fit some ASH characters into
the City of Heroes mold.  Costumes would usually be at best approximations,
and many have power sets that are just not gonna happen in CoH, but I figured
I'd see how far I could get.

     City of Heroes is, first and foremost, an massively multiplayer online
game, or MMOG.  That means that for both practical reasons and game balance
reasons it will only be able to simulate a relatively narrow band of the set
of all superheroes and supervillains.  "Make it up on the fly" powers like
ASH-style wild magic are simply impossible for a computer game, and the
physical capabilities of servers and user machines mean that only the more
popular power sets will even be available.  Plus, of course, the system won't
let you make someone who is significantly more or less powerful than average,
unlike tabletop RPGs (i.e. you can make both Superman and Elongated Man in
Champions, even if they'd play poorly together, but a CoH Elongated Man would
have to be given extra powers).

     Because of the MMOG restrictions, a lot of these characters will be pale
shadows of themselves, or will be massively upgunned in the case of those who
are at the lower end of the scale.  If you have suggestions for changing any
of these, or adding new characters, let me know and I'll add them in.
     I'll only mention the Origin and Pools if I feel they're relevant
(i.e. if the little ranged attack that comes with the Origin fits the
character, such as Teller's dart gun).  I haven't gotten any characters high
enough to use Ancillary or Patron pools, so I won't touch on them (but more
experienced players are free to make suggestions).
     
     ASH

     Solar Max - Obviously, he doesn't get all the armor powers.  I'm
currently playing "Doctor Dave" who is a Gravity/Radiation Controller and
based on the original Solar Max, JakZak would likely be a Gravity/Kinetics or
Gravity/Force Field Controller, Flight Pool.
     Meteor - Martial Arts/Super Reflexes Scrapper, Speed Pool.
     Scorch - Fire Blast/Flame Manipulation Blaster, Flight Pool.
     Green Knight - Regeneration/Super Strength Tanker would be best, but
Tankers don't get Regeneration.  So Willpower/Super Strength is about as
close as we're gonna get.  He actually has the Medicine pool, due to being a
pre-Med student at the Academy before getting drafted into ASH.
     Fury - Energy/Energy Blaster, she's all about the knockback.  Flight
Pool.
     Contact - Martial Arts/Willpower Scrapper, and he'd probably get the
Body Mastery Ancillary Pool, but stop short of the energy blasting parts of
it.  A Willpower/Super Strength Tanker might also work, although Tankers have
no relevant Ancillaries.
     Breaker - Gravity/Force Field Controller with Fighting Pool.  Gravity is
about as close as the game gets to a telekinesis power.
     Essay - Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster, Tech Origin, Fighting and Fitness
Pools. 
     Peregryn - Yeah.  Not happening.  I suppose an Earth/Storm Controller
with Fire Mastery might come close enough for jazz.
     Beacon - Peacebringer is the only archetype that even allows one to turn
into energy and become intangible, as far as I can tell.  Intangibility is
one of those powers with balance issues in an MMOG, so it's pretty rare.
Fortunately, the Peacebringer archetype fits pretty well.  When he still had
a flesh and blood body, maybe a Fire/Kinetic Controller, but he had one of
those funky "on the fly" powersets.
     Geode - Stone/Super Strength Tanker, although she'd really only look
correct using Crystal Armor.  She might have started the Leaping Pool.
     Lightfoot - Kinetics Defender, but none of the Secondaries make sense
for him (Speed and Flight Pools are obvious, though).  I suppose give him
Radiation Blast and say he jiggered his suit's Neutrino Sieve to let him use
the Neutrino Bolt power, then not take any other Radiation powers except
Aim.  He'd also probably take Fighting Pool to get more punching in.


STRAFE
     
     Grind: Assault Rifle/Willpower Blaster invested heavily in the Fighting
and Leadership Pools.  He'd be Natural Origin so he gets knives to throw.
     Jen Kleinvogel: Dual Blades (Katana)/Super Reflexes Scrapper with
Concealment and Flight Pools.  On the other hand, a Dual Blades/Super
Reflexes Stalker might make more sense from a power standpoint, since her
cloaking sheath doesn't impede her movement.
     Tony Drake: Invulnerability/Super Strength Tanker, but he wouldn't take
any of the flashier SS powers (like Hurl).  Probably the Fitness Pool.
     Jay Teller: Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster, Science Origin to get the
tranq darts.  Where Grind would focus on the closer range and "spray and
pray" powers in the Assault Rifle set, Jay would go more for the sniping
ones.  No obvious Pool choices.
     C.C. Brown: Fire/Fire Blaster, no obvious Pool.
     Lana Smith: The lack of a low-level intangibility power hurts a LOT in
trying to make her up.  I suppose she could be a Dark Melee/Ninjitsu Stalker,
with Dark Melee representing stuff like reaching into someone in an attack,
and the Stalker's Hide protecting her in the way that her "ghosting" would.


LL&DD

     These two actually started as City of Heroes/Villains characters, and
still exist on the servers.  :)  Doctor Developer is a Robotics/Traps
Mastermind, and I think Lady Lawful is an Invulnerability/Super Strength
Tanker, but I'm sure Andy will correct me if I'm wrong.


CSV

     Rebus: Assault Rifle/Traps Corruptor, Natural Origin, Fitness and
Fighting Pools.  None of the Patrol Pools make sense for him.
     Triton: Electrical/Traps Corruptor, Tech Origin, Leadership and Flight
Pools.  
     Conflicto: Well, he'd definitely need Prestige Power Slide.  :)  He
actually works better as a Kinetics Defender, neither the Corruptor nor
Dominator sets fit him at all.  I actually gave serious thought to trying to
make him up at one point, but realized I couldn't make him as a villain.
Even the Issue 16 power proliferation doesn't help.
     Peryton: Super Strength/Invulnerability Brute, Flight Pool.  The
Valkyrie wings piece would work for him, but there's no deer antlers.
     Sultry: Fire/Storm or Ice/Storm Corruptor are the only villain options,
she'd probably work better as a Storm/Electrical Defender.  Flight Pool.
     Labyrinthe: Kinetics/Psychic Defender, Teleport Pool.  As with Peregryn,
his wild magic is not viable.
     Caryatid: Earth/Psionic Dominator might work, with Flight Pool.
     Myriad: Spine/Regeneration Stalker.
     Glyph: Doesn't really fit, most of her non-wild "theme" stuff is
non-combat. 
     Kaliban: Super Strength/Willpower Brute, Leaping and Fitness Pools.
     Tiara: A Natural Stalker, I suppose Martial Arts/Super Reflexes would be
the least jarring up-powering.
     Burnout III: Fire/Pain Corruptor, maybe.
     TerraStar: She really needs to have Earth Control as a Primary and War
Mace as a Secondary, but no archetype even comes close to allowing this.
     Spiral: Kinetics Defender, maybe?  Same problem as Conflicto.  Leaping
and Fitness Pools, although she wouldn't take the travel power.