Ian Turner

Definitely would like to see Power Customization options for Fire, Electric, Dark, Ice, etc. for the blasts to come from a wand or staff or talisman or even sword or dagger, for magic types, or a gun, power gauntlet or handheld gadget for the Captain Cold / Heatwave / Iron Man types. The Star Trek looking tech that appear in your hand when you use the Medicine Pool powers would be a cool example, but applied to all sorts of powers, for the hero who derives their powers from technology, and other activation options could exist, like a Tank or Scrapper who drinks a magical elixir or casts a spell or injects themself with a super-serum to activate a defense power.

A 'flexibity' or 'elastic' power pool, perhaps, could include a ST ranged smashing attack, a ST binding effect, a PBAoE smashing attack, a form of rapid movement and a defense that grants resist against smashing, with power customization options including; Strethy limbs (stretchy long-distance punch, wrap arm around someone, flail rubbery limbs all around, long-legged travel and rubbery body), Shapeshifting (grow tentacles to lash out or to restrain / constrict someone, froggy legs and flying squirrel patagia for extreme leapage, chitinous carapace), Prehensile hair! (lash out with or wrap self up in hair as offense or defense, or use it to move quickly), Flexible weapons (choices of whip, lasso, chain, with multiple models for each), etc. This would allow simulating folks like Wonder Woman (or cowboys, etc.) who use lassos, whip-users like Mr. America or Blacklash, chain-users like Ghost Rider, as well as stretchy folk like Elastic Lad and Mr. Fantastic, or prehensile hair types like Marvel's Medusa or DC's Spider-Girl. It wasn't something I'd thought possible without any sort of flexible weapons like whips in the game, but hey, thanks Demon MMs for proving me wrong on that! Best of all, it could be squeezed into one of those fat new Power Pools like Experimentation and Sorcery, that include attacks, movement, etc. options. You wouldn't really need a full nine-power offensive or control set for 'lasso user' or 'stretchy guy.'

Something different like gamma-irradiated corpses or creatures could be neat. Or flying energy 'ghosts' like the radiation forms that the Presence, in Marvel, uses. Radiation causes confusion and weakness, so it could be interesting to make it have a mix of Confuse and Debuff characteristics like /Dark, rather than the more traditional Holds and Immobilizes. Yeah, I didn't stop him from moving, but he punches with all the force of a wet noodle, so he's almost as 'controlled!'

The graphics would be insane, but I'd love a Stretchy hero powerset, with long-range punches, and constricting elastic arm attacks and rubberbanding bullets back at foes, like you mentioned for this slime set. Maybe even a few size-changing powers, like a Stealth power that makes your graphic tiny and gives you athletic jumping ability, and a damage / resist buff that enlarges your toon to the size of the largest model allowed on that map (so most visually impressive used outside, in a zone where Giant Monsters can spawn, and not something that will make you any larger than say, a Behemoth or Spectral Demon Lord on a Circle of Thorns cave map where growing to the size of the Goliath War Walker just wouldn't be practical). But more slime-related, a powerset similar to Poison that was focused on Toxic damage could be neat as well. Throw / vomit / spew gouts and globs of nasty fluids at people, maybe some could be slippery, like Ice Slick, maybe some could be sticky, like Wide Area Web Grenade!

All MMs being able to swap around the non-pet attack powers would be neat, as I mentioned upthread. A Beast MM would summon wolf/lion minions normally, but be able to use the bow of a Ninja MM (D&D Ranger), the whip of a Demon MM (carny animal tamer), or the rifle of a Bots MM (big game hunter), for instance. Similarly, a Demon MM who wants some range could use the dark attacks of a Necromancy MM (shadow demons!), or the bow of a Ninja MM (demon archer?). Heck, if the whip could be reskinned as a manrikigusari, it could even look great with a Ninja MM! But I'd also love some customization for the pets themselves. Having the Beast MM be able to choose for his tier three pet to be the normal Dire Wolf, a Sabertooth tiger, a big maned male African Lion, or even something odder like a small dinosaur, giant crocodile, bull, stag or bison could be awesome, with some other options for the lower tier pets. (Having a spotted leopard/black leopard/cheetah option for the three lowest tier pets, and the big maned lion or smilodon for the top tier pet would allow a themed Beast MM to use all big cats, for instance, rather than cats and dogs, living together, total anarchy! Similarly, adding some komodo dragon options to lower tier, crocodiles to mid-tier and a dinosaur to top tier could allow for a reptilian-themed Beast MM). Unlike the above idea, for allowing MMs to choose attack powers from other MM sets, pet customization would require some new art for bears, crocodiles, dinosaurs, bulls, etc.

