Spinning a Yarn

It was either a spider motif, or the goddess Kali.

Like most internet nerds, I read my fair share of webcomics. One of these is Spinnerette, a comic about a girl named Heather Brown who becomes the eponymous Spinnerette, a superhero with spider-like powers. In a refreshing change from most superhero comics, she’s thrilled about her transformation, as her secret dream has always been to be a caped crusader against evil.

The comic is fairly light-hearted, focusing on Heather’s enthusiasm as she adjusts to her new double-life. It does have its serious moments, of course, but for the most part its an adventure-comedy-drama sort of webcomic. It’s also a comparatively low-power setting as well – while the various heroes and villains have powers far beyond ordinary people, none of these are the world-shaking abilities often found among more mainstream comics.

It’s this latter point that interested me in making an Eclipse conversion of Spinnerette. One thing I didn’t mention in last week’s conversion of Malecite was that I had originally figured him for a fifth-level character. Needless to say, that went up as I calculated the levels necessary for the strength and variety of his powers. With Spinnerette though, her powers are comparatively minimal, and aren’t that strong overall – a perfect candidate for a low-level hero.

As with all of the other Eclipse characters posted so far, Spinnerette is built using the Pathfinder rules for Eclipse, including +6 CP at every odd-numbered level, receiving Craft, Profession, and twelve other skills of her choice as class skills, and the use of the Pathfinder package deal for her race.

Available Character Points: 144 (level five) + 10 (three disadvantages: Obligations, Secret, and Showman) + 18 (levels one, three, and five feats) + 6 (level one human bonus feat) = 178 CP.

In Spinnerette’s case, her disadvantages represent her superhero obligations (which she happily undertakes), that she needs to keep her identity a secret (something not so easily done when you have six arms!), and how her superhero activities draw the media spotlight.

Ability Scores (20-point buy): Str 12, Dex 16 (includes +2 racial bonus), Con 14, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 14.

Human Traits

• Bonus feat (6 CP).
• Fast Learner, specialized in skills (3 CP).
• Humans get to pick which attribute enjoys the Pathfinder Template bonus – buying off a Corruption worth (4 CP).

Basic Purchases (103 CP).

• 5d10 Hit Dice (30 CP).
• +5 Warcraft (30 CP).
• +2 Fort save (6 CP).
• +4 Ref save (12 CP).
• +2 Will save (6 CP).
• Light armor proficiency (3 CP).

The light armor proficiency is for the suit she wears later in the series; being made out of Heather’s “spider” silk, it’s strong enough to grant her an armor bonus (how much is uncertain, but I’d likely say +4, the highest bonus light armor can provide).

• 16 skill points (16 CP).

Skills	Ranks	Ability Bonus	Class Bonus	Other	Total
Acrobatics	2	+4 Dex	+3	—	+9
Climb	3	+2 Str	+3	+8 movement	+16
Craft (knitting)	1	+1 Int	+3	—	+5
Diplomacy	3	+2 Cha	+3	—	+8
Disguise	3	+2 Cha	+3	—	+8
Fly	3	+4 Dex	+3	+8 movement	+18
Knowledge (current events)	1	+1 Int	+3	—	+5
Knowledge (earth and life sciences)	3	+1 Int	+3	—	+7
Knowledge (popular culture)	3	+1 Int	+3	—	+7
Perception	2	+0 Wis	+3	—	+5
Research	1	+1 Int	+3	—	+5
Stealth	1	+4 Dex	+3	—	+8

Heather has a total of 26 skill points to spend, thanks to receiving +1 skill point per level from her race, another +1 skill point per level from her Intelligence bonus, and the 16 skill points she bought for 16 CP. All of the skills listed above are class skills for her.

It should be mentioned that normally having a poor maneuverability rating to her fly speed (see below) would cause a character to take a -4 penalty to Fly skill checks, rather than a +8 bonus. We’re bending the rules here, however, as Eclipse doesn’t state that Celerity for an additional movement mode grants anything other than a +8 bonus. Since the modus operandi for Eclipse is that, when there’s a grey area, default to what’s more beneficial for the player (notwithstanding the GM’s judgment call on an issue, of course), that’s what we’re doing here.

Special Abilities (75 CP)

• Celerity/additional mode (climb) (18 CP) with a +10 ft. modifier (+3 CP).
• Celerity/additional mode (fly) (18 CP) + 40 ft. modifier (+12 CP)/specialized for half-cost (poor maneuverability, but may hover up to 50 ft. below an overhanging surface) and corrupted for two-thirds cost (requires a solid surface within 50 ft.).

This power is meant to approximate her web-slinging.

• Equipage/50 gp. worth of material per week (18 CP)/specialized for double effect and corrupted for two-thirds cost; only may have silk ropes, nets, and similar materials.

This one was also slightly awkward; it’s meant to denote that Heather can create spider silk that can be used for other things besides webs, but those are fairly limited in scope.

• Extra Limbs (6 CP).
• Grant of Aid (6 CP) with the Mighty modifier (+3 CP) specialized and corrupted for triple effect/regains hit points only, effect happens slowly (1 hit point per round) up to 50 hp per day.
• Innate Enchantment (8 CP)
  • +2 to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution (4200 gp).
  • Web twelve times per day (2400 gp).
• Martial arts (3 CP) with d6 damage (+3 CP).
• Privilege (3 CP).

The privilege is meant to allow for superheroes being legally allowed to run around and apprehend criminals in blatant disregard for most law enforcement procedures; they can even testify against them in court without having to reveal their secret identities.

One minor caveat needs to be made in regards to some of the above powers. The comic briefly mentions that superhero powers of all types are caused by the “Cherenkov-Kirby reaction.” This goes for everything from Spinnerette’s genetic mutation to magic, and other powers – only super-science devices (e.g. power armor) are exempt from this.

The logical extension of this, in other words, is that Spinnerette’s powers are essentially magical in nature; in Eclipse, that’s normally a cause for corrupting them. However, we aren’t doing that here for several reasons. First, in the context of the comic this only comes up environmentally; there are places where such powers are naturally suppressed, and others where they are augmented – beyond that, it’s a relatively meaningless distinction.

More germane is that even when in a field where C-K powers are suppressed, most of Spinnerette’s abilities are still present; her extra arms, for example, don’t suddenly vanish. Given all of the above, it seems safe to ignore the issue with making some of her powers be vulnerable to antimagic abilities.

Until next time, may all of your super powers work when you need them!

Tags: Eclipse, Pathfinder