M is for Mighty Testostokles!

First Appearance
Exploring the CoH character builder I was possessed by the idea of making a Steve Reeves Hercules type character. He ended up being influenced by the Marvel Hercules quite a bit as well. The result is what you see above. He was an Invulernability/War Mace Tanker in this incarnation

Origin
The slightly less famous half-brother of Hercules, the Mighty T was also a big player in ancient mythic Greece. He was quite the hero and had many interesting adventures - and he is quite happy to tell you about them, given the chance. On one quest he went far to the north of his homeland and ran into and evil enchantress who locked him in ice with a powerful spell. Over time his legend was largely forgotten and he faded into history.

Thousands of years later, through magic, fate, or maybe even global warming, the formation of ice containing the legendary hero broke off and drifted south, finally melting enough to free him right outside of New York City. He struggled ashore, surveyed this new land, found a new pair of battle-shorts and resolved to find out what had happened to him.

Personality
As the son of an ancient deity and the half-brother of a legendary hero, Mighty T is a garrulous, easygoing guy. He's always up for a fight, a beer, or an evening with the ladies. He sees his awakening as a chance to carve out a new legend and step out from the shadow of his brother and find his own glory. He has become somewhat media-savvy, realizing that "cameras" are a gateway to fame far more powerful than the bards of old. He has considered hiring a personal herald to record his exploits but has not taken that step yet. That said he is not all show - T is one of the toughest and strongest beings on the planet and can certainly back up any boast he makes and any challenge he issues. He has a lot of fun with the whole scene, but he is serious about being a real hero, not just looking like one.

 Mighty Testostokles for ICONS

PDF sheet is here

Attributes

Prowess: 9 (Monstrous) - he is one of the most experienced fighters on the planet and the son of a god

Coordination: 5 (Excellent) - divine blood and skill

Strength: 10 (Unearthly) - Son of Zeus, Brother of Hercules

Intellect: 3 (Typical) - divinity has its limitations

Awareness: 3 (Typical) - he's pretty caught up in his own awesomeness

Willpower: 4 (Good) - He's more inclined to say "Yes" than "No"

Stamina: 14

Determination: 2

Origin: Unearthly (+2 to Strength & Prowess)

Specialties: Wrestling, Occult

Powers:
Invulnerability - 8 (Amazing) - A Divine Heritage makes one difficult to injure

Immortality - Divine Blood

Qualities:

Motivation : "Tradition of Heroism" - It's just what is done when you're the son of a god.

Catchphrase: "You face the might of the Mighty Testostokles!" - there could be several variations on this but T always likes to make sure his opponents (and YouTube viewers) know who he is before the fight begins. Also, it's always "Mighty Testostokles" - this is his "brand".

Challenges:

Personal: "Competing with Famous Brother" - He doesn't like to admit it but this does drive him to do many of the things he does. He was never going to be a simple shopkeeper but there are many choices he has made that were directly affected by what Herc did. That may mean making a similar choice and hoping for the same result, or making the opposite choice to prove he's his own guy.

Social - "3,000 years on ice" - He has learned much since his return but many of the details of modern society and life still baffle him at times. he is not one to admit it, or let it get in his way, but it can make for some awkward social situations. Plus he dresses a little differently than most - and thinks nothing of it. 

Notes: Mighty T is 54 points, not bad considering what he can do. Adding a "Divine Vanity" challenge would not be out of line either. He is somewhat one dimensional in that he's a Brick - a really good one, but still a brick. The key to making a brick fun is to give him an interesting personality and that was my idea here. Sure, he's very similar to Hercules, but the addition of the competitive brother angle gives you a very realistic quirk in one sense, and a classic flaw/rivalry in another. In most homebrew games I expect this would be largely a theoretical rivalry, or measuring himself against the legend. It does raise the question if he is a character in a campaign - where are the Olympians? Is he cut off? There's the potential for some drama there as T searches for the final fate of his family.

Of course, we know the status of the Olympians in one universe - why not give T the chance to play out the rivalry directly:

 Mighty Testostokles for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

In this version Mighty T is based on the datafile for Hercules with a few changes:

• Distinctions are "Vain Demigod" (What he is - prob useful in combat and socially), "Wine Women and War" (what he likes, again, fairly flexible), and "Fame-Seeker" (again fairly versatile but with a different feel). This gives a player a chance to flavor a particular action or reaction as being more about his ego, more about partying and skirt-chasing, or more about increasing his fame.
• His powers are Herc's but he lacks the Golden Mace SFX and the Boundless Strength SFX is replaced by Haymaker from the Thing's powerset. He also has a d6 of Swimming. I wanted to make him at least slightly different than Herc in case they ended up in the same game so each has a trick or two that the other does not.
• His Specialties are similar as well. I bumped T up to Combat Master, kept Menace and Mystic Expert, and dropped Cosmic Expert 
• Milestones are based off of Johnny Storm's Dangerous Love set to give a player a reason to talk to the ladies in the right way and Wonder Man's media-chasing set to emphasize the camera-chasing side of Mighty T. The other set I thought tremendously appropriate was Ms. Marvel's Kree-Fueled Powerhouse where she gets XP for going after the biggest threat, etc. I think you could swap that one for either of the other two and still be true to the character.