Choosing Origins

I know they don't technically affect anything much (except what your DO's and SO's are called, and where you buy them), but I find choosing an origin almost as difficult as choosing a name. You can't change origins later on (since they're your .....um....origin...) I'm just curious what advice people can give on origin choosing. What choices are most consistent with in-game characters you're going to meet? What choices will make your hero feel like they fit in the most consistently with the game's story line?

Examples:

Shelly Percy in Cap Au Diable - She's science origin, but has no powers herself. She just experiments on others, but then Dmitri Kryov also studies mutants and apparently isn't one. Doctor Vhazilok is science, but he also has powers from it.

I've had some interesting discussions about Batman too (as well as Arachnos Soldiers). I think the general consensus is that he's natural, despite all the nifty gadgets, but what Captain America? Captain America got his power from a serum, but he's not actually super, just enhanced to the peak of human potential. (I think they might make him super if they ever do a movie about him, though.)

Magic seems like the only clear-cut origin there is. But I bet there are some cases where that distinction becomes complicated as well.

Well, there are two effects you should be aware of if you're planning on getting the most from your origin, play-wise.

First, the "origin temp" you get. They do very little damage and have a very minuscule effect... Sleep, DoT, -Res.... However, it should be noted that for Controllers, Dominators and some Defenders, Tech is a very good way to go. Its origin temp is a mag 1 hold that lasts for... i dunno, a few seconds? And it's very quick-acting. Basically, if you hit a Boss with a normal hold, then this, you'll break their mez protection just long enough to get your hold power recharged so that you don't take any unnecessary damage. I wouldn't plan a build around it, but it's a nice perk.

Also, the Vet Temp powers. The Blackwand and Nemesis Staff both have different effects, and get a damage boost depending on your origin. So if you'd rather avoid the nem staff and its knockback, roll a magic/mutant character and take full advantage of the Blackwand.

I tend to think about that a fair bit when doing characters. Sometimes I make it a little bit of a pun. Some characters are sort of a mix, so I tend to go with the primary set. For instance, I have a fire/ice blaster whose ice powers are in theory tech, but the fire is considered "science". (That's questionable, maybe she should be mutation.)

Powered armor => technology
Regular weapons and gadgets => natural

Well I'm apparently in a rut; with the exception of my Warshade and one other character all mine are Natural origin. I came to this decision way back and stuck with it; the SO names mostly make sense so I didn't have to search for the ones I needed.

Sorry it isn't anything deeper than that but I've considered origin to be meaningless since the beginning.

How about a /poison MM who is constantly experimenting on people to improve their toxins, and maybe hops up their henchmen on designer steroids. No powers, just carries around a lot of dangerous chemicals. Is that still science, or technology?

Another outlier case where origin can matter is for Trick Arrow characters. If you don't have a power that does energy of fire damage to light the Oil Slick, you can use the origin powers from Tech and Magic origins.

I'm a big fan of creating a story for my character, and I put some thought into writing bios, so the origin comes from his/her backstory. Rarely will I create a character without having some idea of what he/she is going to look like, and what her powers are, along with where they come from. By then, the origin choice is pretty straight forward.

I used to go with "all mutant" origins, but lately I've been going with "all natural" origins. Why? Because just about any storyline can be considered "natural" if you wanna look at it that way.


A "natural" guy can enhance his body through robotics, bio-engineering, or by jumping into an iron suit.


A "natural" guy can learn magic and scorcery.


Through a scientific disaster/experiment, a "natural" person could become a "mutant".


A "natural" character could be "natural" on his own homeplanet, but be a "super powered being" here, yet he is still "naturally" strong, according to his dimension/planet.


Basically, no matter how you slice or dice it, I can envelope and bend just about any story well enough to support a "natural" based theme, lol, which is why it's my new "standard origin".

Natural is using their basic abilities, with some gadgets.

That said, you could easily have the same power sets using different origins.

Dual Pistols/Traps for instance.

One uses Dual Pistols and Gadgets.

The other uses Dual Pistols and a suit of Power Armor to control those gadgets.

Born a vampire would be natural.

Turned into a vampire could be magic or natural (depending on if you see being turned into a new species as magic or natural)

Magic is never simple. A lot who have magic being inate to their race/species (like fae for example) often go with Magic, even if really all the other faes have the same abilities for their race/species.



Origin would be better if they just let people at least pick two.

Naked, is he still effective?

Yes - Why?

• Born different : Mutation
  
• Training : Natural
  
• BioAlterations : Science
  
• Mechanical alterations : Tech
  
• Mystical knowledge : Magic

• Normal weapons (sword etc) : Natural
  
• Advanced weapons : Tech
  
• Mystical artifact : Magic
  
• Temporary experiments : Science

I go with Natural since I feel Natural stores are closer to trainers on average.

The names make sense generally.

I mostly go with Technology origins, mainly robots and cyborgs - so easy to get a unique name when you call 'em "NounBot" or "NounBorg" and attach a model number, such as PowerBot-6942, my Ele/Ele Dominator. Sometimes I'll get a bit fancier, though, such as my Dual Pistols/Radiation Emission Corruptor, a street thug that was captured by Crey who then implanted him with microcircuitry and radiation emitters (which just happen to make him look like his face and arms are heavily tattooed, but leave him otherwise normal), but that sort of thing is rare.

