This week we continue our look at City of Heroes archetypes and how their unique abilities can be translated to Metahumans Rising. Archetype abilities vary wildly, as they are designed to give each type of hero their own unique feel. Again, we are not looking to capture exact mechanics, but rather the feel or playstyle of each archetype. Now, onto the remaining six…
Wait, hold it right there. While developing these articles we decided to add values to each of the archetype abilities recommended. Because of this, we will be repeating the initial four archetypes from the initial article, along with the remaining six. Now, onto the archetypes.
Blaster
Ranged damage specialists, Blasters pack a wallop but need to avoid being hit as they lack strong defensive capabilities.
Abilities: Defiance & Aim
Defiance is an inherent power that provides a damage boost, and allows the character to act while under effects such as Hold or Sleep. Aim is a power that all Blasters can select to increase their accuracy and, as you might have guessed, Damage.
To represent these abilities in Metahumans Rising, heroes should select the Fitness Talent, offering protection from Staggering Attacks, they may also take Law to resist Control powers. For the Damage increase Fitness Supports Heavy Blow allows the hero to add extra oomph to their blasts. They can also take a Specialty for Heavy Blow representing their increased Accuracy.
Blaster Perks
Talent: Fitness + 3 AP
Boon: Fitness Supports Heavy Blow MA
Power Specialty: (S) Heavy Blow + 3 AP
Cost: 8 AP
Brute
Powerful melee opponents, Brutes were a later addition with the City of Villains expansion and are similar to the Scrapper in their role. However, they lack the pure damage output of a Scrapper, instead gaining increased damage as battles progress.
Abilities: Fury & Taunt
Fury, as mentioned, increases the Brute’s damage the more they attack. The longer they stay in a fight, the more devastating they become. Taunt allows them to draw attention to them, forcing foes to target the Brute primarily.
Starting with Taunt, take the Provoke talent. It’s virtually a 1:1 translation. Fury is a bit trickier, it doesn’t care if you connect, it only cares that you are fighting. To address this start with the Discipline Talent, then add the following Specialties to the Brute’s power.
- (S) Bruised: Applies once the hero reaches 0 Stamina.
- (S) Engaged: Applies once the hero has Attacked 3 or more times.
- (S) Unhinged: Applies once the hero has used their Discipline Talent.
Each Specialty has its own unique trigger, and allows them to become progressively more powerful as each condition is met. Finally, it might go without saying but taking Surprising Boon allows the Brute to come into Turn two with Engaged activated if they opt to take a third action the first Turn.
Brute Perks
Talent: Discipline +2 AP
Power Specialty: (S) Bruised +2 AP
Power Specialty: (S) Engaged +2 AP
Power Specialty: (S) Unhinged +2 AP
Cost 8 AP
Controller
This archetype does what it says on the tin. They are the masters of control, locking down foes, manipulating the battlefield and all around giving other players an edge.
Abilities: Containment & Overpower
Containment offers bonus damage to any target that was held, sleeping, or disoriented. Overpower on the other hand increased their ability to hold, sleep, or disorient foes. While Controllers were seen as a low damage archetype, that doesn’t mean they didn’t have some fun tricks to mitigate that.
Reversing the order, let’s begin with Overpower. This can easily be replicated with a Specialty for these actions, such as (S) Trapping Attacks, or (S) Stagger. Conversely, Containment is handled for when targets are under these effects, (S) Trapped Foes, or (S) Staggered Foes.
Controller Perks
Power Specialty: (S) Trapping Attacks +2 AP
Power Specialty: (S) Stagger +2 AP
Power Specialty: (S) Trapped Foes +2 AP
Power Specialty: (S) Staggered Foes +2 AP
Cost 8 AP
Corruptor
A villainous archetype, the corruptor focuses on ranged damage and support as a dark mirror to the Defender.
Ability: Scourge
Foes with less than 50% health may take double damage from Corruptor attacks.
Translating this to Metahumans Rising, we will modify one of the Brute Specialties. (S) Bruised becomes (S) Breaker, applying once the target reaches 0 Stamina or has been reduced by one Mob Size (i.e. Major Mob to Typical, Typical to Minor). Because this ability does not require a lot of extra work, heroes may want to select a Talent to Support Breaker as well, which makes Heavy Blows to weakened targets easier.