The existence of whips in the Demon MM set suggests that they could make one for lassos or chains or manrikigusari or whatever. I'd love a Brute who swung a giant chain with a ships anchor at the end of it! It could even just be a new skin that went over the War Mace or Battle Axe power, rather than a unique powerset, although I'd definitely prefer either a unique power (with slightly greater range than the other melee sets) or it be a skin of Staff Fighting or something (again, for the extra range).

Yeah, true enough. Some require more creativity than others, but I've got a Demon MM who is a robot probe sent to explore a recently accessed dimension, which turned out to be a hell-dimension! It came back 'possessed' by the souls of escapees from that place, determined to be as heroic as they could in this stolen second chance, so that they will never have to return to 'that place.' Tech/Science origin, and 'magical' powers, fused together in a way that's not at all derivative of that Buffy episode where a magical book got scanned by accident and the demon imprisoned within it ended up in the internet... 🙂 Necromancy's actually pretty easy. The game *already has* science-based zombies, in the Vazhilok. Just make your Necromancy MM a former Vazhilok (or Vazh victim) who uses their chemical treatments or Frankenstein-ish electrical currents, or advanced cryogenics, or alien virus (like something out of 28 Days Later or a George Romero movie or the Evil Dead franchise or one of the 74,000 other non-supernatural zombie movies out there) to animate corpses, and it's good to go. Marvel even has a few mutants who can animate corpses or summon spirits, like Wicked or Selene. Same with radiation, which we associate with science, but my Radiation character is a genie, master of 'the smokeless fire which burns within stone.' Humans may not have known much about radiation before Marie Curie, but *genies* sure did!

I'd love if MMs had the option to switch around their weapon attacks between the subtypes. A Beast MM who uses the bow attacks of the Ninja MM, or the whip attacks of the Demon MM, or the guns of a Merc or Thug MM, could better fit some themes like a D&D Ranger, or a Circus Animal trainer, or a Big Game Hunter. Or a Ninja MM who uses the Dark powers of the Necromancy MM, could represent a more Hand like Ninja with a 'shadow clan' of supernaturally empowered Ninja. Mix it up a bit!

One that built off of Sorcery and had spells, shields, binding bands of blah-blah, etc. could be funky. It has always struck me that some power-sets lend themselves to a tech / natural background, like assault rifle or martial arts, but there isn't one quite as specific for the Magic origin, like one that wields a magic staff (like Dresden or Gandalf) or wand (like Harry Potter or Willow Ufgood) or something. On the other hand, just adding those weapon options and some variant 'blasts' could go a long way. Make a Fire Blaster and get to choose whether your Fire Blasts come out of your hands, eyes, a gun (range of options, meant to evoke Heat Wave or Firebug type characters with a fire-blaster / flamethrower) or magical implement like a wand or staff. Fire Blaster one was born with these powers (Mutant). Fire Blaster two had alien rocket fuel splash on him and soak into his skin (Science). Fire Blaster three uses a high-tech mini-flamethrower (Tech). Blaster four has been entrusted with the sacred 'Wand of Agni' (Magic). And the Natural one? I got nuthin. Maybe she's an alien, and fire blaster powers are 'natural' for her people? 🙂

