M&M3E, Symbiotes and Minion Advantage?

[Hellstormer1]

Hello!

Question for discussion. In Mutants & Masterminds 3E, if you wanted to write up Venom, Carnage, or any other number of Spider-Man symbiote-based characters.....would it be doable to make the symbiote a Minion?

The Minion symbiote (MinSym!?) could have powers that only Affects Others to explain the symbiote powers, as well as stats to explain its own Movement (Slithering) and abilities it shows when by itself. For any powers it can use on its own, these could have AEs for being useable by the "Host" when the MinSym bonds with one.

Another big question. If the Symbiote can be a Minion, then how would you represent the host bonding process, where symbiote and host become a single entity? Could you just say Feature (Host Bonding) with a Complication of not being able to use any of its own Abilities and other traits while bonded? Anyone have other ideas on this? I'm all ears.

INSPIRATION:

Conversation of if I got to run M&M3E and if people started asking for Marvel or Dragon Ball, and how I'd suggest doing an original setting but players could make their own takes on fave characters, and maybe have multiversal crossovers later on. "You could make your own version of Spider-Man, even change up his powers and abilities, give him (her?) a different name, different background, kinda like Miles Morales, and maybe even do a version of the Spiderverse story later on! Hell, you could even make a symbiote powered Spider-Man!", *immediately starts thinking on how to do this because it seems like a great idea/how to do symbiotes, hmm?*

[Davies]

Interesting idea. Something that might work could be putting whatever powers and advantages the Symbiote gives to their host in one slot of an array, and putting a Heroic* Summon for its independent form in the other slot.

* Since I presume you don't want the Symbiote dying to a single hit.

[theVoidWatches]

I would lean towards Davies' idea, personally. It seems like a simpler way of handling it than building a Sidekick (because you wouldn't want your Symbiote to get killed with a single hit, and if it does get taken out you want to be able to rescue it rather than get a new, similar Symbiote as the Minion advantage would do). If your Symbiote gets hurt up after you summon it, that's a power loss complication and you can fix it by rescuing or healing it.

[Ken]

You and your game master ought to figure out how often the Symbiote will appear as an independent entity.

Davies' method makes the most sense because most of the time the symbiote is a special effect on a bunch of powers, and a source for complications.
With the Heroic Summon you could also use limitations to reflect the specifics. If the symbiote, not your character, controls when it gets detached, give the power Uncontrolled. If your character and the Symbiote don't get along, purchase the Summon either Attitude 1 or Attitude 2.

[Spectrum]

I've seen a number of builds that turn your idea upside down. Rather than having a genie as a minor or sidekick to a relatively powerless main character, you make the genie the PC with a sidekick human.

I wonder if you could make the symbiote as the PC with a generic human sidekick?

[Cinder]

I've seen a number of builds that turn your idea upside down. Rather than having a genie as a minor or sidekick to a relatively powerless main character, you make the genie the PC with a sidekick human.

I wonder if you could make the symbiote as the PC with a generic human sidekick?

This was done commonly on the old ATT boards. I believe it was Elric that coined a term for it, but I cannot recall the term. Something like reverse sidekick, or something like that.

EDIT: it was “reverse sidekick,” but the term was coined in the 2E Masterminds Manual.