Corrupter Perks
Talent: <Breaker Support Talent> + 2 AP
Boon: <Talent> Supports Breaker MA
Power Specialty: (S) Breaker + 4 AP
Cost: 8 AP
Defender
A ranged support class, Defenders offer enhanced effectiveness for allies and / or penalize their foes.
Ability: Vigilance
This ability serves a dual purpose, increasing Damage when alone, and reducing the Endurance Cost of powers as a Defender’s teammates were injured. (Endurance being a pool, like Mana Points that prevented characters from rapidly using the same ability, or high costing abilities.)
Because Metahumans Rising does not have Endurance to limit power use, we are going to have to get a bit creative for this one. To emulate this, let’s instead focus on generating Willpower, and that means a Drive. Drive: Keep My Teammates Alive could be used to both generate Willpower and boost rolls whenever a hero takes an action to circumvent an ally taking Damage dropping them below 0 Stamina. For the damage boost we can also add a Specialty: Last One Standing for when they are alone, or their teammates are unconscious. Finally,
Defender Perks
Drive: Keep My Teammates Alive +2 AP
Power Specialty: Last One Standing +4 AP
Cost 8 AP
Dominator
A control specialist with powerful ranged and melee attacks. Added as part of City of Villains, the Dominator trades team support for added damage as compared to the Controller.
Ability: Domination
Unlike other innate powers, Domination works like a super state, where their control powers have increased effectiveness, and they gain a resistance to control powers, after attacking repeatedly. This effect lasts for quite a while, not just for a single attack, which is why it feels more like a heightened state of being (Going Super Saiyan.)
This one is going to get weird, because we have to talk about motivation. Dominators don’t just want to win, they want to dominate the battlefield To achieve this, there are a pair of Drives:
- Drive: See them fall before me, applied whenever the hero causes a Mob to drop a size category, Major to Typical, or Typical to Minor.
- Drive: Topple the mighty, applied when reducing a target to 0 Stamina. (This does not apply to Background characters.)
With these two Drives also comes a Drawback: Limited: Willpower gained from Drives cannot be spent until it caps. Meaning it’s equal to the hero’s Origin. Heroes can also add a Specialty: (S) Domination, which works with Control, Trapping, or other fitting Boons. This Specialty activates when hitting their Willpower cap, and ends when the hero drops to their starting Willpower or below. Note: This does encourage the Dominator style hero to conserve their Willpower for their Domination where they can really cut loose. Finally, adding Absorption to the hero’s power can help them gain Willpower in other ways as well.
Do these Drives make the character evil? Not necessarily, to refer back to our Super Saiyan analogy, characters like Vegeta can easily fit this mold.
Dominator Perks
Drive: See them fall before me + 1 AP
Drive: Topple the mighty + 1 AP
Power Advancements: Boost Control MA (Requires Control)
Limited: Only on Domination
Power Specialty: (S) Domination + 4 AP
Drawback: Limited: Willpower gained from Drives cannot be spent until it caps.
Cost: 8 AP
Mastermind
It’s dangerous to go alone! Take… a personal army. The Mastermind focuses on summoning allies to battle and providing support with abilities similar to the Corruptor or Defender. While the latter articles are unlikely to touch on Mastermind primary power sets, we didn’t want to leave them out of the discussion on innate abilities.
Ability: Supremacy
Acting as a two fold bonus, Supremacy allows the Mastermind to increase the accuracy and damage of all their pets, and when placing them into a defensive posture distribute any damage the character receives across the summoned allies.
Much of Supremacy can be covered with the Tactics Talent, allowing the Mastermind to better support any teammate, including Allies or those summoned through Backup. It also allows them to boost Damage when Coordinating or Armor when protecting others. Additionally, the Coordinated Advancement for Backup provides a Damage bonus and allows the hero to distribute Damage to their Backup when taking an Active Defense or Defending Others.
