Beast
(Dr. Henry McCoy) (Gisted profile)
Context
These very old notes are about a gisted version of Beast (Dr. Henry McCoy). This is how he generally appeared during the 1970s, 1980s and a little bit beyond. During this time he worked with the Defenders, the Avengers, X-Factor and the X-Men.
The primary focus of these notes were his game stats. This entry is kept around as a stats benchmark.
Background
- Real Name: Henry “Hank” P. McCoy.
- Marital Status: Single.
- Known Relatives: Norton (father), Edna (mother), Robert (uncle).
- Group Affiliation: (current) X-Men, (former) X-Factor I, Avengers, Defenders.
- Base Of Operations: (current) Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York State; (former) Brand Corporation facilities, Long Island; Avengers Mansion, New York City; Defenders Mansion, Colorado; X-Factor I headquarters, New York City; “Ship”.
- Height: 5’11” Weight: 355 lbs.
- Eyes: Blue Hair: Originally brown, now blue-black.
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Powers & Abilities
The bouncing Beast is extremely agile, fast and strong. He has unmatched balance. His hands and highly prehensile feet are of unusual size, yet extremely dexterous.
McCoy is a prominent scientist, with genetics and biochemistry as his specialties, but he also has been known to dabble in electronics.
History
A brilliant student and one of the five original X-Men, McCoy completed his doctoral studies under Xavier’s tutelage. He eventually left the X-Men and Xavier’s school to take a position as a genetic researcher with the Brand Corporation. There he developed a serum that acted as a catalyst for activating latent mutations.
Upon drinking the serum McCoy underwent radical physical changes. He grew fur over his entire body, his ears became larger and pointed, and his canine teeth became larger, resembling fangs. The serum also increased his superhuman agility, endurance, speed, and strength.
Eventually, McCoy left Brand, joined the Avengers, and publicly revealed his dual identity. After years of service with the Avengers (during which he also aided the X-Men against Dark Phoenix), the Beast took it upon himself to reorganize another super-hero group, the Defenders, into a more formal combat organization.
His X-Men cohorts Angel and Iceman served in the Defenders along with him. The team eventually collapsed after a climactic battle in which several other members seemingly perished.
X-Factor
Subsequently, the Beast and his fellow members of the original X-Men formed a new organization, the original X-Factor. It publicly appeared to hunt down allegedly dangerous mutants but secretly taught them how to use their superhuman abilities.
Shortly after the formation of X-Factor, the Beast was captured by the geneticist Dr. Carl Maddicks. Maddicks performed an experiment that caused the Beast to revert to his original, more human appearance. Some time later, however, the mutagenic powers of the mutant Infectia triggered the Beast’s return to his furry, more animalistic appearance.
After Professor Charles Xavier returned to Earth following an extended stay in outer space with the Starjammers, the Beast and his fellow X-Factor founders returned to the X-Men. As of this writing the Beast remains an active member of the X-Men as well as serving as a research scientist at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.
Description
Hank is 5’11” and a muscular, slightly anthropoid 355lbs. He is covered with dark blue fur, has pointed ears and fang-like teeth. His hair look a bit like Wolverine’s.
Personality
While he’s really a very serious and scholarly scientist, the Beast has taken the role of the joker to heart. He’s always cracking jokes and making fun of his opponents, or launching deadly puns.
He also greatly enjoys showing off his extensive vocabulary in pretentious and intricate sentences. He has developed a wide range of unusual expressions, some of those being French or Latin. Cramming as many polysyllabic, literary and scientific terms in a sentence as possible and still making sense is a sort of sport to him.
In short he comes across has a light-hearted, very friendly, highly charming man. He’s also extremely loyal to his cohorts.
Quotes
“Oh my stars and garters”
Beast: “If my calculations are correct, this button should—”
Rogue, sent flying against the wall: *woulph*
Beast: “—Make things worse. Whoops.”
“I must object to the use of the word ’babbling‘. OK, so maybe I was rambling… but babbling ? I don’t even know how to babble.”