When I'm feeling really lazy, I go with Mutation - pretty much a catch-all for the majority of costumes & possible power set combinations and doesn't require even the slightest justification for why the Super is spewing out lightning bolts while surrounded by a field of fire...

I always go "Natural" because I know what all the enhancement's are. I'm color blind and have a difficult time picking them out in that way.

Speaking of difficulties with enhancements what ever happened to the way they used to show the details of each when you rolled over them, that was brilliant while it lasted but seemed to break and then got forgotten about/

I rarely struggle with Origin choice, because I have some fairly clear ideas in my mind about what origins "feel right" to me for what power sets. I recognize that some inventive writing in your description can explain less traditional origin and power mixes, but I tend to like going with straightforward pairings of powers and origin. If I want to be novel, I do so with the character's life story and less with what quirk of the universe lets them be super powered. (My descriptions are at least as concerned with who they are as with how they got their powers.)

I do have some characters that just aren't clearly in one origin. I suspect most of us do. I just try to decide what's the more dominant part of their character. What would they be known more for, and I go with that as their formal origin.

There are a couple of significant in-game effects of your origin. First, it controls which starting arc you do heroside... most importantly, whether you have to fight Vhazilok or Clockwork instead of Skulls or Hellions. Second, if you are Trick Arrow you can light your oil slick with the Tech or Magic origin power, which is handy if you lack any fire or energy attacks. And most importantly, it controls which of the low level SOs sold at Yin's Market you can use:

Mutant or Natural = Damage
Science = Recharge
Tech = Endurance
Magic = Accuracy

Now that you can mail these SOs (which can be slotted as low as level 10) to alts I find myself finding reasons to make melee types Tech or Magic origin and Blasters Natural or Mutant unless I've come up with a specific character concept that needs a different origin. Brutes in particular really need to not miss and to have good endurance slotting, so Yin-Os are handy for that.

Of course at higher levels origin only matters if you need it to light an oil slick. Otherwise it's all about the character's background... and if you care about background presumably your Oil Slick users either have fire or energy powers or have a reason to be Tech or Magic. As far as characters who use multiple types of powers, like training and gadgets, I go with what I feel the core concept to be. For instance my Archery / Energy Blaster uses jet boots to fly, has powered gauntlets that let him stun enemies or knock them away from him, and carries a missile launcher and a freeze ray that he occasionally uses. However, his main ability is the fact that he has spent years training to become an incredibly skilled archer, so he's Natural origin. His various gadgets (including the bow and various arrow types) wouldn't be much use without the skill to use them properly. If anyone could pick up his devices and learn to use them with little trouble, he'd be Tech origin instead.

Another factor you could consider with origin is the enhancements Mr. Yin in faultline sells. He carries L13, 17 and 21 SO's that are origin specific. If you have any character that has done penelope yin's arc you can have them buy those and mail them to your global name for other characters to use - the ehancments he carries are:

Magic: Accuracy
Mutant: Damage
Natural: Damage
Tech: End reduction
Science: Recharge

The damage SO's are really nice - starting at level 10 its easy to get at least one SO in every attack and possibly 2, by the late teens you can easily have all your low level attacks damage capped well before you hit 22.

So, I guess the in game value of origin is: Penelope Yin's Shop, location of other SO/DO shops, Mission Arc assignments, and special attack power.

Mutants really get the worst attack power. Throwing your own mutagen kind of feels gross, like it would be a hygiene issue or something.

I've got a bunch of X-Men style characters who are mutants. (One of whom has the mutant gift to see into the future a few seconds, and is a Widow, and therefore forced to be Natural. Whatever. She's card-carrying X-gene positive.)

I've got a few non-powered heroes who are Natural.
My Amazon scrapper is natural, despite using high-tech Athenium weaponry.
I've got two super-powered Naturals, one was raised by energy beings (like a space-Tarzan) and has a variety of one-at-a-time powers they can induce in him, the other is a spontaneously generated Earth Elemental.

I've got a few Tech characters. A couple who wear special Impolex suits to give them superpowers. Three different future Amazon cop who uses high tech guns, devices and wings (Traps/AR and TA/A). A robot.

Everyone else is Science, its my catch-all origin.
Artificial humans created by the Life Star (a giant techno-moon).
Earth people given Life Star technology upgrades - usually more irradiation/chemicals than cybernetics, so it feels more Science than tech to me. (One has to keep drinking a serum daily, he might be tech. I can't remember.)
A 30th C mathematician with a special self-duplication equation.
A 1970's physicist who fell through time and space and became a photographic negative of himself.
Its all science.

I don't think I have any Magic characters currently.
I made one 30th C tradition chinese medicine Magic character who ended up getting deleted when I ran low on slots.
My first 50 was an Elec/Elec blaster made by my daughter originally, who chose the origin. I used to tease her that her character got her powers when she fell over and got her head stuck in a microwave, and we later decided that that was canon. But, HERO corps refused to believe this and classified her as "Magic".

Another reason, depending on which Origin you pick determines which Titles you are entitled to:
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Titles
My most common Origin of choice is Magic.

I once made an alien that had what was to his race normal powers, but to humans seemed like super powers. Chose natural origin for him.

I usually go for tech, sci, or mutant.