shrinking characters

[phillier937]

I know they exist in the comics but I've never seen anyone play a shrinking character ala ant man or wasp. Any experiences? - Patrick

[Hyper-Man]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I haven't played them but have made a couple (see my links to characters from vault and jla350 in my sig below).

Just seeing how they setup it looks like they tend to be very all or nothing combat wise (a decent AOE attack will usually take them out).

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: shrinking characters

 

Not yet, but the Tactical possibilities are interesting. Compactor, a Shrinking Bricks from 4e Champions of the North was a cool idea.

 

I would recommend Growth as well as a counter to being small.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I've only seen a handful.

One wasn't so much a 'Shrinking Character' as simply a midget, so he had 1 level of Shrinking Inherent and Always On.

One other had Shrinking with linked Density Increase, so he got smaller and stronger at the same time. Also had Flight, and did a lot of Move-Throughs, so called himself 'Bullet'.

[Christopher]

Re: shrinking characters

 

When you have 6E, take a look at the Size Templates in 6E1 444, they offer you anything you need to build someone with permanent shrinking.

 

For movement powers flying is usually the best choice, as it does not scales with size.

 

You might want to have a power to be noticed (most faries can "glow" just because of that), otherwise talkign with you is difficulty when they don't know where you are.

 

How serious do you want to take the Size Template? For Heroic Games the Size will most likely affect the maxima too, but for superheroics there is no reason to not have a Minute brick with 60 STR, 60m Running, and 40 PRE whose DCV 13 is based mostly on his size and who has +10 to Stealth. Small Sizes is just the SFX for his DCV and Stealth, and the Size Complication stands on it's own.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I'm using an insect-based character who runs off a VPP for a lot of his powers. He could have a ton of shrinking, often used for stealth/reconnoitering, but tends to go into combat with a few levels of shrinking and some chitinous armor, so he's not as well defended as his peers, but he is somewhat harder to hit. That gets rid of the "all or nothing" concern. That aspect, by the way, is very similar to the 8 - 10 defense, 13 - 15 DCV Martial Artist.

[Orion]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I have just one character with shrinking, but it was rarely used, and I don't think I ever used the shrinking power. I can't remember anyone else ever using it either - I think shrinking is the least used power in the book.

[Clonus]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I know they exist in the comics but I've never seen anyone play a shrinking character ala ant man or wasp. Any experiences? - Patrick

 

I played Gossamer, a shrinking telekinetic character with Tinkerbellesque quality to her once, but I didn't much of a chance to fight using her.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: shrinking characters

 

In a past Champions campaign, one of my players had Mosquito, a shrinker with 5-6 levels of Shrinking, Flight, and a relatively small (2d6) Continuous Uncontrolled NND no-range sting. Her favorite move was to land in the middle of someone's back, where most people can't reach, then sting and fly away. She also did a lot of recon (going into buildings through the ductwork and spy on the villains) before the heroes would go in.

 

As a GM, her being a Shrinker wasn't too much of a problem. For one thing, the player isn't the type to min-max or otherwise abuse the benefits of Shrinking. For another, her defenses were low enough that an AOE or Explosion attack could bother her.

 

Mosquito also had a subliminal "mind control" to get people to tell the truth but only while they're sleeping. She would whisper questions and encouragement and what-not into someone's ear, and he'd mumble answers to her questions in his sleep. That was a lot of fun to play out. My favorite time was when she tried it on a shady lawyer who, unbeknownst to the players, had made a deal with the devil to get 6d6 Luck. So every time Mosquito asked a question, something would happen -- the phone would ring with a wrong number, a car's burglar alarm would go off, someone would knock on the lawyer's door by accident, etc.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: shrinking characters

 

When you have 6E' date=' take a look at the Size Templates in 6E1 444, they offer you anything you need to build someone with permanent shrinking.[/quote']

I prefer Inherent and Always On for Growth, DI, and Shrinking. Just makes for a cleaner character sheet.

 

For movement powers flying is usually the best choice, as it does not scales with size.

Unless a lot changed with Shrinking in 6e, activating the power changes nothing other than what the power says it does. Your movement, defenses, Strength, etc. all remain the same.

