I Might Have KINDA Rewritten M&M...

[Quellian-dyrae]

THESE RULES ARE NO LONGER NECESSARILY AT ALL UP TO DATE!

Because A) I wanted to add some internal navigation and B) I got sick of trying to edit a post, getting the character limit error, and having to move stuff around into other posts to save space. So I've moved it to an external site (http://www.trulyuniqueweb.com/unrealquests/mm/). I'm editing that exclusively, so many changes have been made that are not listed below.


Introduction

...I feel like I should explain myself here.

I while back, I wrote up a big ol' list (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?383152-M-amp-M-3e-House-Rules-System-Overhaul-(PEACH)) of M&M house rules. It wasn't really meant for use, because like, could you imagine? Needing to not only keep the M&M rules straight, but also keep that set of rules straight, and keep straight everywhere they interact? It would be chaos. Even if I wanted to use them in a game, I could never actually ask a group of players to do that. So it was more-or-less a thought experiment.

But over time I periodically went back to it, tweaked some things here, added some things there. And recently I thought about reposting it. But I wanted it to be in a more usable format. So I started reorganizing it and instead of making it like "here's a list of what these rules change", basically everywhere that I made notable changes, I'd just include the other stuff from the SRD. Remove what wasn't there anymore, do a bit of rewriting so stuff just looked like set rules rather than changes. So that at least in theory I could imagine using it in an actual game, because you could reference pretty much everything in the one document. Plus it would look nicer and all.

But it's like...well, first, M&M has a certain design conceit. They tend towards brevity where they can. Put the basics, kinda leave room for the GM and players to come up with the details. Which is fine, it's just not really my way of doing things. I'm more of a, "I know I can change or reinterpret the rules as needed, but the more cohesive a baseline the game gives me, the better" sort of fellow. So in a lot of cases (not all, there's some stuff that was grabbed wholesale from the SRD and pasted in untouched) I did some clarifying, or adding, or changing...expanded on some things, put in some more details or guidelines...maybe completely rewrote the entire skills section a little bit. You know. Tweaks. :smallredface:

So by the end of it...yeah. I might have kinda rewritten M&M. A little bit. Maybe.

As always, any comments, critiques, feedback, questions, issues, error/typo/clarity/consistency reports, WHATEVER are extremely welcome!

What This Is

This is a more-or-less entirely revised house ruleset for playing M&M. The core of the system remains the same, but most of the rules have been edited somewhere between "modestly" and "completely". If I've done my job right, it should be a somewhat more mechanically robust system than the base, and also a fair bit more balanced. That being said, it has not been playtested pretty much at all. I'm not guaranteeing that some of the new stuff I've added or things I've changed won't have possibly glaring flaws of their own. Consider this thing an "alpha" stage game. It should be playable, but it's not fully standalone and it hasn't been tested properly. In fact, at the time of this writing, I still want to do at least one more runthrough for various consistency errors that have probably kept up while I was doing reorganizing and rewriting, and other things I might have forgotten or might want to change or add on review. But I...think all the major sections I wanted to write are in, and I'd rather the next readthrough be actually formatted rather than being a giant notepad document with bbcode everywhere, so whatever, posting it now.

Those little disclaimers in mind, I think it's pretty good. Some of the highlights include:

Rebalanced Combat Stats: Attack bonus, effect DCs, and defense modes have been consolidated and rebalanced. New players won't get tricked into buying attack bonus for two to four times what it should actually cost. Defense doesn't cost twice as much as Toughness while providing less benefit. Entire core defensive stats can't be trivially ignored by entire Extras or invalidated by certain easily-imposed conditions. And so on.

Revised Skills: Not to toot my own horn too much, but this is probably the part of the system I'm most proud of. The skills have been extensively updated with much more concrete rules and options. I mean, sure, the GM can still do your basic "yeah okay roll this skill at that DC" for simple things, but the skills now provide a number of concrete options with specific mechanical effects for characters to use. Use Investigation to predict a villain's next move based on clues they left at previous scenes. Use Persuasion to smooth over social failures or call for a pause in fighting, or Intimidation to terrorize defeated foes so they know better than to mess with you again or decisively end a social interaction. And so on.

Virtual Power Points: Allowing the GM to easily set sane limits on things like Arrays, Variables, Metamorphs, and so on, tying them in with Power Stunts so characters who don't use them extensively still have versatility benefits of their own.

Teammates: Fully replacing Minions, Sidekicks, and Summons with a system for bringing in multiple characters that actually costs something like what they're worth.

Rebalanced Conditions: Expanded and revised condition options so conditions of the same tier are actually balanced with each other instead of, like, Exhausted or Immobilized trying to compete Defenseless or Disabled (to say nothing for Stunned and freakin' Compelled!) for some strange reason.

MOAR Options: Advantages, Effects, Extras, and Flaws have been consolidated, edited, rebalanced, added to, and basically just heavily overhauled. Extras are now written with an eye towards modularity to allow for more creative combinations with clear interactions. Things that let you get the exact same stuff for different costs (compare Elongation, Increased Range, and Reach) have been consolidated so everyone should be paying the same price for things regardless of system mastery/personal viewpoints of which one is the "correct" price. Some Effects have had a number of options added - Illusion actually does stuff now! Transform tells you what sort of things you can do with it! There are options for adding Extras and Flaws to most standard actions coherently!

What This Is Not

Like I said, brevity of design is fine, but that's not how I roll. This is not a "simple" or "rules light" system by any stretch. It's crunchy, it's mechanically-focused, it's probably unnecessarily wordy. If you like lighter rules and a focus on GM discretion, you probably won't like what I've done here.

Also worth putting here, for any players in my games, this is not a system we are using. Even the stuff that you recognize as being drawn from previous house rules of mine (such as the updated rules for Downtime Actions thank you guys for giving me example fodder for those by the way) are not being retroactively transferred in. I might at least potentially test the waters of interest for using these rules in a theoretical future game, but the current games retain their normal, much more limited house rules.

Table of Contents

Post 1 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958791&postcount=1): Introduction.
Post 2 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958792&postcount=2): Stats.
Post 3 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958795&postcount=3), 4 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958801&postcount=4): Rules.
Post 5 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958804&postcount=5): Actions.
Post 6 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958809&postcount=6): Conditions.
Post 7 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958812&postcount=7), 8 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958817&postcount=8), 9 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958821&postcount=9): Skills.
Post 10 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958825&postcount=10): Advantages.
Post 11 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958833&postcount=11), 12 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958836&postcount=12): Effects.
Post 13 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958841&postcount=13), 14 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958845&postcount=14): Extras.
Post 15 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958849&postcount=15): Flaws.
Post 16 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20958854&postcount=16): Teammates.

Archetypes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20982610&postcount=28).

Quick Reference

ActionTypeDescription
AidVariesBoost an ally's stat for an action.
AttackStandardImpose Bruises and conditions on an enemy.
CounterStandardNegate an active use of an opposed power.
DefendStandardSet a higher Defense DC or Resistance minimum.
DelayVariesDelay your turn or ready an action.
DropFreeDrop prone or drop an item.
InfluenceSlowSway an NPC's opinion.
ManhandleStandard or MoveImpose short-lived conditions or physical manipulations.
ManipulateStandard or MoveImpose short-lived conditions or social manipulations.
ManeuverMovePerform various acts of physical movement.
RecoverStandard or NoneRemove one condition in combat.
StanceMoveMake a temporary tradeoff.
Surprise AttackMoveCatch an opponent off-guard in certain circumstances.

ConditionTypeDescription
DazedDazingTake only standard or move action each round.
StaggeredDazingTake only move action each round.
StunnedDazingTake no actions.
UnconsciousDazingStunned, Defenseless, and Unaware.
ImpairedImpairment-2 on checks (non-Recovery).
DisabledImpairment-5 on checks (non-Recovery).
ImpotentImpairmentCannot succeed checks.
IncapacitatedImpairmentImpotent, Staggered, and Defenseless.
InfluencedInfluenceForced to follow a reasonable course of action.
CompelledInfluenceCourse of action need not be so reasonable.
ControlledInfluenceCourse of action can be actively detrimental.
CommandedInfluenceUnder attacker's complete control.
SuppressedSuppression-2 on power ranks.
DrainedSuppressionNeed to make check to use powers, rank may be lowered.
NeutralizedSuppressionAll powers deactivate.
PowerlessSuppressionNeutralized, Crippled, and Disabled.
RestrainedRestrainingImpaired+Weakened for Wielded, Vulnerable vs. Wielded/Fired.
BoundRestrainingDisabled+Crippled for Wielded, Impaired+Weakened for Fired, Defenseless vs. Wielded/Fired.
ParalyzedRestrainingCan't speak or use Wielded/Fired, Aimed limited to those in front, Defenseless vs. Wielded/Fired.
EncasedRestrainingParalyzed, Unaware, and Crippled.
VulnerableVulnerabilityAttackers get +2 to hit, don't provoke Reactions, might inflict additional Bruise.
DefenselessVulnerabilityAttackers can Routine attacks, auto-crit, and deal lethal damage.
HelplessVulnerabilityDefenseless and with maxed failures on resistance checks.
ExposedVulnerabilityHelpless, Disabled, and Drained.
WeakenedWeakness-2 on DCs, -1 Bruise.
CrippledWeakness-2 on DCs, no Bruises, halve points of failure to resist.
DebilitatedWeaknessHostile actions auto-fail.
HarmlessWeaknessDebilitated, Drained, and Staggered.
Hindered (T0)Miscellaneous-1 on speed, lifting, and quickness.
Mute (T0)MiscellaneousCan't speak.
Revealed (T0)MiscellaneousLose Concealment.
Immobile (T1)MiscellaneousCan't Maneuver, except to Escape.
Unaware (T2)MiscellaneousLose perceptions.
Restricted (T0)ComplexRestrained for arms only.
Entranced (T2)ComplexStunned, but can be broken easily.
Asleep (T3)ComplexUnconscious, but can be broken easily.
DyingLethalDC 15 Fort save each round or die.
CriticalLethalScaling Fort save each round or die.
DeadLethalRemoved from play.

OptionSkillDescription
Conceal IntentionsDeceptionOppose Insight checks to get a read on your motives.
ConvinceDeceptionUse Deception to Influence belief on a subject.
DisguiseDeceptionAppear to be someone else.
InnuendoDeceptionPass a secret message under other's noses.
ManipulateDeceptionRender target Vulnerable or cause it to misinterpret situation.
Apply KnowledgeExpertiseCome to conclusions relevant to your field.
Earn LivingExpertiseReflect's ability to do related jobs, including having appropriate gear available.
Impress OthersExpertiseImpress people with your skill.
Perform TaskExpertisePerform mundane tasks in your field.
Recall/Research FactExpertiseRecall information relevant to your field.
Repair ObjectExpertiseRepair damaged objects appropriate to your field.
Specialties and ProficienciesExpertiseGain proficiency in specialized sub-fields.
ConsiderInsightDetermine if something is a good idea.
DiscernInsightGain insight into others.
EvaluateInsightActively determine if something is true.
IntuitInsightPassively detect active manipulation.
RecognizeInsightNotice if someone is acting out of sorts.
CoerceIntimidationUse Intimidation to Influence perception of risk.
DisturbIntimidationCause others to hesitate, gaining the initiative.
DominateIntimidationPrevent further social action, and cause weaker wills to break down.
ManipulateIntimidationRender target Impaired or cause it to focus attacks on you.
TerrorizeIntimidationPermanently lower a defeated foe's rank against you.
Assess BehaviorInvestigationDetermine what someone's patterns of behavior say about them.
Assess CluesInvestigationLearn what a setting element means in relation to the plot.
Gather InformationInvestigationSeek information among a group of people.
InterviewInvestigationHelp an informant to remember.
Verify InformationInvestigationConduct background research to verify what you've been told.
Avoid SurprisePerceptionMake a final Perception roll to keep from being surprised.
DetectPerceptionPassively notice the hidden.
PinpointPerceptionPinpoint something you can't accurately perceive with a non-accurate sense.
ScanPerceptionActively scan for hidden things
SearchPerceptionThoroughly search for hidden things, receiving an automatic 20.
WatchPerceptionActively keep tabs on a subject or location.
EncouragePersuasionUse Persuasion to Influence perception of reward.
ExchangePersuasionOffer something to someone to create a sense of reciprocity.
FlatterPersuasionSmooth over social failures.
ManipulatePersuasionRender target's attacks Disabled, or distract the target.
ParleyPersuasionCall for a pause in combat.
RequestPersuasionRequest a simple favor.
Additional ManeuverProwessMake multiple Maneuvers with a single move action.
Difficult MovementProwessClimb, swim, balance, and otherwise move through special impediments.
Feat of ProwessProwessPerform a cool-looking stunt.
Free ManeuverProwessPerform a Maneuver as a free action.
ManhandleProwessPhysically manipulate an opponent.
Mitigate HazardProwessReduce the DC of an Immediate Hazard
PhysicalityProwessGain persistent benefits depending on specialty.
Avoid NoticeStealthAvoid drawing attention even when not strictly hidden.
ConcealStealthHide a character or object, making it hard to detect as long as it doesn't move or draw attention.
DistractStealthBriefly draw attention away from others.
Improve ConcealmentStealthImprove your current level of Concealment by one step.
SubterfugeStealthTarget an object without drawing attention or breaking Stealth.
ExpertiseTechnologyUse Technology as an Expertise skill.
InventingTechnologyCreate minor helpful gadgets; more with the Inventor Advantage.
SabotageTechnologyHinder technological characters or powers.
SecurityTechnologyGain free or temporary Installation Features and oppose cyber attacks.
Aid RecoveryTreatmentPerform an Aid action for Recovery checks.
DiagnoseTreatmentDetermine what's wrong with someone...
MedicateTreatment...And how to fix it.
Speed RecoveryTreatmentRemove conditions faster.
ReviveTreatmentPull someone back from (just beyond) the brink.
StabilizeTreatmentRemove Dying or Critical status.

ActionDescription
Accomplish TaskCatchall action for more plot-relevant results.
Build LegacyCatchall action for more character-oriented results.
Build Relationship/ReputationGrow a relationship with an NPC or group, spend successes on favors.
Disrupt OrganizationAttack, infiltrate, or sabotage an organization, spend successes to get bonuses against them.
Explore/Fortify LocationGain familiarity or control over an organization, spend successes for bonus within.
Hunt EnemyTrack down an NPC, spend successes to gain information about it.
Improve InstallationAdd more features to an Installation.
Overcome ComplicationRemove a Complication, and receive special benefits.
Prevent ProblemMake it harder for a certain problem to come up.
Redeem VillainTurn a captured enemy away from evil.
Remove ConditionRemove Prolonged or mitigate Permanent conditions.
Research SubjectGain information on a chosen subject.
RespecTrade out some of your traits for others.
Stockpile InventionCreate inventions using Downtime Actions, allowing you to save them for later.
Take it EasySpend Downtime Actions to gain Hero Points.
Train NPCTrain an NPC, raising its PP total.
Train SpecialTrain special, plot-based uses of powers.

AdvantageTagsDescription
Accurate AttackCombat, Ranked (3)Improve use of Accurate Attack stance (-Force/+Accuracy).
Active DefenseCombat, Ranked (3)Improve use of Active Defense stance (-Resistance/+Defense).
All Out AttackCombat, Ranked (3)Improve use of All Out Attack stance (-Defensive Stats/+Offensive Stats).
Animal EmpathySkillUse Interaction skills normally on animals.
AssessmentSkillLearn the target's combat strength using Insight.
AttractiveSkill, Ranked (2)Gain bonus on Persuasion and Deception for certain uses against those who might be attracted to you.
Beginner's LuckFortuneSpend a Hero Point to treat an untrained skill roll as a 20.
BenefitGeneral, RankedGain a miscellaneous benefit.
BodyguardCombatTake attacks for an ally.
ConnectedFortuneSpend a Hero Point to establish the existence of a helpful NPC.
ContactsSkillPerform an initial Gather Information attempt in one minute.
Cunning ApplicationSkill, RankedUse a different skill for a specific option. Rank cost increases with each application.
DazeSkillManipulated targets are also Dazed.
Defensive ManhandleCombatManhandle foes who miss while Defending.
Defensive ManipulationSkillManipulate foes who miss while Defending.
Eidetic MemorySkillGain a bonus to untrained Expertise skills for recalling facts.
EvasionCombat, Ranked (4)Get a bonus against Area attacks.
Extraordinary EffortGeneralUse Extra Effort 2/round, for different purposes.
FascinateSkillKeep attention on you outside of combat.
Fast GrabCombatGrab as a move action with successful attack.
Fast TacticianCombat, Ranked (2)Reduce penalty for actions that can be taken as move actions.
Favored EnvironmentGeneralGain a bonus in a certain environment.
Favored FoeGeneralGain a bonus against a certain type of opponent.
FearlessGeneralIgnore mundane fear, +2 vs. fear effects.
Great EnduranceGeneralGain a bonus against repeated resistance checks.
Group ManipulationSkill, Ranked (2)Lower the penalty for Manipulating a group.
HeadquartersGeneral, RankedGain five Installation Features per rank.
Hide in Plain SightSkillConceal yourself while others are paying attention.
Improved CriticalCombat, Ranked (4)Increase your chance of a critical hit.
Improved DefenseCombat+2 on Defend rolls.
Improved GrabCombat, RankedNot Vulnerable while Grabbing.
Improved HoldCombatImprove Manhandle conditions imposed by a Grab to higher Tier.
Improved InitiativeCombat, Ranked+4 Initiative per rank.
Improved ManhandleCombat+1 degree of success for successful Manhandles.
Improved ManipulationSkill, Ranked+1 round of duration per rank for successful Manipulates.
Improvised ToolsSkillReduced penalties for lack of tools.
InspireFortune, Ranked (5)Spend a Hero Point to give all allies +1/rank on all checks.
Instant ManeuverSkillAutomatically succeed Prowess checks to Instant Maneuver.
InterposeCombat, Ranked1/round/cumulative rank, take a hit for an ally.
InventorSkill, Ranked (2)Use Inventor to create custom powers or plot devices.
Jack of All TradesSkillGet a bonus on untrained Expertise checks to perform tasks.
LeadershipFortuneShare your Hero Points with your allies.
Move-by ActionCombatMove both before and after standard action.
Power AttackCombat, Ranked (3)Improve use of Power Attack stance (-Accuracy/+Force).
Precise AttackCombat, Ranked (3)Ignore cover or concealment.
Prone FightingCombatFight while prone without penalty.
RedirectSkillRedirect a Manipulated foe's missed attack.
Second ChanceGeneralRoll twice and take the best against a certain type of consequence.
Seize InitiativeFortuneSpend a Hero Point to get Automatic Initiative.
Set-upSkill, RankedTransfer the benefit of Manipulate actions to your allies.
Sherlock ScanSkillMake deductions about a target on meeting them.
Skill MasterySkillUse Routine result as minimum result with chosen skill.
Skill SupremacySkill, RankedGain bonuses with chosen skill depending on usage.
Stalwart DefenseCombat, Ranked (3)Improve use of Stalwart Defense stance (-Defense/+Resistance).
SpecializationSkill, Ranked (2)Get a circumstance bonus for certain thing you might use a skill for.
TakedownCombat, Ranked (2)If you drop a Minion, make a free attack against another.
TeamworkGeneral+5 on Aid actions to assist others.
Total DefenseCombat, Ranked (3)Improve use of Total Defense stance (-Offensive Stats/+Defensive Stats).
TrackingSkillUse Perception to follow tracks.
TranceGeneralEnter a meditative state which slows down your metabolism, mitigates or physiological lingering effects.
Ultimate EffortFortuneSpend a Hero Point for an automatic 20 on a roll.
Uncanny DodgeCombatNot Vulnerable when unaware of attack or otherwise surprised.
Weapon BreakCombatAttack a foe's weapon if it misses while you are Defending.
Well InformedSkillMake an Investigation check to Gather Information on a subject upon meeting them.

EffectActionRangeTargetingDurationCostDescription
AidStandardCloseWieldedInstant1 PP/rankPerform an Aid with Extras attached, which can potentially last for multiple actions.
AttackStandardCloseWieldedInstant0 PP/rankPerform an Attack with Extras attached, which can impose different conditions.
CommunicationFreePersonalAutomaticSustained1 PP/rankSpend ranks to get various communication methods.
ConcealmentFreePersonalAutomaticSustained2 PP/rankImprove Concealment more easily, and still be able to attack.
CreateStandardCloseFiredSustained2 PP/rankConjure objects, for various tactical or utility purposes.
DefendStandardCloseWieldedInstant1 PP/rankPerform a Defend action with Extras attached, using your power rank.
Enhanced TraitFreePersonalAutomaticSustainedVariesBoost your traits with a power.
EnvironmentMoveCloseAutomaticSustained1 PP/rankCreate Environment effects in a movable area centered on self.
ExertFreePersonalWieldedSustained1 PP/rankIncrease your Lifting Rank. Also add Extras to Manhandle and some Maneuver actions.
FeatureNonePersonalAutomaticPermanent1 PP/rankGain a minor feature.
HealingStandardCloseFiredInstant2 PP/rankRemove conditions or Bruises from a target.
IllusionStandardRangedAimedSustained2 PP/rankCreate illusions for utility or Manipulation purposes.
InsubstantialFreePersonalAutomaticSustained5 PP/rankYou can assume a less corporeal form, becoming harder to affect but also making it harder to affect others.
Luck ControlNonePersonalAutomaticPermanent2 PP/rankGain special benefits regarding Hero Points.
MorphFreePersonalAutomaticSustained5 PP/rankTake on different shapes.
MovementFree or MovePersonalWieldedSustained or Instant1 PP/rankIncrease your speed, and add Extras to either change your movement modes or improve your Maneuver actions.
NullifyStandardRangedFiredInstant1 PP/rankCounter powers of a certain descriptor.
QuicknessFreePersonalAutomaticSustained1 PP/rankPerform routine tasks in much less time.
ReadingFreeRangedAimedSustained1-3 PP/rankRead a certain type of subject to gain information.
RegenerationNonePersonalAutomaticPermanent1 PP/rankRapidly remove, delay, or suppress conditions.
Remote SensingFreeRangedSelectedSustained2 PP/rankProject your senses at a distance.
SensesNonePersonalAutomaticPermanent1 PP/rankSpend ranks to get super-senses.
TransformStandardCloseFiredSustained1-4 PP/rankTransform objects into other objects, for utility, tactical, or perhaps even augmentative purposes.
VariableMovePersonalAutomaticSustained7 PP/rankMix-and-match Effects and Modifiers to create powers on the fly.

ExtraCostDescription
Absorb+1 cost/rankConvert foiled attacks into Aid as Reaction.
AccurateFlat 1 PP/rankLower an attack's Force to raise its Accuracy.
Additional+1 cost/rank or morePower effectively applies multiple times on a successful use.
Additional SenseFlat 1 PP/rankPowers that apply to vision apply to more senses.
Affects Corporeal+1-3 cost/rankPower can affect others while insubstantial.
Affects InsubstantialFlat 1-2 PPPower can affect insubstantial targets.
Affects ObjectsFlat 1 PPPower can affect objects as well as creatures.
Affects Others+1 cost/rank or morePower can affect or be bestowed on others.
Aggravated+2 to +4 cost/rankPower acts as whatever is worst for target.
Alternate EffectFlat 1 or 2 PP/rankCreate an additional power that can't be active simultaneously.
Area+1 cost/rank or morePower affects all within an area.
Aura+1 cost/rankArea Zone power moves with a target.
Battering+1 cost/rank or moreInflict +1 Bruise per application.
Broad+1 cost/rankChoose from available options on the fly.
Brutal+1 cost/rank or moreReduce the number of points of failure required for additional degrees of failure.
Charged+1 cost/2 ranksCharge up an Instant power to add Extras.
Consume+1 cost/rankConvert foiled attacks into healing as Reaction.
Contagious+1 cost/rankEffects of power can spread to others.
Counter+1 cost/rankStrike back on foiling an attack.
Cumulative+1 cost/rankDegrees of failure against this power stack with prior uses.
DangerousFlat 1-4 PPIncrease threat range with this power.
DimensionalFlat 1-3 PPPower can affect other dimensions.
DiverseFlat 1 PP/rankMake additional "choices" with the power, such as descriptors affected or area shapes.
Effortless+1 cost/rank or morePower that requires Extra Effort to try again allows one free retry per application.
ExplosiveFlat 1 PPLarge-area effects have higher ranks against those closer to emanation.
Extended RangeFlat 1 PP/rankIncrease a power's range, or add range to a Close power.
FeatureFlat 1 PP/rankAdd a minor benefit to the power.
FluidFlat 1 PP/rankCan shift points between power Extras.
Homing+1 cost/rank or moreOn a miss, attack tries to hit again in successive rounds.
Immediate+3 cost/rankOn a failed resistance check, target must roll again, increasing degree of failure until it takes worst possible result or saves.
Improved+1 cost/rank or moreEach application adds a +1 tradeoff bonus to the power.
Increased Duration+1 cost/rank or moreImprove duration one step per application.
Increased TargetingFlat +1 PP or moreImprove targeting one step per application.
Incurable+1 cost/rankPower's rank acts higher for purposes of healing/removing effects.
Indirect+1 cost/rankPower can originate from points other than the user.
InnateFlat 1 PP/5 points of affected traitsPowers with this Extra can't be Nullified or Suppressed.
Lasting+1 cost/rank or moreIncrease recovery rate of conditions imposed, or allow power to last beyond its activation.
LingeringFree Option or +2 cost/rankConditions imposed by power considered part of the power.
Linked+1 cost/rank or moreUse multiple powers with one action.
Movable+1 cost/rankReposition effect as a move action.
Multiattack+1 cost/rankAffect multiple targets or have greater effect on single target.
Penetrating+1 cost/rank or moreReduce the effect of immunities.
PermanentFreeChange Sustained to Permanent.
Phasing+2 cost/rankPower ignores all cover and can't be Interposed against.
PotentFlat 1 PP/rankLower an attack's Accuracy to raise its Force.
PreciseFlat 1 PPControl power with particular precision.
Progressive+2 cost/rankPowers effects progress each round until resisted.
RapidFlat 1 PP/rankAllows routine actions performed with power to take less time.
Reciprocate+1 cost/rankSuccessful attacks might reciprocate a Bruise on attacker.
Redirect+1 cost/rankReaction to attack can affect any target in range.
Reduced Action+1 cost/rank or moreReduce action required to use power by one step per application.
Reflect+1 cost/rankDefensive power that beats an attack reflects it at attacker as Reaction.
Reliable+2-4 cost/rankChecks with power have minimum results.
Resurrection+1 cost/rank or moreCurative power can be used to restore life.
ReversibleFlat 1 PPFreely undo results of power.
RicochetFlat 1 PP/rankCan bounce power off walls and such.
Secondary Effect+1 cost/rank or morePower repeats in later rounds.
Selective+1 cost/rankSelectively choose who power affects.
Sensory Link+1 cost/rankPerceive through a target's senses, or let them perceive through yours.
Simultaneous+1 cost/rankUse regular senses in conjunction with the power.
SplitFlat 1 PP/rankLower power's rank to affect multiple targets.
SubtleFlat 1 PP/rankPower is harder to detect.
Supreme+1 cost/rankSkill boosts from power also gain Skill Supremacy.
SustainedFreePermanent power becomes Sustained.
Sweeping+1 cost/rankLike Multiattack, but involves opponent checks rather than own checks.
TriggeredFlat 1-2 PP/rankSet power to be triggered later.
Variable DescriptorFlat 1-2 PPChange power's descriptor on the fly.
Withstand+1 cost/rank or moreReduce Bruises suffered by one per application.
ZoneFreeChanges how Areas with durations persist.

FlawDiscountDescription
ActivationFlat -1 PP/rankPower takes more time to activate.
Check Required-1 cost/2 ranksPower requires a skill check to use.
Complicating-2 cost/rankPower results in a Complication with no HP reward.
Costly-1 cost/rank or morePower has limited uses.
Diminished RangeFlat -1 PP/rankPower has a lower range.
Distracting-1 cost/rank or moreSuffer a condition while using power.
Disruptable-1 cost/rank or morePower turns off on failed resistance check.
Empathic-1 cost/rankYou suffer effects imposed/removed.
Fades-1 cost/rankPowers rank lowers each use.
Feedback-1 cost/rankDamage to power damages you.
Full PowerFlat -1 PPCan't ignore ranks or Extras.
Fragile-1 cost/rankPower deactivates if moving fast.
Heroic-2 cost/rankMust spend a Hero Point to use power in a scene.
Imposing-1 cost/rankPower adds Flaws to affected powers rather than negating them outright.
Increased Action-1 cost/rank or moreIncrease action cost to use the power.
Invested-2 cost/rankYou are out of play while power is active.
Limited-1 cost/rank or morePower's utility reduced by roughly half.
Medium-1 cost/rankPower only works through specific medium.
NoticeableFlat -1 PPPower is especially easy to notice.
Passive-1 cost/rankPower deactivates if you target someone else.
Proportional-1 cost/rankMust divide rank among functions.
QuirkFlat -1 PP/rankPower has a minor drawback.
Reduced Duration-1 cost/rank or moreReduce duration one step per application.
Reduced Recovery-1 cost/rank or moreConditions imposed by this power are easier to recover from.
Reduced TargetingFlat -1 PP or moreReduce targeting one step per application.
Reduced TraitSpecialLower a trait while power is active.
RemovableFlat -1 PP/5 PP of traits affectedPower can be tactically removed in combat.
ResistibleFlat -2 PP or -1 cost/rank or morePower has an alternate or additional means to resist.
Restricted-1 cost/2 ranks or morePower has some significant tactical restriction.
Sense-dependentFlat -1 to -3 PPPower requires the target to perceive it.
Side Effect-1 or -2 cost/rankPower imposes a detrimental effect on you with use.
Slow-1/2 to -2 cost/rankPower can only be used between scenes, episodes, or adventures.
Source-1 cost/rankYou must be in contact with a source to use the power.
Temporary-1 cost/rankPower's effects don't last long.
Tiring-1 cost/rank or moreUse of power imposes an Exertion Condition.
Uncontrolled-1 cost/rankGM or circumstance controls use of power.
Unreliable-1 cost/rankPower has a 50% failure chance.


The More Things Change

While this document is written as largely a replacement for much of the existing M&M ruleset, rather than a less coherent set of house rules, it isn't a complete rewrite. The core system - checks, DCs, ranks and measures, and so on - remains more or less in-tact. Some areas of the rules are excluded from the document just because they're the same as they used to be.

...And some areas are excluded because they've been removed wholesale. So, before we get into any of the new rules, let's go over the big things that you won't be finding here, and why.

Note that this section is for entire sections of the rules that aren't included. For sections that are included, any individual rule that hasn't been included has been intentionally removed (in some sections there are lists of those for easy reference and reasoning purposes). In many cases, these things have been replaced with or folded into something else. In a few cases, they simply weren't deemed worth having.

I've highlighted a few things in sky blue where I feel it's a significant change from the rules that might escape notice. Except I suddenly realize one of the things I wanted to do was go back through and do that in more places and I didn't. So as of right now there's only a relative few of them carried over from the previous version. I'll add more probably when doing my next read-through.

Checks, DCs, and Degrees: These work completely as normal. Roll a d20, hit the DC to succeed, one degree per five points, +1 degree on natural 20, etc.

Ranks and Measures: Again, take it right from the SRD.

Complication, Backstory, Descriptors, and other Fluff: This stuff is really more fluff/advice oriented. I'll grant, I might have said certain things somewhat differently, but there's no need for me to take my socket wrench and banana (don't ask) to this section of the rules.

GM Advice and NPC Building: Again, this is all largely advice-based. Not something I need to touch.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Examples and References: While I've added plenty of my own examples and occasional "see here" notes, even when I copied something from the SRD untouched I've usually removed these, in case you're wondering.

Abilities: The Abilities are entirely removed under these rules. All the mechanical effects Abilities provide can be acquired a la carte, and there is no sense in presenting packages that characters might not have a use for, or offering bulk discounts for arbitrary groupings. For situations where you might normally use a straight Ability, substitute Lifting Rank for Strength, Fortitude for Stamina, Reflex for Agility, Accuracy for Dexterity or Fighting, Expertise for Intellect, Perception for Awareness, and the character's highest interaction skill for Presence.

Equipment and Devices: Okay, this bit's a little more complex.

Equipment and Removable Devices no longer provide PP discounts, and the Equipment Advantage is removed. The Removable Flaw remains, and now covers both what was originally Easily Removable items and other options where by default your character can expect to have the power but it can be removed in combat by enemy action or semi-common circumstance (making it a sort of stop-gap between a Limit and a Quirk). Gear is handled as follows:

Devices: This category of gear means any sort of item actively used by the character to provide effects comparable to powers. The assumption here is that the character is expected to have access to and use this sort of gear to roughly the same degree it could use powers. Such equipment should be purchased as normal powers, with a Power Loss complication to represent the possibility of removal. Devices that can be removed during combat by enemy action (typically Manhandle attempts) may have a discount from the Removable Flaw. Note that the Removable Flaw discount is only for such temporary, in-scene removal. Persistent removal of the power is still an application of its Power Loss Complication, and should award a Hero Point even if the power is also Removable.

Mundane Equipment: This category of gear is for run of the mill items that don't compare to powers or are reasonably common and available in the setting. This equipment is not purchased. Generally, it has limited-to-no mechanical effects, often including some degree of mitigating factor.

Characters can be assumed to have mundane equipment appropriate for the setting. In a developed, modern society, for example, most characters can be assumed to have cell phones, computers, and so on. Characters likely don't carry a lot of mundane equipment around on a day-to-day basis, but given notice will likely have access to many basic things at home or by stopping at a store. Characters who have less access to such equipment should note such as a Complication. As always, characters can spend a Hero Point to declare they happen to have a specific item on hand, if it doesn't seem reasonable that they would carry it around normally.

While the power of mundane equipment doesn't scale, Benefits can broaden one's access, providing more restricted materials or logical access to things most people wouldn't normally have. This is largely flavor, but like all Benefits, can occasionally come in handy.

Similarly, possessing an Expertise specialty (or ranks in a related skill like Technology or Treatment) generally means you have access to mundane gear relevant to the skill. Expertise (Mechanic) means the character presumably has access to relevant tools and spare parts in their garage or basement or whatever. Expertise (Survivalist) likely entails access to camping tools, rope, light sources, maps, and similar exploration gear, and probably means the character is at least prepared enough to have at least the basic necessities all packed up and ready to go at home or in the trunk of their car even on short notice. Someone with Technology probably has a portable laptop and a smartphone, possibly with various little utility programs or apps installed, while someone with Treatment can be assumed to have ready access to a first-aid kit, etc.

The GM may deem such items unavailable where reasonable, and since they're free, this isn't really a Complication. At the cost of a Feature, you may choose up to five such items that are effectively considered Devices, guaranteeing access unless explicitly removed by a Power Loss Complication or similar. (Alternately, such a Feature can be used to be able to effectively duplicate up to five such items with actual powers, if you prefer that flavor).

Vehicles: Characters can generally be assumed to have access to mundane vehicles appropriate to the setting and their wealth level. In a medieval fantasy game, characters can probably have horses to ride, while in a modern setting, they likely have a car, truck, or motorcycle. Advanced settings may even have flying vehicles, and wealthy characters may have access to a yacht or speedboat (the extremely wealthy may even have a private jet!)

Mundane vehicles generally should not be armed or really have any major powers other than their relevant movement mode and basic stats. Likewise, they are likely fairly restricted as far as how easy they are to access and where they can go (moreso for more extravagant ones; a private jet will still require some prep to ready for takeoff, for example). As with mundane equipment, the GM can establish situations where the vehicles are inaccessible or ineffective largely freely.

More advanced vehicles that are combat-capable, easily accessed, and so on should be bought as powers, Metamorphs, or even Teammates!

Installations: Characters can be assumed to have a basic place to stay; typically a Small Installation with no features except Living Space, although it will also generally have basic amenities not quite equal to a few other Features (for example, a normal modern home might not have full Computer, Communications, and Security System Features, but still has basic DC 20 locks, and probably has a personal computer and maybe a home phone if the character doesn't use its cell for everything). The Technology skill and its variants can provide more Installation features. Additional Installation effects can be purchased at the rate of 1 PP per 5 Installation features by taking the Headquarters Advantage. Installations otherwise use all normal rules as presented in the SRD.


Stats

Core Stats

Power Level (PL): Power Level is an overall measure of effectiveness and power, primarily combat ability, but also generally what sort of tasks a character can be expected to accomplish on a routine basis. All PCs have the same Power Level, set by the GM, sometimes referred to as the series Power Level. NPCs, however, often have different Power Levels than the PCs.

A character's Power Level determines the character's PP, VPP, and HP totals. It also sets the following limits on traits:

Combat Stats: Your combat stats (Accuracy, Force, Defense, and Resistance) cannot exceed your Power Level.

Skills: Your skills (Deception, Expertise, Intimidation, Investigation, Insight, Perception, Persuasion, Prowess, Stealth, Technology, and Treatment) cannot exceed your Power Level. The Skill Supremacy Advantage, however, allows you to take skills further in certain ways.

Powers: No individual power that you possess can have a rank that exceeds your Power Level, with the exception of Communication, Feature, and Senses. The Enhanced Trait power is not limited in itself, but each trait it enhances is still subject to its normal limit.

Tradeoffs (see below) allow you to change your PL limit for certain traits - raising it for some while reducing it for others. Stances also allow you to do this to a more limited degree for combat stats, while the Improved Extra can allow powers to circumvent such limits. Such bonuses are generally called tradeoff bonuses, and can never bring a given PL-limited stat higher than PL + 5.

Power Points (PP): Power Points are spent on traits. Characters typically start with 15 PP per PL, although the GM can alter this number.

Virtual Power Points (VPP): Virtual Power Points are spent on certain traits that broadly expand a character's versatility - arrays, metamorphs, variables, and teammates being the primary ones. Any VPP remaining after character creation can be spent during play to fuel power stunts. This pool of spare VPP resets to its current maximum at the end of an adventure, at the same time Hero Points reset. A Hero Point can be spent to reset the pool to its maximum immediately.

Permanent traits that cost VPP - arrays, metamorphs, etc - directly lower the character's maximum VPP, so VPP spent on those don't refresh at the end of an adventure or by spending a Hero Point. Temporary things like power stunts and inventions only lower the current VPP, which does refresh. For example, a character with 150 VPP has a 20-point array with five alternate powers, costing 50. It has 100 VPP available to spend on power stunts. At the end of an adventure, its VPP total resets to 100 - its current maximum after deducting the VPP cost of its array.

The GM sets how many VPP characters receive, typically based on the normal PP. The default is equal VPP to PP, but GMs may set different totals (such as half, half again, or double) to allow for more or less versatile characters. In addition, characters may lower their PP to raise their VPP. This lowers the character's base PP total, which extends across any Teammates and Metamorphs it may possess (for purposes of calculating their maximum traits). At base, each two PP spent grants 5 VPP. However, the VPP gained is subject to the same multiplier as the base VPP pool. So if the GM says everyone gets twice their PP in VPP, each PP reduced would grant 5 VPP. If VPP is equal to half PP, each 4 PP spent grants 5 VPP, and so on. You cannot more than double your starting VPP pool through PP expenditure and weaknesses.

Hero Points (HP): Hero Points are spent during play to gain special advantages. PCs begin play with 1 Hero Point per three PL, rounded down, and can gain more during play. NPCs do not have Hero Points, but can simulate their effects with GM Fiat. PCs gain additional Hero Points during play as a result of GM Fiat or Complications. Hero Points reset to their base value at the end of an adventure.

Combat Stats

There are four combat stats - Accuracy, Force, Defense, and Resistance. Combat stats each cost one PP per rank.

Accuracy: Accuracy determines your ability to overcome the active defenses of your target - generally speaking, to "hit" with your attack. This doesn't necessarily mean physically making contact. For a mental attack, it might mean breaking through active mental resistance. For an explosion, it might represent placing it so the enemy can't easily dive behind cover. For a gaze attack, it might involve catching the target's gaze before they can look away. For an energy aura, it might simply represent the aura being able to deliver its effect before they can pull away or to "conduct" through whatever they contacted it with. And so on.

Force: Force determines how difficult it is for enemies to resist your attacks and offensive powers. It represents the sheer damage or intensity of effect you are capable of inflicting - heavier weaponry, more potent energy blasts, greater physical strength, more virulent diseases, and so on are all represented by higher Force scores.

Defense: Defense represents, on the average, your ability to actively avoid enemy attacks. Whether this is dodging or parrying blows, fending off psychic assaults through force of will, toughing through physiological hazards, or even the unconscious resistance of your spirit or a sort of natural inertia preventing weird mystical and transformative effects. Some characters might be more or less able to defend from certain forms of attack, but that is reflected by immunities and weaknesses.

Resistance: Resistance represents, on the average, your ability to withstand attacks that overcome your defenses. How well you tough out minor injuries, stand strong against mental invasions, fend off poisons and diseases, and so on. Some characters might be more or less resistant to certain forms of attack, but that is reflected by immunities and weaknesses.

Tradeoffs and Schticks

While all stats, skills, and powers are limited by PL, not every character is the same. You can make tradeoffs to specialize in certain areas, effectively lowering your PL for some stats to raise it for others. You may make multiple types of tradeoffs, but no stat can be brought higher than your PL+5 due to tradeoffs. Each stat has its own individual limit, so for example, if you trade three Defense for Resistance, and then trade three Accuracy/Force for Defense/Resistance, you'd wind up losing a bit because your Resistance would hit its cap. (Realistically you'd never do that, you'd just do a two-point tradeoff for the first one, but for explanation purposes). You can make tradeoffs in the following ways:

Lower Accuracy to raise Force, or vice-versa.
Lower Defense to raise Resistance, or vice-versa.
Lower Defense and Resistance to raise Accuracy and Force, or vice-versa.
Lower Accuracy and Force to raise Skills.
Lower Defense and Resistance to raise Skills.
Lower Accuracy, Force, Defense, and Resistance to raise Powers.
Lower Powers* to raise Skills and a single combat stat of your choice.
Lower Skills (other than your Schtick) to raise Skills (for purposes of your Schtick).
Lower Powers (other than your Schtick) to raise Powers (for purposes of your Schtick).

*The Powers tradeoff can be taken beyond the point where your Skills would be capped if you wish, but there are heavy diminishing returns. Not only do you lose the bonus to Skills (so you only get +1 to a single combat stat) but your effective rank for Attack and Defend powers is reduced for each such extra trade. If you reduce your Powers tradeoff all the way to 0, you can't select any powers at all except for Enhanced Traits, and even those can't have Extras applied, only Flaws.

In addition to their tradeoffs, all PCs possess a schtick (NPCs may or may not possess a schtick, at GM discretion). Choose one combat stat, two skills, or one power Effect to be your schtick. You treat your PL as two higher for purposes of your schtick. This counts as a tradeoff bonus, so it can't bring your schtick more than 5 above your PL, after other tradeoffs are considered. If desired, you can instead choose two schticks to get a +1 bonus.

Attack Modes

There are nine different Attack Modes, representing broad differences in how characters can attack others.

Any power that affects other characters has an Attack Mode, which you choose when you gain the power. The Diverse Extra gives you multiple options for that power, and the Broad Extra allows you to choose from any Attack Mode open to that power. Each Effect has a list of naturally available Attack Modes. However, in addition to that list, you can purchase additional Attack Modes which you can choose from for any power you gain. If an Attack Mode doesn't appear on either the Effect's list or your own, you can't choose it when gaining the power, and you can't add it using the Diverse or Broad Extras. Note that the Attack power itself has a base list of "none", meaning it can only draw from your own list.

Actions that are taken against other characters also have Attack Modes, which are based on the action itself. To use other Attack Modes with an action, you must take an appropriate power.

You get one Attack Mode on your list for free (by default, this is the Physical Attack Mode, although you can choose a different one if you wish). The cost for purchasing new Attack Modes is as follows:

Total Number of Attack ModesTotal PP CostIndividual Cost for this Attack Mode
100
211
332
463
5104
6144
7173
8192
9201

Attack Modes may not be purchased in any manner that costs VPP. They must be purchased directly with real PP from your main character. However, your list of Attack Modes is available to any option you have that involves VPP, such as arrays, Variable powers, Metamorphs, Teammates, etc.

The available Attack Modes are as follows:

Energy: Effects that have some sort of reaction in and of themselves that can cause damage or other results. These attacks can be due to directed energy, energetic reactions from physical substances, or even "negative" energy effects reflecting a lack of energy. Fire, cold, electricity, acid, light, darkness, sound, radiation, and so on are all examples of energy attacks. Kinetic energy, however, does not count - that uses the Physical attack mode.

The attack roll for an Energy effect involves getting the energy to the target before it can dodge, pull away, throw something in the way, or otherwise avoid it. The resistance check involves the target physically withstanding the effect inflicted by the energy. The recovery check involves the target "shaking off" the worst of the effects (such as the pain of burns or the muscle spasms caused by electricity), although some "cosmetic" damage likely remains. Most Energy effects have Wielded or Fired targeting.

Material: The attack involves a physical material (or "solid" energy) that somehow hampers or interferes with the target. Be it trapping them in a dome of force, tying them up with ropes, binding them in webbing, or the like. Material also reflects attacks that outright remove matter from the equation no matter how tough it is - disintegration, antimatter, and so on.

The attack roll for a Material effect involves getting the material to the target before it can move out of the way or get something in the way. The resistance check involves the target physically slipping or breaking free before the material has completely restricted it, a last-moment instinctive reaction to slip out of the way or at least take the hit to a less important part of the body, or sometimes just dumb luck of not getting hit squarely, or bound firmly, or only receiving minimal effects (generally speaking, resistance checks against Material effects are a bit more "active" than most, but the passive "luck" version can come into play if the character is physically unable to move but still manages to resist, at least partially). The recovery check involves breaking out or struggling free after being caught, or shrugging off the trauma inflicted to keep fighting. Most Material effects have Wielded or Fired targeting.

Mental: The attack directly alters the target's mind or thoughts. This can range from psychic blasts and telepathic mind control to extreme emotional coercion.

The attack roll for a Mental effect involves overcoming the target's conscious mental defenses - punching through despite attempts to "shut you out". The resistance check for a Mental effect involves the target's unconscious will withstanding your attack, keeping it from having too much psychological impact. The recovery check involves getting one's thoughts and focus back in order or "working through" the beliefs or emotions that have been imposed to get back on one's normal mental footing. Most Mental effects have Aimed or Selected targeting.

Mystical: The attack affects the target in some entirely supernatural way. Laying magical curses on a target, attacking its spirit or aura, manipulating its luck or fate, rewriting its history, and so on. Basically, any sort of "weird" attack form that even might not seem to interact with the target directly in a normal way fits the Mystical Attack Mode.

The attack roll for a Mystical effect involves overcoming the target's conscious will and desire not to be affected - at the moment of using a Mystical effect the target experiences some sensation of encroaching "wrongness" that it can consciously attempt to fend off. The resistance check involves whatever metaphysical aspect of the target is being affected - its spirit, luck, fate, historical inertia, whatever - resisting the power brought to bear through its own metaphysical "mass". The recovery check is basically the target's spirit rallying, or the inertia of the universe "smoothing over" the effect inflicted. Most Mystical effects have Aimed or Selected targeting.

Physical: The attack involves physical forces - typically causing direct harm through the transfer of kinetic energy via high-speed physical impact. In other words, hitting things. However, physical attacks can also involve things like direct kinetic (or telekinetic) strikes, "concussive" energy blasts, gravity manipulation, and so on.

The attack roll for a Physical effect involves actually hitting the target with your fist, weapon, kinetic blast, etc, opposed by its efforts to dodge, pull away, parry, duck behind cover, and so on. The resistance check involves the target physically withstanding the force through sheer strength or toughness, or at the very least "rolling with it" to minimize the harm caused. The recovery check is about shaking off the immediate shock or pain, as well as matters like stanching bleeding and so on, although physical trauma may still remain. Most Physical effects have Wielded or Fired targeting.

Physiological: The attack affects the target's body on a more physiological level. Poison, disease, nervous or cellular attacks, suffocation, fatigue, and so on are all examples of physiological attacks.

The attack roll for a Physiological effect involves conscious effort to remove the hazard from the body - spitting out poison, gasping for air, holding one's breath when exposed to a gas, and so on. Many Physiological effects, though, use other Attack Modes for their attack rolls, often Physical, Energy, Mystical, or Transformative. The resistance check for a Physiological effect involves the body's natural systems opposing the effect, or simply withstanding them through superior personal health. The recovery check involves overcoming the lingering effects of the physiological harm - catching one's breath, shaking off lethargy, metabolizing poison, etc. Most Physiological effects have Aimed or Selected targeting unless they use other forms of attack rolls.

Sensory: The attack targets the character directly through its senses - and often affects those senses directly. Blinding light, deafening sound, overwhelming smells, debilitating pain, irresistible beauty, and so on are all examples of sensory attacks. A character who is Unaware for purposes of the relevant sense is immune to Sensory attacks affecting that sense. A character who is Impaired, Disabled, or Impotent for purposes of the relevant sense converts the penalty to a bonus on its resistance check against the relevant Sensory powers.

The attack roll for a Sensory effect involves the target attempting to "block" the affected sense - such as suddenly covering its ears, averting its gaze, pulling away from painful stimuli, etc. The resistance check simply involves enduring the extreme stimuli as best one can. The recovery check involves shrugging off the malady inflicted - clearing the spots in front of one's eyes, shaking off the ringing in the ears, etc. Most Sensory effects have Fired or Aimed targeting.

Tactical: The attack puts the target at some tactical disadvantage without necessarily causing harm directly. Powers that let you analyze an enemy to hinder their actions against you, or overwhelm them with a flurry of attacks too fast to keep up with, or put them briefly off-balance, are tactical in nature.

The attack roll for a Tactical effect involves the target recognizing the attempt and actively working to foil it - finding a pattern in the barrage of attacks, changing its fighting style to avoid analysis, taking care to watch its footing, etc. The resistance check is a measure of how well the target is able to instinctively adapt to the change in the situation. The recovery check is about getting out of the detrimental situation or coming up with a new strategy to overcome the effect. Most Tactical effects have Wielded or Aimed targeting.

Transformative: The attack directly alters the target's form. This can mean outright shapeshifting, like turning the target into a harmless creature, or just physical manipulations, such as teleporting portions of the target away. Transformative powers are in many ways a more "physical" version of the same principles as Mystical powers.

The attack roll for Transformative effects is much like that for Mystical - the target feels a certain encroaching "wrongness" that it consciously resists, although in this case it's more of a physical resistance - the target kinda "tenses up" to break free of the transformation before it can take effect. The resistance check involves the target's resisting the transformation through semi-physical semi-metaphysical means - sheer personal toughness isn't really a factor, but a strong body can have an impact. The recovery check involves either shrugging off the pain and shock of having one's body altered, or the target's prior form reasserting itself through metaphysical inertia. Most Transformative effects have Aimed or Selected targeting.


Not all attacks are best represented using only one Attack Mode. A poisoned blade, for example, is some combination of Physical and Physiological. If you want an attack that just just invisibly affects the target's nervous system, there isn't really a way to "remove" the hazard from the body the way Physiological represents attack rolls, so the attack roll should be something more supernatural in nature - maybe Mental, Mystical or Transformative. A physical blow that also knocks the target off-balance might be both Physical and Tactical. A psychic attack that induces extreme pain might be Mental and Sensory, while the classic medusa's gaze might be Sensory and Transformative. And so on.

This is done by using multiple Attack Modes. All of the Attack Modes used must be available (either naturally through the power's Effect, or due to being on your list of personally available Attack Modes). There are several ways to incorporate multiple Attack Modes into the same effect:

Split Functions: You just assign different "portions" of the power different Attack Modes. The above list describes how the three different checks involved in an attack - attack rolls, resistance checks, and recovery checks - work for each Attack Mode. So the simplest way of creating a multi-Mode attack is to use a different Attack Mode for different things. For example, a poisoned blade could be Attack (Impairment Tree; Physical Attack, Physiological Effect). So it counts as Physical for purposes of making your attack roll (you have to hit the target with the physical blade), but Physiological for purposes of the resistance and recovery checks (the poison is what causes the actual effect).

Split Extras: You can also assign different Attack Modes to different Extras on the power. For example, the poisoned blade could be Attack (Impairment Tree; Physical; Secondary Effect [Physiological]). You make a Physical attack to hit the target with the blade, which may itself cause Physical damage that the target has to resist. However, if it hits, you also poison the target, and next round, the poison causes its effect, which must be resisted Physiologically. Although realistically, you might want to also add Limited (Only if the initial resistance check fails) to the Secondary Effect Extra, to represent that the blade has to actually break the target's skin to deliver the poison (assuming it isn't a contact poison). (For what it's worth, while all of these examples are valid enough, this one is probably the most realistic way to do a poisoned blade).

Split Mode: You can also simply "split" the Attack Mode across the whole power. For example, a poisoned blade could be Attack (Impairment Tree; Split Physical and Physiological). In this case, either the effects of immunities or weaknesses to one but not the other are halved, or half the rank is used to determine the effects of such, whichever makes the most sense. So someone with a Minor Bonus vs. Physical would only get +1 to resist rather than +2, while someone with Light Impervious Defense vs. Physical would compare half the attacker's Accuracy to half its Defense, and if it's equal or lower, would ignore that half of its Accuracy for the attack roll, etc.

Diverse: You can use the Diverse Extra to gain a choice of Attack Modes by paying additional points. For example, the poisoned blade could be Attack (Impairment Tree; Physical; Diverse [Physiological]). Now you can choose whether to make the attack Physical or Physiological with each attack, depending on whatever you think the target is weakest to.

Resistible: You can use the Resistible Flaw to give the target a choice of Attack Modes, or even give it multiple required attack rolls or allowed resistance checks, to get a point discount. For example, the poisoned blade could be Attack (Impairment Tree; Physical; Resistible [Physiological Resistance Optional]). Now you make a Physical attack, and the target can choose whether it uses Physical or Physiological resistance against it. Alternately, for a larger point discount, you might do Attack (Impairment Tree; Physical; Resistible [Physiological Resistance Additional]). In that case, you make a Physical attack, and the target rolls two separate resistance checks, one Physical, one Physiological, and takes the best result. Note that, unlike most means of applying additional Attack Modes, you don't need any Resistible Attack Modes to be available on your list. You

Combinations: You can also combine the above options. For example, you could do something like Attack (Impairment Tree; Physical; Additional [Weakening Tree; Physiological Effect], Quirk [Additional doesn't apply if the Physical effect is fully resisted, even if the target is more susceptible to Physiological]), combining Split Functions with a Split Extra.

Is This All Really Necessary!?: Nah. It all depends on how precise you want to be. Split Function is probably sufficient for the vast majority of situations where you might use multiple Attack Modes, and even places where it doesn't quite fit, it's easy enough to fluff around it ("Wait, how does your poisoned blade actually poison the Paragon when the blade itself would just bounce off his skin?" "Meh, it's a contact poison.") But if you want to be really precise about things, there's a variety of options available for it. Alternately, if what you have stated for the Attack Modes doesn't really match up with how things should work descriptively in a given circumstance, the GM can award (or call for, if it's to your benefit and you want to take advantage of it) a Hero Point to kinda smooth out the mechanical details.

Immunities and Weaknesses

Different types of characters are more or less resistant to different forms of attack. These varying levels of resistances are represented by Immunities.

Immunities come in levels, ranging from 1 to 15 (although in practice, immunities above level 10 are extremely rare). Immunities are purchased directly with VPP. You don't generally buy Immunities as powers themselves, although you can to take advantage of buying them as an Array or to gain them with a Variable power or the like, by taking them as Enhanced Traits. When doing so, treat the immunity's VPP cost as a PP cost. To add Immunity to Variable, choose the highest level immunity you want to be able to use at once, and pay VPP for an immunity three levels higher. For example, if you want to be able to get Level 6 immunities with your Variable, it would cost 100 VPP (and of course, you'd need at least six Variable ranks to be able to afford the immunity itself). You may not take Weaknesses as powers.

Teammates and Metamorphs can have immunities, but you don't have to spend VPP on each one. Rather, any VPP spent on immunities allows you the same total value of immunities for any Teammates or Metamorphs you possess, so they're all resistant to the same general amount of stuff, but exactly what they are resistant to can vary. Likewise, if you take any weaknesses, all Teammates and Metamorphs must also have the same amount of weaknesses (although you can forego points of immunities to forego equal points of weaknesses), but may be weak to different things.

Immunity Levels: The VPP cost of an immunity is based on its level as follows. No immunity can have a level below 1 or a cost below 1 VPP.

Level 0: 1 VPP.
Level 1: 2 VPP.
Level 2: 5 VPP.
Level 3: 10 VPP.
Level 4: 15 VPP.
Level 5: 20 VPP.
Level 6: 30 VPP.
Level 7: 50 VPP.
Level 8: 75 VPP.
Level 9: 100 VPP.
Level 10: 150 VPP.
Level 11: 200 VPP.
Level 12: 300 VPP.
Level 13: 500 VPP.
Level 14: 750 VPP.
Level 15: 1,000 VPP.

Immunity Result: There are different forms of immunity you can choose from, determining the base level of the immunity.

Minor Bonus (Level 1): You get a +2 bonus to avoid appropriate effects. If the effect involves multiple types of checks (such as how attacks require an attack roll and then allow a separate resistance check), choose one type for the bonus to apply to. This counts as a tradeoff bonus, so it can't bring relevant stats higher than your PL + 5. For an additional +1 level, you can apply the bonus to all checks involved.

When taking Minor Bonuses to multiple immunity targets, you can add two targets instead of one the first two times you increase the level.

Major Bonus (Level 2): As Minor Bonus, but the bonus is +5 and you can't take double extra targets.

Light Impervious (Level 1): You completely ignore appropriate effects where the stat used to inflict the effect is less than or equal to half of your stat for avoiding the effect. If the effect involves multiple types of checks, choose one type for purposes of this calculation; you can affect all stats involved for +1 level.

When taking Light Impervious to multiple immunity targets, you can add two targets instead of one the first two times you increase the level.

Heavy Impervious (Level 3): As Light Impervious, but you use your full PL - 1 rather than half your stat and you can't take double extra targets.

Half Immunity (Level 4): You halve either one stat involved in imposing the effect upon you. For an additional +1 level, you can halve any stats involved.

Full Immunity (Level 6): You ignore the effect outright.

Ignore Extras (Level 3): You completely ignore all Extras on the power that influence either its ability to affect you, or the effect it has on you (for example, you wouldn't be able to ignore Extras like Area, Selective, Broad, Diverse, or Reduced Action which change how the power is used, but you could ignore Extras like Improved, Brutal, Immediate, some functions of Multiattack and Sweeping, Additional, etc).

Immunity Target: Immunities don't apply to all effects. Choose what sort of effects the immunity applies to as follows. You may not purchase multiple immunities of with the same Result that use the same sort of Target individually. For example, you can't individually purchase Full Immunity to three different Attack Modes, but you could purchase Full Immunity to one Attack Mode and a Major Bonus against a second one. Each Target has its own rules for adding additional immunities of that sort of target and the same Type.

Attack Mode (Level +0): The immunity applies to all effects with a chosen Attack Mode. Each additional Attack Mode the immunity applies to raises the level by 1.

Source or Origin (Level +0): The immunity applies to all direct powers with a chosen Source or Origin. Effects indirectly caused by such powers are not included; for example, Magic Immunity would protect against a wizard telekinetically blasting you or shooting magical fire at you, but not against a wizard telekinetically picking up a rock and throwing it at you or magically enhancing its strength and punching you. By raising the level by 1, the immunity also applies against effects indirectly caused via that Source or Origin. Each additional Source or Origin the immunity applies to raises the level by 2.

Effect (Level -1): The immunity applies to all powers with a certain Effect that target you (you can't get immunity to effects that target others; for example, you can't get Defend Immunity to ignore enemy Defend powers, or Enhanced Trait immunity to ignore their Enhanced Traits). You also may not choose the Attack Effect. Each additional Effect the immunity applies to increases the level by 1.

Condition (Level -3 to Level +0): The immunity applies to a certain condition tree. The full tree is +0, up to Tier 3 is -1, up to Tier 2 is -2, and only the Tier 1 condition is -3. Immunity to individual conditions explicitly is also -3. You can't take immunity to Dying, Critical, or Dead. Each additional individual condition raises the level by 1. Each additional tree raises the level by 2.

Descriptor (Level -2): The immunity applies against a single descriptor, such as Fire, Slashing, Bludgeoning, Cold, Fear, Sight, Teleportation, etc. Each additional descriptor the immunity applies to raises the level by 1.

Mundane Descriptor (Level -4): The immunity applies against a single descriptor, but only "mundane" forms of it. That is, natural effects rather than explicit powers. So immunity to Mundane Poison would protect you from, say, ingesting some normal poisonous substance, but not from a power with the Poison descriptor. Immunity to Mundane Heat would protect you from normal fires and extreme environmental heat, but not from actual heat or fire powers. Immunity to Mundane Fear means you don't get scared normally and ignore, say, Intimidation attempts explicitly intended to scare you, but offers no protection against fear-based powers. And so on. Each additional Mundane Descriptor the immunity applies to requires paying an equal amount of PP as for the original immunity.

Additional Restrictions: You can take immunities restricted by multiple Types. Add up the level modifiers for all Types chosen, and subtract 2 for the second Type and 1 for the third Type. You can only place these restrictions if they clearly curtail the immunity. For example, say you want an immunity to Energy effects with the Heat descriptor - you're immune to being directly burned, but not to being for example exhausted by extreme heat (which would be Physiological), having your spirit burned by hellfire (Mystical), blinded by burning embers (Sensory), and so on. That would be a Level 2 immunity, compared to full Energy Immunity's Level 6, or full Heat Immunity's Level 4. Likewise, if you only want to be immune to Mental Reading powers, it would be a Level 3 immunity rather than Mental Immunity's Level 6 or Reading Immunity's Level 5.

If you want to add additional Types in a beneficial way (for example, Immunity to Energy with the [Heat], [Electricity], or [Light] Descriptors) you can choose twice as many additional Types per +1 to the level as normal. For example, the above would be a Level 3 Immunity rather than Level 4.

Common Targets: The GM may feel that certain immunity targets are especially common in the game. In most games, the Physical attack mode and the Bludgeoning descriptor are both especially common. In modern games, the Ballistic descriptor is usually also especially common, while in say a fantasy game, the Slashing descriptor would be. In a Star Wars game, the Energy Attack Mode and Light descriptor (for all the lasers) might be considered especially common. If most of the game's superpowers revolve around a certain Source or Origin, it should be considered especially common - for example, Magic in a fantasy game, or Mutant in an X-Men game, or Dreamer in an Aranth game. Generally speaking, the GM should probably specify common immunity targets before character creation begins, so everyone's on the same page. Common immunities cost double. If you have multiple immunities together and only some are common, remove any extra levels from the uncommon immunities and double the costs for what's left. For example, if you have Full Immunity to Physical, Energy, and Mental, that's a Level 8 immunity (75 VPP), but the Physical Attack Mode is especially common. So the base cost for the Physical immunity (30) would be paid a second time, bringing the total cost to 105 VPP. If both Physical and Energy were considered especially common, the base cost for just the two of them (50 for a level 7 immunity) would be paid twice, so the total cost would be 125 VPP.

Immunity Modifiers: Some of the Extras and Flaws relevant to powers can logically be added to immunities. For those that have a flat PP value, simply apply it to the VPP cost of the immunity. For those that have a cost/rank modifier, apply it to the immunity's level. For example, Full Immunity to Physical (Level 6) with the Reflect Extra (+1/rank) would be a Level 7 immunity.

Broad and Diverse can never be added to immunities.

For immunities that affect Attack Modes, Sources/Origins, Descriptors, or Mundane Descriptors, Limited to Attacks Only or Limited to Non-Attacks Only are both valid Limits.

You may also use Limited (Object) to create an immunity that doesn't apply against effects with the Affects Object Extra.

Special Immunities: There are certain special immunities that are possible to take and don't quite fit the above rules:

Immunity to Age (Level 0): You don't age and cannot die from old age. Or maybe you just age arbitrarily slowly. Whatever, it's almost complete fluff from an in-game perspective.

Immunity to Self (Level 1): You are immune to direct detrimental effect from your own powers and actions. You are not immune to indirect detriment, such as enemies taking cover behind barriers you create or gaining benefits from non-selective beneficial Area powers and the like. This immunity also extends to your powers being turned back upon you due to Reflect effects and the like.

Immunity to Other (Level 1+): You are immune to direct detrimental effect from another specific character. This is level 1 for a single character, level 2 for a small group (give-or-take five characters), level 3 from a large group (give-or-take twenty-five characters). The players of such characters must approve the immunity; don't expect to be able to become immune to the main villain or something. If you have such an immunity, you automatically approve all the characters you are immune to taking such an immunity against you, if they want (so maybe the GM lets you be immune to the main villain but it's also immune to you).

Immunity to Critical Hits (Level 2): Critical hits cause no additional effect against you, and you ignore "exploding" negative resistance checks from lethal damage.

Immunity to Fatigue (Level 2): You don't get tired, hungry, thirsty, sleepy, or otherwise need the sort of rest and resources most people do. Immunity to only one "type" of fatigue, such as sleep, hunger/thirst, or normal exertion, is a level 1 immunity. This offers no protection against fatiguing powers or extreme exertion (such as Extra Effort or other forms of Exertion Conditions).

Resistance to Nonlethal Damage (Level 2): You get +5 on Resistance checks against nonlethal attacks. However, this comes with a cost - any attacker who wishes to do so can freely inflict lethal damage to you with any attack form that could realistically do so, regardless of the normal lethality level of the game. There might be in-character reasons why they wouldn't, in which case this immunity is a beast, but against enemies who are willing to kill you, it can very easily do more harm than good. This immunity is suggested primarily for NPCs; players should not be surprised if their GM vetoes it for PCs. PCs who limit themselves to nonlethal damage against enemies with this immunity should receive Hero Points.

Resistance to Interaction Skills (Level 3): You are treated as a PC for purposes of interaction skills. Naturally, this immunity isn't useful to actual PCs.

Immunity to Environmental Conditions (Level 3): You are immune to all conditions imposed by environments; basically, to the Hamper environment effect. Other environment effects still affect you normally.

Immunity to Hazards (Level 3-5): You are immune to one type of Hazard - Onset, Continuous, or Immediate. Each additional type of hazard you are immune to raises the level by 1.

Immunity to Manipulate Actions (Level 4): You are immune to the Manipulate action.

Immunity to Manhandle Actions (Level 4): You are immune to the Manhandle action.

Life Support (Level 4): You are immune to Fatigue, Environmental Conditions, and Onset Hazards.

Weaknesses: Characters might also be especially susceptible to certain forms of attack. Weaknesses follow the same system as immunities, replacing the Result of the immunity with the Result of the weakness, but they give you additional VPP rather than subtracting from your total. Weaknesses will generally grant more VPP than commensurate immunities, because enemies are likely to avoid immunities and actively seek to target known weaknesses. Weaknesses taken to gain VPP don't award Hero Points when targeted - if you would rather your weaknesses provide you with Hero Points (but also allow the GM to control just how much effect they have on you), take appropriate Complications instead.

You may not have a Weakness and an Immunity to the same thing. If you are both weak and immune to a given attack (for example, you have an immunity to the Energy Attack Mode but a weakness to the [Fire] descriptor and you get attacked by an Energy/[Fire] attack) the weakness overrides the immunity completely, regardless of relative levels.

If the GM feels a weakness is too niche, it may require it to be taken as a Complication instead.

Trivial Penalty (Level 2): You take a -1 penalty to avoid appropriate effects. If the effect involves multiple types of checks (such as how attacks require an attack roll and then allow a separate resistance check), choose one type for the penalty to apply to. When adding additional targets to a Trivial Penalty, you must add two extra targets per increase to the level.

Minor Penalty (Level 3): As Trivial Penalty, but the penalty is -2.

Major Penalty (Level 4): As Trivial Penalty, but the penalty is -5 and extra targets provide the full level increase.

Additional Extra (Level 3+): Choose an applicable Extra that would meaningfully increase the effectiveness of such effects when used against you. Any appropriate effects gain this Extra. This is Level 3 for a +1 cost/rank Extra, and each additional +1/rank increases the level by one, to a max of Level 5.

Subject to Sabotage (Level 3): You are personally subject to the Sabotage action of a certain use of the Technology skill.

Auto Hit (Level 5): Appropriate attacks treat misses against you as hits, but the attack is still rolled normally so especially high results can still have greater effects where applicable.

Auto Crit (Level 6): Appropriate attacks treat misses and hits against you as critical hits, but the attack is still rolled normally so especially high results can still have greater effects where applicable.

Double Damage (Level 6): Appropriate attacks impose twice as many Bruises, and if you fail to resist the attack, you double the number of points you failed by for purposes of calculating the degree of failure.

Max Result (Level 7): If you fail to resist appropriate effects, you take the maximum possible degree of failure.

