TASKMASTER

ErikPeter

Taskmaster

Power damage values roughly aimed at 166 levels. Easily tweaked if necessary.

Photographic Reflexes (PASSIVE)
Taskmaster counters his opponents by perfectly copying their fighting style. When an opponent creates a Strike or Protect tile, Taskmaster matches the maneuver, creating an inverse friendly Protect or Strike tile at 40% Strength. npxo

Rank 2: Increases the strength of tiles created by 14. Rank 3: Tile strength increases by 25. Rank 4: Base tile strength increased to 50% of the matched tile (+25). Rank 5: Tile strength increases by 49.

Sword & Shield 7 AP
Taskmaster incorporates the fighting styles and weaponry of the world’s mightiest heroes. Creates 1 Red Strike tile and and 1 Blue Protect tile of strength 84.

Rank 2: Strength 100. Rank 3: Strength 120. Rank 4: Strength 144. Rank 5: Strength 200.

Adaptive Technique 10* AP
Taskmaster adjusts his attacks to keep his opponents at a disadvantage. Deals 900 damage; Deals 178 less damage and costs 1 less AP for each friendly strike tile on the board (minimum 5 AP).

Rank 2: Deals 1500 damage. Deals 280 less damage and costs 1 less AP for each friendly Strike tile (minimum 5 AP) Rank 3: Deals 2400 damage. Deals 380 less damage and costs 1 less AP for each friendly Strike tile (Minimum 5 AP) Rank 4: Deals 3460 damage. Deals 540 less damage and costs 1 less AP for each friendly Strike tile (Minimum 5 AP) Rank 5: Deals 4700 damage. Deals 540 less damage and costs 1 less AP for each friendly Strike tile (Minimum 3 AP)

Thoughts? I created him with the intent that he'd be very flexible offensively and defensively. His Photographic Reflexes power is a good counter for rash Strike-swarmers like Daken or Blade (in fact at top ranks, he more than matches them), and a decent buff against Protect tile users as well. While the tiles he makes aren't as good against big ones (e.g. Black Panther's Battleplan), he gets them for free which is awesome in itself. Note that he creates a Protect tile against Strike tiles, and vice versa. For those characters that fill certain colors of tiles, (e.g. Red) he will also block those tiles by creating his own.

None of his powers are over-the-top powerful but unlike many niche characters he handles very well on his own, even on defense. Adaptive Technique is a fun power that can become incredibly strong with high-powered Strike tiles. As the cost goes down (e.g, enemy Falcon uses Bird Strike) it becomes a weak attack, but for only 3 AP, it's still a great deal, since you've got lots of Strikes out. And if you don't have any it's still a decent black AP sink. I made it black so it can't further be cheapened by Star-Lord.

Unknown

You can't run away! Just like Cap! Spidey Swing! Aim of Hawkeye!

Kolence

Very interesting power in photographic reflexes. But a few things are bugging me.
What happens in a mirror match if say Daken makes a pair of strike tiles? How to stop both Taskmasters' passives from overwriting all red tiles bouncing off each other?
Does it trigger when Elektra or She-Hulk steal tiles too? Even so, they still look like the best way to offset the balance against him.
Why no countering attack tiles? Well, Octopus aproves, I'm sure.

About adaptive technique, it is actually weaker the less it costs, right? Having strike tiles that make it cheaper may not mean as much if they were caused by enemy protect tiles (and slightly stronger at that) which would also count for resulting damage.

ronin_san

HOW MANY HPS???

You see him gooning and teaching people how to fight under his influence. The problem is, Falcon's kit is very similar to what I envision for Taskmaster, albeit without the stupid bird.

Taskmaster should be able to give out pointers, given his hypersensitive ability to read the enemy and their attacks. He is a survivor because he knows what's coming.

He's yet another kind of guy that should have a risposte if enough friendly tiles are in play; a mix of Beast's blue and an adaptive ability (similar to IF's multipurpose ).

What if you follow Beast's get to place tiles with no countdown. Let's say strength 50 (max 120) and at max level, place 2. Add onto that: if friendly tiles are on the board, Taskmaster ripostes any match damage done to him? Just match damage.

And I'm of the opinion that he should also get a passive that generates tiles whenever abilities are used against him similar to Hulk's Anger.

Kinesiological reflexes should be his passive tiles ability that generate WHENEVER Taskmaster is attacked.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinesiology

"Kinesiology, also known as human kinetics, is the scientific study of human movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, mechanical, and psychological mechanisms. " <-- THAT IS TOTALLY TASKMASTER.


So we have passive "board / shield" aspects. We have "Sword" aspects ala cheap attack tile production. And he should have one fun slash. I say he should get my Zemo slash ability. let me paste it.



