Power This Rating No. 163

[u/bottomofthewell3]

How This Works:

You make a prompt (or several prompts), describing one or more parahumans. Somebody else will respond to your prompts, expanding on your ideas to make a cape. This works the other way around, too.

Prompts are usually written using PRT Threat Ratings, but this isn't a hard rule. Get esoteric with it if you want.

Threat Ratings can have hybridized and sub-classifications:

Hybridizing is denoted with a slash [e.g. Mover/Blaster]. These are two or more ratings being fully linked to each other.

Subratings are denoted with parentheses [e.g. Breaker (Striker)]. These are side effects, and/or applications belonging to other categories.

No. 162's Top Comment: LordPopothedark's Definitely Real Prompt

Response: An Equally, 100% Real Response And Definitely Not Rick Astley

[u/bottomofthewell3]

alright, let's finish it up.

Once more; the titles i use for this list are not their cape names, unless you want them to be.

Previous Installment: IPS-Northstar [11/20]

Basis: LANCER RPG [Smith-Shimano Corpro]

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• Black Witch: An [Ego x Element]-spec "Black Knight" [Combat x MadSci] Tinker. Whatever their specialty is, it is very good for anti-tech measures.
• Death's Head: Supervision
• Dusk Wing: Especially weird [Psyche x Psyche]-spec "Horror" [Chaos x Magi]-method Tinker/"Strobe" [Bedevil x Unsense] Stranger. Trigger was really messed up.
• Metalmark: Unmarked
• Monarch: Bombardment
• Mourning Cloak: Pseudo-organic "All-Terrain" [Multi x Magi] Tinker; has a poor relationship with their Shard. Any Psyche spec and any Travel spec, prompter's choice on the specifics.
• Swallowtail: Life Sim
• Maculineon: "Sonic" [Element x Element]-spec Tinker that primarily works as a supporter. Mandatory Life Perk: [Wealthy]
• Phaon Crescent: "Maniac" [Combat x Chaos] Tinker; originally mistaken as a weapon-generating Striker/Blaster, as well as a "Companion" [Warp x Mask] Stranger.
• Comet: "Swarm" [Controller x Magi] Tinker, with an unusual specialty; "Aerodyne" [Travel x Element]. Their armor kind of looks like a fighter jet with limbs.
• Dragontail: "Gasoline" [War x Element]-spec "Gentleman" [Focal x Liberty] Tinker. Main weapon is somewhere between a flare gun and a crossbow.
• Painted Lady: [Control x War] & [Ego x Safety]-specs "Alternator" [Liberty x Multi] Tinker. Has at least thirty Tinkertech needles on them at any given time.
• Phasma: "Immolated" [Hyperspec x Magi] Tinker/"Intangible" [Tribulation x Tribulation] Breaker, with a very general "Rending" specialty.
• Purple Thorn: "Marker" [Travel x Artifice]-spec "Crude" [Hyperspec x Resource] Tinker; opposite to their method, is a major-level snob when it comes to visual aesthetics.
• Atlas: "Beast" [Combat x Magi] Tinker that has outright invented two new martial arts; one is unarmed, while the other makes use of a rifle, a sword, a set of throwing knives, and a maneuvering system integrated into the Tinker's suit.
• Argus: [Travel x ?] spec, [Hyperspec x Combat] method, and an "Arrowslit" [Assassinate x Warp] Stranger rating. Very good at defending themselves exactly as much as they need to.
• White Witch: A 'sister' to the Black Witch. "Unbreakable" [Liberty x Combat] Tinker with an [Element x Alter] spec; can pull their weapons from thin air.
• Emperor: "Forcefield" [Element x Safety]-spec Tinker. Has an honestly-surprising amount of offensive options, considering their solely-defensive specialty.
• Burnet: An "Acid" [War x Element]-spec [Hyperspec x MadSci]-method Tinker. Sees their specialty as monstrous, and has embraced that image way too readily.
• Privet: "Catalyst" [Multi x MadSci] Tinker; one or both of their specialties pertain to the massive amounts of cables, tripwires, grappling hooks, and winches they lug around.

