Fireheart

Heh, go for it.

Be Well!
Fireheart

I agree, Kheldians and Illusion Controllers benefit immensely from Hasten... Why should they have to?

I'll agree, also, that part of what makes Kheldians more effective is the buffs and other effects they have in Human form and carry over to Nova and Dwarf... Why should they 'have to' use a Pool Power, in order to be effective?

One more attack in each form would allow the forms to be a little more self-contained. Granted, not as awesome as a true 'Dancing Tri-Form', but still effective.

Really, instead of calling me a nut, why don't you Consider what you could do, if you did not 'have to' take Hasten??

Be Well!
Fireheart

Yeah... with Hasten... Why should we have to take Hasten, just for a basic attack chain? Why should he have to take Hasten at all? I hate Hasten.

Also, as I alluded before, Black Dwarf has the 3 basic attacks needed to form a chain, but White Dwarf does not. Nova also does not and the AoEs recharge slow enough that they really don't chain well.

Happily, my pure-human PB does not suffer from this. No Hasten and I can manage a nice quick chain of Bolt-Eye-Bolt-Blast (repeat) with punches and AoEs thrown in for extra-spicy-flavor! I'm a pure-human PB, so I don't have to take Hasten to keep from sucking.

To approach this level of performance, Nova needs an 'Eye' equivalent and White Dwarf needs 'Barrage', to round out their 'Energy Punch' and 'Bone Smasher' clones. Or, since 'Barrage' is such a sucky power (without Bruising), Incandescent Strike might be nice in Dwarf form.

Finally, to encourage taking the forms, each form should start with 2 enhancement slots in each power. Finally, we'd be able to slot things reasonably. Kheldians might even approach the Other meaning of 'epic'.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Quite right, I mean a regular attack. Eye-beams and another punch.

Nukes just aren't that useful in the attack-chain.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Okay, I'm glad to share. My PB's story is much better organized, at this point - in fact it's composed for membership in another game-group, so it's easier to post. Meet 'Starlight Saint', L36 Peacebringer, on Virtue.

Hero Identity: Starlight Saint
Name: Simon Alexander Templeton
Given that the man with that name is supposed to have died in the 1970s and was not a nice person, he is likely to have had several aliases. None of them apply to his current life, but there’s always the chance of some ‘old ghost’ popping up to trouble him.
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Age: Undefined – appears 30-ish
Height: 5’10” ~ 180 cm
Weight: 185 lbs ~ 85 kg
Eyes: Deep Blue - Green, changeable.
Hair: Red-gold/Blonde – Long-ish, thick, wavy.
Place of Birth: Rochester, NY, 1902-1905
Marital Status: Unmarried
Known Relatives: Elder brother, Michael Simeon Templeton – “Scarlet Ace”. All other close relatives deceased.
Education: Very broad college/graduate level education. PhD equivalent in History, Philosophy, Languages, Mythology, Literature, Archeology, Psychology, Anthropology, etc.
Occupation: College Professor – History, Mythology, Language, Literature, Philosophy, Psychology, Cultures – Might, easily lecture in any such subject.
Citizenship: Considers himself a citizen of the Universe. Certainly has U.S. citizenship; may have multi-citizenship in other countries.

Powers/Abilities:
Cosmic Energy collection/generation/manipulation/channeling/conversion/projection.
He calls this power ‘The Light’. It manifests as a bright glow in his eyes and around his body, when he is ‘working’. It is very flexible in application, blasts and bursts of bright force, shields and fields of glowing plasma, and re-constructive cascades of healing.
Cosmic Unconscious: He has access to a vast ‘library’ of experience.
He calls this ‘The Chorus’ and Saint experiences it without conscious thought, he simply ‘knows’ things or does things reflexively. In a basic sense, consider the Chorus as the ‘collective unconscious’ of all people, past and present. It is possible to ‘know’ anything anyone ever knew... if you can extract it from the continual hubbub of ‘everyone’ talking at once. The Chorus is essentially unorganized, but there are strong currents of collective thought running through it – voices that can pierce the ‘noise’, particularly when the subject is relevant to Saint’s current experiences.

Limitations:
Imagination and Will. Saint is able to tap the energy in the space between things, the energy that makes up all matter, the energy that might be called the soul and essence of everything. By will and imagination, he could draw power from sunlight, or a city electrical-grid, or an enemy’s attacks and defenses. He could deconstruct a brick, a banana-peel, or a half-empty can of beer and convert the whole mass into energy – if he had the imagination to try it and the will to do it.
A problem with that is that, when he fully opens himself to the cosmic energy, he tends to lose his sense of ‘self’, becoming an instrument of ‘cosmic will’, rather than his own. It scares the hell out of him! Also the energy is channeled and stored through his own body/mind and he’s not confident of his ability to handle it all... so he is wary of over-doing it. In ultimate duress, he might convert his own body into energy and then forget how to get back to himself, leading to dissolution.
One side-effect of channeling this energy, particularly when used for healing, is that it constantly regenerates the user. Simon Templeton, the Starlight Saint could/would/should remain young and strong and vigorous... indefinitely. Baring a catastrophic accident leading to death, he is functionally immortal. Except if he should lose the will to continue living, or some how be cut off from the Light. At that point, all of his years may come crashing in on him at once... or, perhaps he might simply be released to live out his ‘normal’ span – whatever that is.