“It’s not ’animal,‘ miss, it’s ’Beast‘ … a ’Beast‘ which happens to know a thing or two about the dynamic application of nano-effusive devices. Animal is a Muppet.”
“If I had a nickel for every catatonic body down there, I’d have 15 cents, but that’s besides the point.”
“There is actually quite an appropriate explanation for this, sir ! Perhaps we might be afforded the opportunity to elaborate upon our motivation for—”
“Every time I hear myself called by my formal title — I fight the urge to shout out, ‘He’s dead, Jim !’”
“Why don’t you go orally extract embryonic fluid from a hen’s egg ?”
“Now, Spiral, perhaps you would rather talk this out than persist in the perpetuation of pointless pugilistic pugnacity ?” (beat) “My, am I especially alliterate today, or what ?”
“How else am I to get you to treat me like a man of weight and substance unless I act as morally perturbed and angst-ridden as everyone else in this room ?”
“Sorry, mon capitan . I promise to approach this pointless battle with renewed attention and maturity.”
“Storm, as deputy leader of our August Assemblage of mutants known forthwith as ’The Uncanny X-Men’ it falls upon you to grant me the necessary dispensation to throw Cannonball out the nearest window.”
“The confusing concept and cagey conundrum I cannot comprehend, comrades is, to wit : Warren Worthington III — called Archangel by some — was gracious enough to offer entre into his private loft in Soho for an evening for us, his taut and tense teammates, while his not-insignificant other recovers from her wounds. Clearly, said slice of prime Manhattan real estate is at least 160,000 square feet on this floor alone, so why oh, why, oh why, I query with all due sincerity and much revered reverence, WHY with all the other places to stand in this fershlugginer loft, have you decided to perch yourself over MY shoulder and commence to comment, console and otherwise communicate every poker hand I’ve been dealt ?!”
DC Universe History
What’s to translate ? He is a mutant : see Kansas Jim’s secret age. Mc Coy would be an original member of the X-men. His transformations to, from, and back to his blue furred state have kept him in the physical condition of a 30 year old.
He was an Avenger : “after initially mutating into his furred state, Mc Coy joined the JLA for a short time, before returning to the X-men.” X-factor ? Without mutant hysteria, there is no reason to publicly hunt mutants. He remains teacher, trainer, and resident biochemist at the Charles Xavier school for the meta-genetic.
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Beast (Classic)
| Dex: 08 | Str: 08 | Bod: 07 | Motivation: Responsibility |
| Int: 09 | Wil: 07 | Min: 06 | Occupation: Adventurer |
| Inf: 06 | Aur: 05 | Spi: 06 | Resources: 05 |
| Init: 027 | HP: 090 |
Powers:
Claws: 04, Cold immunity: 01, Jumping: 02, Running: 05
Skills:
Acrobatics: 12, Artist (Keyboards musician): 04, Charisma*: 06, Gadgetry*: 09, Martial artist*: 08, Medicine*: 09, Scientist*: 09, Thief (Stealth): 05, Vehicles (Air, Land, Water): 05
Advantages:
Ambidextrous, Connoisseur, Genius, Gift of Gab, Lightning Reflexes, Prehensile Feet, Scholar (Genetic, biology/biochemistry, literature), Languages (Italian, Russian, Pundi, Latin and of course French), Popularity.
Connections:
X-Men (High), Wonder Man (High), Avengers (High), Dr. Strange (Low).
Drawbacks:
Guilt (As long as the Legacy Virus is a threat), Mistrust (Mutant), Public ID, Distinct Appearance.
Design Notes
- While Beast’s DEX might seem low to the casual reader, it accurately represents McCoy’s actual performance as a fighter. Beast’s prowess is modeled using a huge Acrobatics score as well as prehensile feet and lightning reflexes Advantages.
- During his Defenders and Avengers days, Hank had one fewer AP in INT and AURA.
- For the whole era before the Infectia incident, he had one fewer AP of STR.
