Prototype, or can you help me build Alex Mercer?

[kalaskaagathas]

Prototype

"I am something less than human, but also, something more."

Recently I played Activision's new title "Prototype", featuring the character of Alex Mercer, a shape-changing, hard-charging, ability-stealing beastie.  This led to me wondering if it would be possible to build something akin to him in DnD.  Unfortunately I'm of limited Optimization ability, having only recently been introduced to the concept, so I turn to you for help.

Alex Mercer:
[spoiler]

From Wikipedia:
Among the agile feats Alex can perform are running up the surfaces of skyscrapers, jumping hundreds of meters at a time and gliding through the air using adaptive parkour. The game does not use falling damage; however, the ground is seen to deform as the player lands after falling from great heights. The player may use firearms in combat and can perform a variety of melee attacks without having to shapeshift, as well as more gymnastic moves such as multiple "bouncing" tombstone drops, air combos, or sliding along the ground using an enemy's body as a skateboard.

Alex's primary superpower is his ability to shapeshift, transforming parts of his body into a selection of deadly weapons genetically acquired by consuming enemies possessing these weapons. These include substituting his right arm with the Blade, a powerful six foot long blade which releases a flurry of swift attacks, a pair of razor sharp Claws, which can be charged up for a "ground spike" attack in which Alex tunnels his claws underground to spray them out into deadly spikes under his target, the Whipfist that can stretch from far away and hit enemies from afar, Musclemass that increases his strength and throwing distance and dense club-like fists called Hammerfists that increase his damage to armored opponents. Alex can also shapeshift his body into more defensive forms like a impenetrable shield of bio-mass that protects him from incoming attacks. Alex also can turn his whole body into an armored form, which decreases the damage done to him but he is also slower and less agile in this form, both of these can plow right through obstacles. Alex's most powerful moves are "Devastator" attacks which allow him to instantaneously project large amounts of biomass from his body at an explosive speed in the form of a massive explosion of tentacles that impale foes, large spikes that erupt from the ground around Alex to impale enemies from below, and a beam-like blast of biomass focused on a single target.

[/spoiler]

Possible ways to express Mercer's abilities in D&D:
[spoiler]Running Up Buildings: The feat "Up The Walls" (Expanded Psionics Handbook, Page 52) was my immediate thought, though Spiderclimb could likely achieve the same effect.

Jumping Great Heights: A monk's Slow Fall"Battle Jump" (Unapproachable East, 42).

Shapeshifting: There are several options for this, "Alter Self", "Polymorph", "Metamorphosis" among them.  I am partial to "Metamorphosis" because some of the other abilities can be achieved with Psionic powers (but as I'm new at this, I'm sure there are other ways I don't know of.)

The Weapons: These are the fun ones.  Claws, a giant arm blade, the hammerfists, the whipfist...part of the fun of this game is simply watching the many and varied effects you can achieve with them.  Getting them in D&D is something of a difficulty (at least for me).
The Blade: This sounds to me like some kind of sword attached by Graft Weapon, the trouble is it has to be one handed and lasts 24 hours (in the game one can shift between weapons virtually at will).
The Claws: Claws of the Beast comes to mind, and this along with Claws of the Vampire fit with "Prototype"'s method of healing (e.g. killing).  Vampiric Blade works for the above in the same way.
Whipfist, Muscle Mass, Hammer Fist: I hope there's a way to do this, but I can't think of any.  The Hammer Fists sound almost like a beefed up version of Astral Vambraces bound to the hand chakra (From the Psionics of Incarnum), namely a slam attack on the hands, but then again...
Armored Form: Again, I don't have any ideas...

Skill Stealing: Feat Leach?  It does seem rather limited, but would otherwise make sense (in terms of the game - "I need to drive that tank...that guy drives tanks...Eats guy...Now I can drive tanks.").  Assimilate also seems to fit this ability.  It'd be cool to be able to  mimic other classes' abilities, but I'm unsure of how to achieve that.
[/spoiler]

If you could help me expand and refine on this, I would really appreciate it.  For more information on the game, here is the Wikipedia article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_(video_game)
Additionally, I believe the above picture to be fair use, and is the property of http://www.gameonn.com.

