Players, Characters, Habits, and Choices

 

With a new campaign kicking off, particularly a D&D campaign and the associated character generation I got to thinking about my players and their characters and the mix we have had over the years. Some of them are remarkably consistent. Some of them change it up and never seem completely satisfied with any character. I find that often this applies regardless of the rules or genre.

One of my players in D&D terms is almost always either a Paladin or a Fighter. This habit/preference/tradition goes back to at least 2nd Edition AD&D because that's how long we've been playing together. In superhero games he tends towards a Superman-style Brick. In Deadlands he's always been a straight-up gunfighter, even when there are supernatural options available.  Now he has surprised me a few times - mainly when we ran multiple characters per player in a given campaign - by branching out and trying out a wizard or a sorcerer but it's always in addition to a fighter type, not instead of one. I know when I propose a new game that he will likely be playing a martial character of some type so that role will be covered by at least one player. 

In the new campaign he's playing a Paladin so the tradition continues and I am just fine with that.

In contrast I have another long-time friend who is the one who never seems quite settled in to whatever character he has chosen and he is the one most likely to switch out his character partway through the game. When 3rd Edition D&D was new he started out as a Halfling Wizard, later changed that out to a Fighter who was focused on breaking weapons and knocking people down, and then ended up as something completely different by the end of the campaign. In Mutants and Masterminds he tried to play a Batman-type but was repeatedly frustrated with how it played and what he saw as  its ineffectiveness and if the campaign had continued he probably would have asked for a change. He is unpredictable from campaign to campaign, which is not that unusual I think, really, but that restlessness even within the same campaign keeps things interesting. This often springs from some encounter early on, usually a fight, where he determines that his character is just not that effective. Now I often disagree with him and make him work through it a while longer because he has done this as quickly as the first session of a campaign and I'd like a little more stability than that! 

That said I have let him swap out characters multiple times over the years and not necessarily due to a character death - though that is an obvious opportunity if he wants to. Sometimes it's just not being happy with how a character works and wanting to try something different. In Deadlands he chose a Chinese martial artist - we've never really had a dedicated Kung-Fu character in our DL games before so I was looking forward to trying out those options - and he might have made it to Session 3 before declaring that the melee focus was not working in a world full of guns but I pointed out that a) you knew it was an Old West game when we started and b) there are defensive powers and movement powers as well as the punchy stuff. He stuck with it and after acquiring some XP and applying it to the problem he quickly became a very dangerous combatant who was fairly tough and stupid fast so he was quite capable of getting into hand-to-hand range and doing terrible terrible things to his opponent when he did and I would say he was pretty happy with things for most of that campaign. 

In the new campaign he's chosen to play a Cleric (of a war god) and we will see how that flows for him.

My son has been playing for almost 15 years now - still a strange thing to hear yourself say - and when we started with old school Moldvay Basic D&D it was "Elf" and then usually "Fighter" when we had a second character in play. Later when we had more options it was Elf-something, usually Ranger.  In both 4th and 5th edition the Bladesinger class was tailor-made for him. though in the last 5E campaign I ran he went with a Cleric and "Sacred Flamed" anything that came in range.

 Outside of D&D type games though he has not been all that consistent. In superhero games he likes his battlesuit guys/PAGs. In Deadlands he chose to play an Indian Shaman and had a lot of fun with that. In Star Wars he's a Jedi (even a barely-trained-wannabee Jedi) or he's a lot less interested in playing.

In the new campaign he's going full Wizard so  this will be interesting.

My other long-time friend in the game does have a recognizable pattern in that he likes to be "the ranged guy". He's usually inclined towards a fighter type character in D&D terms and from early on in 3E I don't remember a real tendency other than big melee weapons. By 4th Edition though that had changed as he discovered the power of the 4E Ranger which could participate in combat from an  entirely different table with all of the Bow power he could put together. In Deadlands he went for a rifleman approach moving into full-on sniper as the game went on. It has definitely become a theme for him.

In the new campaign he's playing a Mechanist, one of the new ToV classes, and maybe he's stepping away from the ranged thing this time - or maybe he's just looking for a new way to do it. We shall see.