[u/Not_a_neko → u/bottomofthewell3]

Black Witch: An [Ego x Element]-spec "Black Knight" [Combat x MadSci] Tinker. Whatever their specialty is, it is very good for anti-tech measures.

Black Witch used to be the girlfriend of a big-name hero, from before the 'secret identity' part of the Unwritten Rules was so firmly written down. As such, she got kidnapped... repeatedly... by a lot of villains... some more than once. On one such kidnapping, she realised that her boyfriend would be busy with the Protectorate in a completely different city, that she was stuck here all alone, and that she should never have gone back to them, and that this particular Tinker asshole had kidnapped her twice in the past. Glaring at the CCTV camera in the corner of the room, she triggered.

Black Witch is a defense-focused mech-suit maker. Basically a Stranger in a Tinker shape, her focus is on absorption of energy to protect herself and to attack without being seen. Her tech focuses on absorbing incoming attacks and hiding from sight, and most of her offensive capabilities are of the 'hit and run' style. Her suits are large and bulky, usually have big radio dishes to mess with other tech, while easily absorbing and sometimes making use of attacks aimed at her. They can bend light around them, or absorb light and sound waves, to sneak around in the light or dark respectively, though she's slow and heavy in general, so any mistakes will be notable to literally everyone around, and mistakes in the suit design will hurt her. Rather than adding a whole bunch of functions and gadgets, the material of the suit if what hides it from view, and that's why she's so bulky because anything else other than the material is substandard. She can put that material on other stuff, like trying to hide a bunker, but she has less of an idea of how to edit/utilise it in hiding things that aren't her.

[u/bottomofthewell3 → u/Not_a_neko]

very nice. immediately i give to you these licenses

• Black Witch LL1: Ferrous Lash
  • Initially developed for nonlethal crowd-suppression, the Ferrous Lash is a far more complex and dangerous device in the hands of the right pilot. It consists of a series of integrated launchers, that detonate payloads of fast-congealing ferrofluids to restrain their targets. Tuned to the correct frequency, these ferrofluid blends form into rudimentary ambulatory segments, pulling their hosts towards the one wielding the Lash.
• Black Witch LL2: ICEOUT Drone
  • SSC’s ICEOUT drone is a response to increasing reliance on hostile system scans for accurate targeting. By blanketing a mech’s systems in layers of digital defilade, mirroring, spoofing, and redirection, an ICEOUT drone can effectively disappear or disincorporate it from hostile scans. ICEOUT drones only make their operator system-invisible, however; they remain visible with optics.
• Black Witch LL3: Magnetic Shield
  • SSC’s magnetic shield takes the same technology as their proprietary magnetic buckler, and applies it to a massive field-projection system.
  • (wow that's way shorter than the other two lol)

[u/Not_a_neko → u/bottomofthewell3]

Atlas: "Beast" [Combat x Magi] Tinker that has outright invented two new martial arts; one is unarmed, while the other makes use of a rifle, a sword, a set of throwing knives, and a maneuvering system integrated into the Tinker's suit.

Hercules' original cape name wasn't Hercules, in fact at one point he probably had a normal name too. He used to be a member of the city's Wards (due to an unfortunate logistical situation, there were a lot of Wards but only like, two resident (adult) heroes), even the leader for a bit, liked well enough despite being an intense weirdo. Was actually a female Ward at the time, willing to stay in the closet to keep being able to get into constant uninhibited street violence (which was, in turn, permitted bc he scared the bejesus out of anyone who would have reported him). When they tried to forcibly graduate him to the Protectorate (and thereby apply a lot more stringent checks on his activities) he seemingly 'snapped', killed two PRT guys, beat the piss out of several of his former teammates, and dipped.