My first thought was that I'd like to see such a set without the syringes and darts, just flinging or spitting poison (un)naturally, but that brings up another point. I'd love for various powers to have some alternate appearances to suit different Origin types, not just weapon sets or tintable colors, but an option to set your 'Poison' attacks to come from gadgets like syringes and dart guns, or delivered by thrown knives or crossbows (like how the Vazhilok do it), *or* without 'tech', so some alternate art for, say,, Traps, where you are creating organic pods from your own alien/mutant body, or casting magical runes or setting down mystical artifacts to maintain the effects (for the Triage beacon), or using a magic wand or potion, or conjuring a familiar creature or unleashing a small golem, instead of a seeker drone. A magical character with trick arrow could have attacks that appear less like flash bombs or net grenades, and more like a writhing spider-arrow that explodes in sticky webs when it hits, or a burning chunk of the sun applied to an arrow to create a flash arrow. Something more fitting that magical Origin. But that's just insane amounts of art assets, so I prefer to propose ideas where they can recycle as much art as possible. (Hence all the ideas for MMs based on Hellions, Skulls, Council, Outcasts, etc. since the art is already in-game.) Another notion about a Toxic Control set is that with just some color tweaking, it could be corrosive acid,, or some other dangerous liquid, and not poison!

Tarot Mastermind 1st summons I, II and III of Swords, low tier broadsword wielders, two male, one female. They have really good leaping ability (equal to the Prestige travel), and after the first buff can hover, and the second buff can fly. If you right-click on the power when multiple X of Swords are summoned, a pop up offers the option 'Knight of Swords,' and if you click it, the two or three minions at -2 level merge into a single minion at -1 (if there were two) or +0 (if there were three). This single minion has Dual Wield (and an extra sword on his back, if there were three of them). 2nd summons, first person is the Queen of Cups, a woman holding a chalice that she uses to produce a water blast that knocks foes away from her (but does minimal damage), or splashes on other minions or the MM to heal wounds or debuffs (as if she's applying a Break Free, Respite and / or Catch a Breath Inspiration). Second person is the King of Pentacles, holding a mace with a pentacle head and a pentacle disk in his other hand that he uses to target allies to give them a Stone defense buff, or foes to trap them in a pentacle on the ground that acts like the beginning Earth Control immobilize effect. After the second buff, the Queen can also resurrect other minions, but not other allies (or the MM, or herself) as if using a wakie inspiration. After the second buff the King's earth control pentacles can Hold a target, not just Immobilize them. 3rd summons, the Ace of Wands, a rangy youth with pale skin and red hair, dressed more like a farmer than a wizard, with a staff of wood that is irregular and not at all weapon like. He starts with the basic Fire Blaster single-target blasts, and after the first buff, adds Fireball and Thernal procs to both his weapon and those of his allies, and after the second buff, also adds a Thermal defense to them, and the Rain of Fire and Breath Fire (through his staff, not his mouth) powers to himself. Your own MM attacks include 1st attack - you hold up a card with three swords on it, and three broadswords appear over your hand fly thunk, thunk, thunk into an enemy. 2nd attack - you hold up a card with a fiery wand on it, and produce a blast of fire that leaves the target on fire. If you hit them with this fiery blast again while they are still on fire from a previous hit, an explosion like a Fireball occurs. 3rd attack - you hold up a card with a pentacle and if targeting an ally, they get a temporary Stone Armor defense, and if targeting an enemy, they are Immobilized (Held, in the case of Minions). Special - you hold up a card with a cup, and the ally you have targeted is affected by the following Inspirations; Awaken, Break Free, Catch a Breath and Respite. Long recharge.

The VEATs of Arachnos Soldier and Widow seem to have some Stalker-y options with Crab Spider and Night Widow (and whatever the Crab Spider and Fortunata are meant to be...), but I'd love one based on the Mu Mystics, but splitting off into Adepts and Mystics, with one having some Blastery/Controllery options and the other being more Blastery/Defendery (using healing options from the electric set, and perhaps some sort of team power buff similar to the empathy aura).

