Val CHA Cost Roll Notes 23 STR 13 14- Lift 600 kg; 4 1/2d6 HTH Damage 21 DEX 33 13- OCV: 7/DCV: 7 18 CON 16 13- 18 BODY 16 13- 13 INT 3 12- PER Roll: 12— 14 EGO 8 12- ECV: 5 15 PRE 5 12- PRE Attack: 3d6 18 COM 4 13- 8 PD 3 Total PD: 11 (6 rPD) 8 ED 4 Total ED: 11 (4 rED) 4 SPD 9 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12 10 REC 2 36 END 0 40 STUN 0 Total Characteristics Cost: 116 Movement: Running: 7"/14" Leaping: 8"/16" Swimming: 2"/4" Cost Powers & Skills Martial Arts: Dirty Infighting Maneuver OCV DCV Damage 4 Martial Block +2 +2 Block, Abort 4 Martial Disarm -1 +1 Disarm, 33 STR 4 Martial Strike +0 +2 6 1/2d6 Strike 5 Offensive Strike -2 +1 8 1/2d6 Strike 3 Martial Throw +0 +1 4 1/2d6+v/5, Target Falls 2 Use Art With Clubs and Blades 6 "Game Face": +10 PRE, Offensive Only (-1/2), Only to cause Fear (-1/4) 7 Fangs: HKA 1 point (1/2 d6 w/STR), Penetrating (+1/2) 33 Drink Blood: HKA 1d6 (15) NND (defense is not having blood;+1), Does BODY (+1) Continuous (+1), Reduced Endurance (0 END, +1/2); No Range (-1/2), Fangs must do BODY first (-1/2) 64 Spread of Vampirism: Major Transform 10d6, Reduced END (0 END, +1/2); No Range (-1/2), All or Nothing (-1/2), Limited Target/humans (-1/2), Must Drain All But 1 BODY With Drink Blood, Then Feed Target 1/2 BODY of Own Blood (-1) 2 Undead Body: Damage Resistance 3 PD/ 1 ED 20 Undead Resilience: Damage Reduction 50% Resistant Physical; Not vs. staking or decapitation (-1/2) 17 Vampiric Regeneration: Healing 1d6/ Regeneration 1 BODY per Hour, Resurrection (not versus vampire banes including fire, sunlight, staking, decapitation, and damage from holy items), Reduced END (0 END, +1/2), Persistent (+1/2); Self Only (-1/2), Extra Time/ per Hour (-2) 47 Undead Vitality: Life Support vs. all conditions (minus Diminished Eating) 2 Swift: Running +1Ó (7Ó) 3 Athletic Prowess: Leaping +3Ó (8Ó) 6 Vampiric Senses: +2 PER (14-) 5 Vampiric Senses: Discriminatory Smell 5 Vampiric Senses: Nightvision 10 Dumb Luck: Luck 2d6 Talents 6 Combat Luck (Armor +3 PD/ED) Skills 10 +2 with HTH Combat 3 Breakfall 13- 3 Concealment 12- 3 Interrogation 12- 2 KS: Occult Lore 11- 2 KS: Punk Rock 11- 3 Language: Greek (fluent w/accent) 3 Language: FÕyarl Demon (fluent w/accent; other languages possible) 3 Lockpicking 13- 3 Persuasion 12- 3 Power: Magic Skill 12—[used for rituals] 3 Stealth 13- 3 Streetwise 13- 5 WF: Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons, Quarterstaff 304 Total Powers & Skills Cost 420 Total Character Cost 200+ Disadvantages 5 Distinctive Features: Billy Idol Look-Alike In A Black Trenchcoat (Easily Concealed) 10 Distinctive Features: Dead (concealed with effort, Major reaction) 15 Distinctive Features: No Reflection (NC, Major Reaction) 15 Enraged: at the sight or smell of Blood (common) go 8-, recover 11- 20 Psychological Limitation: Cannot enter a building without invitation (common, total) 10 Psychological Limitation: Closet Romantic (Common, Moderate) 15 Psychological Limitation: Right Bastard (Common, Strong) 5 Reputation: notorious vampire, 8 -—(Extreme, in occult circles) 25 Susceptibility: to holy objects (common) 2d6/Phase 25 Susceptibility: to direct sunlight (very common) 2d6/Turn 10 Unluck: 2d6 10 Vulnerability: x2 STUN from wood 10 Vulnerability: x2 BODY from wood 35 Experience 420 Total Disadvantage Points
Background/History: Spike and his girl Drusilla were introduced early in BtVS Season 2 as the new vampire threat to Sunnydale. According to Giles, Spike, a.k.a. "William the Bloody", had gained his nicknames from his signature move of impaling his victims through the head with railroad spikes. He was also notorious for facing two Slayers in the 20th Century—and killing them both. (Spike's real origin is detailed in the Season 5 episode 'Fool for Love,' and is considerably more prosaic.)
