The second member of our street-level super team will be a gadgeteer of some sort, a teen prodigy whose powers (apart from a massive intellect and ludicrous technical skills) are all embodied in devices he wears or carries.
The recommended distribution of our 25 street-level build points is to put 14 in Stats and 11 in Powers, but that's going to be a little harder with a character who's an average normie apart from his brains. Scores of 1 each in Brawn and Agility will cost just 4 points, and even a 4 Mind (which is a superhuman intelligence) is only going to cost another 8. So we'll spend those 12 points and see what we can do with the remaining 13 in Powers--that's not far off the recommended pace.
That spread of Stats will give us 4 Mental and one Physical skill slot, which we should keep in mind because Skillful is one of our top Powers priorities. I'll probably dump the maximum 5 points allowed into it, but that will still leave us eight points to play with (which we might extend with Limitations). Omni-Linguist and Omni-Reader (one for speech, one for text) cost 2 and 1 points respectively for access to all known languages. I want to build this kid a suit, or at least an exoskeleton, to house the rest of his powers. Flight is fun, but it's also variable-cost so we'll work the details out later. Defense is going to be important, our boy being relatively fragile; I'll invest in a Force Field, which not only soaks damage but also reflects a little bit of it back, at least against hand-to-hand attacks. It's also variable in cost, but I'm likely to stay near the low end on all of these. Add a Special (ranged) Attack, something in a repulsor-ray line, and also variable-cost. Super-Senses and Scan are also great device-driven powers and good complements to the Whisper's abilities. If we can spend 1 point on each, we can afford all five. Which we can; here's how that shapes up:
Flight (1) confers an air speed of 5 squares per round; not fast, but good enough.
Force Field (1) will have 40 hit points and soaks 10 points of damage each time it's hit. Taking it as a damage shield would forgo another 30 hit points, but it will do only 1 damage-multiplier worth of damage (so a flat 2d6, with a threshold of 10 to get any real effect). Not worth it--we'll take the 70 HP and rely on Special Attack for offense.
Special Attack (1) increases either the accuracy or the damage of the hero's basic attack values by one level and add the Ranged and Area qualifiers. Since accuracy is Agility-based, I'll take the accuracy boost for x2 to hit and x4 damage.
Scan (1) boosts my multiplier on Scan checks from 4 to 5.
Super-Senses (1) lets me enhance one sense--I'll take hearing to complement Whisper's super-smell.
OK, now to start on Skills. Actually, hold that thought. This character's going to have the Age (Young) Disadvantage, and that's going to cost me a skill slot. So, quick recalculation: Five skill slots for Stats, minus 1 for Age, plus ten for Skillful, gives us a total of 14 slots. All right, let's carry on.
There is one Physical skill that attracts my eye: Craftsmanship. I'm going to be making things, so that will be useful. Take Metalwork as a specialty, and that's one slot covered.
The rest will be Mental skills, and the most important will be Computers, Technology, and Science. In fact, I can probably spend all 13 remaining slots on those three, between extra levels and extra specialties. (And given my solid Mind multiplier, it makes sense to buy more Specialties rather than general levels.) I'll take 2 general levels in Computers, with specialties in Building, Hacking, Programming, and Repairing; that uses up 5 slots (two for the levels, three more for the extra Specialties beyond the first). Then two more in Sciences, with a specialty in Physics (for 2 more slots, since the first specialty is free). Finally I'll take 3 levels in Technology, with specialties in Inventing, Jury-Rigging, Modifying, and Repairing: 3 levels plus 3 extra specialties makes 6 slots. Five plus two plus six equals 13. Budget spent.
This brings us to Advantages and Disadvantages. We already know we're taking the disadvantage Age (Young); I'll balance that with the advantage Gadgeteer, which lets me swap out old Gadget powers for new ones. (Though technically none of my powers have the Gadget limitation, so in theory I should go back and address that so I can get some use out of it.) I've also built him as a Normal, which means his Brawn and Agility can't go higher than 2--which they don't, so no retcon called for here. Against that I'll play Photographic Memory, which I kind of wanted for Whisper but it makes as much sense for our whiz kid here.
And Whiz Kid will make a fine codename for our teen phenom. Child prodigy Vladimir Diaz combined his prodigious intellectual and technological talents with his love of comics and his naïve idealism to build a powered exoskeleton embodying several advanced devices. He has been recruited by the mysterious crimefighter known as the Whisper to help defend his neighborhood from the forces of evil as a member of Neighborhood Watch. His Mental Malfunction is that he constantly struggles with the disappointment that his reality is not actually like the comics he loves so much.
Now for the statblock:
Codename: Whiz Kid
Private Identity: Vladimir Diaz
Mental Malfunction: Trying to make the real world live up to the promise of superhero comics
STATS: Brawn 1, Agility 1, Mind 4
Priority: x1; Defense: x1; Mental Defense: x4; Soak: x1; Hits: 100
Lift: 50 lb; Run: 3 squares; Jump: 1 square; Climb: 1 square; Fly: 5 squares; Swim: 1 square
Powers:
Skillful 5: 10 extra slots (5 points)
Omni-Linguist: speak all known languages (2 points)
Omni-Reader: Read/write all known languages (1 point)
Flight 1: fly 5 squares/panel (1 point)
Force Field 1: 70 hits, soak 10 (1 point)
Special Attack (ranged) 1: +1 DM to hit, +0 DM damage (x2 to hit, x4 damage) (1 point)
Super Senses 1: enhanced hearing (1 point)
Scan 1: +1 Mind multiplier when scanning (1 point)
Advantages: Gadgeteer (swap Gadget powers, create new Gadget mid-story for 1 hero point); Photographic Memory (what it says)
Disadvantages: Age (Young) (-1 skill slot); Normal (max 2 Brawn/Agility)
Notable Equipment: Exoskeleton, smartphone, laptop, tool kit
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