It's funny to  call him one of my "newer" friends when I've been playing games with him for six years but my other regular kind of falls into that compared to the others. He may be the only other one that's been doing this as long as I have and it's a lot of fun because he gets my obscure RPG references and vice versa. He has played and run a ton of other games and is the most active "other DM" in the group. He is the one most into the "role-playing" part and will come up with interesting backgrounds for whatever kind of character he ends up playing and that's another key - he is unpredictable in that he could play any kind of character buuuuut he doesn't change his mind once he's committed. he is also very open to "what does the party need?" kinds of discussions with the rest of the group when a game is starting up. To him I would say it's less about playing a particular type of character than it is about just playing. He's also an asset to have aboard because I know if I propose trying out a less well-known game he will likely be the first to jump on board. In Deadlands he played a Mad Scientist. In our Marvel Multiverse tryout he played Beast. In our 50 Fathoms campaign he played the sailing expert and duelist and that character might be his archetype in my experience - a "sharp-tongued swashbuckler" that is capable in both social and combat situations.

In the new campaign he is playing a bard because ... that's the kind of player he is - give him something with some flexibility, that's not locked into one role in the party, and he will shine. I just don't see him ever playing a basic-style sword and board fighter - not because of a power issue but because other types of characters let him flex the muscles he enjoys the most. 

For me, "playing" has been far less common than "running" for at least the past 25 years. I'd say I had a fairly even mix of both through the 80's and 90's because I was fortunate enough to have another committed DM in my main group and we traded off for 20+ years. Starting with 3E D&D I really shifted over into running the games far more than playing. Some of this was less time with kids and spouse and career all eating into game time but I stuck with it and that's the side I chose - if you want to make sure there is a game then you'd better be prepared to run them. 

I'd say for 2E  mostly ran Clerics, with some Druid and a little Paladin sprinkled in. For 3E I played a little Wizard, some Barbarian, and some more Cleric and Druid when I had the chance. For 4th I played very little but I went with Fighter to fit a concept I wanted to try out. For Pathfinder I ended up with one of my longest-running characters played for years and up to about 11th level which was a cavalier of all things - originally just to try something new and then because I really liked his schtick and the campaign (Kingmaker) was not dungeon-heavy at all in my opinion. I've played very little 5E so no strong opinions there. In 50 Fathoms I played a Kraken Water Mage who could also fight so maybe my tendency is "some kind of spellcaster" given the chance but with the cavalier leading for actual time in the saddle in the last ten years who knows? 

A few other general observations:

• We used to get a lot more non-humans in D&D but that has really dropped off over the course of 5E. I think they ended up making it too obvious of a "power" choice as it seems like there's a lot of effort being made to strip away the things that made each race mechanically unique and this left Human as the default best choice mechanically speaking. Not a real fan of this approach but I'm going to take it as it is for this run.
• We didn't see a lot of Rogues, Sorcerers, Monks, or Warlocks in the last few editions. I'd say we don't see Bards or Artificers either but I have a Bard and a Mechanist (close enough) in this game so I can't really say that for now. Even Druids have been pretty sparse around here for a long time and I thought they were one of the stronger classes this edition according to online opinion. Barbarian is another surprise given the regularity here of Fighters/Paladins/Rangers  - they were popular in older editions but I haven't seen one played long-term since 4E 10+ years ago.
• Another quirk is that we do not see a lot of duplicate character types in the party. Even into 2nd Edition AD&D we would have multiple fighters and even multiple clerics (of different deities - in 2E a specialty priest of Mystra and a specialty priest of Tempus play very differently) in a party at times. Now I don't really see that. We do have more classes now but we also have more subclass options as a way to differentiate two of the same class but I just never see it.

Well that's a lot of idle thoughts and observations but sometimes the inspiration strikes. More on the campaign down the road.

RPGaDAY - Day 13 - Most Memorbale Character Death

 I've seen a lot of character deaths from the DM side of things but I will try and share a rare player character moment of my own for this one.