While Spike once referred to Angel as his 'sire', he was actually created by Drusilla, who sought a companion of her own and was taken with the young William's artistic 'Vision.' However, this set up a conflict with her elders, Darla and Angelus, especially as Spike began to challenge Angelus for leadership of the pack. Nevertheless, the four remained together until Angelus had a mysterious change of heart and Darla left on her own. Spike and Drusilla continued to travel, being inseparable during most of the 20th Century, gaining a reputation as the 'Sid and Nancy of the vampire set'. However, in the 1990s, Drusilla was attacked and almost killed by a mob in Prague, and even though Spike rescued her, she remained listless and weak. In 1997, they moved to Sunnydale so that Spike could find an occult cure for Drusilla's illness. He knew that Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be the main threat to his plans, and immediately set about trying to eliminate her.
However, at this point Spike's luck ran out, as at several points he was almost able to kill Buffy only to be thwarted by a sudden turn of events. Eventually, Spike and Drusilla discovered that the cure for her illness was a ritual that required her to drain the blood of her sire—Angel. But when Spike captured Angel to set up the ritual, he was attacked by not one but two Slayers (Kendra and Buffy) and in the course of the battle, the abandoned church Spike used for the rite caught fire and he and Dru were both presumed dead. What Buffy didn't realize was that while Angel was saved, Drusilla had taken enough of his blood to restore her strength, and was thus able to rescue Spike—even though he in turn had been crippled by his injuries.
It was shortly after this point that Angel lost his soul and returned to the vampires' camp. At first Spike was overjoyed to have his mentor back, but this quickly changed when Angelus took advantage of Spike's invalid status to start pursuing Drusilla. Moreover, Angelus announced a plan to revive the petrified demon Acathla, which would create a gateway to Hell and destroy the world. And Spike realized that, evil as he was, he liked the world, with its cigarettes, Manchester football and easily available blood supply. So for purely selfish reasons, he conspired to betray Angelus. Spike regenerated more quickly than expected, and he went off to make a secret deal with Buffy: In exchange for help in defeating Angelus, he would be allowed to take Drusilla and leave Sunnydale in peace. Buffy had no choice but to agree, and Spike returned to the lair. When Angelus began his final ritual, Buffy arrived and Spike kept his end of the bargain, attacking Angelus, but was in turn attacked by an enraged Drusilla. Spike had to subdue his girlfriend and take her out of the battle before all Hell broke loose (so to speak).
Spike and Dru went to live in South America, but a rift had developed between them. At first, Spike thought it was because she was still mad that he'd betrayed Angelus, but Drusilla was actually experiencing unnerving visions of Spike that she wasn't able to interpret at the time. Drusilla drifted away, and Spike caught her making out with a Chaos Demon ('have y'ever seen a Chaos Demon? They're all slime and antlers...'). Despondent, Spike wound up back in Sunnydale, trying to muscle Willow into creating a love spell to bring Dru back, but once Spike rediscovered the joys of simple mayhem, he regained his self-confidence, resolving to go and win Drusilla back the old-fashioned way.
Nevertheless, a few months after Buffy and Willow went to college, Spike had returned to Sunnydale. He was still without Drusilla, but he'd shacked up with Harmony, an airhead 'friend' of Cordelia's who'd been made a vampire during Graduation Day. Spike continued to plague Buffy for a few weeks until he was captured by a mysterious group of techno-hunters called The Initiative, which turned out to be a secret military project for capturing, classifying and destroying 'Hostile Sub-Terrestrials' (i.e. monsters like Spike). Spike escaped from their labs, but not before they'd put an experimental restraint chip in his brain. Spike soon found that if he tried to attack a human, the chip would trigger stunning headaches. Helpless, unable to feed or defend himself, Spike resorted to conniving, showing up on Giles' doorstep and offering Buffy data on the Initiative in exchange for sanctuary. Spike quickly wore out his welcome with both Giles and Xander, but was allowed to get a crypt of his own and stay in town on the grounds that he'd been "neutered." Spike remained in Sunnydale ostensibly to help destroy the Initiative and get the technology to have his chip removed.