- During the period the Beast was infected with the Pestilence virus, the following special rules applied : whenever the Beast used his full STR (GM’s call), he loses one AP in *every* Mental and Spiritual Attribute, to a minimum a 01. This goes on until his last Attribute (presumably his INT) is down at 01. Each time such a loss occur, he also gains a permanent AP in either STR or BODY, using a sequence of STR/STR/BODY/STR/STR/BODY and so on.
At the end of that era, Hank had every Mental and Spiritual Attribute down at 01 (rendering most advantages such as Scholar, Gift of Gab, Connoisseur, Languages, etc. unusable), a STR of 14 and a BODY of 09.
Game Stats — DC Adventures RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Beast (Classic) — Averaged PL 11.6
| STR | STA | AGL | DEX | FGT | INT | AWE | PRE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02 (07) | 02 (06) | 03 (09) | 01 | 05 (08) | 04 | 04 | 03 |
Powers
Mutated body ● 48 points ● Descriptor: Mutation
– Speed 1, Leaping 2.
– Feature (Ambidexterity, Prehensile Feet).
– Enhanced Strength 5, Enhanced Stamina 4, Enhanced Agility 6, Enhanced Fighting 3.
– Enhanced Acrobatics 4, Enhanced Athletics 6.
– Defensive roll 2, Evasion, Improved Grab, Improved Initiative, Takedown.
– Thick fur — Protection 1, Enhanced Fortitude 1, both Limited 3 to Cold.
– Blue in Tooth and Claw — Enhanced Advantage (Daze [Intimidation]).
Scientific phenomenon ● 1 point ● Descriptor: Skill
Enhanced Skill 4 (Expertise [Science]), Limited to Genetics/Biology.
Combat Advantages
Defensive Attack, Daze (Intimidation), Defensive Roll 1 (3 w/Mutated body), Evasion, Improved Defense, Improved Grab, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Power attack, Takedown.
Other Advantages
Inventor, Languages 2 (Italian, Latin, Pundi, French).
Skills
Acrobatics 5 (+18), Athletics 5 (+18), Close combat (Unarmed) 4 (+12), Deception 5 (+8), Expertise (Connoisseur) 5 (+9), Expertise (Literature) 8 (+12), (Musician, Limited to Keyboards) 4 (+8), Expertise (Science) 12 (+16), Insight 6 (+10), Intimidation 4 (+7), Perception 8 (+12), Persuasion 4 (+7), Technology 12 (+16), Treatment 8 (+12), Vehicles 7 (+8).
Offense
| Initiative +13 |
| Unarmed +12, Close, Damage 7 |
Defense
| Dodge | 16 | Fortitude | 10 |
| Parry | 16 | Toughness | 9/6* |
| Will | 9 |
* Without Defensive Roll
Complications
- Responsibility Hank believes he should use his gifts in the most positive way possible.
- Mutant Prejudice As an obvious mutant, Hank is sometimes subject to hostility or fear from others.
- Secret Identity Hank maintained his heroic identity separately.
- Guilt During the Legacy Virus arc.
- Distinctive Appearance Blue-furred bestial mutant.
Power levels
- Trade-off areas Attack/Effect PL 10, Dodge/Toughness PL 13, Parry/Toughness PL 13, Fort/Will PL 10.
- Point total 178. Abilities 48, Defences 24, Skills 49, Powers 49, Devices 0, Advantages 8. Equiv. PL 12.
Notes
- During his Defenders and Avengers days, Hank had one less rank of Awareness, lowering his Will and related Skills by 1. He also had one less rank in each of Deception, Insight, Perception, Expertise (Science), Technology, and Treatment.
- For the whole era before the Infectia incident, he had one less Rank of Enhanced Strength.
Source of Character: X-Men comics .
Helper(s): Marvel.com, Dave Oakes, Jackson, Paul Ewande, Peter Piispanen, John Colagioia, Pufnstuff, Bil, Vinnie, Ethan Roe, Azraelfl. The quotes were taken from Alykat (which is long since gone).