Circa 1981, we had a high-level group where all of us had multiple characters in double-digit levels. We each had a stable of characters and over time each had been in enough adventures to hit "name level" and above. We all had personal retinues of henchmen, followers, golems, and hirelings as well so we didn't need more than 2 or 3 players to mobilize a pretty formidable force and lately it felt like we had been steamrollering everything in our path. So we got the bright idea to gather all of our characters and invade Hell. Specifically, the first layer of the Nine Hells.

This would be our "Justice League" moment. I knew I was moving to Texas pretty soon so this was going to be my last big hurrah with this group.We would get all of the players in our group together, each taking one character (minimum 10th level) plus henchman/sidekicks/troops, and assault that first level. The planes were not as detailed in those days but we knew Tiamat was there and we were pretty sure we could take her.

I took Felarof, my 15th level magic-user, and my second-highest level character. He had a tower and followers and big pile of magic items. He had also crafted a flesh golem and a homonculous (hey, the rules are right there in the monster manual) and I thought he was pretty awesome.

We started looking at things and decided to make it two characters apiece, just to be safe. This meant we were looking at a "party" of 20+ high-level characters plus followers.

So Thelegarn, my 12th level illusionist and Dip the psionic chicken joined the assault. Dip was sort of a familiar and somewhere along the way turned out to have psionics. Things were looser back then. My illusionist had psionics (another reason he was going as we figured this would be useful against the devils that were sure to attack us.

Planing was akin to a raid in Warcraft - Fighters, clerics, paladins, mages - everyone had a role and a plan. Spells were prepared and a casting order was written down. Magic items were carefully distributed. Many of potions and scrolls were acquired. For a bunch of elementary/junior high kids it was pretty involved.This was going to be amazing.

Our DM was a kid too, but I know he consulted with some other DM's he knew to prepare for this one as he wanted to make sure it was truly Hell.

The day came, we Wished open a portal to the first plane of Hell and in we went, spells up, swords out. We started getting our bearings and headed for a giant mountain we assumed was Tiamat's lair.

First wave of devils comes in - Lemures and other weak ones - slaughtered, no problem.

Another wave, again, no problem other than some damage here and there. We were feeling pretty good.

The third wave had a bunch of Erinyes and they were soon joined by a pack of Bone Devils  - I hate bone devils to this day, at least in part because of this expedition. Erinyes seem relatively weak but they are flying monsters that can turn invisible, have an unconsciousness attack, and every one of them carries a rope of entanglement. They went for the clerics, and that's when we started to take casualties. Mostly from the stupid bone devils who could also fly, cause fear, and turn invisible. They could also drain strength with their poison attack and losing a few points of strength was huge for fighter types back then. Dropping from say 18/00 to a 15 or 16 was devastating. We made it through this and several subsequent encounters but the confidence was shaken, if not gone outright.

Now this was a long time ago and a lot of the details are fuzzy, plus it was a marathon session anyway, but we were making progress until Tiamat's bodyguard of dragons hit. Something we had prepared for, but the intervening devil assaults had worn us down. They laid into us and it got really ugly. I know we killed some of them, but we lost some characters too, too many after more devils swarmed in. An AD&D fighter is tough, but you make them roll enough saves and they're going to fail one sooner or later. There were enough breath weapons going off that everyone was losing a lot of hit points. Even with "save for half" 20 or 30 points here and there adds up quick.

Once Tiamat herself came in, it was over and we knew it. I decided to preserve at least one character so Felarof used a Wish to open another portal, shoved the illusionist (and his chicken) through it, and then broke his staff of power, killing a lot of stuff and himself. It's the only time I've seen a retributive strike in play and I was the guy who did it. Only two other characters survived, both through similar means. All of those characters and experience points and magic items lost ... we were not happy at the time, but looking back it was an epic adventure.

Epilogue
I assumed Felarof was dead though the DM later told me he rolled and my M-U ended up on another plane. It's a 50/50 chance when you break the staff. There would have been another adventure to rescue him if I had stayed - and if anyone had been willing to risk our much-reduced party of high-level characters after this fiasco. Regardless, I moved away less than a month later and unlike kids in today's Facebook-connected world I never saw any of those guys again. 

