Agreed! Especially this being his swansong for his time with Storm/X-Men. This is a great opportunity to showcase what Storm and Magneto can do when they have opposition that requires them to give their all. I hate that Storm’s beyond omega spell in SatB required a “life in carnate”. Part of me fears that to bring Magneto back with her magic may require a sacrifice of something of equal value (life for a life) in exchange for resurrecting him. That could be a key factor in how her magic works and reasons to limit its use. Though I would not be mad if she offered Genesis’s or Abigail’s life in exchange for his
. In either case, I am not too worried. An unleashed Storm and Magneto should be a sight to behold, and hopefully this sets them up for their own book to continue their bromance and the Brotherhood team for both earth & Arakko based missions.
We are so overdue for a good X-Men RPG. I have often thought about this. I would change it up to be more like a combo of Diablo, Hogwarts Legacy, and/or Dragon Age style combat build abilities, story, and quests. Like giving a certain # of points to invest in certain powers, skills, and passive buffs to give options to fit play styles. With Storm, and most of the key X-Men, you have some nice hybrid options for builds for people who like mages/long range combat and/or close quarters combat with warriors/tanks or rogues/martial artists (Storm is a great mage/rogue hybrid). I would give each X-character their own unique set of buffs based on their canon. With Storm it would be:
Atmokinetic Energy Power Tree
Each tree branches out for the core elements of her powerset and multiple applications:
Electrical
* Bioelectric bolts - Project quick bolts of lightning from Storm’s hands that blasts enemies and has a high chance to knock them back
* Chain Lightning - Streams a beam of lightning from Storm’s hands that chains to multiple nearby targets
* Ball Lightning - Fires off a ball of lightning that explodes on impact
* Lightning Eruption - Charges the air around a target with electrical energy that bursts from below enemies shocking them and tossing them into the air
* Shocking Combat - If invested points in “Martial Combat” Storm coats her fists and feet in electrical energy, adding shock/burn damage to her physical strikes
Air
* Pressurized Air Blast - Projects a blast of wind from Storm’s hand that knocks back enemies; Can pick up debri in environment to toss at enemies or blast them into walls for impact damage; Has a chance stun on hit
* Downburst - Draws down a burst of air around Storm that smacks enemies into the ground;? X chance to KO on impact
* Whirwind - Generates a whirlwind that projects from Storm and grows in size to engilf multiple targets in its path, tossing enemies around after being held aloft for X seconds and leave them stunned at the end for X seconds
* Thunderclap - Unleash a clap of thunder from Storm that causes physical damage, 100% chance to knock back & stun enemies; Has x chance for instant KO
* Flight/Dash-Burst - Storm uses the wind to allow her to dash around the battlefield with quick bursts of air; This can also allow hovering and full on flight (but I’d limit the hovering and flight in combat for balance); Unlimited use for quest travel or world exploration though
Water
* Freezing Rain Blast - Project concentrated blasts of water from Storm’s hands that freeze enemies on contact for x seconds
* Hailstones & Ice Shards - Project large hailstones and sharp shards of ice for physical and cold damage
* Ice Walls - Block enemies or trap them inside a wall of ice, making them easy targets for other attacks
* Monsoon Downpour - Damage amplifier; Creates a rainstorm downpour around the combat area that drenches and slows enemy movement; Effected enemies take increased damage from electric or cold attacks; Enemies effected by cold based attacks will be frozen for X seconds
* Fog - Covers the area in fog that temporarily immobilizes enemies
Temperature
* Flashfreeze - in large AoE instantly freeze all enemies in range for cold damage and immobilization
* Heatwave - Heat up the atmosphere around a target to cause an explosive burst of heat that burns enemies; x chance to cause heatstroke for instant KO
* Storm augmentation - Can use this ability to combine temperature with other elemental attacks; Combine cold with air to create freeze blasts or shatter enemies; Combine with Heatwave with air to create a Wildfire in a targeted area that rages and burns enemies, or amplify Earth Storm; Combine with lightning attacks to charge the air and randomly strike enemies w/ lightning around the battlefield every x seconds; Combined with whiriwind to create fire-nadoes that adds burning damage
* Defense Augmentation- Can combine tempatire for various effects to defensive shield, freezing or burning enemies on contact
Summoning - These are wide range AoE/Crowd Control style attacks
* Lightning Storm - Summon columns of lightning from the sky that strike all targets for x seconds
* Hurricane’s Gale - Summon and AoE blast of hurricane force winds to toss all enemies back; high chance to stun and cause impact damage
* Blizzard/Ice Storm - Summon a blizzard of cold, ice and hail that batters and freezes enemies; Can combine with Storm Augmentation or Thunderclap to amplify cold and shatter enemies
* Earth Storm - Tap into the EM field of the planet to cause an earthquake that knocks down enemies and causes explosive lava bursts to incinerate them; can combine with Storm Augmentation to cause wide AoE wildfires with Earth storm for increased damage
Defensive Combat Tree
This tree would offer either power applications, skills, and/or gear to amp defense.
* Elemental shield - Storm creates a shield of pressurize air to protect her from physical attacks and deflect projectiles; can be combined with Defense Augmentation to freeze, shock, or burn enemies on contact
* Martial Combat - Storm’s martial combat prowess allows her to fight enemies that get within her reach; Storm will use her martial arts and hand to hand combat skills to devastate her enemies; This skill also increases dodge, block, and counterattack for both close and ranged combat (I would make each characters close quarters combat style unique to them)
*Weapons Combat - Storm is a skillled marksman with guns, proficient with the bo-staff and swords, and highly skilled with knives; Adding skill points to this attribute will allow Storm to use her vibranium blade in close quarters combat and add to several fight finishing sequences, including “pin cushion”, where Storm pulls out numerous blades to skillfully impale and cut her enemies into oblivion
Unique Buffs
* Leadership- Battle Strategies & Tactics - Unique to Storm and a few others; This skill allows Storm to increase critical chance, critical strike damage, and detect weaknesses in enemies; Also buffs her party with the same atttributes
* Master Thief - Will allow Storm to pick locks, trap detection, and add to stealth so she can sneak about the battlefield undetected
*Atmospheric Senses - Can detect all enemies on the map; Combined with Stealth to amplify critical strike chance
Ultimate Attack = Electromagnetic Tornado Storm - Summons mutiple tornadoes amplified by the planet’s EM field that pulls in & tosses all enemies around, getting shredded by the wind while drawing in cold down from the upper atmosphere to freeze enemies as they are struck with massive bolts of lightning. Can combine with heatwave to create Fire-nados which adds burning damage
If I could pick a guaranteed starting roster my dirty dozen would be:
Storm
Cyclops
Wolverine
Gambit
Rogue
Bishop
Cable
Betsy Braddock
Nightcrawler
Emma Frost
Jean Grey
Sunspot