Patron powers for Heroes. similar to the Patron powers for Villains. Sets based on Statesman (tanky stuff, lightning blasts, an unusual spy power from his days as a spy?), Sister Psyche (psi stuff), Positron (energy blast stuff), Synapse (super-speed attacks / defenses / options) and Manticore (the only one I came up with in detail back in the day, with lots of Archery / Trick Arrow type options for the non-Defenders, and for Defenders (and Blasters), who could already have all (or most) of those, some unique stuff like hack the Teleport network to beam to various hospitals, or summon in a pair of Longbow or whatever). Power sets based on various holidays or seasonal events. One requiring no (or minimal) art coding would be a 'Rainbow Blast' for Pride month, a Blaster set that uses the tintable option and has seven different Blasts in it's Primary, one Psychic (red), Fire (orange), Electrical (yellow), Radiation (green), Ice (blue), Energy (indigo) and Dark (violet). When you fire a blast from these seven, you get a buff, and the rest of your color-blasts have a ring around them. If you fire a *different* colored blast, you get a +10% damage to that blast, and it keeps going up as long as you don't repeat a color (if you do, the buff ends and your next blast starts all over again at +0%). The sixth consecutive color-blast would therefore be +50% damage, and if you fire your seventh blast before repeating any colors *that* blast is +100%!! (Obviously you can't do that until high enough level to have all seven of your Primary power blasts!) Blasts that have already been fired during this cycle (and are not eligible to progress the buff / damage bonus) do not have the colored ring around them, as a visual warning not to use them. The blasts will be different types of blast, some single target, some cone AoE, some Explosive, one sniper-shot, etc. and you'd need to manage what order you are going to use them to optimize your efficiency. Since the buff affects you, and is not a debuff on a specific mob, you can cycle through multiple targets while progressing the buff, but if you go say, 15 seconds without firing any blast, the buff ends anyway and you have to start all over.

Knife / knife throwing and 'Band' Mastermind are the two from this thread that either haven't seen before and / or find super-cool! Knife could have dual knife or single knife options (one a melee AoE where you spin with knives slashing everyone around you), and several thrown knife attacks, one single toss, one cone. And under customization, the 'knife' options could include shuriken (with a fistful of spike shuriken sticking out between one's knuckles accounting for the melee 'knife' attacks), throwing axes or even a spear! 'Band' MMs could have an assortment of band-members, and you can equip them with various instruments, the base three are mostly just roadies, physical grunts who have instruments and help during practice, but in combat resort to smashing people with their instruments!, the two second tier pets are actual bandmates, with an instruments of your choice from various guitars, a saxaphone or even a cello, that mostly to sonic attacks, and the 3rd tier pet avoids combat but bangs on drums or a synthesizer and does primarily crowd control effects, debuffs and maintains a constant set of leadership like buffs, which can be specified (depending on how you designate that 3rd tier pet, they can focus on +Acc, +Dam, +Heal/Recovery or +Def/Resist buffs). The third tier pet also has low-grade placate, so it tends not to get aggro as much... (Everyone ignores the one in the back!) There isn't a 'lead singer' because your MM is supposed to be the lead singer, and your attacks will be an instrument smash and some sonic effects. For other MMs, back before City of Villains, when the idea was announced, I had thought they might come up with MMs based on the various villain groups already in game, so a Hellions or Skull MM with thugs, fire or darkness using 'Lts' and then the fiery demons or dark eidolons for the last tier, or a pair of Council options starting with Raserei, then branching either into mechanical, or supernatural, with vampires and warwolves for the supernatural (and a 'special' that transforms any surviving minions *and* the MM into warwolves temporarily!), and mech-men and a warcry at tiers 2 and 3 (and a pair of valkyrie temp pets as their 'special'). That sort of thing would hugely save on in-game art resources, since they are already there. But if going nuts with new art resources, I'd love for some variation for the current MM pets appearances. A Bear instead of a Dire Wolf? Oh yes. Different types of robots? Please! Skeletons instead of zombies! Gimme! Or just straight up new ones. Medieval Warlord MM, with a mace attack (or crossbow for the ranged option), three swordsmen, a shieldmaiden and an archer for the second tier, and a knight who arrives on horseback (as the big thug pet shows up on a motorcycle) for the third tier! Special is a temporary ballista! The *Fantasy* Warlord has the same three beginner pets, but one is a dwarf, the same two second tier pets, but the archer is an elf, and the third tier pet is Tim the Enchanter, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a grumpy old man with a staff and the various Fire Blaster powers (with more unlocking as he gets pet buffed), A Roman themed one could similarly come with standard soldiers, strategos / flagbearer with leadership buffs, medicus with poison heals and debuffs, and a gladiator with crowd controlling net and nasty trident capable of single-target, melee cone and even ranged use (he seems to have multiple nets and tridents to throw...). Fantasy Roman, same thing, but add minotaur, harpy, talos the bronze golem, etc.