Imagination and Will. The Chorus is truly the collective ‘voice’ of all beings, sentient or not. Saint has never even wondered about the squid-people of Alpha Omicron Six – therefore, he doesn’t ‘know’ about them, he is tapped into the ‘local channel’ and that is more then enough for him to deal with. Some of the insights he receives from the Chorus are gifts, sometimes what he learns is... a curse – too much information.
Saint can delve into the Chorus through introspection or meditation, in search of answers to specific questions, but the process is often slow and tedious, and the ‘answers’ aren’t always clear. This ‘library’ doesn’t have a catalog or index. An alternative is to... ‘absorb’ a portion of the collective knowledge – in a way, he has done this every time he studies a new subject. The risk in doing it ‘wholesale’, rather than through slow study, is that he also absorbs the personality or personalities that held the knowledge.
Thus, the risk of over-using the Chorus is personality-death and/or madness, as the cacophony of voices overwhelms the (ab)user.

Starlight Saint has been granted, or simply discovered within himself, incredible powers, but he is still growing into those powers. He takes a philosopher’s approach to the issue, rather than a scientific interest and, so far, none of the scientists he knows have suggested a course of experimentation. Perhaps that’s wise – Saint doesn’t know the limits of his strength and it may be for the best that this is true... for now.

Equipment: No ‘special’ equipment – may use various common tools and gadgets.
Wears light body-armor, with a helmet and goggles. Armor incorporates reinforced guards on forearms/elbows and shins/knees, supporting martial-arts-type blocks and strikes. Helmet incorporates communications and data-transfer equipment.

Origin Notes: His power is essentially ‘natural’ in origin, though his acquisition of that power may be considered ‘super-natural’.

Biography:
There is, in literature, in mythology, and in history, the concept that some people are born to be heroes. This is Not so. However, throughout all humanity, in every person, there are... hooks that ‘heroism’ can latch onto. Some people, even whole families and bloodlines, but more often just single individuals, have Many such ‘hooks’. Even so, heroes are not born, but Made, by the thoughts and attitudes and by the choices and actions of heroic people.

Simon Templeton was born in the first years of the 20th century – 1902 – 05, the second son of a Mechanic and a Nurse. His elder brother, Michael was a prodigy and subject to well-earned praise, completely overshadowing young Simon. Simon loved and ‘worshipped’ his brother as much as anyone, but the constant weight of being ‘second’, at best, in the thoughts of everyone – if they even bothered thinking of the other child... oppressed Simon.
Simon’s mind turned to books and the past, and rediscovering old things, while Michael was skilled in mechanics and science and new technology. Whether that was just his own inclination, or a reaction to the praise his brother’s passions garnered, is unclear. Michael became a devotee of the newfangled flying-machines, a WW1 flying Ace, international Air Mail pilot, and an agent of the Special Intelligence Service.
Then, at the age of 29, Michael Templeton, the ‘Scarlet Ace’, disappeared – presumed dead among catastrophic earthquakes and tsunamis, on his last secret mission.

Simon was left, bereft of his beacon and anchor, trying to prove his worthiness... contesting with nothing but ghosts and shadows. Always a bit of a brooder in the dark, he fell hard. He became selfish and willing to steal and manipulate and lie on a grand scale, to advance himself.
Meanwhile, the Great Depression staggered the world economy and things are hard for everyone – which only drove Simon deeper into the dark.
Yet, driven by his passions, Simon become a skilled, knowledgeable, even semi-famous Archeologist of the more ‘adventurous’ sort. He was a dark mirror to Indiana Jones, though he was too self-centered to join or serve the Nazi Party in the 40s. He was truly ‘against’ everyone and interested only in more fame and fortune for himself, through his discovery of historical treasures. And, as time passed, Simon Templeton became progressively more obsessed with the legend of the Phoenix.

