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View Full Version : Black Bolt in 3.5?



DarkMaverik
2013-08-26, 10:02 AM
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4e/WarofKings-5.jpg/250px-WarofKings-5.jpg

So, how would one go about making Black Bolt from Marvel in D&D 3.5? I'm actually a little surprised I couldn't find any discussions about this around, or even a custom class seeing as he is, in fact, da bomb.

Let's take a peek at his power list on Wiki shall we?



"An organic mechanism in his brain's speech center produces an unknown particle that interacts with ambient electrons, enabling him to produce certain mentally controlled phenomena. The most devastating of the effects is Black Bolt's quasi-sonic scream. Because his electron-harnessing ability is linked to the speech center of his brain, any attempt to use his vocal cords triggers an uncontrollable disturbance of the particle/electron interaction field. Because of this limitation, Black Bolt must be constantly vigilant of even the softest of utterances lest he destroy anything or anyone in its path. At full strength, his voice generates a shockwave equivalent to that of a nuclear weapon, while a whisper can rock a battleship."

Now, yes, he also has super strength and speed and a little telepathy etc... But let's focus on the fun bit. That quasi-sonic voice. I wanna figure out an effective way to make a character who more or less has to take a vow of silence for normal communication since if he were to just whisper into your ear a secret, he'd evaporate your eardrums.

I get the feeling that the custom Dragonborn class is likely to get a mention, but I believe that's more of a "casting spells with shouts" kinda thing than "crazy destructive voice".

Beleron
2013-08-26, 11:55 AM
I hope you wouldn't give him a medusa cohort to do his talking for him. That could end badly...

limejuicepowder
2013-08-26, 12:36 PM
Dragonfire adept might work, as they get an at-will breath weapon. Just make it automatically trigger w/e the character speaks.

As a side note, I strongly STRONGLY recommend against playing this character. It might sound like fun, but not being able to speak....at all.....without frying people is going to be extremely boring.

DarkMaverik
2013-08-26, 06:17 PM
I think part of the fun of the character is learning to convey what you want through other means. I've considered it before in Exalted (taking the Mute flaw) and toyed around with the idea of using body language, facial expressions and emotive descriptions to replace speech.

But if I'm gonna do that, why not make my words level buildings while I'm at it? :D

I believe my friend mentioned the Dragonfire adept as a possibility. Have a sonic breath weapon etc. Any other suggestions/ideas?

mabriss lethe
2013-08-26, 08:01 PM
I won't say "it can't be done."

That said, there are much better systems out there for handling a character like this.

At will damage abilities in 3.5 tend to be rather weak.

You could take warlock and make sure to take Baleful Utterance (or pick it up as a DFA using the feat that lets you snag cross class invocations.