This will not be a thread for showing off my creative genius, as many of the builds here will be closely adapted from the Gamemaster's Guide "Minion Archetypes" and/or Jab's Animals thread. This is pretty much just so I can link to statblocks in my VordWarp thread when those statblocks aren't actually specific to the VordWarp setting.
Earth's largest natural animal. Might as well start there, right?
PL9 Offense; PL6 normal Defenses; PL10 special Defenses; PL4 Skills.
Unlike some other kinds of whales, blues' hearing is tuned for low frequencies.
Blue Whale Minion Rank 4, Sidekick Rank 10 Power Level 10 (47 PP)
Unarmed: +6 · Close Damage DC 27 (Strength-based), bludgeoning.
Grab: +0 · Close · DC 22.
Complications
Motivation - Survival.
Disability. Whales have no hands, can’t speak or understand human languages, and can't move about on land.
Poached. Whales are valuable to poachers for the oil that can be harvested from their bodies.
Non-Valvular. After a whale receives a Bruise representing a puncture wound deep enough to penetrate its vascular system, healing that wound naturally is difficult, due to the whale's lack of blood vessel valves; it is likely to keep bleeding for a long time. Once every 12 hours when it would normally recover from such a Bruise, the whale may attempt a DC 30 Fortitude save to recover from it. On a failure, no recovery takes place.
Besides re-selecting native language (I'm not trying to stereotype, in this case; just picked the most common native language on Earth)—many guards may have the Favored Foe Advantage against a certain organization. Particularly combative bodyguards may have the Improved Critical Advantage for one of their forms of attack. Particularly vigilant ones may have the Skill Mastery Advantage in Insight or Perception. 1 PP of variation may be spent without increasing the bodyguard's Sidekick Rank.
Slam & Gore: +7 · Close Damage DC 26 (Strength-based), bludgeoning or piercing.
Grab: +6 · Close · DC 19. Not Vulnerable while grabbing. Causes suffocation.
Complications
Motivation - Survival.
Disability. Elephants can't do much fine manipulation with their feet, and can't speak human languages. They are Disabled (-5) at climbing, have Impaired (-2) visual senses, and are utterly incapable of jumping.
Poached. Elephants are extremely valuable to poachers for their tusk ivory.
Temper. Male African bush elephants are notoriously aggressive, even when not in musth.
Phobia. As incredible as it may seem, there is some evidence that elephants are indeed afraid of, or at least easily startled by the sudden appearance of, mice and other small burrowing creatures.
Sensitivity. Though thick, an elephant's skin is very sensitive, and vulnerable to sunburn, dehydration, and bug bites if not maintained with a coating of mud or dust.
PL8 Offense; PL8 normal Defenses; PL8 special Defenses; PL5 Skills.
I don't generally want to get so granular as to make separate stat blocks for different sexes of a species, but when one sex is about 60% of the size of the other and should be a full Power Level less mighty, it's hard not to.
Female African Bush Elephant Minion Rank 6, Sidekick Rank 16 Power Level 8 (79 PP)
Slam & Gore: +6 · Close Damage DC 25 (Strength-based), bludgeoning or piercing.
Grab: +5 · Close · DC 18. Not Vulnerable while grabbing. Causes suffocation.
Complications
Motivation - Survival.
Disability. Elephants can't do much fine manipulation with their feet, and can't speak human languages. They are Disabled (-5) at climbing, have Impaired (-2) visual senses, and are utterly incapable of jumping.
Poached. Elephants are extremely valuable to poachers for their tusk ivory.
Temper. African bush elephants are notoriously aggressive, although the females less so than the males.
Phobia. As incredible as it may seem, there is some evidence that elephants are indeed afraid of, or at least easily startled by the sudden appearance of, mice and other small burrowing creatures.
Sensitivity. Though thick, an elephant's skin is very sensitive, and vulnerable to sunburn, dehydration, and bug bites if not maintained with a coating of mud or dust.
Slam: +6 · Close Damage DC 25 (Strength-based), bludgeoning.
Grab: +5 · Close · DC 18. Not Vulnerable while grabbing. Causes suffocation.
Complications
Motivation - Survival.
