DC Comics' Black Canary - Theorycrafting

[Randyman]

Odd idea here...

Instead of modeling her Canary Cry (sonic attack) as a Power, what about modeling it based on the Kiai skill? Recent incarnations of the character would warrant Trained by a Master; earlier incarnations could have the Unusual Training perk, though a cinematic/four-color setting should allow cinematic use of the skill.

What else would be useful for building her ability using Kiai?

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Randyman

Odd idea here...

Instead of modeling her Canary Cry (sonic attack) as a Power, what about modeling it based on the Kiai skill? Recent incarnations of the character would warrant Trained by a Master; earlier incarnations could have the Unusual Training perk, though a cinematic/four-color setting should allow cinematic use of the skill.

What else would be useful for building her ability using Kiai?

I don't know that there's anything that will allow Kiai to do direct damage to living things, let alone to inanimate objects, as opposed to being a stunning effect against living opponents. So, if this is how her Canary Cry works in your writeup, it simply won't do a lot of what it does in the comics.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

I don't know that there's anything that will allow Kiai to do direct damage to living things, let alone to inanimate objects, as opposed to being a stunning effect against living opponents. So, if this is how here Canary Cry works in your writeup, it simply won't do a lot of what it does in the comics.

I agree. Though you could also add Project Blow with a special effect she yells rather then punches.

[Miles]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I agree. Though you could also add Project Blow with a special effect she yells rather then punches.

Misses the crucial AoE ability of a sonic attack.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Miles

Misses the crucial AoE ability of a sonic attack.

You could try addin Whilrlwind attack then.
I would build her with Powers myself but offering the Op some ideas to get what he wants.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Miles

Misses the crucial AoE ability of a sonic attack.

Could maybe do something with Imbuements (again, combined with Project Blow), but it starts to get really convoluted, require multiple rolls, etc., when it seems like something much more easily handled with an Innate Attack.

Which really should be fine, even if you're defining the ability as the result of martial arts training (like the landlady in Kung Fu Hustle, perhaps)... I'd probably use abilities and powers based on Innate Attack and other advantages for many of the special attacks in Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Naruto, etc., as well.

[Randyman]

I suspected that a sufficient build using Kiai as a starting point would be overly complex. I did find Mega-Kiai in Martial Arts which is explicitly built as an Innate Attack rather than using the Kiai skill as a base, which supports all that has been contributed here.

Thanks for the input!

[sir_pudding]

The Longbowmen version wouldn't probably even need Kiai.

[aesir23]

This isn't a direct answer to your question, but I did post a version of Black Canary on these fora a while ago.

You can check it out here if your interested.

[Randyman]

Originally Posted by aesir23

This isn't a direct answer to your question, but I did post a version of Black Canary on these fora a while ago.

You can check it out here if your interested.

Nice. Interesting that you used Ultimate Combat. But I thought that a Style! wildcard skill included the Style Familiarity.

I'm actually thinking that the Natural Attack ability from Pyramid 3-65: Alternate GURPS III would be a decent alternative for the Canary Cry, using Dragon Breath from that article as the model. For my jones for Kiai, use it as the attack skill. The benefit for doing so would be that the effect of Kiai stacks on top of the Natural Attack effect without needing an enhancement; the downside is that Kiai is a more expensive skill to acquire and develop.