Rogue and Vigilante Organization Power Pools

[Steampunkette]

Heroes get Epic Power Pools themed after specific abilities. Villains get Patron Power Pools themed after specific Arachnos Leaders.

 

So how about Rogues and Vigilantes get some epic pools tied to the lore of specific groups?

 

Vigilante:

PPD or Blackwing (Kallisti Wharf has their headquarters, looks like they're cops?)

Wyvern

Knives of Vengeance

 

Rogue:

Crey Biotech

Aeon Industries

Gold Brickers

 

Both:

Midnight Club

 

The Police could grant some of the cool blast powers from the Praetorian PD, Force Nets, and the like. Also things like Acid Mortars and Flashbangs and other stuff the PPD SWAT gets. Summon a Hardsuit for the capstone.

 

Wyvern could do a lot of archery, sure. But also some martial arts and maybe a "Jetpack" power which gives you a fast fly speed with hover precision and no dropoff in combat. Add in some Katana stuff to represent the Praetorian side of things, too.

 

Knives of Vengeance for cool big flashy elemental powers and stuff!

 

Crey could be an EPP based around chemicals and snippets of bio armor and stuff. Add in some Spines style attacks while you're at it for ranged/melee options to let players modify their genetics.

 

Aeon could be all gadgety but, like, FREAKY gadgets. Like throwing a taunt pet tornado out, or a portal that spits out minions that don't do much damage but swarm enemies. Plus Beam Rifle type stuff, too! Could have the Capstone be summoning a copy of yourself (Using Phantom Army Tech) that only uses powers from the Aeon power pool and/or Beam Rifle options.

 

Gold Brickers all about the Sonic Power and the ability to harden up your skin for the explanation of their protective powers. Maybe even include the ability to D-Rift in some backup!

 

And then the Midnight Club exists specifically to be an Epic Magic pool. Could summon the sentient spells from Praetoria as a capstone...

 

And then here's the big trick that separates this power pool type from other power pools: There's only ONE for each of the different groups. And the powers ignore AT Modifiers. They're all, always, Scale 1. There's no Controller-specific Midnight Club power pool, no Mastermind-specific Aeon power pool. What they give, they give everyone, and it doesn't get better or worse based on your AT.

 

That does mean some OPPs could wind up 'Better' for some archetypes than others. Also means they could wind up being worse if they've got a bunch of ranged attacks and you're on a Blaster. So.

 

Include power-choices at a couple of points to allow -some- customization of the OPP to a given character.

Edited Sunday at 04:10 PM by Steampunkette

[LightMaster]

Not a bad idea, per say, but making each of these power pool the same for all Archetypes can end up making for very skewed balancing in execution. In fact, Archetypes that are meant to be held back by low Damage Scale (Defender, Controller, Tanker for single target) ended up risking of undermining their weaknesses too much.

 

Additionally, with a damage scale of 1 for all Archetype, Scourge, Containment and Fury became a lot more devastating, and Corruptor is already very much capable of matching, if not surpassing even Blasters, with the right build, and is still very close in damage output. Combining their debuffs (particularly -Regen or -Res) or the ever-useful Kin, it’s essentially a top tier among the already  well built ATs for a reason, especially as far as Four Star or Incarnate contents goes. With just one of these Scale-1 Power Pool, a Corruptor suddenly became even more powerful if their Scourge do work on them, or using those Power Pool to weaken the foes’ HP before finishing them off with their Primary.

 

Fury, likewise, makes the Brute going from a solid (if relatively boring) middle ground between Scrappers and Tankers to overshadowing Scrappers in damage output because of the fact that Fury scales with almost every single power, melee or even ranged, and not just the Brute’s Primary. To give an example, Temporary Powers usee a normalized scale of 1, which allows the Brute to hit surprisingly hard with at least one of those after building at least 65% of Fury. 

 

0.750 Damage Scale for Brute is to encourage to keep fighting; with a 1 damage scale, even a 50% Fury gives it comparable damage output to a Stalker or even Scrapper. Around 80%, the damage output goes insane. Remember, it also works with ranged powers despite the Brute’s playstyle, so picking up a mostly-ranged Power Pool aming your ideas can indeed turn it into a tankier, harder hitting Sentinel, allowing it to pick off fleeing foes or stragglers with ease.

 

There is a reason why the different Damage Scales for each Archetype are included for power pools, both standard and Epic ones.