Rather than try to describe all of the adventures and discoveries that Simon made on his quest, let us speculate a bit about the Phoenix. Legend says that it is a great, multi-colored bird, incredibly rare, or perhaps truly singular. Living for 500 or 1000 years, the bird builds a nest of aromatic resin, wood and herbs – it dissolves itself within this nest, in mist, or odors, or flames, depending on the source. The Phoenix dies, but a new Phoenix arises from the ashes or remains of the old one.
The story also goes that it is possible to capture the Phoenix while it is weak, in the throes of this death/rebirth cycle, and... extract wealth, power, magic, even long life from it. At least, until it escapes and renews the cycle.
But, is ‘The Phoenix’ a natural or supernatural creature, or is the fabulous bird simply heraldry, or symbolism, or iconography, and ‘The Phoenix’ itself a spirit, a force, an object, or even an event? Simon’s story does not need to define it.

Instead, simply consider that Simon Templeton, Archeologist, master Linguist, Historian, and master of arcane lore, managed to find ‘The Phoenix’. It had, indeed, been captured, constrained, and... perverted by truly, monstrously ‘evil’ persons, to the detriment of the world. And 70-some year old Simon ‘selfishly’ broke its chains and stole it away, only to have ‘The Phoenix’ escape from him in turn, renewing its cycle of rebirth.

Caught up in ‘The Phoenix Incident’ the thoroughly miserable, selfish, and unloved man was, himself, ‘reborn’ in some fashion. All of the dross of his life was burned away. In his place, all that was found was a squalling child, about a year old.
The strange child was found by a Red Cross worker and transported to the U.S., where he was adopted by a childless couple in California. The new parents were ‘left-over hippies’ with a very different lifestyle and attitude towards parenting than the Templetons of 1900. They also had no other children of their own, although their extended family was numerous, so they lavished attention on Simon.

The second time, Simon grew up a prodigy… well, again. Not just because he was carefully nurtured by his parents, given myriad opportunities to learn and grow, and not just because he was genetically inclined towards brilliance. Somehow, Simon Remembered. He remembered the skills and knowledge of his previous life.
Oh, not clearly! He was not oppressed by memories of his old life, but he found it quite easy to reacquire what he once knew. Further, his vague recall of the negative results of his previous life strongly encouraged him in maintaining a positive outlook in his present one. He was still a strongly self-sufficient and self-motivated boy, but he never fell into the traps of greed, insensitivity, or other-denial. Indeed, he seemed to possess a pool of deep wisdom and sensitivity to the feelings of others. Already, the thing he later came to call ‘The Chorus’ was whispering to him.

Skills and knowledge were not the only legacy Simon had of his former life, as he slowly remembered How, he re-assumed control of his finances and property. Most of it, he simply put into storage and investments, until he was grown up enough to value it again, but some smaller items he arranged to fall into his new parents’ hands. Studying and re-learning his own history, he was, by turns, appalled, amazed, and angered by what ‘that poor old vulture *******’, as he came to refer to his old self, had done. He also pitied his old self, for his loneliness and the misdirected, recursive hate that haunted and drove him.

When Simon had reached his full adult stature, he dismantled the structure of his old life. For a while, the ‘Templeton Collection’ was nine-day-wonder among antiquarians, before the last items found permanent homes. Many ancient treasures, once presumed lost, found their way into the museum collections in which they belonged.
Secret accounts that had lain dormant for fifty years or more, shrugged and shifted as new money and old moved through them. Various properties, some long vacant, were either available for sale, for rent, or were renovated, or dismantled with new buildings going up in their place. Old investment portfolios met new ones and danced across the markets, before settling into new configurations – and young Simon Templeton emerged comfortably well off.

Finally, once everything seemed settled, with Simon comfortably established, teaching at the local University… he began having nightly dreams and visitations. He was vividly reminded of his experiences with the Phoenix and, while he wasn’t sure what it all meant, he knew that he would not be allowed to simply rest on his laurels. He sought ‘warrior training’, auditing a dozen different dojos, before he found a style that fitted him and began to work in earnest.
Despite an active life, Simon had never really Worked at acquiring physical skills. At first, the sweat and ache are almost more than he can take, but soon his rising skill brought him a measure of pride and he learned to appreciate the evidence of his growth. At the same time, he could sense the changes in his body. He felt the way that the ever-present ‘Chorus’ of voices and strange impulses that had been with him throughout his second life was continually adjusting his form, improving his ability. He was learning at a phenomenal rate, surprising and gratifying and mystifying his trainers.
The martial arts he was learning focused on collecting, manipulating, and moving invisible energies through and around his body. The principle was to divert, deflect, or absorb an opponent’s energies, turning them back to confound the attacker. One’s own energies then served to amplify these errors, encouraging the enemy to destroy himself from the inside out. Still, it was a shocking experience when, during a particularly intense workout, there was a sudden flash of light accompanying each of Simon’s strikes and blocks!

****
And that's as far as I've gotten with the bio, but I'm sure you can extrapolate that beginning into a first-level hero, who then goes on to have 'frickin Lasers shooting out of his Eyes!' and other cool stuff.

[Edit] Okay, a picture.