 Later in Texas I just had him resurrected. I explained it to my new DM and we didn't want to work up a planar expedition so we hand waved it with that. I never used him much again, we tended to play somewhat lower level stuff than that, but he was there if I needed him. I still have his character sheet and his ridiculous list of magic items - less one staff of power.

RPGaDAY - Day 8 - Favorite Character

I'm going to bend the rules here - I have multiples on this one, and fortunately I've already written about most of them. I'll limit it to three:

• The AD&D ranger I ran up to high level is discussed here
• My favorite Gamma World character is here
• My favorite Mechwarrior character is here

A somewhat sad note is that no, I haven't played any of them since I wrote those posts. I don't really expect to, since they are mostly from older editions of games, but it could happen someday. Also, I haven't played much at all in the last 15 years or so as I've been almost 100% on the DM side of the table. I have managed to play a few sessions of D&D 4E and I'm playing a cavalier in a friend's Pathfinder campaign right now and that's been fun but it's a rare thing for me. 

Z is for Zeo Morpheus

First Appearance
Closing out the month this is another of Apprentice Blaster's creations inspired by Neo in The Matrix. This was one of his favorites. The combination of costume and powers really worked for him. He was a Dual-Pistols/Energy Melee Blaster in CoH.

Origin
Zeo has some strange ideas about the nature of reality but he does fight on the side of the good guys. A mysterious mentor figure introduced him to the ongoing war between good and evil and showed him how to unlock the secrets of the universe, the code that underlies all of reality. This gave him the ability to move and react faster than anyone and he uses this power to protect those who cannot do what he does and do not know what he knows, until the day comes that he can correct the situation.

Personality
Zeo is quiet, but confident. He knows that he is the chosen one but rather than being cocky about it he sees it as a weighty responsibility that he must see through to the end. He doesn't have a lot of time for friends and family as he is totally focused on becoming stronger and better able to carry out his mission.There is a calm about him. He rarely raises his voice, and doesn't waste motion jumping around or gesticulating excessively. he comes across as someone who can be relied on in a crisis, even when things are going poorly. His companions have never seen him surprised.

 Zeo Morpheus for ICONS

PDF link is here

Attributes

Prowess: 6 (Remarkable) - Maximum un-augmented human

Coordination: 6 (Remarkable) - Maximum un-augmented human

Strength: 6 (Remarkable) - Maximum un-augmented human

Intellect: 5 (Excellent) - Good but not a genius

Awareness: 10 (Unearthly) - Permanently changed when he became "The One"

Willpower: 6 (Remarkable) - Maximum un-augmented human

Stamina: 12

Determination: 3

Origin: Birthright

Specialties: Acrobatics, Martial Arts Master, Weapons (Guns)

Powers:
Wizardry 10 - Code Mastery (Cosmic - Awareness)

Known Powers: Force Field (Super-Slo-Mo Dodge), Fast Attack

Zeo Morpheus and the Aluminum Knight - no doubt hunting agents underground

Qualities

Motivation: "Free the System" - he fights an underground war to "free us". From what? See below.

Epithet: "The One" 

Connections: Rebel Underground - this is both a source of aid and a source of hostages for his enemies if they learn of his attachments

Challenge

Social:"Believes reality is a computer simulation that enslaves all of humanity" - he knows how people react so he tries not to bring it up too often but it is the belief that drives his life and he can't help but talk about it sometimes.

Enemy: "The Agents" - these are the mysterious agents who police the reality program and hunt down those who would disrupt it

Personal: "Destiny as the One" - this is something he sees as a huge responsibility, that he is the only one who can free humanity from the grip of the machines. This has rendered all other aspects of his life as secondary, so he spends most of his time learning and training to be better so he can succeed in his mission.

Notes:  Zeo ends up at 55 points, powerful but not ridiculous. I went through several iterations of him, mainly focused on how to cover all of his powers and keep him at less than 80 points! I had his abilities much higher at first along with a few specific powers but that still left out some of his moves, left him with 1 Determination, and was way too expensive. After playing around with it for a while, I decided to go with the approach above: Give him high but not superhuman abilities, then roll all of his truly super moves into a cosmic wizardry power. It lowered his cost AND gave him 3 Determination to pop out powers as needed. The basics are that he can dodge and shoot/punch super fast. the rest, like super strength, flight, healing and the rest of the stuff we saw in the movies can all be done through this one power. After all, isn't knowing how to manipulate the code of the universe the very definition of Cosmic Power? It works for me.

