Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Memory Lane: the Silver Knight for V&V

This character was the other one based on me. When I started a new campaign world in High School, the one I still primarily use for V&V adventures, which you can find here if you're interested, one of the other players, Jesse, wanted to try GMing for a bit but didn't want to build a whole world so I let him run games in mine - everyone else used their same PCs from the hero team Ground Zero and I got a chance to play. (My eventual decision to remove 'me' from the game world to explain my absence in the college years game means this PC is not in the campaign world website.)

Silver Knight played into my love of big bruisers, with his Chemical Powers mixed with heightened strength B and heightened expertise with bastard sword. He was an ok PC but stymied by the issues with agility/initiative in a team of martial artists and speedsters.

The Silver Knight (Brian Rogers)

Side: Good    Experience level: 2

Affect/Gimmick: He's a chivalric knight in appearance and general attitude, but also made of solid metal for lots of extra durability and super-strength. I liked the general idea of someone projecting their psyche into an animal or object to control it, but I wasn't keen on the idea of leaving an unprotected body behind, so instead I merged with the knight miniature I carried to animate it, and it grew to human size. I wanted Silver Knight to contrast with the rest of the darker mid 80's vigilantes on the super team, but I didn't play often or long enough for it to work out. 

I've been looking for a good image of a knight with a bastard sword for a visual reference but there is so much grey goo of AI generated stuff out there that I can't find something I like and am willing to link to. So here's an image of The Knight from DC comics. (edited to add: I just remembered I can block pre-2023 results, which got me this image of a Silver Knight from the DarkSouls3 game, which is closer to what I wanted; his weapon is ridiculous, but what can you do?)




Status: a probationary member of Ground Zero, he can draw on their government and MEDUSA contacts in a crisis.  

Powers: 

  1. Chemical Powers Item - Mithril: Brian carries a small (2" high) statue of a knight made from the metal out of myth. Thanks to the enchantment he is able to 'merge' with the statue, turning his body into a 6'6" tall knight made of shining silver metal. This takes one action to transform and gives him the following advantages
    1. His weight is increased by a factor of 5. 
    2. He has a chemical powers defense at no action or movement cost. He also has no need to breathe while in this form.
    3. His body generates a shield on his left arm which is always attached to him, which he uses to give Chemical Powers defense to anyone within 1" of him at no action cost - it does cost 10" movement.
    4. This body generates a sword which is always attached to him. This is a +3 to hit +1d6 damage weapon when used with the flat of the blade (his normal method) but he can use the edge to add a carried Chemical Powers attack for 2d8 damage at a PR of 8 per use. 
    5. He gains 20 points of strength. This is tied with his Heightened Strength power. 
  2. Heightened Strength B: +27 points total, but only +7 of those are used in his 'normal' form. 
  3. Heightened Expertise: +4 with all medieval weaponry attacks (including fists) This training also gives him a +4 agility solely to offset the penalty for weight gain
  4. Heightened Charisma B: +8
  5. Reduced Strength: Modified so that his Heightened Strength is only partially available outside his transformed self. 
Weight: 192 (960)       Basic Hits: 4 (20)    Agi Mod: 0 (-4)
S: 15 (35)  E: 9           HP: 8 (75)
A: 12         I:  13          Pow:  49 (69)
C: 21                           Move: 36 (56)
Accuracy: +1 (+8 with sword)
Damage Mod: +1
Reactions Mod: +4/-4
Carrying Cap: 390 (21,012)    HTH: 1d6 (3d10)

Inventions: None yet, but I think I was working on a mithril crossbow for the armored form that would let me make chemical powers attacks at range. 

Background/Origin:  Brian Rogers was a typical High School student deeply into theater and role-playing (Performing Arts background, History) until a visit to an antiquarian bookseller brought him the journal of a dark ages scholar that contained within it a secret recess holding the statue of a medieval knight. The books was not only a medieval warfare manual (whose precepts Brian rapidly absorbed) but also instructions on how to activate the immense power of the Silver Knight. Since then he has been doing his best to protect people from superhuman violence. 

My plan for the hero, if he ever operated solo, was to do the 'stronger than he looks' teen detective thing until things got dangerous, then taking the weightier and nearly indestructible form of the Silver Knight. His meager 1.6 actions per round limit him somewhat, but he does have a solid enough (13-) chance to hit normal foes and does an insane (3d10+1d6+1 with sword) amount of damage that he can boost even higher with the chemical powers attack. Not a lot of people can take a 31 damage average hit. More often with the super-team he would disable opponents vehicles,  build or break barricades, defend and rescue innocents, etc. in the proper heroic mold. 

I think the character has a lot of potential in the right game and wouldn't mind trying him again. 

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