[dark_samuari]

Well you're scratching at and I'll also reaffirm that psionics can do everything that you ask for here.

[kalaskaagathas]

Thanks, but could you please explain what you mean?  What exactly am I scratching at?

[Praeclarus]

The first thing I thought about when I saw Prototype was SOUL EATER. Polymorph into a person you just killed, dangerous natural weapons, greater strength and stamina. I think it fits quite well

[kalaskaagathas]

I'll check that out, what book is it in?

[Praeclarus]

soul eater    BV    66    The soul eater is a monstrous being that feeds on the very essence of life force.

Book of Vile Darkness

[Bastian]

Greater Doppleganger fits Alex Mercer perfectly, it transforms into people, absorbs their memories, and absorbs their powers. Furthermore, the Greater Doppleganger can hold a nigh infinite number of forms as long as you can make a will save of 16 every time.

The only way that I can think to get the abilities of a Greater Doppleganger is through the rather cheesy method of being an Illithid Savant and sucking out the brain of a Greater Doppleganger. The easiest way to find the Greater Doppleganger is using a scroll of gate while on another plane to summon it to you.

Edit: You can copy Mercer's specific abilities through natural weapons. The Blade can be emulated through absorbing The Deadly Dancer which has blades at the end of it's arms and legs. The Claws can be emulated through any set of claws you want. The Whipfist can just be a tentacle with with extended reach (I think one of the creature related to the Illithids has one with a reach of over 50 feat). The Hammerfists are just slam attacks that are oversized. The Musclemass and Armor powers are just like they sound, great strength and natural armor. I'm not sure, however, what would emulate the Shield ability but I'm positive there is something that does. The thermal vision can be gotten through the Faerun fluff for darkvision if I remember correctly. For the infected vision you are on your own, though Detect Disease could be used for the incomplete version of Infected Vision Mercer had before he finished absorbing the infected soldiers in one of the missions to find Mercer's sister.

[woodenbandman]

You need the anyweapon, or a Morphing, Metalline/Transmuting Unarmed Strike. Any part of your body transforms into any weapon. Also give it Skillful. Take a few levels of Kensai, and you got it.

[kalaskaagathas]

Bastian: What book is Greater Doppelganger from?  That could be an interesting option, especially if you could find away around natural 1s.  I was hoping to find a way around natural weapons, because (unless I've totally misread the rules) it is impossible, or at least difficult, to get iterative attacks with them.  I'd forgotten about the vision abilities, they may not be totally necessary.

woodenbandman: What's an anyweapon? the Morphing, Metalline/Transmuting Unarmed Strike?  What is Skillful?  Is there a book (or books) where these may be found?  Also, what book is Kensai from, as I've seen it referenced here and on 339?

[Praeclarus]

Yeah, I looked up Greater Doppelganger too. Its in Magic of Faerun, has 9 monstrous humanoid hitdice but no listed LA (unless it's in an errata or something?) It's pretty great cause you can have multiple personas (3 and then after that make will save to keep them up to HD)

[Midnight_v]

Just a high-level adversary I'm toying with for an Eberron campaign. Any suggestions appreciated. Most of the build is still rudamentary, and I'd love to find feats to make it more efficient.

In all times, in all places, children have their stories of the dark figure who lurks in the shadows, ready to pounce on the unwary and drag them off. He goes by many names in many cultures, but is known to some simply as the Boogeyman. Parents, of course, always dismiss such stories with the same strengthless reassurances--there's no such thing as a Boogeyman, he's not hiding in the closet, and he's not going to eat you. The children know differently, though.

And in the city of Sharn, the children are right. There IS a Boogeyman, and he IS coming to eat your soul.

Nobody knows for sure who this creature is, or how he came to be...but he is undeniably more than childrens' stories. The dregs of the city speak of him in hushed whispers, and there are certain areas of the sewers and the low city which they avoid like the plague. These are the haunts of the Boogeyman, and those who go in do not come out again. He has worn a thousand faces, and will wear a thousand more--usually the faces of those most trusted by his victim. He lives not for the kill, but for the terror in the eyes of his chosen prey. The fear is what adds savor to his meat...and his meat is nothing less than the souls of living beings. The innocent and the wicked alike are his prey, and all who know of him fear him.

