Em pleh! Anybody got a Zatanna hero file/ai script that they really like?

[ElijahSnowFan]

Hey, everybody!

I have tried and tried, but man, for the life of me, I just cannot create a Zatanna hero file that I like. I'm probably halfway-decent with AI scripting -- certainly no expert, but every once in a while I'll come up with a good one -- but Zatanna (and magic users, for that matter) have always been really tough for me to handle.

I especially struggle with "movement." For instance, just say my Zatanna runs across three street punks, maybe one armed with a gun, the other two melee characters. Well, she's getting shot up and beat up to the degree where it just doesn't feel realistic. I can't seem to get her to teleport consistently enough, or keep enough distance from the melee characters while she's dealing with the shooter, and she's getting shot to pieces by the shooter when she deals with the melee characters...I'm trying not to cheat by simply using an active defense, but I'm about ready to admit defeat.

It's even worse when she runs across somebody with superpowers -- unless she's got some help, she gets put down way too much.

Soooo...I turn to the community. I've seen some amazing tricks over the years, some really creative hero files/AIs. I'm asking, if you've got a Zatanna that you really like, please feel free to post however much information you'd like -- all suggestions are welcome, because this character just continues to elude me. If you've scripted some AI for the character, as well, please feel free to post that as well. I have a feeling that's the part that makes the character sing, but again, I just haven't been able to make it happen.

[Scorpion13mk2]

You know, I ran into a problem like that with my Doctor Strange hero file. The Sorceror Supreme in trouble from a couple of punks?

Well first off, I often give my magic users flight and some kind of invisibility/ intangibility ability to allow them a chance to get away from a situation like that.

But back to the Doctor Strange thing, I realized that he was often gonna get his arse kicked by like a gang of gun thugs since while he can demolish them one by one with his mystic blast power, their guns are gonna hit him enough to get past his passive defenses. My solution was to give him a projectile attack with a moderate radius that gave everyone a Alteration in the area. I called it a Chaos Bolt and It really changed things around. Suddenly, everyone gunning for him is in bedlam.

In  you can set things like that to only affect enemies, to my surprise. So, if you wanted to do a spell that gave everyone rage in the area without affecting allies, youre gonna be demolishing enemies in a hurry, and it fits thematically, too.

[ElijahSnowFan]

Oh! Daddy like! I'll try that right now!

Anybody else with some tricks of the trade? I like this one, but that was so different than my thinking, I'd love to hear what everyone else has going!

[ElijahSnowFan]

Chaos bolt: Tested and approved!

[laughing paradox]

My Zatanna's active defense doesn't work against melee, which makes things interesting. It's only set to ranged and area. (I forget if I added direct).

Her abilities are mostly power over the elements and nature, so I gave her a lot of powers pertaining to that. I gave her a very slow moving fireball projectile with homing. I figure, magic can allow you to control where you want your fireballs to land, right? Well, it makes sense to me.

I also gave her cold attacks, direct vines stasis attack, puppet master (nature), fire control, weather control, illusionist, flight. You can change fire control around to earth control, or ice control, or whatever you'd like for the attributes.

I also gave her a power swap to shrink her opponent. And a direct alteration move, even though I like the idea of it being a projectile. You could also give her a ranged projectile that does chain damage, like a 'kinetic bolt' or something. Oh, and don't forget to use toadify! It reminds me of the Justice League Heroes game where Zatanna could turn foes into rabbits.

[Scorpion13mk2]

Oh yeah, and dont forget to add some aiding powers too. She's always doing stuff like that in the comics.

Zatana's powers work with the elements? I always thought it was whatever she could say backwards is what she could do.

I havent messed around with the character maker in  too much yet, but can you give your heroes the scanning ability that the Eyes of the Reich have? That'd be pretty good, I think, for a magician to have.

The good thing about magicians is that you can give them almost whatever power you can think of and it works. Outside of superstrength punches and stuff I mean, but then almost everyone else has that.

For the uber powerful guys, think about Genetic Damage. That changes the odds of victory or defeat in a fight FAST, brutha.

[Kenn]

When Zatanna first formally joined the League, she quickly became the latest deus ex machina character due to the unlimited nature of her magic.   So in the early 1980s (around issue 192) there was a story done where her powers were reduced to being most effective over the "elements". 

Like many characters, this reduction may have capped off the biggest excesses of her power but it didn't really change her general effectiveness much.   And as time wore on, many of her writers after Conway tended to forget about the restriction.

[Scorpion13mk2]

I always thought that the fact that she actually had to say what she wanted to do backwards was a fine cap on her power. That meant she could be stopped in mid phrase and the spell stopped, as opposed to guys like Dr. Fate or the Specter who could just will things to happen.

[daglob]

I look at it like Champions: most magic users have some kind of defense against mundane attacks, even if it's a force field they have to turn on

[steamteck]

I look at it like Champions: most magic users have some kind of defense against mundane attacks, even if it's a force field they have to turn on

yay!  HERO comparison. Iv'e got most of my original characters or Avatars in both formats freedom Force and Champions. Anyway, I usually have some sort of force field usually the active energy shield. The anti missile defense which turns missiles to flowers would work for Zatanna. I also like untouchable where the melee guys get hurled backwards but only most of the time.

[Tawodi Osdi]

This is off topic, but I've been considering buying into the Champions System.  Though I never get the chance to roleplay, I like creating characters and campaigns.  Would be worth the investment?

[steamteck]

This is off topic, but I've been considering buying into the Champions System.  Though I never get the chance to roleplay, I like creating characters and campaigns.  Would be worth the investment?

Well I've been running a multiverse campaign  withit for over 20 years and would not consider anything else. I really lets e design characters just like I envision them. Mt threee main universes are PUlpish SF, fantasy and Supers and ther are lots od crossovers. They system handles it quite well.

Its a pretty crunchy system that really lets you design pretty much anything from any genre in detail. The thing is yoy can make as complex as you like. your builds can be from pretty simple to outragiously complex depending on how detailed you want to go. its alittle different than most but actually has lots in common with Freedom Force so you shouls be able to pick up on ot pretty quickly.

The character creating systen is a blast! ( at least for me)


Here's their forums and website

http://www.herogames.com/forums/forum.php


http://www.herogames.com/home.htm;jsessionid=aazFEVlYfU1

[Tawodi Osdi]

Thanks, Steam!  I was already familiar with their website.  I just wanted to hear an opinion from an actual person rather than someone that might have an incentive to be less honest.  Robustness is what I am looking for in a system.  I had considered going back to GURPS which would wind up costing about the same, but I would already be familiar with it, but it had a few wholes that were hard to plug.  I think I'll give Champions a chance.

[steamteck]

They have many simlarities but HERO has more primal building blocks and is well... more heroic. Gurps handles gritty a little better and supers way more poorly. HERO does cinematic and superheroic better IMO.

[Kenn]

Even though I've abandoned the Hero Games message boards, I can honestly say I've been using Champions/Hero happily for 23 years.