Help roleplaying Illusion and Radiation :)

I play a Mutation Illusion Controller/Radiation Emission character and I am trying to come up with a good background to help with my role-playing.

The problem is that in working out her background I am not getting a good picture of her abilities in a ‘super hero’ sense. I am new to all of this and have not read a comic that I can think of.

Someone suggested in a post about another of my characters that her powers are psionic in nature allowing her to telepathically control and influence minds with powers such as Spectral Wounds and Deceive. And other powers are telekinetic like the ability to manifest entities of force like the Phantom Army and Phantasm.

But what about Blind? In game it looks like I am taking a picture of an enemy. Basically there is a flash around my head and then a sort of quivering dancing light around a held enemy. How can I work that into my idea of her powers? What is mechanically happening when she uses this power. And the same for Flash which is an area effect version of the same. Maybe she is using light and sound to effectively overload her enemy’s senses? I am not sure how to think about these two powers.

And finally, how do I think about the Radiation Emission powers? They are not really psionic, telepathic, or telekinetic are they?

I know this is an odd request, but to really understand the character I need to have an understanding of these powers in context.

Thank you so much!

I play my Illusion/FF Controller as being an extremely powerful projective telepath who has very limited abilities to receive. The physical manifestations of the powers are RPed as simply not existing or as being side effects of him blending his force field manipulation with the illusory effect. This works out okay because Illusion does Psionic type damage.

By the by, the "canon" way Illusion Control works is that it's a combination of light and sound control that generates very convincing images. I don't really buy that, myself.

Oh, and most Controller secondaries don't factor in well with the primaries. Radiation, especially, just has to be played out as a completely separate ability your character happens to possess -- unless you want to say that your character emits so much radiation that it can cause people to hallucinate.

Thank you so much for the response A few questions to help me grasp what you are saying.

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I play my Illusion/FF Controller as being an extremely powerful projective telepath who has very limited abilities to receive.

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Projective telepath? And what do you mean receive. Sorry, I am completely unfamiliar with concepts such as these. I am new to the whole comic book hero genre!

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The physical manifestations of the powers are RPed as simply not existing or as being side effects

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I am not clear on this either. Do you mean the powers do not really exist but only 'appear' to exist to the enemy? And why would this do psionic type damage (whatever that means)?

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By the by, the "canon" way Illusion Control works is that it's a combination of light and sound control that generates very convincing images. I don't really buy that, myself.

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What do you see it as? The only reason that worked for me was because I could see telekinetically folding light around your party making them invisible or telepathically convincing an enemy that he is injured making his body go into shock and causing 'damage.' But I am just guessing; I do not know.

Let me try to answer your questions, then.

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Projective telepath? And what do you mean receive.

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Telepathy can be looked as a combination of sending thoughts (projective telepathy) and receiving them (receptive telepathy). Classical telepaths are equally skilled in both of these, so they can chit-chat with people mentally, read minds, and do that sort of thing. My character is entirely oriented to projection, so while he can make you see things, he can't access your mind in any way.

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Do you mean the powers do not really exist but only 'appear' to exist to the enemy? And why would this do psionic type damage (whatever that means)?

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Remind me not to post when I'm tired. What I mean is that the effects you see in game, like glowing lights around people's heads for Blind and Flash, are roleplayed as not actually existing in game. For example, when using Blind, my character glares at the target and uses his telepathy to trap them in an illusory world. The light show it produces is there merely for OOC effect, in much the same way Mind Controllers wouldn't actually project whirling black and white spirals from their heads. As for the bit about Psionic type damage, CoH has eight damage types: Fire, Cold, Smashing, Lethal, Energy, Negative Energy, Psionic, and Poison/Unspecified. As Illusion Control does Psionic damage, which is the sort of damage that reflects mental injury (which is why, say, Invulnerability does nothing to protect against it), it only makes sense that it's a mental power.

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What do you see it as? The only reason that worked for me was because I could see telekinetically folding light around your party making them invisible or telepathically convincing an enemy that he is injured making his body go into shock and causing 'damage.'

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Again, I see it as more of a projective telepathy power, but the in game description says it's control over light and sound. I suppose that would mean it involves your character conjuring light shows and other effects that are very convincing for a short while.

Personally, I prefer to see it as a form of telepathy in which you force people to believe certain things -- such as being trapped in an illusory world (Blind, Flash), being attacked by other heroes (Deceive, Phantom Army, Spectral Terror, Phantasm), not seeing you or your group (Superior Invisibility, Group Invisibility), or being horribly injured (Spectral Wounds).

Thank you for taking the time to explain these concepts to me

Great information! It will help me a great deal in working out my character back-story; and, in generally understanding these otherworldly powers. I really appreciate it.

Well, I'm playing a natural Illusion/Radiation hero. This made me come up with a creative way to explain these powers. The jist of her background is that she's a secret agent who specializes in tactical insertions.

Most of the radiation emission powers are puffs of green smoke which my character employs as chemical grenades.

The main illusion power is harder to explain. Flash, blind, and invisibility can be the work of fancy gadgets.

Phantom Army and Phantasm are other 'ghost' agent which she's commands as strike team when they need to call for back-up.

Decieve (if I ever take it with respec or something) can be explain as my character being so charismatic. Spectral Wounds is up in the air (it could be a psionic attack), but I'm raking my brain too hard. Hopefully with the second update's promise to customize your powers I could fine everything.

If you want insight on how to rationalize an Radioactive Illusionist. This is one possible answer. To explain it as a telepathic psion, maybe your hero uses the power of her mind to alter the biochemistry of her oponents. Or maybe she can make them imagine the horrors of radioactive fumes as well as blinding lights and ghost men.

It's not always easy to rationalize, because unlike a other ATs. There aren't many controller primary and secondaries that go together.

