Welcome to Hyper Score Marvel (#28) where every week I use Hypercorps 2099 to put together an iconic hero or villain from the world’s most popular superhero universe! Unlike previous posts, this series is no longer dual-system and only for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game (there’s lots of excellent free D&D 5E stuff, most notably the Warhammer 40k D&D 5E Hack or Street Fighter D&D 5E).

WTF is Mike doing?
Most of my week was putting NPCs and monsters through layout, and about 12 hours ago I finished the rough draft PDF of Book of Exalted Darkness–all 414 pages of it. If you take out the credits, OGL, and foreword that’s 411 pages. 4+1+1=6 with three numbers is 666. 😉 The next few days are bookmarks, the table of contents, and other little fixes but I am INCREDIBLY excited to put it into the printer and see what comes out. Speaking of, I just ordered four other print proofs (Shadow of the Demon Lord fans, sacrifice all the animals) because to take a break from that huge tome I was like “I’m a masochist! Let’s fix these two errored books and hey, why not get that other Mists of Akuma adventure (Feud Primordial) and something new for Pathfinder out into the world!”

BACK TO THE BLOG
Last time we had Jessica Jones and next we’ve got Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch, Doctor Doom, Invisible Woman, Loki, Mister Negative, Colossus, and Speedball. More requests are always welcome however—I’ll get to them all eventually! The full cast (as well as all my other statblocks) are easily accessible in big ol lists over on the index page and run the gamut from Spider-Man and the Venom Symbiote to Emma Frost. Also—there are free PDFs for Hypercorps 2099 (wherein you can get a look at how all these hyper abilities function).

If you spot a way this can improve, share the info! I’m on Twitter @MikeMyler2, Facebook, Google+, and you can leave messages below the post. Thanks!

Thanks! 😀

NOTE: This is one of the more popular character builds and if you root about the Paizo forums/reddit/websites you can find several. I’m out to build him using the Hyper Score system (think Mythic Adventures but with some stimulants).

Punisher

THE PUNISHER (Frank Castle)         CR 14—XP 38,400
Male human monk (ballistics brawler) 4/gunslinger 4/brawler 4 [hs 2; savant 1]
N Medium humanoid (human, hyper)
Init +6; Awareness +11

DEFENSE
AC 21, bullet 21, touch 21, flat-footed 13 (+4 Dex, +4 dodge, +1 hyper, +2 Wis)
hp 104 (4d8+4d10+4d10+28+11); Hyper Bonus +1
Fort +15, Ref +17, Will +9 (+2 vs. enchantments)
Defensive Abilities evasion

OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee unarmed +14/+9/+9/+4 (1d10+3) or unarmed flurry +13/+13/+8/+8/+3 (1d10+3)
Ranged combat pistols +17/+12/+12/+7 or +15/+15/+10/+10/+5 (2d6+3, Crit x4, Range 100 ft.) or combat pistols flurry +16/+16/+11/+11/+6 or +14/+14/+14/+9/+9/+4 (2d6+3, Crit x4, Range 100 ft.)

Special Attacks brawler’s flurry, grit (3 points), gun flurry, hyper bonus +1, knockout 1/day (DC 17, 1d6 rounds), learned ki (4 points), martial flexibility 6/day (move action, 1 minute), stunning fist 4/day (DC 15, stun 1 round or fatigue)

STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +11; CMB +16 (+17 disarm); CMD 36 (37 vs. disarm)
Feats Alertness [B], Combat Expertise [B], Deadly Aim [B], Dodge [B], Gunsmithing [B], Improved Grapple [B], Improved Trip [B], Improved Unarmed Strike [B], Mobility, Point-Blank Shot [B], Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Shot on the Run, Snap Shot, Sword and Pistol, Weapon Focus (pistol), Weapon Specialization (pistol); Hyper Coordination (two-weapon fighting as standard action in between move)
Skills Acrobatics +9, Athletics +9, Awareness +11, Bluff +4, Craft (firearms, traps) +5, Escape Artist +8, Handle Animal +3, Heal +8, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (engineering, history, religion) +5, Knowledge (local) +6, Profession (soldier) +9, Search +9, Sense Motive +11, Sleight of Hand +11, Stealth +13, Survival +10, Technology +5, Vehicular Control +9
Languages English, Russian
SQ brawler’s cunning, deeds (deadeye, gunslinger’s dodge, gunslinger initiative, quick clear, pistol-whip, utility shot [blast lock, scoot unattended object, stop bleeding]), fast movement, gunsmith, hyper attack, hyper mortality, nimble +1, slow fall 20 ft., still mind
Gear 2 combat pistols, all the ammunition, various grenades (Chapter 8 in the Hypercorps 2099 core book)

SPECIAL ABILITIES (of the ballistics brawler monk)
Gun Flurry (Ex) A ballistics brawler learns how to unload a fusillade of bullets and treats one-handed firearms as though they had the monk weapon quality. A ballistics brawler making melee attacks while wielding one-handed firearms deals his unarmed strike damage.
This modifies and replaces the flurry of blows ability.

Learned Ki (Ex) At 4th level, the ballistics brawler gains the gunsmith gunslinger ability (including Gunsmithing as a bonus feat). In addition, he gains grit equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1), but a ballistics brawler only has half as many ki points as he normally would and determines the size of his ki pool using Intelligence rather than Wisdom.
A ballistics brawler treats his gunslinger level as his monk level -4 for determining what deeds he has access to (at 4th level, a ballistics brawler only has access to the quick clear deed).
This ability modifies ki pool.

DESIGN NOTES

Frank here is effectively a melee weapon and if he’s sporting two guns (which he probably should be) then Sword and Pistol is always in effect, letting him fire away until nothing else nearby is moving. As it is he’s sporting six attacks a round which I feel is fine (12d6+18 – oy vey, now that’s punishment!) but remember that he’s got martial flexibility which you can use to snag Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (at least, I’d allow it so long as it’s only used in conjunction with flurries) for a seventh attack. I think most of the time his best bet is to go after Improved Critical and rely on making lots of attacks.

I also didn’t give him any magic items or hyper equipment aside from his weapons (which themselves are mundane, albeit mundane for modern/future) to keep this purer to cannon, but whatever you might spend on him should get spent on bracers of armor and a nice ring of protection to pump his AC up a bit (although he should be able to use Combat Expertise without fear of missing too often). Even so it’s still low and in comparison to a regular CR 14 monster, he pales in comparison in most categories–except for damage and accuracy, where Frank really shines. He’s still shooting at touch AC (or if you’re full-in for Hypercorps 2099, Bullet AC) so feel free to sprinkle some Deadly Aim into the attack array to pop the bullet fusillade into the “dear god what happened to Karl?”-range. 😀