Minionize (Level 8): If you take even so much as a Bruise from an appropriate effect, you take the maximum possible degree of failure.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Rules

Game Time

While Time Ranks are used to measure in-game time and are fine for certain things, other rules are served by a more narrative time structure. The following organizations of game time are used for these purposes:

Rounds: Rounds are typically tracked during combat, and in certain types of fast-paced challenges. They form something of a bridge between in-game time and narrative time. Narratively, a round is an opportunity for everyone involved in the scene to take a turn contributing to the situation. In-game, a round generally represents about six seconds (Time Rank 0).

Initiative: At the start of any scene in which rounds are tracked, everybody rolls initiative. This is generally an unmodified d20 roll. However, the Initiative specialty of the Prowess skill, or the Improved Initiative advantage, can add to your initiative roll. Turns are taken in order from highest initiative to lowest, and once everyone has taken a turn, a new round begins at the top of the order.

By default, each character makes its own initiative roll. However, it is also possible to "group" initiative together so that one entire team acts, and then another team. In this case, just average the initiative modifiers for each group and roll once to see who goes first. Within a group, characters can resolve their actions in any order.

A sort of "partial group" initiative is also doable, where the NPCs roll initiative as a group, and each PC rolls individually. Any PCs who beat the NPCs can act (in any order), then the NPCs act, then all PCs act, and it just alternates from there. So essentially, the PCs who beat the enemy group get one additional turn.

Automatic Initiative: If a character suddenly initiates hostilities with a direct attack when no one else is really expecting a fight to break out (such as a group teleporting in to attack, or someone throwing a punch in the middle of a negotiation), such characters receive automatic initiative - they simply go first, and then other initiative is resolved from there. If it's important, initiative can be rolled between those with automatic initiative. Note that the Seize Initiative advantage provides automatic initiative, so if you use it you can potentially go before even such sudden attacks.

Automatic initiative doesn't apply if the other side is prepared to fight, even if they don't know precisely when the fight will break out. Such preparation means physically as well as mentally - having weapons ready, being in a proper fighting stance, powers ready to go, etc. It conveys aggression and even hostility, so it isn't a state you want to be in during important social interactions or quiet scenes with friends and family.

Surprise Rounds: A surprise round means you catch an opponent entirely off-guard. Typically, this is because you sneak up on it and don't reveal yourself until the moment of your attack. However, it can also be because the opponent believes you to be an ally (or at least, a non-threat) before you attack, or something else. You could even get a surprise round by being ready to fight and striking first when an enemy is expecting that they should be able to get a surprise round (such as spotting an ambush and moving in as if oblivious, only to suddenly attack). Characters always receive Perception checks to avoid surprise rounds immediately before they occur, typically opposed by Stealth, but occasionally by another skill such as Deception or maybe even Prowess depending on the situation.

A surprise round is an entire combat round that occurs before initiative is even rolled. Anyone who is initiating the surprise round or who succeeds the Perception check to avoid it rolls initiative and can act normally. All others are considered surprised - they don't roll initiative, and don't get turns for any purpose during the surprise round (so they don't get to recover from Short or Instant conditions, powers with durations don't expire, etc). They are also considered Vulnerable during the surprise round. Once they surprise round ends, they can roll initiative and receive normal turns - but if the attackers rolled high in initiative, they might be able to take another turn before they can act!

Who Struck First: Narratively, rolling initiative means you have begun acting. Losing initiative doesn't mean you're standing idle, it just means the opponent has completed its action first. You may forego rolling initiative entirely, acting last during a round, if you wish to clearly not be acting aggressively. For example, when the police have their guns trained on the suspect, and the suspect starts raising its weapon and the police fire? That's what an initiative roll (with the police winning) looks like. It is clear to any attentive observer that hostile action was being initiated.

Automatic Initiative is different - there, you strike before the target has a chance to begin hostilities. That would be like if the police officer were talking to the suspect, trying to get it to turn itself in, and just suddenly fired on it!

A surprise round is a step beyond even that - it's a straight-up sucker punch. That would be like if the cop snuck up on the suspect and shot it before it even knew the police were there.

Turns: Once you get a turn, you may take a single standard action (which you may exchange for a second move action), a single move action, and as many free actions as the GM deems reasonable (free actions to maintain powers and do other things that don't require any physical effort you can probably take as many as you want, but for other free actions, six is a good limit - one free action per second). When you are not on turn, you can only take reactions - but you can take as many as trigger.

Scenes: A scene is a single specific situation. If the PCs meet up for breakfast, that's a scene. When they go out on patrol, that's a new scene. When they come across a bank robbery and stop it, that's a third scene. And so on. The length of a scene in terms of in-game time can vary widely. Often, a change of setting means a change of scene, but not always - high-speed characters could hold a running battle across an entire city, country, or even the whole planet as part of a single scene! Likewise, a fancy party with all of high society in attendance can all take place in one location, but include multiple scenes as the PCs interact with a bunch of different important people, each with their own agendas.

Generally speaking though, a single scene is a single continuous instance of game time. If there's a brief timeskip where the PCs are just hanging around, waiting for the police to arrive, getting some rest, or travelling to their next destination, that ends the scene. The time during that timeskip is considered "between scenes", giving PCs an opportunity to take certain off-screen actions that usually happen between scenes. This timeskip is also where things that happen at the end of or between scenes occur, like removing Standard-recovery conditions and such.

Episodes: An episode is a collection of scenes (generally, although it's possible to have an episode that all takes place in a single scene) that are tied together by having a coherent, short-term plot, typically with longer-than-usual timeskips between the last scene of one episode and the first scene of the next. An episode is generally a single "mission", with one major goal the characters are trying to accomplish - foiling a single plot, rescuing someone, finding some macguffin, etc. An episode might also be just a single period of time where a bunch of things can happen, such as one interesting day in the lives of the PCs.

Downtime Actions: Between episodes, characters have the opportunity to take Downtime Actions - long-term background actions that can provide them with certain narrative benefits or influence the story or setting in some way. See the Downtime Actions section for more information.

Adventures: An adventure, then, is a group of episodes that are all tied together by a coherent plot - or, perhaps, simply separated by major events. Think an entire season of a TV show or a multi-volume comic book story or even a movie trilogy. The end of an adventure usually means the PCs have accomplished some major, overarching goal - defeating a primary villain, winning a war, destroying a dangerous artifact, or even saving the world! Adventures typically involve substantially more downtime between them, although they don't have to.

Advancement: When characters complete an adventure, they are awarded additional PP as deemed by the GM, typically 3-5 (one PP per episode in the adventure is a good rule of thumb, and alternately, the GM might simply award 1 PP every episode).

Every few adventures, at GM discretion, characters may also gain a new PL (this isn't strictly required - a game can go on indefinitely at the same PL, just adding more and more PP, but it's a nice option for allowing the characters to gradually grow in scale). This carries all the benefits of a new Power Level, but does not inherently increase PP. Generally speaking, it's suggested that the PP to PL ratio always be at least 15:1, but the GM may want to award more PP between PL gains to allow more breadth of development. A new PL should also come with a chunk of extra PP to allow characters to quickly bring some of their existing traits up to caps - six is suggested, as that's enough to account for all the character's combat stats and some additionals for a few Attack Modes, skills, and/or powers that might be at their caps as well.

Resetting: On completion of an adventure, all Hero Points and VPP reset to their base total. Any remaining points are lost. PCs can spend unspent Hero Points at the end of an adventure to get Inspiration to ask questions about loose ends. Additionally, at GM discretion, PCs can spend their Hero Points for somewhat more expansive forms of the Edit Scene option. Edits performed in this way edit the setting in some minor way - such as establishing the existence of a new NPC or organization, dictating how the populace at large responds to the heroes' actions, getting the hero certain narrative rewards like titles or promotions, furthering some more "behind the scenes" personal goals of the characters such as triggering scientific breakthroughs, or the like.

Respeccing: Characters aren't static. They learn new ways to do things, make changes to their devices, train new skills, and so on. At the end of an adventure, players should have the opportunity to edit their characters - removing things that they no longer want and respending those PP on new stuff. The extent to which a player can edit may be limited by the GM - the character's general theme should stay the same, for example, unless something happened during (or after) the adventure that might have dramatically altered the character's existing powers.

Actions

When things really start happening in a game, time is broken down into six-second segments called rounds (sometimes “action rounds”). A round isn’t very much time. Think of it like a page in a comic book, just long enough to go around the table once, with each hero doing something. Each character’s portion of the round is called their turn.

The things you can do on your turn are broken up into actions. There are standard actions, move actions, free actions, and reactions. During a round you can take a standard and a move action (or substitute an additional move action for your standard action) along with as many free actions as you wish and as many reactions as are called for.

Standard Actions: A standard action generally involves acting upon something, whether it’s an attack or using a power to affect something. You’re limited to one standard action each round. An action that is normally a Standard action cannot apply to the same target from the same character more than once per round. Doing so resolves the group of actions as an Aid attempt.

Different powers with the same Effect are considered the same action for this purpose; if you have a power that lets you attack as a Reaction, for example, you can't use it against a target you attacked with a different power on your turn, but you could use it to attack other opponents.

Powers that were originally standard actions can't be used more than once per round (even against different targets) unless you reduce them all the way to Reactions.

A single use of a given standard action can't affect the same target multiple times in the same round as itself. For example, if you use a Multiattack Area attack to create multiple areas, and the same target is in both areas, it is only affected once. The areas don't stack at all, not even as Aid attempts.

Move Actions: A move action, like the name implies, usually involves moving. You can take your move action before or after your standard action, so you can attack then move, or move then attack. You cannot, however, normally split-up your move action before and after your standard action. Move actions also include things like drawing weapons, standing up, and picking up or manipulating objects. An action that is normally a Move action cannot apply to the same target from the same character more than once per round.

Free Actions: A free action is something so comparatively minor it doesn’t take significant time, so you can perform as many free actions in a round as the GM considers reasonable. Free actions include things like talking (heroes and villains always find time to say a lot in the middle of a fight), dropping something, ending the use of a power, activating or maintaining some other powers, and so forth.

Reactions: A reaction is something you do in response to something else. A reaction doesn’t take any significant time, like a free action. The difference is you react in response to something else happening during the round, perhaps not even on your turn. Reactions don’t count against your normal allotment of actions and you can react as often as the circumstances dictate, but only when they dictate. You may also only take one reaction to any given circumstance, even if you have multiple different actions or powers that would allow you to react to that circumstance.

For the most part, reactions are still actions. You can't take a reaction in situations where you can't take actions, such as if you're Stunned. In effect, the ability to take a reaction has a sustained duration, so you have to be able to take free actions to do it. You can add Increased Duration (Continuous) or Permanent to a Reaction power to change this - a Continuous Reaction keeps up even without conscious effort. A Permanent Reaction does too, but also means you can't choose not to react.

Non-Actions: Non-actions are, as the name implies, not an action. They either happen automatically (such as the activation of a Permanent power) or are triggered purely by player choice without the character doing anything (such as the spending of a Hero Point). Normal actions cannot be made into non-actions with the Reduced Action Extra, and non-actions can't be given an action type with the Increase Action Flaw.

Reactive Defenses [Optional]: Defensive actions can be taken as Reactions, as long as you are not Dazed or Vulnerable. This includes actions like Defend and Counter, uses of powers such as Defend, and even swapping an array to a defensive power such as Immunity or taking a defense-oriented stance. However, any action costs or per-round limits on the action are considered spent for your next turn. So you could Defend in reaction to an attack, but you lose your next turn's standard action. Likewise, you could swap an array to an Immunity as a Reaction, but you couldn't change that array again on your next turn.

This rule is flagged as optional, as it is not suitable even for all games that use most or all of this ruleset. It provides more tactical (and in my opinion, somewhat more realistic) defensive options and prevents the whole "on my turn, I use this defensive move" "Okay, on the enemy's turn, it uses this attack mode that just so happens to completely ignore that form of defense" issue. On the other hand, it can slow down play as players have many more opportunities to take reactions.

Durations

Each effect lasts for a particular amount of time, which may be changed by modifiers.

Instant: When used, the effect generally occurs and ends in the same turn, although its results may linger. Effects that create results that do not linger, such as the Defend power or powers that normally have a duration which is reduced to Instant, last for one round, expiring at the start of your next turn.

Concentration: You can keep a concentration effect going by taking a standard action each round to do so. If you are incapable of taking the necessary action, or simply choose not to, the effect ends.

Sustained: You can keep a sustained effect going by taking a free action each round to do so. If you are incapable of taking the necessary action, or simply choose not to, the effect ends. In addition, a Sustained power that was originally Instant or Concentration ends immediately at the end of the scene it was used in, although the Lasting Extra can extend this limit to a degree.

Continuous: The effect lasts as long as you wish, without any action required on your part. Once active, it stays that way until you choose to deactivate it (a free action). A continuous power can even be deactivated and previous uses of the power will remain in effect. However, for another character to directly benefit from a continuous power, the power must be active. For example, a Continuous Create allows you to conjure an object and it will last indefinitely, even if you turn off your Create power itself, as long as you don't dismiss that specific instance of the power and it doesn't get Nullified. A Continuous Enhanced Trait, on the other hand, would last indefinitely, but any time the power itself is off, the recipient wouldn't receive any benefits. As soon as the power becomes active again, the recipient would once more receive the full benefits - the power wouldn't need to be reused upon them.

Permanent: The effect is always active and cannot be deactivated, even if you want to, although it can still be Countered. A permanent effect cannot be improved using extra effort.

Ranges

Each effect has a default range, which may be changed by modifiers.

Personal: The effect works only on you, the user.

Close: The effect can target anyone or anything that is within your natural reach. If it affects an area, the area is centered on or otherwise emanates from you. Typically, you have to make physical contact with a target to use a Close effect on them, but not always.

Ranged: The effect works at a distance. Ranged powers can affect any valid target (Cover and Concealment may limit who you can target, and your own sensory range might further restrict your ranged powers) within a Distance Rank equal to or less than the power's rank. If the power requires an attack roll, you can increase this Distance Rank by 1 by taking a -2 penalty on the attack, or by 2 by taking a -5 penalty.

Targeting

In addition to an effect's range, it can sometimes be important to know how the effect is targeted - that is, how it is you choose who is affected and get the effect to that target. Each effect has a default targeting, which may be changed by modifiers. How your effects are targeted usually doesn't matter too much, but can be important if your movements are restricted.

Wielded: The effect requires broad physical movements, often because it has some physical or tangible form which is physically propelled into the target, and that propulsion serves as part of what determines how effective it is. Figure how a basic physical attack works - you have to swing or throw a weapon at the target pretty much as hard as you can. But other examples could be elaborate spells that require largely unrestricted movements, stuff like running and jumping, and pretty much anything else that involves broad movements of one's arms, legs, or other limbs.

Fired: The effect requires precise physical movement, typically because it has a physical or tangible form which is propelled into the target, but you don't have to actually exert particular effort to propel it - just a simple movement will do to launch it at full strength. However, you do have to physically aim it. This is like how a gun, crossbow, or taser would work (or, for that matter, a superpower that is both physically aimed and triggered by some simple physical action, such as a word or gesture).

Aimed: The effect requires only slight physical movement, typically because it doesn't really have any tangible form, but you still have to kinda point it at your target. You might need to gesture at the target, meet its gaze or at least focus your attention in its direction, and so on. A lot of "invisible" attacks such as mental blasts or magical curses use this form of targeting.

Selected: The effect requires no physical effort whatsoever. It doesn't have any tangible form and really doesn't even need to be guided to the target at all. You have to know who you're targeting and where they are, but that's about it.

Automatic: You don't really do anything to select the target at all. Personal-range powers that don't involve physical movement have Automatic targeting.

Power States

Inactive: An inactive power is unavailable entirely, and cannot be used or maintained until it is activated. Consider an inactive power like a computer that has been completely turned off - it's not doing anything until you can turn it back on.

Any in-use instances of power immediately end when the power becomes inactive, unless the power has a Continuous duration. Characters cannot receive direct benefits from even Continuous powers while they are inactive. Powers that have special limits on their activation are considered inactive by default at the start of any scene. Other powers are considered active by default.

A power whose user no longer has access to it (because it switched to a new array slot, change its Variable configuration, left a Metamorph form, etc) is considered inactive.

Active: The power is usable but not in use. An active power is like a computer in sleep mode - you're not currently doing anything with it, but you just need to boot it back up to get going, and it may still be running programs from previous use in the background.

In-use instances of the power can be maintained normally as long as the power is active. Activating a power is generally a free action, although things like the Activation Flaw can make it harder. Activating the power doesn't actually cause any of its effects to occur - it just means you can use the power, and previous uses can be maintained.

In Use: To use a power, you take the action called for by the power's effect (Standard, Move, Free, or Reaction). As soon as you do, the power takes effect normally. For powers with a duration, you may maintain that instance of the power, but as long as there is no action conflict, you can still use the same power again (going back to the computer analogy, you can open multiple instances of the same program in different windows). The same Effect from the same source generally won't stack with itself on the same target though - you can't use Enhanced Resistance 4 twice on yourself to get +8 Resistance.

Power Creation

Powers have three components - Effects, Extras, and Flaws. All powers have at least one Effect, and each Effect may have Extras and/or Flaws (collectively called "modifiers"). The Effect is given a rank, which can generally be no higher than your PL (although certain things like tradeoffs and schticks can extend this limit). The power's rank determines the strength of the power in various ways, and often caps or sometimes even replaces other traits, like certain skills or combat stats, that may be used through the power.

Multiple powers with the same effect can "stack", adding their ranks together, but only up to your PL limit. For example, if you have two separate Defend 5 powers (such as one constant one and one in an array), you could add them together for a single Defend 10 power, assuming you are PL 10 or less. Any Extras that apply to either still apply, but only to five ranks of the power if they aren't on both.

Some Effects are effectively just existing actions, allowing you to add Extras or Flaws to those actions. In these cases, using the power also counts as performing the action. So when you take the standard action to use an Attack power, you immediately make an attack action using the power.

In most cases, you may selectively choose whether or not to apply Extras to any given use of a power. So for example, an Attack (Extended Range, Area) power could freely be used as a close Area attack, a ranged targeted attack, or a close targeted attack, as you choose. You do not receive any benefits for doing so - for example, this doesn't let you reassign those points to other Extras. You may only forego Extras in this way, not Flaws, and you cannot do so for any Extra applied as a Free Option unless you apply the Diverse Extra to allow you to change that "choice" on use.

Each Effect has a cost in PP for its rank. For example, a Defend 10 power (1 PP/rank) costs 10 PP. This cost is increased by Extras and reduced by Flaws. Extras and Flaws have three types of cost adjustments:

Cost per Rank: The Extra or Flaw directly affects the cost per rank. For example, Secondary Effect adds +1/rank to the cost of the power. A Defend 10 (Secondary Effect) power would cost 20 points. Likewise, the Distracting Flaw has a -1 cost/rank modifier. A Defend 10 (Secondary Effect, Distracting) power would be back to 10 points.

If a Flaw brings a power's cost per rank below 1, it becomes a fractional cost per rank. Increase the number of ranks per point by one for each reduction below 1. Always round final costs up. For example, Defend 10 (Distracting) would cost 1 PP/2 ranks, or 5 PP. Defend 10 (Distracting, Unreliable) would cost 1 PP/3 ranks, rounding up to 4 PP. If the power has a base cost of less than 1 PP/rank (such as Enhanced Skills and Enhanced Combat Stats), each -1 cost/rank instead increases the number of ranks per point by the base amount. For example, Enhanced Perception (Limited) would cost 1 PP/4 ranks. Enhanced Perception (Limited, Distracting) would cost 1 PP/6 ranks. And so on.

You can apply such Flaws and Extras to only some ranks of the power. Wherever possible, those modifiers simply apply only to that many power ranks. For example, Defend 10 (6 ranks Secondary Effect) would work as a normal Defend 10 power, but then next round it would automatically trigger again, but only with six ranks. Defend 10 (6 ranks Unreliable) would work as a normal Defend 10 power, but with a 50% chance of getting reduced to rank 4. If there isn't a reasonable way to only apply the modifier to certain ranks, then Extras only apply when using that many ranks of the power, and Flaws can be ignored by not using those ranks of the power. For example, Defend 10 (4 ranks Distracting) would work as Defend 6 normally, but could be raised to rank 10 by accepting the penalties of the Distracting Flaw.

Some Extras and Flaws apply a -1 or +1 to the cost per two ranks. For the most part, this works just as you'd expect - a rank 10 power with a base cost of 1/rank and then a +1 cost/rank Extra would cost 15 points. It is possible to end up with fractions of a point in this way, which can be balanced out by other fractional points (such as by taking a single extra skill point, or another power that ends up with a fractional cost). If you don't have any other fractional points to balance it out with, round in the direction of the modifier. So for example, if you have a rank 9 power with a base cost of 1/rank, and a +1 cost/2 ranks Extra, it would cost 14 PP (13.5 rounded up). On the flip side, a power with a base cost of 2/rank and a -1/2 ranks Flaw would cost 13 PP (13.5 rounded down).

If a -1/2 Flaw is applied to a 1/rank power, or a +1/2 Extra is applied to a "0/rank" (1 PP/2 ranks) power, the power costs 3 PP/4 ranks, rounding as above (down if it's a Flaw, up if it's an Extra). Below that, treat half cost/rank modifiers as -1/rank or +1/rank; at that point the numbers are getting too small to worry about getting the math perfect anyway. Always apply fractional modifiers last.

It is also possible to apply such Flaws directly to Extras. This is called a Flawed Extra. In this case, treat the Extras sort of like a separate power, deducting the Flaws cost per rank from them (reducing into fractions if brought below +1/rank), and then adding that directly to the power. For example, Aid 10 (Secondary Effect ) would cost 15 points (10 for Aid, +1/2 ranks for Unreliable Secondary Effect) and functions as Aid 10 normally, with a 50% chance of triggering a Secondary Effect next turn. Aid 10 (Improved 3 ), on the other hand, would cost 30 points (10 for aid, +2/rank for Unreliable Improved 3), functioning as Aid 10 normally, with a 50% chance of functioning as Aid 13.

You may not have more +cost/rank Extras on a power than its rank. For example, a rank 3 power can't have more than +3 cost/rank Extras upon it, regardless of Flaws or other factors. For Extras that only apply to certain ranks, this limit applies to the specific rank; you can't have a rank 5 power with 5 Extras that each apply only to one rank of the power, but you could have one that applies to one rank, a second that applies to two ranks, etc. You can have as many Flaws on a power as you wish, and flat cost Extras are not limited in this manner.

All powers have a minimum final point cost of 1 PP.

Flat Cost: The Extra or Flaw applies a flat cost or reduction in points to the power. For example, Reversible simply increases the power's cost by 1, while Full Power simply reduces it by 1. In some cases, these modifiers are listed as "Flat X PP/rank". This means that the modifier can itself have a rank, and you pay or receive 1 PP per rank of the modifier. For example, Penetrating 5 would add five points to the cost of the power it's added to, regardless of the power's own rank. A power's cost cannot be reduced below 1 PP.

Flat Cost per PP Affected: A few modifiers have a flat cost per X PP affected. In this case, add up the total PP value of the power (or any ranks and Extras that this modifier applies to, if only some). For each X PP, increase or reduce the cost as stated. Round down, but with a minimum modifier of +/-1 PP if it applies at all. However, a power's cost still can't be reduced below 1 PP. For example, Defend 10 (Secondary Effect, Removable) costs 20 points base and has a flat reduction of -1/5 PP, so it is discounted 4 PP to 16.

[u]Recovery

Attacks and other hazards can cause detrimental conditions to characters. These conditions generally don't last on a duration; they are applied by Instant effects and simply linger on their own. However, they can be recovered from with time. There are five possible Recovery Rates for most conditions: Instant, Short, Standard, Prolonged, and Permanent. By default, Tier 1 and Tier 2 conditions use Short Recovery. Tier 3 and Tier 4 conditions use Standard Recovery.

If the condition was inflicted by an attack that caused a full condition tree, recovering from a Tier 2 or higher condition only lowers the condition to the next Tier down, at which point the character continues recovering. So a character Stunned by a Dazing Tree attack would have to recover from being Stunned, then Staggered, and then Dazed, whereas a character Stunned by an attack that just inflicts, say, Vulnerable/Defenseless/Stunned/Unconscious simply recovers from the Stun and is fine.

Generally speaking, M&M favors getting the heroes back into play fairly quickly. A PC who suffers from conditions that last for longer than the scene they were inflicted in should receive a Hero Point in each scene that one or more such conditions hinder their performance, as if they were a Complication.

You cannot begin recovering from a condition while you are still subject to the power that imposed it. Normally, this doesn't matter since such powers typically have Instant durations. But if they have their durations increased, you cannot begin recovering until the duration expires (or you move out of the area, if the power has the Zone Extra). You may recover from other conditions during this time however.

Where it matters, recovery for a given round occurs at the end of the character's turn. Recovery is not considered an action.

Instant: At the end of each turn, the character removes one Instant condition it is currently suffering.

Short: Each round at the end of its turn, the character can roll a special Resistance check (called a Recovery Check for purposes of mechanics that interact with these checks specifically) against one condition it currently possesses with a Short duration. The check is against a DC of 10 + the attacker's Accuracy, and immunities and weaknesses to the attack apply to it normally. A success ends the condition. All Short conditions are removed at the end of the scene they were inflicted, if not removed beforehand.

Standard: All Standard conditions are removed at the end of the scene they were inflicted, assuming the character's side was victorious. If the character's side lost the battle, Standard conditions instead recover at the start of the next scene.

Prolonged: All Prolonged conditions are removed at the end of the adventure in which they were inflicted (i.e. when Hero Points reset). In a more realistic, gritty game, even once a character removes a Prolonged condition, it may leave behind a lasting Complication.

Permanent: Permanent conditions do not recover on their own. Powers such as Healing or Regeneration are required to remove them (and it might be possible for the character to receive things to lessen or negate their effects, such as a prosthetic limb, at GM discretion). In a more realistic, gritty game, even if a character manages to remove a Permanent condition, it may leave behind a lasting Complication.

Exertion Conditions: Any time a character purposefully takes on a condition to power its own actions (such as with Extra Effort, or the Tiring or Side Effect Flaws), those conditions are designated as Exertion Conditions. Exertion Conditions don't use any of the above recovery methods. Rather, an Exertion Condition lasts until the character rests for a Time Rank equal to 8 + the condition's Tier. So a Tier 1 Exertion Condition requires one hour of rest, Tier 2 requires two hours, etc. Time spent performing strenuous activity (moving faster than a slow walk, fighting, using powers, etc) doesn't count towards recovery of Exertion Conditions. Exertion Conditions must impose a condition tree, so removing a high-Tier condition merely downgrades it to the next lower one.

Spending a Hero Point can remove one Exertion Condition instantly. The Recover action can remove an Exertion Condition that was acquired in that combat scene (it cannot be used to recover from Exertion Conditions acquired in previous scenes or outside of combat).

Removing Conditions Faster: The Treatment skill can be used to remove conditions faster. As a standard action, you can make a Treatment check against a DC of 15 + the attack's Accuracy to remove one Instant Recovery condition per point you succeed by, to reduce a single Short Recovery condition to Instant Recovery, or to reduce a single Standard Recovery condition to Short Recovery. If the condition was imposed as part of a Condition Tree, this reduction in recovery time applies to lower conditions in the tree as well. You may only make one Treatment attempt per condition.

You can also use Treatment to remove Prolonged conditions. By default, this requires four days (Time Rank 16) of care. Roll a Treatment check against a DC of 15 + the attack's Accuracy; if you succeed, you remove the condition, or reduce it by one Tier if it was inflicted as part of a Condition Tree (if you succeed, you may then make new Treatment attempts against the now-reduced conditions). Each extra degree of success reduces the Time Rank by one.

At GM discretion, Treatment may be used to mitigate Permanent conditions, changing them to Complications. This generally takes 8 months (Time Rank 22) of rehab for the subject, and requires a Treatment check against a DC of 20 + the attack's Accuracy. Each degree of success beyond the first lowers the rehab time by one Time Rank.

Healing and Regeneration powers can also speed the recovery of conditions.

[u]Character Ranks

Each character has a rank, designating its relative level of story importance, which in a cinematic game like M&M translates into concrete capability.

Rank 6 ("Bosses"): Bosses are NPCs of such power that they can take on an entire team of PCs (or other major characters) solo. Bosses are typically the major villains of a campaign, but it's not impossible for there to be a Big Good or "quest giver" NPC who possesses this status. Bosses treat all other characters as two ranks lower than normal for purposes of attacks against each other. So it can save resistance rolls even against Major characters and Major characters get reduced crits against it, Significant characters suffer full resistance check failures against Bosses and cannot crit them, and it treats Elites like PCs treat Minions.

Mundanes and Minions suffer even worse against Bosses. Bosses receive a minimum result of 11 on all checks against Mundane and Minion rank characters, and they receive a maximum result of 10 on checks against Bosses. Bosses are all but invincible and unstoppable to Mundanes or Minions.

Rank 5 ("Major Characters"): Major Characters are movers and shakers. The PCs are always Major Characters, as are their most serious allies and enemies - rivals, nemeses, heroes of other stories, etc. Major Characters follow all normal rules.

Rank 4 ("Significant Characters"): Significant Characters are narratively notable, but not on the same level as Major Characters. They're supporting characters who aren't going to be killed by the whims of the plot, and can even pull off the occasional impressive feat or provide a solid challenge, but when the chips are down, they'll fail where Major Characters will succeed. Significant characters follow all normal rules, but they can't use Recover actions or Extra Effort by default. The GM may allow a significant character to use such a resource, but it counts as a Complication for the PC it affects (if it affects all PCs equally or doesn't really affect any given PC, award the Hero Point to whoever has the lowest HP total). Likewise, allied significant characters can be allowed to use such a resource if a PC spends a Hero Point on its behalf.

Rank 3 ("Elites"): Elites don't have the sort of plot significance of Major or Significant Characters, but they are capable and effective. These are elite soldiers, special forces operatives, villainous lieutenants, and so on. They typically have significant PLs and can present a threat roughly equivalent to a Major Character of equal PL one on one. However, a disparity in power becomes much more significant against Elites, who don't receive quite the same advantage from numbers.

Elites have the same restrictions as Significant Characters. In addition, critical hits from Elites provide a DC bonus one step lower than normal (+5 becomes +2, +2 becomes +0, critical effects that don't provide a DC bonus are unavailable). Any time a resistance check is rolled against an Elite by a character of Major or higher rank, the d20 result is saved, if it is higher than the current saved roll (rerolls do not get saved, use the original die roll only). Any future resistance checks that character makes against Elite or lower rank attackers in the same round may substitute the saved d20 roll for the d20 result scored, if desired. At the start of a character's turn, its saved roll resets to 0.

For example, if five Elites all attack the same PC in the same round and it rolls (on the natural d20) 8, 4, 5, 12, and 6 on its resistance checks, the 4 and 5 would be replaced with 8, and the 6 would be replaced with 12. If it rolled 15, 10, 7, 2, 18, the 10, 7, and 2 would all be treated as 15 instead. Note that this applies for each resistance check made, not necessarily for each attack - attacks that require multiple resistance checks will also be subject to the saved rolls.

Finally, characters of Major rank and higher can attack multiple Elite and lower-rank enemies simultaneously with the same attack, much as if using the Multiattack or Sweeping Extra. However, doing so reduces both the attack roll and the effect DC by two for each target beyond the first, for all targets. So a PL 10 PC could make a single attack at +10/DC 20 against one Elite, or +8/DC 18 against two, +6/DC 16 against three, etc.

Rank 2 ("Mundanes"): Mundanes are relatively normal, decently competent characters. They aren't particularly significant threats, but they can stand their ground and occasionally get some lucky shots in without being completely obliterated in seconds. Mundanes suffer all the limitations of Elites, plus they cannot score critical hits at all, and they always suffer the worst possible result on any failed resistance checks, even if they fail by only a single degree. However, they do not receive Bruises (mainly to avoid having to keep track of Bruises, to be fair).

Rank 1 ("Minions"): Minions are the next best thing to useless. Fleeing masses, faceless mooks, doomed red-shirts, etc. They look imposing in huge groups but will fold pretty much immediately to serious threats. Minions suffer all the restrictions of Mundanes, plus they suffer the worst result of a resistance check even when they would ordinarily take only a Bruise from the attack. Attack rolls against Minions have a minimum natural result of 10, and a critical hit causes a Minion to automatically fail its resistance check. In addition, certain mechanics, such as Takedown, have additional effects against Minions.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Hero Points

Whether it’s luck, talent, or sheer determination, heroes have something setting them apart from everyone else, allowing them to perform amazing feats under the most difficult circumstances. In this game that “something” is Hero Points. Spending a Hero Point can make the difference between success and failure in the game. When you’re entrusted with the safety of the world, that means a lot!

Hero Points allow players to “edit” the plot of the adventure and the rules of the game to a degree. They give heroes the ability to do the amazing things heroes do in the comics, but with certain limits, and they encourage players to make the sort of choices heroes do in the comics, in order to get more Hero Points.

Players start each adventure with a number of Hero Points equal to one-third their characters' PL, rounded down. During the adventure they get opportunities to earn more Hero Points. Players can use various tokens (poker chips, glass beads, etc.) to keep track of their Hero Points, handing them over to the Gamemaster when they spend them. The Gamemaster can likewise give out tokens when awarding Hero Points to the players.

Unspent Hero Points don’t carry over to the next adventure; the heroes reset to their base total. Use them or lose them! Since Hero Points are a finite resource, players need to manage them carefully, spending them at the most opportune times and taking chances to earn them through complications. Playing it “safe” tends to eliminate chances of getting more Hero Points while taking risks, facing complications, and, in general, acting like a hero offers rewards that help them out later on.

Unless otherwise noted, spending a Hero Point is a non-action, taking no time and requiring no effort on your character's part. Hero Points are player resources - you can't be forced to spend them even if your character is mind controlled or the like. You can spend as many Hero Points as you have. You can spend Hero Points for any of the following:

Edit Scene: You can “edit” a scene to grant your hero an advantage by adding or changing certain details. For example, a hero is fighting a villain with plant-based powers in a scientific lab. You deduce the villain may be weakened by defoliants, so you ask the GM if there are any chemicals in the lab you can throw together to create a defoliant. The Gamemaster requires a Hero Point to add that detail and says the right chemicals are close at hand. Now you just have to use them!

How much players are allowed to “edit” circumstances is up to the individual Gamemaster, but generally Hero Points should not be allowed to change any event that has already occurred or any detail already explained in-game. For example, players cannot “edit” away damage or the effects of powers (Hero Points already allow this to a limited degree, see the following). The GM may also veto uses of editing that ruin the adventure or make things too easy on the players. This option is intended to give the players more input into the story and allow their heroes chances to succeed, but it shouldn’t be used as a replacement for planning and cleverness, just a way to enhance them.

Heroic Feat: You can spend a Hero Point to gain the benefits of one rank of a advantage you don’t already have until the end of the current scene. You must be capable of using the advantage and cannot gain the benefits of fortune advantages, only other types.

Improve Roll: One Hero Point allows you to re-roll any die roll you make and take the better of the two rolls. On a result of 1 through 10 on the second roll, add 10 to the result, an 11 or higher remains as-is (so the re-roll is always a result of 11-20). You must spend the Hero Point to improve a roll before the GM announces the outcome of your initial roll. You cannot spend Hero Points on die rolls made by the GM or other players.

Inspiration: You can spend a Hero Point to get sudden inspiration in the form of a hint, clue, or bit of help from the GM. It might be a way out of the villain’s fiendish deathtrap, a vital clue for solving a mystery, or an idea about the villain’s weakness. It’s up to the GM exactly how much help the players get from inspiration and how it manifests, but since Hero Points are a very limited resource, the help should be in some way significant.

Instant Defense: You can spend a Hero Point to perform a defensive action - such as Defend, Counter, swapping an array to a defensive power, Creating a barrier to provide cover, etc - as a reaction. Doing this does not use up any of your next turn's actions or resources, the way it would if you use the Reactive Defenses rule.

Recover: You can spend a Hero Point to instantly remove a condition with an Instant, Short, or Standard Recovery rate, or an Exertion Condition. You can spend a Hero Point to get an immediate new resistance check against a Prolonged condition or a lasting power with a duration that allows a resistance check or opposed check to resist, with a roll of 10 or less getting a +10 bonus. Failing this check does not have any negative impact aside from simply failing to remove the effect (and wasting the Hero Point), even if the power has Extras that cause additional effects on failed resistance or recovery checks. Immediately upon receiving a Permanent Condition, you may spend a Hero Point to have it downgraded to Prolonged.

Extra Effort

Heroes are sometimes called upon to perform feats beyond even their amazing abilities. This calls for extra effort. Players can use extra effort to improve a hero’s abilities in exchange for the hero suffering some fatigue. The benefits of extra effort are not limited by power level due to their extraordinary nature.

Players can have their heroes use extra effort simply by declaring they are doing so. Extra effort is a free action and can be performed at any time during the hero’s turn (but is limited to once per turn).

At the start of the turn immediately after using extra effort, the hero gains one tier of the Impairment Tree as an Exertion Condition. If you spend a Hero Point at the start of the turn following the extra effort to reduce the Exertion condition, the hero suffers no adverse effects. In essence, spending a Hero Point lets you use extra effort without suffering fatigue.

A hero using extra effort gains one of the following benefits:

Action: Gain an additional standard action during your turn, which can be exchanged for a move or free action, as usual.

Bonus: Perform one check with a +5 bonus. You must declare this before rolling, but if your check fails anyway, you don't suffer the exertion from using extra effort (although your once/round use is still expended). You may also choose to forego the bonus (and, thus, avoid the exertion) after rolling your check if you succeeded by two degrees or more, reducing your degree of success by one.

Power Increase one of your hero’s power effects by half (minimum +1, maximum +5) until the start of the hero’s next turn. Permanent effects cannot be increased in this way. In the case of powers that restrict stats by their rank, the bonus also applies to a single stat so restricted.

Power Stunt: When performing a Power Stunt, you may spend any remaining Virtual PP you possess to gain new powers, using one of the following options. The effects last for the remainder of the scene.

The Enhanced Trait Effect and the Limited Flaw are entirely off-limits for power stunts; they can't be added, removed, or changed through power stunting.

Reducing or removing traits as part of a power stunt gives back their full PP value for purposes of stunt limits, rather than the normal half for the Reduced Trait Flaw.

If you come up with a creative way to use the current situation to explain your power stunt - that is, it's not something you could pull off anywhere, but it's possible due to specific factors in play in the current scene, such as terrain or the enemy's Complications or the like - the VPP cost of the stunt is halved.

Augmented Power: Choose one of your existing powers; you gain 1 PP per rank of that power which can be used to add Extras to it. You may also gain additional PP by applying Flaws or removing existing Extras. This costs VPP equal to the total PP of Extras added, unmodified by Flaws or removals. Extras that you don't already have on your character sheet cost twice as many VPP.

For example, if you have an Attack 10 (Multiattack) power, you might add Secondary Effect and Cumulative but remove Multiattack. This keeps the total PP value of effects added within your limit; +1/rank for Secondary Effect, +1/rank for Cumulative, -1/rank for dropping Multiattack. However, the VPP cost of the stunt would be 20, not 10, since you added a total of +20 worth of Extras, not considering Flaws or reductions (assuming you have both Secondary Effect and Cumulative elsewhere on your sheet).

Modified Power: Choose one of your existing powers; you gain an Alternate Power of this power. The Alternate Power must have all of the same Effects and Modifiers, but you may change any other choices about the power, such as its Descriptors, the shape of its Area, the conditions it imposes, and so on. When you first spend the Extra Effort this new Alternate Power is automatically activated without using your 1/round array change. This does not cost any Virtual PP, but you must have Virtual PP available to do it.

If you wish, you may then exchange Extras for different ones, or add new Flaws to likewise add new Extras. This costs VPP equal to the cost of Extras changed or added, unmodified by Flaws or reductions. Extras that you don't already have on your character sheet cost twice as many VPP.

New Power: You gain up to 3 temporary PP per PL, which you can use to build a new power. You may only create a single power in this way, and at base it can only draw from Effects and Extras that you already possess. For example, if your only powers are a Ranged Area Attack and a Secondary Effect Healing, you could create a Secondary Effect Attack, or a Ranged Healing, or an Area Secondary Effect Attack, etc. But you couldn't create a Multiattack Attack or an Area Mind Reading power. This costs Virtual PP equal to the PP value of the power. If you wish, you may pay double the VPP to use Effects and Extras that you don't already have on your sheet.

Resistance: You may immediately make a a new resistance check against a power with a duration that is currently upon you, or against a single condition upon you with Instant, Short, or Standard recovery. You may do this even if you cannot currently take free actions or choose your own actions. However, if you are not currently in control of your actions, the exertion conditions don't apply until you have regained control - you can't fatigue yourself into unconsciousness as a way to avoid being compelled to do things. Failing this check does not have any negative impact aside from simply failing to remove the effect (and wasting the Extra Effort), even if the power has Extras that cause additional effects on failed resistance or recovery checks.

Retry: Certain effects require extra effort to retry after a certain degree of failure. The extra effort merely permits another attempt to use the effect; it grants no other benefits.

Speed: Increase the distance rank the hero can move with a move action by +1 until the start of the hero’s next turn. You can make a DC 10 Prowess check to ignore the exertion provided by this use of Extra Effort. The DC increases by 1 each time you make such a check in the scene, and resets at the end of the scene or when you fail a check.

Strength: Increase the mass rank the hero can lift by +1 until the start of the hero’s next turn. You can make a DC 10 Prowess check to ignore the exertion provided by this use of Extra Effort. The DC increases by 1 each time you make such a check in the scene, and resets at the end of the scene or when you fail a check.

Concealment

To attack a target, you first have to have some idea of where to aim your attack. If you can perceive something with an accurate sense (such as sight) then you can target it with an attack. If you cannot clearly perceive the target, then it has concealment from you. Attack penalties from concealment don't stack with those from cover. Note that some forms of targeting can ignore some types of Concealment.

Partial Concealment: Partial concealment means you are fully obscured, but your general position and movements are still readily apparent. In essence, you're visible, but kinda "blurry" or "shadowy" or otherwise difficult to really make out clearly. Opponents take -2 on attack rolls against you, and cannot make out any but the broadest details about you. You also qualify for Surprise Attacks, but do not automatically catch targets Vulnerable.

Full Concealment: Full concealment means you and your movements are obscured, but your overall position is still known or discernable. Opponents take -5 on attack rolls against you, cannot make out any details about you, and are automatically considered Vulnerable against your attacks unless they have Uncanny Dodge or some way to ignore your Concealment.

Total Concealment: Total concealment means you are completely undetectable. Opponents cannot target you with actions (although you are still subject to Area effects if you happen to get caught in them), cannot make out any details about you, and are automatically considered Vulnerable against your attacks unless they have Uncanny Dodge or some way to ignore your Concealment.

Cover

Targets may also hide behind obstructions to gain cover against your attacks. Obstructions that do not physically block attacks but simply make the target harder to perceive—such as lighting, fog, or foliage—provide concealment rather than cover. Attack penalties from cover don't stack with those from concealment. Note that some forms of targeting can ignore some types of Cover.

Partial Cover: Partial cover means at least half of your body is blocked by cover. Opponents take -2 on attack rolls against you, and you get +2 on resistance checks against attacks that do hit you.

Full Cover: Full cover means your body is almost entirely blocked by cover. Opponents take -5 on attack rolls against you, and you get +5 on resistance checks against attacks that do hit you.

Total Cover: Total cover means you are entirely blocked off from your opponent. Opponents cannot target you at all.

Destroying Cover: If desired, a character can attack an object providing cover in an effort to blast through it to hit the target on the other side. It attacks the object normally. If it causes at least a breach to the cover, reduce the cover value by one level for purposes of the attack, and resolve the attack against the target. If it fails to at least Breach the cover, it doesn't affect the target at all. Breached cover doesn't provide less Cover for purposes of future attacks (unless it previously provided Total Cover, in which case it downgrades to Full), but useless or destroyed cover is entirely removed.

Environments

Environment effects are areas that aren't normal. Simply being within an environmental effect subjects a character to certain modifiers, often annoying or detrimental ones.

In the real world, spending an extended period of time in a sufficiently hostile environment is dangerous or even lethal in and of itself. And it's not that that strictly isn't the case in an M&M game. It's just...keeping track of exactly how long characters can go before they collapse from heat stroke or something is kinda uninteresting. Narratively, yes, characters who are stuck wandering the desert for weeks on end could certainly die from heat exhaustion. And being forced to spend a dangerous amount of time in a hostile environment is an excellent reason for a Complication to spring up (the characters collapse from the unrelenting heat, only to be found and dragged off by some nomads, who nurse them back to health but expect them to...) This is also the best way to handle long-term things like poisons, diseases, hunger, thirst, and lack of sleep - they rarely actually come up, but when they do, they're best treated as Complications rather than simulations. From a mechanical and tactical standpoint, though, the threat of an environment isn't in the environment itself, but in how it affects the characters during the other challenges they face while within. For environments that are extremely dangerous such that even a short time within them might be deadly (and as such, their threat can be added directly into other short-term challenges) see Hazards.

There are several different environmental effects, each with two levels - basic and advanced. All environmental effects also have a rank, determining the severity of the environment. Typically, the higher-level environments will also have higher ranks than the lower-level environments, but not always. It might not technically be cold enough to hit Extreme Cold levels, but factors like high winds, snow, or lack of sunlight could increase the rank above just a straight temperature below 0 on an otherwise clear day.

Environments can be limited in certain ways, or even do different things in different cases. For example, a river might have Basic Restrict Movement for everything but swimming in general, and then Basic Impede Movement for swimming when against the current, and Basic Enhance Movement for swimming with the current.

Note that the Enhance and Impede Effect don't apply for descriptors. As always, the sheer number of descriptors would make trying to flesh out environments like that way too complicated. But if the GM feels a given environment might make a descriptor stronger or weaker, the same rules can be applied largely on the fly. Those environmental effects are more intended for more supernatural enhancement and suppression of specific powers, like holy ground enhancing powers with divine origins and impeding powers with unholy origins.

Environmental effects are categorized as follows:

Bestow Movement: The environment allows anyone within move at their normal speed with a certain movement mode, up to a maximum speed rank equal to the Environment rank. The advanced effect actually increases speed rank to half the environment rank, if normally lower.

Block Projections: This is a rare environment, typically caused by supernatural effects, but not always - a lead-lined structure, for example, would have a Block Projections effect. Any objects in the area are able to block any effects that would normally pass through or otherwise ignore objects, such as Penetrates Concealment Senses, Permeate Movement, Phasing powers, Remote Sensing, Projected Communications, passage by Insubstantial characters, and so on. A basic projection block allows a power rank check, DC 20 + the environment rank, to bypass this protection. An advanced block does not. Depending on the nature of the environment, certain projections might be allowed.

Cover: The environment is filled with large objects that people can hide behind - such as a forest or cluttered warehouse. Anyone in the area can spend a Maneuver to gain Partial Cover, or to get around cover than an opponent gained (this is a separate Maneuver from actually moving). With the advanced effect, this becomes Full Cover. The level of cover any character has from the environment is also passively increased by one step per Distance Rank worth of the environment between it and its attacker. Someone with Total Cover from this environment typically also has Total Concealment, unless the cover isn't opaque for some reason. The cover has a Resistance rank equal to the environment rank.

Enhance Effect: The environment augments powers with a certain effect, source, or origin, adding +2 to the rank of any such effects whose current ranks are less than the environment rank, up to a maximum rank equal to the environment rank. The advanced effect provides a +5 bonus instead. These bonuses are not limited by PL. Depending on the nature of the environment, more than one type of power might be augmented.

Extend Movement: The environment makes a certain mode of movement - such as ground speed, flight, swimming, etc - easier, increasing its speed rank by half the Environment rank and reducing any Prowess DCs that might be required for difficult movement by the full Environment rank. The advanced effect applies to all modes of movement. Depending on the nature of the environment, additional modes of movement might be affected (or certain modes of movement might be excluded from the advanced effect).

Extend Projectiles: The environment makes it easier for projectiles to pass. The area functions as one Distance Rank smaller per two Environment ranks for purposes of ranged effects passing through it. For example, a ranged effect passing through 900' (Distance Rank 5) of Extend Projectiles 4 would only spend 250' (Distance Rank 3) of its available range. For the advanced effect, characters within the environment suffer a -1 penalty on Defense against Wielded or Fired ranged attacks per two environment ranks.

Extend Sense: The environment extends a single sense type - such as visual, auditory, olfactory, etc. Characters within the environment get a bonus on Perception checks with the appropriate sense equal to half the environment's rank, and receive an equal penalty on Stealth checks or DCs to detect them for the appropriate sense. The advanced effect also reduces any Concealment characters within the environment have against the appropriate sense by one step, unless it is Total Concealment provided by an object that also provides Total Cover. Depending on the nature of the environment, additional senses might be affected.

Hamper: The environment can hinder people in some way. Anyone in the area with a Resistance stat less than the environment rank suffers a Tier 1 condition based on the nature of the environment while within. With the advanced effect, the effective rank for this purposes increases by 4, and those whose Resistances are half the effective rank or less instead take a Tier 2 condition. Hamper Environments should also have an Attack Mode.

Impede Movement: The environment makes a certain mode of movement - such as ground speed, flight, swimming, etc - harder, reducing its speed rank by half the Environment rank and increasing any Prowess DCs that might be required for difficult movement by the full Environment rank. Teleport and Permeate cannot be affected by Impede Movement. The advanced effect applies to all modes of movement except Teleportation and Permeate. Depending on the nature of the environment, additional modes of movement might be affected (or certain modes of movement might be excluded from the advanced effect).

Impede Projectiles: The environment makes it harder for projectiles to pass. The area functions as one Distance Rank larger per two Environment ranks for purposes of ranged effects passing through it. For example, a ranged effect passing through 900' (Distance Rank 5) of Impede Projectiles 4 would spend half a mile (Distance Rank 7) of its available range. If this causes the effect to exceed its range, it fails (or possibly suffers attack penalties for long range, for effects that require attack rolls and don't exceed their range by more than two Distance Ranks). For the advanced effect, any Wielded or Fired ranged attacks that pass through the environment take -1 on attack rolls per two environment ranks.

Impede Sense: The environment impedes a single sense type - such as visual, auditory, olfactory, etc. Characters within the environment get a penalty on Perception checks with the appropriate sense equal to half the environment's rank, and receive an equal bonus on Stealth checks or DCs to detect them for the appropriate sense. The advanced effect also increases any Concealment characters within the environment have against the appropriate sense by one step. This environment might only apply within the area, or it might apply through the area (so anyone within also has trouble perceiving those outside, and people on one side of the area have trouble perceiving those on the other), as suits the nature of the environment. Depending on the nature of the environment, additional senses might be affected.

Restrict Movement: The environment requires a certain mode of movement to pass through, typically an appropriately Adapted movement, and characters lacking that movement mode are considered Vulnerable while within. However, characters without the appropriate movement mode can make a Prowess check to struggle along at a base Speed Rank of -2 (modified for any Prowess Speed bonuses). The DC of this check is 5 for rank 1 environments, and then each two additional ranks increases the DC by 5. Additional degrees of success can mitigate some of the penalties; see the Difficult Movement option of the Prowess skill. For the advanced effect, characters without the appropriate movement mode can't move through the environment at all. Characters whose movements are restricted by the environment also take -2 on all stats relating to actions that involve physical movement, such as physical attacks.

Restrict Sense: The environment restricts a single sense type - such as visual, auditory, olfactory, etc. Characters within the environment receive Partial Concealment from the affected sense. This becomes Full Concealment for the advanced effect. This environment might only apply within the area, or it might apply through the area (so anyone within also has trouble perceiving those outside, and people on one side of the area have trouble perceiving those on the other), as suits the nature of the environment.

Suppress Effect: The environment hampers powers with a certain effect, source, or origin, subtracting 2 from the rank of any such effects whose current ranks are less than the environment rank. The advanced effect imposes -2 on effects lower than twice the environments rank, and -5 on effects lower than the environment's rank. Depending on the nature of the environment, more than one type of power might be suppressed.

Example Environments: Some example environments are given below. Ranks listed as X are simply based on the scale of the environment (how cold it is, how dense the forest is, how strong the gravity is, etc).

Thick Forest: Basic Cover X, Advanced Impede Movement X.

Underwater: Basic Restrict Movement 1+ (Adapted [Swimming]), Advanced Impede Projectiles 8, Basic Impede Sense 8 (Visual; Through Area). At significant depths, or if the character can't breathe water, it might also be subject to Hazard effects.

Extreme Heat: Basic or Advanced Hamper X (Physiological; Impaired/Disabled). Damagingly high amounts of heat can cause Hazard effects.

Extreme Cold: Basic or Advanced Hamper X (Physiological; Impaired/Disabled; Limited to physical actions), Basic or Advanced Hamper X (Physiological; Vulnerable/Dazed+Vulnerable; Limited to physical actions). Damagingly high amounts of cold can cause Hazard effects.

Bright Light: Basic or Advanced Extend Sense X (Visual).

Dim Light: Basic Impede Sense 4 (Visual; Within Area).

Darkness: Basic or Advanced Restrict Sense 1 (Visual; Within Area).

Pitch Blackness: Advanced Restrict Sense 1 (Visual; Within Area), Advanced Impede Sense 1 (Visual; Within Area).

Mist: Basic Impede Sense 4 (Visual; Through Area).

Fog: Basic Impede Sense 8 (Visual; Through Area); Advanced Restrict Sense 1 (Visual; Through Area).

Rain: Advanced Impede Projectiles 1, Basic Impede Sense 2 (Visual, Auditory; Through Area), Advanced Impede Sense 4 (Olfactory; Through Area).

Wind: Scaling levels of (in order of priority) Basic Impede Projectiles, Advanced Impede Projectiles, Basic Impede Sense (Hearing; Through Area), Advanced Impede Sense (Hearing; Through Area), Basic Restrict Sense (Hearing; Through Area), Basic Impede Movement (Flight), Advanced Restrict Sense (Hearing; Through Area), Advanced Impede and Extend Movement (Excluding Flight, Limited to movements against/with the wind). And once the wind's strong enough for all that you can start in on Hazard effects. Seriously, wind can get nuts.

Radiation: Hamper X (Energy; Varies). Especially dangerous levels of radiation may also be Hazards.

Low Gravity: Advanced Bestow Movement X (Leaping), Basic Extend Projectiles X.

High Gravity: Advanced Impede Movement X, Basic Impede Projectiles X.

Zero Gravity: Basic Bestow Movement 28 (Flight, Limited [Only to keep moving in a direction you were already moving]).

Diminished Space: Advanced Extend Movement X, Basic Extended Projectiles X, Basic Extended Sense X (All; Limited [Only to negate penalties for distance]).

Extended Space: Advanced Impede Movement X, Basic Impede Projectiles X, Basic Impede Sense X (All).

Hazards: Especially dangerous environments or situations - such as falling, having a building collapse on you, molten lava, getting soaked in arctic weather, lightning bolts, tornadoes, and so on - are called Hazards. Hazards, for the most part, are simply Attack and/or Manhandle actions performed by the environment itself. Hazards that function as attacks have a Force and a condition track or tree, just like any other attack. However, unlike normal attacks, Hazards do not make attack rolls - they automatically hit. Hazards that function as Manhandles have a Prowess stat. All Hazards have an Attack Mode. And especially dangerous Hazards may even have Extras, while lesser ones may have Flaws (such as Resistible [Defense] for those that can be dodged).

There are three types of Hazards. Immediate Hazards, which take effect once and are done. Onset Hazards, which allow a minute of exposure (more if you have the Stamina Prowess specialty) before taking effect, and then repeat each round until the subject escapes. And Constant Hazards, which simply take effect each round until the subject escapes.

In many games, Hazards inflict lethal damage by default, even when characters do not. Even when they don't, though, Onset and Constant Hazards will just keep attacking every round, so once you're knocked out they could very well start inflicting lethal damage.

Some sample Hazards are below. However, and this is important, Hazards are situational, not tactical! What this means is, while it may be possible to force an enemy into a Hazard the exists, you may not consistently generate Hazards using standard actions and powers so as to attack with an inflated rank, ignore your usual Attack Modes, and so on. The classic example would be using a Manhandle action to throw an enemy straight up into the air so as to trigger a fall - that doesn't work, but you may certainly perform a normal Attack that you describe as throwing the enemy into the air and causing it to fall. Now, on the other hand, if you're fighting on the edge of a cliff, that's a situational hazard that already exists in the scene, and you can absolutely use a Manhandle action to throw the enemy off and cause them to take excessive fall damage from their plummet.

Collapse [Immediate, Physical]: Attack (Dazing Tree) Linked Grab. Force and Prowess are equal to the Mass Rank of the collapse.

Dangerous Radiation [Onset, Energy]: Attack (Impairment Tree). Rank and Extras can vary based on the radiation.

Falling [Immediate, Physical]: Attack (Dazing Tree) Linked Manhandle (Limited to Prone). The Force and Prowess are equal to 4 + twice the Distance Rank fallen, to a maximum of 16. Each point of Growth raises the Force of the fall (including its maximum) by 2, and each rank of Shrinking reduces it by 2. Light or heavy gravity may also weaken or strengthen falls, and falls onto hazardous objects might add additional Extras.

Falling Object [Immediate, Physical]: Attack (Dazing Tree; Resistible [Defense Additional]). The Force is equal to 4 + the Mass Rank of the object + the Distance Rank the object has fallen.

Lightning [Immediate, Energy]: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Additional [Vulnerability Tree]).

Molten Lava [Continuous, Energy]: Attack 12 (Impairment Tree; Brutal 2, Secondary Effect 3).

Suffocation [Onset, Physiological]: Attack (Impairment Tree). The Force begins at 1, and increases by 1 each round since onset.

Tornado [Continuous, Physical]: Attack 8+ (Dazing Tree) Linked Grab 8+.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Actions

Aid [Varies, Wielded]: You can help an ally perform a task. Aiding an ally in performing an action requires taking an action of the same type as the action they are performing (so, Aiding an Attack is a standard action, Aiding a Maneuver is a move action, Aiding a passive Perception check is a Reaction, etc). You can lower the action requirement by one step by taking a -5 penalty on the check, but you may not do so multiple times. Roll a check using the same stat as the ally is using (at GM discretion, you might be able to use another relevant stat, such as performing a "good cop bad cop" routine with Intimidation and Persuasion), against a DC of 5 + the ally's stat. If you succeed by one degree, you grant a +2 bonus to their stat for one action, provided it occurs before the start of your next turn. If you succeed by three or more degrees, the bonus becomes +5. Multiple Aid actions to the same stat stack degrees of success, not points of bonus awarded.

If the target's stat increases between the time that it receives the Aid and applies the benefit (such as due to a Stance change), the Aid results are recalculated using the new DC.

If an action involves multiple stats (such as Attack using both Accuracy and Force) you can boost any one of them (the Additional Extra on an Aid power could let you boost more). You use the same stat as you are trying to boost - you can't use Accuracy to boost an ally's Force, for example.

For long-term tasks, you can instead simply contribute time towards progress, allowing the main character to make a normal check while you speed up the doing. For example, say repairing a building is going to take 1.5 years of work normally. A team of twenty construction workers each Aid the main engineer, providing no bonus to its check but contributing their time spent working to the time. So now the time is divided among the twenty-one of them - it'll take a bit under a month to repair the building.

You may only aid actual actions - for example, you can't aid an ally's defenses, resistance checks, or recovery checks (but the Defend action can help with the first two, and Treatment can be used to help an ally recover from conditions faster).

Failing an Aid check can't hinder the target, but if multiple people are Aiding, it does reduce the total degrees of success - highly skilled characters won't get much help from swarms of neophytes, but a few skilled assistants can help greatly. It is also possible to Aid actions to Aid, so that the neophytes can help the professionals help the experts help the master.

To Aid an action, you must be in a position to take the same action yourself and coordinate with or otherwise assist your ally in doing so, but you can use different powers and effects to do so (for example, a telepath could Aid a paragon's punch by distracting its target with a psychic blast).

You may Aid your own actions.

The Aid Effect allows you to add Extras to your Aid actions.

Attack [Standard, Wielded]: You attack a target in Close range using the Physical Attack Mode. Make an attack roll using your Accuracy stat against a DC of 10 + the target's Defense Stat. If you hit, the target makes a Resistance check against a DC of 10 + your Force stat. If it succeeds by at least two degrees, it suffers no effect. If it succeeds, but only by one degree, it suffers one "Bruise" per degree of success on your initial attack check, taking a -1 penalty on all resistance checks for the rest of the scene (as per Standard Recovery) per Bruise it accumulates. If it fails, it takes the Bruise(s) and suffers a condition from the Dazing Tree of a Tier equal to the degree of failure. Tier 1 and 2 conditions are removed using Short Recovery; Tier 3 and 4 conditions use Standard Recovery.

The Attack Effect allows you to make Attacks with Extras applied, and to impose different conditions or use different Attack Modes.

If an attack rolls a natural 20, the degree of success on the attack check does not increase. Instead, the attack is considered an automatic hit. If it would have hit anyway, it is considered a critical hit. By default, this increases the DC to resist the attack by 5. However, at the attacker's option, it can reduce the bonus to +2 to instead add a +1 cost/rank Extra to the attack, or remove the bonus entirely to add a +2 cost/rank Extra (or two separate +1 cost/rank Extras).

Attacking Objects: Any attack made against an object foregoes its normal conditions to deal object damage. Object damage results in Bruises normally, but doesn't impose any conditions. Instead, if the object fails its resistance check by one degree, it suffers a breach. This causes some significant loss of function - a barrier gets a hole in it that can be reached or shot through, an item with a specific function becomes Unreliable (and takes a -1 penalty on the Unreliable roll per additional breach), or an object with multiple functions loses one function entirely. A second degree of failure renders the object useless or inoperable until repaired. A third degree of failure destroys the object outright. Objects do not recover naturally from either damage or conditions, and must be repaired or replaced. An object that is entirely destroyed can't be repaired except by Healing powers with both the Affects Object and Resurrection Extras, but can still be rebuilt entirely or replaced.

Unattended objects are automatically hit - no attack roll is allowed or required (which also means options dependent on attack rolls, like Power Attack or critical hits, simply don't apply to objects). Attended objects are defended by the character holding, wearing, or carrying them.

Objects are immune to all normal conditions, except through Attack powers with the Affects Objects Extra. Such powers can cause conditions normally to objects following the rules outlined in the Extra. Note, however, that even then, not all objects are really impeded by all conditions. Objects that can't take actions, for example, won't be affected much by conditions from the Dazing or Influence trees, while those without powers won't be affected by the Suppression tree, and so on.

Objects are naturally immune to the Mental, Mystical, Physiological, and Tactical Attack Modes, unless they have the Affects Objects Extra. Most objects are Unaware in all of their senses and thus immune to the Sensory Attack Mode, but objects that possess senses (such as cameras and microphones) may be subject to relevant Sensory powers normally.

Counter [Standard, By Power]: In some circumstances the effects of one power may counter another, negating it. Generally for two effects to counter each other they must have opposed descriptors. For example, light and darkness powers can counter each other as can heat and cold, water and fire, and so forth. In some cases, such as magical or mental effects, powers of the same descriptor can also counter each other. The GM is the final arbiter as to whether or not an effect with a particular descriptor can counter another. The Nullify effect can counter any effect of a particular descriptor!

Performing a Counter replaces all normal effects of using the power - including any Linked effects, except in the case of Nullify powers (where Countering is the power's effect). A Counter only negates a single targeted use of the power - it doesn't deactivate the power itself, it just ends the current effects of one use. A Counter cannot be used to remove conditions inflicted by a power or otherwise reverse results, it simply ends its current effects.

A Counter can be readied (using the Delay action) to be used as soon as a valid power is, countering it before it can take effect.

When making a Counter, simply make an opposed check pitting your power rank against the rank of the power you are attempting to negate. If you succeed, the power ends. If you fail, it functions normally. A Counter operates at the same range as the power being used (which means a Personal power can only Counter an effect that targets you).

Powers that aren't limited by PL (Communication, Feature, and Senses) have their effective ranks capped at PL for all purposes relating to Counters.

The Nullify Effect allows you to make Counters with Extras applied.

Defend [Standard, Wielded]: When you Defend, roll a d20 and add your Defense stat. If the result is higher than the normal DC to hit you, the result is now the DC to hit you for the rest of the round. If not, instead add your Resistance stat to base die roll; the result is now your minimum possible result on Resistance checks for the rest of the round.

You may Defend for an ally within Close range, rather than for yourself (using your own stats, but applying the benefits to the ally). Being Defended by someone else automatically suppresses any Vulnerability conditions you possess. You cannot Defend at all if you are suffering from a Vulnerability condition.

If you do not fail any resistance checks during a round that you are Defending, you may Defend again next round as a free action, as your opponents fail to knock you off your guard.

The Defend Effect allows you to add Extras to your Defend actions.

Delay [Varies, Automatic]: You can delay your action. This is a non-action if you simply delay until an appropriate time between turns where you choose to act (a non-action Delay cannot interrupt a turn). Alternately, you can delay until a specific trigger occurs ("readying" the action), and then act in response to that trigger as a Reaction (which does interrupt the provoking action). Doing this requires spending an action of the same type you wish to perform in response, so readying an attack is a standard action, for example.

If your readied action is an attack, affects the character who triggered it in some way, and both successfully hits and the target suffers at least a Bruise, the triggering character loses the action it was trying to perform. Alternately, you can forego preventing their action to retain the Readied action, allowing it to trigger again later in the round.

Delaying does not change your place in the initiative order. You can't Delay outside of combat (although you can be prepared to fight, assuring enemies can't receive Automatic Initiative against you).

Drop [Free, Automatic]: You can drop prone or drop an item as a free action. A prone character counts as Disabled for purposes of making Wielded attacks, Vulnerable against adjacent enemies making Wielded or Fired attacks, and lowers its land speed by two ranks. However, non-adjacent enemies take -5 to hit it with Wielded or Fired attacks, as if from a Cover penalty (meaning it won't stack with Cover and Concealment, and it can be obviated by things like Precise Attack). Targets with a form of movement other than land speed can end the Prone condition simply by successfully moving using that movement mode, and others can stand from prone using the Stand Maneuver.

Influence [Slow, Selected]: Each interaction skill - Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion - has an option that allows you to sway peoples' opinions on a subject. Collectively, these options are referred to as Influence actions, and they all follow similar rules, but for different things. Influencing people takes a bit of time and, more than that, attention. It's not something that can be done while fighting or in other fast-paced or dangerous situations. It can't be done during action rounds. The Persuasion skill has an option for prompting a pause in hostilities long enough to attempt some Influence.

PCs are entirely immune to Influence attempts. Deciding what your character's opinions are is the sole purview of the player.

There are three broad types of opinions you can sway, each of which can be influenced by a different interaction skill - beliefs (Deception), perceptions of risk (Intimidation), and perceptions of reward (Persuasion). The GM should assess an NPC's base strength of opinion based on its own knowledge, evidence, personality, biases, and so on, on a scale from 0 to 10. The individual skills have more information on what each level represents with regards to the type of opinion influenced by that skill.

Influencing subjects requires a check with the appropriate interaction skill. You may influence an entire group with one attempt, but you have to influence everyone in the same way. Roll a single skill check against a DC of 10 + any given NPC's Resistance (representing stubbornness or the strength of their current opinions) or Insight (representing ability to recognize that this is a social ploy and ignore it). Influence is considered to have the Mental Attack Mode for purposes of immunities, weaknesses, and the like, and its descriptor can vary based on how you attempt to exert the influence. Any NPC whose DC you beat has its opinion swayed, any whose DC you fail to beat does not.

An opinion rated 0 or 10 cannot be changed through a skill check, no matter how convincing you are - they can only be changed naturally through role playing, presenting overwhelming evidence, etc. For everything else, a success on your check sways the opinion one step, to a minimum of 1 or a maximum of 9. For every two additional degrees of success, you sway the listener another step.

Influence is not the only way to alter opinions, or even necessarily the best. Presenting strong evidence, solid logic, or obvious proof can influence belief with no interaction check required, as can building a level of trust and rapport through role playing - the GM should take such things into account when determining an NPC's base strength of opinion. If the PCs present very solid evidence for something, or have naturally established themselves as someone the NPC would trust to whatever degree on such matters, they should not be required to roll a skill check to sway opinion, and in fact, this should directly change the NPC's base opinion, not merely cause a temporary sway. It should happen naturally, and then if they wish, they might roll to sway it still further. The exception is NPCs who might refuse to be swayed for emotional or practical reasons, who have reason not to trust the evidence being presented, or who otherwise need some convincing to accept the evidence they are offering. In this case, a check may be required to change base opinion - but if it succeeds, the NPC's base opinion should shift to where it should be based on natural factors, and then be swayed additionally by any further degrees of success. Importantly, though, this natural change in opinion requires actual evidence, experiences, and so on. If all you've got is your word, or if these things have already been taken into account and you want to alter opinion further, you need to use the Influence action.