Last piece of advice is to brainstorm all the concepts behind your power sets.

Very interesting approach, Triple_R. I think your job is much harder than mine as I have mutation to 'explain' my powers.

And I am taking your advice and just trying to brainstorm some more to fill out more of the character details. Thank you

Well,Technology is a good approach instead of mutation or Natural and you can always create the Character in a metal Body Suit.It's how I did my Empathy/Lightning Blast Defender.Maybe some brilliant INventor gave your character a body armor suit that has strange Radio active powers on top of the ability to convince bad guys that they took a buncha damage or manifest Phantasms, and can cloak nearby allies as well even mysteriously heal and accelerate nearby allies' Metabolism!
You don't even have to mention where you got the suit,you just got it! If I recall right in the Teen Titans Cartoon, Slade had a suit (for all we know,he could've bought it at a dollar store or just pulled it out of his trunk) that he gave Terra that allowed him to control Terra's Body and he had a huge Robot army and there was no mention how he got that stuff or if he made it himself and if Slade is allowed to have a suit that can control Terras Body,then you are allowed to have a suit that can Emit Strange Radioactive powers AND Emit Strange Illusion powers!

Still need a Story?Pretend you are an English High School Student thats been given an Assignment to pick out your favorite Action/Superhero Story and write a Fan Fiction Essay based on the aftermath of it containing an Imaginary Hero in you made up,then come up with a paragraph after the story describing the profile of your made up hero,with a Challanging twist: You must have it speak in 3rd party (E.G. Somebody annonymous who has some clue and knowledge of your character and is describing this character for you.) and this person,MUST not know who the hero you were assisting is,but has some kind of idea of what your hero did with the heroes in your story.For Example,Instead of saying "before John Q Hero came to Paragon City,he helped a Superhero in Gotham City Known as Batman defeat the Psychotic ICe Cream Man from selling contaminated Ice Cream that was turing innocent Children into killer Pug Men with Psionic Powers that could charm people into commiting Hienous crimes!",You would type something like "John Q Hero is said to have come from another city where he helped a well known Superhero defeat an Eccentric Former Ice Cream Man who was selling Contaminated Ice Cream!" and leave it at that.Also in the profile,in addition to leaving out places such a Gotham City,Metropolis, the Planet Krypton,leave out names such as Clark Kent,Bruce Wayne,BAtman,Superman,stuff big superheros fans know and just refer to them in the profile as Well known superhero or a reporter for the local News or a well known private Millionaire and do the same thing with criminals.I did that where the story contained 3 of my characters I play in CoH.The Story was originally based on the Teen Titans Cartoons in the direct aftermath of "Aftershock" that me and a friend of mine at work made up to see how the story would turn out and we wound up feeling so original,we left the teen Titans out of the whole mess completely and made the story into it's own original story!
The way I wrote the profile on my characters,nobody could tell that they were characters copied from me and my friends Teen Titans fiction (Robin who?I think I know him. :P) and I got a few compliments on the profile!

Need a name! No problem,get a strat guide and turn to page 156 and read on! They give good advice and in addition,get to a Bookstore and look around,they have books that are designed to help you come up with names for independent File Screenplay/movies and they can help you make a name for your hero!

And Finally don't hesitate to make and remake your toon a few times,to see if you can get your playstyle right,nothing worse than playing a superhero you hated and is stuck with it.

-hope this helps

I play a fair bit, and love the game, but... well... I tend to go into the character creator, make a character, play with them for a good while, then start writing about them... Some are easy (Czernabog, my main, is an Energy/Energy Blaster. Only the backstory makes him interesting ) But in my alt's case, Nod (an illusion/storm summoning controller) is tougher to explain. He's still not bad to roleplay, but its all about being very loose with the interpretation of the powers.

In example... Nod is a 10 year old boy by the named of Michael Tarcynzski, son of Clockwork Adam (long story, if I ever post my fanfic you'll understand him), and brother of the righteous Rev. Abraham Cain. Nod, after being put into the hospital by his brother, developed a psychic ability similar to that of his father and brother. However, instead of mind control or telekinesis, Nod could make his dreams become tangible, and in return, visit his enemies worst nightmares upon them.

In this way, all the illusion power set "pets" correspond to various regulars from his dreams. The storm summoning powers flow well because of their potential usage in dreams as well.

There isn't any best way to roleplay a character (although there is certainly a wrong way... *I shoted u in hed with gun. U ded now.*) other than what you feel. I mean, after all, if you don't find the hero you create interesting, why on earth would you keep playing as them?

Also,if you watch the Xmen moviesyou'll notice all the heros were born with thier powers (Magneato Rules!!!!) whose to say in Coh you can't play a Mutant who was born with the ability to convince others that the are hurt badly or can manifest Decoys that will hurt you as well as the ability the accelerate other metabolisms?

Science is good, things go wrong in the world of science and playing with radation can make wierd things happen to you or you got bitten by an Alien bug in Area 51 *shrugs* The Hulk and Spiderman are good examples

Natural,well,thats a tough one,but possible Robin,Batman and Punisher are examples of Natural Heroes.If I recall right something tragic happened to them and caused to be superhero they are today.Whos to say you aren't an Alien from another planet that was destroyed by the Rikti or if you put on a tech suit,Your parents could've been slayed by a man in a suit while trying to invent a suit with illusion and Radioactive powers and you got ahold of it and decided to fight crime?

Magic? Need I explain more? You could've gotten magical artifacts somehow or anything! Raven in Teen Titans on the cartoon is a actually a good example of a Magic Origin type,though it's possible to be a sorcerer or find an artifact such a necklace or have some kind of outside from another plane of existance give such powers.

Just basically use your imagination and have fun and remember to BE the character you want to make.

-Hope this also helps