Edited Sunday at 08:27 PM by LightMaster

[Steampunkette]

While I recognize it would make attack powers in these sets HYPER ATTRACTIVE powers for certain ATs (Tankers, Corruptors, Etc) they'd still be limited use abilities with cooldowns and endurance costs and the like. That said, I didn't consider the case of Brutes, specifically, and their huge damage bonus generating abilities.

 

So it's certainly worth considering. I suppose, in the end, the main issue is, of course, the sheer workload OPP would have on the dev team if they needed to have a unique, or semi-unique, list of powers for each archetype. So I'm definitely willing to bend on the Scale 1 power across the board.

 

Though I definitely feel like the powers would still need a significant value equal to or above the value of the archetype's primary/secondary powerset choices as otherwise you'd simply never take them. Still. That's really a matter tied to the individual archetypes. However I was also referring to Scale 1 Armor, Support, and Control powers, by which I meant "Tanker/Defender/Controller" level for increase and duration of control.

 

Anyway, yeah. I agree. It'd have to go through some balancing and wind up just as 'over' as other Epic Pools related to individual powers. After all, if a Scrapper EPP snipe was built exclusively off their ranged damage scale to be in line with their archetype, no one would take it and make it part of their core rotation. (Scale .5)

 

So thank you for your input, @LightMaster! I agree.

 

I would like to now take a moment to talk about the cooler part of this concept: Exploring the story a bit more.

 

The Police storyline could be one of those stories about corrupt cops, sure. Or it could lean a bit more Punisher. That your Vigilante signs on with the police and immediately starts eliminating rather than arresting threats. Cue the captain trying to come down on you, hard, for your recklessness, and the rest of the department rallying on your behalf. Really good options for a storyline, or two, there!

 

Wyvern could explore Manticore's continued journey toward becoming a villain through Wyvern's perspective. Having the player join Wyvern to hunt down criminals and deal with some of them becoming uneasy with how aggressive Manticore is becoming with supervillains. Yeah, Wyvern is there to kill Arachnos soldiers and particularly powerful threats, but Manticore could be more violent or cruel with it. Could even get ousted in a coup and become a target -of- Wyvern which would be a cool conceit.

 

Talons of Vengeance could have the vigilante working with the Fates to punish oathbreakers, liars, and betrayers! A much more mystical path for the Vigilantes, gaining magical powers in order to hunt down and deal with some of the worst criminals there are. At least, what's how the story would read. You could even hunt down members of the other organizations listed here in order to gain your OPP! Bringing down cops who failed to protect people, or Wyvern agents who suffered attacks of conscience!

 

And then the Midnight Club would be the closest to 'Hero' there is for the Vigilantes. The storyline focuses on recovering magical items or fighting magical threats. The vigilante part is in what you -do- with them once you get them. Killing of threats, destruction of artifacts! Unless it's too strong to destroy, then you contain it in the Midnight Club's library and stuff.

 

For Crey it's all about getting them FAT STACKS! Rather than fighting you, Countess Crey offers you cash to work for her company as an in the field asset so you'll stop destroying and stealing her shit. The whole thing is stealing from other companies, covering up messes various scientists made, and doing corporate sabotage on other groups while getting paid!

 

Aeon's kind of the same, but less scrupulous. He treats you as intellectually deficient and mostly just sends you in to -wreck- other people's stuff. You're muscle, nothing more. Only eventually you give that nerd the wedgie he deserves and get better treatment by the organization, and better pay. And also assignments far away from Aeon who is now afraid of you.

 

Gold Brickers would be all about amassing power and wealth in a much more personal and direct way. Less getting ordered around by Princess Zoe or the Golden Roller, more getting 'opportunities' to go out and get rich. Where the Police arc is kinda traditionally radio missions where you kill people, until the Captain turns on you, the Gold Brickers arc is more paper missions where you -don't- kill people... Except you haven't been kicking back a cut to Langston Corp, and have instead been skimming. And you have to deal with the consequences of that while maintaining your position.

 

And then the Midnight Club is really similar to the Vigilante version... Only you're specifically -not- killing the threats but getting rid of them by sending them to the Isles or something. And instead of destroying or returning artifacts, you sell them off and report them destroyed. 'Cause you gotta get that money! The arc ends with you being kicked out of the Midnighters like Darrin Wade was, but you walk away wealthier and with magic you stole along the way!

[Starhammer]

Love the concept. While I never prefer seeing lore/story mandatory for a power function, I love seeing it as an option, and giving some of these groups access to themed power pools as a payout is definitely something I'd make use of.