"Seasoned Swordsman 8 AP."

Baron Zemo is a master swordsman, and dances about the battle field, carving his enemy apart.
Deal 450 damage and place a swordplay 2 turn tile. While in play, deal additional match damage when Zemo matches tiles bearing his icon.
Rank 2. Increase initial damage to 590.
Rank 3. Increase timer tile to 3 turns; damage to 730.
Rank 4. Increase timer tile to 4 turns; damage to 880.
Rank 5. Place two timer tiles.

ronin_san

What if he had active ability that change his stance or alter his battle plan similar to Colossus' yellow?

So if if his attack stance tile is in play, any attack against him creates free strike tiles at Daken Strength.

And if we have a defensive stance, he gets a free passive :defense: tile per turn and mooches an AP whenever the enemy does match damage?

ErikPeter

Kolence wrote:

Very interesting power in photographic reflexes. But a few things are bugging me.
What happens in a mirror match if say Daken makes a pair of strike tiles? How to stop both Taskmasters' passives from overwriting all red tiles bouncing off each other?
Does it trigger when Elektra or She-Hulk steal tiles too? Even so, they still look like the best way to offset the balance against him.
Why no countering attack tiles? Well, Octopus aproves, I'm sure.

About adaptive technique, it is actually weaker the less it costs, right? Having strike tiles that make it cheaper may not mean as much if they were caused by enemy protect tiles (and slightly stronger at that) which would also count for resulting damage.

Good point! You could make it stronger but only make it work once per turn. I love Daken strike, enemy TM protect, friendly TM protect, enemy strike.. but ad infinitum seems pretty extreme. Or just let it fill all the red tiles immediately which honestly is hilarious (since it's filling them with a relatively even mix of protect/strike.) Imagine the chaos of two Taskmasters running around.

BUT that's probably not the best solution. I think you'd have to make an exception where one TM doesn't trigger the other one, which is a bit ragged, or change how the power works. Maybe just make it a very cheap activated power? The problem with that is that you could just use it multiple times which misses the point.

Maybe just make Strikes cause Protects, and Protects create Attack tiles? That way, in a mirror match, each TM would trigger twice but not create a loop. Not quite right.

Yes, Adaptive Technique gets weaker as there are more strikes on the table. E.g. at rank 1, with 5 strikes out, it costs 5 AP to do 100 damage + strikes, which is probably a bad deal (but it's rank 1). At rank 5 it costs 3 AP to do 1k+strikes if you have 7 strikes on the board. It's more damage efficient with fewer strikes (unless you've got Strength 540 strikes out!?) but cheap is often what you need. It's basically always better than Gamora's red... Which maybe means it could use some tweaking.

ronin-san wrote:

What if he had active ability that change his stance or alter his battle plan similar to Colossus' yellow?
So if if his attack stance tile is in play, any attack against him creates free strike tiles at Daken Strength.
And if we have a defensive stance, he gets a free passive :defense: tile per turn and mooches an AP whenever the enemy does match damage?

Stances could be cool, but the idea of switching between them sounds a lot like Vision (and I'm not sure they'll stick the landing with those powers). Still making it a temporary effect dependent on a CD isn't a bad idea... Though it makes him suck a bit on defense since the human player can just switch targets until the countdown ends. Also, the second one is cool, but a lot like Shapeshift, maybe different enough with the Protect tiles.

ronin_san

OK so we borrow from Daken and Doom's playbook. We go active passive. Call it "Studied Enemy - Shield Bash". Where he gets protect tiles whenever a, say, Yellow is matched. But the Doom aspect is that he deals, eh, 250 per tile on the board. That's his shield bash. Maybe at max level it adds a stun for every 2 protect tiles.

I mean, it could be snarky, rude, pandering; placating. That's also Taskmaster's kit.

Malcrof

ErikPeter wrote:

Photographic Reflexes (PASSIVE)
Taskmaster counters his opponents by perfectly copying their fighting style. When an opponent creates a Strike or Protect tile, Taskmaster matches the maneuver, creating an inverse friendly Protect or Strike tile at 40% Strength. npxo

Rank 2: Increases the strength of tiles created by 14. Rank 3: Tile strength increases by 25. Rank 4: Base tile strength increased to 50% of the matched tile (+25). Rank 5: Tile strength increases by 49.

I really like this skill. We have passive AP stealers, and passive tile strengtheners, but this could be insanely fun going against daken with him and daken.. make a green match, daken makes strike tiles, you make strike tiles, passive makes more strike tiles...

People would complain about how long a turn would take with 3 passives firing off.. but the board would get crazy.. fast! I would love to see this incorporated.