Making a Lucky Villain, Mutants and Masterminds 2e

[Kid Jake]

I'm preparing a list of villains for an upcoming campaign and I thought it'd be a nice change of pace to make a villain that's whole schtick is that things just work out for him. He's meant to be a minor-nuisance type villain that isn't really a threat to anyone, but somebody's got to stop him from ripping off everyone within arm's reach. Their early 'battles' should consist of him going about his business like he doesn't even see the PCs and his crazy defensive powers just activate every time they make a move towards him.

The heroes try to punch him and the floor under them collapses or a beam falls from the ceiling and knocks them out. They try to blast him and blow open the safe he was trying to break into instead. They manage to arrest him and as they're hauling him to jail they're in a car accident that miraculously throws him unharmed from the backseat and they watch him strut away brushing himself off as they struggle out of the heap of metal.

How would you represent this guy mechanically without abusing GM Fiat? I'm trying to build around PL5, but since he's not really a threat so much as a puzzle I could go higher. At present I'm thinking Friction Control(Trip, Snare, Dazzle, Hamper Movement) and Obscure as reactions and Nullify(Personal Only) for those blows that get through.

[tensai_oni]

Luck Control is a power in the corebook, especially the third use of it is what I have in mind.

Of course, by rules each time the villains use "villain points", players get 1 HP each which does a pretty good job at negating a villain point-spamming antagonist because that hero point is pretty useful. What I'd do is set up a pool of villain points this particular enemy can use per encounter/session without powering the players' hero point pool. An enemy equivalent of the Lucky feat of sorts. Not exactly RAW, but shouldn't break the game.

Other than that? Just GM Fiat. That, or a wide array of lucky powers such as friction control which you mentioned.

[Jlerpy]

The problem with a villain having Lucky is that it's mechanically dissatisfying, because it just shuts off the normal flow of the game. It's basically the same as giving the heroes fewer starting Hero Points.

[tensai_oni]

What? No.

Uses of DM Fiat give players more hero points. You don't take anything away from players by giving "villain points" to the antagonists, they only lose opportunities for more hero point gain.

HP gain if you ask me is stacked in players' favor, because for a single reroll or other hero point-like use for a villain, ALL heroes get 1 HP each. Giving the villains or even just a single villain a pool of "free" points would help with that, somewhat.

[Friv]

I would give him maxed out Dodge and Toughness, represented by luck rather than literal dodging and resilience as a starting point.

M&M 2e had a power called Probability Control that made it so that, if you rolled a result lower than the rank of the power, your die result became the power roll. It got broken at high ranks, but a low-rank version to prevent bad rolls is reasonable enough.

Deflect with the Redirect Extra lets "good luck" get in the way of attacks and throw them at other heroes, which could be good for a laugh. If you want to be really mean, beef it up to be a Reaction effect. It'll cost 6 pts/rank, but let it trigger whenever someone tries to harm him.