Same concept across different characters?

I'm somewhat attached to my two main toons. Really attached, actually. They're actually original characters of mine that didn't originate in City of Heroes, and I have come to use them in any game with extensive character customization. They're both level 50, one of which is pretty much done slotting, the other still needing some more sets; however, I'm not wanting to just play the same two level 50s for the rest of my gaming days, but I am heavily invested in the stories behind these two, and I don't want to stop adding on to it.

I've been toying with the idea of using the same Characters with different builds. This would work as far as concept goes because the two didn't have just the abilities they have in COH when originally created. One is a mage type in her abilities, so I could really use any corruptor set.

Is it common for people to do this? Am I being incredibly unoriginal?

People do it all the time, they even re-roll the same power-sets. That's what makes this game fun you can try out all kinds of alts and if you have a good imagination you can use a lot of powers as stand ins for ones that don't exist in game yet.

Make use of the doppleganger lore and make a clone, only your clone saw the light early and followed its predecessor's life (perhaps not exactly).

Or, as I have done:
I made a "new" character recently that was really my level 50 Ar/Dev blaster putting away her AR and taking up the role of mentor for recently paroled street criminals wanting to make right: a thugs Mastermind in Paragon City. Once in awhile she has to use her pistols to help out, but otherwise directs her charges to be heroic. I put in the bio that she was asked, as well as many other "retired" heroes, to do this by the city. Of course, going from rifle to pistol is an easy transition story wise.

Go for it. And lots of different ways to go about it.

I have Mental Maden (FF/Psi def) and Mental Maden2 (Mind/Sonic troller). Essentially the same character with similar but not exact powers.

My villain main Codename-Pox (Dark/Rad cor) has two sisters Codename-Singe (Dark/Fire brute) and Codename-Blight (Plant/Fire dom). That have similar but not exact looks, but a common theme.

Then I have my "Flash" Illusion controllers. Flash Powder Jane (Ill/Therm), Flash Frozen Jen (Ill/Cold) and Flash Forward Jill (Ill/Time). All have a stage magician look but their costume and power colors match their themes.

Mental Giant was reborn as a Mind/Psy Dom on Exalted, although he's still lvl 2.

My first Villain 50, Knifey Wifey, was supposed to be more of a knife wielder (obviously), but I had to settle for Ninja Blade at launch. When Dual Blades came out, I rolled up a new version on a different server as a DB/Willpower Stalker. I even made a heroic version of her that never became an evil knife-wielding manic... she was a heroic dual-sword wielding maniac! (DB/WP Scrapper)

So no, you're not being original, but as folks have said previously: who cares?

EDIT: Just remembered, I rerolled Black Dynamite (MA/Dark Scrap) when Street Justice came out (SJ/Dark), but I don't delete 50s, so I moved the original BD to Exalted (and lost my name somehow...).

Do it all the time for various reasons. Not having fun with the powersets, havent quite found the powersets I think fit the concept, or just to add to her, for instance weapon/combat specialist..Dual Pistols, Katana, Claws, Dual Blades versions...actually made AR and Archery versions of her to go along with it, but they never got past lvl 32 since Ijust find the sets boring to play.

Thanks for the responses. I know it doesn't matter what others think, but I still wanted other viewpoints. I think I will reroll her. I can certainly use a new toon to add more informatio to her background. I struggled to fit what I did on the tiny character information slot. I come up with plenty of characters, but I never really get into them. Hopefully the depth of my character concept will make up for my lack of differentiation in amount of characters. I already have a few creative ways to reason a second toon.

1. I rerolled two toons very early on in my CoH career. My katana/dark armor scrapper Organica became a katana/regen scrapper, and my invulnerable/energy melee tank Mouse Police became a dark melee/invulnerable scrapper. Both times because I didn't like a given power set (dark armor, and energy melee/tank damage in general).

2. Later on I created a Mouse Police on nearly every server. Each one is a completely different AT/set. I have played Mouse Police katana/regen scrapper to 50, Mouse Police fire melee/super reflexes scrapper to 50, MP ice/ice blaster to 42, MP empath/dark defender to 25, MP Warshade to about 20... I don't think I've really worked on any of the others.