An Influence attempt always modifies a target from its base level of opinion, regardless of any prior Influence attempts. This means that further Influence attempts for the same purpose (that is, to sway the same type of opinion on the same subject in the same direction) generally won't accomplish much; they don't "stack", only the best result applies. Influence attempts are largely temporary, and the level of opinion will generally move back towards its base total at the rate of one step per scene, unless something happens in a scene that corroborates its new level of opinion. Each scene where its new level of opinion is corroborated (that is, it sees evidence confirming it, receives some positive repercussion for it, clearly avoids some negative repercussion for its former opinion, etc), its base opinion instead moves one more level towards its modified opinion, potentially allowing it to be Influenced further.

You may make multiple attempts to Influence the same NPC on the same subject in the same scene. However, each degree of failure on any Influence attempt imposes a stacking -2 penalty on further Influence attempts you make against that NPC for the rest of the scene. If you fail to Influence an NPC twice consecutively, your second failure shifts its opinion one step in the opposite direction as you were attempting and makes it immune to further Influence attempts by you on any subject for the rest of the scene.

It is for the GM to decide how a change in opinion translates to a change in action. As a rule of thumb, any shift in opinion should create a noticeable change in behavior, but not necessarily a dramatic one. The default way to resolve whether an NPC might be willing to do something is determine how many total shifts of opinion would be required to make it happen. Things that an NPC is only somewhat inclined away from might only require one or two shifts, while things they have some reasons not to do might require three, six, or more. Major things that an NPC has strong reasons to avoid doing probably require at least 10 shifts, and often more, making them virtually impossible to resolve in a single scene, but potentially workable as part of a multi-scene effort combined with manipulating the situation as need to corroborate the new opinions. This methodology works best for most general and short-term forms of influence, or influencing Minion, Mundane, or Elite rank characters.

For a bit more complexity, the GM may decide that certain opinions need to reach certain levels. For example, you might need to offer the NPC something that it deems a level 7 reward, and it needs to have at least level 7 belief that it will get that reward for complying, or something like that. This adds a bit more detail, so it's good for more episode- or even adventure-driving forms of influence, particularly against Significant characters.

If you really want to crunch numbers for it, you could figure out its relative belief in various risk and reward factors that would apply to the decision. Multiple the level of belief in a factor by the level of strength in that factor. Add up all the rewards for and risks against, add up all the risks for and rewards against, and whichever comes out with the higher total indicates whether the NPC will act on it. That requires much more effort to resolve, so it's rarely worth it except for influencing defining decisions of Major or Boss rank characters.

The Discern option of the Insight skill can be used to help you figure out how much influence you need to exert to get the NPC to do something. The Reading power may also help with this.

Manhandle [Standard or Move, Wielded]: As a move action against a target in Close range, you can attempt to Manhandle the target, imposing a short-lived condition. Make a Prowess check opposed by the target's Defense or Prowess, whichever is higher. Manhandle actions may use either the Physical or Tactical Attack Mode, at your option.

If desired, you can perform a Manhandle as a standard action, making it into a Grab. If you do, you may maintain the Grab as a free action each round. This sets the DC for Maneuver actions by the target to 10 + your Prowess rank, prevents them from Routining checks to Maneuver, and allows you to make attack rolls against the target as Routine checks for as long as you maintain the Grab. In addition, if you are able to Immobilize the target with Manhandle actions (see below) the target is Immobilized for as long as you maintain the Grab. Otherwise, you are automatically moved with the target any time it moves, and your weight is counted against it for purposes of determining how much it can lift or carry. A successful Escape Maneuver against your Grab ends it, removing the Immobilized condition and allowing additional degrees of success to be spent on other Maneuvers as normal. You are Vulnerable while maintaining the Grab unless you possess the Improved Grab Advantage. You must remain within range of the target to maintain the Grab, and can generally only maintain one Grab at a time, although the Improved Grab Advantage can extend this limit.

If you succeed a Manhandle attempt, then for each degree your Prowess check succeeds by, the target suffers a Tier 0 condition of your choice. Alternately, you may impose a Tier 1 condition, but it is limited to only applying to or against actions that have Wielded or Fired targeting. Conditions imposed by Manhandle attempts do not apply for purposes of any actions made to remove Manhandle attempts. The Improved Hold Advantage allows you to impose higher-tier conditions with additional attempts. Conditions imposed by Manhandle last until the target uses a Maneuver to remove them.

Conditions imposed by Manhandle can't be healed, suppressed, delayed, or otherwise modified by powers like Healing and Regeneration, since they're more about reposition and tactical disruption than actual attacks that can be healed. Manhandle cannot impose the Immobilized condition (either normally or via Grabs) unless your Lifting Rank or Mass Rank are no more than two lower than your target's Lifting Rank. You may spend degrees of success on a Manhandle to reduce the target's effective Lifting Rank for this purpose by one each.

The Exert power can be used to perform Manhandle actions with Extras attached.

You may also impose any of the following:

Disarmed: The target drops a single held or loosely worn object of the attacker's choice. Unattended objects can be picked up with a Maneuver action. If the attacker performed the Manhandle as a Grab, it is now holding the item, so it has to be disarmed if the original owner wants it back.

Launched: The target is sent flying a Distance rank equal to the number of points the attempt succeeds by minus three, to a maximum Distance Rank equal to the attacker's lifting rank minus its own Mass rank. It is impossible to maintain a Grab that launches the target. However, if you perform the Manhandle as a Grab, you can throw the target at someone within range, making an opposed Prowess check against that target to perform a (non-Grab) Manhandle on them.

Prone: You render the target Prone (see the Drop action).

Manipulate [Standard or Move, Selected]: You can use your interaction skills to briefly mess with opponents in combat. Doing so is a standard action, but you can make the attempt as a move action by taking a -5 penalty on the roll. Roll a check with one of your interaction skills (Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion). The enemy opposes this check with Resistance, Insight, or the same interaction skill as you rolled, whichever is best. Manipulate actions use either the Mental or Tactical Attack Mode, at your option.

You can manipulate groups by taking a penalty on your roll. Manipulating a group of Minions can be done freely. A group of Mundanes imposes -2 penalty. A group of Elites is a -5 penalty. A group of Significant or Major characters is a -2 penalty per target, minimum -5. You can't manipulate multiple Boss-rank targets simultaneously.

Each target rolls its own opposing check. However, if desired, a target can put its check in the hands of an ally, who must roll with the same social skill, not Resistance or Insight. If multiple targets take this option, the ally rolls only one check, with all targets affected based on its result. The ally does not need to be a target for the action. A Dazed or Vulnerable character cannot oppose Manipulate attempts for its allies.

A success imposes a condition or hindrance based on the social skill used, which lasts for one round per degree of success, and only applies against you. With three degrees of success, any Minions or Mundanes affected can be instead forced to flee, surrender, or otherwise abandon the fight. With five degrees of success, Minions (but not Mundanes) can instead be forced to switch sides!

Deception can impose Vulnerable against your attacks. Intimidation can imposed Impaired for all checks made against you. Persuasion can impose Disabled for purposes of attacks only, and only those that target you. (The Set Up Advantage lets you specify other characters in place of "you").

In addition to the above conditions, each interaction skill has a special option that they can use Manipulate for, described in that skill.

The Illusion Effect allows you to make Manipulate actions with Extras applied.

Maneuver [Move, Wielded]: You may perform one of the following maneuvers as a move action. The Prowess skill has options that can improve on the Maneuver action.

The Movement power allows you to perform Maneuver actions with Extras attached. The Exert power can also do this for maneuvers that target others. In both cases, your Prowess skill is capped by the power's rank.

A Maneuver can be used to perform any of the following. Note that if you attempt to perform a Maneuver on a Grabbed target you must oppose the Grab normally (Escape Maneuver first, beat the DC, then apply extra Maneuvers for each extra degree of success).

Drag: Bring one or more willing targets, or targets you have Grabbed, with you when you move (this requires either a successful Prowess check to perform multiple Maneuvers, or a separate Maneuver action). You can move as many targets as you can carry in this way, and if you are fast enough, you can break up your movement, running back and forth to collect new targets, deposit them at a new location, and then go back for others.

Escape: Break free of a Grab, ending the Immobilized condition. This requires making a Prowess check, DC 10+the Prowess of the character grabbing you, and cannot be Routined. If you are being grabbed by multiple opponents, roll against the highest DC with a -1 penalty per additional opponent, to a maximum penalty of -5. If you are being Grabbed, you must Escape before you can perform any other Maneuvers. However, you may perform one additional Maneuver per additional degree of success once the Grab is broken.

You may substitute your Exert rank for Prowess to Escape, but if you do, you can't perform any other Maneuvers in the same action except for Reset Maneuvers.

Interfere: Oppose an enemy's Maneuvers next round with a Prowess check of your own, forcing them to beat your roll with a Prowess check to perform Maneuvers. In this case, choose a target to oppose for - any Maneuvers performed by or on that target must beat your roll. For example, you could target a specific enemy to oppose any Maneuvers performed by or on them, an object to keep enemies from picking it up (or to intercept it if it's thrown), a hostage to keep enemies from reaching it, a doorway to keep enemies from moving through it, etc. This counts as a defensive action for purposes of Instant Defenses.

Move: Move up to your speed.

Pick Up: Pick up an unattended object. You may pass it off to an ally in Close range in the same Maneuver if desired. You can also throw it to an ally at range (with a maximum Distance Rank equal to your lifting rank minus the object's mass rank); this requires a Prowess check against a DC of 10 + twice the Distance Rank from both yourself (to accurately get it to the ally) and your ally (to catch it).

Reset: Remove one condition inflicted by Manhandle actions from yourself or an ally in Close range.

Stand: Stand from Prone, or stand a prone ally up.

Recover [Standard or Non-Action, Automatic]: You may Recover once per combat (and only while in combat), as a standard action. You may also recover as a non-action if you don't take any other actions that round (being compelled to take an action that you do not wish to take doesn't count for this purpose). When you Recover, you get +2 on both Defense and Resistance that round. In addition, you may instantly remove a single condition you possess with Short or Standard duration (as normal, if the condition was inflicted by a Condition Tree, it simply downgrades to the next lowest condition). Alternately, you may downgrade a single Exertion Condition you possess by one step, so long as that condition was received in the current combat.

Stance [Move, Automatic]: You can take up a stance that allows you to temporarily change your tradeoffs. There are six different stances, described below. A character may only be in one stance at a time, and can only change stance once per round. Taking a stance, changing a stance, or leaving a stance is a move action. A character may exchange as many as two points through a stance.

Stances apply after any caps to your stats due to powers (so you don't have to worry about your Attack power ranks preventing you from All Out Attacking or the like).

Each stance has an Advantage of the same name that improves your ability to use the stance.

Stance bonuses are considered tradeoff bonuses, meaning that (after also accounting for tradeoffs), they cannot bring a given stat higher than your PL+5.


Accurate Attack: Trades Force for Accuracy.
All Out Attack: Trades Defense and Resistance for Accuracy and Force.
Power Attack: Trades Accuracy for Force.
Active Defense: Trades Resistance for Defense.
Stalwart Defense: Trades Defense for Resistance.
Total Defense: Trades Accuracy and Force for Defense and Resistance (the benefits of this stance are received only in rounds where the character actually attacks).


Surprise Attack [Move, Aimed]: If you attack with a power that indicates that it can qualify for Surprise Attacks (such as one with Subtle, Ricochet, Indirect, or the like), you may attempt to make a Surprise Attack as a move action. Roll a Stealth check opposed by the target's Perception, or a Deception check opposed by the target's Insight. If you succeed, the target is considered Vulnerable against your next attack, provided it is made before the end of your next turn and you still qualify for a Surprise Attack at the time. Characters who have Partial Concealment can also qualify for Surprise Attacks.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Conditions

Conditions are assigned a tier from 0 to 4. Tier 0 conditions cause minor or situational penalties, are easy to recover from, or have limited effect on combat. Tier 1 conditions impose a notable but not severe combat penalty. Tier 2 conditions cause a major combat penalty, significant enough that a character so afflicted should strongly consider escape or surrender. Tier 3 conditions make it functionally impossible for the character to contribute effectively to further combat. Tier 4 conditions are generally especially powerful or composites of lower conditions.

Many conditions are grouped into related trees, each containing one condition of Tiers 1 through 4, in order. Attacks that impose an entire tree make it somewhat easier to escalate the condition and somewhat harder for targets to recover. If a condition that is inflicted as part of a full tree is removed, it merely downgrades to the next-lowest condition in the tree (although situations that remove all conditions a character has suffered, such as the end of the scene for Short and Standard conditions, still remove the entire tree). Likewise, if the character already has a condition from a tree, and it suffers that specific condition again, it increases to the next highest one (so Staggered+Staggered becomes Stunned, but Staggered+Dazed stays Staggered, and Dazed+Staggered simply becomes Staggered as normal). This only applies if the condition is inflicted as part of a tree. For example, an attack that inflicts the Dazing Tree. If the attack just inflicts a series of conditions, such as Dazed/Disabled/Stunned/Paralyzed or something, it simply receives and recovers from the specific condition its resistance check results in.

In the case of rules that call out a specific condition, the character is assumed to have that condition if it has any higher-tier conditions from the same tree, even if it wasn't imposed as part of the tree. So for example, the rule that Dazed or Vulnerable characters can't oppose Manipulate actions for their allies also applies to Staggered, Stunned, Unconscious, Defenseless, Helpless, and Exposed characters.

Dazing Tree

Conditions from the Dazing Tree restrict the target's actions.

Dazed: The target can only take a single move or standard action each round.

Staggered: The target can only take a single move action each round.

Stunned: The target cannot take any action (including free actions and non-continuous Reactions).

Unconscious: Stunned, Defenseless, and Unaware.

Impairment Tree

Conditions from the Impairment tree penalize the target's checks, including resistance checks, but not recovery checks.

Impaired: The target suffers a -2 penalty on all checks except recovery checks.

Disabled: The target suffers a -5 penalty on all checks except recovery checks.

Impotent: As Disabled, and the best result the target can receive on checks is one degree of failure.

Incapacitated: Impotent, Staggered, and Defenseless.

Influence Tree

Conditions from the Influence Tree exert control over the target.

Influenced: The target is forced to act in accordance of a certain course of action, chosen at the time the condition is inflicted. This must be a course of action that the target would reasonably take, and not contrary to the target's personality or goals, either long-term or immediate. For example, you couldn't force someone to attack its friends, but you could force it to attack its most heavily defended enemy. Likewise, you couldn't force a target to stop fighting outright, but you could force it to take on a supportive role or focus on personal defense rather than attacking directly. You cannot force a target to take an action that is personally risky, even if that action would normally qualify (for example, you could get it to attack its most heavily-defended enemy...but not an enemy that has a Reflect power or a Reaction Attack up). The target still chooses its own actions within the scope compelled. You may not change the course of action once set without inflicting Influenced status anew.

Compelled: As Influenced, but you can now compel actions that are personally risky (though not those that are suicidal or essentially guaranteed to prevent the character from contributing to its goals). You may also now change the course of action as a standard action.

Controlled: As Compelled, but while the chosen course still cannot be against the target's nature or loyalties, it can prevent the target from working directly towards its goals (for example, you still can't make it attack an ally, but you could make it stop fighting or run away). You may also now change the course of action as a move action.

Commanded: As Controlled, but there is no limit to what commands you can give to the target and you can change the course of action as a free action. However, every time to force a target to do something that directly opposes its goals, loyalties, personality, or motivations, you must spend a Hero Point (or award a Hero Point for Commanded PCs). This cost comes with every such action you compel - such as each attack it makes against an ally, or each secret it reveals. If you wish, rather than spending or awarding Hero Points, you may allow the target to make a new resistance check against the compulsion, with success removing the condition and rendering it immune to the Commanded condition from you for the rest of the scene. A natural 20 always succeeds on this check, and other conditions or attack results (such as Impairment Tree conditions or Weakened stats) don't apply to it.

Suppression Tree

Conditions from the Suppression Tree restrict the target's powers.

Suppressed: The target takes a -2 penalty on all non-Innate power ranks (including the effective rank of Attack and Defend powers).

Drained: All of the target's non-Innate powers deactivate at the start of its turn each round. To activate a power, the target must make a check using its PL (modified for Powers tradeoffs) against a DC of 10 + the Force of this attack. If it fails, that power fails to activate and cannot be activated this round. If it succeeds, the power activates, but it only receives two ranks (or effective ranks) of the power per point it succeeds by, to a maximum equal to its normal rank - 2.

Neutralized: All non-Innate powers deactivate and cannot be reactivated while the condition remains.

Powerless: Neutralized, Crippled, and Disabled.

Restraining Tree

Conditions from the Restraining tree restrict the target's physical movements.

Restrained: The target is considered Impaired and Weakened for purposes of taking actions with Wielded targeting and Vulnerable to actions with Wielded or Fired targeting.

Bound: The target is considered Disabled and Crippled for purposes of actions with Wielded targeting, and Impaired and Weakened for purposes of actions with Fired targeting. It is considered Defenseless against actions with Wielded or Fired targeting.

Paralyzed: The target cannot speak or take actions with Wielded or Fired targeting. It may only take actions with Aimed targeting against targets that are directly in front of it; it is unable to alter its orientation. It is considered Defenseless against actions with Wielded or Fired targeting.

Encased: Paralyzed, Unaware, and Crippled.

Vulnerability Tree

Conditions from the Vulnerability Tree leave the target more susceptible to attack.

Vulnerable: Attacks against the target get a +2 bonus on the attack roll and do not trigger Reactions by the target. If the attack would have hit without this bonus, it can inflict one additional Bruise (unless the target beats the resistance check by two or more degrees).

Defenseless: Attacks against the target can be made as Routine checks rather than rolling and do not trigger Reactions by the target. If the attacker does roll, it gets +5 to hit and a successful hit is treated as a critical hit. Defenseless targets are subject to lethal damage at the attacker's option, even if the attack would normally be nonlethal.

Helpless: As Defenseless, and if the target fails a Resistance check, it automatically suffers the worst possible result.

Exposed: Helpless, Disabled, and Drained.

Weakening Tree

Conditions from the Weakening Tree make the target less able to affect others.

Weakened: The target's attacks or other actions with a flat DC to resist take -2 on the DC and inflict one fewer Bruise.

Crippled: As Weakened, but now the attacks can't inflict Bruises at all, and any points of failure on the Resistance check (or whatever check is made to beat the DC) are halved for purposes of determining degrees of failure.

Debilitated: The target's actions automatically fail to have any effect unless the action's target is willing to accept the effects.

Harmless: Debilitated, Drained, and Staggered.

Miscellaneous Conditions

Miscellaneous conditions are other conditions that don't heave enough in common with other conditions to fall into their own group.

Hindered (Tier 0): The character cannot move freely; its speed rank and lifting rank are both reduced by 1, and it takes twice as long to perform routine tasks (as if from an inverse Quickness rank).

Mute (Tier 0): The character cannot speak.

Revealed (Tier 0): The character loses all Concealment, except for Total Concealment provided by an effect that also provides Total Cover.

Immobile (Tier 1): The character cannot move from its current space, except by means of teleportation. It also cannot perform any Maneuvers except Escape. If another character attempts to move the character, it must roll a Prowess check, DC 10 + the attacker's Force, to do so.

Unaware (Tier 2): All of the character's senses become useless, losing all sensory effects. This can be limited to visual senses only as a Tier 1 condition, or to a single non-visual sense type as a Tier 0 condition. A character with no Accurate senses treats everything else as having Total Concealment. A character with no Acute senses cannot make Interaction or Investigation checks. A character with no Ranged senses cannot make Perception checks.

Complex Conditions

Complex conditions are special conditions based on one or more of the above conditions. Complex conditions are created on a point system. A Tier 0 condition is worth 1-2 points, Tier 1 is 3-5 points, Tier 2 is 6-9 points, Tier 3 is 11-18 points, and Tier 4 is 19-25 points. Conditions cannot have point values higher than 25.

To create a complex condition, first choose a base condition. A Tier 0 base condition is 2 points. Tier 1 is 4. Tier 2 is 8. Tier 3 is 16. Tier 4 is 24. You may then add additional conditions of equal or lower tier, with each additional condition costing half as much.

Beyond that, though, you may lower the conditions' costs by adding limitations. Major limitations are those that are always going to directly and substantially lessen the effectiveness of the condition. See the Entranced and Asleep example conditions for what a major limitation might look like. Major limitations halve the point value of the condition.

You can also add minor limitation. Minor limitations put a significant tactical restriction on the condition - it's about equally useful, but in a much narrower way that some opponents might be able to get around. Limiting the condition to certain stats, certain types of actions, or certain power sources or origins are good examples. You can't add minor limitations to conditions built "on the fly", such as Manhandles, power stunts, or Variable powers. Minor limitations lower the point cost by a quarter.

You can't apply more than one limitation to a given condition.

The following complex conditions are some common examples, but players and GMs may create their own complex conditions as well.

Restricted (Tier 0): The target is considered Restrained, but only for purposes of its arms (or similar limbs, including wings). This is a major restriction (the target can still dodge normally, won't take penalties on Maneuver actions, and might even still be able to attack by kicking or the like) so the final point cost is 2.

Entranced (Tier 2): The target is considered Stunned, but the condition can be removed by an ally as a move action, and is immediately removed if the character has to roll a Resistance check. This is a major limitation, so the final point cost of Entranced is 8.

Asleep (Tier 3): The target is Unconscious (Stunned, Defenseless, and Unaware). However, it can be awakened by an ally as a move action, and it immediately awakens if it has to roll a Resistance check. This is a Tier 3 and two Tier 2s (base 16+4+4 = 24), but the point value is halved by the major limitation to 12.

Lethal Damage

Under these rules, lethal damage is substantially more dangerous than normal damage.

When an attack deals lethal damage, it has three advantages. First, all conditions have their recovery rates increased by one step - Bruises and Tier 3 or 4 conditions become Prolonged, Tier 1 or 2 conditions become Standard. Lethal attacks last longer and are harder to heal.

Second, if the resistance check comes up as a natural 1, the target must roll it again. A success causes no further effect, but a failure adds any points of failure to the original check's points of failure to determine the total degree of failure. A natural 1 on this resistance check requires another reroll, and so on. Even worse, if the attack has the Improved Critical Advantage, its ranks are added to the natural result that triggers these additional rolls (so with Improved Critical 2, you have to roll again on a natural 1-3). Immunity to Critical Hits negates this hazard.

Finally, if the target fails its resistance check by two degrees, it becomes Dying in addition to any other conditions inflicted. If the target fails by three degrees, it instead becomes Critical. If the target fails its resistance check against a lethal attack by four or more degrees, it dies instantly. These special conditions operate as follows:

Dying (Tier X): The character is badly injured and might die! Every round at the start of its turn, the character must roll a Fortitude check, DC 15. If it succeeds by two degrees, it stabilizes, removing the Dying condition. If it accumulates three total degrees of failure in one scene (even if it removes the condition and then gets it again later) it dies at the end of its turn. The Stabilize function of Treatment can remove the Dying condition.

Critical (Tier X): The character is mortally wounded and will eventually die if it does not receive medical attention. Critical functions like Dying, but the character cannot stabilize on its own and the DC increases by 1 each time a Fortitude save is rolled. If the character is not stabilized by the end of the scene, it will die. The Stabilize function of Treatment can suppress the Critical condition until the start of the next scene, or even remove it entirely with a two-degree success.

Dead (Tier X): The character is dead, incapable of action or recovery. Death can generally only be removed by a Resurrection or Immortality effect, although it's possible, but difficult, to use Treatment to Revive a character who has only been dead a short time. Barring that, the character is removed from play.

Some attacks that don't actually kill might deal their own variant of lethal damage that has other effects that can remove a target from play, barring Resurrection Healing or Immortality effects. For example, a "lethal" Mind Control power might risk permanent psychosis, while a "lethal" paralyzation power might potentially turn targets to stone.

How easy lethal damage is to inflict varies by game, but three options are suggested here. Note, however, that in all cases these rules are for when PCs are involved - PCs are being attacked or making the attacks. For NPC vs. NPC, lethal damage can be inflicted at GM discretion.

Four Color: Lethal damage is extremely rare and dramatic. Characters only ever suffer lethal damage as the result of either an attack made with lethal intent while the target is Defenseless, a power with the special Lethal Extra, which costs +1 PP/rank, or some special, extremely hazardous circumstance (such as plunging into molten lava or getting hit by a meteor). This isn't to say that other effects are necessarily non-lethal in terms of the game's narrative, but they just never happen to result in death in play - people get hit in non-vital spots, or suffer from "no one could survive that", or whatever. If a PC is ever risking lethal damage in a given scene, it receives a Hero Point as if it were a Complication. If PCs actually resort to lethal damage in any but the most dire circumstances, there should be significant role playing backlash.

Modern: Lethal damage is uncommon, but not actually difficult to achieve. Attacks are nonlethal by default, but any given attack can be made with lethal intent, dealing lethal damage. If PCs are subject to lethal damage in a scene, they should get a Hero Point as per a Complication, unless it is in a way that is mechanically defined in the rules (such as due to being Defenseless, or the above Lethal Extra), or if they choose to deal lethal damage themselves that scene (this is on a per-PC basis; if one PC goes lethal and another sticks to non-lethal, the latter still receives a Hero Point if enemies go lethal). Damage from hazards, such as falling from a great height, collapsing buildings, and so on, also deal lethal damage by default. A character that is both Stunned and Defenseless is also subject to lethal damage by any incidental attacks it receives (such as Area attacks and Secondary Effects), but if attacked consciously the attacker can still choose to deal non-lethal damage. In general, there should probably be some backlash for PCs resorting to lethal damage excessively, and of course, if they choose to use it, their enemies will generally feel free to, so even though there's no mechanical cost for it, it's not quite "free".

Gritty: Lethal damage is the norm. All attacks with a Force of 5 or higher deal lethal damage automatically. Attacks with a Force from 1-4 are usually nonlethal, but cause lethal damage if they generally pierce the body (such as sharp-force trauma or ballistic attacks), or if they are an attack form the target has a specific weakness to. Attacks with a Force of 0 or less are nonlethal. Changing the default lethality of an attack requires a 1-point Feature, or a 2-point Feature if the attacker can freely choose whether it deals lethal or nonlethal damage. Of course, this is not to say that vigilantes who go out and kill criminals won't receive backlash for their use of lethal force.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Skills

How Skills Work

When you use a skill, make a skill check to see how you do. Based on the circumstances, your result must match or beat a particular number to use the skill successfully. The harder the task, the higher the number you need to roll.

Untrained Skill Checks: Generally, if you attempt a task requiring a skill you don’t have, you make a skill check as normal. Skill rank doesn’t apply because you don’t have any ranks in the skill. However, you can't Routine untrained skill checks. At GM discretion, certain tasks might require training to attempt. Typically, such tasks have DCs above 15 and involve some sort of practical knowledge or experience - you're not likely going to be able to pick a serious lock through sheer luck just by jamming a couple thin pieces of metal in and twisting.

Interaction Skills: Certain skills, called interaction skills, are aimed at dealing with others through social interaction. Interaction skills allow you to influence the attitudes of others and get them to cooperate with you in one way or another. Since interaction skills are intended for dealing with others socially, they have certain requirements.

First, you must be able to interact with the subject(s) of the skill. They must be aware of you and able to understand you. If they can’t hear or understand you for some reason, you have a -5 circumstance penalty to your skill check. There is an additional -5 penalty on creatures that lack human-level intelligence, such as animals. Mindless subjects are immune to interaction skills.

You can use interaction skills on groups of subjects at once, but only to achieve the same result for everyone. So you can attempt to use Deception or Persuasion to convince a group of something, or Intimidation to cow a crowd, for example, but you can’t convince some individuals of one thing and the rest of another, or intimidate some and not others. The GM decides if a particular use of an interaction skill is effective against a group, and may apply modifiers depending on the situation. The general rules for interaction still apply: everyone in the group must be able to hear and understand you, for example, or you suffer a -5 on your skill check against them. Mindless subjects are unaffected, as usual.

Deception

Deception is the skill of getting others to believe what you want them to believe. It covers things like acting, bluffing, fast-talk, trickery, and subterfuge, but also simply convincing people of things through logic or rhetoric. You use Deception to convince others of things - whether they are true or not. Deception can be used for any of the following.

Unless otherwise noted, when actively using Deception against other characters, it is considered to use the Mental Attack Mode and Selected targeting.

Conceal Intentions: In general, you are not required to roll a Deception check just because you are telling a lie, feigning innocence or ignorance, or otherwise acting sketchy or putting up a false front. Characters do not receive an automatic chance to recognize such subterfuge. However, characters can use the Insight skill to actively discern such things. When they do, you may oppose their Insight check with a Deception check. If you succeed, they gain no information and must simply come to their own conclusions. If you fail, they get some information about your general intentions, depending on their degree of success.

If multiple people attempt to analyze your intentions in the same scene, you may choose to keep the result of a previous roll rather than making a new roll, if you wish. So if you roll high once, another character analyzing you can't force you to roll again in hopes that you roll lower. But if you just barely squeak by on the first attempt, you can take the risk and try anew for the next one.

Of course, generally speaking, the GM does know when the PCs are actually putting on airs. It is the GM's job to keep its knowledge separate from the NPCs' knowledge - NPCs should only use Insight when they have a reason to be suspicious or on guard, and if they fail the Insight check, should generally accept the character's false face within reason. On the flip side, concealing ill intentions only gets you so far - it won't get you into a secure area without actual authorization, for example.

Convince: You can use Deception to convince an NPC that something is true - or at least, make them doubt it less. This functions as an Influence action, and allows you to sway the target's level of belief in a subject, either up or down.

Levels of belief are rated from 0-10 as explained in the Influence action, using the following scale:

0: Considers it flatly impossible or outright refuses to believe it.
1: Considers it extremely unlikely or is strongly opposed to accepting it.
2: Considers it implausible or doesn't want to believe it.
3: Considers it unlikely but possible or would prefer it not to be true.
4: Gives it reasonable credence but leans away from believing it.
5: Has no particular reason to either believe or disbelieve it.
6: Isn't entirely convinced but leans towards believing it.
7: Considers it likely but not certain or would prefer it to be true.
8: Considers it plausible or wants to believe it.
9: Considers it extremely likely or is strongly invested in believing it.
10: Considers it completely certain or outright refuses to believe it may not be true.

Deception has an advantage over Intimidation and Persuasion in that it can influence beliefs up or down - thus allowing it to not only improve opinions regarding things you want the subject to do, but also lower opposing opinions. However, Deception is also easier to oppose. If you're attempting to sway belief with regards to a subject the character has a relevant skill in (typically meaning an appropriate field of Expertise), they may substitute that skill for Resistance or Insight to set the DC, reflecting the fact that they probably already know what you're trying to convince them of and have factored it into their beliefs (or just the fact that they might factually know you're lying).

It is also possible to argue or counter Convince attempts. Arguing a Convince attempt allows a character to roll its own Deception check, and that gets substituted as the DC of the opposing Deception check, if higher. A character may argue Convince attempts made against itself or another. Countering a Convince attempt means rolling a Deception check against a DC equal to a previous Convince result. If you succeed, you break that Convince attempt, and if you wish can immediately apply your check result against the NPC's normal DC to Convince it in the opposite direction. For example, during a debate, the unbiased judge starts with a belief of 5 in the topic being debated and a DC to convince of 20. The first debater (arguing for) rolls a 22, shifting the judge's belief to 6. Then the second debater rolls against DC 22 and gets a 25, breaking the shift to 6 (returning the judge to its base 5) and further shifting the judge down one step to 4.

Disguise: You can use makeup, costumes, and other props to change your appearance. Your Deception check result determines the effectiveness of the disguise, opposed by others’ Perception check results. However, characters do not automatically receive Perception checks to see through a disguise. As with Conceal Intentions, characters only make a check to see through a disguise if they have reason to be on guard or suspicious - seeing through a disguise requires an active use of Perception. A successful check reveals you aren't who you appear to be, but it takes a three-degree success for someone to actually recognize you (assuming they already know your appearance).

You only use Disguise when you are specifically altering your appearance to seem to be someone else. Simply putting on a costume or uniform to appear as, say, a delivery-person, or a police officer, or a soldier, or whatever, doesn't involve any checks, although you might need to use Conceal Intentions to perform suspicious activity under scrutiny.

Disguise is heavily dependent on circumstances: favorable ones include appropriate costuming and a subject resembling your normal appearance, while unfavorable circumstances include disguising yourself as a member of a different race or sex, or not having sufficient props (which can be up to a –5 modifier). If you are impersonating a particular individual, anyone who knows that individual gets a circumstance bonus to the Perception check: regular associates get a +2, while friends get a +5 and intimate loved ones a +10.

Successfully acting like who you appear to be is a function of the Conceal Intentions skill use, opposing a Recognize attempt from the Insight skill.

A disguise normally requires at least 10 minutes of preparation.

Innuendo: You can use Deception to send covert messages using word-play and double-meanings while apparently talking about other things. The DC for a basic message is 15. Complex messages or messages trying to communicate new information have DCs of 20 or 25, respectively. If you fail the check, the recipient can make an Insight check against the same DC + 1 per point you failed by to catch on anyway. Pre-established messages, such as codewords, have a DC of 0 to pass, but are still considered Innuendo attempts for purposes of being picked up on.

Only intended recipients understand the true meaning of the message by default. With an active Insight check (as if opposing a Conceal Intentions attempt) suspicious or on-guard observers may be able to pick up on the fact that you are passing a secret message. This requires beating your own skill check with their Insight check. A success only reveals that you are conveying things beyond what you are speaking. A two degree success provides some sort of hunch as to the general gist of the message (whether it's a warning, a request for help, plotting something, etc). A three degree success allows them to understand the message fully.

Manipulate: You can use Deception to perform Manipulate actions, rendering the target Vulnerable to you on a success.

Alternately, you can cause the target to fail to notice or to misinterpret some detail about the situation. You can't conceal blatant effects and actions from the target, although distracting the target in this way entitles others to use Stealth to avoid the target's notice. This may cause the target to blunder into a hazard if it misses you with an attack, believe you to be Vulnerable while you are actually Defending, or even get a false read on an information gathering ability that it uses on you while the effect lasts, if its check fails to beat your own. The exact results of such a trick are left to the discretion of the GM and the creativity of the players, but as a rule of thumb, this should mainly only cause minor tactical blunders unless there is some specific situational feature that can be exploited for a more serious result.

Expertise

Expertise is a broad skill encompassing knowledge and training in a variety of specialized fields, particularly professional disciplines and scholarship. Expertise is considered one skill, but your Expertise ranks by default only apply to a single field, such as Science, Art, History, and so on. Expertise isn't generally used offensively, and its targeting can somewhat vary based on the tasks being performed, but many uses are Automatic.

However, you can gain skill in additional fields by spending additional skill ranks. Each additional rank spent lets you use your full Expertise rank for another field. Alternately, you can divide your rank up among several fields. No field can exceed your full Expertise rank. These extra ranks don't count towards your Expertise rank for purposes of checks or Power Level limits.

For example, a character could spend 12 skill ranks (6 PP) to get Expertise (Science) +12. It could then spend two more skill ranks to add Expertise (Law) and Expertise (History), rolling both of those at +12 as well. It might then spend a third additional rank to add Expertise (Art) and Expertise (Popular Culture) both at +5, and Expertise (Current Events) at +2. And so on.

Expertise covers all areas except those tasks specifically covered by other skills. So, for example, a police detective is going to be trained in Investigation (and probably Insight and Perception) in addition to Expertise (Police Officer), the same for an intrepid reporter with Expertise (Journalism). A scientist might be trained in Technology alongside Expertise (Science), a doctor needs training in Treatment along with Expertise (Medicine), and a trial lawyer is going to want skill in Insight and Persuasion (and possibly Deception) along with the training in the law that comes with Expertise (Law).

Expertise offers the following options, although not all options will be practical with all Expertise skills:

Apply Knowledge: You can apply your knowledge practically, coming to conclusions relevant to your field based on information at hand. For example, someone with Expertise (Art) might be able to look at a painting and know who the artist is or even tell if it's a forgery. Someone with Expertise (Business) might use it to gauge how a recent villain attack might affect the stock market. A survivalist could tell you whether water is safe to drink or plants safe to eat. And so on. The DC is usually 15 for basic applications of knowledge (though with especially common knowledge - like recognizing poison ivy - it might be lower), but most significant matters would have a DC of 20 or even higher. These checks can also be opposed by the Expertise skills of people trying to misdirect examination. For example, detecting a forgery would involve an opposed Expertise (Art) check. Generally speaking, one degree of success gets you the basic gist of the information, two degrees gets you some additional details, and three degrees gets you fully detailed information.

Earn Living: If you are trained in an Expertise, you can practice and make a living at it. You can make an Expertise check to declare you have on-hand or otherwise readily accessible some item useful to the skill, even if there's not much reason for you to have been carrying it around or keeping it nearby. For example, a survivalist might have rope, a mechanic might have a spare car battery, a police officer might have handcuffs, etc. Typically, the DC of this check is 15. More specialized items that would be really strange to carry around might have higher DCs at the GM's discretion.

Impress Others: You can use your Expertise to impress others - assuming they are interested in the field at least. This can mean using the Expertise skill directly to perform some impressive task - such as cooking a meal, painting a picture, singing a song, or performing a dance - or simply wowing people with your knowledge. In some cases, this can be used to Aid an interaction skill check, or even completely substitute your Expertise for an interaction skill in certain special conditions. It may also be done as an opposed check for contests of expertise, such as a dance-off or talent show.

Perform Task: You can perform mundane (or not-so-mundane) tasks related to the skill in question, that aren't otherwise covered by other skills. For example, a sailor could use its expertise to tie a strong knot, navigate by the stars, pilot and repair boats, and so on. The DC is usually 10 for tasks that even a layperson could perform reliably, 15 for the average professional task, and 20 for more advanced tasks. Especially difficult tasks may have higher DCs at the GM's discretion.

Recall/Research Fact: You can recall knowledge relating to your field off the top of your head. This doesn't let you learn things that are only known to select individuals - it has to be knowledge that has been disseminated to professionals in the field. Common knowledge - the sort of thing that is taught in school, known to many laypeople and pretty much everyone with skill in the field - is DC 10. Professional knowledge, stuff that's known to most professionals in the field, is DC 15. More obscure or specialized knowledge has higher DCs though. Information that is widely known to those who are specialized in a relevant portion of the field (for example, something that wouldn't be known by most doctors but would by most surgeons) is usually DC 20. New information that has yet to be widely disseminated is usually DC 25 or higher, depending on just how obscure it is. Generally speaking, one degree of success gets you the basic gist of the information, two degrees gets you some additional details, and three degrees gets you fully detailed information.

If you fail the check, you might be able to learn the information with some research. Conducting research takes at least a couple of hours. For each Time Rank beyond 9 spent researching, you treat your original check as if you had rolled one point higher on the d20 roll, up to a maximum effective d20 result of 15.

Repair Object: More craft-oriented Expertise skills can be used to repair damage to appropriate objects - such as Expertise (Carpentry) letting you fix damaged wooden structures, Expertise (Mechanic) letting you repair machines and vehicles, Expertise (Art) letting you restore old paintings, etc. Keeping something in good repair and working order is generally just a DC 10 check, but may be 15 or 20 for especially complex things or objects subject to a lot of wear.

For actually damaged objects (from attacks that deal Object Damage), the base DC is 15 to repair a Bruise, 20 for a breach, and 25 to repair an object rendered useless. For especially simple objects, this can be lowered by 5, while especially complex objects raise it by 5. The Time Rank required to repair an object is generally equal to its Volume Rank (using a minimum of one foot per dimension) plus the rank of its highest-ranked stat or function. For very large objects though, only the damaged area should be taken into account when determining Volume Rank. For example, a car that's roughly Volume Rank 7, Speed 5 would take Time Rank 12 (8 hours) per condition. A section of stone wall (Resistance 8) that's 5' long, 10' tall, and 3' thick (Volume Rank 8) would take four days per condition. Repairing an entire 120'x80' four-story stone castle that's been subject to damage all over would take 25 years per condition.

Each additional degree of success lowers the Time Rank to repair the object by 1.

Creating objects from scratch generally involves the same rules, but the DC is 5 higher and the time is four ranks higher. Note that creating objects can provide a fluff excuse for acquiring traits based on such objects, but they are not free - you still have to purchase them with PP (or power stunt them with VPP) to actually use them in play. For more "narrative" items, such as a basic car to get around with off-screen, though, no points are necessary.

Specialties and Proficiencies: For each rank of Expertise, you can gain one proficiency or specialty related to one of your Expertise fields. A proficiency is a specific thing you are able to use effectively. For example, Expertise (Linguist) would let you select languages as proficiencies, making you fluent in one language per proficiency spent. Expertise (Music) might give you proficiency with one musical instrument per rank. Expertise (Vehicles) might let you know how to drive or pilot a different type of vehicle per rank. And so on. Specialties are simply sub-areas of the Expertise field that you are especially well-versed in. For example, a dentist might have Expertise (Medicine) with a specialty in orthodontics. A chemist might have Expertise (Science) with a specialty in chemistry. And so on. A specialty gives you +1 on Expertise checks related to that specialty, and you can take the same specialty up to five times to receive a maximum of a +5 bonus. Bonuses from Expertise specialties don't stack with the Specialization Advantage.

You must divide proficiencies and specialties among your fields, but you get an additional one per extra skill point spent getting new fields. So for example, a character with Expertise (Science, Art, Music, and Law) +12 would have fifteen different proficiencies or specialties that it could divide among those four fields. If you wish, you can spend one additional skill point to gain three additional specialties, without adding new fields or improving your bonus with existing fields. You may leave proficiencies and specialties open during character creation and fill them in later during play as they come up, if you wish.

Insight

You can tell someone’s true intentions and feelings by paying attention to things like body language, inflection, and your own intuition. You can use Insight for any of the following purposes.

Unless otherwise noted, when actively using Insight against other characters, it is considered to use the Tactical Attack Mode and Selected Targeting.

Consider: You can take a moment to consider whether something is a good idea with an Insight check. Insight checks to Consider cannot be made as Routine checks. On a success, you get a hunch regarding whether this might be a good idea or not. If you beat DC 10, the GM points out any facts you already know (but might not be considering) that might suggest whether or not this is a good idea. If you beat DC 15, the GM points out reasonable deductions one could make on the subject based on the information you have at hand. If you beat DC 20, the GM brings up potential repercussions that you could reasonably expect. If you beat DC 25, the GM provides some details on what other circumstances would have to be in play that you may or may not know about for those repercussions to come up. And if you beat DC 30, the GM comes out and tells you whether it's a good idea or not, as best as it can predict, and giving some clarifying information if it's a more complex question. All information the GM provides must be accurate, but below DC 30 could potentially be misleading if there are factors in play that you have no way of knowing about.

The DCs to Consider increase by 5 each time you use the Consider option in a given scene. You cannot try again on the same subject.

Discern: You can actively attempt to gain some insight into a character. You may make one Discern attempt on a given character in a given scene, and the attempt can only reveal information that relates, even tangentially, to something the character said or did during the scene - which can include subconscious tells or reactions to things you or others have said or done. Basically, the longer you've been interacting with the character and the more subjects that have been touched on, the more information it is possible for you to glean, so attempting to Discern the moment you start a conversation usually isn't the best idea.

Roll an Insight check against a DC of 10 + the target's Deception skill. If you succeed, you can ask the GM a cumulative one question about the subject's background, personality, relationships, Complications, motivations, and so on per degree of success (so, one question with one degree, three with two degrees, six with three degrees, etc). You can't ask about tactical things like stats, skills, and powers, only personal matters. If the interactions during the scene have touched on the subject matter of your question (for example, if families were discussed, you could ask questions about the subject's family) you get an answer to your question. The detail of the answer is based on how thoroughly the concept was explored. For example, if you just offhandedly mentioned family at some point during the scene, you would only get vague information, like "yes, it has a family that it cares about" or "it has some troubling relationship with one or more members of its family" or "its family isn't in the picture", etc. But if you discussed your family in some detail, you could gain much more insights through its reactions - if you talked about your brother, you might have noticed a response that gives you a clue about what sort of relationship the character has with its brother (or perhaps another sibling or brother-like figure in its life). Whether the subject was touched on and in how much detail determines whether you can learn a piece of information and how detailed information you can get, but whatever information you get from successful Discern checks is accurate and need not be perfectly parallel to the information actually discussed - like in the above example, where your discussion of your brother might give you insight into, say, someone the target sees as a brother, or another sibling, or even just someone else it has a similar relationship with as you talked about regarding your brother.

Evaluate: You can actively evaluate something to determine whether or not it is true, or otherwise to discern whether some attempt at deception or manipulation is going on. This requires active effort on your part (NPCs don't generally evaluate things unless they have a reason to be suspicious or on guard), and is against a DC set by the GM based on how easy it would be to discern the truth of the matter intuitively. The GM or relevant player sets the DC by rolling a d20 and adding modifiers for such things as faulty logic, implausible premises, contradictory evidence, or so on.

Or, of course, for active efforts to conceal the truth. If someone is attempting to actively conceal the truth of the matter or convince you of something else, the roll to set the DC is instead made as a Deception check (possibly modified by other circumstances), or occasionally as some other type of check, such as an Illusion using its rank to oppose Insight checks to reveal it.

The GM does not reveal the exact modifiers or the reason behind the modifiers - but does reveal whether or not you succeeded. If you succeed, you learn for sure whether the thing you are Evaluating is completely as it seems, not entirely as it seems, or predominantly false or fabricated. With two degrees of success, you can get some details regarding the type or intent of manipulation.

For example, you could Evaluate a statement made by an NPC. If you fail, you learn nothing and have to come to your own conclusions. If you succeed, you might learn that the NPC is telling the truth as they know it, or that it's lying outright, or that it's telling a partial truth. With two degrees, if it's a partial truth, you could tell if it's something the NPC wants to be true but deep down doesn't believe, or something they believe to be true but don't really have enough knowledge on to conclude accurately, or mostly true but "dressed up" to be more appealing to you, or mostly true but omitting key details, or literally true but intended to cause you to draw an inaccurate conclusion, etc.

As another example, you could Evaluate a scene where someone is holding a gun on a hostage. If you succeed, it might be entirely as it seems - there's a hostage in danger who needs protection and a bad guy with a gun who needs to be neutralized. Or you could realize it's entirely false - the scene has been staged and the gun isn't loaded, the "hostage" isn't securely bound, the "bad guy" is being forced to point the gun, and the whole thing is just an elaborate trick designed to make you believe the villain is the hostage and the hostage is the villain. Or you might discern that it is largely what it looks like but there's something "off" - and with a two-degree success, you might recognize what that "off" thing is, such as the person with the gun having been the victim originally but just managed to get the upper-hand, or being extremely emotionally disturbed due to some crime perpetrated against it by the hostage, etc.

Intuit: You can passively intuit when others are trying to actively manipulate you, using Insight to set the DC for such attempts. If their check fails to beat your Insight, you recognize the social ploy for what it is and ignore it.

Recognize: You can actively consider someone's actions and determine if they are acting out of sorts, doing things they wouldn't normally do due to outside influence, coercion, special circumstances, or even mind-influencing powers. The check is typially opposed by a Deception check from the target, or simply DC 10 if no effort is being made to conceal that it is being influenced. If there is another character in direct control of the target, either through compelling powers or being able to watch what's going on and secretly tell the target what to do it may substitute its own Deception skill, if higher.

Obviously, you're better at recognizing strange behavior in those you interact with regularly. You get a +10 bonus against people you have an especially intimate relationship with, such as a spouse, child, or close friends or family members. You get a +5 bonus against people you interact with on a more-or-less daily basis or have a fairly open personal relationship with, such as a coworker or most friends and family members. You roll normally against people you interact with fairly regularly or have researched extensively. You take -5 against people you've only met on a few specific occasions, or people you've never met but have done some research on. You take -10 against total strangers.

You also get a +5 bonus if they are currently taking actions that are highly abnormal for them, and a -5 penalty if they are acting largely in line with how they normally would.

The GM doesn't reveal the exact DC, but does reveal if you succeeded or not. If you succeed, you confirm that the target is (or is not) under any outside influence. If you fail, you can't tell for sure and must draw your own conclusions. If you succeed by two degrees, and the target is being influenced, you get a general sense of the type of influence going on (being threatened with something, manipulated, deluded, psychiatric troubles, mind control, possession, actually someone else with a disguise or shapeshifting ability, etc).

Intimidation

You are adept at using threats to get what you want. It is important to note that the Intimidation skill is not necessarily about fear (although it can be). It's more precise to say it's about increasing the perception of risk. A Fearless character, for example, would certainly be immune to Intimidation attempts designed to actually terrify or cow them. However, it would offer no protection against Intimidation attempts used to make a threat, risk, cost, or other potential detriment for acting (or not acting) a certain way stand out clearly in your mind.

Unless otherwise noted, when actively using Intimidation against other characters, it is considered to use the Mental Attack Mode and Selected Targeting.

Intimidation can be used for any of the following:

Coerce: You can use threats and leverage to get people to do what you want. This functions as an Influence attempt, which increases the perceived risk of something. As always, you only need to use a skill check to artificially increase the perception of risk from where it would normally be - when you're a PL 2 Minion thug with a handgun and you're facing down a PL 10 paragon who is Impervious to Physical Attacks, no Intimidation is required for the situation to rank extremely high on the risk factor!

Note that the scale of risk is based on the assumption that the threat will be carried out. Belief in a threat actually being carried out is a separate thing entirely, which can be influenced by Deception. In other words, you don't use Intimidation to make them think you'll hurt them. You use Intimidation to make them think it will hurt worse than it actually might.

Levels of risk are rated from 0-10 as follows. The examples are given for a bit of additional clarity, but should not be taken as "rules" - different characters have different priorities. Someone who hates their job would probably rate threats against it as a 5 or even less, whereas someone who had dedicated their life to their career could rate it as an 8, 9, or even 10. Extremely courageous individuals might rate their honor or reputation, or the lives of innocents, in the high slots and their own jobs, lifestyles, and even lives more in the 5-7 range. And so on.

0: A threat against something completely unimportant to the character.
1-2: A threat against something trivial to the character; something that is nice, but it can easily live without. Example: A small amount of money. A single meal.
3-4: A threat against something the character gets some benefit or satisfaction from, but that isn't especially important to it or can be easily replaced. Example: A modestly expensive piece of technology like a television or cell phone. Respect of strangers it will probably never see again.
5: A threat against something significant but not critical; the character would definitely prefer to keep it and it would probably take effort to replace, but it can accept losing it if it's important enough. Example: A relatively minor but notable facet of the character's reputation, like a personal achievement. Respect of people it doesn't know personally but interacts with occasionally. Physical pain.
6-7: A threat against something personally important to the character; something it probably can't replace and the loss of which would meaningfully alter its life. Example: A relationship with someone it interacts with regularly, such as a coworker (6) or friend (7). The characters job or reputation.
8-9: A threat against something extremely important to the character; something irreplaceable and central to a key aspect of its life or personality. Example: Threats against its relationships with (8) or the lives of (9) close friends or family members.
10: You are threatening one of the most important things in the character's life, something it would do just about anything not to lose. Example: A threat against the character's life, or the lives of its spouse, children, or other extremely close relationships.

Disturb: You can cause brief hesitation in other characters, not enough to get them to actually back down, but enough to give you a momentary edge. This can be from a threat, calling out your reputation, or simply with a threatening glare or snarl. You can't attempt to Disturb targets in combat, so you have to have some opportunity to interact more socially before initiative is rolled.

Roll an Intimidation check opposed by the target's Resistance, Insight, or Intimidation. If you succeed, the target hesitates before interacting with you. It automatically receives a result of 0 on initiative if combat starts during the scene. Any actions it takes that would interfere with you outside of combat are also hesitant, allowing you to do something first, before the action gets resolved.

Dominate: You can establish sheer social dominance. This can range from staring a challenger down, to badgering someone into silence with sheer volume and aggressiveness, to putting someone in their place with an epic insult, etc.

Roll an Intimidation check opposed by the target's Will, Insight, or highest interaction skill. If you succeed, everyone who witnesses it becomes immune to all uses of interaction skills by that character for the rest of the scene, effectively ending their ability to contribute to social challenges. If you fail, and the target responds with its own Dominate attempt against you, you suffer a -2 penalty on your opposed check per degree of failure.

A successful Dominate attempt may also cause a character to back down, lose its cool, react emotionally, flee in terror, attack you physically, break down crying, and so on. This always happens with Minion and Mundane rank characters - and you can dictate exactly how they respond, within reason, such as getting a suspect to confess to a crime, a witness to break down on the stand, a tough to visibly cow and back down, etc. It also happens automatically to Elites, but the GM gets to decide how they respond, so they don't have to break down completely. Significant, Major, and Boss characters don't necessarily have to react this way, but you can spend a Hero Point to force a Significant or Major NPC to do so (choosing how for Significants). PCs and Bosses are never required to react in such a way, but at GM discretion a PC who does so may earn a Hero Point, especially if their response might cause them trouble later.

Manipulate: You can use Intimidation to perform Manipulate actions, rendering the target Impaired against you on a success.

Alternately, you can challenge the target, encouraging it to focus on you. The target becomes Disabled for purposes of attack rolls against targets other than you, and it is considered Vulnerable against your attacks in any round that it doesn't either target you with an action, or if it can't do so, at least work towards being able to target you (such as moving closer or attacking a barrier separating it from you). You can't Manipulate a target in this way if you have already Disabled its attacks against you with Persuasion. If you challenge a target who has already been challenged by someone else and succeed, all challenges are fulfilled as long as it focuses on any of its challengers. However, a previous challenger can allow their challenge to lapse once you make the new one, if desired.

Terrorize: You can use Intimidation to engage in extended psychological warfare. You can't terrorize targets as a general action - first you have to defeat them in some clear way. This could mean in combat, but there are other options - overcoming them in their field, socially dominating them, even doing things like robbing or brutally interrogating them. The big point is that you have to make them feel helpless against you, and you have to be over-the-top about it. This doesn't mean you have to act brutal and cause severe physical or emotional trauma! More "heroic" Terrorize attempts can involve humiliating an opponent, or just completely outmatching them in some manner and making it extremely clear how superior you are.

If you do this, roll an Intimidation check, opposed by the target's Resistance check. If you succeed, the target permanently has its character rank reduced by one against you in the future. If it's normally a Major character, you treat it as merely Significant - meaning it can't use Extra Effort against you or Recover from your attacks without Fiat. If you defeat a target multiple times in different scenes, you can Terrorize it each time, lowering its rank further with each attempt. This applies for all purposes relevant to rank, not just combat - it can give you several potent social advantages against the target as well. Generally speaking, NPCs should also have their behavior modified by Terrorize attempts, acting less confident or outright scared when you are present in the scene.

You may Terrorize a target on behalf of your entire group. You can also Terrorize multiple defeated foes at once, rolling against the best Will in the group.

If a character who you have Terrorized is able to defeat you in some significant way, the effects of all previous Terrorize actions automatically expire and it regains its full rank against you.

PCs can be Terrorized, but it's hard to keep a hero down. A PC receives a Hero Point any time it is successfully Terrorized, and again in any scene where it is forced to operate at a lower rank due to Terrorize attempts. A PC can immediately end the effects of a Terrorize attempt by spending two Hero Points per rank reduced. Naturally, this can mean just flat noping a Terrorize attempt by paying a Hero Point instead of receiving one...but it's more dramatically satisfying to throw it off when you're faced with the opponent again and go on to deliver an epic beat-down of your own.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Investigation

You know how to study clues, gather information through interviews and surveillance, and analyze evidence to help solve crimes. Investigation can be used for the following purposes.

Unless otherwise noted, when actively using Investigation against other characters, it is considered to use the Tactical Attack Mode and Aimed Targeting.

Assess Behavior: You can look at patterns and behaviors - things that a person has done - and use that information to come to useful conclusions regarding them. The key difference between using Investigation to Assess Behavior and using Insight is that Investigation works by looking at things the person has already done, while Insight involves getting a sense of them through face-to-face interaction.

You have to assess a particular thing the subject has done - a lie it has told, a crime it has committed, a job it has taken, a choice it has made, whatever. You have to have some information regarding the activity and its circumstances - just knowing that someone, say, stabbed a guy isn't enough. You have to visit the crime scene, talk to the victim or witnesses, look over police evidence, etc, to get a reasonably-cohesive picture of the situation. Roll an Investigation check against a DC of 15 + the target's Deception skill. It is much easier to assess patterns of behavior than individual actions - you get a +2 on the check per instance of the behavior you have information on, up to a maximum of +10.

If you succeed, you get some insight into the character's motivations behind the action itself - why it did it, or why it did it a certain way. With two degrees of success, you gain some insight into what the manner of taking the action says about its personality or background. With three degrees of success, you can learn something that might allow you to make a reasonable (and, for narrative purposes, correct) guess about something the character might do in the future, such as where it might stage its next crime or who it might go to for help.

Assess Behavior is limited to insights that could reasonably be gained from considering the actions taken or patterns established, and you may need additional information (through Expertise to Recall Facts or Investigation to Gather Information for example) to really get the full details, but the Assess Behavior action should at the very least tell you what to look for. For example, with a three-degree success you might figure out that the suspect's end goal is killing someone who broke its heart, and then you could use Gather Information to learn about prior romantic relationships the suspect had to figure out who it would be going after (and, naturally, arrive just in time for a dramatic standoff).

Assess Clues: You can study physical evidence to determine what it means and whether it is relevant to a matter at hand. Investigation doesn't let you find or notice things that are hidden - for that, use Perception. However, once you've found the clues, you can figure out which ones are relevant, which ones don't matter, and even which ones are red herrings. Failing the check won't give you false information, it just means you have to come to your own conclusions.

The GM sets the DC to make any particular deduction based on the evidence at hand, based on how much it feels the evidence speaks to the conclusion. Generally, obvious deductions are DC 10 or maybe even less. Most clues are DC 20, give or take. Especially obscure clues that require extreme deductive leaps might have DCs of 30. If you don't yet have enough information to really have a shot at making the deduction (there are other clues that you didn't find or need to collect), the DC may even go to 40. Generally speaking, if a character is taking steps to avoid leaving clues or to lay a false trail, they can set a minimum DC with a Deception or Investigation skill check (but if the situation would naturally lead to a higher DC, use that instead).

The GM determines how much information a clue gives. The Assess Clues option essentially lets a PC get on the same page as the GM with regards to what something means. Rather than speculating on whether the murderer leaving the weapon behind is supposed to be taken as a warning, a mistake, a sign of remorse, whatever, an Investigation check reveals what it actually means in the context of the situation. This may be "nothing, it's totally just a random scene detail that I threw in" or even "it was intentionally placed to make you think X".

Gather Information: You know how to make contacts, collect gossip and rumors, question informants, and otherwise get information from people.

By succeeding at an Investigation check taking at least an hour, you can gather information from a group of people. This might mean a community around where a crime was committed, a group or organization that an individual you're investigating is a part of, a network of contacts that might have information on a subject, a selection of experts in a field, and so on.

You can only gather information that is widely available throughout the group. Of course, that doesn't mean it has to have been officially disseminated. News, gossip, rumors, and the like can all allow information to spread throughout a group even if it really shouldn't.

The DC is based on how protected the information is. DC 10 is for information that is open knowledge, not secret at all. DC 15 is for information that isn't really secret, but also isn't something members of the group would normally discuss with outsiders. DC 20 is for information that the group has a specific reason not to share. DC 25 is for information that is strictly supposed to be secret. And DC 30 is for information that is officially classified or confidential.

Even if the group as a whole doesn't have access to the information you're looking for (that is, it's an actual secret that only specific individuals are privy to), they might know who does. In this case, the Gather Information check reveals who among the group you can talk to for more information. Getting it out of them then requires more personalized methods, such as interaction skills or simple role playing.

Interview: You can get useful information from people. Interviewing is not about getting people to spill secrets or talk with you in the first place - you want the interaction skills for that. Rather, once a character is providing you with information, you are proficient in interview techniques that will help them remember details, increase their accuracy of recall, and so on.

Roll a DC 15 Investigation check. For each degree of success, the person you are interviewing will remember one additional useful detail, or be able to correct an inaccuracy or clarify a vague statement.

In some cases, where a character is willing to be helpful but can't in and of themselves provide useful information, a single Investigation check against a DC set by the GM(usually based on how hard it would be for the interviewee to remember details) may be required to get the useful information out of them, with a success simply meaning they are able to give you what you need. A good example is working with a sketch artist to create a rendering of a suspect - with a successful Interview check, they can provide accurate enough details to create the sketch (although an Expertise [Art] check may be required as well to actually commit the sketch to paper or computer accurately enough to use for identification).

Verify Information: You can check up on information you've been given, consulting with contacts, databases, references, and so on to try and find something that refutes the claim. The DC is usually 15, although it might be 10 for information that's especially easy to check. If the character is actively working to ensure the information gets confirmed, it sets the DC with an Investigation skill check of its own. If you succeed the check, and the information is false, you find something to refute it. Otherwise, you find nothing to refute it. So you can't know for certain whether the information is true, but you can be at least as confident in it as you are in your Investigation roll.

Perception

Perception determines your awareness and clarity of senses. It always uses Automatic Targeting.

The DC to detect something that isn't trying to hide and is out in the open is 0. You make Perception checks normally (with ranged senses) out to 30' (Distance Rank 0). Each Distance Rank beyond that imposes -4 on your check.

Creatures and objects of roughly human size (Size Rank -2; about six feet in their largest dimension) use normal DCs to spot. Each Size Rank smaller or larger raises or lowers the DC by 4. Similar scaling applies for other senses - a human speaking in a normal voice, for example, would use normal DCs, and each doubling or halving of volume from that might lower or raise the DC by 4. And so on.

Significant forms of contrast, like something giving off light against a dark background, or moving in the distance, may provide other DC reductions at GM discretion.

You need an Accurate sense to pinpoint things. Without one, everything has a minimum of Total Concealment for purposes of targeting.

You need an Acute sense to identify things. Without one, everything has a minimum of Partial Concealment for purposes of identification.

You need a Ranged Sense to make Perception checks at a distance effectively. Without one, you take -4 on your check per Distance Rank above -6 in addition to the normal -4 per Distance Rank above 0.

You can use Perception for any of the following:

Avoid Surprise: If you are about to be subjected to a surprise round, you may roll one final Perception check against the opponent's Stealth check (or perhaps another skill, like Deception, if they are using guile rather than sneakiness to get the drop on you). If you succeed, you are not surprised and may act normally in the first round of combat. If you fail you are surprised.

If you are sleeping and about to be attacked, you also get a Perception check against Stealth. If you fail by three degrees, you don't wake up and are Defenseless. If you fail, you wake up but are Surprised, and are groggy (automatically receiving 0 on initiative). If you succeed, you are still groggy (0 initiative) but not Surprised. If you succeed by two degrees you are fully alert (acting normally) but still Prone. If you succeed by three degrees you can spring to your feet ready to defend yourself normally in time for the first initiative roll.

Significant and higher-rank characters can spend a Hero Point or GM Fiat to awaken immediately if attacked (but in this case are still Surprised and groggy).

Detect: Your Perception skill determines how well you can perceive the things around you. Unlike with Insight, anything hidden that you come across can potentially be passively detected, if your Routine Perception (10+your Perception rank) exceeds the DC to detect it.

If you fail the check by two or more degrees, the subject has Total Concealment from you - you don't perceive it at all, or at least not in enough detail to recognize anything about it. If you fail by one degree, it has Full Concealment - you can see it, but you can only barely make it out, not enough to determine any particular details. If you succeed by one degree, it has Partial Concealment - you can make it out fairly clearly, but not perfectly, and you can't see full details or really precisely identify it. If you succeed by two or more degrees, it has no Concealment, allowing you to perceive it with perfect clarity.

Pinpoint: If you currently lack an Accurate sense (or a target has Total Concealment from your Accurate senses), you can attempt to use other senses to pinpoint targets, lowering their level of Concealment from Total to Full for one round. Doing this is a move action, and it doesn't work if the target also has Total Concealment from the sense you are using. But you could try to use hearing to pinpoint an invisible opponent, for example.

Roll a Perception check opposed by the target's Stealth check. If you succeed, you pinpoint the target as if it had Full Concealment rather than Total. Be warned, all the normal limitations of the sense you choose still apply. If the sense isn't Acute, you have no way to identify who is who. If the sense isn't Ranged, you'll take a massive penalty on anyone not in Close range. And so on. Normal modifiers for distance, size, and the like still apply normally.

Scan: You can actively scan around for things you might have missed. This is a move action, and functions as the Detect action, except you roll a Perception check. If your result beats your passive Detect value, you retain it for the rest of the scene or until you beat it with a new scan (made as another move action).

Search: You can conduct a thorough search for hiding things - checking all potential hiding places in a room, patting down a target for concealed weapons, and so on. You can search an area or object of a given Size Rank (roughly the Distance Rank of its largest dimension) takes a Time Rank equal to twice the Size Rank + 4. So searching a normal person (Size Rank -2) would take a full round (Time Rank 0), while searching a football field (give or take Distance Rank 4) would take about eight hours (Time Rank 12). The GM may reduce the Time Rank by up to 2 if the area is especially small in other dimensions or light on possible hiding spots, or increase it by up to two if it is roughly equally large in a second or third dimension or especially cluttered.

You search the entire area, so Distance Rank isn't a factor when conducting your search. This thorough search gives you an automatic 20 (but not a natural 20) on your Perception check.

Such searches are thorough, but not necessarily neat. If you want to conceal evidence of your search, you have to spend an additional Time Rank.

Watch: You can stand watch over an area, guarding it from approach, surveilling a target location, tailing a target, and so on. Roll a Perception check, adding +10 on a roll of 10 or less. Any attempt by the target to elude your notice requires a Stealth check against that DC. If you are staying in one place watching a fixed location, you are also able to locate an ideal vantage point to surveil from, using your Perception to oppose any attempts to notice you, rather than Stealth. If you are on the move, you have to use Stealth normally.

Your Watch attempt only applies to a single target (a location you're watching, person you're tailing, enemy you're keeping track of, etc). You can't be Scanning and Watching simultaneously, so other attempts to elude your notice oppose your Routine Perception as normal.

You may Watch in combat (focusing on a specific enemy to make it harder for them to use Stealth, rather than scanning for everyone) as a move action.

Persuasion

You’re skilled in dealing with people, from etiquette and social graces to a way with words and public speaking, all of which helps to get your point across, make a good impression, negotiate, and generally win people over to your way of seeing things.

Unless otherwise noted, when actively using Persuasion against other characters, it is considered to use the Mental Attack Mode and Selected Targeting.

Encourage: You can encourage others to act on something. This functions as an Influence attempt, which increases the perceived reward of an action. As always, you only need to use a skill check to artificially increase the perception of reward from where it would normally be - when you're a minimum-wage burger-slinger, no Persuasion is required for a briefcase full of money to rank high on the reward factor!

Note that the scale of reward is based on the assumption that the reward will be received. Belief in whether or not you'll actually get the reward is a separate thing entirely, which can be influenced by Deception. In other words, you don't use Persuasion to make them think you'll pay them. You use Persuasion to make them think about all the great stuff they'll be able to do with all that money you're offering!

Levels of reward are rated from 0-10 as follows. The examples are given for a bit of additional clarity, but should not be taken as "rules" - different characters have different priorities. Someone who is averse to responsibility would probably rate a promotion as a 5 or less, whereas someone who had dedicated their life to their career could rate it as an 8, 9, or even 10. People devoted to their jobs might rate financial or luxury rewards rather low, while more intangible rewards like satisfaction of a job well done and the approval of their superiors could rate rather high. And so on.

0: A reward the character doesn't care about at all.
1-2: A fairly trivial reward, typically something that doesn't really provide a real practical benefit, but is just kinda nice. Example: Appreciation, token payments, getting bought dinner.
3-4: A noticeable reward that's definitely more than a polite thank-you, but not incredibly extravagant or anything. Example: A modestly expensive piece of technology like a television or cell phone. A good word or owed favor from someone in a higher position than itself.
5: Something that the character actively wants and might even be personally working towards, but doesn't really need. Example: A month's wages. A kiss from someone it has a crush on. The approval of its parents. A new car or free vacation.
6-7: Something that the character has a personal desire for, is actively working towards, or that could have a significant impact on its life. Example: A year's wages. A promotion. Information that might offer a lead on a missing sibling.
8-9: One of the character's big personal goals in life, or at least a major stepping stone to one. Example: The identity of a loved one's killer. The character's dream home or job. Superpowers, probably.
10: Something the character wants more than anything in the world. Example: The chance to marry its True Love. The fulfillment of a childhood dream. Ensuring a happy life for its child. Reuniting with the family it was stolen from as a child.

Exchange: You can give a character something or do something for them and trigger a sense of reciprocity, prompting them to offer something back in return. Roll a Persuasion check opposed by the target's Resistance or Insight. If you succeed, the target will feel subconsciously obligated to return your generosity, taking a -2 penalty on any attempts to use interaction skills against you or oppose your use of interaction skills until it does so or the scene ends. The return of generosity need only be as "valuable" as the thing you offered in the first place.

A target can attempt to politely refuse the gift by opposing your check with their own Persuasion check. Naturally, if the gift is something they can't give back (such as a service you performed or information you offered) this option isn't available.

If what you gave them is really significant - like if you saved their life or that of a loved one, offered something they deeply desire, or gave them something that is clearly deeply important to you - the penalty changes to -5.