The Boogeyman is real. Pray that he's not hiding under your bed when you go to bed tonight.


THE BOOGEYMAN
Changeling Rogue2/Hexblade3/Warshaper3/Soul Eater 10/Blackguard 2

1. Rogue 1: SA +1d6, Trapfinding, Alertness
2. Rogue 2: Evasion
3. Hexblade 1: Hexblade's Curse, 1/day, Power Attack
4. Hexblade 2: Arcane Resistance
5. Hexblade 3: Mettle
6. Warshaper 1: Morphic Weapons, Morphic Immunities, WF: Claw
7. Warshaper 2: Morphic Body
8. Soul Eater 1: Energy Drain 1
9. Warshaper 3: Morphic Reach, Cleave
10. Soul Eater 2: Soul Strength
11. Soul Eater 3: Soul Blast
12. Soul Eater 4: Soul Enhancement, Multiattack
13. Soul Eater 5: Soul Endurance
14. Soul Eater 6: Soul Radiance
15. Soul Eater 7: Energy Drain 2, Improved Sunder
16. Blackguard 1: Aura of Evil, Detect Good, Poison Use
17. Blackguard 2: Dark Blessing, Smite Good 1/day
18. Soul Eater 8: Soul Agility
19. Soul Eater 9: Soul Slave
20. Soul Eater 10: Soul Power

STATS (28 pt buy)

STR: 10 +4 unnamed +4 enhancement=18
DEX: 10 +4 enhancement=14
CON: 16 +4 unnamed +4 enhancement=24
INT: 10
WIS: 10 +4 inherent +6 enhancement=20
CHA: 16 +5 level +5 inherent +6 enhancement=32


BAB: 18

SAVES:
FORT: 14+7+11=+32 (+43 vs. spells)
REF: 12+2+11=+25 (+36 vs. spells)
WILL: 11+5+11=+26 (+37 vs. spells)


KEY ITEMS: Tome of Charisma +5, Tome of Wisdom +4, Cloak of Charisma +6, Periapt of Wisdom +6

TACTICS: The Boogeyman has created an underground kingdom for himself in the sewers of Sharn, populated by his subjects...the husks of his former victims, now wights under his command. He sends these servants out at night to snatch the unwary, dragging them down to his underground domain to fill his menagerie. Always hungry, he is nonetheless a fussy eater, preferring to feed only upon souls in the uttermost states of terror. While the prisoners in his menagerie serve to slake his thirst for fear and misery on a day to day basis...and occasionally serve as his food in lean times...he prefers to hunt on the surface, selecting victim (preferrably an innocent) and then stalking them relentlessly. With his ability to shift forms, he is able to gather information on his prey with relative ease. When ready to strike, he comes to them in the forms of those they trust the most, terrorizing them before devouring their souls.

In combat, the Boogeyman sprouts claws, fangs, and horrific tentacles. While these weapons do little physical damage, they are nonetheless absolutely deadly, as each strike bestows two negative levels on the target.
Typically, the monster attacks with two claws, a bite, and two tentacles, possibly resulting in ten negative levels per round.

A lot of this might be well adapted to what you want...

[Midnight_v]

I hate to double post like this but...

I'd never played this game and after reading the reviews. I see a changling warshaper of somekind. Soul eater or no, most of the physical stuff he's doing is Warshaper stuff

From wiki:

Alex's primary superpower is his ability to shapeshift, transforming parts of his body into a selection of deadly weapons genetically acquired by consuming enemies possessing these weapons. These include substituting his right arm with the Blade, a powerful six foot long blade which releases a flurry of swift attacks, a pair of razor sharp Claws, which can be charged up for a "ground spike" attack in which Alex tunnels his claws underground to spray them out into deadly spikes under his target, the Whipfist that can stretch from far away and hit enemies from afar, Musclemass that increases his strength and throwing distance and dense club-like fists called Hammerfists that increase his damage to armored opponents. Alex can also shapeshift his body into more defensive forms like a impenetrable Shield of bio-mass that protects him from incoming attacks. Alex also can form his bio-mass into Armor, which decreases the damage done to him 

I suppose a druid MoMF might do this as well.

