Author Topic: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.  (Read 14202 times)

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Hazren

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How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« on: September 23, 2011, 03:48:12 PM »
A recent thread got me thinking about Deathstroke. In that thread they were talkiing about the DC heros and well that led me down to the man who has consistantly beaten them all.


So how would you create this guy in a D&D world? Stats, classes, templates if any?

The ultimate chessmaster when it comes to fighting. He's 12 steps ahead of the others in anticipating their moves and actions.
He is augmented. He's stronger, smarter, faster than a normal human. He also has special healing that regenerates him (except his eye).
He isn't limited to just weapons, he can go hand to hand.

No magic use or psionics.
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dna1

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2011, 03:52:48 PM »
And that would be who? Just based off your discription Im guessing maybe some sort of psion? But I have no idea what character that is..
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Maat_Mons

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2011, 04:02:41 PM »
I'm not familiar with him, but just from your description, maybe paragon human warblade 20. 

JaronK

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2011, 04:17:22 PM »
Ah, Deathstroke.  I'd go with some sort of martial adept mix.  Something like Fighter 2/Crusader 2/Unarmed Swordsage 2/Warblade 14.  That makes him somewhat Int based, a touch of healing, the ability to go all out with his fists if he must... basically, the whole bit.  And he can be just human, but he'd do superhuman things.

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dark_samuari

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2011, 05:58:07 PM »
Oh boy, I do love Deathstroke...

So, we have an expert assassin/mercenary with specific experience combating super-powered heroes. Well, like any pop culture character, we need to apply a creative adaptation of him into DnD. So the modern day Deathstroke becomes a DnD-equivalent to Deathstroke. Which means we have to understand his role in a typical DnD universe. Most high-level casters are akin to super-heroes so perhaps Deathstroke can be modeled after a mage slayer?

So let us look at a very rudimentary build: A Human Rogue 2/Urban Ranger 2/Warblade 2/Fighter 1/Urban Ranger 3/Swordsage 2 (maybe Unarmed variant???)/Warblade 3 (Another possible build would be one trying to work in Human Paragon in there as to pick up Iaijitsu Focus).  

This provides him with abilities like:
Poison Use (trade away the Rogue's trapfinding for it)
Spell Reflection (trade away the Rogue's evasion for it)
Arcane Hunter (trade away the Ranger's normal favored enemy for it)
Hit & Run Tactics (trade away the Fighter's heavy armor and tower shield proficiency)
Stealthy/Sneak Attackin' (trade away the Fighter's feats)

Another possible ability is:
Rival Organization [Justice League] (Trade away the Ranger's normal favored enemy for it)

For feats these might be nice to look at:
Hand Crossbow Focus
Apprentice (Spellcaster) (To pick up Knowledge (Local) and Use Magic Device as career-long class skills)
Craven
Supreme Unarmed Strike
Mage Slayer, Pierce Magical Concealment and Pierce Magical Protection

For maneuvers the Warblade can focus on Diamond Mind (as to imitate advanced fortitude, reflexes and will power), Iron Heart (to add super-resilience) and White Raven (to imitate his tactical aptitudes). The brief levels in Swordsage can be used to nab nice things from Setting Sun & Shadow Blade.

For his fast healing and such Silthilar grafts can handle that pretty well. The Healing Blood graft handles fast healing (granting fast healing 2) and Silthilar Bones, Muscles & Tendons are all available depending on how 'advanced' you want him to be...

He'll end up with a BaB of 13 at 15th level, sneak attack ranging from 2d6 to 4d6 (with the real damage possibly coming from Craven), ample skills and a thematic appropriateness in DnD.  

Thoughts?

PhaedrusXY

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2011, 06:01:45 PM »
Just from what's been said here, it seems like he should have Knowledge Devotion, and that weird feat/ability that lets you negate someone else's ability 1xday (I forget the name, but it has to do with the Knowledge domain, also).
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dark_samuari

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2011, 06:14:31 PM »
Just from what's been said here, it seems like he should have Knowledge Devotion, and that weird feat/ability that lets you negate someone else's ability 1xday (I forget the name, but it has to do with the Knowledge domain, also).

I think it is the capstone to the Knowledge Church's Affiliation. But yeah, Knowledge Devotion is a must.

bkdubs123

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2011, 06:39:20 PM »
I'm not familiar with him, but just from your description, maybe paragon human warblade 20. 

This would get him most of the way there I should think, but it doesn't do much to account for his ability to "use up to 90% of his brain" at any given time, or his otherwise chessmaster nature. Knowledge Devotion is a given, but still doesn't seem like enough to me.

dark_samuari

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2011, 06:57:53 PM »
I would honestly advise against applying the paragon template. We don't want to transform him into superman (which paragon template does)...

Midnight_v

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #9 on: September 23, 2011, 07:55:50 PM »
Quote
And that would be who? Just based off your discription Im guessing maybe some sort of psion? But I have no idea what character that is

Funny I'd heard his name but never had any idea who he really was until I was in the dc comics forums yesterday, talking about the new stormwatch, and someone made a thread specifically :

"Would deathstroke stand a chance against "The Midnighter"."

He's not using magic though so I think dark samurai's build is pretty damn decent.
I was wondering though, when did this guy get a healing factor?
 He's Dc's deadpool (or rather deadpool originally was a parody of this deathstroke guy, who just ended up more popular somehow) so I guess its only right that they pass somethings back and forth between each other.
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Hazren

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #10 on: September 23, 2011, 08:09:34 PM »
Quote
And that would be who? Just based off your discription Im guessing maybe some sort of psion? But I have no idea what character that is

Funny I'd heard his name but never had any idea who he really was until I was in the dc comics forums yesterday, talking about the new stormwatch, and someone made a thread specifically :

"Would deathstroke stand a chance against "The Midnighter"."