[sinanju]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I played a character with shrinking. Actually, she had "body manipulation" as a power--she could grow, shrink, become intangible, shapeshift.... She sometimes shrank down to about an inch in height in battle to make herself hard to see or hit, and sometimes hitched a ride on a teammate with good dodge-type defenses as well. She was versatile, but had limited defenses when not giant or intangible, so avoiding getting hammered was important.

[Christopher]

Re: shrinking characters

 

Unless a lot changed with Shrinking in 6e' date=' activating the power changes nothing other than what the power says it does. Your movement, defenses, Strength, etc. all remain the same.[/quote']

Since I referenced the templates, I was of course still talking about the templates. And at leas in Superheroic games you may not even have to apply the Running Scale (you are really fast for someone that size, but in the end it's only 40m/phase).

 

Also, Growth does increase the Running (6E1 229), while shrinking leaves it unchanged.

[Arkham]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I've played a character with body-morphing powers, including shrinking, growth, and stretching in the same multipower. His name was Bingo the Clowno. Unfortunately I only played him in a short-term game, and a convention game. The Shrinking was used to sneak up on an enemy before switching to growth and getting one attack on them from surprise.

 

As a GM, I've written up, but never used a character with shrinking. I _have_ used one villain that was permanently an inch tall though. He was more of a mastermind than a direct combatant, but when he had to engage in combat, he had a toy plane he flew around in.

[Cassandra]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I built the Silver Age Atom as a martial artist with shrinking and teleportation ability. His microscopic shrinking and ability to travel along telephone lines was a special effect of the teleportation.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I built the Silver Age Atom as a martial artist with shrinking and teleportation ability. His microscopic shrinking and ability to travel along telephone lines was a special effect of the teleportation.

 

You mean like this?

 

The Atom

 

[Escafarc]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I havn't played a Shrinking character since 2nd or 3rd edition. The combo of shrinking, density increase, martial arts, and extra limbs(when you got extra hth skill levels with it) was pretty potent.

[Raz]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I have created heaps of shrinking characters, I really like it as a power - I have never really played one though, generally only used them for NPCs or bad guys.

 

I like to link the shrinking to something else to customise them a bit and to give the character a bit of offensive ability as well....eg:

 

Firefly was a flamboyant gay hero whose shrinking triggered a latent flame power; no real fancy tricks, just flight, a protective heat field, fire blasts and a close-range blinding attack by flaring up right in front of someone's face..

 

Lightning Bug had leaping and an electrical shock-field, but no actual ranged attack..

 

Snow Pea was a martial artist who duplicated by splitting his mass..

 

And a couple of others I designed but never really got the chance to use...

 

Hummingbird, who grew feathered wings and had superspeed - she could vibrate her wings at superspeed to create a NND sonic boom attack with no range, and

 

Silver Bullet, a girl who absorbed a tiny portion of an extraterrestrial metal which gives her extremely low-level magnetic abilities. At normal size, this just gives her a heightened sensitivity to electromagnetics. She can also shrink herself down into the metal somehow though which makes her a couple of inches tall, super-strong (for her size) and practically invulnerable. At that height she can use her magnetic control to fly at high speeds and to repel small metallic objects that come near her (eg: bullets).

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: shrinking characters

 

At some point, I'm going to play a stretchy character who can compress himself with a Shrinking/DI combo.

[Christopher]

Re: shrinking characters

 

On this page is another "Hummingbird" named Shrinking character:

http://www.herocentral.net/characters.htm?campaignId=1030163

Character has linked Density increase, flying and Resistant Protection to the shrinking. Overall +10 DCV, +9 Resistant Protection.

Described as being relative useless in a open fight, and mostly relieing on hitchiking allied fliers to supprise/combo attack the enemy.

 

Stopped folowing the Story, but it seems like it was working out during the Stronghold esscape.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: shrinking characters

 

I've never really liked the AT much myself, but White Dwarf was a pretty broken character played as a PC for a few sessions by one of the Millennial Men players. One of the other players played the shrinker from the MC8, El Aguilon IIRC, for a couple of sessions, and was very effective.