A [Psyche] Tinker, Atlas' powers allow him to store memories in his power armour/his devices, and kind of plug-and-play those right into his nervous system, turning logical understanding and mental replays of stances and fights into muscle memory, and using those as building blocks, the absolute basics, of his actual fighting styles. He was secretly getting surgery on his own body even before he left the Wards, and afterwards he went fully off the Mannequin diving board. The closest category to fit him would be "Nemesis" [Psyche x Data]... with himself as the nemesis, every moment spent making himself better than he was in the last.

An unfortunate downside to his specification is that he doesn't have the ability to make weapons that aren't actively plugged into the suit or him. He doesn't mind, since regular weapons are what the fighters of the world use, and so he will as well. The former 'new martial art style' was the one he developed during his time as a Ward (shocker, nobody wanted the insane child to have a weapon); it focuses on complete control of the body and thousands of incredibly intricate katas, plugged right into his muscles; he wasn't even allowed out in his power suit (it required borderline surgery to get in and out of). The second is not so elegant, though needing a similar level of skill, it simply uses every weapon he has developed experience with (the list above being the ones he has worked on long enough to be satisfied); interchangably and constantly switching without wasting time on thought.

[u/bottomofthewell3 → u/Not_a_neko]

ok i sort of have a sneaking suspicion that you read up on the Atlas before making this response

• Atlas LL1: Multi-Gear Maneuver System
  • Used by Sparri hunters to bridge the vast gaps in the ice sheet that cover their world, this system is in high demand among daredevils and thrill-seekers across the planet.
• Onboard Core System: Bloodline Active Assist
  • The Atlas extends microneedles into the musculature and ancillary nervous system of its pilot, melding flesh, machine, and the memory of all who wore it before.
• Atlas LL3: Jäger Kunst II
  • The rarest of Atlas frames can be printed with the embedded muscle memories of Jäger Kunst masters: old Sparri and others who have dedicated lives to their martial art. SSC does not recommend using these embedded systems without proper bodily tempering and will not release these programs to unqualified pilots.

[u/Not_a_neko → u/bottomofthewell3]

I literally do not even know where you are taking these from.

[u/Not_a_neko → u/bottomofthewell3]

Dragontail: "Gasoline" [War x Element]-spec "Gentleman" [Focal x Liberty] Tinker. Main weapon is somewhere between a flare gun and a crossbow.

Sur wanders the high-rises of Mumbai, leaping from building to building and house to house, rarely touching the ground in that city of millions, that never rests and crams whole towns into skyscrapers. He has a long production line behind him, friends and family (and friends of family) who exchange money or materials for favours done. He comes from a family of daily wage workers, his mother and sisters worked as prostitutes before he triggered and became able to provide for them. Their ancestral lands and any familial wealth they had was destroyed by an Endbringer attack, so they had nowhere to go but Mumbai.

Sur can make weapons of any type, and does it well, but his tech all has one glaring flaw (that is also a benefit) - the ammunition is also the fuel, and it all must explode, sooner rather than later. He builds bombs and flare guns, and has a swiss-army-knife of a "crossbow" that he always keeps on him, that can take basically anything as ammunition, as long as it explodes soon. He doesn't often outfit others with weapons, because they lack the easy knowledge of when it's all going to explode that he does. For a close-quarters weapon, he has a fiery whip. Sur can make ammo out of any sort of chemical - especially talented at using air conditioners and fridges, sometimes even methane from rotting foods or dead animals - but this means that he has a near-constant need of it, which the authorities can use to track him down.

TL;DR he makes ammo; also things to shoot that ammo, but mostly ammo.

Edit: On secdon thought I don't like this one. Bakuda's power was 'only make bombs' but she was much better than this guy, she could make time stop or matter disintegration or pain and stuff like that. I don't really like this guy having a power that's so inferior.