If the target offers back something more valuable than what you offered, they can target you with an Exchange action in the doing.

While Exchange is useful for getting trades of items or favors, it is also usable to trade information. By telling the target something about yourself, you can prompt an Exchange where it reciprocates. The more personal or secret information you offer, the more you can expect to receive back.

Flatter: By showing kindness, respect, good humor, or the like, you sooth troubled social waters. Roll a Persuasion check opposed by the target's Insight. If you succeed, then for each degree of success, you can negate any negative consequences - such as penalties on later rolls, being unable to try again during the scene, increased DCs, and so on - of a single other failed interaction skill check by yourself or another within the scene. You can also smooth over other accidental insults, missteps, and similar faux pas.

Each time an NPC gets Flattered, whether successful or not, the DC to Flatter that NPC later in the scene increases by 5.

Manipulate: You can use Persuasion to Manipulate, imposing Disabled status on the target - but only for purposes of attack rolls made against you.

Alternately, you can distract the target, such as prompting it to start monologuing or arguing, pay attention to you, or just by being a bloody pest. This prevents the target from taking non-Continuous Reactions while the Manipulation lasts. The target may choose to reduce the duration by "accidentally" spilling some useful information, if its player desires, reducing the duration by one round for each bit of information let slip.

Parley: You can talk your opponents into briefly foregoing combat - long enough to at least try to resolve your differences peacefully (or negotiate a surrender, evacuate the injured, whatever). As a standard action, roll a Persuasion check opposed by the highest of Resistance, Insight, or any interaction skill among the enemy group. If you succeed, the opposing side is open to parley.

Until the start of your next turn, every opponent who gets a turn must either Delay, or, if desired, take their own Parley actions against your team (binding you as they are bound on a success). If they don't do so, the parley fails, but any of your allies get a bonus on all rolls against the opponent who broke the parley equal to +2 per degree of success on your Persuasion check for one round per degree of success - so it's a good idea not to break parley! If anyone on your side takes any further hostile actions, the enemies will take their delayed actions immediately thereafter. However, they can take other actions, such as healing, defending, aiding, readying, and so on. So calling for a parley can offer a certain tactical advantage even if it's not going to go through, even if only some breathing room.

If your next turn comes up and the parley hasn't broken, combat time immediately ends. Characters may use social actions and otherwise do things that can't be done in combat time, such as Influence, potentially allowing you to talk down your foes, negotiate surrender terms, clear up misunderstandings, and so on.

If peace cannot be reached, and your side renews hostilities, roll initiative normally and combat begins again. If the other side is the one to renew hostilities, however, they automatically receive initiative results of 0, and your side gets +1 on all combat stats in the first round of renewed combat per degree of success on the initial Parley check.

If neither side wishes to renew hostilities due to concerns about the parley bonuses (which might well happen if both sides successfully Parley-bound each other), then they'll just have to figure out some other way to resolve their differences. Although note that a well-targeted Intimidation check to Dominate could provoke an enemy into attacking and thus breaking Parley for their side.

Only one Parley can be attempted in any scene by any side. However, if an initial parley check fails, the opposing side may later accept it on one of your future turns. If they do this, treat it as if the original check was made against DC 10 for purposes of determining effective degrees of success (minimum one degree) as you obviously have leverage now. This also means the enemy cannot counter-Parley to discourage your aggression.

Request: You can request a reasonable favor from an NPC (PCs are immune; players decide what requests their characters will accept) - ask it to do something without offering anything in return (except maybe an "I owe you one" or some such). This is a quick, simple social interaction - even doable in combat as a move action. It gets an NPC to do something immediate, low-risk, and helpful. For example, you might get an NPC to answer a question, go get you something, take a certain action for you, etc. The GM has final say over what constitutes a reasonable favor, although some guidelines are below. That being said, these are broad guidelines; the NPC's personality, the situation, and the relationship between the NPC and the PC should all be taken into account to determine if a Request is valid. Or, on the flip side, if it's something a skill check needs to be made for at all!

A skill check can't get NPCs to perform favors that would result in immediate risks or significant costs. If there's actually some clear benefit to the NPC for doing it, the DC is 0. As long as there's no particular reason why the NPC shouldn't do it (it's not risky, damaging, effort-intensive, etc), the DC is 10. If it takes some effort, carries some trivial cost, or entails a fairly minor potential future risk, the DC is 20. If it takes modest effort, carries a minor cost, or entails a modest potential future risk, the DC is 30.

You can't ask a favor that would interfere an NPC's current efforts or otherwise do something obviously immediately detrimental to itself. For example, you can't ask an enemy you're actively fighting to go grab you a glass of water or something. But you could request that it show you mercy or accept your surrender, or maybe even let you go. The GM can always veto a Request attempt that doesn't suit the situation.

Requests also can't get an NPC to join a conflict or enter a dangerous or difficult situation that they're not currently a part of, but it may allow you to direct their efforts more effectively. For example, you can't use a Request to get an NPC ally to join a fight - but you could use one who is already part of the fight to focus on a specific target, go get help, rescue the hostages, etc.

You get +10 when requesting favors of NPCs you share an intimate relationship with, such as lovers, parents, or especially close friends or family members. You get +7 when requesting favors of NPCs you share a close relationship with, such as most friends and family members. You get +5 for NPCs you have a friendly relationship with, such as allies or coworkers. You get +2 for NPCs you have a positive relationship with, people on the same "team" in essence. You take -5 for NPCs you have a negative relationship with; people on opposed "teams". You take -10 for NPCs you have an antagonistic relationship with, such an enemies you are actively fighting. You take -20 for NPCs you have a hateful relationship with - rivals and personal foes. You automatically fail against NPCs who have a specific, deep vendetta against you. The NPC's relationship with you will also influence what it sees as a reasonable favor. NPCs you have negative relationships with generally won't do favors that help you so much as that don't hinder you quite as much.

Multiple requests kind of "add up" for purposes of determining how much effort and risk they entail. Asking someone to spend a minute or two helping you with something is one thing. Doing it fifteen times in succession is another. "My dignity" should definitely be considered as a possible "cost" that fulfilling a favor might entail.

Prowess

Prowess represents your overall physicality, be it from strength, agility, athletic ability, whatever. You can use Prowess for any of the following.

Unless otherwise noted, when actively using Prowess against other characters, it is considered to use the Physical Attack Mode. Using Prowess always involves Wielded Targeting.

Additional Maneuver: You can roll a Prowess check to make multiple Maneuvers as a single move action. If you are currently Grabbed, the DC is 10 + the opponent's Prowess, +1 per additional grabbing opponent to a max of +5, and you can't Routine the check. Otherwise, the DC is 10. If you fail, you waste the action entirely. If you succeed, you can perform one Maneuver per degree of success. You can't actually move more than twice per action though.

Difficult Movement: You can roll a Prowess check to move through more difficult terrain (that is, terrain with the Basic Restrict Movement Environment Effect) - climbing, swimming, balancing, struggling through thick underbrush, forcing through heavy gravity or keeping control in light gravity, and so on. The DC varies by the difficulty of moving (that is, the rank of the Environment Effect), typically DC 5 for really simple stuff (such as swimming in calm water or climbing a ladder), DC 10 for average things (swimming in mildly choppy water, climbing a rope), DC 15 for things that require some athleticism (swimming in rough water, climbing a tree trunk or brick wall), DC 20 for things that require serious athleticism (climbing a relatively smooth stone wall, swimming in stormy seas), and higher for things that require almost superhuman athleticism. You are Vulnerable and at -2 to your Speed Rank when engaging in difficult movement. If you succeed by two degrees, you're not Vulnerable and only at -1 Speed. By three degrees, you take no penalties.

Feat of Prowess: You can use Prowess to perform impressive physical feats. Typically, this is more a bragging rights "I look this cool pulling this off" check, but the GM may occasionally award some circumstance bonuses for creative uses. The GM either sets the DC based on the difficulty of the stunt being attempted, or your Prowess result is simply a numerical measure of how cool you are.

Free Maneuver: As a free action in any round that you haven't yet performed a Maneuver, you can roll a Prowess check. The DC is 20 normally. If you are grabbed, it's the same DC to escape the grab + 10. If you succeed, you can perform one Maneuver, plus one per two degrees of success beyond the first, but can't perform any more Maneuvers that round. If you fail, you can still attempt to Maneuver normally.

Manhandle: You can use Prowess to perform the Manhandle action, as described in the Actions section.

Mitigate Hazard: When you are subjected to an Immediate Hazard that operates as an Attack, you can make a Prowess check with a DC of 5. For each degree of success, its Force is lowered by 1. This doesn't apply against Hazards that operate as Manhandles, but you can oppose them with Prowess anyway.

Physicality: You get passive bonuses from your Prowess stat. For each rank of Prowess, improve two of the following (you may improve the same one twice if desired). You can spend additional skill points to get three such improvements each without increasing your actual Prowess rank.

Strength: By default, you can lift Mass Rank 0 (50 pounds) as a light load - you can carry this amount of weight around with both hands or in a backpack or similar pretty much indefinitely. You can lift a Mass Rank of -1 (25 pounds) with one hand easily. You can push or drag around a Mass Rank of 2 (200 pounds), or more if it's on wheels, less over rough surfaces. You can increase these Mass Ranks by 1, but you count as Physically Impaired and Vulnerable to Wielded or Fired attacks. The Exert power can improve your lifting rank dramatically.

Each improvement to Strength increases these weights by a Mass Rank 3 lower. So for a normal character with Prowess +10 all in Strength, you could lift 110 pounds as a light load. If that character also had Exert 10, its normal light load of 25 tons would be upgraded to 55 tons.

Speed: By default, you move a Distance Rank of 0 (30') in a single move action, and a Distance Rank of 9 (2 miles) per hour. The Movement power can improve your speed rank dramatically.

Each improvement to Speed increases the distance you can move with a move action by a Distance Rank three lower. So a normal character with Prowess +10 in Speed could move 60' per move action, or a bit over 5 miles per hour long distance. If the character also had Movement 10, its normal speed of 4 miles per move action would be upgraded to 9 miles per move action.

Stamina: When you are subject to an Onset Hazard, the time you can endure it before it starts affecting you (normally one minute) is increased by one round per point of Prowess in Stamina. When you are subject to a Continuous Hazard, if you have Prowess in Stamina, you can delay its onset by one round per three points.

Jumping: By spending ten feet of movement, once per Maneuver, you can jump 10 feet horizontally if you have a running start. For each point of Prowess invested into jumping, this increases by 1. Divide the result by two when standing still. Your jumping height is one-fifth your jumping distance.

Initiative: Since Agility has been removed, characters normally roll unmodified d20s for Initiative, unless they have the Improved Initiative advantage. Each improvement gives you +1 initiative.

Growth: Your Prowess is a factor of your size. A normal humanoid is Size Rank -2 (somewhere in the vicinity of 6' tall) and Mass Rank 2 (somewhere between 100 and 200 pounds). Each two points of Prowess invested in Growth boosts your size about a quarter of the way to the next Size Rank (so you gain a Size Rank every eight points) and raises your Mass Rank and Lifting Rank by 1 (Lifting Rank increases count as Exert Restricted to Lifting, so they stack with Exert but can't bring Lifting Rank above PL). So with Prowess 8 in Growth, your Mass Rank is 6 (somewhere between 1,600 and 3,200 pounds), Lifting Rank 4 (light load 800 pounds), and Size Rank -1 (somewhere around 15' tall). Higher Mass Ranks make you harder for others to move around, higher Size Ranks make you easier to spot, cause you to take up more space, and give you a longer reach.

Each two points of Growth also gives you +1 on Prowess for purposes of making and resisting Manhandle actions, but -1 for purposes of making or opposing Maneuver actions (including with grabs). Growth might also boost and lower other Prowess rolls depending on the situation (Growth would make it harder to climb, jump, swim, and fall safely, for example, but easier to deal with light gravity or underbrush).

Shrinking: Your Prowess is a factor of using your small size to your advantage. Shrinking inverts the modifiers from Growth - you get smaller, lighter, worse at Manhandling and things where being smaller and lighter is a disadvantage, and better and Maneuvering and things where being smaller and lighter makes things easy on you. You can't have both Growth and Shrinking simultaneously, although the Morph power allows you to reconfigure your Physicality options.

Stealth

You are skilled at avoiding detection. You can use Stealth for any of the following. Stealth that involves movement uses Aimed targeting, otherwise Automatic.

Avoid Notice: You can avoid notice as long as you don't draw attention to yourself. Roll a Stealth check opposed by the Perception of anyone you encounter (you'll typically oppose Routine Perception unless someone is actively Scanning, Searching, or Watching for you). If you succeed, you simply don't draw attention to yourself - you aren't hidden or concealed, strictly speaking, but no one really notices that you're around.

Any action you take that targets a character other than you automatically breaks your stealth. Other attention-grabbing actions, such as using a Noticeable power, do likewise. Suspicious activity on your part, such as approaching a restricted area, taking something, watching someone closely, and so on, require you to make a new Stealth check for each such action taken. You cannot Routine these Stealth checks.

Once someone is paying attention to you (whether because you've already done something attention-grabbing or you broke your stealth) you are no longer able to Avoid Notice until the next scene.

Conceal: You can conceal an object from detection. You can also conceal yourself or another character - provided you have somewhere to conceal them (that is, where they have at least Partial Cover or Partial Concealment), and that they remain still and quiet and don't do anything to draw attention. Roll a Stealth check to set the DC to detect what you have concealed. Concealing something is a move action.

You can also conceal another action taken immediately after a move action to conceal. You can't conceal an action that targets characters other than you, that causes an obvious visible change to your position or the area around you, or actions that involve Noticeable powers. Other actions may be concealed, so that other characters don't notice you performing them.

You can also make a Conceal check to perform feats of legerdemain and sleight of hand, such as palming an item, performing magic tricks, and so on.

You can't Conceal a target while those you wish to conceal it from are paying attention to it. By default, assume anyone who has been interacting with the subject in some way (watching it, talking to it, fighting it, etc) is paying attention to it. The Distract option can give you the opportunity needed to Conceal a target.

Distract: You can distract a target as a move action. Roll a Stealth check against its Perception (using the Tactical Attack Mode). If you succeed, it focuses on you for one round, plus one round per two additional degrees of success. It takes -5 on Perception against characters other than you and takes -2 on any active checks it attempts to roll against characters other than you. It also can't take Reactions in response to characters other than you.

If you take a -5 penalty on the check, you can get it to focus on someone other than you. With a -10 penalty, you can get it to focus on nothing at all.

Improve Concealment: You can make yourself harder to perceive visually as part of movement. Roll a Stealth check. The DC is 30 if you currently have no Concealment, 20 with Partial Concealment, 10 with Full Concealment. If you succeed, your level of visual Concealment improves by one step. This check does not actually set a Perception DC to detect you; you use your base Concealment (which may be set by a given observers Perception check to detect you) and then use this check simply to improve it by one step. To actually set the DC to detect you and potentially gain more Concealment thereby, use the Conceal option.

If the Perception of any given observer beats your Stealth check, it ignores your improved Concealment.

You can't improve your Concealment while you are being actively observed. However, a distraction (such as from a Deception Manipulation or an ally's Stealth skill) can give you the moment you need to vanish. The Hide in Plain Sight advantage lets you ignore this limitation.

You cannot Improve Concealment in any round in which you targeted someone else with an action. You lose the benefit immediately if you target someone else with an action.

Subterfuge: You can perform an action that targets an object - such as a disarm to grab it, Technology roll to sabotage it, etc - without drawing notice. Roll a Stealth check against the Perception of any observers as a move action. If you succeed, no one notices the action, and it does not count as an action that targets someone else for purposes of attracting attention or breaking stealth. If the object is attended by an observer who fails to detect you, it counts as Vulnerable against and takes -5 on Defense and Prowess for purposes of opposing the action.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Technology

Technology covers operating, building, repairing, and generally working with technological devices and equipment. Without the proper tools or equipment, you take a –5 penalty to Technology checks for highly unfavorable circumstances. You can use Technology for the following.

Where applicable, Technology is considered to use the Physiological Attack Mode with Affects Objects Only. Uses that aren't simply knowledge-oriented generally involve Fired targeting, although working on large-scale devices may require Wielded.

Expertise: To a large degree, Technology functions much like an Expertise skill. You can make Technology checks to perform mundane tasks related to Technology, such as working with computers, building and repairing machines, and so on. Use it to recall or research technology related facts. Even acquire specialties and proficiencies or have tools or little devices available for use. If there are other options that use the Technology rules, you could even acquire additional ones for one skill point each, such as having a magitech artificer who has skill with both regular Technology and with Magic.

Inventing: You can use the Technology skill to create inventions - little devices or programs with minor helpful functions. The power of your inventions depends on your Technology rank. At Technology 5, such effects should be worth about a third of a PP. At Technology 10, about half a PP. At Technology 15+, about one PP. You can have one such effect active at a time, and they can't duplicate Advantages, provide Alternate Powers, or enhance existing powers. Mostly, you can just duplicate highly Flawed one-rank powers, or eventually individual one-rank powers or Features. Generally speaking, inventions should provide flavor and maybe a bit of quality-of-life efficiency or utility. The GM can veto inventions that serve too significant a mechanical purpose, or may charge 1 VPP every time an invention has a meaningful impact on the plot or on a mechanical challenge. Activating a new invention is a standard action. You don't have to prepare specific inventions beforehand, you can freely come up with them as little things your character happens to have on hand, programmed into its smartphone, worked on in its spare time, etc.

If you possess the Inventor Advantage, however, you can prepare and use much more significant inventions. Preparing a major invention does not take a specific amount of time. Rather, in between scenes, you can prepare a single invention that you gain access to for the next scene. You cannot stockpile prepared inventions for future scenes, so they either have to be broadly useful, or you have to know what you might be facing before a scene begins.

You may prepare an invention at no cost. Prepared inventions may have a total PP cost no higher than your Technology rank. You may create multiple distinct effects that add up to that PP cost as a single invention if you wish. Unlike regular inventions, prepared inventions function as normal powers, may have whatever plot or mechanical impact you can pull off with them, and may enhance existing powers, but they still can't provide alternate powers or Advantages. The GM can still veto an invention that doesn't suit the game as with any power.

Actually using such an invention in a scene costs a number of VPP equal to the power's PP cost, before counting Flaws. Effects and Extras that are not already on your character sheet cost double. Once an invention is activated, it remains available for the duration of the scene.

You may only benefit from one prepared invention at a time. You may prepare a new invention on the fly by spending a Hero Point, but swapping to it removes your current invention permanently; you can't swap back to it in the same scene.

With a second rank of the Inventor Advantage, you can also create plot device inventions, inventions that serve a specific story purpose but aren't mechanically designed. Between scenes, rather than preparing an invention, you can make a Technology check to come up with a plot device to help in a specific known upcoming challenge. A DC 20 plot device will be able to provide some sort of concrete situational advantage, but won't resolve any problems or challenges in and of itself. A DC 30 plot device is capable of solving a single specific problem outright. Each +10 to the DC can solve another problem. You may not Routine checks to create plot devices. The GM is free to veto or revise a proposed plot device if it feels it would damage the story.

Simply coming up with a plot device isn't an automatic solution to anything. In general, you'll need to accomplish something for the device to work. This could mean collecting certain rare materials and power sources to actually create the device, getting a sample of enemy technology so you can reverse-engineer a counter, reaching the enemy mainframe to upload a plot device virus, and so on. A plot device isn't meant to circumvent an adventure entirely, just to change its nature - or even better, to create an adventure to solve an otherwise-intractable problem.

Sabotage: You can sabotage enemy technology - typically meaning, [Technology]-descriptor powers such as high-tech weapons, personal forcefield devices, and even vehicles or suits of powered armor. You can even use this on entirely-technological enemies, such as robots and cyborgs. This can't generally be done during combat time, and you need to have some way to access or interface with the technology in question. Roll a Technology check against a DC of 10 + the Power Level of the targeted effect. If you succeed, it rolls a check using its Power Level against a DC of 10 + your Technology skill. If it fails, it suffers a condition of your choice with a Tier of 1 per degree of failure. This condition applies to any uses of the item in question.

A user (or a character subject to sabotage) may make a Technology check against your original Technology check to detect the sabotage next time it handles the device. Naturally, the sabotage will become evident once the condition inflicted comes into play! Attempting to undo the sabotage requires a Time Rank equal to the number of degrees your Technology check rolled if the DC was 0 (so, if you rolled 20, it would take five Time Ranks) and a Technology check against your own. A new check may be rolled for each additional Time Rank of work.

If you have Quickness 6 or higher, or the Interface option of the Communication power, you may sabotage machines in combat as a standard action. In this case, attempting to remove the condition is simply a move action.

Security: You can set up security systems - both physical security measures (such as alarms, cameras, traps, etc) and cyber security measures, as well as other quality-of-life technologies for your home, base, or office. You gain a number of bonus Installation features equal to your Technology ranks. With about a day of work, you can roll a DC 20 Technology check to temporarily add one such feature per two points of success to an Installation you inhabit, lasting for a single episode.

On the cyber end, you can secure a computer network with about a day of work, rolling a Technology check to determine the DC to bypass the security. You may spend additional time improving the result, raising the d20 roll of the check by one per additional Time Rank, to a maximum of 20 (not considered a natural 20). If you are present when a network comes under attack, you can oppose any Technology check to break security with your own. On a two-degree success, you can counter-hack the attacker.

You can also use Technology to bypass technological security measures (both physical and cyber). This generally takes a Time Rank equal to one-third the DC, but you lower that by one per degree of success. If you succeed, you bypass the security, but you set off an alert unless you spend an additional Time Rank being cautious about it. If you fail you always set off an alert.

A success against a cyber system generally only grants you "read" access - so you can view files, tap into security cameras, and the like, but you can't edit the system. Two degrees grants you "read/write" access, allowing you to edit files, upload programs, and so on. Three degrees grants you admin access, giving you complete control of the system and allowing you to change passwords, reconfigure the backend, access encrypted files, and the like.

You can create variants of the Technology skill to represent other similar things with basically the same rules - three examples are provided below, but the GM may come up with others.

As with Expertise, you can spend one skill point to gain ranks in an additional Technology variant equal to your ranks in your base variant. That said, multiple Technology variants don't "stack". For example, you only get one set of specialties/proficiencies, still can only have one Invention at a time, only get one set of free Installation features, etc.

Magic: You are proficient with magic rather than technology. This works in largely the same way - you can use your Magic skill as if it were an Expertise to recall or research magical facts, magically repair objects, and perform mundane magic-oriented tasks. The Inventions option lets you perform little "cantrips", and with the Advantage (typically renamed something like "Ritualist" or "Artificer") you can prepare major spells, rituals, or enchanted devices. You can use Sabotage to counteract the magical powers or devices of enemies, and wards and magical enhancements to Installations and set up wards against magical intrusions such as scrying and teleporting, etc.

Wealth: You are simply very rich. You can use your wealth as an Expertise skill related to finance and business in general, or perhaps just whatever field you gained your wealth in, as well as for tasks that simply involve money - such as bribes or paying for repairs to an object (or just outright replacing it). The Inventions option represents little devices you have purchased, and with the Inventor Advantage (maybe renamed "Major Purchase") you can buy much more significant supplies or hire someone to use a power on your behalf. Sabotage works slightly differently, more about making financial attacks to cripple a subject's business interests - but you could also use it to Sabotage hired minions and such, simply bribing them out of your way! Security is used by simply buying or upgrading an Installation, and to protect against financial problems such as your bank account getting hacked, your credit ruined, or your identity stolen.

Prestige: You have amazing political clout, fame, or otherwise personal prestige. Much like Wealth, this functions as an Expertise skill relating to your celebrity in general - networking, knowing the right people, rumors and gossip, etc - or to the means of acquiring your fame, like acting. Inventions tend to more represent favors, with minor ones being little helpful assists from others, and those with the Advantage ("Call it In") being major favors owed or offered that can do significant things. Like Wealth, Sabotage works by undermining the prestige of others - smear campaigns, mud-slinging, etc - or by sabotaging their minions and followers by dazzling them with your stardom ("How did you get past my guards!?" "Turns out they were my biggest fans.") Security is thanks to the celebrity lifestyle allowing you access to bigger and better places to live, and also used to protect against prestige-related attacks against you.

Treatment

You’re trained in treating injuries and ailments. If you do not have the appropriate medical equipment and supplies, you take a –5 circumstance penalty on your check. If your subject has a particularly unusual biology (an alien, for example) you may also suffer a circumstance penalty. You can use Treatment for any of the following options.

If for whatever reason a target wishes to oppose your Treatment attempts, it is considered to use the Physiological Attack Mode. Treatment uses Wielded targeting.

Aid Recovery: You can use Treatment to perform an Aid action that boosts a character's recovery check to remove Short conditions. Doing this is a move action.

Diagnose: You can diagnose strange conditions, ailments, and detrimental effects. The DC is typically 20 + the rank of the effect, or as decided by the GM for particularly odd effects.

If you are acting on incomplete information, you might suffer a circumstance penalty to your check. Once new information (typically, the failure of a treatment or a new symptom) comes about, you can check again, hopefully with a reduced or eliminated penalty.

Diagnosis usually requires an examination taking about fifteen minutes (Time Rank 7). If you fail the check, you can increase the base d20 result by 1 per additional Time Rank spent performing various medical tests, up to a maximum base result of 20 (not a natural 20).

You can also diagnose a character's general physical state more-or-less on sight with a DC 15 Treatment check.

Medicate: You can use Treatment in the same way as Expertise (Medicine), recalling or researching treatments (generally DC 10+rank) or cures (DC 15+rank) for diseases and ailments, where such exist, performing medical procedures, acquiring specialties or proficiencies, having tools available, and so on.

Speed Recovery: The Treatment skill can be used to remove conditions faster. As a standard action, you can make a Treatment check against a DC of 10 + the attack's Accuracy to remove one Instant Recovery condition per point you succeed by, to reduce a single Short Recovery condition to Instant Recovery, or to reduce a single Standard Recovery condition to Short Recovery. If the condition was imposed as part of a Condition Tree, this reduction in recovery time applies to lower conditions in the tree as well. You may only make one Treatment attempt per condition.

You can also use Treatment to remove Prolonged conditions. By default, this requires four days (Time Rank 16) of care. Roll a Treatment check against a DC of 10 + the attack's Accuracy; if you succeed, you remove the condition, or reduce it by one Tier if it was inflicted as part of a Condition Tree (if you succeed, you may then make new Treatment attempts against the now-reduced conditions). Each extra degree of success reduces the Time Rank by one.

At GM discretion, Treatment may be used to mitigate Permanent conditions, changing them to Complications. This generally takes 8 months (Time Rank 22) of rehab for the subject, and requires a Treatment check against a DC of 15 + the attack's Accuracy. Each degree of success beyond the first lowers the rehab time by one Time Rank.

Revive: You can bring a character back from the brink. By spending both your standard and move action, you can attempt to revive a character who just died. Roll a Treatment check against a DC of 20, +5 per round the character has been dead. If you succeed by three degrees, you revive the character. If you succeed by two degrees, the DC lowers by 5 and you can try again next round. If you succeed by one degree, the DC stays the same and you can try again next round. If you fail by one degree, the DC raises by 5 and you can try again next round. If you fail by two or more degrees, the character can't be saved.

Any conditions the character has suffered at the time of its death become Permanent unless it receives healing or medical attention in a proper infirmary, hospital, or similar within a Time Rank of 5 plus half its Resistance. You can extend this by one Time Rank per degree of success on a DC 20 Treatment check. The medical attention itself requires a Treatment check DC 10 + the Accuracy of the conditions, rolled separately for each condition.

Any conditions successfully treated become Prolonged rather than Permanent.

Stabilize: You can roll a Treatment check as a standard action to stabilize a Dying or Critical character. To stabilize a Dying character, roll a DC 15 Treatment check. On a success, you remove the Dying condition. For each two degrees of success beyond the first, you also remove one accumulated failure against death this scene, so if the character becomes Dying or Critical again later it regains some of its buffer.

To stabilize a Critical character, roll a DC 20 Treatment check. Normal portable first-aid supplies are not generally sufficient to stabilize critical characters, resulting in a -5 penalty, while having no tools at all imposes -10. The Improvised Tools advantage reduces these penalties to -2 and -5. Even a fully stocked ambulance or equivalent functions as normal improvised tools in this case (-2 penalty normally, -0 with the advantage). For a normal check without need of the advantage, you need a properly supplied medical facility.

On a success, you remove the Critical condition temporarily; it is suppressed until the start of the next scene, at which point it returns at its previous DC and with all accumulated failures still in place. So hopefully the next scene begins with the target getting rushed into the hospital! On a two-degree success, you stabilize the character successfully.

Downtime Actions

Between episodes, each PC has the opportunity to take Downtime Actions. The number of Downtime Actions received varies at the GM's discretion, based on the amount of downtime between episodes (as a rule of thumb, one Downtime Action per Time Rank above 13 is a decent baseline). Downtime Actions aren't strictly based on the sheer amount of time - characters are assumed to be doing other things during their Downtime as well. Rather, Downtime Actions are more about the characters having the opportunity to accomplish things - coming to a breakthrough in their research, having a meaningful experience with someone, pulling together a good plan to disrupt an enemy operation, etc.

Downtime actions will generally require some sort of check (usually a skill check), depending on what you are trying to achieve. How much you accomplish will depend on the degrees of success on the check. Generally speaking, Downtime Actions are long-term goals - with each degree of success, you gain one success towards the action. The total number of successes you have acquired provide some degree of scaling benefit, and you can also "spend" successes (reducing your available successes, but not your total) to get certain one-off benefits. Powers and Advantages may also open up possibilities for Downtime Actions that other characters might not be able to take (Quickness, for example, wouldn't let you take more Downtime Actions, but would allow you to take actions that would normally be a process of months or years rather than days).

Downtime Actions should provide concrete benefits, but not extremely potent mechanical ones. They should generally be more plot and story oriented. That said, they shouldn't be "busywork". Downtime Actions shouldn't be required to move the story along - but they might give you some advantages or allow you to alter how the story plays out. Downtime Actions should also never cause problems in and of themselves, even on a failure - however, a failure on a Downtime Action, especially with a really low roll and on a riskier sort of action, is a ripe opportunity for a Complication or plot twist.

Guidelines for several Downtime Actions are given below, but it must be stressed that these are guidelines. They'll serve solidly in a lot of cases, but GMs should feel encouraged to create custom options or tweak the skills, DCs, and results a bit as suits the player's goals and the style of the campaign. Several of the examples include slight differences from or additions to the core rules to reflect such possibilities.

Between scenes, you may spend a Hero Point to gain a bonus Downtime Action. You can also do this just before Hero Points reset for a new adventure, converting any remaining Hero Points you have (that you don't want to use for Inspirations or Setting Edits) into bonus Downtime Actions.

Accomplish Task: You work towards some plot-related task. This is something of a catchall for general tasks, typically with distinct end-points. The GM decides what skills can be used, what the DC is to make progress, and how many total successes are required before the task is accomplished (or for each stage of the task to be accomplished). The PC should also get some sort of limited benefit it can spend successes on before the task is complete.

Example: Billionaire supergenius Maestro Mentallo wants to build a satellite to look for the distinct energy signature that has been found on the summoned creatures created by his enemy the Recruiter. This would be a daunting task for Downtime Actions, but Maestro has high levels of Quickness and the Inventor Advantage, so the GM figures that building a custom satellite is doable in normal Downtime. The GM says Maestro must use Technology to build the satellite, with a DC 25 check to make progress and (thanks to his Quickness) 15 total degrees of success to complete. Once the satellite is completed, Maestro and his team will be rapidly alerted if any Recruiter summons are conjured within their city. In the meantime, Maestro can spend one success to scan a specific location (such as a place where a supercrime has been reported) with the partially completed satellite, and if any Recruiter Summons are there, he'll learn how many and how powerful they are.

Build Legacy: Build Legacy is similar to Accomplish Task, in that it's something of a catchall. However, while Accomplish Task is for plot-oriented things and generally has a set endpoint, Build Legacy is more personal, and often indefinite. As with Accomplish Task, the GM sets the exact parameters.

Example: Super-speedster Josh Miles has learned that it's silly to discuss how fast he is quantitatively - he's just objectively fast, and the question is how much slower everything else is. And he wants people to know it. He wants to go down in history as the Fastest Man Alive. To this end, in his downtime, he starts finding other speedsters to race, speed-based challenges to complete, and so on, to establish his legacy. Rather than use a skill here, the GM determines that Josh can use his Movement rank for this Downtime Action, and the DC to make progress is 25. Once he achieves 5 successes, he'll be widely publicly accepted to be the fastest person in his city. At 10 successes, in his region. At 15 successes, in his country. At 20 successes, on his continent. And at 25 successes, he'll be publicly accepted as the fastest person on the planet. In the meantime, he can spend successes to get little benefits for his reputation, such as being recognized and offered VIP treatment, or influencing the behavior of other speedsters some (such as making them hesitant to fight him or more willing to help him).

Build Relationship/Reputation: You can build a relationship or reputation with or among a certain person or organization. This uses Deception, Expertise, Insight, or Persuasion, and the DC varies based on how powerful (personally, politically, socially, financially, whatever) the subject is. Generally, the DC is 10 for characters or groups notably less powerful than you, 15 for those a bit less powerful, 20 for those roughly equal in power, 25 for those a bit more powerful, and 30 or more for characters or organizations substantially more powerful than you are. Characters and organizations that you already have a long-standing relationship with due to being a feature in your Complications or backstory have the DC reduced by 5.

Degrees of success can be spent to secure favors from the subject, or get little side-benefits from your relationship with them or reputation among them.

You may even spend several degrees of success to call them into a scene to assist you - this costs one degree for a character with a PL up to your own minus two, plus a cumulative one additional degree per two extra PL. Such characters are assumed Mundane rank when called in to aid you (even if they might normally be higher - they're not the heroes here!) but that can be raised by spending +1 degree for Elite, +2 degrees for Significant, or +4 degrees for Major, up to a maximum rank equal to the character's normal rank. If this Downtime Action was done with regards to an organization rather than a specific character, you get a member determined by the GM - but you can specify what general type of member you want for +1 degree, or choose a specific member for +2. The NPC will competently perform one specific task for you - such as guarding an escape route, teleporting your group to the enemy lair, hacking the villain's mainframe, or participating in a single round of combat. You must spend one additional degree of success per additional task competently performed (otherwise the NPC might still try to help, but the GM can freely assume it to just "get unlucky" or so on and not accomplish anything). If you wish to take tactical control of the NPC for the tasks it performs (such as choosing its precise combat actions), you must spend one additional degree.

If the NPC, or members of the organization, are already active in a scene under GM control, you can also spend one degree to take tactical control of one for one round or task. Alternately, you may spend three degrees of success to give the NPC the benefits of a Hero Point for a purpose you dictate, or one degree of success to be able to spend one of your own Hero Points on the NPC's behalf. If the relationship is with an individual rather than an organization, you may also spend one success to gain the benefits of the Interpose Advantage for the scene, limited to use on the subject of the relationship.

Example: Cyborg super-soldier James Rook has to get periodic tests and checkups from Dr. Erikson, the super-scientist who created his cybernetic body, and his daughter and assistant Lena. He takes these opportunities to assist them with things and interact socially as well, serving as a Build Relationship action. The Eriksons may not be combat beasts, but they're both skilled scientists who are capable of a lot of things in their fields - the GM rates them give-or-take as powerful as Rook, so the base DC is 20. However, they're part of his backstory and Complications, so it gets knocked to 15. Rook can spend successes to get scientific or technological assistance from them, including helpful Inventions (representing experimental weaponry and upgrades) at the rate of 5 PP per success spent, max 15 in any one scene. And as the successes accumulate, his personal relationship with them improves, perhaps turning Dr Erikson into more of a father-figure while Lena may develop into a close friend or perhaps something more.

Disrupt Organization: You can infiltrate, sabotage, wage media/political/social warfare against, or just straight up attack the holdings of an enemy group. The skills you can use vary based on your methodology - you might use Stealth or Prowess for an infiltration or sabotage, Intimidation for a terror campaign, Deception for a social campaign, Technology (Wealth variant) for a financial campaign, or just use your straight PL for direct attacks. The DC varies based on the strength of the organization as a whole, but 10 + the series PL is always a good basepoint for serious organizations.

You accumulate successes indefinitely, and can spend two successes as if they were Hero Points - but only for actions involving the organization. So you could use them to Improve Rolls against enemies from that organization, Recover from conditions gained in scenes where you're fighting members of the organization, gain Inspiration regarding the organization, Edit a Scene that involves the organization to their detriment, etc. The cost in successes increases by 1 when using them against Significant or Major NPCs, and by 2 when using them against Bosses. Just in general though, the more successes you've acquired, the more behind-the-scenes difficulty the organization should be having, and the more they should start fearing and hating you. At GM discretion, enough accumulated successes may even cause the organization to collapse or allow you to force an encounter with its leader.

Example: Superheroic summoner Gestalt wants to learn about the Defiant attack on his previous ACC team a few years ago. To do this, he needs to infiltrate their parent organization, the Reclaimers, despite their hatred of Dreamers like him. While the average Reclaimer isn't anywhere near a match for Gestalt in combat, infiltrating them with his powers won't be easy - the GM says he can use Deception, Investigation, Persuasion, or Stealth, against DC 20. As he accumulates successes, Gestalt spends them regularly to gain Inspiration about the attack, each breakthrough bringing him closer to learning about the reasons behind it.

Explore/Fortify Location: You can explore, secure, or otherwise improve or become more familiar with an organization, giving you benefits within. Typically this involves Expertise, Perception, or Prowess. The DC depends on the size of the location - 5 + two times the Distance Rank of its largest dimension. You can spend two successes to gain the benefit of a Hero Point while within the location. You can spend one success to temporarily grant the location two Installation features of your choice for the rest of the episode.

Example: The vine-man Mandragora spends much of his time working in the Glade - a huge tropical park in the city of Adaros. The GM says he can use his Expertise (Nature) skill on an Explore Location action to represent his familiarity with it. The Glade takes up an entire Adaros megablock - a full square mile - so the DC is 21. When some Ten Wolves thugs stage an attack in the Glade - seeking to draw out Mandragora himself - he can spend his successes to conserve his Hero Points as he uses his plant-controlling powers to turn the flora of the Glade against them.

Hunt Enemy: You can track down a villain! This typically uses Investigation, but Perception, Technology, and possibly even Expertise could also work in certain circumstances. The DC is 10 + the best of the villain's Deception, Investigation, or Stealth. By default, you need 10 successes to hunt down a villain, but each rank of the Cipher Benefit the villain possesses increases this total by 5 (the Cipher does not, however, apply to your actual checks). Once you have reached the necessary number of successes, you can force an encounter with the villain. In addition, you can spend two successes to ask the GM one question about the villain's backstory, capabilities, or Complications, assuring you will be prepared when the time comes to fight.

Example: The mimic Copycat has decided it's time to hunt down the Recruiter. Using the precognitive powers he took from Magnus Mindrider, he pits his Perception against the Recruiter's Stealth of 14, three ranks of Stealth Supremacy, and four ranks of Cipher. He needs to make DC 24 checks to make progress (taking -6 for purposes of calculating degree of success), and accumulate 30 total degrees of success to track the villain down.

Improve Installation: You can improve an existing Installation, or establish a new one. The DC is 10 + the Installation's current number of features. For each success, you add one more feature to the Installation for free. If you purchased features directly with the Headquarters Advantage, you can instead "buy back" one feature per success, so every five features bought back lets you remove one rank of Headquarters and spend the PP on something else.

Overcome Complication: While it's natural for characters to outgrow their Complications over time, some might be things that the character wants or needs to take an active effort to get past. Overcoming a Complication should usually entail a DC of 12 + the character's PL. Resistance is often used to overcome Complications that are more physical or mental disabilities. Skills might be usable to overcome some Complications though, such as using Deception or Persuasion to overcome a negative reputation.

While overcoming the Complication, the character can spend successes to negate invocations of it. One success negates an invocation outright; with three successes, the invocation is negated but the character still receives the Hero Point.

At ten successes, the Complication is overcome and removed from the character's sheet. This should be a pretty big deal, and give the character some significant narrative advantage over simply removing the Complication outright (and if it's a narrative advantage that leads to a replacement Complication, even better). For example, an alcoholic who overcomes its addiction might make amends with its estranged family, being welcomed back into their lives - and gaining new Relationship and/or Responsibility Complications. Overcoming a Complication might alternately open up avenues for new Downtime Actions that the character couldn't otherwise take, with half of any unspent successes being transferred straight to that Downtime Action.

Example: When nanotech cyborg James Wilson learned that his enemy, Dreamcatcher mad scientist Adair Gaertner, implanted code that started changing his nanotech enhancements - including opening up several severe security holes that make him much easier prey for skilled technopaths - he began seeking ways to excise the code. In this case, the GM decides that rather than use the standard DCs, the DC is a stiff 28; 10 + Gaertner's Technology skill. Normally, this action would use Technology checks, but one of Wilson's powers allows his nanites to augment the powers and technology of others, and Wilson does have mental control over his nanites. Given that, the GM allows him to use his Resistance with a +5 bonus (effectively for getting the maximum bonus with an Aid action) to make the rolls. As he works, he can use his successes to cancel out Complications such as technopaths using the security holes to affect him. Once he succeeds completely, he'll gain access to a new Train Special Downtime Action allowing him to train at improving his control of his nanites.

Prevent Problem: You do something to make sure something else doesn't happen. For example, you might train a team to stop low-end supercrimes, or set your relationships up in a secure, secret location to make sure they don't get attacked, or the like. In any scene where you are actively working to prevent that thing, you can spend two successes to gain the benefit of a Hero Point. If the GM wants for the thing you have worked against to happen off-screen for plot purposes, it may only do so by awarding you one Hero Point per five total accumulated successes. The skills used depend on how you go about the matter, and the DC is based on how broad the problem is. Preventing a problem that would be part of one of your Complications has +5 to the DC, because you're shutting off avenues for the GM to bring your Complication into play, which is kinda counter-intuitive.

Example: After his sister Julia was kidnapped to try to influence his father, Major General Harrison Gallows, despite the utter insanity of targeting a high-ranking military official through his family, matter-disintegrating super-spy Aidan Gallows decides that measures must be taken to ensure that won't happen again. He wants to reach out to his IN-SIDE contacts and get discrete but capable surveillance placed over his sister's home to ensure no further threats against her can succeed. Protecting a single target is a pretty narrow goal, so the GM sets the base DC to 15, but Julia is one of Aidan's Complications, so it gets bumped up to 20. Since Aidan is using his IN-SIDE contacts and resources, the GM lets him use either Persuasion or Expertise (IN-SIDE). If later on Aidan is present at an attack on his sister, he can spend these successes to gain extra effective Hero Points, representing assistance from the operatives in place. And if the GM ever wants to pull another "Surprise! Your sister got kidnapped!" on him again, he'll have to award extra Hero Points to do so - on top of the normal expected Hero Point for targeting his Relationship Complication.

Redeem Villain: You can redeem a captured villain over time, getting them to turn away from their evil ends (in a villain game, you might instead be able to corrupt a kidnapped hero). This generally uses Deception, Insight, Intimidation, or Persuasion, but if the villain is more "insane" than "evil", Expertise (Psychology) or Treatment can also work. The DC is based on how significant the villain is and how intrinsic its villainous ways are to its character - villains who aren't really bad at heart, they just turned to evil to accomplish a specific task, are only DC 10. More rank-and-file, in it for the money type villains are DC 15. Your average villain who has some significant background event that drove them to evil are DC 20. Villains who enjoy it are DC 25. Villains for whom their villainy is a major facet of their personality, who do evil purely for its own sake, or who believe they are in the right can be DC 30 or even higher!

Redeeming the villains - getting them to forego their evil and at least make a strong attempt at living inside the law, not hurting others, and so on, requires a certain number of successes, typically 5 for rank-and-file villains, 10 for notable antagonists or Rivals, 20 for recurring villains or Enemies, and 30 for major campaign-scale villains. If you can accumulate twice this many successes, you fully convert the villain - not only will it cease doing evil, but it is willing to start using its skills and powers for the benefit of others to make reparations for its past acts. It might even become a full-fledged hero!

Redeemed villains will not return to villainy of their own will unless it is absolutely necessary for some driving personal goal, and even then only if the return all but guarantees accomplishing that goal. Note that any inherently villainous motivations (such as vengeance or a love of evil for its own sake) the villain possessed will be removed as part of the redemption and replaced with more wholesome ones, so this isn't especially likely. It is not impossible that it might be coerced to do evil though. A converted villain will never return to evil of its own will and will strenuously resist any attempts to force it. In any event, if you ever find yourself in conflict with a villain you redeemed gone back to evil, once per round you may gain the benefits of a Hero Point against it without spending one from your total. This becomes twice per round against a villain you've converted. If you ever begin a Relationship Building action with a redeemed or converted villain, it starts off with two successes per five total successes you achieved in the redemption attempt.

Example: Prophet the hero-priest knows what it is like to find yourself doing harm rather than good and the difficulty of returning to the light, and sees it as part of his mission to help others turn away from the darkness. After his team captured the Storm Runners - a trio of young adults with storm-based powers and not much forethought - he knew that these three were not really evil, just misguided. He begins visiting them in prison to try to turn them away from evil. They aren't the worst of villains, but they are fairly selfish and egotistical, so the GM sets the DC at 15 but knocks the successes required to redeem them from 5 to 3. Converting them still requires the normal 10 successes.

Remove Condition: You can use Treatment to attempt to remove Prolonged or Permanent conditions by spending Downtime Actions rather than spending specific amounts of time. For removing your own Prolonged conditions, if you wish, you can also make the attempt with Resistance.

Research Subject: You can research a subject, gaining information about it. The DC is based on the obscurity or security of the subject (use the guidelines in Expertise and Investigation), and the check is typically Expertise or Investigation. For each success, you may ask the GM one question regarding the subject - although these questions should be about gathering data, not automatically solving mysteries. The GM may veto or give an abridged response to questions that it feels are too broad in scope. For each ten successes accumulated, you make some major breakthrough. Typically this means you can ask any question on the subject and get an accurate answer, but alternately you can spend this breakthrough to get a free Expertise specialty (+1 on Expertise checks relating to the specific subject, max +5 for any given subject) on the subject.

Example: Kate Simms, teleporting private investigator, has begun research on the primary villain of the campaign - the power-augmenting ritualist Tara Ellens. Kate's a great investigator, but Tara keeps her secrets close and has a couple Cipher ranks. The DC is 30, and Kate has to use Investigation since she's investigating a certain person. Each success lets her ask one question about Tara, perhaps helping narrow down where she might be or what her next move might be, learning one of her powers or Complications, learning a piece of her background, and so on. Every ten successes she gets a major breakthrough - perhaps the name of someone who is helping her, a way to counteract the augmentations she's been placing on Dreamer criminals, or the location of one of her safehouses. The GM decides this action can also be used as if part of a Hunt Villain action, and with 30 successes Kate can force an actual encounter with Tara - if she dares.

Respec: You can spend Downtime Actions to revise your character sheet. No checks are required - for each Downtime Action spent, you may exchange up to 3 PP of traits for others.

Example: Chain-controlling mercenary Kyton learned something interesting when fighting the augmented corpse-possessor Snatcher. Snatcher's undead minions were being controlled with spiritual "Chains of Command", literal ephemeral chains binding the disembodied possessor to his minions, which Kyton was able to use his own powers to manipulate. Wanting to learn more about this unexpected aspect of his powers, Kyton spends a Downtime Action retraining, dropping an Advantage he never really found a use for to pick up a Technology variant for Magic.

Stockpile Invention: If you have the Inventor Advantage, you can prepare a specific invention as a Downtime Action. This requires a Technology check with a DC of 15 + the invention's PP cost. Unlike most inventions, though, inventions prepared with Downtime Actions can be stockpiled. You can still only use one at a time, only use them in one scene, and if you switch to another that use is lost, but you can build up a list of inventions you thing might be eventually useful and spend the VPP to pull them out as needed.

Take it Easy: Sometimes, a hero just needs to rest, relax, and have some fun. For each two Downtime Actions spent taking it easy, you gain one Hero Point.

Reinvigorated, you can then get back to work fresh. The next time you take a Downtime Action other than Take it Easy, you get a +5 bonus per Hero Point gained in this way. So if you spend six Downtime Actions taking it easy, you get three Hero Points and your next Downtime Action gets a +15 bonus.

Example: All work and no play makes Cartoon Hero Avery tired, grumpy, and in desperate need of a drink. And that's no fun. With no critical matters pressing at the end of a particular episode, Avery spends two of his Downtime Actions to gain a Hero Point and a +5 bonus for the next Downtime Action he takes.

Train NPC: You can spend Downtime Actions to train NPC allies. The DC is 5 + twice the NPC's PL, and you can use a relevant Expertise, Intimidation, Persuasion, or your own PL. If you are training a specific trait, you can also use your own trait.

For each success, the NPC gains 1 PP (and corresponding VPP) permanently. You may also spend five successes to immediately raise the NPC's PL by 1. This doesn't give the NPC any new PP or VPP, but increases its caps, allowing it to spend actual PP gained training more quickly. The NPC also naturally gains PL with PP increase at the normal rate decided by the GM (typically 1 PL per 15 PP).

You cannot quick-raise PL to higher than the average of the NPC's PL and your own. So if you're PL 10 training a PL 6 NPC, you can't spend more than ten successes to quick-raise its PL to 8. You cannot bring the NPC's PL or PP total above your own. You cannot bring any of the NPC's traits above your own PL limit (after tradeoffs) for that trait. You cannot bring any of the NPC's skills above your own rank for that skill.

You may choose what traits the NPC gains, but the GM may veto or alter choices. Or you can let the GM pick the traits improved.

Example: ACC powerhouse Beth Cobbler has tremendous physical strength, but no combat training. She turns to the diamond-coated Declan "the Unbreakable" Reynolds for help with that. Declan spends his Downtime Actions training Beth, boosting up her well-below-PL Accuracy and Defense, adding some Extras and alternate powers to her Exert power, and so on. Over the course of several adventures worth of training, Beth goes from a PL 6 noncombatant to a PL 10 powerhouse almost as dangerous as Declan himself. The next time the Defiant try to attack the ACC, they'll be in for a surprise!

Train Special: This Downtime Action generally isn't available by default. Characters need to accomplish something special to make it available, such as overcoming a Complication, completing a certain adventure, or being subject to some power-influencing effect. It makes their powers special in a way, a bit more mutable, and allows them to practice with their improved powers to gain certain benefits. The DC to Train Special is always 20, and the check is always a straight PL check. Successes can be spent to fuel special options as provided by the GM. In general, these should be similar in scope to Hero Point or Extra Effort options, but more limited and costing somewhere between one and three successes each.

Example: After absorbing a stone containing dangerous APEX radiation, the hydromorphic hero Waterworks experienced a strange angry euphoria in battle, which eventually culminated in her transforming into a giant water elemental that became known as the Maelstrom. Even after regaining control of herself, the APEX radiation altered her personality, pushing her more towards feral anger and prideful territorialism. But after spending months working on keeping control, she managed to get on even footing with the Maelstrom, overcoming the Complication.

As a special benefit for spending the Downtime Actions overcoming that Complication, the GM opens up a new, special Downtime Action for her. The Maelstrom is still within Waterworks - she's even gained a Metamorph power allowing her to transform into a (somewhat weaker) version of it. By further training at harnessing and controlling her APEX power, Waterworks can use it to enhance her APEX-related powers.

By spending one success, Waterworks can forego the Linked Attack she attached to her (standard action) Metamorph power to enter Maelstrom form as a free action. For two successes, she can do it as a Reaction instead - and may do so in response to being hit with an attack, allowing her to benefit from both her natural high Defense and the Maelstrom's high Resistance against a single attack. In addition, she can spend two successes to negate any Exertion Conditions accrued from Power Stunting APEX powers.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Advantages

Accurate Attack [Combat, Ranked (3)]: You can enter, leave, or swap to the Accurate Attack stance (-Force/+Accuracy) as a free action. With two ranks, you can Accurate Attack for up to 5 points, but doing so is a move action. With three ranks, Accurate Attacking for up to 5 points is also a free action.

Active Defense [Combat, Ranked (3)]: You can enter, leave, or swap to the Active Defense stance (-Resistance/+Defense) as a free action. With two ranks, you can Actively Defend for up to 5 points, but doing so is a move action. With three ranks, Actively Defending for up to 5 points is also a free action.

All Out Attack [Combat, Ranked (3)]: You can enter, leave, or swap to the All Out Attack stance (-Defense and Resistance/+Accuracy and Force) as a free action. With two ranks, you can All Out Attack for up to 5 points, but doing so is a move action. With three ranks, All Out Attacking for up to 5 points is also a free action.

Animal Empathy [Skill]: You have a special connection with animals. You can use interaction skills on animals normally, and do not have to speak a language the animal understands; you communicate your intent through gestures and body language and learn things by studying animal behavior. Characters normally have a -10 circumstance penalty to use interaction skills on animals, due to their inability to effectively communicate and lack of human-level intelligence.

Assessment [Skill]: As a free action, you may roll an Insight check against a DC of 10 + the Deception skills of anyone you want to assess. If you succeed against any given target, you learn the target's Power Level. If you succeed by two degrees, you also learn the target's tradeoffs, if any. If you succeed by three degrees, you learn the target's exact combat stats, its available Attack Modes, and any Immunities it possesses. You may only make one attempt to assess a given target in a given scene.

Attractive [Skill, Ranked (2)]: You’re particularly attractive, giving you a +2 circumstance bonus on Deception and Persuasion checks to deceive, seduce, or change the attitude of anyone who finds your looks appealing. With a second rank, you are Very Attractive, giving you a +5 circumstance bonus. This bonus does not count as part of your regular skill bonus in terms of the series power level, but also does not apply to people or situations which (in the GM’s opinion) would not be influenced by your appearance.

While superheroes tend to be a fairly good-looking lot, this advantage is generally reserved for characters with particularly impressive looks.

Attractive counts against the limits of the Specialization advantage for Persuasion and Deception.

Beginner's Luck [Fortune]: Whenever you make a check that you have no bonus on, you may spend a Hero Point to receive an automatic 20. This does not count as a natural 20. You may roll the check normally first if desired.

Benefit [General, Ranked]: You have some significant perquisite or fringe benefit. The exact nature of the benefit is for you and the Gamemaster to determine. As a rule of thumb it should not exceed the benefits of any other advantage, or a power effect costing 1 point (see Feature in Powers). It should also be significant enough to cost at least 1 PP. An example is Diplomatic Immunity (see Sample Benefits). A license to practice law or medicine, on the other hand, should not be considered a Benefit; it’s simply a part of having training in the appropriate Expertise skill and has no significant game effect.

Benefits may come in ranks for improved levels of the same benefit. The GM is the final arbiter as to what does and does not constitute a Benefit in the setting. Keep in mind some qualities may constitute Benefits in some series, but not in others, depending on whether or not they have any real impact on the game.

Bodyguard [Combat]: As a move action, choose an ally in Close range. Until the start of your next turn, any attacks made against that ally target you instead. If the attack beats your defense by two or more degrees, the attacker can choose to hit its original target instead of you if desired. If you have the Interpose Advantage, you can bodyguard for an ally within your Interpose range, but you cannot Interpose normally while doing so. If you suffer a condition from the Dazing or Vulnerability Tree, your Bodyguard effect ends.

Connected [Fortune]: You know people who can help you out from time to time. You may spend a Hero Point to establish the existence of a helpful NPC with a certain useful capability. You may broadly specify the capability the NPC possesses (such as "excellent lawyer", "technopath", "teleporter", etc), and the NPC should possess more-or-less equivalent competence to a theoretical PC who would possess that capability (so like, roughly similar PL to the PCs, similar investments in primary skills as the PCs display, etc). You may also specify why the NPC would be generally positively disposed towards you (friend from high school, helped them out of a jam, familial relation, etc). However, the GM decides the NPC's precise capabilities and personality. This advantage only allows establishing the NPC's existence and general willingness to provide you with reasonable assistance; just how much it is willing and able to do is subject to GM discretion. Especially difficult, costly, or dangerous aid may require you to perform similar favors in return. Likewise, the GM may manipulate the situation to require some sort of challenge be overcome to secure the NPC's aid, if it feels the aid would be warranted but might invalidate too much of the plot.

Contacts [Skill]: You have such extensive and well-informed contacts you can make an Investigation check to gather information in only one minute, assuming you have some means of getting in touch with your contacts. Further Investigation checks to gather information on the same subject require the normal length of time, since you must go beyond your immediate network of contacts.

Cunning Application [Skill, Ranked]: Choose a single use of a single skill, such as using Deception to Manipulate, Insight to Evaluate, or Stealth to Improve Concealment. You may perform that use with a different skill of your choice, as long as it makes sense. You may take multiple ranks in Cunning Application to swap additional uses, but each additional swap costs a number of ranks equal to 1 + your current number of swaps. So, the first swap requires one rank, the second requires another two ranks (three total), the third requires another three ranks (six total), etc. This is based on total swaps across all skills, not just swaps to or from a given skill.

If you have an Advantage or power that offers a new use of a skill or otherwise works with a certain skill (such as Well Informed) you may use Cunning Application to swap it to a different skill as well.

Daze [Skill]: Whenever you successfully perform the Manipulate action, you also Daze the target for the duration.

Defensive Manhandle [Combat]: When taking a Defend action that targets yourself, if an enemy misses you, you impose the result of a one-degree Manhandle success upon the opponent as a reaction. This can be a Grab if it misses by two or more degrees. You may only make one reaction to any given trigger (so this won't stack with advantages like Defensive Manhandle or Weapon Break, or other Reaction effects that are triggered by missed attacks).

Defensive Manipulation [Skill]: When taking a Defend action that targets yourself, if an enemy misses you, you may make an immediate Manipulation attempt against that enemy as a reaction. You may only make one reaction to any given trigger.

Eidetic Memory [Skill]: You have perfect recall of everything you’ve experienced. You have a minimum check bonus on Expertise checks to recall facts equal to half your Expertise skill, even in fields that you have no training in. You also add this bonus to any checks made to remember details or resist effects that would alter your memory. You may not Routine checks made using this advantage, and Skill Mastery doesn't apply. If you have Skill Supremacy in Expertise, its normal benefits don't apply, but each rank increases your minimum bonus by 1.

Evasion [Combat, Ranked [4]]: You get +2 to Defense against Area attacks. At rank 2, you also get +2 to Resistance checks against Area attacks. At rank 3, the Defense bonus increases to +5. At rank 4, the Resistance bonus increases to +5.

Extraordinary Effort [General]: You may use Extra Effort twice per round, but you cannot gain the same benefit more than once per round.

Fascinate [Skill]: You can hold the attention of others using any of your interaction skills, or when using performance-related Expertise skills. You may not do this in combat or other dangerous situations. You can affect a single target immediately, or an entire group once they've been exposed to your speech or performance for at least a minute. Roll a check with the skill you are using, against a DC of 10 + any given target's Resistance stat. Any target you succeed against focuses its attention on you, generally refraining from taking any active action (anything that involves using a power or rolling a check) for as long as you continue. In addition, your skill check replaces DC of any Insight or Perception checks made by such targets during this time, if it is higher. Any sudden danger, breakout of combat, or similar major distraction will end the fascinate attempt, but fascinated targets receive an automatic result of 0 on initiative.

Fast Grab [Combat]: If you hit a target with a Close attack and then perform a Manhandle action as a move action, you may resolve the Manhandle as a Grab.

Fast Tactician [Combat, Ranked [2]]: Choose an action you can perform with a lower action cost by taking a -5 penalty on the check, such as Manipulate or Aid. If the action can be performed with multiple different stats, also choose one such stat. When performing that action with that stat, the penalty to reduce the action cost is reduced to -2. With two ranks of this advantage, the penalty is negated entirely. You may take Fast Tactician multiple times, choosing a new action or stat each time.

Favored Environment [General]: You have an environment you’re especially suited for exploring and fighting in. Examples include Urban, Wooded, Underground, Mountain, Plains, Desert, Arctic, Outer Space, Under Water, Open Sky (meaning, both you and your opponent are flying above any terrain impediments), etc. Environmental factors such as heat, cold, darkness, cover, and so on do not count. While you are in your favored environment, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Accuracy, to Defense, or to your Prowess, Perception, and Stealth skills. Choose at the start of your turn which bonus you receive. The choice remains until the start of your next turn. This circumstance bonus is not affected by power level, but counts as a tradeoff bonus, so it can't bring the affected stat higher than PL+5. You cannot receive a bonus from Favored Environment and Favored Foe simultaneously.

Favored Foe [General]: You have a particular type of opponent you’ve studied or are especially effective against. It may be a type of creature (aliens, animals, constructs, mutants, undead, etc.), a profession (soldiers, police officers, Yakuza, etc.) or any other category the GM approves. Especially broad categories like “humans” or “villains” are not permitted. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Accuracy, to Force, or to your Deception, Intimidation, Insight, and Perception skills dealing with your Favored Foe. Choose at the start of your turn which bonus you receive. The choice remains until the start of your next turn. This circumstance bonus is not affected by power level, but counts as a tradeoff bonus, so it can't bring the affected stat higher than PL+5. You cannot receive a bonus from Favored Environment and Favored Foe simultaneously.

Fearless [General]: You are immune to mundane fear (including any uses of the Intimidation skill intended to actually scare you). You may roll twice on any checks made against effects with the [Fear] descriptor, taking the better of the two results.

Great Endurance [General]: You have a +5 bonus on checks to resist Onset Hazards, Continuous Hazards, and death from the Dying or Critical conditions. You have a +2 bonus on any resistance checks made against effects that repeat over a duration, such as Attacks with Extras like Increase Duration, Secondary Effect, and Progressive.

Group Manipulation [Skill, Ranked (2)]: When you perform a Manipulation action against a group of lower-ranked opponents, treat their rank as one lower for purposes of determining the check penalty. When performing a Manipulation against a group of equal-rank opponents, reduce the effective number of opponents by one. You may take a second rank of this advantage to repeat the benefits.

Headquarters [General, Ranked]: You have a particularly sweet house. Or mansion. Or castle. Or moon base. Or whatever. For each rank of the Headquarters advantage, you gain five Installation features.

Hide in Plain Sight [Skill]: You can Conceal yourself even while others are paying attention to you, with no need for a special distraction. You do still need some form of cover or concealment to hide however.

Improved Critical [Combat, Ranked (4)]: Increase your critical threat range by 1, allowing you to score a critical hit on a natural 19 or 20. Only a natural 20 is an automatic hit, however, and an attack that misses is not a critical. Each additional rank applies to a different attack or increases your threat range with an existing attack by one more, to a maximum threat range of 16-20 with 4 ranks.

Improved Defense [Combat]: When you take the Defend action you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to your Defend check.

Improved Grab [Combat, Ranked]: You can Grab targets with only one arm, leaving the other free, allowing you to grab a second target simultaneously. You can also maintain the grab while using your other hand to perform actions. You are not Vulnerable while grabbing.

With additional ranks, you can grab with other limbs (or perhaps you possess more limbs), allowing you to maintain one additional Grab per rank simultaneously.

Improved Hold [Combat]: You can improve an existing Grab. As a move action, roll a check using your Exert or Prowess rank, opposed by the grabbed target's Exert, Defense, or Prowess. If you succeed, choose a single condition imposed by the Grab. That condition increases by one Tier, and in the case of conditions from the Dazing, Impairment, Vulnerability, and Weakness trees (or other conditions if you have an active Attack power that can impose the conditions), becomes no longer limited to Wielded or Fired actions. You can attempt to improve a hold only once per round per target. For each additional degree of success, you can increase one additional existing condition by one tier, but you can't increase the same condition tree more than once per round. So for example with two degrees of success, you could improve Dazed+Impaired to Staggered+Disabled, but not to Dazed+Impotent. However, you could then further increase them to Stunned+Impotent next round. Conditions imposed by Improved Hold expire immediately when the Grab ends.

Tier 4 conditions imposed by Improved Hold apply even against attempts to escape the grab, and do not expire when the Grab ends. Instead, they use Short Recovery, but substituting your Exert or Prowess for Accuracy on the Recovery Check.

Improved Initiative [Combat, Ranked]: You have a +4 bonus to your initiative checks per rank in this advantage.

Improved Manhandle [Combat]: When you succeed a Manhandle action, you gain one additional degree of success for purposes of determining the number of conditions you can inflict.

Improved Manipulation [Skill, Ranked]: When you succeed a Manipulation attempt, it lasts for one additional round per rank in this advantage.

Improvised Tools [Skill]: You ignore the circumstance penalty for using skills without proper tools, since you can improvise sufficient tools with whatever is at hand. If you’re forced to work without tools at all, you suffer only a –2 penalty.

Inspire [Fortune, Ranked (5)]: You can inspire your allies to greatness. Once per scene, by taking a standard action and spending a Hero Point, allies able to interact with you gain a +1 circumstance bonus per Inspire rank on all checks until the start of your next round, with a maximum bonus of +5. You do not gain the bonus, only your allies do. The inspiration bonus ignores power level limits, like other uses of Hero Points. Multiple uses of Inspire do not stack, only the highest bonus applies.

Instant Maneuver [Skill]: You automatically succeed the DC 20 Prowess check to perform a single free action maneuver in any round that you don't otherwise take the Maneuver action.

Interpose [Combat, Ranked]: Once per round, when an ally within range of your normal movement is hit by an attack, you can choose to place yourself between the attacker and your ally as a reaction, making you the target of the attack instead. The attack hits you rather than your ally, and you suffer the effects normally. For each cumulative rank of Interpose, you may Interpose one additional time per round (using only a single pool of movement). So Interposing twice per round requires three ranks, three times per round six ranks, and so on.

Inventor [Skill, Ranked (2)]: You are able to use the Inventing option of the Technology skill more effectively, letting you create prepared Inventions with significant mechanical effects. For two ranks, you can also create plot device inventions with substantial plot effects. See the Technology skill for details. Inventor can also be taken for Technology variants, such as "Artificer" or "Ritualist" for magic, "Major Purchase" for wealth, "Calling it In" for prestige, etc.

Jack of All Trades [Skill]: You may use your full Expertise rank to perform mundane tasks (nothing power-related, and not recalling facts) relating to untrained Expertise skills. You may not Routine checks made using this advantage, and Skill Mastery doesn't apply. If you have Skill Supremacy in Expertise, its normal benefits don't apply, but each rank increases your minimum bonus by 1.

Leadership [Fortune]: As a free action, you may either spend a Hero Point and grant its effects to an ally who you can interact with instead, or simply grant one of your Hero Points to an ally you can interact with.

Move-by Action [Combat]: When taking a standard action and using a Maneuver action to move you can move both before and after your standard action, provided the total distance moved isn’t greater than your normal movement speed.

Power Attack [Combat]: You can enter, leave, or swap to the Power Attack stance (-Accuracy/+Force) as a free action. With two ranks, you can Power Attack for up to 5 points, but doing so is a move action. With three ranks, Power Attacking for up to 5 points is also a free action.

Precise Attack [Combat, Ranked (3)]: Your attacks ignore Partial Concealment or Partial Cover (chosen when you gain the advantage). For two ranks, they reduce Full Concealment or Cover to Partial. For three ranks, they ignore Partial and Full Concealment or Cover. Total Concealment or Cover has any attack roll penalties reduced as per Full, but are otherwise unaffected. You may take Precise Attack twice to receive benefits against both Concealment and Cover.

Prone Fighting [Combat]: You suffer no circumstance penalty to attack checks for being prone, and adjacent opponents do not gain the usual circumstance bonus for close attacks against you. You can stand from prone as a free action without attempting a free maneuver.

Redirect [Skill]: If you successfully Manipulate an opponent, you can forego the normal benefits to instead redirect the next missed attack against you from that opponent at another target as a reaction. The new target must be within range of the attack. The attacker makes a new attack check with the same modifiers as the first against the new target. You retain this benefit until you redirect an attack or the scene ends. If you succeed the Manipulate attempt by multiple degrees, you can redirect one missed attack per degree of success before the benefit ends.

Second Chance [General]: Choose a particular hazard, such as falling, being tripped, triggering traps, magical mind control (or another effect equivalent to a five-point Immunity or less) or a particular use of a particular skill with consequences for failure. If you fail a check against that hazard, you can make another immediately and use the better of the two results. You only get one second chance for any given check, and the GM decides if a particular hazard or skill is an appropriate focus for this advantage. You can take this advantage multiple times, each for a different hazard.

Seize Initiative [Fortune]: You can spend a Hero Point to automatically go first in the initiative order. You may only do so at the start of combat, when you would normally make your initiative check. If more than one character uses this advantage, they all make initiative checks normally and act in order of their initiative result, followed by all the other characters who do not have this advantage. You may roll initiative normally before using this advantage if desired.

Set-up [Skill, Ranked]: You can transfer the benefits of a successful Manipulation action to your allies. For example, you can use Deception and have your target vulnerable against one or more allies, rather than you. Each rank in the advantage lets you transfer the benefit to one ally. If you have multiple ranks, you may keep the benefit for yourself at the cost of one available swap. The Manipulation requires its normal action, and the affected allies must be capable of interacting with you (or at least seeing the set-up) to benefit from it.