3. I also have a set of "buffbot" defenders and corruptors who all escaped from a bad AE exploit farm mission. As such, they all look exactly the same, have similar backgrounds, and have names like "Sonic Girl Seven", "Dark Girl Four", "Ice Girl Eight", and "Bubble Girl Six". Of the four listed, three are now 50 and one is 46. The other 5 or 6 similar characters are around 20 each.

I just did four same concept toon. It was 'troll girl', playing with the game mythos. One's a supa troll, one's a trollkin, and two had powers going on and mutated differently. And I chose a different set for each that fit in with the lore.

But I got quite a bit of difference with one simple concept.

That said, do what you want. There's no one who can stop you. If you wanna make the identical character for every slot that's between you and god.

My namesake character had a freak accident involving the Akashic Record, an Irising stabilizer, and a restored 1953 Chevy Bel Air, and now there's, like, five of him running around.

Mmm, almost forgot that two of my most recent toons are goddess sisters: Megamisama, a now-50 street justice/shield brute, and Megami Hime, a Titan Weapon/Willpower brute.

I will often re-roll a character if the powerset isnt working the way I want of if I just dont enjoy it..

I also tend to build around themes which often lead to duplicate powersets to a degree and characters that are intertwined.

I made a toon called Firewall. He was originally an Earth/Thermal controller. Got him to level 50 and just couldnt stand him.. hated playing him.. I rerolled him as a Earth/Fire Dominator.. MUCH MUCH better.. This led me to make his twin brother Heatsink who is a Cold/Ice Defender...I had a character named Reflex who is a KM/EA Brute./.. he is built like a superspeed character and I renamed him Overclock.. Thats my PC tech named theme


I had to toon called FireBrand.. Fire/Thermal Controller... fun but barely played it.. I deleted it and made a toon called Lockdown a Fire/Rad Controller. Much better...

That led me to make a toon called Reactor who is a Rad/Fire Blaster.. thats my Nuclear theme..

I tend to do a lot of themes..

The Electric Company

ShellShock Elec/SS Tank
RedeFurashi ( the Red Flash ) Shield/Elec Brute
AMP'ED Elec/Elec Dominator
Override Elec/Psi Dominator
TASER Elec/Elec Blaster

ColdPlay

StormBringer Ice/Storm Controller
ColdSnap Ice/Cold Controller
Shiv'r Ice/Thorn Dominator
Heatsink Cold/Ice Defender
Avalance Ice/Stone Tank

I like doing stuff like this.. I say make what you want.. have fun.. enjoy yourself..

I have an Aggelakis on every server, with different powersets on each. I also have a couple extra Aggelakises on Justice, and I have a few alternate-spelling Agges on several servers.

I have created Aggelakis in every game I've played. She is an old RP character from long before I started playing City. She has gotten the most mileage out of City and her story has fleshed a lot more since playing her and her various permutations in City.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

I see this all the time. At least half of the supergroup I'm in does it, myself included ever since Time Manipulation came out and I didn't want to reroll my level 50 Grav/Kin who had a temporal theme. There's actually three of him now, all on Virtue: the original Grav/Kin controller Hour Thief, the Time/Sonic defender version Horoclept, and the Praetorian Grav/Energy dominator Tempo Rubato that I made when I jumped on the bandwagon of people in my SG making Praetorian counterparts to their main characters.

But yeah, let's see... one of our leaders has a katana/regen scrapper and a MA/regen scrapper who are the same person and also a ninja MM Praetorian version of her; the other leader has at least two of his... actually I don't know what Phaize is, but there are two of him; another officer has at least three of his mace/shield tank, one of which is a titan weapons brute and the other an archery/time corruptor; a couple non-officers made Titan Weapons versions of their characters when it came out too, without deleting the originals; two members made Kheldian-fused versions of their characters for story purposes... yeah, it's definitely a thing people do.

I do this a ton. I have at least four versions of Dechs, four of my sandy brute, three of my sandy tank, and two or three versions of Andre.