A pure psiwar could do it too, there are a lot of body horror type things that they do.
It would be better to be something like
Warblade5/Warmind5 (for bits of shapeshifting Claws/grafted weapons etc)Swordsage unarmed variant1, warblade 5/master of 9 swords 5) you'll pretty much be able do do it all and all day long.
You might have to buy expanded knowledge though.

Simpler would be Psi-war 20, but I'd hardly say that was optimized really.

[Prime32]

Warshaper^CW? Illithid savant^SS?

Savage Species has both a feat and a spell which increase the reach of tentacles. They stack.

[Bastian]

Now that I think about it Warshaper would be good, especially in addition to the greater doppleganger method. Since the greater doppleganger allows the absorption of memories and forms while the warshaper allows for continuously changing natural weapons no matter what form your in (as long as it isn't your original form), that replicates pretty much all of his abilities.

 Handily enough Illithid Savant also allows the absorption of class features so if you managed to find a warshaper you could simply take the Morphic Weapons ability to get continuously changing natural weapons. Alternatively you could just take the warshaper level's yourself leading to a build of Illithid HD 8/Illithid Savant 9/Warshaper 1/ ______ 2.

[kalaskaagathas]

Midnight_V: Thanks for the Boogeyman build, that looks like it could serve as a guide to some of what I'm trying to do.  And thank you for suggesting Warshaper as well, I should have included it in my original post, as it has on multiple occasions struck me as a cool class.

Prime32: I'll check out Illithid Savant, though I'm wary of the flavor.  Do you know what the feat and spell were called?

Bastian: Yeah, it gives most of them, though the blade is still somewhat problematic.

I checked out Illithid Savant, and I think that mechanically it would be excellent (at least the first five levels of it, the rest may not be necessary) though it'd be nice if it wasn't Mind Flayer only.  As to the alternate vision forms, darkvision shouldn't be too hard to grab, and the feat Mindsight could work for his detection abilities (if we can pick up telepathy).  Thanks for the responses so far.

[Prime32]

Prime32: I'll check out Illithid Savant, though I'm wary of the flavor.  Do you know what the feat and spell were called?

Extended Reach and extend tentacles (which can be made permanent)

I checked out Illithid Savant, and I think that mechanically it would be excellent (at least the first five levels of it, the rest may not be necessary) though it'd be nice if it wasn't Mind Flayer only.  As to the alternate vision forms, darkvision shouldn't be too hard to grab, and the feat Mindsight could work for his detection abilities (if we can pick up telepathy).  Thanks for the responses so far.

IIRC, a changeling with the Racial Emulation feat might be able to qualify for illithid savant. And if a changeling can take the feat a greater doppelganger definitely should be able to.

[Midnight_v]

I checked out Illithid Savant, and I think that mechanically it would be excellent (at least the first five levels of it, the rest may not be necessary) though it'd be nice if it wasn't Mind Flayer only.  As to the alternate vision forms, darkvision shouldn't be too hard to grab, and the feat Mindsight could work for his detection abilities (if we can pick up telepathy).  Thanks for the responses so far.

IIRC, a changeling with the Racial Emulation feat might be able to qualify for illithid savant. And if a changeling can take the feat a greater doppelganger definitely should be able to.

Funny that was my first thought too, but iirc that only lets you do humanoids.

Here's on for you though... and this might cause some weird interactions till we parse it out.

You can gain this feat multiple times. Each time, you can gain one additional supernatural ability.
 

What the hell???

Ok... now it depends if you want you're changeling shapeshifting to count for this or not. Lets assume "not" for now yeah?
This means that by being a Psiwar you can take metamophasis at earliest at... 14th but its cool cause you can invest and take this feat before that so when you hit 14 you're already there.
Then take the levels of warshaper.

Then it hits me. . . this thing can also be "the king of smack"(google that) and you have expanded on a humorus version of an already excellent build LOL.

So at the level you pick up metamorphasis you can 3 times a day turn into the 9 hitdie) Greater doppleganger taking its comsume identity power and generally pulling
Mercer stunts in your spare time.

Thats not bad but it is kind of high level.

This leads me to say "abuse alter self"  and I may just be tired but here some stuff I was thinking that maybe be very much "Non-optimal" but in line with the character.