Sherlock Scan [Skill]: As a move action, you can look someone over, notice certain subtle physical clues and behavioral tics, and come to shockingly accurate conclusions about them. Roll a check using the lower of your Perception or Investigation skills against a DC of 10 + the target's Deception skill. For each degree of success, the GM reveals one clue you noticed and what it means about them (such as "there's a bit of dog hair high on their shirt - this suggests that they have a big dog at home and it's not very well-trained, since it jumps up on them when they arrive"). Even if realistically the clue you spot could mean one of several things, your deduction is always the correct one.

Skill Mastery [Skill]: Choose one skill. When making a check with that skill against a flat DC, if you roll lower than your Routine result (typically 10) on the d20, you use the Routine result instead. Your natural result is still based on your actual die roll for purposes of effects that consider natural check results. You may take Skill Mastery multiple times, choosing a new skill each time.

Skill Supremacy [Skill, Ranked]: Choose one skill. Any time you roll a check with that skill (even when it is against another character) if you get a natural roll of 19 or higher on the check, you get a further +5 to the result (this is in addition to the normal +1 degree of success if you roll a natural 20). The natural number required is lowered by 1 per two additional ranks of this advantage. You may take multiple instances of Skill Supremacy individually for different skills, but for any given skill, you can only have a maximum number of ranks equal to half your skill rank. In addition, you gain the following benefits:

Improved Reliability: When you make a check that isn't against or opposed by another character (so, it's just against a flat DC determined by the circumstances), your Routine result (normally 10) is increased by 2 per rank of this advantage.

Improved Degree: When you succeed a check that is in some way opposed by another character (they make an opposed check, use one of their stats to set the DC, etc) add twice your rank in this advantage to the result for purposes of calculating how much you succeeded by. This bonus is halved if you made the check as a Routine check.

Improved Mitigation: When another character succeeds a check that is in any way opposed by your skill (for example, you make an opposed roll with the chosen skill or use it to set the DC), subtract twice your rank in this advantage from their result for purposes of calculating how much the opponent succeeded by. This cannot reduce the opponent's effective points of success below 1.

Negate Penalties: If you take a penalty to your chosen skill, you can choose to reduce your effective ranks of Skill Supremacy to mitigate the penalty, losing one effective rank of the advantage per two points of penalty negated. For example, if you have Perception +10 and Skill Supremacy (Perception) 3, and you take -8 on Perception due to a Concealment power, you can forego your Skill Supremacy benefits and only take -2 on your actual Perception checks.

Stalwart Defense [Combat]: You can enter, leave, or swap to the Stalwart Defense stance (-Defense/+Resistance) as a free action. With two ranks, you can Stalwart Defend for up to 5 points, but doing so is a move action. With three ranks, Stalwart Defending for up to 5 points is also a free action.

Specialization [Skill, Ranked]: Choose a specific situation in which you might use a skill, such as using Insight to determine whether a target is lying, Stealth to hide in shadows, or Technology for hacking. You get a +2 circumstance bonus on those uses of that skill. You may a second rank in this Advantage to raise the bonus to +5. You may take multiple different Specialization Advantages, but no more than one for any given skill.

Takedown [Combat, Ranked (2)]: If you render a minion incapacitated with an attack, you get an immediate extra attack as a free action against another minion within range and adjacent to the previous target’s location. The extra attack is with the same attack and bonus as the first. You can continue using this advantage until you miss or there are no more minions within range of your attack or your last target.

A second rank in this advantage allows you to attack non-adjacent minion targets, moving between attacks if necessary to do so. You cannot move more than your total speed in the round, regardless of the number of attacks you make. You stop attacking once you miss, run out of movement, or there are no more minions within range of your attack.

Teamwork [General]: You get a +5 bonus on Aid actions that target others. You don't get a bonus when Aiding your own actions.

Total Defense [Combat]: You can enter, leave, or swap to the Total Defense stance (-Accuracy and Force/+Defense and Resistance) as a free action. With two ranks, you can Total Defend for up to 5 points, but doing so is a move action. With three ranks, Total Defending for up to 5 points is also a free action.

Tracking [Skill]: You can use the Perception skill to visually follow tracks like the Tracking Senses effect.

Trance [General]: Through breathing and bodily control, you can slip into a deep trance. This requires you to concentrate, taking a standard action each round, and remain immobile. While in a trance, you are fully aware of your surroundings, but you may use a trance in place of sleep. Any effects that require you to make saves over time - such as Secondary Effects, Progressive Attacks, Dying or Critical status, even things like hunger, thirst, and suffocation - are delayed indefinitely while you are in trance. While in trance, you may slow your breathing, heart rate, and other vital functions such that you appear dead to anyone who can't make a Perception check, DC 10 + your Resistance stat. While in a Trance, you get +5 on Defense against Aimed and Selected actions, but you take -5 on Defense against Wielded and Fired actions. Ending the trance is a free action.

Ultimate Effort [Fortune]: You can spend a Hero point on a particular check and treat the roll as a 20. This is not a natural 20, but is treated as a roll of 20 in all other respects. You choose the particular check the advantage applies to when you acquire it and the GM must approve it. You can take Ultimate Effort multiple times, each time, it applies to a different check. This advantage may be used after you’ve rolled the die to determine if you succeed if you desire.

Uncanny Dodge [Combat]: You are especially attuned to danger. You are not caught Vulnerable by surprise, Surprise Attacks, concealment, or otherwise being unaware of or unexpecting the attack. You are still made vulnerable by effects that limit your mobility or distract you in combat.

Weapon Break [Combat]: If you take a Defend action that targets yourself and an opponent misses you with a Close-range weapon attack, you can make an attack against the attacker’s weapon immediately as a reaction. This requires an attack check and inflicts normal damage to the weapon if it hits. You may only make one reaction to any given trigger.

Well Informed [Skill]: You are exceptionally well-informed. When encountering an individual, group, or organization for the first time, you can make an immediate Investigation check to see if your character has heard something about the subject. Use the guidelines for gathering information in the Investigation Skill description to determine the level of information you gain. You receive only one check per subject upon first encountering them, although the GM may allow another upon encountering the subject again once significant time has passed.

Agile Feint: Replaced by Cunning Application.

Artificer: Folded into Inventor.

Close Attack: Replaced by new Accuracy rules.

Defensive Attack: Not strictly removed, but renamed to Total Defense.

Defensive Roll: Resistance can be purchased directly. The revised Removable Flaw is appropriate for Resistance that is negated while Vulnerable.

Diehard: Folded into Great Endurance.

Equipment: See the Equipment and Devices portion of the The More Things Change section. Short version is, most major Equipment should be purchased as normal traits/powers with a Complication allowing for potential loss, and mundane equipment kinda doesn't need to cost points.

Grabbing Finesse: The Abilities are rebalanced and you can purchase Might (Restricted to Manhandle actions) directly if you don't want Strength.

Improved Aim: Since Aiming has been folded into the Aid action, Improved Aim is removed.

Improved Disarm: Replaced by Improved Manhandle.

Improved Hold: The way Escape DCs are calculated now, this Advantage is no longer necessary.

Improved Smash: There's no longer a penalty for attacking objects, so Improved Smash is removed.

Improved Trip: Replaced by Improved Manhandle.

Improvised Weapon: New Accuracy and Force rules make this Advantage largely irrelevant.

Instant Up: Folded into Prone Fighting and/or Instant Maneuver.

Languages: Replaced by Expertise (Linguist).

Luck: Replaced with new rules for starting Hero Points; Luck as an Advantage creates too much resource disparity.

Minion: Replaced by new Teammate rules.

Quick Draw: Drawing a weapon is considered a free action, same as changing literally every other array in the game.

Ranged Attack: Replaced by new Accuracy rules.

Ritualist: Folded into Inventor.

Teammate: Replaced by new Teammate rules.

Speed of Thought: The Abilities are rebalanced, so this isn't really appropriate for this ruleset.

Startle/Taunt: Replaced by Cunning Application.

Throwing Mastery: New Accuracy and Force rules make this Advantage largely irrelevant (and it was technically rather undercosted in any case).

Weapon Bind: Replaced by Defensive Manhandle.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Effects

Aid: Action: Standard. Range: Close. Targeting: Wielded. Duration: Instant. Attack Modes: Tactical. Cost: 1 point per rank.

The Aid power allows you to perform Aid actions with a power, thereby allowing you to add Modifiers to your Aid actions. Your check is made using the power rank, rather than the actual stat in question. Using an Aid power is always a standard action, and the bonus lasts for one round unless the power's duration is improved, applying to all checks of the relevant type that the target makes during that round (rather than to a single check as normal for Aid).

Attack: Action: Standard. Range: Close. Targeting: Wielded. Duration: Instant. Attack Modes: None. Cost: Special

The Attack power allows you to perform Attack actions with a power, thereby allowing you to add Modifiers to your attacks. An unmodified Attack power simply has a cost of one PP. An Attack power with Extras simply uses the combined cost of the Extras. Attack powers do not have ranks in and of themselves; for the purpose of Extras with a cost per rank, or effects that influence or oppose power ranks, treat the power's rank as equal to your Power Level. If you wish, you can lower the effective rank of the power for purposes of its cost, but for each effective rank reduced you take -1 on Accuracy and Force when using the power.

When you acquire an Attack power, you may choose to inflict conditions other than the Dazing Tree. Either choose a different full condition tree, or choose a condition for each tier from one to four. You may also choose an Attack Mode other than Physical, but since Attack doesn't have any native Attack Modes, you may only choose those that exist on the list of available Attack Modes you have purchased. If you don't do so, the power uses your default Attack Mode.

The Diverse and Broad Extras can be used to create versatile attacks that can apply different condition sets or Attack Modes, but in the case of Attack Modes, you must always choose from those you have on your list of available Attack Modes.

Communication: Action: Free. Range: Personal. Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: None. Cost: 1 point per rank.

You have improved ability to communicate with others. Like Senses and Immunity, the Communication power offers a number of options which you may spend ranks on to acquire.

Communication, unlike most powers, is not limited by PL limits.

Clarify Communication (1+ ranks): You can make your communication more easily detectable. For each rank, people are considered to have a chosen two ranks of Senses powers relating to your communication method. So for example, you could take one rank for Counters Concealment (Background Noise) on your speech, and then anyone could hear you speak despite any background noise that might be present. For two ranks you could take Penetrates Concealment, allowing you to be heard clearly despite walls and other obstacles. And so on. Any PL limits that apply to certain Sense effects also apply here.

Comprehension (2-6 ranks): You can comprehend some broad type of creature that possesses a means of communication but not a human language - typically animals, though other such groups may be possible depending on the setting. For 2 ranks, you can understand the messages conveyed by such means of communication, which are generally best expressed as simple concepts - food, danger, follow, attack, safety, etc, and you can communicate such messages yourself in the same way. For 4 ranks, you can communicate with such creatures using normal speech, and can understand their responses as normal speech, although such communications are still simple and may be limited by the creature's ability to comprehend its reality. For 6 ranks, any such creatures you communicate with can properly understand your speech and respond to you as if they were human-level intelligent, and can also effectively draw from your conceptual knowledge for such communications. For example, you could ask an animal if it saw a person you know by name, and the animal would arbitrarily be able to identify and remember that person to give an accurate answer to your question.

In addition, you can use interaction skills on animals (or whatever creature type this power effects) normally.

Communication Link (1 rank): This functions as Project Communication, allowing two-way communication at a distance between yourself and others. However, it may only target others who have the same sort of communication link, rather than anyone with an appropriate sense. For example, this could function equivalently to a cell phone, commlink, or similar device, allowing you to contact anyone else who has the same sort of device. Alternately, a more restricted version could function as a telepathic bond between two (or more) individuals, allowing them to freely communicate with each other.

Encrypt Communication (1 rank): Any communications you make with this power are encrypted - people who aren't authorized to receive them only get gibberish, even if they have some means of eavesdropping on the communication itself.

Interface (2-4 ranks): You can interface with electronic data directly, allowing you to access computers and the like without needing a normal connection. For two ranks you have "read only" access, allowing you to retrieve information but not make changes. For four ranks you have "read/write" access, letting you operate as if you were accessing the system with a computer and make full use of the Technology skill. This also allows you to use Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion on computerized constructs normally. You may also substitute any of those skills for Technology when working with computers, and you may substitute Technology for any of those skills against computerized creatures if desired. This ability does not inherently provide any additional ability to overcome computer security, beyond using your skills.

Project Communication (2-8 ranks): You can create a two-way communication link to others, sending them messages and receiving those sent to you. Choose which sense receives these messages when you gain the power. These messages are received only by the intended targets, but anyone with a Ranged sense of the appropriate type can discern them with a DC 20 Perception check.

For two ranks, you can create the link with any target you can see. For four ranks, you can create the link with anyone whose name you know or who you can clearly visualize. For six ranks, you can create the link with anyone on the same planet. For eight ranks, you can create the link with anyone you wish.

You can create as many links as you want, but this power doesn't provide you with any particular ability to keep track of multiple conversations. Consider the Quickness power or the Rapid Extra for that.

You may also project communication to places rather than people, in which case it is simply overheard by everyone in the area, as if you were standing there and speaking normally.

Sensory Link (1+ ranks): You can create a sensory link with anyone you are using this power to communicate with - such as someone you share a Communication Link with, an animal you spoke to with Comprehension, someone you projected a communication to, or even a computer network you've interfaced with. For one rank, you can only share a single sense. For two ranks, an entire sense type. For three ranks, as many senses as you wish.

By default, the target's senses replace your senses (rendering any sense shared Unaware with regards to your current surroundings). To remove this limitation, add one rank.

By default, you perceive through the target's senses. When you gain the power, you can instead allow the target to perceive through your senses, but an unwilling target resists automatically. To be able to choose freely, add an additional rank.

By default, the target must be willing. For an additional rank, you can force the target to accept the sharing if it fails a Resistance check, DC 10 + your Force (Mystical or Mental Attack Mode for taking their senses, Sensory Attack Mode for forcing them to take yours). You can't try again in the same scene without Extra Effort.

Tongues (2-8 ranks): You can speak, read, and/or understand all languages, spending two ranks for each capability. By spending two extra ranks on speaking, anyone you speak with hears your words translated into its own language.

Concealment: Action: Free. Range: Personal. Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: None. Cost: 2 point per rank.

While this power is active, you can easily improve your personal level of concealment to normal vision. The DC to do so is always 10, regardless of your current level of concealment (although Perception skills can oppose your attempt normally), and you may either substitute your Concealment rank for your Stealth, or you may penalize observers' Perception skills by your Concealment rank (so, a Concealment power can be a substitute for skill in Stealth, but works best when used in conjunction with it). You improve your current level of Concealment against any given observer by one step per degree your Stealth beats their Perception.

Further, targeting other characters with actions doesn't inherently break your Stealth. It merely lowers your effective Stealth result by two degrees (against your target) or one degree (against anyone who can accurately perceive your target) until the start of your next turn, and grants your target a free active Perception check against you.

You may use the Additional Sense Extra to affect senses other than vision.

Create: Action: Standard. Range: Close. Targeting: Fired. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: Material (for trapping), Physical (for attacking). Cost: 2 points per rank.

You can form matter (solid, liquid, or gaseous, as appropriate to your descriptors) essentially out of nowhere. They may be made of solidified energy, “hardened” water or air, transmuted bulk matter, ice, stone, or some other medium, depending on the effect’s descriptors.

You can form any simple geometric shape or common object (such as a cube, sphere, dome, hammer, lens, disk, etc.). The GM has final say on whether or not a particular object is too complex for this effect. Generally, your objects can’t have any moving parts more complex than a hinge unless you have the Precise Extra. They can be solid or hollow, opaque or transparent, as you choose when you use the effect, limited by your descriptors and the Gamemaster’s judgment. They can either hover in place and retain their shape as you created them, or respond normally to physics (a created liquid all splashing out to fill the area, a created gas spreading and moving with the wind, a created object falling, etc).

Your objects can have a Volume Rank up to your Create rank + 5 and Resistance equal to your effect rank. Created objects can be damaged or broken like ordinary objects. They also vanish if you stop maintaining them. You can repair any damage to a created object at will by using your effect again (essentially “re-creating” the object). Your created objects are stationary once you have created them, although other effects can move them. Assume a created object has a mass rank equal to its volume rank.

Create is a power that offers a variety of options based on how you use it. The typical uses are below, but the GM may allow other creative options.

Attacking: You can attack an opponent with a Created object, such as conjuring a sword to fight with. As long as the object you are creating is a hand-held weapon, you can attack with it in the same action as you create it with (Created objects that provide other functions aside from just being a weapon to attack with have to be summoned and then used to attack in two separate actions). In this way, Create functions like an Attack power, with its rank compared to your PL determining if your Accuracy and Force stats are reduced, using Wielded targeting to make the attack, and applying any valid Extras that are added to the Create. Create does not in and of itself provide any Extras to the attack - if you want to create a machine gun, you need a Ranged, Multiattack Create. Granted, a normal Attack power is much cheaper, but Create can also be used for other things.

A Ranged Create can also be summoned such that it drops on targets, effectively turning the Create into an Area attack. However, such attacks are easier to avoid than normal. The target may make a Defense check, DC 10 + your Create rank, to avoid the effect entirely. Even if that fails, you still have to resolve the area attack normally, succeeding the attack roll and allowing a normal resistance check (in essence, this is like adding both Area and Resistible to the attack).

Providing Cover: You can use a Created object to provide Cover - Partial, Full, or Total, depending on the size of the object relative to the people it is covering. However, a Selective Create cannot provide more than Full Cover. Create cannot be used to create functional "armor" or movable shields (although such conjured defenses could be the fluff rationale for Enhanced Defense, Enhanced Resistance, or Defend powers).

Providing Concealment: You can use a Created object to provide Concealment - Partial, Full, or Total, depending on how opaque it is. However, a Selective Create cannot provide more than Full Cover.

Blocking Movement: Created objects can be used to block passage as normal objects of their size and Resistance. Created liquids can be passed through by swimming. This can also be used to trap opponents until the Created object is destroyed. However, any opponent within a Created object, or on the side of one that it doesn't want to be on when it is first conjured, can roll a Defense, Prowess, or Movement check against DC 10 + your Create rank. If they succeed, they can move out of or to the other side of the Created object as long as they could reach that destination with a single move action.

Supporting Weight: A solid Create can support weight with a Mass Rank equal to its rank.

Defend: Action: Standard. Range: Close. Targeting: Wielded. Duration: Instant. Attack Modes: None. Cost: Special.

The Defend power allows you to perform Defend actions with a power, thereby allowing you to add Modifiers to your Defend actions. As with the Attack power, Defend doesn't technically have a rank, and an unmodified Defend power costs only one point , while a Defend power with Extras simply uses the total cost of those Extras, treating its rank as equal to your PL for purposes of calculating costs and effects that interact with power ranks. You may lower its effective rank if you wish, but then your Defense and Resistance stats take -1 per lower rank for purposes of the Defend power (your actual stats aren't lowered, you just use the lower stats for purposes of calculating the Defend result).

Enhanced Trait: Action: Free. Range: Personal. Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: None. Cost: As trait, possibly discounted by the Removable Flaw.

You can temporarily improve one of your existing traits, chosen when you take this effect. While this effect is active, you increase the affected trait by its rank. So, for example, Enhanced Resistance 5 increases your Resistance by +5 while it is active. Your enhanced trait is still subject to power level limits, so your unenhanced rank must be below the limit by at least the amount of the enhancement to accommodate it.

You may enhance any trait, even things like Advantages or Extras, subject to all normal rules for purchasing the trait (for example, Enhanced Advantages or Enhanced Attack Modes can't be acquired with VPP any more than regular advantages or Attack Modes can). When Enhancing Extras, you must specify an Effect it applies to, and it applies to all powers of that Effect that you might possess, up to the Enhanced Extra's rank (so if you have Enhanced Extra 8 (Secondary Effect on Attack), you would apply Secondary Effect to up to 8 ranks of any Attack powers you possess). Only one power may benefit from a given Enhanced Extra at a time, however. To be able to freely mix-and-match Extras and Effects, you want the Variable power.

The cost of Enhanced Trait is the same per rank as acquiring a rank in the affected trait. The key differences are that Enhanced Trait is a power effect, rather than a natural trait, and as an effect it can be combined with extra effort and other effects. That being said, any Enhanced Trait that is normally a natural trait (combat stat, skill, or advantage) automatically qualifies for the Removable Flaw, since it means that the trait can be removed by Nullifies (and possibly stuns and the like if not rendered Permanent or Continuous). You may elect not to add Removable if you wish (or use a different type of Removable), in which case it functions as a natural trait despite being listed as a power, kinda as if adding Removable and then negating it with Innate.

Environment: Action: Move. Range: Close (Area centered on self). Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: None. Cost: 1 point per rank.

You can change the environment in an area: raising or lowering the temperature, creating light, causing rain, and so forth.

Your Environment affects a 30 foot radius around you at rank 1. Each additional rank moves the radius up one distance rank, for a reach of approximately 2,000 miles at rank 20, sufficient to alter the environment of an entire continent! Your environment moves with you, as if it had the Area, Zone, and Aura Extras.

You may choose one Basic Environment Effect that you can create when you gain this power. The Additional Extra lets you add more environment effects (two Basic effects can be spent for one Advanced effect), and the Diverse Extra lets you choose more options that you can mix-and-match.

Where the end of an environment's description specifies "Depending on the nature of the environment, X may happen", you may add those things as individual Features. So, for example, since Impede Movement says "Depending on the nature of the environment, additional modes of movement might be affected (or certain modes of movement might be excluded from the advanced effect)" you could add additional modes of movement simultaneously affected (or excluded from the advanced effect) for one Feature each.

If your Environment either has an opposing descriptor (such as light to darkness, cold to heat, etc) or opposing effect (such as Extend Movement to Impede Movement) to an overlapping environment, only the highest applies, but its rank (for purposes of effect, not area) is reduced by the rank of the suppressed environment within the area.

When creating a Hamper Environment, the resistance you choose must be a resistance for one of your available Attack Modes.

As a free action, you can also generate an environment that is much weaker than the listed effects, such as radiating a gentle warmth that doesn't cause any hindrance. These gentler environments can still counter opposing effects or descriptors.

A Selective Environment can never provide Total Cover or Total Concealment.

The Environment power cannot create Hazards. For those, use Attack powers.

Exert: Action: Free. Range: Personal. Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: Physical. Cost: 1 PP/rank.

Your base Lifting Rank - the amount of weight you can lift as a light load, before modification by the Strength Physicality option of Prowess - is equal to your Exert rank. So with Exert 10, a light load would be Mass Rank 10 (25 tons). See the Strength Physicality option in Prowess for more information on lifting rank.

In addition, any Extras applied to the Exert power can be applied to any Manhandle actions you make, and any Maneuver actions that affect targets other than you. For example, a Ranged Exert lets you pick objects up, grab opponents, and so on from afar. An Area Exert lets you Manhandle everyone in the area, lift everyone in the area to their feet, etc.

You may substitute your Exert rank for your Prowess rank for all purposes relating to Manhandle actions. When doing so, each two ranks of Exert also counts as one rank of Skill Supremacy (Prowess), though these bonus ranks don't stack with any actual ranks you may have in that advantage.

Feature: Action: None. Range: Personal. Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Permanent. Attack Modes: None. Cost: 1 point per rank.

You have one or more minor features, effects granting you an occasionally useful ability, one per rank. This effect is essentially a version of the Benefit advantage but a power rather than a virtue of skill, talent, or social background. For example, diplomatic immunity or wealth are Benefits; fur, the ability to mimic sounds, or a hidden compartment in your hollow leg are Features.

It’s up to the GM what capabilities qualify as Features; generally, if something has no real game effect, it’s just a descriptor. If it has an actual game system benefit, it may be a Feature. There’s no need to define every possible Feature a character may have down to the last detail.

Some Features may be sustained duration rather than permanent with no change in cost. This suits active Features a character has to use and maintain rather than having them as passive traits requiring no effort whatsoever.

Features, unlike most powers, are not limited by PL.

Healing: Action: Standard. Range: Close. Targeting: Fired. Duration: Instant. Attack Modes: Physiological or Transformative. Cost: 2 points per rank.

When you use a Healing power, choose one condition suffered by the target and roll a Healing check, with a base DC of 5 + the attack's Accuracy. The DC increases by 3 for each step of the recovery rate (so an Instant condition is DC 8+Accuracy, Short is DC 11+Accuracy, Standard is DC 14+Accuracy, etc). If you succeed, you remove the condition. If the condition was imposed by a Condition Tree, it downgrades normally, but you downgrade it an additional step per extra degree of success. A given character may make only one attempt to heal a given condition, and once a given Condition Tree has been reduced by Healing, it cannot be reduced again. You can spend Extra Effort to reset these limits, and the Effortless Extra expands them normally.

Healing can also be used to heal Bruises. In this case, the DC is simply 10, and you remove one Bruise on a success, plus one additional Bruise per two degrees of success beyond the first. You can make as many attempts to heal Bruises as you wish. Each two degrees of overflow success on attempts to heal other conditions can instead remove Bruises if desired.

Finally, Healing can be used to remove Exertion Conditions. This is a dedicated use of Healing and no check is required. Any levels of the condition removed are transferred to the healer (and still count as Exertion Conditions).

A Dying or Critical character who is targeted by a Healing effect immediately stabilizes.

Illusion: Action: Standard. Range: Ranged. Targeting: Aimed. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: Sensory. Cost: 1 point per rank.

You can control others’ senses to create false impressions, illusions. This can range from visual images to phantom sounds, smells, or even radar, mental images, or false emotions. By default, Illusion affects vision. You may add additional senses to the illusion using the Additional Sense Extra.

Illusions can be of any size so long as they fit entirely into a cube with a Distance Rank on each side equal to the Illusion rank minus 4. An illusion can be made up of multiple discrete things.

Once an illusion is created it is static. By maintaining the illusion using a duration one step worse than normal (to a maximum of Concentration) the character can cause the illusion to do things actively, such as move or change. Improving an illusion's duration beyond Continuous allows the illusion to act on a program even without the character paying any mind to it at all. A character can only effectively have the illusion "do" one thing at a time. Each rank of Quickness doubles the number of discrete actions the character can make the illusion perform at once. So, any character could create an entire unit of identical soldiers marching in formation. But making a unit of 32 soldiers all appearing to be fighting in a complex battle would require Quickness of at least 5. The Rapid Extra can also be used for this purpose.

By default, characters don't make checks to detect illusions as false. If a character takes an action that targets, affects, or interacts with an illusion, however, it is immediately entitled to an Insight or Perception check, DC 10 + the Illusion rank, to recognize the illusion for what it is. If a character believes it has encountered an illusion, it can spend a move action studying it to make such a check. Each action spent on the illusion allows a new check to reveal it as false. If the character has an Acute or Accurate sense that should pick something up from the illusion, and the illusion does not affect that sense, the character receives a check to reveal the illusion immediately. This check has a +5 bonus if the sense in question is Analytical.

A character faced with clear proof an illusion isn’t real (such as passing through an illusion that appears solid) needs no check - it automatically recognizes the illusion as false. Senses with the Counters Illusion effect automatically allow a check to see through illusion, and allow Resistance or Investigation to be used as well. If any viewer successfully uncovers an illusion and communicates this fact to others, they gain another check with a +5 circumstance bonus. Circumstances may grant additional modifiers to the check to uncover an illusion, depending on how convincing it is.

Once a character realizes it has been subject to illusions, it may choose to enter a more disbelieving mindset, receiving a +5 bonus on any checks to recognize or resist illusions for the rest of the scene. However, if it does this, it takes a -5 penalty to resist Manipulate attempts that involve making it believe something real is actually an illusion.

Illusions have no substance and cannot have any real-world effect. So they cannot provide illumination, nutrition, warmth, or the like (although they can provide the sensations of these things). Likewise, an illusory wall only prevents people from moving through an area so long as they believe it’s real, and an illusory bridge or floor is revealed as false as soon as someone tries to walk across it, and falls through it! That being said, illusions can provide concrete forms of influence over others, as follows. A given illusion can only do one of these things at a time, unless the Additional Extra is applied.

Craft Display: You can use illusions to create non-deceptive displays, such as projecting your voice at a distance, creating a glowing neon sign to draw attention, manifesting a map in the air for people to see, and so on. Such displays are generally obviously illusory (or at least, it doesn't really matter if they're real or not), but they provide some occasionally helpful utility. Power of illusion in no way conveys artistic ability; how good your displays look (sound, smell, whatever) would be a function of the relevant Expertise skill. Creating illusions of this type is a free action rather than a standard action.

Disguise Appearance: You can use illusions to disguise something as something else, as with the Disguise option of the Deception skill. You may substitute your Illusion rank for your Deception skill if you wish, and each two illusion ranks confers the benefits of one rank of Skill Supremacy (Deception) for this purpose.

Manipulate Opponents: One of the most common uses of the Illusion power is to Manipulate enemies. When you perform a Manipulate action using an Illusion, you affect all characters who can perceive it, but with no penalty on your Manipulate check. Further, the manipulation effect lasts for as long as the illusion does. However, the effects of the Manipulation instantly end for any opponent who sees through the Illusion. When using an Illusion to Manipulate, you may use your Illusion rank as if it were any interaction skill, and each two Illusion ranks confers the benefit of Skill Supremacy for this purpose. You may perform manipulations that are relative to the illusion rather than to yourself, if desired, and the illusion is considered real for purposes of determining what is reasonable for a manipulation. Finally, when using Illusion to Manipulate, you may impose the Influenced condition in lieu of normal effects.

Provide Concealment: An Illusion can provide Concealment of any level - but such concealment is indiscriminate (filling a room with illusory fog will hamper your sight just as much as your enemy's). Selective Illusions can conceal only certain people, but cannot provide more than Full Concealment. Absent a Counters Illusion sense, recognizing illusory Concealment as fake doesn't help any - it doesn't matter if you know the fog isn't real, you still can't see through it.

Insubstantial: Action: Free. Range: Personal. Duration: Sustained. Cost: 5 PP/rank.

You can assume a less solid form, with each Insubstantial rank becoming progressively less solid. You may choose to either be able to make a binary swap to or from the form appropriate to your full rank as a free action once per round, or to progressively move between states up to your full rank, changing one state per round. The default is that substantial is your “normal” form, but the GM may permit you to make Insubstantial your “normal” form, in which case remaining solid is a sustained duration for you! Insubstantial offers four ranks of effect:

Rank 1 (Fluid): You become a fluid mass. You can flow through any sort of opening, under (or around) doors, through keyholes and pipes, and so forth. You cannot pass through watertight seals. You can automatically flow out of any restraint—such as a snare or grab—that is not watertight, unless it Affects Insubstantial. So you cannot flow out of a bubble completely enclosing you, for example, but anything less cannot hold you. Generally speaking, this means you are immune to effects with the Material Attack Mode unless they affect an area. You can exert your normal strength and can still push or carry objects, although your manual dexterity may be limited (at the GM’s discretion).

A fluid character may attempt to catch a falling person or object, cushioning the fall with the character’s flexible form. This requires a Maneuver, and reduces the falling damage by the cushioning character’s Resistance bonus (representing flexibility in this case). Both characters must make resistance checks against the remaining damage. Higher rank insubstantial forms—lacking physical strength—cannot attempt this.

Rank 2 (Gaseous): You become a cloud of gas or fine particles. You are immune to Manhandle actions except for grabs made by characters who are equally insubstantial or Exert powers with Affects Insubstantial. You are immune to effects with the Material, Physical, or Physiological Attack Modes unless they Affect Insubstantial. Other Attack Modes still affect you normally. You can flow through any opening that is not airtight. You can fly at Speed Rank -1, or faster if you have a movement power with the Flight Extra, but lose any other movement mode that involves interacting with physical terrain (ground speed, leaping, burrowing, swimming, etc). You can take any action that targets yourself or equally insubstantial characters normally. You may also perform the Influence, Manipulate, and Aid actions normally, and you can still use any skill options that don't involve physical interaction with creatures or objects. All other actions that target or affect other characters or objects (including normal lifting and manipulating of objects) require one application of Affects Corporeal to use.

Rank 3 (Energy): You become coherent energy. This functions as Rank 2, except for the following changes: you are also immune to the single energy descriptor that makes up your form (so a fire spirit would be immune to heat, etc). Your minimum Flight speed increases to rank 0. You can pass through solid objects permeable to your type of energy, but energy resistant barriers, like heavy shielding or force fields, block your movement. You now require two applications of Affects Corporeal to target corporeal (or less insubstantial) objects or creatures.

Rank 4 (Incorporeal): You become an incorporeal phantom. This functions as Rank 3, except for the following changes: you are also immune to all effects with the Energy and Transformative Attack Modes. You are no longer able to target others with Aid actions normally. You now require three applications of Affects Corporeal to target corporeal (or less insubstantial) objects or creatures. You may pass through solid objects freely.

If you revert to solid form while inside a solid object for any reason, you suffer damage (from the Dazing tree) equal to the object’s Resistance as an Immediate Physiological Hazard. If not incapacitated by the damage, you’re immediately ejected from the object into the nearest open space. If you are incapacitated, you’re trapped inside the object and you become Critical on the following round (making it very difficult for aid to reach you).

Luck Control: Action: None. Range: Personal. Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Permanent. Attack Modes: Mystical. Cost: 2 PP/rank.

You have an improved facility with Hero Points. Choose one of the following options per two ranks of your Luck Control power, rounded up. You may use the Additional Extra to gain another one option per two ranks per application. In the appropriate situations, roll a check using your Luck Control rank against a DC of 20 (referred to as a Luck Check). If you succeed the check, you get a benefit. The DC of the check increases by 5 every time you succeed a Luck Check, lowers by 5 every time you fail a Luck Check, and resets to 20 at the end of each scene. You need not roll a Luck Check if you do not wish to (for example, because the benefit wouldn't be great and you don't want to raise your DC).

Some effects of Luck Control grant temporary Hero Points. No character can have more than one temporary Hero Point pending at any time, unless they have the Luck Control power. For Luck Controllers, each three Luck Control ranks allows them to have one additional temporary Hero Point at a time. Temporary Hero Points expire at the end of the scene they were received in. Temporary Hero Points cannot, themselves, trigger Luck Control effects.

Invocations of GM Fiat, Complications, and other GM actions that award Hero Points count as using Hero Points for purposes of Luck Control. NPCs may receive temporary Hero Points and use them normally, without awarding any PCs a Hero Point (although PCs do receive Hero Points for the original Fiat or Complications which triggered the Luck Control in the first place).

A single event cannot generate temporary Hero Points from more than one Luck Control effect, even if it qualifies for several. For example, say you have Spread Luck and Steal Luck. If an enemy invokes GM Fiat against you, giving you a Hero Point, it technically qualifies for both, Steal Luck for the enemy spending a Hero Point and Spread Luck for you receiving one. You may choose one of them to trigger, and make a Luck roll for that effect.

Luck Control effects that specify allies cannot affect you.

Augmented Edit: Whenever you spend a Hero Point to Edit Scene, make a Luck check. If you succeed, you may keep the Hero Point (you fully retain the Hero Point; this is not a temporary Hero Point).

Augmented Feat: Whenever you spend a Hero Point for a Heroic Feat, make a Luck check. For each degree of success, you gain one additional temporary advantage of your choice.

Augmented Improvement: Whenever you spend a Hero Point to Improve Roll, make a Luck check. For each degree of success, you may reroll one additional time, taking the best.

Augmented Inspiration: Whenever you spend a Hero Point for Inspiration, make a Luck check. For each degree of success, you may ask one additional question.

Augmented Recovery: Whenever you spend a Hero Point to Recover, make a Luck check. For each degree of success, you may remove one additional condition.

Lucky Streak: Any time you roll a natural 20 on a meaningful check, or an opponent rolls a natural 1 against you, roll a Luck check. If you succeed, you gain a temporary Hero Point.

Negate Luck: Any time an opponent spends a Hero Point, you may roll a Luck check if you wish. If you succeed, the opponent keeps the Hero Point, but that effect is prevented and cannot be tried again for the same or a functionally equivalent purpose for one round. In addition, as a passive effect, as long as this power is active, any opponents with Luck Control take a penalty on Luck checks equal to your rank. Multiple such penalties don't stack, use only the highest.

Save Luck: Any time you spend a Hero Point, roll a Luck check. If you succeed, you gain a temporary Hero Point.

Share Luck: Any time you spend a Hero Point, roll a Luck check. If you succeed, choose an ally who you can accurately perceive. That ally gains a temporary Hero Point. If you wish, you may affect two allies, plus one per additional degree of success. If you do so, the temporary Hero Points gained may only spent to do the exact same thing as you do (for example, recover from the same condition, improve an the same type of roll, gain Inspiration regarding the same subject, duplicate whatever you edited into the scene, etc).

Siphon Luck: Any time an ally you can accurately perceive spends a Hero Point, roll a Luck check. If you succeed, you gain a temporary Hero Point.

Spread Luck: Any time you receive a Hero Point, roll a Luck check. If you succeed, choose an ally who you can accurately perceive. That ally gains a temporary Hero Point. Any time an ally who you can accurately perceive receives a Hero Point, roll a Luck check. If you succeed, you gain a temporary Hero Point.

Steal Luck: Any time an opponent you can accurately perceive spends a Hero Point, roll a Luck check. If you succeed, you gain a temporary Hero Point.

Stock Luck: Any time you roll a natural 1 on a meaningful check, or an opponent rolls a natural 20 against you, roll a Luck check. If you succeed, you gain a temporary Hero Point. If you wish, you may immediately spend this Hero Point to improve the roll (if it was triggered by your roll).

Temporal Edit: You can manipulate time rather than luck. Any time you spend a Hero Point or temporary Hero Point to Edit Scene, your edit can represent some change to the scene you might have made yourself by travelling back to the past up to one Time Rank per Luck Control rank and changing something. You may use this to retroactively take a single additional action, but any traits involved are capped by your Luck Control rank, and you don't receive any favorable circumstances for actions taken this way (you can't specify going back to attack an enemy when it's sleeping, or a helpless baby, or stuff like that). Such actions are considered to apply as of the start of the current turn, preventing any actions that they might have invalidated. You cannot make more than one Temporal Edit per round.

Temporal Feat: You can manipulate time rather than luck. Any time you spend a Hero Point or temporary Hero Point for a Heroic Feat, you may permanently exchange one of your current advantages for the new advantage. In addition, you may Power Stunt using Hero Points directly, rather than through Extra Effort, reflecting drawing upon capabilities you may acquire in the future.

Temporal Improvement: You can manipulate time rather than luck. Whenever you spend a Hero Point or temporary Hero Point to Improve Roll, if you don't like the result of the reroll, you can take the original roll and keep the Hero Point. You can't try to improve the roll again once you have made this choice. However, if you make multiple attempts to improve the same roll and at the end don't like any of them, you can accept the original roll and retain all the Hero Points. If you accept any reroll, you can't retain any Hero Points.

Temporal Inspiration: You can manipulate time rather than luck. Whenever you spend a Hero Point or temporary Hero Point for Inspiration, you make ask a question about something that happened in the past or future, within one Time Rank per Luck Control rank. The GM must provide an accurate and non-misleading answer, but may limit the details for story purposes.

Temporal Recovery: You can manipulate time rather than luck. Whenever you spend a Hero Point or temporary Hero Point to Recover choose another condition you have suffered. That condition's recovery time goes down one step, to a minimum of Instant.

Morph: Action: Free. Range: Personal. Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: None. Cost: 5 PP/rank.

You can alter your appearance. Your traits do not change; your new form is merely a cosmetic change. You receive an automatic roll of 20 on Deception checks to disguise yourself as the form you assume.

Your Morph rank determines what form(s) you can assume: At rank 1 you can assume any of a narrow group of forms, such as people of roughly your size and gender, a type of animal like birds or reptiles, and so forth. At rank 2 you can assume any of a broad group of forms like humanoids, animals, machines, and so forth. At rank 3 you can assume any form.

You may change any Physicality options you possess from Prowess when you Morph, including Growth and Shrinking. This also effectively sets a limit on how much you can change your size while Morphing - you need enough Prowess to account for the new Growth or Shrinking values. If you don't have Prowess, your new forms must be roughly the same size and mass as your normal form. If you only want to be able to change your size, rather than your actual form, take Morph 1 (Quirk [Only to alter Physicality selections]).

Alternately, as long as you have at least one basic rank of Morph, you can purchase extra ranks to gain Metamorph forms. Each rank purchased for that purpose provides one specific Metamorph form - in essence, an entire separate character sheet, which buys its traits with VPP rather than PP, costing 1 VPP per two points worth of traits (unless the trait would already cost more than that, in which case it uses that total). You can switch between sets of traits at will, once per round, as a free action. Your other form(s) are subject to the same power level limits as you are. They must also have traits suitable to your Morph effect. For example, if you can only Morph into humanoid forms, then your alternate forms all have to be humanoid. All of your forms must have your full Morph effect as well.

If you only have a single alternate form, it is considered a Feature. If you only have a single alternate form, but it is a Metamorph, take Morph 2 Limited to a single form.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Movement: Action: Free or Move. Range: Personal. Targeting: Wielded. Duration: Sustained or Instant. Attack Modes: None. Cost: 1 PP/rank or more.

While this power is active, you can move a Distance Rank with each move action equal to your Movement rank. You can move a Distance Rank each hour of movement equal to your Movement rank + 9. Extras on your Movement power can apply to any Maneuver actions you take.

Alternately, you can take an Instant Movement power, changing the action to Move and the duration to Instant. If you do so, you simply take a move action to use the power, which allows you to instantly take a Maneuver action that lets you travel a Distance Rank equal to your Movement rank (or perform other maneuvers as normal). Be warned, though, that since Instant Movement has an Instant duration, its benefits end with your move action - Instant Flight Movement can get you into the air, for example, but you'll start falling immediately thereafter! You must still be able to pass through any space between your starting point and your destination (although instant movement doesn't have to be in a straight line). The Permeate or Teleport Extras can help with this.

Movement also has a list of special Extras that only apply to the Movement power, expanding your options for moving. Note that some of these options, which allow you to move in special circumstances where you normally couldn't, could also qualify as Limits on your Movement power if they are the only way you can achieve such speeds. For example, Movement 4 (Swinging) costs 6 points and lets you move at Speed 4 whether running or swinging. Movement 4 (Swinging; Limited [Swinging Only]) costs 4 points and allows you to move at Speed 4 while swinging, but doesn't make you any faster on the ground.

Adapted (Flat 1 PP/rank): You can move through a specific difficult-to-move-through environment (such as underwater, along walls/ceilings, in zero-G, through thick undergrowth, etc) with no impediment to your speed, actions, or defenses. This does not protect you from environmental hazards - for that, see Immunity. You do not need to make Prowess checks to move in these conditions except for in extreme circumstances (such as undertow currents or walls coated in oil), and even in these cases, you get +10 on any necessary Prowess checks, and can make a DC 40 Prowess check to move unimpeded even if the circumstance would normally not allow a Prowess check. Adapted cannot be taken for terrain types that require other specific Movement Extras to move through (such as "the sky" or "solid earth"). You may take multiple ranks of Adapted, adding a new environment each time.

Astronomical (Flat 1-3 PP): You can travel at superluminal speeds while outside of a planetary atmosphere. With one rank of this Extra, you can get anywhere in the same solar system in a reasonable amount of time. With two ranks, anywhere in the same galaxy. With three ranks, anywhere in the universe. The exact travel time is at GM discretion, but a Time Rank of 20 - half your Movement rank is a good default rule of thumb.

Burrowing (+1 cost/rank): You can move through solid, unattended objects with Resistance scores less than or equal to your rank, at a speed equal to your rank minus the object's Toughness score minus 5. Burrowing may use the Energy, Physical, or Transformative Attack Mode (chosen when you gain the power), which some objects might have immunities to. Burrowing movement damages the object you pass through, but does not leave a passable tunnel.

Divided (Flat 1 PP/rank): You can occupy multiple different positions simultaneously. This might be because you can split parts of your body off to act on their own, create duplicates of yourself, are part of a hive-mind, or even because you are linked with other people on such a deep level that effectively you only count as one character. Regardless, additional "bodies" created by this power are not considered Teammates or separate characters mechanically (although they might from a narrative perspective).

What this means is, anything that affects any of your bodies simply affects you normally, and applies to all bodies, with the exception of Dying, Critical, and Dead - the death of one body won't kill others, although it will cause you to lose access to the ranks of this Extra that body represented until you can respec. You perceive normally through all bodies, and receive only one set of actions per round. You do not require any Communication powers to share perceptions, knowledge, or feelings between your bodies, although from a descriptive standpoint you can say that they can hide certain things from each other, if you wish.

Manhandle actions only apply to the body (or bodies) that they target, unlike most effects. Any time you perform one or more Maneuvers, all bodies may take an equal number of maneuvers, but they may Maneuver in different ways.

You do not inherently receive any benefit for multiple bodies "working together" on something. However, ranks in this Extra function as ranks of the Split Extra on all your actions, so you can divide actions up between your bodies if you wish. You may also design your powers in such a way that they have lesser effects when multiple bodies aren't coordinating, or use other mechanical constructs (such as using a move action to Aid your own actions at -5) to represent coordination between your bodies. You could also use Quirks or Complications to lessen your capabilities for certain bodies, which might influence what happens to other bodies when they are affected. For example, if you can make your hand go off on its own, it might have a Quirk that it has a much lower Resistance than you. If it is attacked, you would suffer any conditions appropriate to your full Resistance roll, but your independent hand might suffer more severe conditions thanks to its lower effective Resistance.

You receive one additional body per rank in this Extra. If you want allies who can actually take their own actions, have their own condition tracks, and are otherwise treated like separate characters, use the Teammates rules.

Dragging (Flat 1 PP): While you can always bring along any objects or people that you can carry as part of movement (assuming they are willing or Grabbed), with this Extra you don't need to physically carry them. You harmlessly drag along anyone who is in contact with you when you move. Multiple people can make a chain to all be considered in contact with you. You can only drag along a total mass equal to what you can carry; attempting to bring along a greater mass will cause your movement to fail. To drag an unwilling target, you must successfully attack them with a chosen Attack Mode as a standard action, though you may forego the normal results of the attack if you wish to drag them harmlessly.

Extended (+1 cost/rank): You can either pick up more speed as you go (for normal movement) or spend additional time manifesting the power to move further in one movement (for instant movement). When using normal movement, each full Time Rank spent moving in the same basic direction increases your Speed Rank by 1, to a maximum of twice your rank. So if you have Movement 10, you normally move 4 miles per move action, but if you move in the same general direction for a full minute (Time Rank 3) your speed will have increased to 30 miles per move action.

For instant movement, for each two Time Ranks spent concentrating (a standard action each round) before using the power, your Distance Rank increases by 3, to a maximum of twice your rank.

Flight (+1 cost/rank or flat 5 PP, whichever is higher): You can move freely in three dimensions.

Gliding (Flat 3 PP): If you begin falling, you can glide, controlling your movement (moving as you desire in any direction but up) and landing safely. You fall at a rate of 30' per round while gliding, unless you choose to descend faster.

Leaping (Flat 2 PP): You can jump in the midst of movement, converting any or all of your movement for the round into one or more leaps. You can achieve a vertical height of a Distance Rank no higher than your Speed Rank - 2 in a single jump. A single jump costs movement for either its vertical height or its horizontal distance, whichever is higher. You are immune to damage from falls within your Leaping height.

Permeate (+1 cost/rank): You can move through objects and creatures in your way without harming them or leaving a tunnel, regardless of their Resistance. This does not protect you from attacks, but it allows you to automatically escape any effect that is physically restricting your movements as part of a Maneuver action, such as grabs, ropes, chains, Created traps, and other effects with the Material Attack Mode.

Portal (+1 cost/rank or more): Any time you move using this power, you can create a portal linking your starting point to your destination. Anyone or anything passing through one portal exits through the other. You may have one pair of portals open at a time per application of this Extra. Maintaining portals uses a Sustained duration.

Sure (Flat 1 PP/rank): You reduce any external penalties to your speed (due to terrain, being prone, the Hindered condition, etc) by one Distance Rank per rank of this Extra.

Stable (Flat 1-2 PP): You can move across surfaces that don't support your weight as long as you move during the round. By taking two ranks of this Extra, you don't need to move to remain supported.

Swinging (Flat 2 PP): You can swing through the air at your full speed, using a swing-line you provide or available lines and projections (tree limbs, flagpoles, vines, telephone and power lines, etc.) You can't achieve a height greater than the tallest projection available, and there must be a projection no further from your destination than one Distance Rank less than your Movement rank.

Teleport (+2 or +3 cost/rank, or flat +6 PP, whichever is higher): You can blink from place to place without passing through the space in between. You must either be able to accurately perceive your destination, specify a fixed direction and distance, or be personally familiar with your destination. Otherwise, the attempt fails. For an additional +1 cost per rank, you only need to be able to unambiguously identify your destination and know give-or-take where it is relative to you - you couldn't teleport to a villain's lair that you don't know the location of, but you could teleport to a place that you know the name of and generally where in the world it's at, or even to the location of a specific person or object if you know more-or-less where they are at the moment.

An instant teleport is done all in one jump. A teleport done as normal movement is done as a series of blinks.

Movement via teleportation ignores any obstacles or terrain features in its path. It can be in any direction but doesn't do anything to fix your position when you arrive. Teleporting ignores any effects that physically restrict your movement, and automatically frees you of them. You arrive at your destination at rest (prior velocity is not maintained) and in whatever orientation you choose. However, you cannot roll a Prowess check to improve the effects of a teleport or to perform one as a free action. You can bring along as much mass in cargo or passengers as you can carry, following the rules for the Dragging Extra. Teleportation uses Selected targeting rather than Wielded.

Tunneling (+1 cost/rank): The Tunneling Extra functions as Burrowing, but leaves behind a passable tunnel.

Trackless (Flat 1 PP/rank): You leave no trail and cannot be tracked using visual senses (although you can still be tracked using scent or other means). You can walk across the surface of soft sand or snow without leaving tracks and you have total concealment from tremorsense. Each additional rank renders you trackless to another sense type.

Nullify: Action: Standard. Range: Ranged. Targeting: Fired. Duration: Instant. Attack Modes: Mystical. Cost: 1 PP/rank.

The Nullify power allows you to perform Counter actions with a specific power, rather than replacing all the effects of your power, thereby allowing you to add Modifiers to your Counter actions. Your check is made using your Nullify rank. Choose a single descriptor, source, or origin of powers you can Nullify. If you choose a descriptor, and you do not take the Diverse or Broad Extras (and the Nullify was not created on the fly, as with a power stunt or Variable power) you get a +5 circumstance bonus on your Nullify check.

The Diverse Extra can allow you to Nullify multiple types of powers, while Broad will allow you to Nullify any type of non-Innate power. The Additional Extra will let you Nullify multiple types of powers at once.

Alternately, you can target a character directly with a Nullify. In this case, the attempt is resolved as an attack using a chosen Attack Mode, with Accuracy and Force potentially lowered if your Nullify rank is less than your PL (as with an Attack power). If the target resists by one degree, instead of suffering a Bruise, one of its currently active powers of the appropriate type of your choice turns off, though it can be reactivated normally on the character's next turn. If the target fails to resist, it suffers conditions from the Suppression Tree, affecting only powers of the appropriate type.

Quickness: Action: Free. Range: Personal. Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: None. Cost: 1 PP/rank.

You can perform routine tasks — anything that can be done as a routine check — fast, perhaps very fast. Subtract your effect rank from the normal time rank to perform a task to determine how long it takes you. So, for example, if you have Quickness 7, a routine task normally taking an hour (time rank 9) takes you (9 – 7 = time rank 2) 30 seconds. Non-routine checks are not affected by Quickness, nor is movement speed.

If you can perform a task in less than a second (time rank –2), the GM may choose to treat that task as a free action for you (although the GM can still limit the number of free actions you can accomplish in a turn as usual).

Reading: Action: Free. Range: Ranged. Targeting: Aimed. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: Mental, Tactical. Cost: 1-3 PP/rank.

You are able to gain information from sources others can't. When you gain a Reading power, choose one of the following forms of Reading you can perform (you can gain alternatives using the Diverse Extra or additional ones using the Additional Extra). Exactly how you perceive and seek this information is a function of your descriptors - a psychic with the power to Read Places, for example, might open itself to lingering mental and emotional impressions. A shaman, on the other hand, might communicate with the spirits of the area, asking them questions and receiving answers in reply.

Reading comes in three levels. For 1 PP/rank, you can receive only vague information. For 2 PP/rank, you can receive specific information. For 3 PP/rank, you can receive detailed information. What each of these means depends on the type of Reading you perform.

Performing a Reading is a free action, but you may only do so once per round.

Read Thoughts: You can scan the thoughts of others. When you use this power, choose a target in range who rolls a Resistance check, DC 10+your Reading rank. If it fails, for as long as you maintain the Reading, you are aware of whatever the target is actively thinking about. Characters are not aware that you are reading their minds.

If you are capable of reading specific information, you may also seek out the answer to specific questions as the target knows them. This is a much more forceful mental invasion, so targets immediately become aware of the attempt unless you have appropriate applications of the Subtle Extra. The target receives a new Resistance check against each question. However, if desired, the target can forego rolling a check to bank a stacking +2 bonus for a future check, allowing it to reveal harmless information but marshal its will to resist attempts to take secret information, or eventually gather the wherewithal to force you out.

If you are capable of reading detailed information, you can replay the full memory of how the target learned the information - allowing you you judge its veracity for yourself, roll Insight and Perception checks to notice things the subject might not have noticed, and so on. You can also learn information that the subject doesn't consciously know, such as memories it has repressed or that have been removed by some power.

Once a target makes a Resistance check successfully, you can't Read its mind again for the rest of the scene unless you spend Extra Effort.

Read People: You are highly skilled at reading others - their body language, their micro expressions, or maybe even more metaphysical things like their emotions, personalities, or auras. When you use this power, choose a target in range who rolls a Deception check, DC 10+your Reading rank. If it fails, then once per round, you can learn the answer to one question about the target's present state. For example, you can learn its current emotional state, physical status, what one of its stats are, what its current intentions are, one of its Complications, whether or not it is speaking truthfully, etc.

If you are capable of reading specific information, you can also ask a follow-up question related to the information you learned. Why it is angry, how it was injured, what is the trigger for its Temper, and so on.

If you are capable of reading detailed information, you can use this information to extrapolate the person's likely future responses. You can ask how the character would respond to a certain situation. For example, you could ask how it would react to your saying a certain thing that you are concerned might offend it, or what its actions will be for its next round of combat. If, when the situation comes up, it does not wish to act the way predicted, it is treated as Staggered or Disabled (your choice) during its next turn as it has to adapt to whatever changes in situation prevented its normal response.

Read Objects: You are able to read the history and capabilities of objects. Choose a target object when you use this power. Each round that you maintain the power, you can ask one question about the object. You can learn a single function it possesses (as per Read Powers at equal levels of detail), or you can access a piece of historical information, such as an event it was used for, someone who owned it, etc. You only learn a single detail per question - so you might learn of a thing it did, or an event it was used in, or a result of its use, but not all three. Likewise, you could learn a previous owner's name, or face, or some other means of identifying them (such as a pseudonym or a thing they're known for), but only one of those. You may ask a maximum number of questions about a given object equal to your Reading rank, and historical information can only go back a maximum Time Rank equal to 15 plus your Reading rank.

If you are capable of reading specific information, in addition to being able to get more details about the object's functions, you can get multiple relevant details about historical data. In essence, all of the details that might be offered by a vague reading, rather than only one.

If you are capable of reading detailed information, you can also receive vivid "memories" imprinted on the object by significant events it was present in, even if it was not actively being used as part of them. For example, you could ask for a memory about the biggest battle the object was ever present for and receive a fairly detailed vision of that battle, or at least the most important portion of it - in enough detail to make Insight and Perception checks to potentially learn more.

Read Places: You are able to read the history of the place you are in. This functions like Read Objects, but rather than receiving details about the owners of an object or events it was part of, you receive details about events that took place in the location.

Read Data: You are able to read data stored in media in rapid time - books, videos, computer files, etc. You may substitute your Reading rank for any skill for purposes of skill checks required to overcome security on the devices. When doing so, each two ranks in Reading also provides the benefit of one rank of the relevant Skill Supremacy Advantage, although these don't stack with any ranks you already possess in the advantage. The speed at which you read the information is equivalent to if you had Quickness at your Reading rank, so at Reading 10 you could accomplish four hours worth of reading in a single round.

By default, you only receive a vague overview of the information, enough to get the important bits but not necessarily all the details. If you can read specific information, you get all the relevant details. If you can read detailed information, you get everything, no matter how trivial. Naturally, the GM won't actually provide you with the full information, but any time something comes up where the data you read would be even vaguely relevant, the GM should make you aware of it.

You may substitute your Reading rank for your Expertise rank (and half your Reading rank for Expertise Supremacy as above) for purposes of recalling facts about details you've read within a number of Time Ranks equal to your Reading rank + 5. You take a -2 penalty on such Expertise checks if you are only capable of reading detailed information, and -5 if only capable of reading vague information.

Regeneration: Action: None. Range: Personal. Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Permanent. Attack Modes: None. Cost: 1 PP/rank.

Any time you receive conditions or Bruises from an attack, roll a Regeneration check, DC 10 + the attack's Accuracy. If you succeed, the recovery rate of any conditions imposed is lowered by one per degree of success, and any Bruises imposed are changed to Instant Recovery. If you fail by only one degree, your Regeneration can still apply to any Bruises the attack inflicts.

An object with the Regeneration power recovers from damage as a character, in addition to its normal effects.

A Dying or Critical character with Regeneration automatically stabilizes.

Rather than having rapid healing, you can use the Regeneration power for alternate options, chosen when you gain the power. The Additional Extra allows you to take multiple options on the Regeneration power. So for example, with Additional 2, on a successful Regeneration check, you could delay the condition, suppress it once it does arrive, and possibly heal it thanks to its lower recovery rate before it ever winds up affecting you.

Regeneration (and its variants) instantly apply to current conditions when activated, and their effects are suppressed when inactive. For example, if you have Regeneration 10 in an array, and you turn it on after suffering a condition, you'd immediately check against that condition and lower its recovery rate on a success. If you turn off your Regeneration, that condition (and any others you were regenerating) regains its previous recovery rate until you turn it back on. Once a condition is removed, it is gone for good - it won't return if your Regeneration turns off. Similarly, any suppressed or delayed conditions reinstate with Abeyance or Suppression turn off, and are again suppressed or delayed (for whatever time they have remaining) when it turns back on.

Abeyance: You delay the effects of attacks rather than lowering their recovery rate. If your Regeneration check succeeds, you delay the effects of the condition by one round per degree of success, ignoring them in the meantime. Abeyance won't stabilize you like Regeneration will, but will extend the Time Rank between checks against death for Dying or Critical status for one Time Rank per three Regeneration ranks. You may recover from or heal conditions normally while they are delayed.

Suppression: You are able to suppress the effects of attacks, ignoring them for a time. If your Regeneration check succeeds, you still take the conditions normally, but you don't suffer any negative effects from them. The DC to suppress new attacks increases by 5 per attack currently suppressed. You may cease suppressing attacks before rolling to reduce the DC. Suppression won't stabilize you like Regeneration will, but you can suppress Dying or Critical normally. You may recover from or heal conditions normally while they are suppressed.

Remote Sensing: Action: Free. Range: Ranged. Targeting: Selected. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: Mystical. Cost: 1 PP/rank.

You can displace your vision over a distance, perceiving as if you were at that location, at a Distance Rank equal to your power rank (so at rank 4, you can perceive up to 500' away). You can extend this range by taking additional time manifesting the power; for each two Time Ranks spent concentrating (a standard action each round) before using the power, your range increases two Distance Ranks, to a maximum of twice your rank. For example, at rank 10, you could freely perceive within four miles, but if you spend eight minutes (Time Rank 6) concentrating first, you can extend that range to 2,000 miles (Distance Rank 19). When extending the range, the duration is reduced one step, so normally you will have to concentrate (a standard action each round) to maintain the extended effect. Remote Sensing overrides your normal sense(s) while you are using it. Subjects observed via Remote Sensing can “feel” it with an Insight check (DC 10+rank). You can use the Additional Senses Extra to project other senses. Sensory effects targeted on the spot where you have displaced your senses affect you normally.

Unlike most actions with Selected Targeting, Remote Sensing ignores all forms of Cover and Concealment for purposes of targeting. You simply need to know where you want to project to.

You can project regardless of intervening obstacles. You may target a specific direction and distance, or a known or easily identifiable place (such as "five miles due west", "my living room", or "the other side of this door"). You may also target characters provided you know both their name and their face (at GM discretion, other options for determining who you can target may be possible, such as having some article of theirs on hand). When targeting people, they get a Resistance check (DC 10+rank) to prevent the targeting. You cannot try again in the same scene without using Extra Effort.

You can make Perception checks normally using your displaced senses, taking the normal action to do so. To search a large area for someone or something, use the search guidelines given in the description of the Investigation skill.

Because Remote Sensing overrides your normal senses, you are Vulnerable while using it, since you are less aware of your immediate surroundings.

Senses: Action: None. Range: Personal. Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Permanent. Attack Modes: None. Cost: 1 PP/rank.

One or more of your senses are improved, or you have additional sensory abilities beyond the normal five senses. Allocate ranks in Senses to the following effects. Some options require more than one rank, noted in their descriptions. So if you have Senses 5, for example, you can have counters concealment (darkness) (2 ranks), direction sense (1 rank), distance sense (1 rank), and ultra-hearing (1 rank), or any other combination adding up to 5 ranks.

Senses, unlike most powers, is not limited by PL limits.

Like all sensory effects, Senses uses the sense types as descriptors.

Accurate (2 or 4 ranks): An accurate sense can pinpoint something’s exact location. You can use an accurate sense to target something in combat. Visual and tactile senses are normally accurate for humans. Cost is 2 ranks for one sense, 4 for an entire sense type.

Acute (1 or 2 ranks): You can sense fine details about anything you can detect with a particular sense, allowing you to distinguish between and identify different subjects. Visual and auditory senses are normally acute for humans. Cost is 1 rank for one sense, 2 for an entire sense type.

Analytical (1 or 2 ranks): Beyond even acute, you can perceive specific details about anything you can detect with an analytical sense, such as chemical composition, exact dimensions or mass, frequency of sounds and energy wavelengths, and so forth. You can only apply this effect to an acute sense. Normal senses are not analytical. Cost is 1 rank for one sense, 2 for an entire sense type.

Broad (1 rank): A sense type with this effect can pick up things outside the normal levels that a human can discern, but which are still the same sort of stimulus. For each application of Broad, choose one of the following ranges you can perceive: higher, lower, or just different in a specific way. So, Broad Vision could let you perceive ultraviolet light (higher), infrared light (lower), or strange colors outside of human visual capability (different). Broad Hearing could let you pick up ultrasonic sounds (higher), infrasonic sounds (lower), or radio frequencies (different). And so on.

Counters Concealment (1, 2, or 5 ranks): A sense type with this trait ignores one form of concealment per two ranks spent. Mundane forms of concealment are automatically ignored - for example, Vision Counters Concealment (Darkness) lets you freely ignore mundane darkness. Concealment generated by powers is not inherently ignored; roll an opposed Perception vs. Stealth check, ignoring any modifiers imposed by the power itself (although the target may substitute the power rank for its own Stealth skill if desired). If you succeed, you ignore the concealment entirely. If you fail, it remains effective.

For 5 ranks, this effect applies against all forms of concealment relevant to that sense type.

A lesser option, costing only one rank (or two ranks for all concealment), allows you to ignore Perception penalties for the concealment and reduce concealment levels by one step rather than ignoring them outright (so Total becomes Full, Full becomes Partial, and Partial is ignored).

An object that provides both Total Cover and Total Concealment cannot be ignored by this effect. For that, see Penetrates Concealment.

Counters Illusion (2 ranks): When you perceive an illusion with this sense type, you get an automatic check to recognize it as false without having to interact with it. You may substitute Resistance or Investigation for this check if you wish. Further, once you have recognized an illusion as false, you cease perceiving it entirely (or, if you wish, you can still perceive a faint impression, enough to know what others are perceiving without it distracting or affecting you at all).

Danger Sense (1 rank): When you would normally be surprised in combat, make a Perception check (DC 10): One degree of success means you’re not surprised, but can’t act during the surprise round (so you don’t suffer any conditions of being surprised), while two or more degrees of success means you are not surprised and may act during the surprise round (if any). Failure means you are surprised (although, if you have Uncanny Dodge, you are not vulnerable). The GM may raise the DC of the Danger Sense check in some circumstances. Choose a sense type for your Danger Sense. Sensory effects targeting that sense also affect your Danger Sense ability and may “blind” it. However, Concealment against that sense type is irrelevant.

Detect (1 rank): You are able to detect active power effects of a certain source or origin (if you wish, you can Limit the sense to only a single descriptor). By default you can't detect latent effects that a character is capable of using, but you can gain that capability by adding the Broad sense option. Detect is a unique sense of a chosen sense type (so it could be visual, auditory, and so on, depending on how you perceive the information). Detect is a Ranged sense by default, and simply reveals whether something you perceive has active powers of the appropriate type upon it or not, or whether some phenomenon you perceive is a power of the appropriate type. An Acute Detect will reveal the name or a non-mechanical description of the power (such as "Forcefield" or "Superhuman Strength"). An Analytical Detect will reveal the full mechanics of the power (such as "Forcefield - Defend (Withstand)" or "Superhuman Strength - Exert 10").

To detect things that aren't powers, take other Senses effects and Limit them to the thing you want to perceive. For example, if you want to be able to detect gemstones, you might take Extended Radius Penetrates Concealment Vision, Limited to Gemstones. For things that aren't powers but nonetheless can't be perceived with normal senses, such as thoughts, emotions, psychic impressions, and so on, see the Reading power.

By doubling the number of ranks of a Detect, it can apply to all powers rather than just those of a chosen source or origin.

Extended (1 rank): For each application of this effect, your chosen sense type can perceive further. You can perceive things one distance rank further away before suffering penalties on your Perception check. So for example, a character with Extended Vision 3 makes unmodified Perception checks within 250'.

Microscopic Vision (1-4 ranks): You can view extremely small things. You can make perception checks to see tiny things nearby. Cost is 1 rank for dust-sized objects, 2 ranks for cellular-sized, 3 ranks for DNA and complex molecules, 4 ranks for atomic-sized. The GM may require an Expertise skill check to understand and interpret what you see.

Penetrates Concealment (4 ranks): A sense with this trait is unaffected by concealment from obstacles - that is, anything that provides both Total Cover and Total Concealment. So vision that Penetrates Concealment sees right through opaque objects, for example, and hearing that Penetrates Concealment is unaffected by sound-proofing or intervening materials, and so forth.

Positional Awareness (1 rank): You are always perfectly aware of your position in space and time relative to anything else you can either perceive, or have an accurate understanding of the location of. You always know precisely what direction you are facing, how far something you can see is from you, what time it is, and so on.

Radius (1-2 ranks): You can make Perception checks with a radius sense for any point around you. Subjects behind you cannot use Stealth to hide from you without some other concealment. Auditory, olfactory, and tactile senses are normally radius for humans. Cost is 1 rank for use with one sense, 2 ranks for one sense type.

Ranged (1 rank): You can use a sense that normally has no range (taste or touch in humans) to make Perception checks at range, with the normal –4 per Distance Rank beyond 0. This can be enhanced with the Extended Sense effect.

Rapid (1-2 ranks): You can read or take in information from a sense faster than normal: each rank reduces the Time Rank needed to take in information with a single sense by three, effectively providing X10 speed. Double the cost for an entire sense type. You can use rapid vision to speed-read, pick up on rapid flickering between frames of a film, watch video replays in fast-forward speeds, and such, rapid hearing to listen to time-compressed audio “blips,” or pay attention to multiple conversations at once, and so forth.

Synesthetic (1 rank): Choose something that you could normally perceive with one sense type; you can perceive it with a different sense type, receiving all sense effects that apply to that sense type for detecting that thing and still being able to detect it even if the original sense is blinded. Some forms of concealment may also be ineffective against synesthetic senses. For example, Infravision would let you perceive heat (normally tactile) through vision, letting you detect heat at range and identify people well enough by the shape of their heat signatures (since vision is ranged and acute, unlike tactile senses). Concealment such as thermal shielding would block infravision, but darkness would not, since darkness has nothing to do with how heat travels. A numb character would still be able to use infravision fine, but a blind one would not.

Tracking (1-2 rank): You can follow trails and track using a particular sense. Basic DC to follow a trail is 10 for a trail made within the past hour (Time Rank 9); each additional Time Rank raises the DC by 2. A character actively trying to hide its trail, assuming it has a means of concealing its passage from the sense you use, can substitute a Stealth check to set the basic DC. Situations that might provide concealment to the trail raise the DC per Time Rank by 1 per step of concealment, and lower the Time Rank before DC increases accrue by one per step. You can't follow a trail that effectively has Total Concealment. On the flip side, circumstances that would "hold" a trail discount any time that passes while they last. Circumstances that would cause a trail to stand out distinctly may reduce the DC to 0 or even negate the need for a Tracking sense entirely - it doesn't take significant ability to follow a trail of footprints through the snow, for example.