In combat he just carries normal guns and tends to open with those, throwing them away after each fight. That's not a power, that's just a shopping trip. He's also strong and skilled enough to fight hand to hand against most opponents without using his power, though if he does decide to use it his opponent is likely to be in trouble fast.

Zeo Morpheus for Mutants and Masterminds (3E)

PDF is here, HeroLab file is here

Zeo Morpheus - PL 12

Strength 0, Stamina 2, Agility 12/4, Dexterity 2, Fighting 14/8, Intellect 2, Awareness 10/5, Presence 2

Advantages

Defensive Roll 6, Evasion, Improved Initiative 2, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Takedown 2, Uncanny Dodge

Skills

Acrobatics 2 (+14), Athletics 8 (+8), Perception 10 (+20), Ranged Combat: Slo-Mo Shooting 6 (+16/+8), Technology 6 (+8)

Powers

Guns!: Blast 6 (Easily Removable, DC 21; Multiattack)

"The One"

Bullet Time!: Enhanced Trait 6 (Traits: Dodge +4 (+16), Parry +2 (+16))

Hand Strike: Strength-based Damage 10 (DC 25)

 Punching Explosion: Damage 5 (Alternate; DC 20; Multiattack)

Slo-Mo Coordination: Enhanced Trait 16 (Traits: Agility +8 (+12))

Slo-Mo Kung Fu: Enhanced Trait 12 (Traits: Fighting +6 (+14))

 Strength of The One: Enhanced Trait 12 (Alternate; Traits: Strength +6 (+6))

Slo-Mo Reaction: Enhanced Trait 2 (Advantages: Improved Initiative 2)

Slo-Mo Senses: Enhanced Trait 10 (Traits: Awareness +5 (+10))

Slo-Mo Shooting: Enhanced Trait 4 (Traits: Ranged Combat +8 (+16))

Super Flight: Flight 9 (Speed: 1000 miles/hour, 2 miles/round)

Offense

Initiative +20

Grab, +14 (DC Spec 10)

Guns!: Blast 6, +16 (DC 21)

Hand Strike: Strength-based Damage 10, +14 (DC 25)

Punching Explosion: Damage 5, +14 (DC 20)

Throw, +2 (DC 15)

Unarmed, +14 (DC 15)

Defense

Dodge 16/12, Parry 16/14, Fortitude 9, Toughness 8/2, Will 15

Sometimes he works with the authorities!

Complications

Enemy: The Agents: these are the mysterious agents who police the reality program and hunt down those who would disrupt it

Motivation: Responsibility as The One: this is something he sees as a huge responsibility, that he is the only one who can free humanity from the grip of the machines. This has rendered all other aspects of his life as secondary, so he spends most of his time learning and training to be better so he can succeed in his mission.

Obsession: "Believes reality is a computer simulation that enslaves all of humanity" - he knows how people react os he tries not to bring it up too often but it is the belief that drives his life and he can't help but talk about it sometimes.

Languages

Native Language

Power Points

Abilities 50 + Powers 90 + Advantages 12 + Skills 16 (32 ranks) + Defenses 12 = 180

Teamed up with Captain Ladybug!

Notes: Definitely one of the more complicated characters I have done this month. This is about 10 revisions in to the design and I think this one covers everything, but even at PL 12 there are compromises. I started with the speedster template as I wanted to emphasize his speed but I don't think there's much left of it here. 

The design ended up with all of his boosts built into "The One" powerset. This represents the boosts to most of his combat abilities when he is on. Outside of this he also carries an interesting range of guns. He can fly, he can punch somebody really hard or cut loose with a flurry using his multiattack option. He can also trade his kung fu for super-strength, kind of a built-in super power attack, shifting from +14/10 to a +8/16, and that's before using power attack! So he has a wide range of options in melee.

