Methion (The Grand Wizard)
Power Level: 16; Power Points Spent: 500/500
STR: +0 (10), DEX: +0 (10), CON: +0 (10), INT: +7 (24), WIS: +7 (24), CHA: +7 (24)
Tough: +20, Fort: +5/+12, Ref: +5/+12, Will: +20
Skills: Bluff 13 (+20), Concentration 18 (+25), Craft (artistic) 18 (+25), Diplomacy 18 (+25), Disguise 1 (+8), Gamble 13 (+20), Gather Information 18 (+25), Intimidate 13 (+20), Investigate 13 (+20), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 18 (+25), Knowledge (art) 13 (+20), Knowledge (business) 13 (+20), Knowledge (civics) 13 (+20), Knowledge (current events) 13 (+20), Knowledge (history) 13 (+20), Knowledge (streetwise) 18 (+25), Knowledge (tactics) 18 (+25), Knowledge (theology & philosophy) 18 (+25), Notice 18 (+25), Search 13 (+20), Sense Motive 18 (+25), Survival 1 (+8)
Feats: Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Artificer, Assessment, Attack Focus (ranged) 8, Benefit (Status (Leader of the Strength Revolution)), Benefit 3 (Wealth (Near Limitless)), Benefit 4 (Alternate Identity), Defensive Attack, Eidetic Memory, Evasion, Improved Critical 2 (Magic Blast (Blast 20)), Power Attack, Precise Shot 2, Ritualist, Skill Mastery 2 (Diplomacy, Gather Info, KN (arcane lore, streetwise, tactics, theo & philo), Notice, Speed of Thought (Init uses INT), Ultimate Effort (KN (arcane lore) checks), Ultimate Effort (Will saves), Uncanny Dodge (Mental)
Powers:
Defensive Wizardry (Container, Active 15)
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Enhanced Trait 15 (Traits: Fortitude +7 (+12), Reflex +7 (+12), Feats: Evasion)
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Immunity 9 (life support)
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Protection 20 (+20 Toughness; Impervious [15 ranks only])
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Sensory Shield 4 (sense: all senses, +8 to saves vs. Dazzle attacks)
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Shield 8 (+8 dodge bonus)
Grand Wizardry (Variable 24) (acquire: multiple powers, limited to: magic powers; Action 2 (free))
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Classic Elementalist (Power Setting) (Powers: Enchanted Flight (Flight 10), Extra Warding (Immunity 110), Magic Blast (Blast 20))
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Enchanted Flight (Flight 10) (Speed: 10000 mph, 88000 ft./rnd)
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Extra Warding (Immunity 110) (fortitude saves, lethal energy damage, lethal physical damage, nonlethal energy damage, nonlethal physical damage; Limited - Half Effect)
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Magic Blast (Blast 20) (DC 35, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Magic Blast (Blast 20)); Precise, Variable Descriptor 2 (Broad group - Any Magic))
Immunity 1 (aging)
Magic Awareness (Super-Senses 17) (accurate (type): Mental, acute (type): Mental, analytical (type): Mental, awareness: Magical (mental), awareness: Mental (mental), extended (type): Mental 2 (-1 per 1k ft), radius (type): Mental, ranged: Mental)
Power Settings:
Classic Elementalist (Power Setting) (Powers: Enchanted Flight (Flight 10), Extra Warding (Immunity 110), Magic Blast (Blast 20))
Attack Bonus: +4 (Ranged: +12, Melee: +4, Grapple: +4)
Attacks: Magic Blast (Blast 20), +12 (DC 35), Unarmed Attack, +4 (DC 15)
Defense: +12 (Flat-footed: +2), Knockback: -17
Initiative: +7
Languages: Native Language
Totals: Abilities 42 + Skills 78 (312 ranks) + Feats 32 + Powers 309 + Combat 16 + Saves 23 + Drawbacks 0 = 500
Age (as of Jan 2019): It’s complicated (chronological), mid 20s (biological)
Height: 5’ 10”
Weight: 175 lbs.