Mastermind Perks
Talent: Tactics +4 AP
4 AP for Allies and / or the Backup Power Boon
Cost: 8 AP
Scrapper
Melee masters, the scrapper is focused on getting up close and personal inflicting serious damage. They are far tougher than most other Archetypes, with the Brutes being around the same level, and Tankers being tougher.
Ability: Critical Hit
Being the kings of damage, Scrappers double their damage on Critical Hits. This has a 5% chance of triggering, 10% on tougher foes.
There are a number of ways to tackle Critical Hits. With the Power of 6s already giving a Damage bonus on Attack rolls Scrappers need something extra. The Advantaged Boon does just that, giving heroes a free use of the Advantageous Blow Willpower Feature and three options, Tripping or Staggering a foe, or adding +4 Damage to an Attack. One of the big benefits to Advantageous Blow is that it is added after confirming the Attack was successful. After the free trigger of Advantageous Blow, the hero can then spend Willpower as normal for additional uses. Scrapper styled characters can also add the Amazing Boon, which gives a free use of Amazing Critical, adding a free extra die to the roll and a boost for any 6s. Follow this with a Specialty for the Amazing Critical Willpower Feature for incredibly versatile bursts, as the extra dice from Amazing Critical and a Specialty allow the hero to add other Combat Maneuvers.
Scrapper Perks
Boon: Advantageous Blow MA
Boon: Amazing MA
Power Specialty: (S) Amazing + 4 AP
Cost: 8 AP
Stalker
Striking from the shadows, Stalkers are melee experts who specialize in taking down unknowing targets.
Abilities: Assassination, Assassin’s Strike, & Hide
Assassination allows the Stalker to guarantee a critical hit from a hidden position, and gives them a scaling critical chance based on their team’s size. Assassin’s Strike is a high damage attack that is injected into all Striker primary power sets. Hide is an ability added to all secondary Stalker power sets which lets them do what it says on the tin.
Many of the aspects around Stalker abilities can be captured with the Stealth and Subterfuge Talents which allow them to hide during combat, and grant bonus damage when making an attack against a target’s Surprised Defense. That leaves the critical hit chance that scales with team size. While it’s possible to mirror the Scrapper, picking up the Advantaged Boon for bursts of Damage, as assassins maybe it’s better to go a different route. Adding a Specialty for the Power Strike maneuver and Penetrating to the hero’s power adds a very different dimension to the damage they inflict. Stalker inspired characters now slice through even the toughest of armors, but it requires a slower, more methodical blow, fitting with the lead in time of Assassin’s Strike. To capture the bonus from being in a team, the hero might also consider adding the Specialty: (S) Follow Up Attack, which triggers whenever they attack directly after a teammate.
Stalker Perks
Talent: Stealth + 1 AP
Talent: Subterfuge +1 AP
Power Boon: Penetrating MA (Requires Devastating)
Power Specialty: (S) Power Strike +2 AP
Power Specialty: (S) Follow Up Attack +2 AP
Cost: 8 AP
Tanker
When you want to take all the damage for the team!
Abilities: Gauntlet & Taunt
Taunt, as discussed in the Brute description, is a means to get everyone looking at (and attacking) the character. Gauntlet allows Tankers to target additional foes and increases the range of area of effect attacks.
For Taunt, as with the Brute, make sure to take the Provoke Talent. Heroes who want to focus on Provoking should take the Critical Skill Boon which allows them to automatically Provoke foes when rolling two 6s on an Attack. Because there is no limit to the number of foes that can be targeted with an area of effect Attack in Metahumans Rising the actual bonus does not translate. However, we can incorporate this into some classic tricks with the Tricky, and Provoke Supports Area of Effect Attacks Boons. The hero doesn’t have to have Cone, Line or Radius as part of their power, but can use them for free once per session, with two bonuses (one from Tricky and one from Talent Support). A second Specialty for the Power Trick Willpower feature allows you to maximize the spectacular nature of these one off abilities.
Tanker Perks
Talent: Provoke + 1 AP
Boon: Critical Skill: Provoke MA
Boon: Provoke Supports Area of Effect Attacks MA
Boon: Tricky TY
Power Specialty: (S) Power Tricks +2 AP
Cost: 8 AP