His punching is maxed at +14/10 but his guns are only at +16/6, so if he picks up a heavier gun it's not as much of an issue. Also, multiattack can bump the damage up to an 11 pretty easily, which is pretty nasty.

With a Toughness of 8 (6 of which comes from Defensive Roll) he's pretty reliant on active defenses. To insure this works out for him he has +20 Initiative and +20 Perception and Uncanny Dodge. Also, because I think it's cool seeing "+20" next to a couple of things on a character sheet.

If he loses his powers (say he believes he has been booted out of the Matrix) then he drops to about a PL8 effectiveness which means he's not totally helpless but it is a rather different character at that point.

Roads not taken:

• He had various levels of Quickness during the process, but I don't really recall anything from the movies that would demand that. I eventually dropped this to get his ranged attack up to a respectable level
• He had Speed as an alternate power for his flight for a while but I had the same issue as Quickness. If he needs to move fast on the ground he can take a car, though I did not give him an equipment allowance.
• I had given him an area burst damage attack to represent a fast-moving series of punches but I think Multiattack & Takedown are more effective, so I dropped that as well.
• No HQ - thought about it, decided I wasn't going to design one, so he has no base. 

Anyway there he is, wrapping up April A to Z!

Y is for Yellowjacket!

First Appearance
No, not THAT Yellowjacket! This Yellowjacket is a member of the Motorbots! You can read all about the Motorbots and the rest of the Formshifters here. YJ was Apprentice Blaster's creation, an homage to Bumblebee created after watching one of the Transformers movies. This is a relatively low-mileage character as he was mainly played right after watching one of the movies and then sat idle quite a bit of the rest of the time. This also means I have fewer shots of him. Regardless, I haven't done one  of the 'Bots this month so I thought he would make an interesting entry.

Origin
From the Motorbots post: My backstory concept, modified many times over the years, is that there is a civilization of intelligent robots out there somewhere. One of them started experimenting in ways the others found abhorrent and he was eventually expelled from their society. Searching for a technologically developed remote yet secure place to work he eventually discovered earth and landed there in the 1960's. Not all of the Formshifters were comfortable with simply unleashing their problem child on an unsuspecting and blameless universe so they assigned Maximus Alpha to recruit a small band of fellow bots and track their renegade down and verify that he was behaving himself. If he was not then they were to silence him and any of his experiments that were hanging around. This means Maximus is not just a benevolent do-gooder here to protect people - he's mainly here to kill a villain and stop whatever he's working on, while keeping a low profile with the natives.

Now to help keep that low profile when the Motorbot strike force arrived in the 1980's they used their formshifting power to take on the appearances of some of the most common mobile objects on the planet - motor vehicles. This lets them move among human society without detection or suspicion and is an excellent disguise for what would otherwise be a 20' tall robot. The problem is that once a Formshiter takes a form, it's either temporary or permanent. A temp form takes some effort to maintain and goes away if the bot goes unconscious. A permanent form has no overhead but cannot easily be changed without a lot of energy and some special equipment available only back on the homeworld. Since this was likely to be a long-term assignment the Motorbots permanently took on the forms of the vehicles they saw when they arrived. Unfortunately they cannot change to a newer form and as time passes this is causing them some problems as their once-anonymous shapes now stand out among the 20-30 year newer vehicles around them. "Hey there's a really clean 88 Vette outside" is not conducive to stealthy observation. "Car nuts" are a constant problem for them.

Personality
According to Blaster, he's like Bumblebee. So, check the reference material. I'm pretty sure he means the movie 'Bee, not the cartoon version.

 Yellowjacket for ICONS

PDF Link is here

Attributes

Prowess: 5 (Excellent) - Experienced but still young

Coordination: 5 (Excellent) - Robotic coordination

Strength: 7 (Incredible) - Robotic strength

Intellect: 4 (Good) - Not bad but not an intellectual

Awareness: 4 (Good) - Room for improvement

Willpower: 5 (Excellent) - Better but not the best

Stamina: 12

Determination: 2

Origin: Unearthly

Specialties: Acrobatics, Martial Arts, Weapons (Guns)

Powers:
Blast 6 (Blasting) - Big Blaster, must be in Bot form

Invulnerability 6 - Robotic Armored Shell

Superspeed 5 - Must be in car form

Qualities

Friendly Optimist - YJ is the youngest of the Motorbots, arriving decades after the first group and as such has a more adventurous attitude and a more positive outlook than most.

