If Your Characters had a Patron Pool...

[Sakura Tenshi]

Basically a random thought exercise I enjoy asking: if your characters had a patron pool powers associated with them, what would it look like? What would be its themes? What do you imagine players would be put through to unlock it (patron arc). Feel free to be as detailed or broad as you want.

 

One of my characters from Live was related to cosmic horror, so I had the idea they would have an Eldritch Mastery pool which would involve lots of dark, psionic, and toxic damage and the unlock arc basically involves reassembling scattered pages of an eldritch tome to learn from its secrets.

 

One of my current characters, Gaia Redeemer, despite being Titan Weapons/Willpower brute, is, as his name implies, basically pacted to the spirit of the Earth and thus would teach Sylvan Mastery which would include a number of plant, earth, and a bit of water and weather effects and an arc involving undergoing trials to reach the heart of Agartha.

[jkwak]

Hmmm... My Goblin character.... Owns a toy company... So probably something with toys? Last tier a toy version of her self? Maybe

 

That or the Patron pool would be "being loud and obnoxious while blaming other people for stuff the character did" 

[Scarlet Shocker]

Good question.

 

I like the thought of all major power sets having a "mentor" kind of figure that unlocks those powers for PCs. I think it works well for villains and heroes are kind of missing out just getting those powers when available rather than having to earn them in some way. It needn't be a difficult or long quest, it's more of a right of passage thing and needn't be "gifted" so much as unlocked from within - the mentor just opens a metaphorical doorway, so to speak that enables the PC to gain the new powers.

 

If Scarlet Shocker were to have a Patron Pool it would have to be electric and there's not much wrong with that already, thematically. I would probably rejig a Gremlin pet and fit that in somehow and make it quite controlling, a hold, immob, lots of -End etc, but its electrical nature would mean it needs to be resummoned

[Snarky]

it would be Dark, for my Corruptor it might be:

 

1) Dark Consumption

2) Dark Embrace

3) Bat Storm, ranged AoE  (fat circle) minor lethal DoT, fear, -tohit

4) Soul Transfer

5) Spirit Drain

[MrAxe]

Telekinetic powers. An aura with knockdown, a version of propel, stuff like that.

[The Trouble]

My main will always be a Peacebringer.  I guess that would generally mean he would grant powers like a Peacebringer, but I decided against powers that would overlap with his.

 

Cosmic Boost (Power Boost)
Sunspear (Snipe)
Blinding Pulsar (Ranged Cone -ToHit & mid/low Magnitude Hold)
Quantum Entanglement (slight -Res + Enemies around this target take a portion of their damage)
Lightspeed (10% auto-hasten)

 

I'm okay if this is considered overpowered.  I means I'd get more patrons 😁

[Octogoat]

If Glow Rat had a patron pool it'd be all toxic sewer devices like a low powered acid mortar and a poison gas trap.

[Forager]

Audacity Mastery for Blasters

 

Sharp Tongue: Single target taunt, -foe to-hit, +foe damage

Flashbang: Targeted AoE stun, can affect caster

Plot Armor: Location AoE, foe knockdown, short duration high +defense to all, self teleport, self ragdoll, self knockdown

Cavalry: Summon Posse: summons 10 or so minion level mobs from a random faction for a short duration

Moment of... Something...: self rez, PBAoE random status effect, +resistance to all

 

Edit: fun thread, OP... nicely done 

 

Edited June 8 by Forager

[keyguardactive]

My main, Crimson Sentinel, is the chosen of the Celtic goddess Brigid. One of his flavor-but-not-mechanical powers is Psychometry or Object Reading. He hunts magical artifacts to get them out of dangerous hands. So I tried to create some of that here, along with a little fire damage so the pool covers most of what he is. 

 

Crimson Strike - Single target melee, fire damage

Mark of the Goddess - AOE reduces enemy resistance

Burst of Clarity - Clears one instance of Blindness from a target 

Heat Strike- Melee Dot, fire damage, deals extra damage to targets using stealth abilities 

Flame of Brigid - The capstone ability automatically marks all glowies on the map once per hour. 

[Player2]

Wow, I have so many characters I don't know where to begin.  Yes, I do... the one that needs a something specific that isn't already available.  Cloudbreak, an Electric Melee/Dark Armor Brute themed like a storm melee. I took Ice Mastery to get the Ice Storm effect so I could have some sort of rain, but she needs a proper Storm Mastery PPP.

 

1. Downpour (similar to Storm Blast -> Cloudburst but adds a -SPD effect to the target)

2. Lightning Strike (similar to Storm Blast -> Direct Strike but not a snipe, reduced damage, and adds a Hold effect)

3. Storm Cloud (similar to Storm Blast -> Storm Cell but follows caster and grants +Recovery in addition to small chance of triggering lightning strikes low damage whenever you use other powers in this pool)

4. Thunder Clap (Storm Summoning, pretty much as is)

5. Heavy Rain (Storm Summoning -> Freezing Rain but without KD and adds -ToHit to affected targets)

 

Edited June 9 by Player2

[Mopery]

1. Loiter.

2. Loiter.

3. Loiter.

4. Shenanigans.

5. Loiter.

[Forager]

On 6/8/2025 at 7:27 AM, Snarky said:

3) Bat Storm, ranged AoE  (fat circle) minor lethal DoT, fear, -tohit

 

Ooh +1 because there's already bat assets in the game. That would look badass. Can we customize them as butterflies, though?

[Andreah]

18 hours ago, Forager said:

 

Ooh +1 because there's already bat assets in the game. That would look badass. Can we customize them as butterflies, though?

"Critter Storm" -- bats, butterflies, locusts, frogs, rats, baby turtles, mosquitos/flies, faeries, cogs, tiny racing cars, mini-drones, roaches, fireflies.

[Petrograd]

Well, Petrograd loves "requisitioning" villain gear for tinkering for his comrades. I figure there'd be a defense or res power that puts armor plates from Crey, the Council bots, etc jankily over your costume, especially if this is a power you could use on teammates kind of like the MM minion upgrades. Then probably some stolen villain weapon blasts and plastic explosives, again preferably given to teammates. An air support summon, maybe a Longbow Chaser, would also be good.

[Heliphyn34u]

Huh, cool thought experiment.  The backstory for my main involves a portal accident resulting in her arrival in Paragon -- along with several alternate selves.  So Heliphyneau's Patron Pool would probably be portal-based. 

 

As a Grav/Kin, she already has Wormhole, though not all of her alternates have Gravity powers, but maybe a Patron Pool version of that.  It'd be fun to summon a portal that flings a random object out of it to hit your enemy, like Propel but with a swirly effect (or maybe it could fling a defeated enemy at your enemy).  Then there could be a version of Mark and Recall where you place a marker on a map and then open a portal in a different part of the map so that anyone who passes through it will land at the marker -- not sure what to call it, Portal Back?  Next would be Portal Implosion where you open a portal, it drags nearby enemies into it, and SQUISH, no more enemies.  Last would be Portal Alts, which spills multiple alternate versions of your toon to assist you in combat.

 

[Azari]

Shapeshifting

[merrypessimist]

On 6/9/2025 at 12:34 PM, Mopery said:

1. Loiter.

2. Loiter.

3. Loiter.

4. Shenanigans.

5. Loiter.

 

1) sexiness

2) snark

3) pun

4) pun AOE

5) crippling dad joke

[Colette Valiant]

1. Click teleport: "Summon Global Friend"

2. Click Aoe Buff: "Checklist," Protection from team faceplant

3. Ranged debuff: "Overwhelm," Flood with PMs

4. Instant Click: "Bossy" You get the star