Have a couple more builds! Less preemptive backstabbing this time; scamming is fun, but enslaving Students who spent a Rank on prosocial mitigation is what's colloquially called a "dick move."
Cutting Class
Student +3 & 2S, Try Me, No Mitigation
Drawbacks: A Dalliance (Moderate) +1, A Season for War +2, Embrace of Winters +2
Powers: Initiate Sword -1, Initiate Bread -1, Initiate Rune -1, Initiate Storm Sapphire (Wind) -1, Initiate Truck -1
Core: Longevity 5, Output 3, Placement 0 for a total of -3
Sparks: Broken Limiter -1S, Heroism -1S
Who cares for prudence? Rather than learning at some Master's knee, I depart Earth for the Dalliance of a season. Let my classroom be the battlefield and experience my instructor; when I return, it will be with the strength to save this misbegotten world... if anything of it remains, after the inevitable internecine strife of the First Travail in Challenge Mode. The revised Rivalry's actually safer for the planet, since it scatters the teams throughout the multiverse.
Anyway, this build's not too complicated. The Dalliance is calibrated according to capabilities, so as the Truant I take a broad selection of powers that can be developed as necessary rather than investing Ranks in starting as an Adept. Broken Limiter's training is fast from Initiate to Adept, so that's where I focus my efforts, reserving Heroism for pushing to Exalted or creating new Powers. Physical exertion and opportunities for distinguished service shouldn't be scarce with this set of drawbacks.
A great deal depends on my Dalliance task and which of the Blood Halo's innumerable battlefronts I'm deployed to, but Restoration's likely to be the highest priority. Auto-resurrection enables Heroic risk-taking, yes, and healing the mind is necessary given the psychological toll of Season and War. But the real perk's that once I reach Exalted, I can restore and train the Bread (what does that even look like? Running marathons with a loaf in my mouth?) to Exalted.
The mental fortification from consuming it protects against Exalted Awe, but should also be relevant for weathering Winter's tempestuousness. Unlike Blossoming Spring, it doesn't scale with your stoicism. That drawback's avoided because the Truant, ironically, can't afford to slack off in the slightest. It's probable that despite Restorative therapy and Bread-based coping (aka. stress eating), I'll get fed up with the Embrace's shit at some point. Hopefully by then I'll have milked the Sparks for all they're worth and will have Powers aplenty to sacrifice. In the long term, sustained Heroism is incompatible with immortality no matter how many defenses I stack.
Sword and Bread together makes for a decent statblock; combined with Sapphire's wind control I can leap medium-sized buildings in a single bound. At Adept I'll snag metal as a second element for temporary synergy with the Sword and Truck, though Storm Queen's the ultimate prize. If I reach Exalted Sword, I'll call my SMA the Thunderer's Approach: a dim, diminished shadow of the apocalyptic war-making arts employed by the Architect of Ruin during his campaigns.
Mechanically it's mostly +Willpower with bursts of Might/Agi/Wits from galvanic supercharging, applicable to both man and machine. It can also hurl Jovian lightning bolts empowered by the wielder's resolve and/or wrath, synergizing with SQ and Endless Hope. Speaking of Hope, since Rune-Bread can be eaten repeatedly I have a means of inducing an ecstatic emotional state at will - which'll inevitably give way to anger, when my enemies prevent me from eating more Bread.
Truck's the odd Power out here, taken for initial damage soak and an eventual escape hatch if the situation on Earth looks untenable. If I return from the Dalliance to find everything on fire, everyone enslaved by Awe, or the whole planet gone the way of Alderaan, at least I can take a roadtrip to greener pastures. Truant tries to steer clear of powers that malfunction when contested, hence the Timepiece's absence.
And that's the build! A variant could easily avoid the Embrace (or Season, though if I wasn't ditching Earth to have swordfights the name wouldn't fit) by dropping Longevity to 4. But I wanted a properly immortal playthrough, so this goes all-in on ambition rather than ruthlessness. The Truant either dies during the early or midgame in some alien warzone or lives forever, having refused the 'Gift' of Men.
Codename: Zeus
Master +9, Try Me, No Mitigation
Drawbacks: Gift of Men +1, Dalliance (Difficult: uplift the human condition) +1, Blossoming Spring +1, Rivalry +2, Embrace of Winters +2
Powers: Exalted Tincture -5, Exalted Rune -5, Exalted Companion -5 (Exalted Bread, Exalted Awe, Adept Timepiece, Adept Sword: Greatsword + Bastard Sword, Adept Truck)
Core: Longevity 3, Output 3, Placement 0 for a total of -1
A confusing name, as the last build featured an electrokinetic! But since the CYOA's called Prototype, somebody must make Alex Mercer. The original conception of this featured both Zeus and the chosen Companion (a version of his sister Dana imbued with some much-needed competence) taking Exalted Tincture, so I could get double the shoggoth goodness and a protean war form with twice the mass. But it matches the game's story better if she's a source of inspiration and a humanizing anchor for a more monstrous protagonist, so the final cut has her with Exalted Bread and Awe instead.
The result's a solid Rivalry build. Zeus is a shapeshifting horror that just won't stay dead and can share the fun, stacking contingent resurrections on his teammates. The Rune can Restore Dana's Bread too, innoculating them against Awe. They also have both Awe and Tincture, so other allies can be boosted to situational relevance against the unprotected. Thanks to having seven domains between them, they can benefit from a variety of buffs in return. Paying for all this requires an unpleasant set of drawbacks, however. Thankfully mitigating the First Travail is unnecessary as it doesn't affect teammates.
The transhumanistic difficult Dalliance is fitting for Mercer and doesn't separate him from the team in the early game; Restoration and Tincture allow for progress while accomplishing other strategic objectives. Blossoming Spring isn't that bad with Awe to provide motivation, and while the Embrace will eventually become unendurable it's decent for Rival builds that can defray the cost of slipping its leash if they win. All told, the build manages to scrape together the Rank to dodge Season of War. Sure, Tincture means Alex and Dana could go together, but spending seven-tenths of their time absent? In a life-or-death PvP match? Season's as harsh as the Affliction of Slumber for Rivals, in a way.
All in all, a surprisingly viable meme build. The pun had to be made, but the shapeshifting abomination being a team player is perhaps funnier.
1651 total words, counting the previous build.