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Theme Song:
The Prayer of The Refugee, by Rise Against
Background: The Sage of Six Schools. The Grand Wizard. The Final Boss. Methion. His past is purposefully shrouded in mystery, obscured, and the details blurred. He did this with magic. Chronomancy, specifically, along with more obscure wizardry. Also lots of lies and disinformation. He was the unwanted half blood prince of a continent spanning empire. He was a poor child from an insignificant village. He was the son of a the equivalent of a major city police chief. He was born to a carpenter in a small city. There’s dozens of others. He himself isn’t quite sure what the truth is anymore. But the core of the story remains the same. His home was burned. His mother was murdered. His sister was blinded. Never again, he swore. He would do everything in his power not to get revenge, but to make sure that his sister was taken care of and that no one in the entire world ever had to go through what he did. Fortunately, there was a training academy. The details of it are as obscured as the rest of his backstory, but it was here he learned magic. His first spells. He was a true prodigy. An absolute genius. The most skilled mage in the entire school. But his power he hid, for at this time he was basically a modern superhero. But this was not enough. It was not enough to be reactive. He didn’t want to punish or serve justice. He wanted to prevent, not clean up after. So he sought political and economic power and influence. He excelled at this, too. But here too he was stymied. Entrenched interests fought him tooth and nail. But he gritted his teeth and fought back. He did real, tangible good. So many lived improved and/or saved. But it was never enough. Enemies and allies, time and again, forced him to narrow the breadth of his vision. Compromise after compromise while people still starved or were left bleeding and dead on the ground. It was intolerable. He was the genius. He was the prodigy. He was their superior at practically everything. Why was there always the arguments and the disagreements? Why, when they all but admitted that he was right? And the naked greed and stubborn pride of his enemies was somehow worse. Everyone, including them, would be better off if they just listened to him. But no. They had to have it their own way. Eventually he’d had enough. Enough of the greed. Enough of the pride. Enough coddling the overly sentimental. Enough compromising his vision of a brighter future for everyone in the name of letting everyone have input.
. . The Strength Revolution started as a terrorist organization. It arguably still is one, in part. The various social, cultural, and governmental systems were all too broken to serve any longer. So he’d slowly tear them all down. Except. This didn’t work either. Heroes, you see. Those passionate devotees of the broken status quo. While Methion himself remained in the shadows, the Revolution was virtually dismantled on several occasions. The direct approach wouldn’t do, either. So he got subtler. Wheels within wheels. Plans within plans. Schemes within schemes. A hero cannot fix the world’s problems. A villain can’t, either. No one person can do this, due to the inherent resistance of the human race toward being controlled in this way.
. . And yet.
. . The basic idea is to embody the opposite of all the virtues he wishes in instill in human society permanently. A centuries, if not millennia long series of plans, schemes, and manipulations. He doesn’t merely want to be reviled as the worst villain to ever exist. His name spat on forever. No, no. The right kind of heroes are also required to come and defeat him. And so Methion and the Strength Revolution lurk behind the scenes of the world. He keeps his ultimate end goal, that of a better world without the endlessly infuriating weakness he so despises, to himself and a small inner circle. He births new heroes and villains and/or shapes existing ones, ever guiding the world towards darker outcomes. But even this is a simplistic take on his many interweaving plots. For the Strength Revolution contains multitudes. His sights are not set on the individual, but the broad sweep of history. He has tricked, deceived, and murdered many potent beings and stolen their power. The Revolution’s front businesses are intricately tied into the global economy, and employ many people who know nothing of their existence or activities. The Revolution’s activities paint them as despicably murderous villains in one instance and rebellious anti-heroes exposing corporate corruption in another. Even their supposed defeats play into his endlessly intricate schemes. The world grows darker under his hand, even as heroes shine ever brighter. Plagues emerge and ravage the globe. Right wing authoritarianism and fascism threaten to dominate the world. Crime rises in an unending tide. Terrorists rally to the banners of their causes. And more and more heroes take the stage to oppose it all as the Grand Wizard pulls more strings and advances more plans. He will save the world and the humans who inhabit it from their own weakness. Even if he has to destroy everything first.
Powers & Tactics: Methiod is a wizard. Yet that fails to capture the full reality of the matter. Methion isn’t merely a wizard. He is THE wizard. The kind they write about in high fantasy novels and settings. A thousand spells? Please, that is a drop in the ocean for him. His skill is beyond any. His knowledge and power are only matched by Asteroth. Every other magician, even wise Merlin, pale in comparison. As such, he can kind of do whatever the hell he wants. You name it, he’s got a spell for that. He’s not the Grand Wizard for nothing.
. . Tactically, the Grand Wizard Methion is the Final Boss of the Phoenixverse. He’s a PL 16 with explicit permission via a big ass Variable power to do anything you can dream up, Mr. GM. 120 points of offensive devastation. Get creative. This is the absolute final battle of your campaign, so feel free to pull out all the stops. Classic Elementalist is easy mode, if you can’t think of anything good in your view. Also, throw out the usual cooperative framework for Mutants and Masterminds. The battle against Methion is you trying to kill your heroes off. No mercy, no pity. Again, this is the absolute final battle of your campaign, so if your heroes aren’t ready for the sudden game genre switch, don’t have the battle yet. With that said, Methion can engage in battles without being noticed due to the Summon, Concealment, Illusion, and/or Obscure powers. Those cases aren’t the final battle, so stick with the usual framework. And naturally, let him slip away without being noticed afterward.