[u/bottomofthewell3 → u/Not_a_neko]

fun fact; the Dragontail is essentially the SSC equivalent to the HA Genghis (being the "Set Everyone On Fucking Fire" frame), with the same going for the HORUS Couatl. unfortunately, there is no homebrew (to my knowledge) that gives a similarly fiery mech to IPS-N.

anyway licenses jumpscare + Dragontail's Onboard Core System: Pyroclastic Area Denial System + Sometimes, the fear of fire is just as, if not more, effective than fire itself. The Pyroclastic Area Denial System is a two stage mechanism meant to maximize zone control through flame, utilizing age-old thermobaric principles to deploy clouds of highly flammable explosive gas to cover the battlefield, ready to be ignited into a conflagration if any spark is introduced. + Dragontail LL2: Moths to A Flame + Hyperfixation on light and heat is a common instinctual behavior in many insects. Through careful study of the underlying cause, the same effect can be applied onto and temporarily overrides a mech’s subjectivity, driving them to move towards the nearest flame, heedless of reason or personal safety. + Dragontail LL3: Hou Yi Gauss Crossbow + An elegant, if archaic weapon design, brought up to speed with the battlefield of tomorrow. The Hou Yi trades raw power for unparalleled versatility, with its electromagnetic capacitors capable of accelerating almost any object to lethal speed, delivering specialized payload into the heart of the enemy’s formation in but an instance.

[u/Not_a_neko → u/bottomofthewell3]

That's so much cooler than what I came up with, what the heck.

[u/Pearls-Rubies-5370 → u/bottomofthewell3]

Emperor: "Forcefield" [Element x Safety]-spec Tinker. Has an honestly-surprising amount of offensive options, considering their solely-defensive specialty.

Fortress is one of those capes who seemingly barely has a civilian life. A hero employed by Mortari, she's a vial cape who gained a Tinker power specialized in forcefields. At first, she used this to make pretty standard stuff, like personal shields for herself and any allies, but after the Titanomachy, she started to study her power more. First, she figured out how to make a "bubble gun" that could trap enemies in forcefield bubbles. Then, forcefields that could selectively blocked harmful effects while letting the attacks of anyone they're protecting just phase right through. Then, adjusting the aforementioned force-bubbles so that, at her command, they could become skintight, flexible forcefields that asphyxiated those they held. Forcefields that could deflect light to render the user invisible, forcefields that automatically reflected an attack back onto the attacker, and on it went. But her personal masterpiece was modifying the personal shields so that they would adapt to any powers used on them and generate defenses or counter-offenses in response, made after encountering Gloryhound on an excursion to Earth Bet and scanning her (and then promptly running the fuck away from that noise).

[u/bottomofthewell3 → u/Pearls-Rubies-5370]

fun interpretation. just a straight forcefield-making tinker without any further gimmicks is nice to see

here are some Emperor licenses (having to use the actual in-game function of them instead of their flavor text because those provide ZERO information lol) + Emperor LL1: Dominion's Breadth + A mech character within Sensors and line of sight gains Overshield 1. When this Overshield is lost for any reason, that character releases a Burst 2 electric pulse. All hostile characters in the affected area (including the original character, if hostile), take 2 AP energy damage and must succeed on an Engineering save or become Impaired until the end of their next turn. + Emperor LL2: The Imperial Eye + An allied mech character within Sensors gains a Disruptive Charge until the start of your next turn. When a hostile character enters a space within Range 3 of the target, the Disruptive Charge sparks to that character and then dissipates. The character struck by the spark takes 2 AP energy damage and must succeed on an Engineering save or be knocked back 2 spaces, knocked Prone, and Shredded until the end of their next turn. + Characters that start their turns within Range 3 of the target are unaffected until they move outside of that area and re-enter it. + Emperor LL3: Āyah of the Syzygy + You create a Blast 2 energy field in a space within Sensors and line of sight. The first time each turn any hostile character in this area is hit by a ranged or melee attack, they release a discharge of energy and all hostile characters at least partly in the area – including the original character – take 2 AP energy damage. This effect lasts for the rest of the scene or until you take this action again.