Commander AT concept

Commander
Primary: Assault
Secondary: Sidekick (Hero) / Lackey (Villain)

Damage: Medium/High
Defense: Low/Medium
HP: Medium

Concept: Player uses Assault Primary while also controlling their Pet and their Pet's Powers.

The Pet is an extension of the Player. Once it is summoned (the 1st power in the Secondary), it can be controlled using an interface similar to that of the Mastermind AT (Move, Attack, Defend, Passive, etc). If left unattended, the Pet will move and attack on it's own, similar to any other AI pet, depending on it's currently selected Stance (Aggressive, Defensive, Passive). The main difference between this Pet and any other is that the Player chooses when and where the Pet uses their powers. These powers will be placed on the Player's Power Tray, just like any other power.

The Primary Power Set, Assault, would be a mix of both ranged and melee attacks, with a few utility and/or some light defensive powers. The Secondary Power Set, the Pet, would be a mix of Damage, Buffs, Debuffs, and Control, all meant to assist the player in combat. Without the Pet, the Player is quite fragile, defensively speaking. The Pet would also have a weak inherent power that it would use as the default attack (something slightly higher than a brawl-level attack), as all of the powers would need to be activated by the player.

This would be considered an Advanced Archetype to play as the player would, in essence, be controlling two characters at the same time. This would allow the player to set up timed combo attacks and split aggro between themselves and their Pet.

Inherent: Pet Link (?)

Possible Issues:

Mez: There are no Mez Protection abilities available to this AT (other than IOs/PPs/etc). The reason for this is that both the Player and the Pet are separate entities. To fully shut the player down, both the Player and the Pet would need to be Mezed. If not, then the unmezed half would still be able to attack and use powers normally.

Inspirations: The 4th and 5th Columns of the Inspiration Tray are reserved for the Pet. When an Inspiration from either of these two columns are used, the Inspiration is applied to the Pet, not the Player.

Movement: All Pets would have the inherent Super Leap and Super Sprint abilities, allowing them to keep up with the Player without concern of being left behind or getting caught behind a wall or other geometry.

Travel Powers: All Pets will have access to all forms of Travel Powers. However, they are only activated when the Player activates their Travel Power(s). Once a Pet has a Travel Power enabled, they immediately go into Passive mode and are unable to use any Powers that affect enemies in any way. Once the Player disables their Travel Power(s), the Pet will also turn off their Travel Power(s) and immediately revert back into whichever Stance and Mode they were in before the Travel Power(s) were enabled. If a Player's Travel Power is Suppressed, the Pet will stay in their Travel Form and thus stay in Passive Mode.

Could be interesting... though I doubt we'll see this happen.

Interesting idea in general, but I can't say I agree with monopolizing half a player's inspiration tray for use on the pet. A better mechanic, such as having a separate inspiration tray for the pet, would be much better. Also, if you're going to give the player an Assault primary, you're going to have to give the pet some kind of defence power. Either that, or give the player the defence powers and the pet the attacks. You can't really have a team-up of two Blasters, one has to be able to take some punishment.

The idea of controlling the pet's powers directly is interesting, especially since that means it can gain new powers as you pick more powers from its secondary. I've always fancied an AT that deals with just one pet that can be upgraded as the character progresses through the game, and that works pretty well. In fact, I'd move the pet summon right out of the AT and make it an inherent powers, like how Dominators get Domination as an inherent. That way you can start out by giving the pet its first power right off the start of the game.

I'm also not convinced a 1-to-1 power ration is absolutely necessary. Like Mastermind upgrades, why have each power taken for your pet actually represent a pack of powers that it gains. So, say, the first power you pick would be "basic attack" and give your pet two attack powers, then the next could be "basic defence" which would give him some resistance to smashing and lethal and maybe resistance to something simple, like immobilization. The idea is to give your pet an array of powers at least somewhat similar to that of a full-fledged player. I'm also not sure if I'd be a fan of controlling your pet on a per-power basis, more so than something more general. Say if the pet has two small attacks and two big attacks, you could order it to attack light or attack heavy, or if it has controls, you can order it to use them. Practically speaking, this pet is gonna' have to have a LOT of autonomy.

Personally, I like the idea a lot. I'm not sure I like the presentation of sidekick/lackey, myself. It seems kind of... Cheap and generic. Instead, I'd like to see it as more of a... Creation or big older brother or guardian angel or some such. So a technologist could be walking around with a robot that starts out small, but gains new parts and grows bigger as he levels up, while a scientist would be walking around with a zombie that grows bigger and nastier with each new power. A wizard could be walking around with a big demon, a ghost or even a guardian angel, as I said. Or you could just be walking around with a bodyguard who gets more buff and ripped as you level him up. Heck, you can even walk around with a pink tentacle monster, the options are many if you don't restrict it to being a humanoid sidekick.

I honestly like that a lot

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Well, I used the term Sidekick/Lackey just to leave it open to the player. If it's called a Guardian, then everyone would expect it to work either like a Defender or Tanker. I guess 'acquaintance' would be better.

As for the powers, the reason I wanted to make it 50/50 is because the pet is, technically, just an extension of the player. A player gets x number of Primary and Secondary abilities, and I just kept it in line with that. The powers available to the pets would have damage, heals, buffs, debuffs and minor control (mostly single target), all depending on the theme of the pet (an cold-themed pet could have -speed -recharge while a dark themed pet could have life transfers and -to hit and a Guardian Spirit could have auras and buffs). That's not to say the Assault side may not have some forms of mitigation like Freeze Ray or Touch of Fear.