. . More broadly, he doesn’t make any of the usual dumb mistakes supervillains do. In fact, often when heroes thwart the Revolution’s plans, there’s still a feeling of unease. Like that was supposed to happen, or it didn’t matter at all if the heroes won. Like they’re being manipulated still. Which is true. Methion and the Strength Revolution are a physical, mental, spiritual, and ideological challenge. As a note, the given build for Methion is only a suggestion. He’s easily capable of being PL X and untouchable under normal circumstances. It’s all up to how you want to handle him in your game, Mr. GM. Ah, but don’t forget. He cheats. It’s a wizard thing.
Personality: People think Methion is an unrepentantly evil bastard. And indeed, he plays the role to the hilt with most. The classic arrogant, megalomaniacal master villain. A sociopathic manipulator and brutal killer full of insatiable greed. By all appearances, this is who he appears to be. Except. There’s the fiery revolutionary and champion of the unfairly oppressed. The man who has brought hope where there was none before. Everyone is the hero of their own story. They are, by and large, blind to their failings. Methion is not. He knows he has made himself into a monster, and it haunts his nightmares. He clings tightly to his humanity. To his conscience, moral compass, and compassion. But then why? Why do any of the terrible, horrific things he has done? Because one man cannot save the world. But one man can be made symbolic of all that is evil and wicked. He can be risen up against, cast down, and utterly destroyed. The kind of heroes that can do that to him can then build his better world from the ashes of all he laid waste. And if the better world falters? He can always come back and do it all over again.
. . That’s a lot of words up there and it likely sounds very complicated. So to simplify, he wants to make Star Trek happen. Not like, literally, but the whole socialist utopia where everyone just kind of slots naturally into where their skills, aptitudes, and level of ambition put them thing? Yeah, mostly that. And his basic plan is to raise up the heroes who can make that happen while being the villain who makes it necessary in the first place. And while being the villain to end all villains. So awful that society itself keeps a watchful eye on any ne’er do wells, potential ne’er do wells, or potential potential ne’er do wells to prevent anyone like him ever happening again. You may recognize this as fascism, a police state by other means, and even ultimately a form of eugenics as “undesirables” are rooted out of the system. He certainly does, and doesn’t really care. Because if it goes wrong, he’ll just come back and fix it. Because at his core, he’s an arrogant man with a deep rooted messiah complex who cannot conceive of just how fractally wrong he is. And that’s the only part of himself he’s not aware of.
. . Methion’s motivations are very understandable. It doesn’t take a genius to see the many ways in which the world is broken. And it doesn’t take high ideals or a heart overflowing with compassion to want to do something about it. And and it doesn’t require any particular lack of patience to realize that doing it the right way (working with the very people you’re trying to help) will have a legion of setbacks along the way and require another legion of frustrating compromises. Even the most powerful are not omnipotent, and even the most knowledgeable are not omniscient. If it is to be done right, one must have empathy and patience for the various flaws and weaknesses humans have, and the humility to understand that you have some too and are thus no better. And even outside of that, no one person can control every possible outcome. This is where Methion has completely failed. He genuinely believes that he’s better. And not entirely in the traditionally arrogant way. Such immense natural gifts come with responsibilities and obligations. It’s tragic, really. He’s cut himself off from what it means to be human.
. . The solitary wizard in his tower. A man of intellect and vision, but also compassion and strong moral principles. Taking the world’s problems on his shoulders alone. He built a revolution of like minded individuals to serve his interests, but none of them are really his friends. He seeks no recognition. He desires no praise. Basically, I want to stress just how sympathetic he and his motivations are. How ideal of a person he seems to be. Because it throws his monstrous actions into sharper relief. One man cannot save the world. One man cannot fix all of its problems. He thinks he understands that. He does not. If the heroes actually manage to get him to legitimately Motive Rant, it should be legendary.
. . Methion is the single most important villain in the entire Phoenixverse. In my entire multiverse. His plots within plans within schemes have shaped the fates of nations and indeed entire worlds. And he can never get it quite right. I genuinely hope I’ve explained him well enough so that you, dear reader, don’t dismiss him as just another villain to be punched into prison. Then again, it is your gaming table, isn’t it?
Though really, I do believe magical summoning (not duplication, that's different) should be treated this way. Unless, of course, you're just creating something out of whole magic. But if you're actually summoning another being from somewhere and summoning that specific being regularly (as opposed to DnD/Pathfinder's random member of that creature type), why the hell wouldn't they be a character in the story? With their own thoughts, feelings, and agency? And if we're doing that, then summoning them because you want to and how they feel about it is irrelevant isn't very heroic. Unless they're like demons or something, I suppose. But heroes shouldn't be summoning demons to fight their battles for them anyway, that's insanely dangerous and irresponsible.