Epithet: "The Youngest" - this is often used to excuse his behavior

Challenge

Social:"Large Alien Robot hat Looks Like a Camaro" - this can be quite a shock the first time he reveals himself

Bad Luck: "Trouble Magnet" - If one of the bots is accidentally discovered it will be him. If one of them gets attached to a human, it will be him. If one of them steps on a twig and gives away their presence, it will be him.

Social: "Speaks via Sound-Bite" - His voicebox was damaged some time back so YJ speaks through radio/TV sound clips making his speech a little difficult to follow.

Notes: 50 points so not too much. He's a pretty simple character - fast, tough, shooty with decent strength and a good attitude. Bad luck and the rest just keep life interesting for him.

I took a different approach from the writeup I did for the leader in 2011. There I had Transformation as an actual power. I don't know that that is really necessary here as the only reason he changes is to go faster and to blend in. You could probably swap out the super-speed for the transform but at that point it might be easier to just go full alter-ego and give him two writeups - one for humanoid form and one for car form. That seems like a lot of overhead for the relatively minor mechanical differences though it would help to emphasize what he looks like at any given time.

 Yellowjacket for Mutants and Masterminds (3E)

PDF is here


Yellowjacket of the Motorbots - PL 10

Strength 8, Stamina -, Agility 6, Dexterity 3, Fighting 10, Intellect 1, Awareness 1, Presence 1

Advantages
Agile Feint, All-out Attack, Interpose

Skills
Acrobatics 2 (+8), Perception 4 (+5), Persuasion 4 (+5), Ranged Combat: Blaster: Blast 10 7 (+10), Technology 7 (+8)

Powers

Blaster: Blast 10 (Removable, DC 25)
Alt: 4 Wheels down: Speed 7 (Alternate; Speed: 250 miles/hour, 0.5 miles/round; Limited: Only in Camaro
Form)

Camaro Form: Morph 1 (+20 Deception checks to disguise; Single form; Activation: move action)

Medium Motorbot: Growth 4 (+4 STR, +4 Tough, +2 Intimidate, -4 Stealth, -2 active defenses, +1 size
category; Innate; Permanent)

Protection: Protection 10 (+10 Toughness; Impervious [7 ranks only])

Robotic Life: Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects)


Offense
Initiative +6
Blaster: Blast 10, +10 (DC 25)
Grab, +10 (DC Spec 18)
Throw, +3 (DC 23)
Unarmed, +10 (DC 23)

Defense

Dodge 10, Parry 10, Fortitude Immune, Toughness 10, Will 9

Complications
Duty to Friends and Family: YJ won't leave anyone behind or alone

Motivation: Thrills: This is a product of overconfidence and curiousity and some attraction to danger.

Secret: The Motorbots are a secret group on Earth and take pains to keep it that way

Languages
Native Language

Power Points
Abilities 42 + Powers 77 + Advantages 3 + Skills 12 (24 ranks) + Defenses 16 = 150

Notes: If any of the bots are PL10 it's Yellowjacket, so that's where I kept him. Combat-wise he is fairly simple - Gun, Strength, and lots of speeding or jumping around. Impervious 7 gives him immunity to small guns and hand weapons. In M&M it's possible to directly link some things so in this version he has a Morph ability, and can only use his superspeed when morphed (and cannot use his gun as the speed is an alternate power). He also has permanent, innate growth 4 which makes him about 15 feet tall which seemed about right. This affects his defenses but I've bought them back up to about par for PL10 to keep him as a more dodgy-type combatant.

I changed up his Complications a bit from ICONS. Here he has more duty type issues. I also left off the speaking thing as I don't think you want it to be enough of a problem to get Hero points for it. It's really just a quirky thing about the character rather than a serious disadvantage here.