For example, say you're visually tracking a target with a four-hour lead. Normally, the DC to find the trail would be 14 - 10+2 per Time Rank past 9. But if it snowed heavily since the trail was made (which would cover up most signs - effectively Full Concealment), the DC would be 26 - 10+4 per Time Rank past 7.

Transform: Action: Standard. Range: Close. Targeting: Fired. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: Transformative. Cost: 1-4 PP/rank.

You are able to transform things into other things. You can transform just about anything, although the Restricted Extra can restrict what sorts of things you can transform, and the cost per rank determines what type of transformations you can make.

You can transform objects with a Mass Rank of half your Transform rank or lower, or area of terrain (the ground, air, bodies of water) that fit entirely into a cube no larger than that Distance Rank - 5 on a side. You may partially transform larger objects than you can affect, and make repeated transformations to transform an entire large target. Effectively, you can increase the Time Rank spent doing a transformation (consider a standard action to be Time Rank 0, a move action to be Time Rank -1, and a free action to be Time Rank -2) to increase the Mass Rank by the same amount or the Distance Rank by one-third as much. So a character with Transform 10 can transform 1,600 pounds (Mass Rank 5) in a single standard action. By spending an entire minute (+3 Time Ranks) on the transformation, it could transform up to six tons (Mass Rank 8). Likewise, such a character could affect an area of terrain up to 30' on a side with a standard action, or sixty feet on a side with a minute of effort.

Except at the highest values, you can only transform objects, not creatures. Unattended objects are automatically hit by Transform actions; attended objects require an attack roll using one of your Attack Modes. Objects that lack mechanical relevance (that is, they haven't been purchased with PP by a PC or significant NPC, and aren't plot-relevant in some way like a major villain's lair, a quest macguffin, or a free headquarters the GM provided the PC group) get no resistance check against Transform actions. Objects that are purchased with PP or otherwise plot-relevant may resist with either the appropriate resistance for your Attack Mode, with the PL of the character who invested points into them or is thematically tied to them, or with the series PL if they are independent plot-relevant objects. Transform actions cannot critically hit.

With at least one PP per rank, you can make cosmetic changes. These don't affect the function, value, or status of the object in any way - they just change it descriptively. For example, you might change an object's color, its shape (though not to a degree that would impede its function), make it out of a different (but equally effective for its purpose and not more effective for other meaningful purposes) material, etc. Making cosmetic changes only changes the Transform's action to Free and its duration to Continuous, if normally worse, if you so desire.

With at least two PP per rank, you can make utility changes. You can change the object in such a way that alters their in-world function, but doesn't really influence their mechanical function. For example, transforming lead into gold suddenly makes it more valuable. Turning a cup into a plate alters its function in a meaningful way. A utility change can also impose penalties on checks made by, with, on, or against the object, up to -1 per two ranks of Transform, based on its function. Darkening a camera's lens might penalize its Perception checks. Changing a stone wall into a wooden wall might lower its Resistance. And so on. Utility transformations can also be used to perform Aid actions to actions performed by or with the object, using the Transform rank and lasting for as long as the transformation lasts, but with the bonus capped by one-fourth the Transform rank.

With at least three PP per rank, you can make tactical changes. Tactical changes can entirely remove (but not add) mechanical functions from objects. Tactical changes can also alter terrain factors. For example, you could transform a machine into scrap metal, or even into empty air. You could transform a hole in a wall, or a pit into the ground. A tactical change can be used to simultaneously perform any other action you are capable of with equal or lesser action, resource, and (for powers) PP costs, against anyone who may be in the affected area. For example, you could transform the floor beneath a foe's feet into a sudden spike to make an attack against that foe, using one of your normal Attack Modes and attack powers. Or you could transform the air in an area semi-solid to protect all within with a Defend action, or to trap them with a Manhandle action. In all such cases, your Transform rank restricts the stats that would normally be involved.

With four PP per rank, you can make variable changes. You may use the Transform power as if it were a Variable power based on transformations you can make, except it only provides 2 PP per rank rather than 5, and any Variable effects you generate can have Affects Others and Affects Objects applied to them free of charge and without being added to the Variable through VPP.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Variable: Action: Move. Range: Personal. Targeting: Automatic. Duration: Sustained. Attack Modes: Mystical, Tactical, or Transformative. Cost: 7 PP/rank.

You can gain or use potentially any effect of the appropriate type and descriptor! A Variable effect provides you with a set of (rank x 5) character points you can allocate to different effects. Take a move action on your turn and choose where to allocate your Variable character points. The Additional Extra does not provide additional PP or Variable configurations; it simply has no effect on Variable.

The effects you gain from your Variable effect are subject to the normal power level and series limits. So you cannot, for example, acquire Enhanced Trait as a Variable effect to improve a trait beyond its power level limit, or acquire effects or descriptors the Gamemaster has specifically banned from the series. The GM has final say as to whether or not a particular use of a Variable effect is appropriate and may veto your allocations, if necessary.

You must also place descriptors on your Variable effect limiting its scope. For example, a Variable effect that mimics other’s traits is limited to the traits its subject(s) possess; a Variable effect providing you with traits suitable to different shapes is limited by the form(s) you assume; a Variable effect providing adaptations is limited to the stimulus to which it adapts, and so forth. This descriptor does not reduce the effect’s cost unless it’s especially narrow or limiting, and the GM is the final arbiter of what constitutes a suitable descriptor and which descriptors are narrow enough to qualify for a Restricted or Limited flaw.

The allocation of your Variable points is sustained, so if you stop maintaining your Variable effect for any reason, your allocated points “reset” to a “null” state: you lose any temporary traits and must take the action necessary to reallocate your Variable points again on your turn to regain them. Points in a Continuous Variable effect remain where you set them without maintenance, unless the Variable effect itself is countered or nullified. Variable effects cannot be permanent in duration by definition.

While the scope of your powers is restricted by descriptor, the mechanics of them have additional limits. When you create a Variable power, you must choose a number of Effects, Extras, and Flaws that it can use. Each Effect or cost/rank Extra costs VPP equal to the Effect or Extra's base cost per rank times your PL. Flat cost Extras simply cost VPP equal to the cost for one rank of the Extra, minimum 1. Flaws cost the same as Extras, but are not considered negative values - it costs VPP to have access to Flaws, but then when applied to your Variable powers they give back points as normal. You do not need to purchase the Enhanced Trait Extra or Reduced Trait Flaw. You may use Variable points to increase your combat stats without spending VPP for it. You may also use Variable to increase your skills at no cost in VPP, but by no more than one rank per Variable rank per skill. As with all things that cost VPP, you can't use Variable to gain Advantages or Attack Modes.

Effects, Extras, and Flaws that can be applied multiple times or have greater effects with higher costs only require you pay VPP for the base cost.

If you add the Movement Effect to Variable, you may freely draw from Movement-specific Extras as well without spending additional VPP on them, assuming they are appropriate for your descriptor.

You may use the Reduced Trait Flaw to lower your existing traits through a Variable power. As always, this refunds half the normal cost of the points reduced. No combination of Flaws can refund more points for a use of Variable than your base total; for example, if you have Variable 4, you can't get more than 20 points worth of discounts from Flaws and Reduced Traits on top of your base 20 points for the Variable. Flaws assigned to Variable powers must be actually detrimental in the situation in which they are used. For example, applying Reduced Expertise and Reduced Investigation in the heat of combat won't work, because you generally don't need those skills in battle anyway and you can always change them back when you do need them. Flip side, applying Increased Action to a Variable effect when you aren't in combat doesn't refund points, since you're not tracking actions anyway.

If desired, you can also invest "floating" PP directly into the Variable - costing two Virtual PP per one floating PP - and use them to gain available Effects, Extras, and Flaws on the fly. If you do so, those choices can be made whenever you reconfigure your Variable, but then are locked until the end of the adventure (when Hero Points reset). VPP invested into a Variable power are considered a VPP cost for the Variable power, so if the Variable power itself would also cost VPP (for example, if it's part of an Array or in a Metamorph form), only pay the higher cost.

For example, a PL 10 character with a Variable 4 chooses Attack, Aid, Multiattack, Area, Affects Insubstantial, and Unreliable as available options. This costs a total of 47 Virtual PP (1/2 PL for Attack, 1/PL each for Aid, Multiattack, Area, and Unreliable, and 2 for Affects Insubstantial). The character also invests 30 floating PP into the Variable, spending 60 Virtual PP to do so. During a battle, the character wants to create a Ranged Attack power, so it locks down 10 of its floating PP to gain access to Increased Range. It now has access to Increased Range for its future Variable configurations for the remainder of the adventure. At the end of the adventure, it loses access to Increased Range, but its floating PP reset and can be used again to access new options.

If you have multiple Variable powers for whatever reason, they all share available options and one pool of floating PP.

You may spend a Hero Point to unlock your floating points, losing access to all floating traits and once more allowing the floating VPP to be spent to acquire new ones.

If you wish, rather than giving your Variable a fixed set of Effects and Modifiers it can use at the cost of VPP, you can halve your base VPP total outright to allow it to draw from any traits that exist on a chosen character's sheet. This defaults to your own sheet, but you can change it to the sheet of another character who you can accurately perceive as a free action once per episode, or by spending a Hero Point.

Affliction: The current functions of the Affliction power are folded into the new Attack power.

Burrowing: Folded into Movement.

Comprehend: Effects were expanded upon and divided up among Communication and Reading.

Damage: The current functions of the Damage power are folded into the new Attack power.

Deflect: The current functions of the Deflect power are folded into the new Defend power.

Elongation: Was too cheap for what it gave you, and was a weird case of a specific power rather than a generic effect. Can be built using the Range power and Enhanced Might (Restricted to Manhandle).

Extra Limbs: Was a weird case of a specific power rather than a generic effect. I'd say Feature 1 per two extra limbs without providing any hard mechanical bonuses (i.e. grab boosts). Buy supporting traits - such as Enhanced Might, Multiattack, Fast Grab, Linked Exert, etc - to taste.

Flight: Folded into Movement.

Growth: Now a function of the Physicality option of the Prowess skill. Use Morph to be able to change your size on the fly.

Immortality: Replaced with Regeneration with the Resurrection Extra.

Leaping: Folded into Movement.

Mind Reading: Folded into the new Reading power.

Move Object: Redefined a bit and changed to Exert.

Protection: Enhanced Resistance.

Shrinking: Now a function of the Physicality option of the Prowess skill. Use Morph to be able to change your size on the fly.

Speed: Folded into Movement.

Summon: Replaced by the new Teammates rules.

Swimming: Folded into Movement.

Teleport: Folded into Movement.

Weaken: The ability to focus-fire a single specific trait down really far is...iffy from a balance perspective. Use normal Attack conditions with Restricted or Limited Flaws (or by limiting them as complex conditions) to represent powers that only hinder individual stats.

Luck Control (Force Reroll): Most of the Luck Control effects, while not quite what they used to be, have something of a similar option in the new Luck Control. Force Reroll does not. And the reason for that is...it's just problematic. Negating a PC's moment of triumph is lame, forcing rerolls on resistance checks can wreck people. Honestly, I just feel the game's better without it. Also I couldn't really come up with a good fit for it using the new paradigm for Luck Control.

Movement (Dimensional Movement): Just add the Dimensional Extra to Movement.

Movement (Safe Fall): This is an immunity.

Movement (Slithering): Sure 2 (Limited to the penalty for being Prone). Plus Prone Fighting.

Movement (Time Travel): The official timey-wimey powers are too vague to be useful. Use the new Temporal options for Luck Control, and leave plot-based time travel as a plot device/Feature.

Movement (Wall Crawling): Part of Adapted.

Movement (Water Walking): Part of Stable.

Senses (Awareness): Is now Detect. The disparity between them was too unintuitive.

Senses (Communication Link): Now part of the Communication power.

Senses (Darkvision): Counters Concealment (Darkness).

Senses (Direction Sense): Folded in Positional Awareness.

Senses (Distance Sense): Folded in Positional Awareness.

Senses (Infravision): Can actually be duplicated with either Broad or Synesthetic.

Senses (Low Light Vision): 1-point Counters Concealment (Darkness).

Senses (Postcognition): See Movement (Time Travel). Also Reading (Object or Place).

Senses (Precognition): See Movement (Time Travel).

Senses (Radio): Folded into Broad.

Senses (Time Sense): Folded in Positional Awareness.

Senses (Ultravision): Folded into Broad.

Senses (Ultrahearing): Folded into Broad.


Extras

Absorb (+1 cost/rank): This Extra can be added to any power that provides or improves a defense. Any effect foiled by the power is absorbed to empower the defender. Choose a single stat when you gain this power. When this power successfully foils an attack, you receive the benefits of an Aid action as a Reaction, applying to the stat you chose and using the foiled attack's Force. You can "stock up" multiple Aids from multiple attacks, expending them on rolls as you choose. Stored Aids expire at the end of the scene. Remember that a given trigger can only result in one Reaction.

Accurate (Flat 1 PP/rank): For each rank of Accurate, attacks with the power have their Accuracy increased by up to 2, and their Force lowered by the same. This counts as a tradeoff modifier, so it can't bring Accuracy more than 5 above PL. Accurate cannot be applied to a power that doesn't both involve an attack roll and allow a check to resist.

Additional (+1 cost/rank or more): The Additional Extra causes a successful use of the power to effectively occur one additional time per application of the Extra. The power has to be one that can have multiple different results. For example, an Attack power can inflict multiple conditions, a Healing power can reduce the recovery time of multiple conditions, an Aid power can boost multiple different checks, and so on.

For each application of Extra, you can cause another result when you use the power successfully. If the result is chosen on power use, you simply choose from multiple possible results. For example, you might use an Aid power that boosts both Accuracy and Force, or both Defense and Resistance. A Healing power can apply to multiple conditions at once. A Movement power would let you perform two Maneuvers (or more with a Prowess check). And so on.

If the result of the power is chosen when the power is gained, as with Attack, you must choose all options at this time. So for example, you can make an Attack power that inflicts both the Dazing and Impairment trees, or one that inflicts the Vulnerability tree and Weakening Tree, or one that inflicts the Dazing tree and Impaired/Staggered/Controlled/Unconscious, or whatever. In these cases, you can't select the same results multiple times - you can't inflict the Dazing Tree twice with a single attack, for example.

In the case of Attack powers, you may also choose for each condition tree affected to use a different Attack Mode, if you wish. You still make only one attack check and the target still makes only one resistance check, but immunities and weaknesses apply separately to each portion of the attack.

You may also add Additional to powers which allow you to choose from a menu of options for each rank, giving you an equal number of choices per application. In this case, the cost per rank of the Extra is the same as the base cost per rank of the power, before modifiers. You may choose the same options if you could normally take a given option multiple times.

Additional Sense (Flat 1 PP/rank): Some powers involve the use of certain senses, such as Concealment, Illusion, and Remote Sensing. By default, those senses affect normal vision alone. However, with the Additional Sense Extra, you can allow them to affect additional senses or sense types. Each additional sense added requires one rank of the Extra, and adding an entire additional sense type costs 2 ranks.

You can remove normal vision from the senses the power affects as a two-point Quirk.

Affects Corporeal (+1-3 cost/rank): Insubstantial characters receive broad defensive and mobility benefits, but it comes at a cost - past the first rank, they find it much more difficult to affect other characters! Each rank of Insubstantial specifies what sort of actions the character can use normally. Any other actions require a power with Affects Corporeal to use on others.

The rank of the power is capped by the ranks of Affects Corporeal when used on a corporeal target while insubstantial. So an Attack 10 (Affects Corporeal 5) power would function as rank 10 when used while corporeal or against other equally incorporeal targets, but only rank 5 when used while insubstantial against fully corporeal targets.

Affects Corporeal costs 1 PP/rank per rank of insubstantial it is used with beyond the first, so one PP/rank for Insubstantial 2, two/rank for Insubstantial 3, and three/rank for Insubstantial 4.

Affects Insubstantial (Flat 1-2 PP): An effect with this extra works on insubstantial targets despite any immunities provided by the Insubstantial power (immunities acquired by other means are unaffected), in addition to having its normal effect on corporeal targets. Rank 1 allows the effect to work at half its normal rank against insubstantial targets (rounded down); rank 2 allows the effect to function at its full rank against them.

Affects Objects (Flat 1 PP): This modifier allows effects that normally don't work on objects to do so (it still works on creatures normally) - Attack conditions other than object damage, Healing, and so on. In addition, Affects Objects attacks have some additional rules:

Attack rolls are not allowed or required against unattended objects - they are automatically hit.

Mundane objects do not get resistance checks; the effect works on the targeted object at its maximum degree of success. Important objects - anything that had PP spent to acquire by a PC or significant NPC, or anything significant to the plot - may resist using the normal resistance check (if it has it), its owner's PL (if it has an owner), or the series PL (if it's just a generically plot-relevant object).

If a power is capable of affecting both objects and creatures - either naturally or through this Extra - it can receive a Limit to working on Objects Only. Being able to work only on objects is much more limiting than being able to work only on creatures. Likewise, powers that can naturally affect both objects and creatures can have a Quirk restricting it to creatures only.

Affects Others (+1 cost/rank or more): This Extra can be added to a Personal power to allow it to target others. The power's base action type, before modifiers, becomes Standard when using it on others, and its base Targeting becomes Fired if normally better. Its base range, before modifiers or other effects, becomes Close. The target immediately receives the effects of the power on use. If the power is Concentration duration, one of you (your choice) must concentrate to maintain it, and the other must spend a free action each round to maintain it. If the power is Sustained, both of you must take a free action each round to maintain it.

You may choose whether you control the power or the target does.

If the target is unwilling to receive the power (which it very well might be if you control it!) you must successfully attack the target as part of the action to use the power. It only receives one rank of the power per point it fails its resistance check by.

You may only have one additional instance of a power (beyond your normal one) active at a time per application of this Extra. For example, Flight 10 (Affects Others) would allow you to fly, and allow you to bestow flight on one other ally at a time. Flight 10 (Affects Others 3) would allow you to bestow flight on up to three targets simultaneously. Each bestowal requires its own action.

The Area Extra can also allow you to bestow the power on multiple targets at once, but it does not increase the number of targets that can be simultaneously affected. However, if you add the Zone Extra, you can treat the zone itself as the target, applying to all within for as long as they remain within. The Selective and Aura Extras may further ease the logistics of such powers.

You can add Limited (Others Only) to Affects Others powers, making it impossible for the power to affect you, if you wish.

Aggravated (+2 to +4 cost/rank): Effects with this Extra function as whatever is worst for the target. For +2/rank, it is considered to be whatever descriptor is most detrimental to the target. For +3/rank, it is also considered to be whatever source or origin is most detrimental. For +4/rank, it is also considered to be whatever Attack Mode is most detrimental. If the target is especially susceptible to multiple things of the same or different types, only apply the worst, but also ignore any special bonuses or immunities the character might have against other things this power could emulate. For example, a Physical [Slashing] Attack with Aggravated 3, used against a target with a Minor Penalty against the Mystical Attack Mode, Half Immunity to Physical, and Double Damage from effects with the [Fire] descriptor, would count as Mystical [Fire] (ignoring the Half Immunity), but it would only apply the Double Damage, not both the Double Damage and the Minor Penalty. Now, if it already had the Mystical Attack Mode, it would be able to apply both, since the Minor Penalty would apply naturally even without this Extra. At the +4/rank level, this Extra does not require the Attack Mode to be on your list; it freely applies any Attack Mode.

Alternate Effect (Flat 1 or 2 PP/rank): This modifier allows you to “swap-out” the effect for an entire other, alternate, effect! Think of Alternate Effects as different “settings” for a power. A set of Alternate Effects is called an array.

An Alternate Effect can have any rank, or combination of modifiers. Alternate Effects may also have different descriptors, usually thematically linked, within reason. This allows you to have two versions of an Attack effect, for example: such as a fire blast and an ice blast. Permanent effects cannot have Alternate Effects, nor can they be Alternate Effects (since they can’t be turned on and off).

An Alternate Effect can have a total cost in character points no greater than the primary effect. So a rank 10 primary effect costing 2 points per rank, for a total of 20, can have any Alternate Effect with a cost of 20 character points or less. This cost does not include the cost of the Alternate Effect modifier itself. So if the 20-point power has 5 Alternate Effects (making the final cost 25 points), each Alternate Effect is still limited to a total value of 20 points (including any modifiers it may have), that of the base effect. Essentially, each Alternate Effect has to have all of the others as Alternate Effects. Since the modifier applies equally to all effects in the array, its cost is discounted in terms of the “free” points they have to spend.

Like any power, an Alternate Effect may be made up of two or more effects, but their total cost cannot exceed the cost of the primary effect.

Alternate Effects cannot be used or maintained at the same time as other Alternates in the same array; they are mutually exclusive. Switching between Alternates requires a free action and can be done once per turn. If anything disables, nullifies, or drains any power in an array, all of them are affected in the same way.

Continuous effects do persist even if the array is swapped to a different effect, as long as they don't provide benefits to characters directly. For example, a Continuous Create or Illusion could last through an array swap, but not a Continuous Enhanced Trait. A Continuous Variable would retain its configurations through an array swap, but the powers bestowed wouldn't be usable while off-slot. And so on.

For 2 PP an Alternate Effect is dynamic; it can share character points with other Dynamic Alternate Effects, allowing them all to operate at the same time, but at reduced effectiveness (so you must have two Dynamic Alternate Effects for this option to be useful). You decide how many character points are allocated to the effects once per turn as a free action. Making the base effect of an array Dynamic requires 1 PP. You may combine multiple Extras from different powers into one, as long as they all have the same Effect, kind of like if they were all Enhanced Extras. For example, if you have a dynamic array of Attack 10 (Multiattack, Secondary Effect), Attack 10 (Burst Area, Cumulative), and Defend 10 (Ranged, Impervious) you could make an Attack 10 (Multiattack, Burst Area) or Attack 10 (Secondary Effect, Cumulative), etc. But you couldn't make a Defend 10 (Impervious, Secondary Effect) or Attack 10 (Ranged, Burst Area) - if you want to be able to fully mix-and-match your Effects and Extras, you want a Variable power.

Each power in an array aside from the primary one costs an amount of VPP equal to half the power's point cost. So a 20-point array with five alternate effects would cost 25 PP and 50 VPP. Dynamic alternate effects cost VPP equal to their full cost; a 20-point dynamic array with five alternate effects would cost 31 PP and 100 VPP.

Area (+1 cost/rank or more): This extra allows an effect that normally works on a single target to affect an area. If the effect requires an attack roll, make a separate attack roll against each target. Each target also gets its own resistance check or other opposed checks where such are allowed.

You may choose one of the following shapes when you gain an Area power. The Diverse Extra can be used to gain multiple options that you can pick and choose from.

A Close range Area power affects you as well if it is beneficial. It does not include you if it is detrimental. Ranged Area effects always include you if you are within the area (unless Selective).

You can apply the Area Extra multiple times, improving the Distance Rank that the area affects by one each time.

The Selective Extra allows you to freely include or exclude targets within the area. The Precise Extra allows you to shrink the area below its normal dimensions, but it still affects anyone within the smaller area.

Burst: The effect affects everyone within a 30' radius (Distance Rank 0) of the targeted point.

Cloud: The effect affects everything in a 15' radius (Distance Rank -1) centered on a target point. The cloud lingers for one round, affecting everyone who enters the area during that time, and applying a second time at the start of your next turn to anyone who has not yet left the area. With multiple applications, you can increase the duration of the cloud by one round, rather than increasing its radius by one Distance Rank, if desired.

Cone: The effect affects everyone in a 60' long (Distance Rank 1) cone that extends in a desired direction from the targeted point.

Cylinder: The effect affects everything in a 15' radius (Distance Rank -1) cylinder that is 60' (Distance Rank 1) tall, center on a target point. Cylinder effects are always treated as being adjacent to Prone targets (getting +5 to hit rather than -5), and it descends from above, so it might ignore some forms of cover. Each additional application increases both the radius and the height (you may choose to increase only one, but it still only increases by one Distance Rank).

Line: The effect affects everyone in a 120' long (Distance Rank 2) line that extends in a desired direction from the targeted point. The line is 3' wide (Distance Rank -3). Additional applications of Area can increase both the length and the width, or can increase only one of them by two Distance Ranks.

Shapeable: The effect affects any fully contiguous area you desire, provided it fits entirely within a cube 30' (Distance Rank 0) on a side centered on a targeted point.

Storm: The effect affects five 6' radius (Distance Rank -2) bursts, placed anywhere you choose within range. Each additional application can either increase the radius of all the bursts by one Distance Rank, or double the number of bursts. Overlapping bursts do not stack the effect.

Trail: The effect affects everything in a 60' long (Distance Rank 1) path that extends in a desired direction from the targeted point. The path is 3' wide (Distance Rank -3). Additional applications of Area can increase both the length and the width, or can increase only one of them by two Distance Ranks. The path can change direction freely.

Aura (+1 cost/rank): You may add the Aura Extra to a power that already has the Zone Extra. When you target the power, you must center it on a character or object. While the duration lasts, the power's area moves with this target. If the target is unwilling, the attempt to place it must be resolved as an attack using a chosen Attack Mode.

Battering (+1 cost/rank or more): This Extra can be added to any power that can inflict Bruises. Any time the power inflicts at least one Bruise, it inflicts one additional Bruise per application of this Extra.

Broad (+1 cost/rank): Broad can be applied to any power that requires you to make a choice when gaining the power, either for its Effects or its Extras. You may change these choices freely with each use of the power. Broad does not apply to effects where each rank lets you make a choice (such as Communication, Immunity, Luck Control, or Senses), only to those where the Effects and Extras do. Examples of where Broad would apply include Attack (the conditions inflicted), Environment (the environment effects applied), Nullify (the sources or origins affected), Area powers (the shape of the area), and so on. Broad does not apply to Flaws.

Broad does not let you apply multiple choices simultaneously. For that, use the Additional Extra. If you only want access to a small number of options, use the Diverse Extra.

The cost of Broad is always calculated as if the power's rank were at least equal to your PL, even if the actual rank is lower.

You only need one application of Broad to be able to freely change any or all choices the power calls on you to make. For example, a Broad Area Attack power allows you to freely mix-and-match condition sets, available Attack Modes, and Area shapes with every use. Excluding a single choice from Broad can be done as a 1-point Quirk.

Brutal (+1 cost/rank or more): You may add the Brutal Extra to any power that opponents make checks against which have more severe effects if they fail by multiple degrees or points. The number of points they must fail by to receive another degree of failure is lowered by 1 per application of the Extra (for degrees), or for every five points they fail by they are treated as having failed by an additional point per application of the Extra (for points). The cost per rank for each application is equal to the current applications + 1, so Brutal 2 costs +3 PP/rank, Brutal 3 costs +6 PP/rank, etc.

For example, a Brutal 2 attack (+3 PP/rank) would impose a Tier 1 condition on a failure by 1-3 points, Tier 2 on 4-6 points, Tier 3 on 7-9 points, and Tier 4 on 10-12 points.

Charged (+1 cost/2 ranks): You may add the Charged Extra to a power with an Instant duration. You can charge the power up before use to cause a stronger effect. For each Time Rank spent charging the power before use, it gains 1 PP/rank that can be used to increase the applications of its existing Extras (you can't add new Extras). You can charge the power for a maximum number of Time Ranks equal to half the power rank. Once the power is fully charged, you can only hold the energy until the next Time Rank passes; at that point, the effort is lost. If the power has a Side Effect, it is triggered if you don't use the power after you begin charging it.

Consume (+1 cost/rank): This Extra can be added to any power that provides or improves a defense. Any effect foiled by the power is consumed to heal the defender as a Reaction. Roll a check using the attack's Force against a DC of 10. On a success, the defender is healed of one Bruise, plus one additional Bruise per two additional degrees of success. Alternately, you may forego the opportunity to heal Bruises to make an immediate Recovery Check against a single condition with Short Recovery you are currently suffering from, using the attack's Force in place of your Resistance. Remember that a given trigger can only result in one Reaction.

Contagious (+1 cost/rank): Contagious effects work on both the target and anyone coming into contact with the target. New targets resist the effect normally. They also become contagious, and the effect lingers until all traces of it have been eliminated. A Contagious effect is also eliminated if its duration expires. Examples of effects with this extra include “sticky” attacks trapping anyone touching them, disease- or toxin-based attacks, or even a Nullify effect spreading from one victim to another.

Counter (+1 cost/rank): This Extra can be added to any power that provides or improves a defense. If this power foils an attack, you may attack the initiator (using an active Attack power of your choice if one is available) as a Reaction, provided it is in range.

Cumulative (+1 cost/rank): Cumulative can be added to any effect that causes greater results if the target fails to resist by multiple degrees. Instead of each use of the power being resolved individually, if a cumulative effect affects a target who has already been subject to its effects (or equivalent effects from the same sort of power by a different source), the degrees of failure are added together to determine the new degree of failure.

Dangerous (Flat 1-4 PP): This power is especially dangerous if it strikes solidly. Its threat range is increased by the applications of this Extra, as per the Improved Critical Advantage. This stacks with Improved Critical, but the maximum threat range remains 16-20.

Dimensional (Flat 1-3 PP): This modifier allows an effect to work on targets in other dimensions (if any exist in the series). You affect your proximate location in the other dimension as if you were actually there, figuring range modifiers from that point.

One rank in Dimensional can affect a single other dimension. Two ranks can affect any of a related group of dimensions (mythic dimensions, mystic dimensions, fiendish planes, and so forth). Three ranks can reach into any other dimension in the setting.

For many effects, you may need a Dimensional Remote Sensing effect to target them. Targets in other dimensions you cannot sense have total concealment from you.

This Extra only allows you to affect targets in other dimensions than the "main" dimension of the game, from the main dimension. You cannot use Dimensional powers to target enemies in the "main" dimension from other dimensions (such as, by traveling to another dimension using a Dimensional Movement power and then attacking a villain in your city with Dimensional Attacks). Communication, Movement, Reading, Remote Sensing, and Senses are exempt from this limitation - you can use those to move or communicate to the main dimension from a different dimension, or to spy on people in the main dimension from another dimension.

Diverse (Flat 1 PP/rank): You may add the Diverse Extra to any power that has a list of options that you choose when you gain the power, or that includes an Extra with such options (such as Area). For each rank of Diverse, you may choose another option. These options are not available simultaneously (for that, see the Additional Extra), but you may choose which you use each time you use the power. If different options carry different costs, you must pay for the highest. You can't use Diverse to add any new Effects, Extras, or Flaws, but Diverse powers can be taken within an array slot, and aren't treated as Alternate Effects (so, for example, they don't cost VPP inherently).

If you can choose multiple options based on your power rank (as with Communication, Immunity, Luck Control, and Senses), Diverse does not give you more options. Just buy more ranks or use the Additional Extra to get more options per rank.

Effortless (+1 cost/rank or more): This Extra can be added to any power that, if it fails, cannot be tried again without using Extra Effort. Each application of the Extra allows one additional attempt to be made before Extra Effort is required.

Explosive (Flat 1 PP): This Extra can be added to a Burst, Cone, or Line power that has multiple Area applications and requires either attack rolls or resistance checks. For each application of Area the target is "inside", the power's rank is treated as one higher, as are its Force and Accuracy stats, ignoring PL limits up to a max of PL+5, as if the excess Area applications were converted to applications of the Improved Extra.

For example, a character with Force and Accuracy 10 using an Attack 10 (Burst Area 3, Explosive) power can affect anyone in 120' at +10 to hit, for DC 20 damage. However, targets within 60' of the center (only needing Area 2 to hit) are attacked at +11 for DC 21 damage. Targets within 30' of the center (only needing Area 1 to hit) are attacked at +12 for DC 22 damage.

This counts as a tradeoff bonus, so it can't bring any given stat or the power's rank itself higher than PL + 5.

Extended Range (Flat 1 PP/rank): The Extended Range Extra can be added to a Ranged power whose rank is lower than the character's PL limit. Each rank of Extended Range increases the range of the power by one Distance Rank, up to the character's PL limit.

Extended Range can also be added to a Close range power to make it Ranged, allowing it to be targeted at a Distance Rank equal to the Extended Range ranks, to a maximum equal to the character's PL limit for Powers.

Feature (Flat 1 PP/rank): The Feature effect can also serve as an effect modifier, essentially adding on some minor additional capability or benefit to a basic effect.

As with the Feature effect, a Feature extra should be significant enough to be worth at least 1 character point and not solely based on the power’s descriptors. So, for example, a fiery Ranged Attack effect does not need a Feature to ignite fires; doing so is part of its “fire” descriptor and can be equally advantageous and problematic. A Ranged Attack effect that consistently “brands” its target with a visible and traceable mark, on the other hand, is an effect with an added Feature.

Fluid (Flat 1 PP/rank): You can shift around the points of the power. If you choose to forego one or more of the power's Extras on a given use, you may reallocate those points towards additional applications of another Extra already present on the power. You may do this for up to one PP per power rank per application of Fluid (and you can't improve or exchange Fluid itself in this way). For example, if you have an Attack (Burst Area, Selective, Improved, Fluid 2) power, you could make it into Attack (Burst Area 3), Attack (Burst Area 2, Selective), Attack (Burst Area, Improved 2), and so on, basically any combination of Burst Area, Selective, and Improved totally +3 PP/rank. If you only had Fluid 1, you could only make one such exchange - you could do Attack (Burst Area 2, Selective) but not Attack (Burst Area 3).

You may not add new Extras to the power in this way, nor may you "buy off" existing Flaws on the power. However, if you wish, you can dedicate a rank of Fluid to offering a Flaw that you can add to the power to get more points for additional applications of existing Extras. For example, say you have an Attack (Burst Area, Battering, Fluid) power - allowing either Burst Area and Battering, Burst Area 2, or Battering 2. You could then add something like Fluid 3 [Distracting]. That would allow you to add up to three applications of Distracting to the power on the fly, with each application letting you add another application of either Burst Area or Battering.

Homing (+1 cost/rank or more): This modifier grants an attack that requires an attack roll an additional opportunity to hit. If an attack check with a Homing effect fails, it attempts to hit again on the start of your next turn, requiring only a free action to maintain and allowing you to take other actions, including making another attack. Each application of Homing grants the effect one additional attack check, but it still only gets one check per round.

The Homing effect uses the same accurate sense as the original attack to “track” its target, so concealment effective against that sense may confuse the effect and cause it to miss. If a Homing attack misses due to concealment, it has lost its “lock” on the target and does not get any further chances to hit. You can take Senses Limited to the Homing effect, if desired (to create things like radar-guided or heat-seeking missiles, for example). If a Homing attack is countered before it hits, it loses any remaining chances to hit. The same is true if it hits a different target.

If you attack the same target in the same round as a prior Homing attack and both attacks hit, resolve it as an Aid action.

Immediate (+3 cost/rank): Immediate can be added to any power that requires a resistance check or opposed check and has greater results for greater degrees of failure. If the target fails its check, the check is immediately made again (for an opposed check, both sides reroll). If it fails again, the degree of failure increases by 1 (regardless of how many degrees it failed the latest check by) and it rolls again. Checks continue to be rolled until the target succeeds a check, or it suffers the worst possible result.

Improved (+1 cost/rank or more): You treat your power rank, and any stats involved in its use, as one higher for each application of this Extra, ignoring PL limits. This counts as a tradeoff bonus, so it can't bring any given stat or the power's rank itself higher than PL + 5.

Increased Duration (+1 cost/rank or more): This Extra increases the duration of a power by one step per application; Instant -> Concentration -> Sustained -> Continuous. However, powers whose durations were originally Concentration or higher that are changed to Sustained or Continuous cannot be maintained for longer than the scene in which they are used (although the Lasting Extra can circumvent this limit to an extent).

Increased Targeting (Flat +1 PP or more): For each application of this Extra, the power's Targeting increases by one step; Wielded -> Fired -> Aimed -> Selected. You can't make a power's Targeting Automatic if it wasn't already.

Incurable (+1 cost/rank): The power's rank is increased by half for any purposes that involve recovering from conditions the attack inflicts, such as the DC of Treatment checks to remove them, comparisons to Healing and Regeneration powers, Recovery checks for Short duration conditions, etc.

Indirect (+1 cost/rank): A power with this modifier can originate from a point other than the user, ignoring cover between the user and the target, such as walls and other intervening barriers, so long as they do not provide cover between the effect’s origin point and the target. First you target the origin point as if this were a ranged power, following all normal rules (meaning Total Cover or Total Concealment between you and the origin point blocks it). Then, from the origin point, you target your intended target, using the power's normal range. Cover is calculated only based on the origin point. However, unless you have a means of perceiving from the origin point (such as Remote Sensing), Concealment is still calculated relative to you.

Indirect powers can qualify for Surprise Attacks.

Innate (Flat 1 PP/5 points of affected traits): An effect with this modifier is an innate part of your nature and unaffected by Nullify, Suppression conditions, and other methods of removal (other than Flaws and Complications).

Lasting (+1 cost/rank or more): You may apply the Lasting Extra to a power that imposes conditions or that operates on a duration. If the power fulfills both criteria, choose which benefit it receives (you may purchase Lasting multiple times to provide both).

If the first case, the Recovery Rate of conditions imposed by the power increases by one step per application of the Extra. For example, a Lasting Attack power would cause Tier 1 and 2 conditions with Standard Recovery, and Tier 3 and 4 conditions and Bruises with Prolonged Recovery.

In the second case, you can spend additional time using the power to allow its duration to persist even if the power itself is deactivated or is otherwise limited to operating in the scene it is used in. You can increase the time required to use the power to a number of Time Ranks up to the power's rank, plus two per application of this Extra beyond the first. If you do so, the power will remain in effect even if deactivated for half again as many Time Ranks, rounded up. For example, if you spend an hour (Time Rank 9) initiating the power, it would last for up to a day (Time Rank 14).

You cannot extend the duration of powers that beneficially affect a creature, unless they are immobile Zone powers (in which case, the Zone remains fixed and affects everyone within, but the effects end when they leave as normal). For example, you couldn't make an Enhanced Trait power Lasting except as an immobile Zone, but you could make a Create or Illusion power Lasting.

Lasting does not change the duration itself, it just allows it to extend beyond the power's activation. But you must still concentrate on a Concentration power, or be able to take actions to maintain a Sustained power, or the power will end as normal.

Lasting does not override Nullify or other Counters; if a Lasting power is Countered, it ends immediately as normal.

Lingering (Free Option or +2 cost/rank): Conditions imposed by a Lingering power are considered part of the power, and have a Sustained duration. They cannot be healed or regenerated (but can be suppressed or delayed normally) and are not subject to their normal methods of removal (such as recovery time for attacks, Escape or Reset Maneuvers for Manhandle, etc). However, they can be Countered or Nullified, and end immediately when the duration expires or the power deactivates. Lingering powers cannot also be Innate.

For +2/rank, the effects of the power can be made Permanent or Continuous rather than Sustained.

Linked (+1 cost/rank or more): You can use this power in conjunction with another. When you gain this power, choose another power you possess with an equal or lower action cost (so you can use a standard action power if this power is standard, but not if it's move, free, or reaction); you may use that power as well in the same action, provided it is active at the time you use this power (meaning you can't generally link to other powers in different slots of the same array, unless it's a dynamic array).

Secondary powers must have different Effects, and if they allow you to use the same action as another Linked power (such as an Attack Linked Create) you must either affect a different target or resolve one of them as an Aid to the other.

The Diverse Extra can allow a Linked power to choose between multiple available secondary powers. The Broad Extra allows you to freely choose between any qualifying powers you have active at the time of use.

Each additional application of Linked lets you use another power simultaneously.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Movable (+1 cost/rank): You may add the Mobile Extra to any power with the Zone Extra, or any power that creates some static object or emplacement, such as Create. Once the effect is placed, you can move or retarget it to elsewhere within its range (as calculated from your current position) as a move action for as long as the duration lasts.

Multiattack (+1 cost/rank): A Multiattack effect allows you to hit multiple targets, or a single target multiple times, in the same standard action. Multiattack can apply to any effect requiring a check on your part (typically an attack check, hence the name, but other powers that require checks on your part are valid). There are three ways in which a Multiattack effect can be used:

Single Target: This option is only useful for effects where you roll a check and, if it succeeds, the target makes an opposing check - typically, attacks. To use a Multiattack against a single target, make your check normally. If successful, increase the DC of the check your opponent made by +2 for two degrees of success, and +5 for three or more. This circumstance bonus does not count against power level limits and is not considered a tradeoff bonus.

Multiple Targets: You can use Multiattack to affect multiple targets at once. You affect each target individually, making a separate check for each. You suffer a penalty to each check equal to the total number of targets. So making a Multiattack against five targets is a –5 penalty to each check. If you miss one target, you may still attempt to hit the others.

Rapid Response: When you Ready an action to use a Multiattack power, you may take the readied action in response to multiple triggers that turn. Each time after the first, you take a -1 penalty on the check. So for example, you could Ready a Multiattack Attack to shoot anyone who attacks one of your allies. If three enemies do so before your next turn, you get to attack each of them back (and remember, a readied attack that succeeds can prevent the triggering action). Your first reaction is at your normal attack bonus, your second at -1, and your third at -2.

Penetrating (+1 cost/rank or more): Effects with this Extra can ignore immunities. For each application of Penetrating, you lower the effect of an immunity that would apply against the effect by one step. If the target has multiple immunities that all might apply, you need enough applications of Penetrating to affect each one. Immunity steps for this purpose are as follows:

Ignore Extras -> No Protection.
Full Immunity -> Half Immunity -> Minor Bonus (All Checks) -> No Protection.
Major Bonus -> Minor Bonus -> No Protection.
Heavy Impervious -> Light Impervious -> No Protection.

If there are multiple different immunity results, Ignore Extras is always removed first (Ignore Extras can't ignore Penetrating in itself; the first application of Penetrating simply cancels it out, leaving both other Extras and other immunities in-tact). If you have additional Penetrating applications, other immunities are then removed in the priority order of your choice.

Permanent (Free Option): You may choose to turn a Sustained effect into a Permanent effect at no change in cost.

Phasing (+2 cost/rank): A Phasing power passes through obstacles on the way to the target. It ignores all forms of cover, including Total Cover, and cannot be Interposed against.

Potent (Flat 1 PP/rank): For each rank of Potent, attacks with the power have their Force increased by up to 2, and their Accuracy lowered by the same. This counts as a tradeoff modifier, so it can't bring Force more than 5 above PL. Potent cannot be applied to a power that doesn't both involve an attack roll and allow a check to resist.

Precise (Flat 1 PP): You can use a Precise effect to perform tasks requiring delicacy and fine control, such as using a Precise Attack to spot-weld or carve your initials, Precise Exert to type or pick a lock, Precise Environment to match a particular temperature exactly, and so forth. The GM has final say as to what tasks can be performed with a Precise effect and may require an ability, skill, or power check to determine the degree of precision with any given task.

Progressive (+2 cost/rank): Progressive can be added to any power that has greater effects with higher degrees or points of success. Once a target is successfully affected by a power, it must roll a new resistance check against it each round at the end of its turn. If it fails, increase the degree by which the power has affected it by one, or the points by half the number of points it failed by. If it succeeds, the Progression ends. While the Progression is in effect, the character cannot recover from conditions imposed by the power, and its effects persist even if the normal duration ends. Nullifying the power also ends the Progression.

Rapid (Flat 1 PP/rank): Routine tasks performed using the power can be done three Time Ranks faster per application of this Extra. In effect, this is merely Quickness Limited twice to only for this use of the power. Each rank of this Extra counts as three ranks of Quickness (for purposes of routine tasks performed with this power) for purposes of calculating PL limits. For example, a PL 10 character with Quickness 4 couldn't have more than two ranks of Rapid on any given power, since that would bring the character up to its PL limit 10 for Quickness.

Reciprocate (+1 cost/rank): This Extra can be added to any power that provides or improves a defense. If the target is successfully affected by an attack, this power reciprocates damage as a Reaction. The attacker must make a Resistance check, DC 10 + the lower of this power's rank or your Force stat, or suffer a Bruise.

Redirect (+1 cost/rank): This Extra can be added to any power with an Extra that causes some Reaction to occur when the power interacts with an attack (such as Absorb or Reflect). You may choose the target of the Reaction (they must be within the provoking attack's range) rather than only being able to apply it to the attacker or defender.

Reduced Action (+1 cost/rank or more): For each application of this Extra, you reduce the power's action type by one step (Standard -> Move -> Free -> Reaction). An action that is normally a Standard action cannot apply to the same target from the same character more than once per round. Doing so resolves the group of actions as an Aid attempt. Actions that are normally Move actions cannot apply to the same target from the same character more than twice per round.

Different powers with the same Effect are considered the same action for this purpose; if you have a power that lets you attack as a Reaction, for example, you can't use it against a target you attacked with a different power on your turn, but you could use it to attack other opponents.

Powers that were originally standard actions can't be used more than once per round (even against different targets) unless you reduce them all the way to Reactions.

Reflect (+1 cost/rank): This Extra can be added to any power that provides or improves a defense. Any effect foiled by the power is reflected back at the initiator as a Reaction, using the defender's own Accuracy and Force stats (which may be capped by the power's rank) but otherwise using the full normal effects of the power. Area effects are only reflected once, and if the same Area attack is reflected by multiple targets, it only applies once. Remember that a given trigger can only result in one Reaction.

Reliable (+2-4 cost/rank): Checks you make with a Reliable power can be performed as Routine checks, even when rushed or threatened or they normally can't be made as Routine checks at all (such as attack rolls). Normally, this Extra costs +2 PP/rank. If the checks you would make with the power result in worse effects if the check fails by more than one degree, the cost changes to +3 PP/rank. For an additional +1 cost/rank, the Routine result is treated as the minimum result of the check; you roll normally, and simply take the Routine result if you roll below it.

The Reliable Extra does not make a use of a power that is not normally performable as a Routine check eligible for being sped up by Quickness.

Resurrection (+1 cost/rank or more): This Extra can be applied to Healing or Regeneration powers.

A Healing power with the Resurrection Extra can bring back the dead. This requires an elaborate ritual or prolonged power use; using the power takes a Time Rank equal to half the Time Rank that the target has been dead for. At the end of this time, roll a Healing check against a DC of 10 + 5 per three Time Ranks the target has been dead; a success returns the target to life, a failure means it cannot be resurrected by anyone with a Healing rank less than or equal to your own. The target must spend a Hero Point to return to life; if it does not have any Hero Points, it can only return to life with GM Fiat. Other PCs may spend Hero Points for dead PCs, and a PC may spend its own Hero Points for the resurrection of a character who is part of one of its Complications or otherwise personally important to it.

If the Healing power also Affects Objects, it can restore destroyed objects, treating destroyed as just one more condition it can heal following normal rules.

A Regeneration power with the Resurrection Extra lets you return to life if killed. You return in a Time Rank of 19 minus the power's rank. Reviving costs one Hero Point. If you do not have Hero Points, you can still revive, but you must either allow the GM to invoke a free Complication against you (not awarding you a Hero Point) at some later point, or you must add an all-new permanent Complication to your character. This cost only applies once you actually rejoin play - if you revive in the middle of an enemy lair and they just kill you again or something, you don't spend another Hero Point every time you come back. But once you've been recovered and are back in action, you spend the Hero Point.

You may apply the Resurrection Extra multiple times; each time you do, any calculations based on Time Rank are reduced by 3, but each time, the cost per rank is one higher than before (so Resurrection 2 is +3 PP/rank, Resurrection 3 is +6 PP/rank, etc).

Normally, Resurrection requires the body to be more-or-less in-tact. For a flat +1 PP, it can work even on a heavily mutilated body. For a flat +2 PP, it can work even on very sparse remains, such as a single bone or finger or something. For a flat +3 PP, it can work even on bare remnants, such as a pile of ash or a few drops of blood. For a flat +4 PP, it can work even if the character's entire body has been destroyed.

Reversible (Flat 1 PP): You can remove conditions and other Instant effects caused by a Reversible effect at will as a free action, such as reversing conditions imposed by attacks or removed by healing. In the case of effects that affected multiple targets at the time of use, you must reverse the effects for everyone - Reversible is not a substitute for Selective (but a Selective Reversible power can be reversed selectively).

Ricochet (Flat 1 PP/rank): You can ricochet or bounce an attack effect with this modifier off of a solid surface to change its direction. This allows you to attack around corners, overcome some forms of cover and possibly make a surprise attack against an opponent. It does not allow you to affect multiple targets. The “bounce” has no effect apart from changing the attack’s direction. You must be able to define a clear path for your attack, which must follow a straight line between each ricochet. Each rank in Ricochet allows you to bounce the attack once before it hits. Ricochet attacks can qualify for Surprise Attacks.

You can also add Ricochet to a Line Area effect to allow it to change direction each time it strikes something solid, up to once per ricochet rank, to create a sort of "Chain Area" effect.

Secondary Effect (+1 cost/rank or more): An instant duration effect with this modifier affects the target once immediately (when the effect is used) and then once again on the following round, at the end of the user’s turn. The target gets the normal resistance check against the secondary effect. If you affect the target with the same action manually next round, the Secondary Attack supports it as an Aid action.

For each additional application of this extra, the effect persists for one additional round.

Secondary Effects can use different choices than the primary effect if desired, kind of like the Diverse Extra. For example, a sword strike might be a Physical attack that inflicts Impairment Tree conditions, representing the sharp-force trauma, and then have a Physiological Secondary Effect that inflicts the Weakening Tree, reflecting blood loss.

Selective (+1 cost/rank): An effect with this extra is discriminating, allowing you to decide who is and is not affected by it. This is most useful for area effects. You must be able to accurately perceive a target in order to decide whether or not to affect it (you can set a default for targets you can't accurately perceive; if you're throwing a fireball into a horde of enemy mooks but some of them are invisible, you could default to affecting targets and just selectively avoid your allies, whereas if you're blasting into a room with hostages, you might default to not affecting targets and selectively effect those enemies you can see). Generally speaking, Selective is only necessary for effects that have substantial effects on multiple characters. For a degree of selectivity in terms of affecting only part of a single affected target, use the Precise modifier.

Sensory Link (+1 cost/rank): You can add this Extra to any power that gives you a connection to another character's mind - such as some uses of Communication or Reading. You can see through the target's eyes instead of your own, swapping between whose vision you use as a free action once per round. You are Vulnerable while using the target's senses. An unwilling target can block you out with a Resistance check (DC 10+power rank), and if it does so you cannot try again that scene without Extra Effort. If it fails to do so, it cannot try again that scene without Extra Effort. You may add the Additional Sense Extra to share more senses than vision, and the Affects Others Extra to allow the target to perceive through your senses.

Simultaneous (+1 cost/rank): You can add this Extra to any power that overlaps your normal senses, such as Remote Sensing or powers with the Sensory Link Extra. You may use your own senses simultaneously and are not considered Vulnerable when using the power.

Split (Flat 1 PP/rank): You can use a power with the Split Extra on multiple targets simultaneously, but at a lower rank. Each rank of Split allows you to affect one additional target. The rank of the power is reduced by 2 for each target affected. So an Aid 10 (Split 3) power can affect one target at rank 10, two targets at rank 8, three targets at rank 6, or four targets at rank 4.

Subtle (Flat 1 PP/rank): Subtle powers are easy to conceal. They have faint or no obvious displays, don't require particularly obvious actions to initiate or direct them, and so on. This is not to say that they are completely undetectable - someone who is alert or intuitive enough can recognize subtle tells of power use. But they're good for using powers from stealth while remaining undetected, delaying a foe's realization that it is under attack, or confounding enemies as to who a power is coming from in the midst of a pitched battle.

When you make a power Subtle, choose some relevant and not entirely obscure super sense (or perhaps some other relevant power or even Advantage, with GM approval) that can detect it easily.

Every time you use a Subtle power, roll a check using the power rank, your Stealth skill, or your Deception skill, whichever is higher. This check automatically fails against anyone with the sense that easily detects the power. For everyone else, the DC is 10 + any given observer's Perception or Insight, whichever is higher. Characters with an Expertise specialty related to the power's Source or Origin can use Expertise instead (for example, a wizard could use Expertise (Magic) to detect Subtle magical powers). Anyone whose DC you beat fails to notice the power; anyone whose DC you fail to beat notices it.

NPCs to whom the power has no direct relevance never detect Subtle powers, even if the check fails to beat their DC, unless for some reason they are already paying attention to the user. For example, two telepaths with Subtle attack powers could be psychically dueling in a crowded room and none of the "window dressing" NPCs among the crowd would notice, but the telepaths themselves and their immediate allies could.

You may double the ranks in Subtle to make the power even harder to detect. If you do, you roll the check normally against those with the relevant super-sense. Against those without it, you roll against DC 0 + the relevant skill, virtually assuring success except against the incredibly alert.

A new check to conceal Subtle powers is made every time one is used. Any time a character is targeted by a detrimental Subtle power, its DC increases by 2 if the action failed, or by 5 if it succeeded. Once a character has successfully detected a Subtle power, its DC increases by 10 for future attempts. These DC increases reset at the end of a scene, and stack between all detrimental Subtle powers (from non-allies, anyway - you can't hit your allies with weak but detrimental Subtle powers to artificially inflate their DCs).

For each rank of Subtle, you remove one of the following "tells" from the power, for anyone whose DCs you beat:

Power Usage: You conceal the fact that you are using the power - there is little to no visual display connecting it to you, nor much of an indication that you are doing anything amiss. Using the power grants observers the normal chance to detect the power (and thus pinpoint you as its user), but does not itself break Stealth (in other words, it doesn't count as an action targeting someone other than you). Further, even if you are not personally hidden, enemies may not realize that you are the one using the power.

Power Direction: The power itself has no real display to indicate anything is going on. Anyone who is not directly targeted by the power won't realize anything is happening - even if the usage isn't concealed, they won't recognize that whatever you are doing is having any meaningful effect, unless you fail to beat their DC. Targets of the power won't realize anything amiss until the power affects them - and as such, powers with this form of Subtle qualify for Surprise Attacks.

Power Effect: The power's effects are undetectable. The target of the power won't realize anything occurred unless you fail to beat its DC. Even if the power direction isn't Subtle, as far as the target knows the power failed or just didn't do anything. This delusion only lingers until the target is faced with proof that it has been affected, such as due to an action failing due to a Subtle condition or the like. This form of Subtle only applies against the target in most cases; others don't have a chance to notice the effect at all unless they are specifically analyzing the target for some reason.

Power Access: Your access to the power is undetectable, by Reading powers and the like. For this purpose, you don't roll a check at all - you are automatically assumed to receive a result of 15 on your d20 roll. Anyone using such detection powers whose DC does not beat your automatic result fails to detect the power.

Power Function: Any traces of the power are concealed from senses that would detect them, such as Detect senses. This prevents people with such powers from noticing the power is active or doing things like listening in on a Communication power or such. As with Power Access, you don't roll a check for this form of Subtle - you are automatically assumed to receive a 15.

Supreme (+1 cost/rank): This Extra can be added to any power that can be substituted for a skill or that improves a skill (typically Enhanced Skill). Each two effective skill ranks provides the benefit of one rank of Skill Supremacy for that skill. This stacks with other sources of Skill Supremacy, but normal limits apply, so this Extra isn't useful on powers that alright provide Skill Supremacy.

Sustained (Free Option): When you gain a Permanent power, you can choose to make it Sustained instead at no change in cost.

Sweeping (+1 cost/rank): Sweeping functions much like Multiattack, but rather than use the power repeatedly, you use it across a wide sweep. Sweeping can be added to any power that naturally allows others to make a check against it.

Sweeping Targeting: As with Multiattack, you can use your wide sweep to affect multiple targets. This prevents you from focusing your full power on a target though, so others get +1 on any checks made against the effect (such as resistance checks) per target you affect.

Glancing Effect: When attack a single target with a Sweeping attack (or otherwise using a power where you roll a check and then your opponent rolls a separate check), even if you can't score a solid hit you might be able to land a glancing blow. If you fail your check by only one or two points, it still counts as a success, but the target gets +5 on its check against the power. If you fail by three to five points, it counts as a success, but the target gets +10 to its check.

Wild Sweep: When you Ready an action to use a Sweeping power, you may take the readied action in response to multiple triggers that turn. Each time after the first, others get a +1 on checks against that use of the power. So for example, you could Ready a Sweeping Attack to strike anyone who attacks one of your allies. If three enemies do so before your next turn, you get to attack each of them back (and remember, a readied attack that succeeds can prevent the triggering action). Your first target rolls a normal resistance check, your second target rolls at +1, and your third target rolls at +2.

Triggered (Flat 1-2 PP/rank): You can “set” an instant duration effect with this modifier to take effect under particular circumstances, such as in response to a particular danger, after a set amount of time, in response to a particular event, and so forth—chosen when you apply the modifier. Once chosen, the trigger cannot be changed.

The circumstances must be detectable by your senses. You can acquire Senses Limited to Triggered effects, if desired. The place you set the trigger is assumed to have your own senses - you don't have to actually be personally present. Setting the effect requires the same action as using it normally.

A Triggered effect lying in wait may be detected with a Perception check (DC 10 + either an appropriate skill, usually Stealth, or the effect rank) and in some cases disarmed with a successful skill or power check (such as Technology, Nullify or another countering effect) with a DC of 10 + effect rank.

You may have one trigger per rank of this Extra ready at any one time. Triggers persist even if you swap to a different array slot.

You can apply an additional rank of Triggered to have a Variable Trigger, allowing you to change the effect’s trigger each time you set it.

A triggered power can't be set on a character unless it is a detrimental power being set on its target, effectively delaying it from taking effect (but while it's latent, it also can't be removed or recovered from, but can be Nullified). It can be set on a movable object, but in this case, the trigger must involve some form of intentional interaction with the object; you can't set a trigger for, say, when an opponent looks at your shield or is hit by your sword, but you can set a Trigger against someone who tries to disarm you or use your weapon against you. Triggers set on immobile objects, locations, and so on can have pretty much any trigger, subject to GM approval.

Once a triggered power is set, it is completely independent of you. You could deactivate the Triggered power without preventing it from going off later. You could even deactivate or use different Senses powers - the trigger will retain whatever senses you had active at the time of setting it. The activation of a trigger also doesn't affect you in any way - it doesn't allow (or force) you to activate the power, swap to its array slot, etc.

Variable Descriptor (Flat 1-2 PP): You can change the descriptors of an effect with this modifier, varying them as a free action once per round. With rank 1, you can apply any of a closely related group of descriptors, such as weather, electromagnetic, temperature, and so forth. With rank 2, you can apply any of a broad group, such as any mental, magical, or technological descriptor. The GM decides if a given descriptor is appropriate in conjunction with a particular effect and this modifier.

Withstand (+1 cost/rank or more): This Extra can be added to any power that provides or improves a defense. While under the effects of that power, any attack that would normally inflict Bruises inflicts one fewer Bruise per application of this Extra.

Zone (Free Option): By default, an Area power that has a Duration applies to everyone in the area and then lasts for all those targets while the duration lasts, whether or not they leave the area, and doesn't affect anyone who enters the original area later during the duration. The Zone Extra changes this; the power lasts over the area for the duration, and applies to any valid targets as long as they remain in the area, ending immediately for anyone who leaves the area. For +1 PP/rank, you can get both effects; anyone who enters the area at any time during the duration receives the benefit, and the benefit lasts for the full duration even if they then leave the area.

Some Extras have special effects regarding Zone areas. These only apply while the target remains within the zone, even if the +1 cost/rank is applied to get both effects.

Alternate Resistance: Function subsumed by Attack Modes.

Attack: Folded into Affects Others.

Change Direction/Change Velocity: Folded into the cost of the Teleport Extra.

Damaging: Linked Attack.

Energizing: Folded into basic function of Healing.

Impervious: Folded into the new Immunities rules.

Increased Range: Function is folded into Extended Range.

Insidious: Folded into Subtle.

No Conduit: Too specific and a bit nonsensical. Take Immunity (Sensory Effects; Limited [Only through Remote Sensing]) if you want it.

Persistent: Incurable is no longer binary. You beat Incurable attacks by being a really good healer.

Randomize: Folded into the new Imposing Flaw.

Reach: Function is folded into Extended Range.

Reaction: Folded into the Reduced Action Extra.

Restorative: Afflictions, Damage, and Weakens are no longer separated; Healing just works on whatever conditions.

Stabilize: Folded into basic function of Healing.

Stationary: Folded into Create as a general option.

Sleep: Asleep is just a condition that attacks can impose, it does not need its own Extra.

Tether: Too specific. Call it a Feature.

Turnabout: This is the Reversible Extra.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Flaws

Activation (Flat -1 PP/rank): A power with this flaw requires an action to prepare or activate before any of its effects are usable. If the power requires a move action to activate, the flaw is –1 point. If it requires a standard action, it is –2 points. Activation taking less than a move action is not a flaw, although may qualify as a complication.

Activation has no effect other than making all of the power’s effects available for use. The effects themselves still require their normal actions to use. You can use a power’s effects in the same turn as you activate it, provided you have sufficient actions to do so. If the power is deactivated—either voluntarily or involuntarily via effects like Nullify—you must activate it again in order to use any of its effects.

Activation applies to an entire power and all of its effects. Activating the power brings all of its effects “online” and makes them available. If you have to activate different effects separately, apply this flaw to each of them, requiring separate actions for each.

If Activation is not automatic, apply the Check Required flaw to the entire power as well and have the player make the necessary check in order to activate the power. If the check fails, the power does not activate, and the character has to take the activation action to try again.

Powers with the Activation flaw are considered off at the start of any scene.

Check Required (-1 cost/2 ranks): An effect with this flaw requires a check of some sort—usually a skill check—with a difficulty class of 10 + the power rank. If the check fails, the effect doesn’t work, although the action required to use it is expended (so attempting to activate a standard action effect takes a standard action whether the check is successful or not).

If the check succeeds, the character gains the use of 1 effect rank per point the check exceeds the DC. If a lesser rank of the effect doesn’t do anything, then it’s the same as failing the check.

The required check occurs as part of the action to use the effect and provides no benefit other than helping to activate it. Normal modifiers apply to the check, and if you are unable to make the required check for any reason, the effect doesn’t work.

This check must be in addition to any check(s) normally required for the effect. So, for example, the normal perception check made in conjunction with a sensory effect does not count as an application of this flaw, and applying it means an additional check is required before the effect’s normally required check(s).

A character may only apply Check Required for any given skill to one power or array (Expertise is considered a single skill for this purpose, although different powers in an array could use different Expertise fields), and cannot apply Check Required for multiple skills to the same power or array.

Powers with the Check Required flaw are considered off at the start of any scene, and thus cannot be Permanent. You may not make Check Required attempts as Routine checks. As normal, since this is simply not a check in which Routining is allowed, Skill Mastery doesn't apply.

Instant-duration powers retain the result of a check for one round. Concentration-duration powers retain the result for one minute. Sustained ten minutes. Continuous one hour. This is true for successful, partially successful, and failed checks - you cannot and do not have to roll the check again during that time. Once that time expires, if you wish to continue maintaining the power, you must roll the check again.

Complicating (-2 cost/rank): The first time in a scene that you use a power with this Extra, the GM becomes entitled to invoke GM Fiat or a Complication against you without awarding a Hero Point. You can reduce the cost of the Flaw to only -1 cost/rank to specify what type of Complication comes up and how it applies (subject to GM approval). You specify this when creating the power, not when using it.

Costly (-1 cost/rank or more): Using a Costly power expends some limited resource. All of your Costly powers must draw from the same resource, chosen when you first gain a Costly power. You may choose one of the following usage limits: two uses per hour, three uses per scene, five uses per day, five uses per episode, or ten uses per adventure. The GM may allow other usage options at its discretion, and may choose to alter the existing ones to account for the pacing of the game. You may apply Costly multiple times to the same power, causing that power to expend that number of uses per use. You can also lower the cost per rank modifier to -1 PP/2 ranks to make a power expend only half a use.

If you are using the per-scene limit, powers with durations expend one use per three rounds they are active. Otherwise, Concentration powers expend one use per minute, Sustained powers one use per ten minutes, and Continuous powers one use per ten minutes (for a per-hour limit) or per hour (for per day, episode, or adventure limits).

You can spend a Hero Point to immediately refill an hourly or per-scene resource, regain three uses of a daily resource, or regain two uses of an adventure resource. As a Feature, a costly power may be rechargeable, allowing you to regain one use by performing some sort of reasonably difficult action as approved by your GM. The effort required should be proportionate to the time period the limit applies in. For example, the per-scene usage might be recharged by successfully imposing a condition on a foe using a certain power. A per adventure limit might recharge by overcoming certain encounters.

Costly should not be used for powers whose uses come up extremely rarely, such as Immortality. Such effects are better handled using Quirks, Restricted, or Complications.

Diminished Range (Flat -1 PP/rank): This Flaw can only be applied to a ranged power. For each rank, the range is reduced by one Distance Rank. This applies after any effects that would alter the power's range. If this reduces the range below Distance Rank 0, the power becomes Close range.

Distracting (-1 cost/rank or more): Choose a Tier 1 condition when you gain the power; as long as the power is active, you suffer that condition. When you deactivate the power, the condition automatically ends. It cannot be removed by any means while the power is active. You can apply Distracting multiple times, taking a condition one Tier higher each time (you can't just add multiple Tier 1 conditions, but your higher Tier conditions could be Complex Conditions). You may not use Tier 0 conditions for this purpose unless your GM decides that the nature of your powers or Complications makes them a sufficient hindrance (and you don't gain Hero Points for Complications accrued as a result of your own willfully-inflicted conditions).

Disruptable (-1 cost/rank or more): If you fail a resistance check while using this power, it automatically deactivates and you must use it again on your next turn. Disruptable is generally only appropriate for defensive powers that you want to be active off turn, powers that have some cost to activate, or powers which can cause problems (like falling) if they suddenly deactivate.

Empathic (-1 cost/rank): You can add this Flaw to any power that imposes or removes detrimental effects upon others. You suffer any effect that you successfully place or remove. When placing effects with a duration, the effect upon you lasts for as long as the effect upon the target does. This Flaw does not cause Exertion conditions, so you can otherwise recover normally. It does ignore any immunities you possess, however.

Fades (-1 cost/rank): Each time you use an effect with this flaw, it loses 1 rank of effectiveness. Once the effect reaches 0 ranks, it stops working.

Powers with an Instant duration lose ranks each round they are used. Powers with a Concentration duration lose ranks each minute you concentrate. Powers with a Sustained duration lose ranks each ten minutes you sustain them. Powers with a Continuous duration lose ranks each hour they remain active. The lost ranks occur at the end of this time, but if you deactivate the power beforehand you do lose the rank for the partial time period.

By default, you recover from Fades at the same rate, starting three time periods after your most recent use. For example, a Concentration power would recover one rank per minute starting three minutes after your most recent use. The GM may allow other recovery methods, but they should be proportionate to the fade rate. A Hero Point can be spent to fully refresh the power.

Powers that only tend to be used occasionally should recover much more slowly. Immortality, for example, may only recover one rank per adventure. An Extended Teleport may only recover one rank per scene.

Feedback (-1 cost/rank): You suffer damage when a manifestation of your effect is damaged. This flaw only applies to effects with physical (or apparently physical) manifestations, such as Create or Illusion, or to powers placed on targets (in which case, damaging the target triggers the feedback). If your power’s manifestation is damaged, make a resistance check against the same effect using your appropriate resistance bonus.

Full Power (Flat -1 PP): You may not choose not to apply ranks or Extras to a given use of a power with this Flaw. You must use it at its full strength every time. You can still turn the power entirely off if you wish, but if you want to use it, it's at full power.

Heroic (-2 cost/rank): You must spend a Hero Point to use a power with this Flaw. Once you have spent the Hero Point, you can use the power normally for the rest of the scene.

Imposing (-1 cost/rank): You can add the Imposing Flaw to any power that would negate or prevent the use of other powers, such as a Nullify or an Attack that imposes Suppression conditions. Rather than negating the powers, you impose a -1 cost/rank or lesser Flaw on them. For example, you might make them Unreliable or Distracting, give them a Side Effect, make them Empathic, Increase their Action cost by one step, etc. By reducing the total cost reduction of this Flaw by a flat 2 PP, you can add an additional -1 cost/rank to the Flaw(s) imposed.

Increased Action (-1 cost/rank or more): Using an effect requires one of the following types of actions: standard, move, free, or reaction. Each increase in the required action from that effect’s base action type (free to move, for example) is a –1 cost per rank modifier. This Flaw can only be applied to powers with Instant and Concentration durations or that also possess the Temporary Flaw. Other powers must use Activation instead. You may Increase Action beyond standard, which means the action requires both a standard and move action to use, but not further beyond this - powers that take higher Time Ranks to use should use the Slow Flaw.

Invested (-2/rank): You may apply the Invested Flaw to any power which provides a benefit to another and lasts for a duration - typically an Affects Others power. While the power is active, you are effectively removed from play - you transform into a device they are using, or fuse with them, or possess them, or otherwise are no longer active in the game, although you might be able to communicate and perceive with or through them. You cannot be targeted by actions, good or bad, but if the power is Countered or Nullified or the target becomes unable to maintain it, you reappear in Close range of the target and suffer from a Dazing condition of a tier equal to the degree of success on the counter attempt until the end of your next turn. You may consider yourself to be concentrating on the power, and thus most Invested powers are also Concentration duration. You may only have one Invested power active at once.

