Q is for Barbarian Queen

First Appearance
This was another gift to Lady Blacksteel. I did not spend much time with the female side of the character builder for CoH, but every once in a while I was inspired by something and took a walk over there to see if I could put it together. This was some kind of confluence of Valeria from the Conan movie, the Tarakian from Heavy Metal, and Leeloo from Fifth Element. So, a little early 80's, a little late 90's, and this is where I ended up. She humored me and played her quite a bit for a time.

Origin
The Barbarian Queen comes from another world where she is a barbarian ... and a queen. After a prophecy of doom for her tribe the king's daughter set off on a quest to find out how to change this fate. Alas, she was too late and returned to the smoldering ruins of her village. Swearing vengeance on the cult of Set she set out on a quest to wipe them out just as they had done to her people. Along the way she has learned much and become one of the most ferocious fighters in the world. Then an interrupted magical ceremony - interrupted by her sword - went out of control and she woke up in our world. Now she seeks any sign of the cult of Set here while she also searches for a way back home.

Personality
BQ speaks with an accent not quite like any in our world, somewhere between Russian and German. She is a woman of action, with little patience for extended debates and questions of right and wrong. She is quite content to follow her own internal moral compass and sees no need to explain or otherwise justify her actions. In the past she had some guilt over the fate of her village but she has made peace with it and taken up her mission of revenge as her main calling in life.

A moment of quiet reflection

 Barbarian Queen for ICONS

PDF is here

Attributes

Prowess: 6 (Remarkable) - fury of a wolverine

Coordination: 6 (Remarkable) - speed of a hunting panther

Strength: 5 (Excellent) - strength of a roaring tiger

Intellect: 4 (Good) - canniness of a hunted fox

Awareness: 6 (Remarkable) - ears of a wary wolf

Willpower: 5 (Excellent) - spirit of a cornered lion

Stamina: 10

Determination: 3

Origin: Trained

Specialties: Weapon Expert (Sword), Stealth, Investigation

Powers:
Strike 5 (slashing, magical device) "Sword of Kings"  - her father's magical blade

Invulnerability 5 (magical device) - "Armor of the Tarakians"

Danger Sense 8  (magical device) - "Winged Helm of Valeria"

Qualities

"Uncivilized" - This helps her cut through a lot of needless delays to speak directly to others, and to hit people who deserve it,  but it can be a problem in certain social situations

Motivation: "Revenge" - she is out for vengeance on the Cult of Set and is suspicious of any serpent type villain or hero.

Challenges

"Bloodthirsty" - she can have a hard time holding back in battle once her blood's up. If she's been wounded, look out!

Enemy: "Cult of Set" - she has noticed a number of serpent themed villains in this world and is determined to find and root out any Set cult that she finds. If using her in the M&M Freedom City campaign world, this could put her on the trail of the Serpent Folk quite easily.

Notes: BQ comes out to 55 points (again!) and while she is a bit similar in theme to Phurious Pharaoh from yesterday, but they were not created together. 

With the Danger Sense becoming her defense she is very hard to hit in combat and her magical strappy armor keeps her in fairly good shape even when she is hit. Starting Determination of 3 gives her a chance to pull of some stunts or tricks early in a fight too. Her Qualities and Challenges will make it fairly easy to gain even more Determination in combat as well, so she should be enacting all kinds of craziness in battle. 

Outside of battle her Nature and Investigation specialties should give her a chance to contribute and she is quite capable physically as well.

Now for another take ...

 Barbarian Queen for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

PDF is here

In this incarnation BQ is very similar to her ICONS version. She is quite capable in combat and should be as helpful out of it as any other Marvel character.

• She can go into a berserker rage (similar to Wolverine) and has a Milestone tied to causing physical harm to people. 
• The Wings of Valeria grant a version of Spiderman's Spider Sense
• She has a weapon that also enhances durability (thank you Cap) as in this version we're considering her main defense to be Jedi-esque deflection moves with the Sword of Kings rather than her strappy outfit. 
• Her other Milestone is a conversion from Black Panther in that she can tag people as Set Cultists and gain XP from taking action against them

I think this is a pretty solid version of her and a fun mix of capabilities. I'd consider swapping out one of her Milestones with a conversion of Armor's "For my Ancestors" set and adapting it to use BQ's Barbarian Heritage. I could see bringing that in to reflect her getting control over her bloodlust and replacing that Milestone. I would also swap out her Berserk SFX with the Focus SFX found on several other characters to reflect her still being nasty in combat but in a more controlled way.