>>>by the way<<<< I just bought this game like 1 hr ago. Damn contagious pop culture. Did you notice Alex mercer is "The thing" from the 1980 movie?

anyway here goes. See Sblock

[sblock] Find a way to get alterself as a spell/ and 1 level of psiwar will give you a feat to take practiced manifestor with. So you manifester level wil be 5. Level  6 take metamophic transfer and you can start eating people immediately as a barghest. Course this will require that your race is LESSER tiefling or some other outsider but thats pretty standard stuff.
You can actually do this a cleric with the spell domain using "anyspell" and get the same effect in the end [/sblock]

in the end though...
Alex Mercer =  Ability to shapechange + Metamophic transfer + creture thats gets abilities from eating opponents + growing weapons.

Or
The prototype = polymorph abuse ...   

[kalaskaagathas]

Well, in that case, I think that the first five levels of Illithid Savant may be all he'd need.  The rest would be nice, sure, but I think there could be better options out there.  So far, then, for the bare-bones of this build we'll need three levels of Warshaper, and five levels of Illithid Savant.  This means we need shapechanging, +4 BAB, and 10 ranks in Knowledge (Arcana) to meet the pre-reqs.

Oh, and Greater Doppelganger is in Monsters of Faerun.  That would work nicely with Illithid Savant, with the brain-eating and such...

Which leads me to another thought - this character is likely to be of evil alignment (as eating other creatures' brains is generally considered an evil act).  I wonder if there would be a way to get around that, like how Erudite's make mental contact to learn powers from another manifester's repertoire, if for nothing more than to make the build usable on a wider scale.

Midnight_V: Yeah, it does only let you do humanoids.  One thing I've wondered about would be taking the Half-Doppelganger template (I found it on Crystal Keep, but it says it's in Dragon Magazine 313) and selecting 'Doppelganger' as one of your alternate forms.  I think there's a feat like Metamorphic Transfer, but specifically for shapechangers, that allows you to assume a supernatural ability of the form you change into (I don't quite remember if it was thrice per day or just as the creature).  Take that (or take it twice for the Doppelganger's detect thoughts) and then you're golden for transforming into any small to medium humanoid - I think.  Of course, this doesn't let us use Racial Emulation on Illithid Savant.  And I doubt just applying said template to an aberration (like an Elan...hmmm this is sounding like the King of Smack) would get us around it either.

Yeah, that route would be more effective for games at the high end of pre-epic.  Too bad, I was hoping to come up with a way to do it where you get the basics of the build early and then expand them with higher levels...and to get at least six levels of Illithid Slayer (which would be an ironic combination with Illithid Savant, wouldn't it?) for the Cerebral Blind ability.  Though now that I think about it, that could be obtained by the Illithid Savant couldn't it (as long as he makes his save to devour the brain, or we get around that).

I too noticed this build shares much with the King of Smack, though I'd always envisioned that build as being this giant, hulking thing of nightmare rather than an agile, sneaky kind of guy.  I don't know, I'll have to review it for ideas.

[dark_samuari]

Which leads me to another thought - this character is likely to be of evil alignment (as eating other creatures' brains is generally considered an evil act).  I wonder if there would be a way to get around that, like how Erudite's make mental contact to learn powers from another manifester's repertoire, if for nothing more than to make the build usable on a wider scale.

So what I'm getting is you want to move away from this:
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]

And moving more towards this:
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]

Cause we can do that.

[kalaskaagathas]

Well, I'm not sure if that's quite what I meant (only because I can't see the second picture), but you're probably right.  It would make the build much more versatile if it weren't limited to evil characters - assuming that many DMs wouldn't allow that level of evil (I know there are plenty who wouldn't mind an Evil aligned character, but it takes a special kind of evil to devour someone else's brain).  I can't get the sound of a nagging Lawful (e.g. Giant-Flaming-Bane-Morning Star-Up-His-Arse, a very popular replacement alignment for Law) Good Paladin out of my head ("Why in Heironeous' name did you eat his brain?"  "Because I needed his skills, and because he had information as to where the Necromancer we're tracking hides...besides, he was evil."  "Yes, but his brain?!" &c. &c.).  I try to avoid characters that provoke that response, if only for the headaches it prevents.