Yet, even after the Initiative was destroyed, Spike remained in Sunnydale, rather than leaving town to find someone who could remove the chip. Nor did the chip explain why he'd come back to Sunnydale in the first place. He started thinking back to the last argument that he'd had with Dru in South America, when she told him, "You taste of ashes... I look at you—and all I see is the Slayer."
Eventually, the truth came to Spike in his dreams. Much to his own horror, Spike realized he was in LOVE with Buffy...
Personality/Motivation: Despite his age and obvious intelligence, Spike is basically a self-centered punk with violent mood swings. Unlike most demons, he doesn't really want to destroy the world, he just wants to be left alone to smoke, drink and terrorize the human population at whim. This doesn't make him less evil than Angelus or Drusilla, just more approachable. However, even in his pure villain phase, Spike had a couple of good points: He kept his word—when he chose to give it—and he was fiercely devoted to his lady love (whom at the time was Drusilla).
In his original conception, Spike was equally capable of being a lethal threat or a comic foil, even simultaneously. But Spike was such a good character (and James Marsters was so good at playing him) that the producers decided to put Spike in the regular cast. This required a plot element to make sure that Spike couldn't hunt humans, and wouldn't be hunted in turn by Buffy. Thus, the Chip, due to which Spike went through a character change both more radical and more subtle than what Angel went through in gaining a soul. Arbitrarily restrained from being evil, Spike was often obliged to work for good and he found that he liked being on the side of the heroes. When he realized he was in love with Buffy, Spike became capable of genuinely honorable behavior, even pledging to protect Buffy's sister Dawn with no ulterior motives or expectation of reward.
Ultimately, Spike was in limbo: The Chip prevented him from being a 'good' (as in evil) vampire, but he was still a soulless monster, and incapable of being the kind of man Buffy inspired him to be. This led to some ugly scenes between Spike and Buffy in Season 6, and Spike eventually left town on a quest to get his head straightened out once and for all. But at the beginning of Season 7, he was back in Sunnydale, apparently more screwed up than ever.
Quote: "Listen, you stupid bint. This gem is everything. I had to come to Sunnydale to get it. A place which has witnessed some truly spectacular kickings of my ass."
Powers/Tactics:
Spike has no supernatural powers above those of a common vampire, but he is about as tough as Buffy (reflecting his often demonstrated ability to take massive amounts of beating, usually FROM Buffy). Spike enjoys brawling, and he has a reputation for fighting and winning against superior odds, due to a combination of creative tactics (cheating), stubbornness, and dumb luck.
The behavior modification chip is essentially a new Disadvantage that Spike only gets around the midpoint of Season 4, effectively giving him Susceptibility to attacking humans (very common) 3d6 STUN, instant, for 25 points value. Note that since the Chip is wired into Spike's brain, it responds to intent, which means that Spike will take damage even before his attack actually hits. Spike found out that the Chip only prevents him from attacking humans, which means he can attack monsters freely. Further, the Chip seems to be able to distinguish between a human and a demon in disguise, which means that it should count as having an appropriate Enhanced Sense (Detect), even if Spike can only take advantage of it through trial and error.
Appearance:
Spike is tall and lean, with dark eyes and extremely angular features. He is distinguished by a livid scar at the point where his left eyebrow meets the temple; the scar remains even in "game face." Spike was one of the first to adopt the Punk look in the mid-70s, and he finds that it still works for him. He dyes his hair an unnatural blond and sculpts it into a short cut, and often paints his nails black. He favors muscle shirts with jeans and boots, usually completing the ensemble with a beaten-up black leather trenchcoat. Spike has an English accent and a strong voice.
(Spike created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, HERO System write-up by James Gillen)
Return to TV-Derived Character Adaptations.