Disability. Elephants can't do much fine manipulation with their feet (although the Asiatic elephants are quite a bit more nimble with their front feet than African elephants), and can't speak human languages. They are Disabled (-5) at climbing, have Impaired (-2) visual senses, and are utterly incapable of jumping.
Poached. Male Asiatic elephants are extremely valuable to poachers for their tusk ivory.
Temper. Asiatic elephants are much easier to handle than African bush elephants, but can still be dangerous if something sets off their temper.
Phobia. As incredible as it may seem, there is some evidence that elephants are indeed afraid of, or at least easily startled by the sudden appearance of, mice and other small burrowing creatures.
Sensitivity. Though thick, an elephant's skin is very sensitive, and vulnerable to sunburn, dehydration, and bug bites if not maintained with a coating of mud or dust.
Male Asiatic elephants have tusks, and should thus replace "Slam" with "Slam & Gore"—which will have the Variable Descriptor 1 (bludgeoning/piercing) Extra.
Last edited by CaptainKaulu on Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
This is an "emergency" statblock to fall back on when you need a generic bystander; not a block you should ever plan on using, because people this generic and untalented should actually be a rarity.
But even when you use this statblock without otherwise spicing it up, unless it's a Chinese businessman/businesswoman, you should at least alter the native language and the primary Expertise subskill on the fly.
Pounce: Enhanced Advantage 3 [Luck (Recover) 3] Flaws: Limited 2 to recovering from Extra Effort: Action, used to combine two offensive actions such as Attack, Charge, Grab, Startle, Trip
In a world filled with superheroes and supervillains, there are always intrepid reporters out to get the latest story ... or just get in the way. This stat block is based closely on the one in the book.
Unarmed: +0 · Close Damage DC 15 (Strength-based), bludgeoning.
Grab: +0 · Close · DC 10.
Complications
Motivation - Nosy. Reporters want to know everything that's going on, and can be relentless even in dangerous situations. It's not only what they get paid to do, it's their natures too.
Besides re-selecting language(s) (this time I just picked the most common language of the world's free press), there are many ways this stat block could be improved, from boosting its physical capabilities for more daring reporters to adding a lot more Equipment for wealthier reporters. Any increased traits (except up to 4 ep more of Equipment) will boost the Reporter's Minion Rank or Sidekick Rank.
Last edited by CaptainKaulu on Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:46 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Ken wrote: ↑Fri Aug 14, 2020 5:25 pm
I think a 17 Toughness is a tad high for an animal which was hunted nearly to extinction by men with thrown harpoons.
I worried about that too, but I assumed that by the time Blues started to get taken down in large numbers, something nastier than a mundane thrown harpoon was being used. The little bit of research that I've done on the topic seems to vindicate this: the harpoons started having explosives included in their heads in the mid 1700s, and were rocket-propelled starting in the 1820s.
And of course anyone attacking a creature this Toughness-shifted is going to be using Power Attack as strongly as possible.
However, my research also turned up information about whales being especially susceptible to (eventually) dying from small wounds that have punctured their vascular system, due to the lack of valves in their blood vessels. Do you think that is better represented by a lower Toughness, or by a Complication, since the bleeding out is a very slow process?
I'd suggest dropping the Vehicles skill (ordinary usage does not require a skill roll, and your typical reporter is not getting into car chases), reducing Stealth to 3 ranks (so they get caught more frequently and have to be rescued) and boosting Investigation to 3 ranks (since Gather Information is what reporters do.) This makes the template an even 30 points, a Minion 2 or Sidekick 6.
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
Davies wrote: ↑Wed Aug 19, 2020 12:11 pmI'd suggest dropping the Vehicles skill (ordinary usage does not require a skill roll, and your typical reporter is not getting into car chases), reducing Stealth to 3 ranks (so they get caught more frequently and have to be rescued) and boosting Investigation to 3 ranks (since Gather Information is what reporters do.) This makes the template an even 30 points, a Minion 2 or Sidekick 6.
Those are some fair suggestions. Makes me wonder if I should even trim off another point to replace with Investigation +3, Limited to gathering information.
I know that Vehicles skill isn't required for ordinary usage, but I like a lot of characters to at least be able to try to pull a Vehicles stunt if they do happen to get involved in a car chase. But probably not needed on the generic Reporter, like you say.