Limited (-1 cost/rank or more): An effect with this flaw is not effective all the time. Limited powers generally break down into two types: those usable only in certain situations and those usable only on certain things. See the Choosing Between Flaws sidebar at the end of the Flaws section for an overview of when Limited is appropriate compared to similar Flaws.

Medium (-1 cost/rank): Medium can be used with any ranged power, or any power that otherwise works across a distance, such as Movement. The power only works across a certain medium - such as trees, water, power lines, a single contiguous and uniform surface, and so on. You must be in Close range of the medium to target the power through it, and the end point or actual target must also be within Close range of the medium to be affected. You do not gain any additional ability to perceive through the medium (although also taking Senses Limited to the medium or Remote Senses with the same Medium Flaw can help with that).

Unless the power doesn't normally need to pass through the space between the start and end points or can otherwise ignore obstacles in the way, the medium must be contiguous. If it can ignore the space or obstacles in between, they do not.

For example, a Movement 5 (Medium [Trees]) power lets you move 900 feet as a move action - but you have to move through a contiguous group of trees, running along the canopy for instance. Movement 5 (Teleport; Medium [Trees]) on the other hand lets you take a move action to step into any tree in Close range, and step out of any other tree within 900', whether or not there's a contiguous path of trees connecting them.

Noticeable (Flat -1 PP): A continuous, permanent, or personal effect with this modifier is noticeable in some sort of way. Choose a noticeable display for the effect. For example Noticeable Enhanced Resistance may take the form of armored plates or a tough, leathery-looking hide, making it clear the character is tougher than normal.

Other powers can also be made Noticeable. In this case, you lose all benefits of Stealth or Concealment in any round you use the power, except for Total Concealment provided by something that also provides Total Cover. Noticeable powers cannot be Subtle.

Passive (-1 cost/rank): You cannot activate this power in any round that you target someone else with an action. This power immediately deactivates if you target someone else with an action. Fragile is generally only appropriate for defensive powers that you want to be active off turn, powers that have some cost to activate, or powers which can cause problems (like falling) if they suddenly deactivate.

Proportional (-1 cost/rank): You may add the Proportional Flaw to any power which receives multiple types of benefits for its rank - such as how Create's rank affects both its size and its stats, or Environment affects its area and its effects, or even how Attack restricts both Force and Accuracy. The rank must be split among both effects, rather than applying equally to both.

Quirk (Flat -1 PP/rank): A Quirk is some minor nuisance attached to an effect, essentially the reverse of a Feature. A Quirk is generally worth, at most, 2–3 character points, and many are simply 1-point flaws.

As with Features, the GM should ensure a Quirk is truly a flaw (albeit a minor one) and not simply part of the power’s descriptors. For example, the fact that an attack with a “sonic” descriptor likely will not travel through a vacuum is not a Quirk, simply part of the “sonic” descriptor (especially since the attack may be enhanced by a medium such as water). On the other hand, a shapeshifter unable to change color (losing some of the power’s utility), or a telepath unable to lie while using Mental Communication, do have Quirks to their powers.

See the Choosing Between Flaws sidebar for an overview of when Quirk is appropriate compared to other similar Flaws, and how to judge the price of multiple Quirks.

Reduced Duration (-1 cost/rank or more): This Flaw reduces the duration of a power by one step per application.

Reduced Recovery (-1 cost/rank or more): You may apply this flaw to any effect that imposes conditions. Those conditions' Recovery types (Instant -> Short -> Standard -> Prolonged -> Permanent) are reduced one step per application of this Flaw.

Reduced Targeting (Flat -1 PP or more): This Flaw reduces the targeting of a power by one step per application. It cannot apply to powers with Automatic targeting.

Reduced Trait (Special): One or more of your other traits are reduced while this power is active. This provides a discount equal to half the value of the reduced traits. For example, if you get an Enhanced Defense 4, Reduced Resistance 4 trait, it costs 2 points total.

Removable (Flat -1 PP/5 PP of flawed traits): Your power can be temporarily removed by enemy action. Choose some action (not a specific power - it has to be something that anyone can potentially try to do) that can remove the power. For example, a power that comes from a weapon could be disarmed with a Manhandle action. Flight from wings can be prevented by imposing the Restricted condition. An armored target's vulnerable belly can be exposed by knocking it on its back (Prone). A monster's eye beams or gaze attack can be neutralized by blinding it (rendering it Visually Unaware). A power that requires focus might be preventing if the character suffers a Dazed condition. And so on.

The cost of a Removable power is discounted by 1 PP for every 5 PP of its base cost.

Importantly, the Removable Flaw is for largely tactical removal of powers. Lasting loss of powers, such as a sword being stolen, wings being crippled, or a monster's eye being stabbed out, are still Power Loss Complications and should award Hero Points even if the power is also Removable!

Resistible (Flat -2 PP or -1 cost/rank or more): As a flat -2 PP Flaw, you can add another Attack Mode to the power, but the power uses whichever is most beneficial for the target. For example, a Physical/Mental power would count as Physical against an enemy with a weakness to Mental, or as Mental against an enemy with immunity to Mental. These extra options don't need to be in your existing Attack Modes. For example, a poisonous snake might have Physiological as its Attack Mode - the poison is what's really doing the damage. However, that snake can't inject any poison if it can't pierce the target's skin in the first place, so it could add Resistible [Physical] as a -2 PP Flaw, and then if the target is especially resistant to physical attacks, it can apply those resistance to its defense.

As an alternate flat -2 PP Flaw, you can add an opposed skill check of your choice that is required for the power to work. For example, you could make a Sneak Attack power that requires a Stealth vs. Perception check to succeed, in addition to any normal attack rolls and resistance checks.

As a -1 PP/rank Flaw, you add an entire additional attack roll required or resistance check allowed, using a different Attack Mode. The most favorable result for the target is taken. Done this way, the snake might have to make a Physical attack roll, and then the target gets both a Physical Resistance check and a Physiological Resistance check, taking the better of the two.

Beneficial powers that are made Resistible allow opponents to ignore their effects if resisted (if there is no way for an opponent to feasibly resist the effects, the power cannot be Resistible). This Flaw can also add attack rolls, Resistance checks, or opposed rolls to powers that don't normally require them.

You can apply Resistible multiple times, adding new options or new required checks each time.

Restricted (-1 cost/2 ranks or more): You can apply Restricted to a power that has a significant restriction on its tactical breadth or usage - a substantial limit on usage that is nonetheless effectively under your control. Generally speaking, this means limiting the power to a single mechanical option, requiring some setup before using it, or restricting your options while using it. See the Choosing Between Flaws sidebar for an overview of when Restricted is most appropriate.

Sense-Dependent (Flat -1 PP to -3 PP): The power only works on targets who can perceive its origin with a specific sense. For example, a gaze attack that only affects targets who can see your eyes, or an entrancing voice power that only affects targets who hear you speak or sing, etc. Targets who lack the relevant sense are unaffected, as are those to whom you have Total Concealment to the relevant sense. Targets to whom you have Full Concealment to the relevant sense treat the effect rank as 5 lower. Those to whom you have Partial Concealment treat it as 2 lower. As a free action at the start of its turn, a target can give you Partial, Full, or Total Concealment against vision (by averting its eyes or so on) to receive the benefit. If it doesn't do this at the start of its turn, it is considered able to see you at some point during the round and doesn't receive benefits against any Sense-dependent powers from such Concealment on your next turn. Blocking other senses in the same way is possible, but tends to require more effort (plugging your ears or nose is a bit less convenient in combat than closing your eyes), so this becomes a move action.

Powerful Senses effects may make it harder to avoid Sense-dependent powers. You can't just avert your eyes from an opponent if you have Radius Vision, for example.

Generally speaking, reactively averting one's senses from a Sense-dependent power is considered to be part of the attack roll. If you want to allow a target an additional chance to avert its senses on top of normal defenses, use the Resistible Flaw. Sense-dependent does not improve targeting at all; it requires the target be able to perceive the origin point to be affected, but it doesn't allow you to target any or every character who can perceive it. You still need things like Ranged or Area to expanded targeting.

Sense-dependent is worth -1 PP for powers that are beneficial in nature, since in this case it only won't work if someone else forces Concealment or Unaware status on you or intended targets. It is worth -2 PP for detrimental powers that are vision-dependent, since obstructed vision tends to be more detrimental than the loss of other senses. It is worth -3 PP for detrimental powers that are dependent on senses other than vision, since most characters can block those off without too much difficulty.

Side Effect (-1 or -2 cost/rank): Using a power with a Side Effect requires you to roll a resistance check (chosen when you gain the power) against a DC of 10 + the power rank when you fail to use the power successfully (Side Effect 1) or whenever you use the power (Side Effect 2). You suffer conditions from a chosen Condition Tree on a failure, as if from a successful Attack power. These conditions are Exertion Conditions. In the case of Side Effect 2, the Side Effect triggers immediately upon using the power. If the power lasts on a duration, it triggers again for every minute you Concentrate, every ten minutes you Sustain, or every hour for Continuous powers. You can't begin resting to recover from your Exertion Conditions while the power remains active.

For each point your chosen resistance is traded off above your PL, the discount of the Side Effect is reduced by one flat point. For each point your chosen resistance is below PL, it is increased by one flat point.

Slow (-1/2 to -2 cost/rank): A power with the Slow Flaw can't be used during action time. For -1 PP/2 ranks, it can only be used when you have a few minutes of downtime, and is considered off at the start of any scene. For -1 PP/rank, it can only be used between scenes, and is considered off at the start of any adventure. For -2 PP/rank, it can only be used between adventures.

Slow powers can't also have the Increased Action Flaw. It's not a progression of Reaction -> Free -> Move -> Standard -> Full Round -> Slow 1 -> Slow 2 -> Slow 3. Slow powers are assumed to be powers that you don't necessarily need to use during action time anyway, such as changing a Variable configuration.

Source (-1 cost/rank): The power is only usable if you are in Close range of some sort of source for it, such as water, exposed blood, sunlight, natural earth, and so on. If you leave Close range of your source, the power deactivates. For powers where you can "charge up" with a source and then use the powers freely, consider the Fades or Costly Flaws.

Temporary (-1 cost/rank): Any lingering effects generated by your power (such as conditions inflicted or removed, powers Nullified, effects placed on a duration, etc) are temporary. Roll a power rank check when you use the power successfully, against a DC of 1. The effect lasts for one round per degree of success and then ends. Temporary can only be placed on powers that require more than a free action to use.

Tiring (-1 cost/rank or more): At the end of any scene in which the power was active, you gain a Tier 1 Exertion Condition from a specified Condition Tree. If you already have the Tier 1 condition, it upgrades to Tier 2, then Tier 3, then Tier 4. You do not begin recovering from these conditions until the power is deactivated. You can take Tiring multiple times, setting the starting condition one Tier higher each time.

Uncontrolled (-1 cost/rank): You have no control over an effect with this flaw. Instead, the Gamemaster decides when and how it works (essentially making it a plot device). This flaw is best suited for mysterious powers out of the characters’ direct control or effects the GM feels more comfortable having under direct, rather than player, control.

If you wish, you can instead set a circumstance where it automatically triggers regardless of your desires (such as "any time another character touches you.") This doesn't change the action required, so if the power is normally a standard action, when the situation comes up, you must spend your next standard action to trigger the power!

Unreliable (-1 cost/rank): An Unreliable effect doesn’t work all the time, and begins each scene deactivated. Any time you try to use the effect. On a 10 or less, it doesn’t work, but you’ve still used the action the effect requires. Spending a Hero Point on your reliability roll allows you to succeed automatically (since the roll is then at least an 11).

Instant powers retain the result of an Unreliable check for one round. Concentration powers for one minute. Sustained ten minutes. Continuous one hour. So if you succeed, you can maintain the power normally for that time period. If you fail, you can't try again for that time period.


There are four different Flaws, each with different costs, that all basically do a "choose your own disadvantage" thing - Quirk, Removable, Restricted, and Limited. And then beyond that, you have Complications. So, which one do you use in which cases?

Complications should be used for limitations that are both situational and highly significant. When a Complication comes up, it should substantially impact the character's performance or decision-making process as a whole - Complications generally shouldn't apply just to single powers, unless that power really makes up a substantial portion of the character's capabilities (losing one power in an array isn't worth a Hero Point, but losing your entire array of Attack powers for a battle certainly is). Complications should also be firmly in the GM's hands - Complications generally shouldn't be for things that could simply happen as a matter of course, the GM should intentionally be bringing them into play. So for example, being unable to use a power while Dazed isn't a good Complication, since that's some mechanical issue that will come up in the general course of things. But being unable to use your powers at low tide makes a good Complication - the GM is the one to tell you, "Hey, guess what, it's low tide, take a Hero Point and you can't use any of your Aquamancy powers."

Quirk should be used to impose a single, relatively minor but still meaningful limitation on the power. Quirks should have a clear mechanical or utility impact, typically removing or weakening some aspect of the power. Issues that would normally be Complications but only apply to a single power can generally also be defined as Quirks, provided the GM feels it's reasonable that they would come up, but in this case the effect of the Quirk should be much more significant since it comes up less frequently. For example, if you only want one power in an array that can't be used at low tide, you might be able to do it as a Quirk. Generally speaking, multiple Quirks in the same general scope should require twice as many restrictions as the previous Quirk. For example, say you have an Exert power with the Quirk that it can't be used to Grab. That's fine for a single Quirk. But the second Quirk should take out two options - maybe saying it also can't be used to knock people prone or to disarm people. A third Quirk should remove four more options. You can take a maximum of one Quirk in a given scope for powers with a cost below 1 PP/rank, two for powers with a cost of 1 PP/rank, or three for powers with a cost of 2 PP/rank or more. Beyond that, adding more Quirks is disingenuous - you should use Restricted instead.

Removable should be used to make the power entirely unavailable as a result of enemy action. A sword being disarmed, your wings being bound (mechanically, being rendered Restricted or Restrained), being knocked prone, being Vulnerable or Dazed...basically, the power being removed by a certain condition or a circumstance that enemies can bring about. These conditions shouldn't be all that hard to inflict - they should generally be Tier 1 or less (because once you start suffering Tier 2 conditions, you probably have bigger problems than the loss of a single power). Removable is for temporary removal - if the power is removed long-term, such as a sword being stolen, it should also be considered a Complication.

Restricted should be used for major limitations on the power that are under your control. Removing a substantial number of the power's options (such as Exert Restricted to Manhandles Only) or rendering the power unusable in a certain common tactical situation (such as Restricted to rounds where you spend a move action moving) are the most common forms of Restricted. Restricted is also appropriate as a sort of reversed-Removable, only applying when you've successfully imposed some condition on the enemy (such as Restricted to Vulnerable targets). Restricted should in some ways actually be more severe than Limited - it may remove well more than half the power's available options, for example - but offers a smaller discount because you are the one in control of when the restriction comes up, for the most part.

Flaws that outright weaken the power mechanically, but not as severely as Limited might, could also qualify for Restricted. For example, an Attack power could be Restricted to only imposing conditions from three Tiers rather than four, or a power might be Restricted such that any degrees of success it achieves beyond the first are reduced by 1

You can apply Restricted multiple times by further narrowing its options (for example, Exert Restricted to Manhandle further Restricted to knocking the target Prone) or by increasing the condition required by one tier (so, Restricted 2 [Only against Defenseless targets] or Restricted 3 [Only against Stunned targets] would be appropriate).

Limited should be used for major limitations on the power that are not under your control. This can mean one of two things. First, a situation that comes up naturally, but only give-or-take half the time and with the GM largely determining whether it's the case for a given scene. Limited to While Outdoors, Limited to During the Day, and so on are good examples. Second, a situation that isn't the case by default, but that the GM may choose to incorporate into a scene. Limited to while in a specific type of terrain, against a specific type target, or so on.

In addition, flaws that simply outright make the power substantially weaker (give-or-take half normal effectiveness is the target here) are fair as Limits. Beneficial powers that normally can affect others as well being Limited to Self Only or Others Only is a good example, as are things like Limiting an Attack to only two tiers of conditions (or Limited 2 to only one condition) or halving the degrees of success for a power (rounding down).

Especially rare or narrow Limits may qualify for an additional application of the Flaw, at the GM's option ("only during sunrise and sunset", for example, is a really pretty narrow stretch of time, and would likely qualify for Limited 2). Extremely rare or narrow Limits might even qualify for a third application ("only during a full moon" is ludicrously narrow, so it would work fine for Limited 3). Generally speaking, multiple individual Limits is also possible, but they should be somewhat more restrictive than they would on their own. For example "Only While Outdoors" is a fine Limit, "Only At Night" is a fine Limit, but "Only While Outdoors At Night" probably isn't quite worth Limited 2; there should be some other wrinkle to it, maybe being able to see the stars or something.

Blending: Restricted (Can't move more than Distance Rank -1 in any round that this power is being used). Note that this is both somewhat lower value and a harsher restriction than the original Blending Flaw. This is intentional.

Concentration: Folded into Reduced Duration.

Grab-based: Removed 'cause in some ways it's as much an advantage as disadvantage, since it auto-triggers on a successful grab. Use Limited [Only against targets who have been successfully Grabbed] to achieve this effect.

Partial: Would be a form of Limited.

Platform: Folded into the new Disruptible Flaw.

Reduced Range: Folded into Diminished Range.

Wings: Wings are removed as a specific Flaw; they now would use the new Removable rules, since binding the wings is basically a specialized action enemies can take to prevent you from using the power.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Teammates

Teammates are a way for a single player to control multiple characters. You might play a knight and his squire, a sorceress and her apprentice, a team of siblings or spouses, a mech and its pilot, a small squad of soldiers, a summoner, and so on. Additional characters are powerful. They mean more versatility, more actions, less effective severity of conditions, and even just some fluff advantages for being able to have two (or more) personalities to smooth over each other's rough edges or being able to participate in two situations at once. Resultantly, a cost in PP or even VPP is insufficient to acquire Teammates. The only way to balance multiple characters against single characters is to make multiple characters distinctly weaker individually, so their collective strength in balanced against lone heroes.

Purchasing Teammates: There are three costs to gaining Teammates. First, you must lower your starting Hero Points per adventure by 1. This allows you to play multiple Teammates instead of a single character.

All Teammates have your full Power Level. However, all Teammates come into play with negative tradeoffs in all areas that are PL-limited (Accuracy, Force, Defense, Resistance, Skills, and Powers). The tradeoff penalty is -1 per Teammate you control (so if you have two characters, it's a -2 tradeoff, three characters a -3 tradeoff, etc).

Finally, Teammates cost VPP. One Teammate of your choice starts with your full normal PP total. All other Teammates have 0 PP. Any traits they purchase you pay for out of your VPP pool, spending 1 VPP per two points worth of Teammate traits (unless the traits already cost more VPP, in which case use that total). No Teammate can have more points worth of traits than your base PP total. If you spend PP to gain additional VPP, that expenditure also counts towards the maximum points of traits your Teammates can have.

Teammate Resources: All Teammates are Major characters. Each Teammate has its own set of actions in combat. All Teammates active in a given scene act on the same turn, using the average of their initiative modifiers to determine their group initiative roll. You control the actions of your Teammates as if they were individual PCs. Each Teammate is able to take Extra Effort normally, and each Teammate is entitled to its own Recover action during an encounter. Teammates do not receive Schticks. Teammates are targeted individually by effects; effects or conditions that apply to (or are removed from) one Teammate don't affect any of the others.

Teammates do not possess their own pools of Hero Points. You have a single Hero Point pool, which you may spend from for all characters under your control. Hero Points must be spent individually on each Teammate, except when improving a roll made "defensively" by multiple Teammates against the same action or situation. This usually means resistance checks against Area or other multi-target effects, but it can mean other checks where multiple Teammates have to roll against the same detrimental situation. In these cases, you can improve all the Teammate's rolls with one Hero Point expenditure. Note that this only applies for defensive rolls; you can't, say, improve multiple Teammate's attacks with the same Hero Point, even if they are all attacking simultaneously or even all attacking the same enemy.

Very importantly, Teammates also do not possess their own pools of Virtual PP. Anything that costs VPP must be paid for out of the same pool for all Teammates.

Teammate Modifiers: You can apply certain modifiers to your Teammates, much like powers, to adjust how they work and how much they cost.

Codependent: This modifier must be applied to multiple Teammates. Whenever more than one of the Teammates are active in a given scene, they all share a single standard action each round. The other Teammates may be descriptively helping out, but their "actions" are not mechanically resolved and are simply assumed to have little to no meaningful effect on the situation. If all Teammates in a group are Codependent, they do not suffer an Accuracy/Force or Powers tradeoff penalty. Otherwise, all Codependent Teammates count as only one Teammate for purposes of that penalty (so a group of three Teammates where two are Codependent would only take -2 on Accuracy, Force, and Powers, rather than -3).

Controllable: Other characters can control the Teammate. This essentially lets them spend their actions to have the Teammate take actions using its traits. A given power can only be used by one controller per round, but different controllers may use different powers in the same array simultaneously, provided they have Instant durations. If the Teammate itself is capable of action, it functions as a controller as well, but its own actions don't use up a controller slot. The Teammate may choose to refuse actions in most cases, although some may have Complications that prevent that (often because it has the Object modifier). Adding Controllable to a Teammate costs 15 VPP per person who can control it at once.

Coordinated: This modifier must be applied to multiple Teammates. Whenever more than one of the Teammates are active in a given scene, they all share a single move action each round. If that move action is used to Maneuver, they may all Maneuver so long as they only perform Maneuvers that target themselves. Alternately, if one of the Teammates successfully performs multiple Maneuvers, they can be divided up among the Coordinated Teammates. If all Teammates in a group are Coordinated, they do not suffer a Skills tradeoff penalty. Otherwise, all Coordinated Teammates count as only one Teammate for purposes of that penalty (so a group of three Teammates where two are Coordinated would only take -2 on Skills, rather than -3).

Feedback: This modifier must be applied to multiple Teammates. If any Teammate with the Feedback modifier suffers a condition other than Dying, Critical, or Dead, all of them take the same condition. If a given attack affects multiple Feedback Teammates, each defends normally, and the worst result applies to all of them. If they receive a chance to remove a condition, the lowest bonus is used on any checks required, but if it succeeds, the condition is removed from all of them. If all Teammates in a group have Feedback, they do not suffer a Defense/Resistance tradeoff penalty. Otherwise, all Feedback Teammates count as only one Teammate for purposes of that penalty (so a group of three Teammates where two have Feedback would only take -2 on Defense and Resistance, rather than -3).

Identical: This modifier can be applied to any Teammate who would normally spend VPP on traits. The Teammate does not have to do so. Rather, its traits are identical to those of the Teammate who gets the normal PP value. Identical Teammates may make different "choices" for their powers or Advantages though (the sort of things you could change with the Broad or Diverse Extras; they can't change Effects, Extras, or Flaws, but can change stuff like descriptors, conditions inflicted, attack modes, and other stuff chosen upon gaining the power). If desired, you can spend VPP to change certain specific traits to another trait of the same kind (combat stat, skill, or power), paying the trait's full cost in VPP to do so. If the trait is already part of a non-Dynamic array, you may instead pay half its cost as normal.

Idle: An Idle Teammate cannot act on its own. Another character must use its actions to give the Teammate actions. This is often used to represent things like vehicles that need a driver, or puppet thralls entirely controlled by their master's will. Idle Teammates do not count towards Accuracy, Force, and Skills tradeoff penalties.

Lesser: The Teammate has a lower character rank. Significant Teammates don't count towards the Skills tradeoff, Elite also don't count towards the Accuracy/Force tradeoff, Mundane also don't count towards the Defense/Resistance tradeoff, and Minion also get 5 points worth of traits per VPP spent rather than 2.

Alternately, you may choose to retain the Tradeoff penalties to receive one additional identical Teammate per rank below Significant (so you could get two Standard, three Minor, or four Minion Teammates for the price of one, provided they have exactly the same traits). A Primary may not have the Lesser Extra, and it is strongly advised that at least one Teammate be Major rank.

Object: The Teammate takes damage as an object; it doesn't recover naturally from conditions, is subject to object damage, and is subject to Affects Objects powers. Assuming it's capable of moving on its own though, attack rolls are made normally against it. An Object Teammate receives 0 additional PP thanks to the various immunities objects receive, but if it foregoes such immunities (essentially, treating all Attack powers as if they had Affects Objects) its own Defense/Resistance penalty is reduced by 1 (other Teammates' penalties are unaffected).

Primary: One Teammate has certain narrative standing over the others. This Teammate has its tradeoff penalties reduced by 1 (to a minimum of -0) and may take a Schtick. All other Teammates have their tradeoff penalties increased by 1.

Summon: The Teammate is not constantly available. The Teammate is not present at the start of any scene. Summoning the Teammate is a standard action for a different Teammate. The Teammate does not act immediately, but it may act normally starting on your next turn. Maintaining the summoned Teammate is a free action each round for both the summoner and the summon, as if from a Sustained duration. If you have multiple Summons, you must summon them one at a time. Summons receive +3 PP worth of traits per VPP spent. Removing the maintenance (from either the summoner or the summon, you have to pay twice for both) lowers the ratio gain by 1. Allowing the Teammate to be summoned in the same action as another Summon lowers the ratio by 1. Each step of reduction in the action required to summon the Teammate lowers the ratio by 1. Allowing the Teammate to act immediately upon being summoned lowers the ratio by 1. The ratio can be lowered below the default of 2:1 (past a certain point, being able to summon aid when you don't appear to have any ceases to be a detriment). If it goes below 1:1, increase the number of VPP required to gain PP instead (so if the ratio ends up reduced by 6, it would be 3 VPP per PP).


Uncontrolled: The Teammate is not under your direct control. The GM controls the Teammate's actions, although it is still helpful towards you and will generally adhere to your requests (although choosing its own way of doing so). Uncontrolled Teammates receive +1 to their points per VPP ratio. You must have at least one Teammate that isn't Uncontrolled. Check that the GM is willing to put in the extra work of running your Teammates before taking Uncontrolled Teammates. You can also strengthen the Teammate further by influencing its default reaction. The ratio bonus doesn't stack with that from the Lesser modifier (being less helpful doesn't matter as much if it's also weaker).

Indifferent: The Teammate is indifferent to you, and will only assist you if doing so would further its own goals (or you offer it something worthwhile). The Teammate instead gets +2 to the ratio and halves its tradeoff penalties.

Unfriendly: The Teammate is unfriendly to you; it will assist you if there is a benefit to doing so, but it will generally operate with the minimum efficiency it can get away with and try to subvert your goals where the opportunity presents itself. The Teammate instead gets +3 to the ratio, doesn't count for purposes of determining tradeoff penalties, and halves its own tradeoff penalties.

Hostile: The Teammate is hostile to you; you will need to put substantial effort into convincing or compelling it to aid you, and even then, it will seek any opportunity to harm or hinder you. The Teammate instead gets +4 to the ratio, doesn't count for purposes of determining tradeoff penalties, and ignores its own tradeoff penalties.

Losing Teammates: If a Teammate is killed or otherwise permanently removed from play, it should eventually be replaced, just like how a player whose character dies should be able to create a new character. Alternately, the player can soldier on shorthanded for a time, receiving one Hero Point for each episode that it goes through without a full roster. Between adventures, remaining Teammates can have their tradeoff penalties reduced, VPP can be reallocated, and the group can otherwise be modified to bring them back up to the normal par.

[Llyarden]

:amused:

Various things I noticed on reading through:

The core stats thing should probably mention that tradeoffs can get around PL limits to some extent.
Can Cunning Application apply to extra uses of skills granted by Advantages or Powers?
Why is Specialisation a [Combat] advantage?
Seize Initiative refers to Victory Points.
Ranged Attack (in the removed advantages list) is missing a closing bold tag.
Senses (Awareness) is mentioned as a removed effect but still actually exists.
Damage and Afflictions are still mentioned as effects in a couple of places.
Might is mentioned in a few places and I'm not really sure what it's supposed to be.
Create refers to Mobility.
Does the effects that mimic actions (Aid, Attack, Defend, etc) count as their respective actions?
Is Defend relatively useless at defending yourself if you have a Defence tradeoff?
Area: "If the attack requires an attack roll"; does any effect not require an attack roll now?
Storm Area has Application capitalised.
Trail should maybe talk about a path instead of a line to avoid confusion with the actual Line extra.
Increased Duration: should this say that Concentration or lower cannot be maintained outside the scene they were used in?
How do Sweeping and Multiattack combine?
Check Required should probably mention explicitly that Skill Mastery doesn't bypass it. (I assume that's the intent at least).
Spending VPP on Arrays/Variable/Metamorph/Teammates; does this reduce your maximum VPP total, and how does it interact with spending a hero point to refresh your VPP?
Triggers and arrays: do you automatically swap to the Triggered slot in the array and does this consume your array switch for the round?
Does Team Attack not exist any more? Or can you Aid someone's Force?

And a slightly longer question; is Enhanced Extra still a thing? And if so could it possibly be stated outright, because it was always one of those weird things that was explicitly used in some of the premade characters but never actually mentioned.

And some Enhanced Extra questions if the answer to the above is 'yes':

If you buy Impervious as a power, can you apply Reflect or Redirect to it?
How do Phasing and Medium interact; can you buy Enhanced Phasing (Limited to working with Medium), for instance?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Various things I noticed on reading through:

Thank you for this!


The core stats thing should probably mention that tradeoffs can get around PL limits to some extent.
Why is Specialisation a [Combat] advantage?
Seize Initiative refers to Victory Points.
Ranged Attack (in the removed advantages list) is missing a closing bold tag.
Damage and Afflictions are still mentioned as effects in a couple of places.
Might is mentioned in a few places and I'm not really sure what it's supposed to be.
Create refers to Mobility.
Storm Area has Application capitalised.
Trail should maybe talk about a path instead of a line to avoid confusion with the actual Line extra.
Check Required should probably mention explicitly that Skill Mastery doesn't bypass it. (I assume that's the intent at least).

All fixed.


Can Cunning Application apply to extra uses of skills granted by Advantages or Powers?

Yep. Added that in explicitly.


Senses (Awareness) is mentioned as a removed effect but still actually exists.

Whoops, forgot to delete it. Fixed.


Does the effects that mimic actions (Aid, Attack, Defend, etc) count as their respective actions?

Yeah using the power is the same as taking the action.


Is Defend relatively useless at defending yourself if you have a Defence tradeoff?

Shouldn't be. Say you have a four-point Defense tradeoff, so all your defensive stats are 6 when used for a resistance, 14 when used for a defense. You roll Defend at 1d20+10, since that's still your average. Say you get a 22 total. Now, that's below your base Defense of 24, so you're no harder to hit - but it means your minimum result on resistance checks that round is a 22!


Area: "If the attack requires an attack roll"; does any effect not require an attack roll now?

Anything that's not an attack.


Increased Duration: should this say that Concentration or lower cannot be maintained outside the scene they were used in?

Nah, an Instant power made Concentration can persist beyond the scene. Chances are you'll want (or need) to stop concentrating at some point though.


How do Sweeping and Multiattack combine?

For single target, each takes effect individually. If you hit by a lot, you get a damage bonus from Multiattack. If you miss by a little, it still hits but the enemy gets a resistance bonus from Sweeping.

For attacking multiple targets/triggering multiple readied actions, I figure you can use either/or. So like, you could attack four targets by taking -2 to hit and -2 to damage, or -4 to hit, or -4 to damage, etc.


Spending VPP on Arrays/Variable/Metamorph/Teammates; does this reduce your maximum VPP total, and how does it interact with spending a hero point to refresh your VPP?

You know, I felt like I had explained this poorly but wasn't sure how to make it clearer. Maximum VPP is exactly the phrase I was missing. That's been clarified in the initial VPP section.


Triggers and arrays: do you automatically swap to the Triggered slot in the array and does this consume your array switch for the round?

Nope. Added some details for clarification.


Does Team Attack not exist any more? Or can you Aid someone's Force?

You can Aid Force directly. Added some clarification regarding actions that involve multiple stats.


And a slightly longer question; is Enhanced Extra still a thing? And if so could it possibly be stated outright, because it was always one of those weird things that was explicitly used in some of the premade characters but never actually mentioned.

It is. Added and put some solid rules in for clarifying how it works. This also led to a bit of a change to Dynamic Arrays (now they can't mix-and-match freely, but can mix-and-match Extras within the same Effects. So Dynamic Array adds flexibility within an Effect, but if you want full mix-and-match capability of Effects and Extras you need Variable.

And some Enhanced Extra questions if the answer to the above is 'yes':


If you buy Impervious as a power, can you apply Reflect or Redirect to it?

Yep, Enhanced Impervious would be a defensive power, so could receive Reflect and Redirect normally.


How do Phasing and Medium interact; can you buy Enhanced Phasing (Limited to working with Medium), for instance?

Sounds reasonable to me. So like an attack that could only pass through stone or something.

[Capt. Infinity]

I'm at terrain, and so far, the rules look great!

One thing though, on the entry about suppressed effects


Suppress Effect: The environment hampers powers with a certain effect, source, or origin, subtracting 2 from the rank of any such effects whose current ranks are less than the environment rank. The advanced effect imposes -2 on effects lower than twice the environments rank, and -5 on effects lower than the environment's rank. Depending on the nature of the environment, more than one type of power might be augmented.

I think you meant to say suppressed right here.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Whoops, fixed. Thanks!

[Capt. Infinity]

No problem!

Found another one in the section on damaging objects.


Unattended objects are automatically hit - not attack roll is allowed or required

I think you meant to say "no attack roll", right?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Yep, fixed. Thanks!

Also, I realize after all the times I've done "play multiple characters without actually playing multiple characters" Features, I haven't added something like that to this ruleset. Gonna go correct that now. I'm thinking it'll work as a Movement Extra, since what it really does is let you take up multiple positions simultaneously.

[Llyarden]

A couple more questions:

Can you choose Force as a Schtick?
If you're a PL10 with Accuracy 8 and Force 12 from tradeoffs, do you need to buy an Attack 12 power or will Attack 10 suffice?
Do you have to pay for the additional ranks of an ability if it's your Schtick or do you get the +2 bonus for free?

[Quellian-dyrae]

You may choose Force as a schtick.

Attack 10 is fine. Attack powers cap your Force and Accuracy before tradeoffs.

And yes, schticks and tradeoffs only change your effective PL, you still have to pay for any actual ranks of the traits improved.

[tombowings]

I was really hoping this would a Mazes & Minotaur-related thread. Other than that, everything's pretty impressive. Great work!

[Llyarden]

When it comes to the thing with Variable where you can reduce your VPP by half to access anything from a given sheet, would it be considered a flaw of some sort if you couldn't do the sheet-switch thing and only pick from your own sheet?

Alternatively if you use the other option, if you choose something with a selection of options, can you choose the specific effect when you use the effect or when you buy it? Like if you are able to apply Limited to your effects, do you have to define the Limit when you buy the Variable effect? (And if you can define such things on the fly, would being unable to choose things at will count as some sort of flaw?)

[Quellian-dyrae]

Variable does let you freely select from any choice made on creating the power. That does include Flaws, but as always a Flaw actually has to be a Flaw to be worth a discount, which when you're creating powers on the fly, some (like Limited) probably won't be.

I'd say being unable to do either the sheet swap or the option choice would qualify for Restricted on the Variable itself, but wouldn't change any VPP costs.

[Quellian-dyrae]

So, partly to test out how the rules work, partly to provide some examples, and partly just for fun, I went and grabbed the standard M&M archetypes and rebuilt them using A) these rules and B) my own design principles. I will note, I may or may not update these as I realize things need to be changed, so they may gradually accumulate some errors depending on what changes I wind up making to the rules as I continue fiddling with them. This in no way precludes them from having errors right now, but whatever. :smallamused:

The archetypes are built using the Generalist Bonus optional rule.

Stats

Accuracy: +0/+10. Force: +0/+10. Defense: +0/+8. Resistance: +2/+12. Initiative: +4.

Strength: 0/10. Speed: 0/10. Range: 0/10. Efficiency: 0.

Attack Modes: Physical.

Skills

Deception +10, Expertise (Any Four) +10, Investigation +10, Perception +10, Technology (Normal and Wealth Variation) +10.

Supremacy: Expertise 5, Technology 5.

Advantages

Eidetic Memory, Fast Tactician (Deception to Manipulate), Improved Initiative, Improvised Tools, Interpose, Inventor 2, Move-by Action, Second Chance (Technology for Security), Skill Mastery (Technology), Ultimate Effort (Technology), Well Informed.

Powers

Battlesuit: Multiple Effects.


Powered: Enhanced Force 10 (Removable [Natural trait as a power]) {10-2}.

Armor: Enhanced Resistance 10 (Removable [Natural trait as a power]) {10-2}.

Tactical Computer: Enhanced Accuracy and Defense 10 (Removable [Natural trait as a power]), Enhanced Advantages 6 (Accurate Attack, Active Defense, All Out Attack, Defensive Attack, Stalwart Defense, Total Defense; Removable). {26-5}.

Servo Strength: Exert 10 {10}.

Flight System: Movement 10 (Flight) {20}.

Supplemental Systems: 10-point Array {10+2}.


Ranged Weaponry: Extend 10.

Nanite Repair: Regeneration 10.

Forcefield: Defend 10 (Withstand).

Weapons Systems: 20-point Array, Attack gains Increased Range {21+4}.


Guided Missiles: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Homing, Secondary Effect).

Rocket Barrage: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Burst Area, Multiattack).

Energy Beam: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Battering, Penetrating [Resistance]).

Homing Rockets: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Burst Area, Selective).

Piercing Shot: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Additional [Dazing Tree], Cumulative).

Utilities

Heavy Armor: Heavy Impervious to Physical and Energy [I4+I3]; Removable [Natural trait as a power] {20-4}.

Sealed Environment: Life Support [I4]; Removable [Natural trait as a power] {15-3}.

Sensor Suite: Vision Counters All Concealment [S3], Extended Vision [S2], Analytical Vision [S1], Positional Awareness [S0] {18}.

Scope

Core Effects: Exert 10, Movement 10, Flight 10, Extend 10, Attack 10 {0}.

Core Extras: Increased Range {0}.

Purchased Effects: Regeneration 10, Defend 10 {20}.

Purchased Extras: Withstand 10, Area 10, Multiattack 10, Battering 10, Penetrating 10, Selective 10, Additional 10, Cumulative 10 {40}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 0. VPP: 54.
Stats 2 + Skills 32 + Advantages 12 + Powers 104 = 150 PP.
Utilities 46 + Scope 60 = 106 VPP.


Stats

Accuracy: +15 (+10 with powers). Force: +5. Defense: +15. Resistance: +10. Initiative: +18.

Strength: 0. Speed: 5 (Swinging). Range: 2. Efficiency: 0.

Attack Modes: Physical, Physiological, Sensory.

Tradeoffs: 5-point Talent Shift (+5 Defense).

Skills

Deception +10, Expertise (Any Three) +10, Insight +10, Intimidation +10, Investigation +10, Perception +10, Prowess +10, Stealth +10, Technology (Choose a variation if desired) +10.

Physicality: Initiative 10.

Choose three skills to get +5, and divide 25 ranks of Supremacy among them as you wish.

Advantages

Connected, Contacts, Cunning Application (Any One), Evasion 2, Fearless, Group Manipulation, Improved Initiative 2, Instant Maneuver, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Precise Attack (Concealment), Second Chance (Any One), Skill Mastery 3 (Any Three), Skill Simplicity (Any One), Specialization 4 (Choose two skills to have a +5 Specialization), Takedown, Uncanny Dodge, Well-Informed.

Three of the following depending on your three best skills: Fast Tactician (Deception to Manipulate), Jack of All Trades, Assessment, Fast Tactician (Intimidation to Manipulate), Sherlock Scan, Second Chance (Perception to Avoid Surprise), Improved Hold, Hide in Plain Sight, Inventor.

Powers

Grapple Line: Movement 5 (Swinging, Restricted [Swinging Only], Removable [Can be disarmed or attacked as an object]) {6-1}.

Smoke Bomb: Targeted Environment 1 (Advanced Restrict Vision, Advanced Impede Vision; Additional 3, Temporary) {3}.

Throwing Weapons: Extend 2, Exert 5 (Increased Range, Restricted [Manhandles Only]) {6}.

Utility Belt: 11-point Array, all effects individually Removable (Can be disarmed or attacked as objects) {11+4-4}.


Martial Arts: Attack 5 (Dazing Tree; Physical; Multiattack, Cumulative, Diverse [Impact/Physiological]).

Throwing Weapons: Attack 5 (Dazing Tree; Physical; Linked [Exert], Multiattack, Diverse [Impact/Physiological]).

Stun Baton: Attack 5 (Dazing Tree; Impact/Physiological; Cumulative, Additional [Vulnerability Tree], Potent).

Flash-Bang: Attack 5 (Dazing Tree; Sensory; Burst Area, Additional [Vulnerability Tree], Secondary Effect, Increased Range, Capped [Resistance - Tier 1-2 only]).

Sleep Grenade: Attack 5 (Impaired/Disabled/Asleep/Unconscious; Physiological; Burst Area, Cumulative, Increased Range).

Utilities

Normal Human: Major Resistance Penalty vs. Physical [W5x2] and Energy [W5], Major Defense Penalty vs. [Super-Speed] [W3] {-70}.

Scope

Core Effects: Movement 5, Environment 1, Extend 2, Exert 5, Attack 5 {0}.

Core Extras: Reduced Action 1, Increased Range, Multiattack 5, Cumulative 5, Diverse {0}.

Purchased Effects: None {0}.

Purchased Extras: Additional 5, Potent, Area 5, Secondary Effect 5 {16}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 0. VPP: 204.
Stats 48 + Skills 58.5 + Advantages 28 + Powers 25 - Generalist 9.5 = 150 PP.
Scope 16 + Utilities -70 = -54 VPP.

Stats

Accuracy: +10. Force: +10. Defense: +10. Resistance: +10. Initiative: +8.

Strength: 0. Speed: 0. Range: 5 or 10. Efficiency: 0.

Attack Modes: Energy and one other. The conditions inflicted by the Energy Controller's Attack powers vary as follows:
Fire: Sensory. Weakened/Weakened+Impaired+Dazed/Crippled+Disabled+Staggered/Unconscious
Cold: Material. Restraining Tree.
Electricity: Physiological. Vulnerable/Staggered/Stunned/Incapacitated.
Light: Sensory. Visually Unaware/Visually Unaware+Dazed+Weakened/Stunned+Visually Unaware/Stunned+Defenseless+Visually Unaware.
Sound: Sensory. Influenced/Disabled/Stunned/Harmless.
Force: Physical. Dazing Tree.

Skills

Expertise (Any One) +10, Intimidation +10, Perception +10.

Advantages

Accurate Attack, All Out Attack 3, Extraordinary Effort, Favored Environment (choose one thematically appropriate), Great Endurance, Improved Initiative 2, Move-by Action, Power Attack 3, Precise Attack 3 (Cover), Takedown 2.

Powers

Self Propulsion: Movement 10 (Flight) {20}.

Energy Imbue: Take ONE of the following based on energy type {20}.


Fires of Passion: Aid 10 (Reduced Action [Move]).

Snowstorm: Environment 5 (Basic Restrict Vision, Basic Impede Movement [Ground], Advanced Impede Projectiles; Additional 3, Selective).

Energized: Regeneration 10 (Suppression; Additional [Abeyance]).

Light Shaping: Illusion 10 (Reduced Action [Move]).

Sound Amplification: 20 PP spent for 50 VPP; Accurate Hearing [S2], Analytical Hearing [S1], Broad Hearing 2 (Higher, Lower) [S1x2], (Radius) Extended Counters All Concealment Hearing [S6], Shifting Voice 2 [M2], Project Communication [C1], Selective Communication [C1].

Forcefield: Defend 10 (Reciprocate, Withstand).

Energy Evocation: 32-point Array {32+4}.


Energy Bolts: Attack 10 (Multiattack, Brutal, Diverse [Attack Mode], Improved Range); Extend 10.

Energy Blade: Attack 10 (Brutal 2, Diverse [Attack Mode], Dangerous).

Energy Aura: Attack 10 (Reduced Action 3 [Reaction - When Touched], Diverse [Attack Mode], Precise, Feature [Illuminates], Noticeable).

Energy Blast: Attack 10 (Burst Area, Selective, Fluid, Improved Range, Diverse 5 [Cloud, Cone, Trail, Storm, Attack Mode]); Extend 5.

Invoke and Command: Create 10 (Augmented, Improved Range); Exert 10 (Improved Range, Limited [Only to personal energy type]); Extend 5.

Utilities

Personal Energy Immunity: Full Immunity to a single chosen energy Descriptor [I4] {20}.

Energy Field: Light Impervious to Physical, Energy and Material [I2+I1] {7}.

Scope

Core Effects: By Energy Imbue and Attack 10, Extend 10, Movement 10 {0}.

Core Extras: By Energy Imbue and Flight 10, Multiattack 10, Brutal 10, Diverse, Improved Range {0}.

Purchased Effects: Create 10, Exert 10 {20}.

Purchased Extras: Dangerous, Reduced Action* 10, Precise, Feature, Area 10, Selective 10, Fluid, Augmented 10 {24}.
*Fire and Light Controllers get this as a Core Extra from Energy Imbue, saving them 5 VPP.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 0. VPP: 79.
Stats 41 + Skills 13 + Advantages 20 + Powers 76 = 150 PP.
Scope 44 + Utilities 27 = 71 VPP.

Stats

Accuracy: +0/+12. Force: +0/+12. Defense: +0/+8. Resistance: +0/+8. Initiative: +4.

Strength: 0. Speed: 0/10. Range: 10. Efficiency: 0.

Attack Modes: Physical, Energy, Physiological.

Traid Modifiers: +2 Active Trait, -2 Passive Trait.

Skills

Expertise (Any Five) +10, Investigation +10, Perception +8, Stealth +8, Technology +10.

Supremacy: Expertise 5, Technology 5.

Advantages

Eidetic Memory, Improved Critical 2, Improved Initiative, Improvised Tools, Inventor 2, Jack of All Trades, Move-by Action, Precise Attack 4 (Cover 2, Concealment 2), Skill Mastery 2 (Expertise, Technology), Skill Simplicity 2 (Technology for Inventing), Specialization 2 (Technology for Inventing Weapons), Teamwork.

Powers

Gadgets: Enhanced Combat Stats 10 (Removable [Natural traits as a power]), Extend 10 {50-8}.

Gizmos: 20-point Array (Removable [Can be disarmed or attacked as objects]) {20-4+4}.


Jet Pack: Movement 10 (Flight).

Matter Generator: Create 10 (Withstand).

Hologram Projector: Illusion 10 (Additional Sense 10 [All]).

Shield Generator: Defend 10 (Augmented, Withstand).

Assistance Drones: Aid 10 (Multiattack).

And Guns: Attack gains Increased Range, 30-point Array; Removable (Can be disarmed or attacked as objects]) {31-6+4}.


Basic Blaster: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Energy; Penetrating [Resistance], Linked [Create, Illusion, Defend, Aid], Charged, Diverse 3, Affects Insubstantial 2).

Micro Rocket Launcher: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Physical; Multiattack, Secondary Effect, Homing).

Ray Gun: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Contact/Physiological; Cumulative, Brutal, Additional [Weakening Tree]).

Pulse Projector: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Impact/Physiological; Burst Area, Improved, Charged, Fluid 2, Affects Insubstantial 2, Explosive).

Phase Beam: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Flash/Energy; Phasing, Line Area).

Utilities

Goggles: Positional Awareness [S1], Vision Penetrates Concealment [S3], Acute [S1] Analytical [S1] Broad [S1] Detect Technology [S1], Interface [C2]; Removable [Can be disarmed or attacked as an object] {25-5}.

Scope

Core Effects: Extend 10, Movement 10, Attack 10 {0}.

Core Extras: Flight 10, Increased Range, Penetrating 10, Brutal 10, Linked 10, Diverse {0}.

Purchased Effects: Create 10, Illusion 10, Defend 10, Aid 10 {40}.

Purchased Extras: Multiattack 10, Secondary Effect 10, Homing 10, Cumulative 10, Additional 10, Area 10, Improved 10, Charged 10, Phasing 10, Withstand 10, Augmented 10, Additional Sense, Fluid, Affects Insubstantial, Explosive {59}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 0. VPP: 51.
Stats 3 + Skills 30 + Advantages 20 + Powers 91 + VPP 8 - Generalist 2 = 150 PP.
Utilities 20 + Scope 99 = 119 VPP.

Stats

Accuracy: +14. Force: +6. Defense: +12. Resistance: +8. Initiative: +16.

Strength: 0. Speed: 5/10. Range: 0. Efficiency: 0.

Attack Modes: Physical, Physiological.

Skills

Insight +10, Perception +10, Prowess +10, Stealth +10.

Supremacy: Prowess 6.

Physicality: Initiative 16.

Advantages

Active Defense 2, All Out Attack 3, Assessment, Bodyguard, Cunning Application (Prowess for Deception to Manipulate), Defensive Manhandle, Evasion 4, Extraordinary Effort, Fast Grab, Fast Tactician (Prowess to Manipulate), Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Critical 2, Improved Defense, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Improved Manhandle, Move-by Action, Power Attack 3, Precise Attack 2 (Concealment), Skill Mastery (Prowess), Stalwart Defense 2, Takedown 2, Teamwork, Trance, Uncanny Dodge.

Powers

Wushu: Movement 5 (Leaping, Stable 2, Adapted [Walls/Ceilings]) {10}.

Flash Step: Enhanced Extra 1 (Movement gains Diverse [Instant Movement]) {1}.

Master of Many Styles: 10-point Array {10+4}.


Iron Skin Meditation: Regeneration 10 (Suppression).

Dancing Petal on the Wind: Enhanced Movement 5, Enhanced Extra 5 (Movement gains Sure 5).

Mongoose Dodges Serpent's Strike: Defend 10 (Augmented).

Opening the Inner Eye: Reading 10 (Read People).

Single Strike Shatters Mountains: Enhanced Extra 10 (Attack gains Penetrating [Resistance]).

Martial Artistry: 20-point Array {20+4}.


Flurry of Blows: Attack 10 (Vulnerability Tree; Physical; Multiattack, Linked [Defend]).

Stunning Fist: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Physical; Cumulative, Secondary Effect).

Pressure Point Strike: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Impact/Physiological; Improved 2).

Whirlwind Attack: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Physical; Multiattack, Sweeping).

Pacifying Attack: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Impact/Physiological; Additional [Weakening Tree], Cumulative).

Utilities

Harmony of Body, Mind, and Soul: Major Bonus to Resistance vs. Mental, Mystical, and Physiological [I5] {20}.

Hyper Awareness: Mental Danger Sense [S1], Accurate Hearing [S2] {7}.

Scope

Core Effects: Movement 5, Regeneration 10, Attack 10 {0}.

Core Extras: Multiattack 10, Linked 10, Diverse {0}.

Purchased Effects: Movement 5, Defend 10, Reading 10 {25}.

Purchased Extras: Penetrating 10, Augmented 10, Cumulative 10, Secondary Effect 10, Improved 10, Sweeping 10, Additional 10, Cumulative 10 {40}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 0. VPP: 58.
Stats 41 + Skills 23 + Advantages 37 + Powers 49 = 150 PP.
Utilities 27 + Scope 65 = 92 VPP.

Stats

Accuracy: +10. Force: +10. Defense: +10. Resistance: +10. Initiative: +6.

Strength: 0. Speed: 0. Range: 0. Efficiency: 0.

Attack Modes: Physical, 3 open.

Skills

Deception +8, Insight +8, Perception +8, Prowess +8.

Physicality: Might 2, Swiftness 2, Stamina 2, Initiative 2.

Advantages

Accurate Attack 2, Active Defense 2, All Out Attack 2, Assessment, Improved Initiative, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack 2, Second Chance (Insight for Assessment), Stalwart Defense 2, Teamwork, Total Defense 2.

Powers

Combat Mimicry: Enhanced Combat Stats 10 (Removable [Natural Trait as a power], Quirk [Stats capped by those of currently mimicked target]) {39-8}.

Power Mimicry: 40-point Variable Mimicry Array; Improved Mimicry Duration (Continuous); Reduced Mimicry Action 2 (Free); No Mimicry Attack/Resistance {40+24+14+5}.


First Power: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Physical; Linked [Exert]); Exert 10.

Mimicry Slot: Open.

Mimicry Slot: Open.

Mimicry Slot: Open.

Mimicry Slot: Open.

Utilities

Power Sense: Acute [S1] Analytical [S1] Accurate [S2] Radius [S1] Mental Detect All Powers [S3] {21}.

Scope

Core Effects: Attack 10, Exert 10 {0}.

Core Extras: Linked 10 {0}.

Purchased Effects: None {0}.

Purchased Extras: None {0}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 150. VPP: 129.
Stats 6 + Skills 16 + Advantages 18 + Powers 114 - Generalist 4 = 150 PP.
Utilities 21 + Scope 0 = 21 VPP.

Stats

Accuracy: +8. Force: +12. Defense: +10. Resistance: +10. Initiative: +0.

Strength: 0. Speed: 0. Range: 6. Efficiency: 0.

Attack Modes: Choose Any Five (but make sure you have all the ones you need for your Battle Magic array!)

Skills

Expertise (Any Three) +10, Insight +10, Perception +8, Technology (Magic) +10.

One Interaction skill of choice +10.

Supremacy: Expertise 5, Magic 5.

Advantages

Cunning Application (Magic to Verify Information), Inventor 2, Move-by Action, Specialization 2 (Magic to perform rituals of a chosen "school"), Teamwork.

Powers

Wizardry: Extend 6, Attack gains Increased Range {7}.

Wizard's Staff: Enhanced Advantages 15 (Accurate Attack, Active Defense, All Out Attack, Defensive Attack, Extraordinary Effort, Improved Critical 2, Stalwart Defense, Total Defense; Removable [Can be attacked or disarmed as an object]) {9-2}.

Arcana: 21-point Array, choose FOUR of the following plus Counterspell {21+4}.


Counterspell: Nullify Magic 10 (Lasting, Triggered [Subject targeted by a hostile spell]).

Alter Terrain: Environment 10 (Broad, Additional, Selective, Continuous, Increased Range, Proportionate, Temporary, Increased Action [Standard]).

Flight: Movement 10 (Flight, Dragging).

Teleportation: Instant Movement 10 (Teleport, Subtle [Power Direction], Increased Action [Standard]).

Divination: Reading 10 (Augmented, Broad, Subtle [Power Effect], Distracting [Impaired]).

Scrying: Remote Sensing 10 (Additional Sense 10 [All Senses], Subtle [Power Effect]).

Conjuration: Create 10 (Continuous, Precise).

Illusion: Illusion 10 (Additional Sense 10 [All Senses], Precise).

Augmentation: Aid 10 (Storm Area, Increased Range).

Abjuration: Defend 10 (Augmented, Storm Area, Triggered [Subject targed by an attack]).

Healing: Healing 10 (Augmented, Affects Objects).

Battle Magic: 20-point Array, Variable Descriptor 2 (Magical Descriptors), choose FOUR of the following plus Combat Caster {22+4}.


Combat Caster: Attack 10 (Broad, Linked).

War Caster: Attack 10 (Area, Selective, Broad, Costly).

Energy Evocation: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Energy; Multiattack, Secondary Effect, Brutal, Costly).

Telekinesis: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Physical; Linked [Exert]); Exert 10.

Curse: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Mystical; Additional [Weakening Tree], Progressive, Costly).

Death Spell: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Mystical; Immediate, Costly).

Dispel Magic: Nullify 10 (Magical Effects; Mystical; Cumulative).

Dominate: Attack 10 (Influencing Tree; Mental; Cumulative, Progressive, Costly).

Baleful Polymorph: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Transformative; Brutal 2, Costly).

Combat Divination: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Tactical; Additional [Vulnerability Tree], Progressive, Selfish).

Utilities

Personal Wardings: Half Immunity to Energy and Mystical [S5] {20}.

Arcane Sight: Acute [S1] Analytical [S1] Visual Detect Magic [S1], Vision Counters Illusion [S2], Vision Counters Concealment (Magic) [S2] {16}.

Scope

Core Effects: Extend 5, Nullify 10, Attack 10 {0}.

Core Extras: Lasting 10, Broad 10, Linked 10 {0}.

Purchased Effects: Varies by array choices {?}.

Purchased Extras: Varies by array choices {?}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 150. VPP: <114.
Stats 50 + Skills 30 + Advantages 7 + Powers 65 - Generalist 2 = 150 PP.
Utilities 36 + Scope ? = 36+ VPP.

Combat Stats

Accuracy: +10. Force: +10. Defense: +10. Resistance: +10. Initiative: +13.

Strength: 0-10. Speed: 0-10. Range: 0-10. Efficiency: 0-10.

Attack Modes: Physical, Energy.

Skills

Expertise (Any One) +8, Intimidation +10, Perception +10, Persuasion +10, Prowess +10.

Supremacy: Perception 4, Prowess 6.

Physicality (2): Might +5, Swiftness +5, Stamina +5, Initiative +5.

Advantages

All Out Attack 3, Attractive, Bodyguard, Fearless, Great Endurance, Improved Initiative 2, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack 2, Stalwart Defense 2, Takedown 2, Ultimate Effort (Resistance).

Powers

Paragon: 20-point Dynamic Array {20+7}.


Super Sonic Flight: Movement 10 (Flight).

Super Strength: Exert 10.

Super Speed: Quickness 10.

Super Senses: Extend 10.

Paragon Combat: 31-point Array {31+4}.


Augmented Fighting: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Physical; Multiattack, Battering, Dangerous), Defend 10 (Counter).

Heat Vision: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Energy; Secondary Effect, Penetrating 2 [All Stats], Increased Range).

Shockwave Strike: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Physical; Cumulative, Additional [Vulnerability Tree], Burst Area 2 [Contingent - must hit primary target], Precise).

Ramming Speed: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Physical; Penetrating [Defense], Battering, Cumulative, Fluid 2, Dangerous 3, Diverse [Penetrate Resistance], Requirement [Must spend move action moving towards the target]).

Hasted Throw: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Physical; Multiattack, Brutal 2, Increased Range).

Utilities

Invulnerability and Super Speed: Heavy Impervious Defense and Resistance vs. Physical and Energy [I5+I4]; Major Bonus on Defense and Resistance vs. Physical and Energy [I5+I4] {70}.

Super Senses: Extended Vision [S2], Extended Hearing [S2], Vision Penetrates Concealment [S3], Vision Counters Concealment (Darkness) [S2], Hearing Counters Concealment (Background Noise) [S2] {30}.

Susceptible to Special Attacks: Minor Penalty on Resistance vs. Mental [W3], Mystical [W3], Physiological [W3], and Transformative [W3] {-40}.

Super Sensory Overload: Double Damage from Sensory [W6] {-30}.

Scope

Core Effects: Movement 10, Attack 10, Defend 10 {0}.

Core Extras: Flight 10, Multiattack 10, Battering 10, Counter 10, Dangerous {0}.

Purchased Effects: Exert 10, Quickness 10, Extend 10 {30}.

Purchased Extras: Secondary Effect 10, Penetrating 10, Cumulative 10, Additional 10, Area 10, Brutal 10, Diverse, Fluid, Precise, Increased Range {34}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 0. VPP: 56.
Stats 41 + Skills 30 + Advantages 18 + Powers 62 - Generalist 1 = 150 PP.
Utilities 30 + Scope 64 = 94 VPP.


Stats

Accuracy: +6. Force: +14. Defense: +6. Resistance: +14. Initiative: +4.

Strength: 10. Speed: 10. Range: 0. Efficiency: 0.

Attack Modes: Physical.

Skills

Intimidation +10, Perception +8, Prowess +10.

Supremacy: Intimidation 10.

Physicality (2): Might 14.

Advantages

Accurate Attack, Bodyguard, Daze, Extraordinary Effort, Fast Grab, Fast Tactician 2 (Intimidation to Manipulate), Fearless, Great Endurance, Group Manipulation 2, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Improved Initiative, Improved Manhandle, Improved Manipulation 2, Interpose 3, Specialization 2 (Intimidation to Manipulate Minions), Takedown 2, Ultimate Effort (Resistance).

Powers

Great Leap: Movement 10 (Leaping) {12}.

Super Strength: Exert 10 {10}.

Unstoppable: Regeneration 10 (Additional 2 [All]) {30}.

Smash: 10-point Array {10+4}.


Power Blow: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Brutal).

Crushing Blow: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Penetrating [Resistance]).

Battery: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Cumulative).

Shockwave: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Cone Area, Diverse , Full Power).

Sweeping Strikes: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Sweeping).

Utilities

Nigh Invincible: Heavy Impervious Resistance vs. Physical, Energy, and Physiological [I5+I3]; Half Resistance Immunity vs. Physical, Energy, and Physiological [I6+I4]; Immunity to Critical Hits [I2] {85}.

Scope

Core Effects: Movement 10, Exert 10, Regeneration 10, Attack 10 {0}.

Core Extras: Additional 10, Brutal 10 {0}.

Purchased Effects: None {0}.

Purchased Extras: Penetrating 10, Cumulative 10, Area 10, Sweeping 10, Diverse {21}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 0. VPP: 44.
Stats 40 + Skills 20 + Advantages 25 + Powers 66 - Generalist 1 = 150 PP.
Utilities 85 + Scope 21 = 106 VPP.

Stats

Accuracy: +10. Force: +10. Defense: +10. Resistance: +10. Initiative: +4.

Strength: 0/10. Speed: 0/10. Range: 8. Efficiency: 0.

Attack Modes: Physical, Mental.

Skills

Expertise (Any Three) +10, Insight +10, Perception +10, Stealth +10.

One Interaction skill of choice +10.

Supremacy: Insight 5, Chosen Interaction Skill 5.

Advantages

Assessment, Cunning Application 3 (Use chosen interaction skill to Manipulate in place of the other two), Daze, Eidetic Memory, Fascinate, Fast Tactician 2 (Chose interaction skill to Manipulate), Group Manipulation 2, Improved Grab 3, Improved Hold, Improved Initiative, Improved Manhandle, Improved Manipulation 2, Skill Mastery (Insight).

Powers

Project Will: Extend 8 {8}.

Psychic Powers: 20-point Array {20+3}.


Telekinesis: Exert 10 (Increased Range, Subtle 2 [Usage, Direction; Power Detection]).

Telepathy: Reading 10 (Thoughts; Augmented 2 [Detailed], Subtle 8 [Usage 2, Direction 2, Effect 2, Function 2; Power Detection], Diverse 2 [Objects, Places], Reduced Duration [Concentration], Increased Action [Move]).

Teleportation: Movement 10 (Teleport; Increased Action [Standard]).

Precognition: Luck Control 10 (Augmented Edit, Augmented Improvement, Augmented Inspiration, Temporal Edit, Temporal Improvement, Temporal Inspiration; Augmented).

Psionic Attacks: Enhanced Extra 3 (Attack gains Increased Range, Subtle 2 [Usage, Direction; Power Detection]) and 20-point Array {23+4}.


[b]Exert Will: Attack 10 (Broad, Linked).

Focus Will: Attack 10 (Broad, Cumulative).

Schism: Attack 10 (Broad, Additional 2, Increased Action [Standard+Move]).

Psionic Blast: Attack 10 (Area, Broad).

Dominate: Attack 10 (Influence Tree; Mental; Progressive).

Utilities

Tower of Iron Will: Half Defense and Resistance Immunity vs. Mental [I5] {20}.

Mental Awareness: Project Communication (Mental) [C2], Tongues [C3], Ranged [S1] Acute [S1] Accurate [S2] Radius [S1] Broad (Different - Minds) [S1] Mental Sense, Acute [S1] Analytical [S1] Detect [Psychic Powers] {32}.

Scope

Core Effects: Extend 5, Exert 10, Attack 10 {0}.

Core Extras: Broad 10, Linked 10, Increased Range, Subtle {0}.

Purchased Effects: Reading 10, Movement 10, Luck Control 10 {30}.

Purchased Extras: Augmented 10, Cumulative 10, Additional 10, Area 10, Progressive 10, Diverse {26}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 150. VPP: 42.
Stats 41 + Skills 31 + Advantages 20 + Powers 58 - Generalist 1 = 150 PP.
Utilities 52 + Scope 56 = 108 VPP.

Stats

Accuracy: +10. Force: +10. Defense: +10. Resistance: +10. Initiative: +10.

Strength: 0. Speed: 0. Range: 0. Efficiency: 0.

Attack Modes: Physical.

Skills

Intimidation +8, Perception +8, Persuasion +0/+10, Prowess +8, Stealth +8.

Physicality: Might 2, Swiftness 2, Stamina 2, Initiative 2.

Supremacy: Persuasion 0/6.

Advantages

Evasion 2, Fast Grab, Favored Environment (Choose One), Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Improved Initiative 2, Improved Manhandle, Interpose, Move-by Action, Prone Fighting, Takedown 2, Teamwork, Tracking, Uncanny Dodge.

Powers

Primal Combat: Enhanced Combat Stats 10 (Removable [Natural trait as a power]) {40-8}.

Beast Speech: Enhanced Persuasion 10, Supreme 6 (Limited to Animals) {4}.

Animal Forms: 40-point Variable Array {40+24}.


Foundation: Attack 10 (Multiattack), Exert 10, Movement 10, Defend 10 (Withstand).

Utilities

Beast Speech: Comprehension (Animals) [C1] {2}.

Beast Shape: Shifting Body [M1], Shifting Form (All Animals, All Senses) [M5] {22}.

Scope

Core Effects: Attack 10, Exert 10, Movement 10, Defend 10 {0}.

Core Extras: Multiattack 10, Withstand 10 {0}.

Purchased Effects: None {0}.

Purchased Extras: Additional 10, Area 10, Battering 10, Brutal 10, Counter 10, Cumulative 10, Dangerous, Feature, Improved 10, Incurable 10, Linked 10, Penetrating 10, Precise, Progressive 10, Reciprocate 10, Reduced Action 10, Secondary Effect 10, Selective 10, Split, Subtle, Sweeping 10 {80}.

Utilities In Scope: Accurate [S2], Acute [S1], Analytical [S1], Broad [S1], Counters Concealment [S3], Danger Sense [S1], Extended [S2], Radius [S1], Ranged [S1], Synesthetic [S1] {17}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 0. VPP: 89.
Stats 0 + Skills 16 + Advantages 18 + Powers 100 + VPP 20 - Generalist 4 = 150 PP.
Utilities 24 + Scope 97 = 121 VPP.

Stats

Accuracy: +15. Force: +5. Defense: +15. Resistance: +5. Initiative: +20.

Strength: 0. Speed: 10. Range: 0. Efficiency: 0/10.

Attack Modes: Physical, Tactical.

Skills

Perception +10, Stealth +10, Prowess +10.

Physicality: Swiftness 16, Initiative 4.

Supremacy: Prowess 10.

Advantages

Bodyguard, Evasion 4, Improved Defense, Improved Initiative 4, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack 3, Seize Initiative, Skill Mastery (Prowess), Takedown 2, Uncanny Dodge.

Powers

Super Speed: Movement 10 {10}.

Hyperspeed: 30-point Array {30+4}.


Active Defender: Defend 10 (Augmented, Storm Area, Counter).

Rush: Quickness 10, Enhanced Extra 20 (Movement gains Additional 2).

Hyperspeed: Enhanced Extra 37 (Movement gains Additional, Improved, Reduced Action, Fluid 2, Stable, Leaping, Adapted [Walls/Ceilings]; Removable [Not while Hindered]).

Speed Ghost: Level 6 Immunity (Insubstantial), Movement gains Permeate, Concealment 10 (Reduced Duration [Concentration]).

No Escape: Attack gains Penetrating 3 (Defense).

Speed Tricks: 20-point Array, Enhanced Extra 1 (Attack gains Fluid). {21+4}.


Hasted Combat: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Multiattack, Linked [Defend]).

Flurry: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Multiattack, Additional [Vulnerability Tree; Tactical Effect]).

Whirlwind: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Burst Area, Selective, Multiattack, Fluid +1, Reduced Prowess 4, Increased Action [Standard+Move]).

Max Velocity: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Potent 5, Charged, Penetrating [Resistance]).

Continuous Striking: Attack 10 (Dazing Tree; Cloud Area, Secondary Effect).

Utilities

Untouchable: Heavy Impervious Defense vs. Physical, Energy, Material [I5+I3] {30}.

Scope

Core Effects: Movement 10, Attack 10, Defend 10 {0}.

Core Extras: Augmented 10, Area 10, Counter 10, Multiattack 10, Linked 10, Fluid {0}.

Purchased Effects: Concealment 10 {10}.

Purchased Extras: Permeate 10, Additional 10, Selective 10, Charged 10, Penetrating 10, Secondary Effect 10, Potent {31}.

Utilities In Scope: Insubstantial [I6] {15}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 0. VPP: 64.
Stats 41 + Skills 20 + Advantages 20 + Powers 69 = 150 PP.
Scope 56 + Utilities 30 = 86 VPP.