He's not using magic though so I think dark samurai's build is pretty damn decent.
I was wondering though, when did this guy get a healing factor?
 He's Dc's deadpool (or rather deadpool originally was a parody of this deathstroke guy, who just ended up more popular somehow) so I guess its only right that they pass somethings back and forth between each other.


The healing factor was part of the package of things he got when the army experimented on him with an anti truth serum. He got all of his ablities steming from that.

History is army - commando/special ops - became a "juicer" - mercenary - assassin

So far I like what I'm seeing. He's not a one shot kill damage machine and the builds up above are reflecting that aspect.

I'm not familiar with the knowledge devotion thing that is being refered to though. Could someone give some more info on it?
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Midnight_v

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #11 on: September 23, 2011, 09:03:46 PM »
Quote
"juicer"
Dude a 1000 cool points if you're referencing "Rifts" Juicer rebellion ftw.

In any case knowledge devotion is a feat from the complete champion books that gives you a bonus to hit and damage based on your knowledge check.
I'm sure it can be googled via:
Knowledge Devotion Feat tool shop
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dark_samuari

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #12 on: September 23, 2011, 09:15:30 PM »
I'm not familiar with the knowledge devotion thing that is being refered to though. Could someone give some more info on it?

Well Knowledge Devotion is a feat that rewards knowledge checks with a bonus towards attack & damage.

But the real prize is the Knowledge Domain Affiliation in Complete Champion (the same book where Knowledge Devotion is found). It is a group in which through different things you can raise your 'rank' in the group and thus gain higher benefits.

Student (Affiliation score of 4-12): gain a +2 bonus to one knowledge skill.
Academic (Affiliation score of 13-19): once per day gain a +2 to an attack, save or check.
Master Research (Affiliation score of 20-29): effective caster level for divination goes up by 1.
Scholar (Affiliation score of 30 or higher): Once per day, negate a single ability of an enemy creature that you've discovered using a successful Knowledge check. The effect lasts 1 minute and is a supernatural ability. The creature can attempt a fortitude save (DC + your character level + your int modifier) to negate the effect.

You can raise your affiliation score through things like character level, knowledge ranks, winning a battle through identifying a monster's abilities via a knowledge check, recovers lost pieces of knowledge, ect...  

Basically, this is a game changer as you can potentially negate a spell-caster's casting for up to a minute through a knowledge check (which I really think plays to the whole "uses up to 90% of his brain.")

X-Codes

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #13 on: September 23, 2011, 09:21:34 PM »
Wow.  With that Knowledge Affiliation ability, just about any crappy build can be a Mage Slayer.

Midnight_v

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #14 on: September 23, 2011, 10:18:24 PM »
Wow.  With that Knowledge Affiliation ability, just about any crappy build can be a Mage Slayer.
Quote
Scholar (Affiliation score of 30 or higher): Once per day, negate a single ability of an enemy creature that you've discovered using a successful Knowledge check. The effect lasts 1 minute and is a supernatural ability. The creature can attempt a fortitude save (DC + your character level + your int modifier) to negate the effect.


Would "Spellcasting" count as an ability for this? Are there example given? I have it in my head that they mean something specificly listed on a character ability chart or something to that effect for monsters.
Naming "spell casting" would be equivalent to naming "Feat using" in th case of a fighter, or somthign to that effect.
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X-Codes

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #15 on: September 23, 2011, 10:20:32 PM »
"Spells" is collectively listed under the special attacks section of a given monster entry, so you could see it as a single ability negateable by that ability, yeah.  It's possible that each given class's spell list provides a separate "Spells" ability, but yeah...

Midnight_v

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #16 on: September 23, 2011, 10:29:45 PM »
"Spells" is collectively listed under the special attacks section of a given monster entry, so you could see it as a single ability negateable by that ability, yeah.  It's possible that each given class's spell list provides a separate "Spells" ability, but yeah...
Interesting, I'm just afb right now is all. . . I'll take your word for it, that it really is the mage slaying ability.
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bkdubs123

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #17 on: September 23, 2011, 10:32:48 PM »
I would honestly advise against applying the paragon template. We don't want to transform him into superman (which paragon template does)...

Paragon doesn't even come close to transforming him into Superman... if we assume this guy is, let's say a Warblade 15, and we start him with a generous 36pt buy, with Str 16 Dex 16 Con 16 Int 12 Wis 10 Cha 8, then we give him three level boosts to Str, that gives him final scores of Str 34 Dex 31 Con 31 Int 27 Wis 25 Cha 23, with a +4 weapon he'd have +56 to attack rolls, with a +4 adamantium breastplate he'd have AC 58 and DR 12/Epic and 60ft Speed, he'd have Fast Healing 20 and saves that don't really matter since he uses the Diamond Mind counters anyway. That's nowhere near Superman levels of anything, and in fact, seems to accurately portray Deathstroke's abilities. He's supposed to have the strength of 10 men, or something, and while Str 34 is a little high for that (max load 2800lbs) it's perfectly standard for high level D&D characters.

Prime32

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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #18 on: September 23, 2011, 10:39:16 PM »
No factotum levels? ???

To anyone who doesn't know who this guy is, and has seen Teen Titans, he's the main villain.
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Re: How would you create this guy? A CO challenge.
« Reply #19 on: September 23, 2011, 10:54:23 PM »
Why does the military never test supersoldier serum on sane individuals aside from Captain America?

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