Stats

Accuracy: +10. Force: +10. Defense: +10. Resistance: +10. Initiative: +10.

Strength: 0/10. Speed: 0/10. Range: 0. Efficiency: 0.

Attack Modes: Physical, Tactical.

Skills

Expertise (Any One) +8, Insight +10, Perception +10, Prowess +10.

One Interaction skill of choice +10.

Supremacy: Prowess 6.

Physicality: Might 6, Initiative 10.

Advantages

Accurate Attack 2, Active Defense 2, All Out Attack 2, Assessment, Bodyguard, Defensive Manhandle, Defensive Manipulation, Fast Tactician 2 (Chosen Interaction skill to Manipulate), Fearless, Great Endurance, Improved Critical 2, Improved Defense, Improved Grab, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack 2, Precise Attack 4 (Concealment 2, Cover 2), Prone Fighting, Set-up, Stalwart Defense 2, Takedown, Teamwork, Total Defense 2, Uncanny Dodge.

Powers

Superhuman Prowess: 10-point Array {10+4}.


Superhuman Defense: Defend 10 (Augmented).

Superhuman Strength: Exert 10.

Superhuman Speed: Movement 10.

Superhuman Stamina: Regeneration 10.

Superhuman Tactics: Aid 10.

Superhuman Combatant: 30-point Array {30+4}.


Overwhelming Assault: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Multiattack, Battering, Brutal).

Tactical Strike: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Linked [Defend, Aid], Additional [Vulnerability Tree; Tactical], Cumulative, Diverse, Full Power).

Peerless Strike: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Improved, Penetrating 2 [All Stats], Fluid 2, Focused 2).

Finishing Attack: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Brutal, Immediate, Increased Action [Standard+Move]).

Assail the Horde: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Multiattack, Trail Area 2 [3'x250']).

Utilities

Perfect Guard: Heavy Impervious Defense vs. Physical [I3x2] {20}.

Combat Awareness: Positional Awareness [S0], Mental Danger Sense [S1] {3}.

Scope

Core Effects: Defend 10, Attack 10 {0}.

Core Extras: Augmented 10, Multiattack 10, Battering 10, Brutal 10 {0}.

Purchased Effects: Exert 10, Movement 10, Regeneration 10, Aid 10 {40}.

Purchased Extras: Linked 10, Additional 10, Cumulative 10, Improved 10, Penetrating 10, Immediate 10, Area 10, Fluid, Diverse {37}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 0. VPP: 50.
Stats 41 + Skills 27 + Advantages 35 + Powers 48 - Generalist 1 = 150 PP.
Superhuman Prowess 23 + Scope 77 = 100 VPP.

Stats

Accuracy: +8/+12. Force: +4/+8. Defense: +12. Resistance: +8. Initiative: +18.

Strength: 0 (6). Speed: 6. Range: 0 (6). Efficiency: 0 (6).

Attack Modes: Physical.

Tradeoffs: Talent Shift 4 (+2 Accuracy, +2 Force).

Skills

Insight +12, Perception +12, Prowess +14.

Choose one other skill at +14.

Supremacy: Prowess 14, Chosen skill 14.

Physicality: Swiftness 5, Might 5, Initiative 18.

Advantages

Accurate Attack, Active Defense, All Out Attack 3, Assessment, Bodyguard, Defensive Manhandle, Evasion 2, Fast Grab, Improved Critical 4, Improved Defense, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Instant Maneuver, Move-by Action, Power Attack 3, Precise Attack 3 (Concealment), Prone Fighting, Skill Mastery 2 (Prowess, Chosen Skill), Stalwart Defense 3, Takedown 2, Total Defense 3, Ultimate Effort (Accuracy), Uncanny Dodge.

Choose two additional Advantages related to best skill.

Powers

Hyper Parkour: Movement 6 (Leaping, Stable, Adapted [Walls/Ceilings]) {9}.

Super Power: Choose ONE of the following {18}.


Super Strength: Exert 6 (Brutal, Additional).

Super Speed: Enhanced Extra (Movement gains Additional 2), Quickness 6.

Immortality: Regeneration 6 (Additional [Suppression], Resurrection).

Deflection: Defend 6 (Augmented, Linked [Attack]).

Ranged Weapon: Extend 6, Attack gains Increased Range, Extended Range, Precise, Ricochet, Homing, one other +1/rank Extra of choice; Removable (Can be disarmed or attacked as an object).

Super Senses: Extend 6; Exchange 12 PP for 30 VPP; Extended Vision [S2], Extended Hearing [S2], Vision Counters Concealment (Darkness) [S2], Hearing Counters Concealment (Background Noise) [S2], Accurate Hearing [S3].

Special Weapon: Enhanced Accuracy and Force 6, 18-point Array, Removable (Can be disarmed or attacked as an object) {30+5-7}.


Combat Supremacy: Attack 6 (Impairment Tree; Multiattack, Additional [Weakening Tree], Penetrating [Defense]).

Crippling Strike: Attack 6 (Impairment Tree; Additional 2 [Weakening Tree, Vulnerability Tree], Cumulative).

Whirlwind Attack: Attack 6 (Impairment Tree; Burst Area, Selective, Multiattack).

Devastating Blow: Attack 6 (Impairment Tree; Brutal 2, Penetrating [Resistance]).

Inevitable Defeat: Attack 6 (Impairment Tree; Cumulative, Secondary Effect 2).

Masterstroke: Attack 6 (Impairment Tree; Improved 4, Increased Action [Standard+Move]).

Utilities

Ultimate Guard: Half Defense Immunity vs. Physical, Energy [I5+I4].

Scope

Core Effects: Movement 6, Attack 6, By Super Power {0}.

Core Extras: Multiattack 6, Addition 6, Penetrating 6, By Super Power {0}.

Purchased Effects: None {0}.

Purchased Extras: Cumulative 6, Area 6, Selective 6, Brutal 6, Secondary Effect 6, Improved 6 {18}.

Calculations

PL: 10. HP: 3. PP: 0. VPP: 102.
Stats 32 + Skills 26 + Advantages 39 + Powers 55 - Generalist 2 = 150 PP.
Utilities 30 + Scope 18 = 48 VPP.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Questions:

-Are Restricted Phasing [Does Not Ignore Cover]/[Can Be Interposed] possible?
-Does Impervious Defend work off its rank or its check result? If the latter, how does Impervious (Resistance) function, then?
-Do Multiattack and Sweeping interact with Area the way it looks like (everyone affected gets hit by the single target option, but the other two are not available)?
-I assume Fragile activates even if you are moved against your will, since Restricted (Must Not Move) is possible. Can both be applied to the same power?
-Indirect lets you freely choose the origin point. Is having a fixed origin point other than from the user (such as "from above the target") a Feature, A Free Option, or a Restricted Indirect?
-Is the minimum charging time for the Charged Extra one (TR 0) or two (TR 1) rounds?
-Having {A (Linked B); B} allows, as written, you to use B freely. Is {A (Linked B); B (Restricted [Only as Linked])} possible?


Typos and stuff:


Rank 5 ("Major Characters"): Major Characters are movers and shakers. The PCs are always Major Characters, as are their most serious allies and enemies - rivals, nemeses, heroes of other stories, etc. Major Characters follow all normal rules.

If your character rank is at least two higher than your attacker's, you use the full stat rather than half the stat. So if the above character is a PC (rank 4) against minion or minor NPCs (rank 1 or 2) it would ignore their attacks if they have Accuracy 11 or less or Force 9 or less - unless they are especially powerful despite their rank, they probably can't even hurt the character at all!



Restricted -2 cost/3 ranks or more

Restricted (-1 cost/2 ranks or more):



Noticeable (Flat -1 PP): A continuous, permanent, or personal effect with this modifier is noticeable in some sort of way. Choose a noticeable display for the effect. For example Noticeable Protection may take the form of armored plates or a tough, leathery-looking hide, making it clear the character is tougher than normal.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Are Restricted Phasing [Does Not Ignore Cover]/[Can Be Interposed] possible?

Sounds reasonable to me. Honestly the cover one I'd probably rate as Restricted 2 on the Phasing, since that's a particularly big chunk of the benefit of the Extra.


Does Impervious Defend work off its rank or its check result? If the latter, how does Impervious (Resistance) function, then?

Rank.


Do Multiattack and Sweeping interact with Area the way it looks like (everyone affected gets hit by the single target option, but the other two are not available)?

I'd say all three are available.

Single Target: Everyone in the area gets affected per the single target function.

Multi Target: You create multiple distinct areas in range, kinda like Storm Area, taking the appropriate penalties. They do not stack; it's still one use of the power, so once someone is affected once, that's it.

Readied Action: You can perform the Area attack multiple times during the round taking an escalating penalty. They do not stack; it's still one use of the power, so once someone is affected once, that's it.

(I'll add some clarifying verbiage to getting affected by the same effect in the same round to specify that if it's the same use of the power it just doesn't stack at all, not even as an Aid).


I assume Fragile activates even if you are moved against your will, since Restricted (Must Not Move) is possible. Can both be applied to the same power?

Huh, you know, I had created Fragile as a broader form of the original Blending, but actually yeah, it should just be a form of Restricted. I'll remove it.


Indirect lets you freely choose the origin point. Is having a fixed origin point other than from the user (such as "from above the target") a Feature, A Free Option, or a Restricted Indirect?

Probably a Feature, maybe a Restricted Indirect, depending on the tactical merits of the origin point chosen.


Is the minimum charging time for the Charged Extra one (TR 0) or two (TR 1) rounds?

Two rounds; it's based on the number of Time Ranks spent, so 0 = 0.


Having {A (Linked B); B} allows, as written, you to use B freely. Is {A (Linked B); B (Restricted [Only as Linked])} possible?

I'd call that a Quirk. Essentially similar to Full Power.


Typos and stuff:

Thanks, will fix!

[Volthawk]

...holy crap Quel. This sure is impressive. I'm not quite in the best state to really pick apart rules, so I'll save any proper feedback for when I'm more capable, but still so far it's looking good. Those Teammate rules look really interesting, not quite sure how it would work out, but interesting nonetheless. Asides from that, Brutal jumped out at me as being something that could be a bit iffy, since shifting degree intervals seems like something that'd have a real risk of breaking the balance in combat.

[DeAnno]

I haven't looked all of this over yet in detail, but what you have is really impressive, it's a huge improvement in detail over M&M. A lot of the time when I try to do something difficult in M&M it doesn't quite work right, but a lot of the gears you have working here seem to have more degrees of freedom to them.

One minor thing I don't like is that Defensive Stats have the same price as Offensive Stats, even though there are four Defensive Stats and two Offensive Stats. This means if you want to make a tradeoff to be default offensively biased you gain points (or vice versa.) It basically encourages you to be generally offensively biased and lean into stances whenever you want defense, which seems like it isn't the intent.

To fix it, I would probably upcost offensive stats to 1 instead of 1/2. Since you're going to generally be buying 2/PL anyway, this is only effectively costing characters an extra 1/PL in character creation (if you wanted, you could compensate this by bumping up to 16/PL total points.)

Or a weirder idea, maybe don't have combat stats cost anything, and have them controlled purely by your tradeoffs instead? I guess that would mess up Uncanny, and Immunities, but it's sort of an interesting thing to consider.

A different, more detail oriented question: if I wanted to pay through the nose for a sort of "greater multiattack", could I buy Reduced Action x3 on the Attack Effect to make it a reaction instead of a standard action, and then trigger it whenever I move adjacent to an enemy? I was looking to do something similar to a move-through in Hero when I came up with it, and it's weird, but I think maybe it's reasonable since you can still only hit each enemy 1/round (not to mention the Reaction Attack is default costed at 3/rank.)

[Llyarden]

When it comes to Luck Control, how would you go about making a 'Spend on Other' effect like default M&M has? Or is that just not possible any more?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Asides from that, Brutal jumped out at me as being something that could be a bit iffy, since shifting degree intervals seems like something that'd have a real risk of breaking the balance in combat.

Brutal is...definitely one of my more experimental ones, yeah. Based on the math I've done it should be balanced with the other options, but like I said, system hasn't been playtested so who knows?


I haven't looked all of this over yet in detail, but what you have is really impressive, it's a huge improvement in detail over M&M. A lot of the time when I try to do something difficult in M&M it doesn't quite work right, but a lot of the gears you have working here seem to have more degrees of freedom to them.

Thanks! That's the hope.


One minor thing I don't like is that Defensive Stats have the same price as Offensive Stats, even though there are four Defensive Stats and two Offensive Stats. This means if you want to make a tradeoff to be default offensively biased you gain points (or vice versa.) It basically encourages you to be generally offensively biased and lean into stances whenever you want defense, which seems like it isn't the intent.

To fix it, I would probably upcost offensive stats to 1 instead of 1/2. Since you're going to generally be buying 2/PL anyway, this is only effectively costing characters an extra 1/PL in character creation (if you wanted, you could compensate this by bumping up to 16/PL total points.)

Or a weirder idea, maybe don't have combat stats cost anything, and have them controlled purely by your tradeoffs instead? I guess that would mess up Uncanny, and Immunities, but it's sort of an interesting thing to consider.

That's a good point. Relying on Stances does have some limitation to it (since you can only be in one stance at a time now), but yeah, it's still precisely the sort of "get the same benefit for a different cost" matter I wanted to avoid. I'll put some thought into it; just raising the offensive stats to 1 PP each like you said would solve it. I don't think I want to add more PP/PL (since these rules actually already give an effective bump to that by making the combat stats cost less). I feel like making the combat stats free would also free up more PP than is necessary. Cutting the defensive stats to 1 PP/4 ranks is possible but a bit ungainly. I could just drop Attack Modes entirely, change the defensive stats to Defense and Resistance, and use immunities/complications or maybe create a new advantage for getting bonuses against certain attack forms instead, which frankly would be more balanced than being able to pick and choose what defenses you can attack at all. Or maybe something else. I'll put some thought into it, but any feedback anyone might have on this point is welcome!


A different, more detail oriented question: if I wanted to pay through the nose for a sort of "greater multiattack", could I buy Reduced Action x3 on the Attack Effect to make it a reaction instead of a standard action, and then trigger it whenever I move adjacent to an enemy? I was looking to do something similar to a move-through in Hero when I came up with it, and it's weird, but I think maybe it's reasonable since you can still only hit each enemy 1/round (not to mention the Reaction Attack is default costed at 3/rank.)

That's actually something you can theoretically do in normal M&M, and I don't think there's any reason you couldn't here. That being said, Reaction triggers are always very much an "at GM discretion" sort of thing. That one's...a tricksy one, because with the way movement speed can scale, it winds up being strictly better than Area. So, theoretically possible, but probably not something a GM should allow in actual play.

(Although come to think of it, maybe I should add a restriction on Reactions that says that the situation they're reacting to has to be something outside your control; if you can control it it's a free action.)


When it comes to Luck Control, how would you go about making a 'Spend on Other' effect like default M&M has? Or is that just not possible any more?

Share Luck and maybe Spread Luck were more-or-less intended to fill that niche, although they don't really do it the same way, and it's a mechanic that I can't see any reason shouldn't exist (although the way Area interacted with it was...a bit much, for the cost, so I want to curtail that). Maybe I'll expand Leadership to be usable with more than just Recover, or add something to Share Luck allowing it to be used that way as well, or something. I'll think on it some.

[Amechra]

As someone unfamiliar with M&M, what's the best way to approach this?

Should I have the SRD open while I read it, or is it a standalone thing?

[Quellian-dyrae]

It's...mostly standalone. If you're entirely unfamiliar with M&M, you'll probably want to refer to the SRD for at least the basics of how the game is played, although honestly, if you're familiar with other d20 systems, even that probably isn't strictly necessary (off the top of my head, the only area I can think of that might really require referring to the SRD are Complications and the Rank and Value Measures table, and maybe Descriptors, although I could be forgetting some stuff). The "The More Things Change" section gives an overview of what is largely left alone.

But for the most part, this is meant to outright replace the nuts and bolts of the mechanics, so you don't have to be like, "Okay, so in the SRD attacking works like this, but these rules change it this way to the end result is this." The rules for attacking are just rewritten outright in here with any changes already built in.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Hey QD, I notice there's a bit of a math glitch in the combat stats. Maybe do a simple cost tweak to fix it?


Clearly this requires a substantial rules update!!!!!

So, yeah, I went with consolidating the defenses, and then to make up for the loss of granularity in native defenses, I basically completely overhauled the immunities system. While I was at it I tweaked the numbers on skills, streamlined Teammates a bit, added some new Extras, created a new action parameter, and made a few other adjustments. The major changelog is as follows. There's also various minor changes of the consistency variety, although I'm not 100% sure I caught all of those; in particular, I'll state here just to make sure RAI is clear, but anywhere where like a power vs. a skill would use twice the power rank or half the skill rank or stuff like that, should no longer be the case. I think I got most of those, but if I missed a few, they're errors.

Post 2: Changed Skills PL Limit to equal PL (there's some new Advantages to cover the higher end of skills for certain purposes, but I've been wanting to get all the numbers on the same playing field for consistency, particularly with regards to opposing skill rolls). Consolidated defensive stats into only Defense and Resistance. Changed combat stats cost to 1 PP/rank. Adjusted tradeoffs a bit. Changed Attack Modes entirely. Added a new immunities and weaknesses system that has been largely divorced from powers and in conjunction with the new Attack Modes now covers all manner of situations where characters might be more or less resistant to certain types of attack. Reduced PP:VPP tradeoff to 2:5 and capped VPP at double its starting total.

Post 4: Added a new section for effect Targeting, to be able to clearly specify things like what effects require broad physical movement and such. This should help smooth out the rough edges caused by consolidated defensive stats and the lack of Perception range.

Post 5: Updated the Attack and Defend action to reflect new Attack Modes/combat stats rules. Updated Influence, Manhandle, and Manipulate to reflect new Attack Modes rules and new skill limits. Added Targeting for all combat actions. Made high attack rolls have an effect (+1 potential Bruise per additional degree of success).

Post 6: Added a new Restraining Tree. I'm kinda light on example Complex Conditions now but whatever, maybe I'll come up with more later.

Post 10: Added Skill Supremacy and adjusted Skill Mastery to better dovetail with it. Adjusted Leadership to just let you give your Hero Points to allies.

Posts 11-12: Refined how Attack and Defend interact with Powers tradeoffs. Added Targeting and Attack Modes to all powers. Removed the Immunity Effect. Simplified Metamorph some (flat VPP cost rather than having to compare with base sheet).

Posts 13-14: Removed the Impervious and Uncanny Extras. Edited the Penetrating Extra to fit with the new Immunities rules. Dropped the multiple resistance checks thing from Additional. Added new Extras: Absorb, Aggravated, Battering, Consume, Counter, Increased Targeting, Reciprocate, and Withstand (and modified Redirect for broader use).

Post 15: Added new Reduced Targeting Flaw.

Post 16: Simplified Teammates some (flat VPP cost rather than compare) and buffed them a touch (now tradeoff based rather than a flat PL reduction, which each tradeoff clearly tied to one of the "big benefits" of additional characters).

The archetypes have also been updated to reflect the new rules.

[DeAnno]

I've been messing around with character building again, and I love the changes! Immunities are treated as versatility and not power! The Tactical Attack Mode supports Combat Thinkers! Tradeoffs that make more sense!

Some weird things I'm still noticing:


The Fluid Extra has some bizarre incentives. Is it intended that you can build a power with a bunch of +cost/rank extras, a bunch of -cost/rank flaws, and a handful of Fluid ranks? You can end up paying a reasonable/low amount of PP and 0 VPP for something pretty versatile, almost like a Dynamic Array based on one effect (but with Flaw shuffling too!). I love the idea of Fluid in concept but making stuff with it can feel cheesy at times.

Stances still seem a little cheesy. Why take a +5 tradeoff to Accuracy/Force/Attack Powers and pay up the extra cost of the 15 rank Attack Power (with Stat cost changes canceling themselves out) when I could just use the All Out Attack Stance for 3 points? If you have a lot of Extras on your Attack Power paying up the cost of 5 more ranks could cost 15+ points (or in the case of some weird characters, radically more.) Maybe Stances should be smaller in effect, but they shouldn't be tradeoff bonuses, and the tradeoff cap should be smaller? (Like, you could limit all stances to +2/-2 and cap tradeoffs at +3/-3 or +4/-4)

Improved Critical feels strong mathematically for its cost, though that might just be because the settings I think about tend towards Modern/Gritty.

Improved Initiative is kind of a weird unrestricted bidding war. Going first can be a huge deal (it's effectively a standard and move action half-free once per combat), and 5 character points for a +20 bonus isn't a huge cost. I think game theory wise making that Advantage so effective might incentivize huge investments, though Automatic Initiative might curtail that slightly? When I was spitballing a speedster-type I wasn't blinking at dumping 10 points on it to get +40, and even thought I might be underbidding.

With regards to immunities, the Dazing Tree might tend to be "common" by default? Not sure if that's the sort of thing you want to even bother calling out, but it seems sort of true.


Disclaimer: I don't have a lot of real experience with M&M specifically, this is just theory-crafting.

[Quellian-dyrae]

I've been messing around with character building again, and I love the changes! Immunities are treated as versatility and not power! The Tactical Attack Mode supports Combat Thinkers! Tradeoffs that make more sense!

:smallbiggrin:


The Fluid Extra has some bizarre incentives. Is it intended that you can build a power with a bunch of +cost/rank extras, a bunch of -cost/rank flaws, and a handful of Fluid ranks? You can end up paying a reasonable/low amount of PP and 0 VPP for something pretty versatile, almost like a Dynamic Array based on one effect (but with Flaw shuffling too!). I love the idea of Fluid in concept but making stuff with it can feel cheesy at times.

Yeah that does sound like it needs to be curtailed some. Seems to be the interactions with Flaws that are the problem? I'll see what can be done to restrict it some.


Stances still seem a little cheesy. Why take a +5 tradeoff to Accuracy/Force/Attack Powers and pay up the extra cost of the 15 rank Attack Power (with Stat cost changes canceling themselves out) when I could just use the All Out Attack Stance for 3 points? If you have a lot of Extras on your Attack Power paying up the cost of 5 more ranks could cost 15+ points (or in the case of some weird characters, radically more.) Maybe Stances should be smaller in effect, but they shouldn't be tradeoff bonuses, and the tradeoff cap should be smaller? (Like, you could limit all stances to +2/-2 and cap tradeoffs at +3/-3 or +4/-4)

I do want to keep the stance numbers where they are. I'm leaning to making All Out Attack and Total Defense or instead of and, which should separate them more from the full tradeoff, but then they'd be notably more versatile than the other stances. I suppose I could split them into more stances though and then consolidate them into advantages, so you'd have twelve actual stances which are all folded into an "aggressive" advantage (trade either defense for either offense), a "defensive" advantage (trade either offense for either defense), and a "tactical" advantage (trade either defense or offense for the other). I'll think on that some.


Improved Critical feels strong mathematically for its cost, though that might just be because the settings I think about tend towards Modern/Gritty.

Improved Critical has always struck me as solid, and definitely great when it works, but not game-breakingly so. Its lack of reliability is a pretty significant limiting factor. Could be that it's on the strong end, but not enough that I feel the need to mess with it at the moment (although yes, it could be more potent in a high-lethality game).


Improved Initiative is kind of a weird unrestricted bidding war. Going first can be a huge deal (it's effectively a standard and move action half-free once per combat), and 5 character points for a +20 bonus isn't a huge cost. I think game theory wise making that Advantage so effective might incentivize huge investments, though Automatic Initiative might curtail that slightly? When I was spitballing a speedster-type I wasn't blinking at dumping 10 points on it to get +40, and even thought I might be underbidding.

Improved Initiative to me has always been a perfect middle-of-the-road advantage. It's the sort of thing where if you have some spare points and you don't know where to put them, it's a solid choice. Likewise, if you desperately need to drop a point or two, it's not going to hurt to take them from Improved Initiative. I'd just as soon leave it unrestricted. If a speedster wants to be a full RNG or two above everyone else for going first, hey, more power to them.


With regards to immunities, the Dazing Tree might tend to be "common" by default? Not sure if that's the sort of thing you want to even bother calling out, but it seems sort of true.

Probably yeah, since Dazing Tree is another part of the default Attack action.

[DeAnno]

:smallbiggrin:Yeah that does sound like it needs to be curtailed some. Seems to be the interactions with Flaws that are the problem? I'll see what can be done to restrict it some.

Like I said, it could probably stand to cost VPP too. Maybe (1/N)*(Power Ranks)*(Fluid Ranks), where N is some integer you would want to balance. Thinking more on this, it might be cleaner if Arrays, Fluid, and similar didn't cost real PP at all, only VPP.


I do want to keep the stance numbers where they are. I'm leaning to making All Out Attack and Total Defense or instead of and, which should separate them more from the full tradeoff, but then they'd be notably more versatile than the other stances. I suppose I could split them into more stances though and then consolidate them into advantages, so you'd have twelve actual stances which are all folded into an "aggressive" advantage (trade either defense for either offense), a "defensive" advantage (trade either offense for either defense), and a "tactical" advantage (trade either defense or offense for the other). I'll think on that some.

I think that might help a lot. The most perverse thing was that as I was building I found that doing anything but 10/10 Accuracy/Force didn't make sense, since if you're going to shift to All Out Attack that becomes 15/15 which is the gold standard. I think this new way will probably encourage a bigger variety of tradeoff splits, especially since Stances would let you slide a bit more freely and there would be less chance of getting into wasteful catch-22s.


Improved Critical has always struck me as solid, and definitely great when it works, but not game-breakingly so. Its lack of reliability is a pretty significant limiting factor. Could be that it's on the strong end, but not enough that I feel the need to mess with it at the moment (although yes, it could be more potent in a high-lethality game).

A 1/20 chance per rank of +5 on the toughness DC is still sort of like +0.25 post-tradeoff Force per rank though, (+0.5 if you would outright miss on 50% of your attacks) and that's before you get into exploding Lethal damage, so it's definitely a big deal. Even if you expect your accuracy to hit 75% of the time then 4 ranks of Improved Critical is like 1.33 bonus Force. I suppose in most circumstances 10 PP of Improved will give +1 Acc/+1 Force, but again the post-tradeoff nature of Improved Critical is going to attract most offensive builds, especially with how vanilla its flavor is.

On the other hand, there isn't any elegant nerf, and relying on high variance stuff is dangerous and often produces result spillage due to overkill, so a lot of the above math might be too kind to Improved Critical. All and all, probably ok, just wanted to draw attention to it.


Improved Initiative to me has always been a perfect middle-of-the-road advantage. It's the sort of thing where if you have some spare points and you don't know where to put them, it's a solid choice. Likewise, if you desperately need to drop a point or two, it's not going to hurt to take them from Improved Initiative. I'd just as soon leave it unrestricted. If a speedster wants to be a full RNG or two above everyone else for going first, hey, more power to them.

You tell yourself that, and then you lose initiative after a Seize-Off and you're a splat on the ground. Or maybe I play glass cannons too much. :smallwink: I guess it's better for it to be strong than weak though, since if it was weak nobody would ever bother with buying it and with it strong people will always still find excuses to buy other things instead. I think it's possibly some of the best bang-for-your-buck available but it is distinctly unsexy. So probably ok, just something to keep an eye on.

[Llyarden]

Just noticed that Illusion still mentions Presence.

Would an Enhanced Immunity be eligible for the Removeable (natural trait as a power) flaw?

Also, if you have a schtick that benefits either Defence or Resistance, does that mean that the Defend power won't work at full effectiveness for you? (Since the average of your defensive stats in the absence of tradeoffs would then be your PL + 1).

[Quellian-dyrae]

Okay, took another swing at the Attack (and Defend, to a somewhat lesser degree) issues that have cropped up due to my making powers a trade-offable thing.

What I went with is that Attack and Defend powers don't have a rank in and of themselves. They cost 1 PP to purchase on their own, or if they have Extras, they just use the cost of those Extras. For purposes of calculating costs for cost/rank Extras, their effective rank is treated as your full PL. This can be lowered to correspondingly lower your stats when using the power. So tradeoffs and stances don't interact with Attack and Defend powers at all, they're just constructs based around your combat stats.

As a result, things that used to refer to an attack's rank are no longer really valid. For things that are more about the sheer power of the attack (such as the new Absorb and Consume Extras), they now use the attack's Force. However, anything involving recovery from the attack now uses its Accuracy. This should further help ensure Accuracy and Force have a parity - high Force might let you inflict conditions more easily, but low Accuracy means opponents also recover faster (although, not without powers or assistance, if you knock them to Tier 3-4).

I also removed Flaw buy-off from Fluid. Instead, you can get dedicated ranks of Fluid tied to specific Flaws that you can add in to raise applications of existing Extras. So you can still use Fluid to get like a power that is more costly or tiring or distracting or whatever if you use it at higher levels, but you can't use those Flaws to actually offset the cost and so pump in more Extras to expand the power's versatility.

I also fixed Illusion and removed Schticks from Teammates (except Primaries) as a little extra cost to them. I did wind up leaving stances as they are, since actually things like All Out Attack affecting both stats mitigates (though doesn't entirely negate) the whole tactic where you Defend for an ally and that ally All Out Attacks for max because your Defend is picking up the slack (it can still risk it, but if it does get hit that Resistance penalty is going to be felt).

Immunities can indeed be Removable (natural trait as a power) even if they aren't enhanced traits, since they allow for Extras. I think I actually did that on the Battlesuit archetype.

[DeAnno]

Going over things more, I'd like to have a rather convoluted word about Move-By Action dysfunction and possible Linking cheese, if I may :smallsmile:

Let's say I have an Attack Power, and an Advantage.

Cool Attack: Attack: Multiattack {10}
Advantages: Move-By Action {1}

I'd like to be able to use the "Multiple Targets" function of Multiattack with Move-By Action to move around the field and Attack various enemies as I pass by, then retreat back away from them. Unfortunately, Move-By Action lets you move both before and after your Standard Action, but not during it, so this doesn't work unless my enemies are all clumped up.

I refused to be dissuaded however, and searched for a way to make my idea work. Enter the Instant Movement Effect. Lets say I took the following power:

Cool Move: Instant Movement 10 (Increased Action [Standard], Linked [Cool Attack]) {10}

Since Linked specifies you can use both powers "in the same action", the roving melee multiattacker can work now! But the more I look at such a power, the more I'm suspicious of it. Imagine I made it into the following array:

Cool Moves: 10 Point Array {10+1}
-Cool Strafe: Instant Movement 10 (Increased Action [Standard], Linked [Cool Attack])
-Cool Dash: Instant Movement 10

For just one additional point from buying the move in the first place, I'm allowed to use it either normally or at the same time as my attack action. We could also use a Flawed Extra to do something similar, but for more PP, less VPP, and with rather better flexibility:

Cool Move: Instant Movement 10 (Linked [Cool Attack] [Increased Action <Standard>]) {15}

So after digging up this rabbit hole (and being pleased with the rabbit I found, to be fair), I'm wondering just how much of this is intended and how silly it is. Maybe Linked is underpriced in general? Or Increased Action is overvalued? Or maybe I'm too used to less versatile systems than M&M, and this behavior is just fine. Maybe I'm even being too pendantic about Move-By Action, and I never had this problem in the first place.

I'd be interested in your (or anyone else's) opinion, and I hope this was thought provoking at least :smallcool:

[Quellian-dyrae]

It's something of a GM call, but in my games I'd actually allow that sort of Move-by Multiattack as a Feature on top of Move-by Action. So I figure using Linked Movement to accomplish the same goal is plenty fair.

[Quellian-dyrae]

For those keeping score at home, I did a bit of tweaking to some of the conditions. Nerfed Vulnerability, Restraining, and Suppression a bit, buffed Weakening some, and just in general tried to make some of them a bit more..."interesting". Like, Vulnerable now only gives +2 to hit, but if it would have hit anyway causes another Bruise, and it prevents the target from making Reactions in response to attacks against it. Mainly, I wanted to get all the Tier 1 conditions only generally giving penalties on the order of -2.

I also removed the cumulating costs for multiple applications of Linked, and lowered Variable to a move action (since VPP is restricting it some now, and dynamic arrays are more flexible in comparison).

[Llyarden]

Okay so I don't know if I'm misunderstanding Restricted but...why would anyone ever take it? It seems far more restrictive than its price suggests.

Using the example you gave, Exert 10, in the absence of other extras or flaws, costs 10 PP. Exert 10 Restricted to Manhandle Actions costs 9 PP. (8 ranks at 1PP/rank and 2 ranks at 1PP/2 ranks). For exactly the same cost you could get Exert 10, Quirk (does not affect Lifting Rank), and would still be able to use the various Maneuvers that allow you to use Exert as well as Manhandle actions.

Similarly, if you had a Ranged Exert, you could take Ranged Exert 10, Quirk 2 (does not affect lifting rank and cannot be used to stand allies up) and it would still be able to Reset or Escape for allies or Interfere with opponents.

On a different note, if you buy an Enhanced Extra that costs more than +1/rank, is the power itself considered to have the cost/rank of the Extra or is the whole thing considered a really high-ranked 1/rank? (As an example, if I had Enhanced Immediate 10, that would cost 30 points. If I applied Limited to it would it cost 15 points or 20?)

Also if you buy an Immunity as a power, what's it's rank? (If you want a Reflect Immunity or something.)

Also #2, when you mention that powers can have multiple attack modes at once, a) does this cost anything and b) how does it interact with Weaknesses and Immunities?

[DeAnno]

What I went with is that Attack and Defend powers don't have a rank in and of themselves. They cost 1 PP to purchase on their own, or if they have Extras, they just use the cost of those Extras. For purposes of calculating costs for cost/rank Extras, their effective rank is treated as your full PL. This can be lowered to correspondingly lower your stats when using the power. So tradeoffs and stances don't interact with Attack and Defend powers at all, they're just constructs based around your combat stats.

Two questions came to mind about this.

1) What happens when you need to make a Rank check with your Attack or Defend power, for example in the course of contesting a Counter or Nullify. Do you just treat your rank as your PL?
2) If you take a tradeoff that lowers your max rank for all Powers, that wouldn't affect Attack or Defend anymore right? Would it affect any Rank checks you make with Attack and Defend?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Okay so I don't know if I'm misunderstanding Restricted but...why would anyone ever take it? It seems far more restrictive than its price suggests.

Using the example you gave, Exert 10, in the absence of other extras or flaws, costs 10 PP. Exert 10 Restricted to Manhandle Actions costs 9 PP. (8 ranks at 1PP/rank and 2 ranks at 1PP/2 ranks). For exactly the same cost you could get Exert 10, Quirk (does not affect Lifting Rank), and would still be able to use the various Maneuvers that allow you to use Exert as well as Manhandle actions.

This may be an issue with how I'm doing the math for fractional costs per rank at one rank. I'll fiddle with that. Restricted Exert should cost like...7 points maybe.


Similarly, if you had a Ranged Exert, you could take Ranged Exert 10, Quirk 2 (does not affect lifting rank and cannot be used to stand allies up) and it would still be able to Reset or Escape for allies or Interfere with opponents.

On the other hand, it should work correctly here. Restricted Ranged Exert 10 would could 15 points (1.5 PP/rank). There should probably also be diminishing returns on multiple Quirks that do similar stuff. I'll check on what I have written for all that and maybe add in a more detailed Limited/Restricted/Removable/Quirk "sidebar" or something to clarify them.


On a different note, if you buy an Enhanced Extra that costs more than +1/rank, is the power itself considered to have the cost/rank of the Extra or is the whole thing considered a really high-ranked 1/rank? (As an example, if I had Enhanced Immediate 10, that would cost 30 points. If I applied Limited to it would it cost 15 points or 20?)

Yeah cost/rank of the Extra, so it would cost 20. I'll clarify.


Also if you buy an Immunity as a power, what's it's rank? (If you want a Reflect Immunity or something.)

Immunities don't have ranks; Extras and Flaws that would modify cost/rank simply increase or reduce the immunity's level. So like, Full Immunity to Mental, Reflect would be a Level 7 immunity rather than Level 6.


Also #2, when you mention that powers can have multiple attack modes at once, a) does this cost anything and b) how does it interact with Weaknesses and Immunities?

There's actually several ways to do it. I'll go back and make it clearer.

Neutral Option #1 (Free): You just assign different "portions" of the power different Attack Modes. For example, a poisoned blade could be Attack (10) (Impairment Tree; Physical Attack, Physiological Effect). So it counts as Physical for purposes of making your attack roll, Physiological for purposes of the resistance check.

Neutral Option #2 (Freeish): You can also use different Attack Modes for some Extras. For example, the poisoned blade could be Attack (10) (Impairment Tree; Physical; Secondary Effect [Physiological]) or Attack (10) (Impairment Tree; Physical; Additional [Weakening Tree; Physiological Effect]). In the former case, it resists the initial attack as Physical, and the Secondary Effect as Physiological. In the latter case, it still rolls one Resistance check against both condition trees, but it counts any Physical Immunities/Weaknesses vs. the Impairment, and any Physiological ones against the Weakness. This doesn't carry a cost in itself but of course you have to pay for the Extras.

Beneficial Option (Costs PP): You can use the Diverse Extra to offer additional Attack Modes. In this case, you choose what you want. So for example, our poisoned sword could be Attack (10) (Impairment Tree; Physical; Diverse [Physiological]). Although you'd probably make it Diverse (Physiological Effect) to be a bit more realistic since you're still making a physical attack to deliver the poison in the first place, but whatever.

Detrimental Option (Gives PP): You can use the Resistible Flaw to give the target multiple options to defend with (flat -2 PP) or allow them additional entire defensive rolls (-1 cost/rank). For example, Attack (10) (Impairment Tree; Physical; Resistible [Physiological Resistance Optional]) means you make a Physical attack, and the opponent can choose whether to treat it as Physical or Physiological to resist. Attack (10) (Impairment Tree; Physical; Resistible [Physiological Resistance Additional]) means you make a Physical attack, and the opponent makes two Resistance checks, one against Physical and one against Physiological, and takes the best.

A Mix of Options (Varies): Or you can mix and match. For example, none of the above quiiiite do what a poisoned blade realistically would - you have to make a physical attack which both hits and causes some damage (your poison doesn't help if you don't actually break the skin), and then the poison delivers a separate effect. So if you're a stickler for realism, you might go with something like Attack (10) (Impairment Tree; Physical; Additional [Weakening Tree; Physiological Effect], Quirk [Additional Extra doesn't apply if the main effect is resisted entirely, even if the target is more susceptible to Physiological]). Or perhaps Attack (10) (Impairment Tree; Physical; Secondary Effect [Physiological; Limited (Only if the initial attack hits and the initial resistance check fails)]).


Two questions came to mind about this.

1) What happens when you need to make a Rank check with your Attack or Defend power, for example in the course of contesting a Counter or Nullify. Do you just treat your rank as your PL?

Hah, good catch. Yeah, I'll add in that for other purposes dependent on ranks, it uses this "effective" rank.


2) If you take a tradeoff that lowers your max rank for all Powers, that wouldn't affect Attack or Defend anymore right? Would it affect any Rank checks you make with Attack and Defend?

It would not (although I'll note, last night I did add in a little extra wrinkle to the Powers tradeoff where if it goes beyond maxing your skills it gets some diminishing returns, and one of those is that it lowers the effective rank for Attack and Defend, so if you take it that far then it would).

[Llyarden]

On the other hand, it should work correctly here. Restricted Ranged Exert 10 would could 15 points (1.5 PP/rank). There should probably also be diminishing returns on multiple Quirks that do similar stuff. I'll check on what I have written for all that and maybe add in a more detailed Limited/Restricted/Removable/Quirk "sidebar" or something to clarify them.

I don't know how this calculation is achieved. According to the Restricted rules, Restricted applies -1/rank to two ranks, so you have two ranks at the base 1/rank and eight ranks at 2/rank. Which is a total of 18. Getting a total of fifteen sounds more like how I originally thought Restricted works, which isn't right.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Restricted is -1 to the cost per two ranks, not for two ranks. I don't see anywhere I contradicted that in Restricted itself. My weird math on fractional Extras may have done something odd on that end if I made an error with it, but that's been updated now so if it was the issue it shouldn't be any longer.

Other above clarifications and fixes are also up. I also added a fairly extensive description of what each Attack Mode means in terms of attack rolls, resistance checks, and recovery checks, as well as a sidebar for handling multiple Attack Modes.

[DeAnno]

Another couple thoughts:


Lower Powers (other than your Schtick) to raise Powers (for purposes of your Schtick).

With Attack, Defend, Senses, Communication, (and Features, I guess) unlimited by PL limits now, it's fairly practical for a wide variety of characters to take two Powers as +1 Schticks, max them to PL+5 with a +4, and drop the rest to PL-4 (many of them not using any such Powers at all, or perhaps having only a minor one or two unrestricted by this.) Looking through some of your example characters, its easy to imagine a lot of them doing this as PCs.

Is this an intended behavior? Powers at PL+5 don't really break things nearly as much as Stats do, so it's kind of a cool side effect that makes PCs end up different and specialized. I think I like it on the whole, but I thought with all the Tradeoff tinkering lately it merited bringing up.


Insubstantial: Action: Free. Range: Personal. Duration: Sustained. Cost: 5 PP/rank.

This is kind of a weird power now for a few reasons. First of all, you're basically buying Immunities, but you're doing so outside and in parallel to the normal VPP system for it. Second, the low number of ranks and high cost per rank means that tradeoffs don't really apply (though they don't to the Immunities system either...), and that Extras and Flaws on the power with changed cost/rank won't effect the price very much. That probably most often applies to Limitations and such, and since its cheap anyway that likely isn't a huge problem, but something like Broad Insubstantial 3 can give you a variable immunity to any energy descriptor for only 3 extra points.

I don't think any of this weird Insubstantial stuff is directly problematic, but it does feel a little like legacy code.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Yeah Insubstantial's something of a legacy. It probably could be built purely with the Immunities rules and a bit of Movement. I'll take a look at it and see whether or not it still merits its current usage.

The schtick tradeoff is a potential concern, I'll think on that too. Might just be that the tradeoff needs to divide among the two if you pick two schticks, but not sure.

--

In other news, I finally got sick of hitting the character limit when I make edits (because I wasn't smart enough to add some spare posts, to be fair, but whatever). I also kinda wanted to add some internal navigation to this thing for easier referencing anyway. So, I've moved it to an external site (http://www.trulyuniqueweb.com/unrealquests/mm/). I'm going to be editing it there in the future, so expect this version to gradually become more and more out of date as I change things.

[DeAnno]

I love the new site! The only sad part is the example characters aren't there yet :smallwink:

Another nitpick, the Initiative option in Prowess is a little borky now. You can spend 1 PP to get 2 skill points, put them in Prowess, and get +4 to your initiative (which means you got the same bonus of Improved Initiative, plus 2 ranks of Prowess.) Even worse, you could use 1 PP to buy 2 SP to buy 6 Physicality and get +6 Initiative!

A rules question related to this: if you have Enhanced Prowess in an array and take Initiative physicality, and then roll initiative with it on, do you lose the initiative bonus and drop in the turn order if you swap it out of your array? This would be ugly, but the alternative of people sitting around with their arrays all set to "Initiative" until battles start is a little ugly too. It's sort of like taking an Advantage in an array, which is banned for a reason.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Seriously, thank you all for catching this stuff. It's a big help!

Far as the initiative question, I'd say that's a GM call. Changing initiative is a bit more precisely balanced, but also might be annoying to keep track of, and I don't want to call it a rule and thus require keeping track of everyone's exact initiative results throughout the battle. But if a GM wants to do that, hey, more power to 'em!

--

And I've updated the rules on the new site a bit.

Specified that to get two Schticks you have to divide Schtick bonuses among them.

Did some more tweaking to Attack Modes. I was realizing a lot of the Attack Modes used kinda the same logic for attack rolls, so I set up five "Delivery Modes", which are tied to certain Attack Modes by default but can be changed. They're still purchased through Attack Modes themselves primarily. So, Delivery Modes basically determine the attack roll logic, Attack Modes determine the resistance check logic. Delivery Modes can be taken as immunities/weaknesses, and are twice as valuable as Attack Modes since there are half as many.

I also split the weird "Material also covers things like disintegration" off into a separate Attack Mode called Removal, and came up with better logic for what the resistance check means there. So now there's a nice round ten Attack Modes. The bell curve of Attack Mode costs has been adjusted to account for this.

As a result of now having cohesive Delivery Systems, I removed the new Targeting parameter. More complexity than it's worth at this stage.

I took Lifting Rank, Speed Rank, range, and Time Rank reduction from stuff like Quickness and made them into miscellaneous stats (Strength, Speed, Range, Efficiency). This doesn't really change how they work or are purchased at all, but it kinda clarifies what they are since multiple things can affect them and they have some mechanical impact on things. Made some tweaks regarding these, mostly wording-oriented. Did also improve Extended senses to two Distance Ranks per application though (also specified that the Distance Rank can't be increased beyond PL with Extended senses, which I had meant to do originally but apparently forgot).

Reduced Proficiencies, Specialties, and Physicality to 2 per skill point rather than 3 (I think I may have been thinking PP for those for some reason), and lowered Physicality base amount to just equal Prowess, to fix the Initiative issue. Also adjusted Growth/Shrinking with Manhandle/Maneuver to affect degrees of success rather than the checks themselves, in keeping with new skill paradigms.

I also added a new option to Prowess called Evade, letting you get hefty defensive bonuses against ranged attacks in any round that you do nothing but Maneuver. Because A) kiting is too easy in M&M and B) hitting a moving target should be harder.

Haven't updated the archetypes yet, but will probably do them at some point and then move them to the new site. But as of now the archetypes posted here are officially out of date.

Finally, added a new Independent Extra for powers that can act independently of you (also providing a limited way to represent summons without having to go full Teammate).

I'm gonna leave Insubstantial be, for the time being at least. It is a bit weird, but Insubstantial operates sufficiently differently from normal immunities (from restricting your ability to affect others, to ignoring Penetrating but being overcome by Affects Insubstantial, to altering how you move, etc) and would be so complex to put together a la carte (and even then, wouldn't really be quite the same) that I think I'd rather just leave it alone, even if it is a touch out of place. Maybe at some point I'll come up with a different way to do it that fits some of these paradigms a bit better, but I'm not gonna worry about it for now.

[DeAnno]

I'm probably going to edit in more stuff soon, but it strikes me that Manhandle should probably use Physical or Material rather than Physical or Tactical now, especially because the Focus delivery mode seems a bit ill-suited for Manhandle. On the other hand, the Impact delivery mode which is on both Physical and Material makes sense, and Material is often about restricting movement, which is a Manhandle thing too.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Whoops, yeah. Added Material, left Tactical, but specified that even when done as Tactical it uses Impact Delivery.

[DeAnno]

Ok, so the more I look at it (including looking at example characters), the notation and theory of Enhanced Extra is a bit strange, and sometimes this strangeness can make one unsure about costs. Let's look at one of Speedster's Enhanced Extras as an example (I'm aware he's depreciated, but this part should still be rules-legal):


Hyperspeed: Enhanced Extra 37 (Movement gains Additional, Improved, Reduced Action, Fluid 2, Stable, Leaping, Adapted [Walls/Ceilings]; Removable [Not while Hindered]).

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, the text claims that the Movement it's being applied to gains Extras worth +3 cost/rank and a flat +7, but that this is reduced by 20% by removable. Since 3x10+7=37 and 37*0.8=30, this fits in the 30 point array just fine. But since an Enhanced Extra can be applied to any Movement power, what happens if you try to apply it to a Movement 11 Power? Does it just not work, because you didn't pay enough?

More confusingly, imagine you had a Movement 12 Power (through a Schtick perhaps) that had Limited 1. It's base cost would be 6 at 1/2 PP/rank. Adding +3 cost/rank makes that 3 PP/rank, and 3*12+7=43, and (43-6)*0.8=30, so would applying the Enhanced Extra to the Limited Movement 12 Power work, because you paid 30, which would have been enough to add the Extras to the power directly?

Even more confusingly, if you just had a normal Movement 12 Power, could you apply part of the Enhanced Extra to it (like, everything but Improved) so that it still fit into the appropriate cost? The whole thing is kind of a weird quagmire, and I think most of it is probably because Enhanced Extra doesn't target specific power effects but just a type of Effect in general.

A more common example of this quandry would be Enhanced Extra (Skill gains Supreme). If you wanted to be able to apply this to rank 10 enhanced skills, would it cost 5 PP (the actual cost of the difference of the extra being applied) or 10 PP (the naive 1*10 ranks calculation)?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Okay, yeah, I'll need to clarify that a bit better. But off-the-cuff explanation is as follows:


So, if I'm understanding this correctly, the text claims that the Movement it's being applied to gains Extras worth +3 cost/rank and a flat +7, but that this is reduced by 20% by removable. Since 3x10+7=37 and 37*0.8=30, this fits in the 30 point array just fine. But since an Enhanced Extra can be applied to any Movement power, what happens if you try to apply it to a Movement 11 Power? Does it just not work, because you didn't pay enough?

It applies to 10 ranks of the power following normal rules for Extras that only apply to some ranks (if there's a logical way to effectively apply it to just those ranks do so, otherwise it only applies if you forego the additional ranks), since you paid for ten ranks of the Extras (the flat-cost Extras apply regardless of ranks of course).


More confusingly, imagine you had a Movement 12 Power (through a Schtick perhaps) that had Limited 1. It's base cost would be 6 at 1/2 PP/rank. Adding +3 cost/rank makes that 3 PP/rank, and 3*12+7=43, and (43-6)*0.8=30, so would applying the Enhanced Extra to the Limited Movement 12 Power work, because you paid 30, which would have been enough to add the Extras to the power directly?

It still only applies to 10 ranks of the power as above. If that is your only Movement power anyway, you can feel free to pay the lower cost for the Enhanced Extra for the Limit being applied. Otherwise, you'd pay the appropriate full cost, and you just lose a few effective points when applying it to that particular Movement power. Basically, you do have to pay enough for it to fit onto any given power you want it to apply to, but if the only powers you want it to apply to would result in a lower cost, it's fine to pay that.


Even more confusingly, if you just had a normal Movement 12 Power, could you apply part of the Enhanced Extra to it (like, everything but Improved) so that it still fit into the appropriate cost? The whole thing is kind of a weird quagmire, and I think most of it is probably because Enhanced Extra doesn't target specific power effects but just a type of Effect in general.

You could apply just part of it as always, because you can always forego Extras under these rules. Normally, you wouldn't recoup the extra points, because foregoing Extras doesn't actually give any points back, so once again you'd only receive the Extras on ten ranks of the power. However, in this particular example, the fact that you have Fluid does mean that foregoing Extras gives you more points to reinvest on other Extras that the power already has, so you could boost them up to the full rank.


A more common example of this quandry would be Enhanced Extra (Skill gains Supreme). If you wanted to be able to apply this to rank 10 enhanced skills, would it cost 5 PP (the actual cost of the difference of the extra being applied) or 10 PP (the naive 1*10 ranks calculation)?

5 PP yes. If you also had Enhanced Skills that had other Extras, you would have to pay 10 PP if you want to apply the full value to them as well. Although this makes me realize I have to take another look at Supreme. Skills in arrays and such is also something I don't really want to encourage and Supreme might allow too much of that. Flip side, things like the animal shapeshifter should be able to swap around stuff like Stealth, Perception, Prowess, etc. Maybe make it some sort of factor of base skills or something, will need to think about that.

[DeAnno]

Ok, so it seems that when you buy Enhanced Extra, you set the amount of ranks +cost/rank Extras will apply to when you buy the power, and pay whatever price will need paying when you apply it to the most expensive thing you wish to apply it to. If you try to apply it to something with more ranks, it only applies to some of the ranks, and if you want it to apply but the cost would be more for some reason (like in the Supreme Skill example) it doesn't work.


Skills in arrays and such is also something I don't really want to encourage and Supreme might allow too much of that.

I think the problem is less Supreme, and more that Skills are often exactly the kind of things you want in an array: it's predictable when you will and will not be using them, and they don't often need to be used in conjunction with other skills. Supreme can make it a bit worse, but mostly in the orthogonal way that (Enhanced Extra [Enhanced Trait gains Supreme]) is a really effective power.

It almost makes me want to say Skills in general could maybe be purchased with VPP instead of PP, but I'm not sure if you want to dive off that cliff.

EDIT: Separate thing. Battlesuit has this on quite a lot of things:


Removable [Natural trait as a power]

Is that because the Battlesuit is a device and might not always be worn, or lost to a manhandle? Or is it because the Battlesuit can lose power to Nullifies and such? If a Wizard had a free, sustained, Mage Armor spell which gave him +10 Resistance, and it was basically always on except when it got Nullified somehow, would that qualify for Removable? (Removable itself has some text that suggests it would, but the Battlesuit example is throwing me a bit.)

[Quellian-dyrae]

I think the problem is less Supreme, and more that Skills are often exactly the kind of things you want in an array: it's predictable when you will and will not be using them, and they don't often need to be used in conjunction with other skills. Supreme can make it a bit worse, but mostly in the orthogonal way that (Enhanced Extra [Enhanced Trait gains Supreme]) is a really effective power.

Yeah, pretty much, although Skill Supremacy is largely meant to be "skills, just beyond PL and a bit more restricted" in some ways. Like...D&D Epic Levels, only for M&M skills, sort of? So it's kinda a mix.


Is that because the Battlesuit is a device and might not always be worn, or lost to a manhandle? Or is it because the Battlesuit can lose power to Nullifies and such? If a Wizard had a free, sustained, Mage Armor spell which gave him +10 Resistance, and it was basically always on except when it got Nullified somehow, would that qualify for Removable? (Removable itself has some text that suggests it would, but the Battlesuit example is throwing me a bit.)

The second. The battlesuit being something that can be stolen/not worn at an inappropriate time/etc would be a Power Loss Complication on top of being tactically Removable. And yep, the Mage Armor would be a perfect example of the same thing. Basically, in the normal rules, there was virtually no benefit to taking something as an Enhanced Trait, at least not standalone (some benefits to having it in an array, but standalone the only advantage was like...you could use Extra Effort with it? In other words, burn a resource that could be spent to give you extra actions for +1 to the rank for one round? I mean, really?) And the costs were actually non-trivial (could be Nullified, turned off by Stun, etc). So, now if you want something that's not normally a power, to have all the weaknesses of being a power, you get Removable. It's effectively reversed Innate.

--

To further clarify and fix such matters, I've added a whole section on purchasing traits to the Stats chapter. This now covers all the "special" ways of purchasing traits, like adding Flaws or Extras to natural traits, buying Extras independent of specific powers, buying natural traits through arrays and Variable powers, etc. The Supreme advantage has been removed (though Dangerous remains), and areas where it was intended for are now baked into the rules. The Enhanced Trait Effect and Reduced Trait Flaw are also gone now, as the things you could do with it are now simply natural options for traits. The rule against purchasing advantages with VPP has been removed, but there are now some limits to purchasing either skills or advantages through arrays or Variable powers (basically, you can only do so for half as many ranks of that skill or specific advantage - down to choices made for the latter - as you have naturally). You still can't purchase Attack Modes/Delivery Modes via any means involving VPP.

I've also adjusted the Aid action (and power) to avoid situations where Aiding is entirely free. Now there's always going to be some sort of opportunity cost for Aiding, either a combat action (or a costly enough power to remove the combat action), or some sort of risk or foregone opportunity. I also slipped in there a sort of reversed version of Aid (see the "Consolidated Aid" option) for dealing with things like...the entire group is trying to sneak through the enemy lair and the simple law of randomness all but guarantees at least one will be spotted unless they all have high enough Stealth to Routine their way past everything.

Probably going to do another full read-through over the next few days to try and smooth out some more rough edges, especially as have likely been caused by these recent updates.

[DeAnno]

I like the new trait buying rules, they're much more clear than the old way of doing things. I'm using a slightly different notation for independent extras though, and I think it probably avoids confusion:

Instead of something like:
-Multiattack 10 (Attack)

I use:
-Attack 10 gains Multiattack

This is because if you have a Ranked Extra it can get confusing. Look at this:
-Penetrating 10 2 (Attack)

We probably can still figure out what the heck that means if we try, but it's a bit clearer as:
-Attack 10 gains Penetrating 2

Basically, it's just listing the target effect and the target number of ranks first, and then the extras. It has the additional bonus that syntax is more concise for multiple independent extras targeting the same effect on one line, such as:
-Attack 10 gains Penetrating 2, Improved, Area (Cone; Increased Action [Standard+Move]), Precise

--

I think the skill and advantage array thing is probably a good, sanity saving compromise. There are certain advantages that maybe shouldn't be in arrays (Headquarters?) but I think within the rules you presented problems will be limited to occasional bizarreness rather than outright abuse.

[Llyarden]

Efficiency is called Quickness in the miscellaneous stats. Also, if you have a Force tradeoff, does that affect things like your skill for the purpose of Manhandle actions?

Also #2, if you have an attack that can use multiple attack modes or inflict multiple condition trees or whatever and you attack multiple targets at once with it, can you choose which targets get which attack modes/conditions/etc or does everyone have to get the same effect?

Also #3, I assume it's not intended but since Expertise is a single skill can you take Broad Enhanced Expertise as a power?

[Quellian-dyrae]

I like the new trait buying rules, they're much more clear than the old way of doing things. I'm using a slightly different notation for independent extras though, and I think it probably avoids confusion

Yeah, that probably is a better way of formatting it.


I think the skill and advantage array thing is probably a good, sanity saving compromise. There are certain advantages that maybe shouldn't be in arrays (Headquarters?) but I think within the rules you presented problems will be limited to occasional bizarreness rather than outright abuse.

Yeah even that like...I could see for example an array of Headquarters advantages or something for some sort of morphic facility or having multiple headquarters or some such. I'll probably just go in and add more guidelines for what traits are appropriate to array with each other. Maybe even see if I can adjust the arrays/Variable rules some to make them more balanced for non-combat things, like how the new Aid options work.


Efficiency is called Quickness in the miscellaneous stats. Also, if you have a Force tradeoff, does that affect things like your skill for the purpose of Manhandle actions?

Whoops! Fixed. And no, Manhandle, Manipulate, etc are just opposed skill checks.


Also #2, if you have an attack that can use multiple attack modes or inflict multiple condition trees or whatever and you attack multiple targets at once with it, can you choose which targets get which attack modes/conditions/etc or does everyone have to get the same effect?

Huh, that's an interesting question. My default response is all the same, although for attacks in particular I don't see any reason the other way would break anything. It does seem like something that would maybe fit certain powers better, so I might create some sort of Extra to that effect.


Also #3, I assume it's not intended but since Expertise is a single skill can you take Broad Enhanced Expertise as a power?

Yeah, doable as-written, not intended. Added a line to Expertise to prevent that sort of stuff.

[Quellian-dyrae]

So I'm starting to get more serious about balance testing here. I set up a tool (http://www.trulyuniqueweb.com/unrealquests/mm/test.php) to simulate simple combats, see how different things compared with each other. It's fairly basic at the moment (only uses the Impairment tree, I've only got six supporting powers in there at the moment, etc). And it's never going to reach the full complexity that M&M allows. But for basic comparisons it seems to be working well. Things I've learned so far:

Interestingly enough, if you're guaranteed to go first, it translates into a roughly 4% greater chance of victory.

The combat stats were originally a bit out of balance. Making recovery DCs based on the higher of Accuracy or Force (rather than their previous Accuracy), and recovery checks based on the lower of Defense or Resistance (rather than their previous Resistance) seems to have more-or-less balanced standard tradeoffs.

Improved, which I had honestly thought would be one of the weaker Extras point-for-point, was in fact easily among the strongest. It now only provides a bonus to one stat per application, rather than both, for things like Attack and Defend.

Cumulative is actually a bit on the weak end for Extras, pound for pound. That said, I'm fairly confident that in an actual game situation, where you probably have at least a couple alternate powers for situations where Cumulative doesn't help, it will likely be more useful (since you'll only be using it in situations where it's likely to matter, i.e. the target as a relevant condition on it), so I don't currently feel changing it is necessary.

Linked Defend was a bit too strong as it was. I changed the basic Defend power to just "add Extras to your defenses" (since now there's plenty of stuff like Absorb and Withstand to do that with), and then making it so it can be used to fuel Defend actions is +1/rank, making a proper Linked Defend effectively 2/rank but making just general passive defensive buffs more doable.

Battering 1 is solid, but Battering 2+ seems to be subject to some hefty diminishing returns. Not sure if that's something I care a ton about, but it's notable.

A little terrifyingly, Brutal apparently impacts chance of victory about appropriately to being a straight +1/rank/application. Definitely don't want to make it much easier to purchase, but I might do something like you need other Extras to support it rather than requiring you invest the full cost into it. Not sure, more consideration is required.

[DeAnno]

Linked Defend was a bit too strong as it was. I changed the basic Defend power to just "add Extras to your defenses" (since now there's plenty of stuff like Absorb and Withstand to do that with), and then making it so it can be used to fuel Defend actions is +1/rank, making a proper Linked Defend effectively 2/rank but making just general passive defensive buffs more doable.


By increasing the base cost to 1 PP/rank, you may modify the parameters of your Defend actions through Extras applied to this power (using the normal parameters for Defend, not the power itself, so Standard action, Close range, Instant duration). This also allows you to Link this power to others to receive a Linked Defend action.

Is applying Defend to actions a separate version of the power, or an Extra on the power? Could you do this?

Defend (Actions) 10 (Reduced Action [Move]; Limited: [Self Only]) {10}

Applying the +1/rank of the reduced action and -1/rank of the Limit should cancel out if I understand correctly, since:


In addition, flaws that simply outright make the power substantially weaker (give-or-take half normal effectiveness is the target here) are fair as Limits. Beneficial powers that normally can affect others as well being Limited to Self Only or Others Only is a good example...

Beyond this, could you have two separate Defend powers active at once (perhaps from arrays), one for your defenses and one for augmenting your defend actions, like this:

Defend (Actions) 10 (Reduced Action [Move]; Limited: [Self Only]) {10}
Defend 10 (Counter [Missed Attacks]) {10}

---------------------------------------------------------

If we assume instead that (Actions) is a +1 Extra on the Defend power instead, would we have to make it a flawed extra, like this (since the Limit doesn't affect the Defend power without the Actions extra applied):

Defend 10 (Actions [Limited: <Self Only>], Reduced Action [Move]) {15}

[Quellian-dyrae]

Is applying Defend to actions a separate version of the power, or an Extra on the power? Could you do this?

Hmm...I was going to say separate version of the power, but in writing this response I realized it should probably be done as an Extra.


Defend (Actions) 10 (Reduced Action [Move]; Limited: [Self Only]) {10}

This is doable, yes. Although I'm feeling fairly wishy-washy on whether Self Only should be Limited or Restricted. I think probably it should be Restricted and some variation of Affects Others Only should be reintroduced. Will consider that.


Beyond this, could you have two separate Defend powers active at once (perhaps from arrays), one for your defenses and one for augmenting your defend actions, like this:

Defend (Actions) 10 (Reduced Action [Move]; Limited: [Self Only]) {10}
Defend 10 (Counter [Missed Attacks]) {10}

Can't see why not.


If we assume instead that (Actions) is a +1 Extra on the Defend power instead, would we have to make it a flawed extra, like this (since the Limit doesn't affect the Defend power without the Actions extra applied):

Defend 10 (Actions [Limited: <Self Only>], Reduced Action [Move]) {15}

Now, that wouldn't really make sense, because the Reduced Action and the Limit both could only really apply to actions in the first place. But if it were something like Defend 10 (Actions; Withstand, Limited [Self Only]) that's trickier, because the Limit really only applies to the action whereas the Withstand applies across the board. So yeah, I'll rephrase it as an Extra so that things like this that can logically only apply to the actions portions can be assigned there properly.

[DeAnno]

So, other things:


Interestingly enough, if you're guaranteed to go first, it translates into a roughly 4% greater chance of victory.

I assume that's with balanced Offensive/Defensive bias? Logically for glass cannons initiative is more important and for walls it would be less important, since that affects the expected length of the combat in rounds. Initiative is also important for anyone who still has some way to spam Defend actions, since they don't get caught without one in that first round. That being said I'm still surprised it's so low; the phenomenon of focused fire in large team battles might make it more important since the early rounds are swingier.


The combat stats were originally a bit out of balance. Making recovery DCs based on the higher of Accuracy or Force (rather than their previous Accuracy), and recovery checks based on the lower of Defense or Resistance (rather than their previous Resistance) seems to have more-or-less balanced standard tradeoffs.

So this makes it better to have highly biased offense and worse to have highly biased defense, in general. This is probably for the best because biasing your offense is dangerous: if someone biases their defense in the other direction they're very difficult for you to hurt.


Improved, which I had honestly thought would be one of the weaker Extras point-for-point, was in fact easily among the strongest. It now only provides a bonus to one stat per application, rather than both, for things like Attack and Defend.

I had the intuition that Improved was pretty strong before, if boring, but I'm a little concerned about this version being too weak. It's hard to see myself taking it on an attack now outside of a power with Fluid, but maybe that's the point?


Cumulative is actually a bit on the weak end for Extras, pound for pound. That said, I'm fairly confident that in an actual game situation, where you probably have at least a couple alternate powers for situations where Cumulative doesn't help, it will likely be more useful (since you'll only be using it in situations where it's likely to matter, i.e. the target as a relevant condition on it), so I don't currently feel changing it is necessary.

Yeah, intuitively it has to be really good once the opponent is at Tier 2 (and decent when they're at Tier 1), so it's useful for finishing blows. It's probably not the sort of thing you'll see outside of arrays, but it's pretty reasonable to take in them.


Battering 1 is solid, but Battering 2+ seems to be subject to some hefty diminishing returns. Not sure if that's something I care a ton about, but it's notable.

I'm curious how Battering stacks up vs. Additional (Vulnerability Tree). They both serve pretty similar purposes, but Battering is less risky.


A little terrifyingly, Brutal apparently impacts chance of victory about appropriately to being a straight +1/rank/application. Definitely don't want to make it much easier to purchase, but I might do something like you need other Extras to support it rather than requiring you invest the full cost into it. Not sure, more consideration is required.

Maybe make it +1/rank/app but just hard cap it at Brutal 2 or 3? Seems simpler. The intuitive reason this feels scary to us is because it's so swingy, so you might even be better off just not capping it at all, and letting characters gamble with it if they want (high variance abilities help underdogs, for whatever that's worth.) It's really dangerous with Lethal damage though, would be a nasty thing for a DM to bring out against PCs.

-------------------------

Edit: When a circumstance bonus from an Advantage doesn't specifically call itself a Tradeoff bonus, does that mean it ignores the PL+5 cap? Evasion and Improved Defense are two examples I remember offhand. It's a bit odd that other Advantages which are also specific do get PL capped, like Favored Environment.

(I'm not really in favor of nerfing Improved Defense though, in terms of my personal opinion. Mostly because Defend just ate a nerf, and Improved Defense is the best thing it has going for it now as a tactic)

--------------------------

Edit again: Defensive Manhandle should probably only work in close range. It also should maybe require something to do with Prowess checks. Maybe they need to be in range of a Manhandle action of yours or something?

--------------------------

The Passive Flaw mentions Fragile, looks like a copy paste error.

[Llyarden]

So I ran one of these test battles (all PL10 characters with no tradeoffs and no extras) and a couple of odd things happened.

Round 1
Character 2 Wins Initiative!
Character 2 attacks Character 1 at 18 vs. DC 20. Miss

Round 2
Character 1 attacks Character 2 at 28 vs. DC 20. Hit
Character 2 resists at 19 vs. DC 20. Bruised 2 and Impaired
Character 2 attacks Character 1 at 13 vs. DC 20. Miss
Character 2 attempts to recover from Impaired at 35 vs. DC 20. Success

Round 3
Character 1 attacks Character 2 at 24 vs. DC 20. Hit
Character 2 resists at 19 vs. DC 20. Bruised and Impaired
Character 2 attacks Character 1 at 13 vs. DC 20. Miss
Character 2 attempts to recover from Impaired at 27 vs. DC 20. Success

Round 4
Character 1 attacks Character 2 at 18 vs. DC 20. Miss
Character 2 attacks Character 1 at 26 vs. DC 20. Hit
Character 1 resists at 23 vs. DC 20. Bruised 2

Round 5
Character 1 attacks Character 2 at 28 vs. DC 20. Hit
Character 2 resists at 15 vs. DC 20. Bruised 2 and Impaired
Character 2 attacks Character 1 at 24 vs. DC 20. Hit
Character 1 resists at 16 vs. DC 20. Bruised and Impaired
Character 2 attempts to recover from Impaired at 22 vs. DC 20. Success

Round 6
Character 1 attacks Character 2 at 30 vs. DC 20. CRIT!
Character 2 resists at 14 vs. DC 25. Bruised 3 and Impotent BATTLE OVER! CHARACTER 1 WINS!
Character 1 attempts to recover from Impaired at 13 vs. DC 20. Failure

Weird thing #1 (Round 1): How on earth does someone get a 35 on a Recovery check when they're rolling at +10? (I'm assuming, given what happens later, that natural 20s are not being treated as 25s. If they are then ignore this.)
Weird thing #2 (Round 6): How does someone get a result of 30 when they're rolling at +8 after Impaired?

Might it be useful to include the actual adjustments and such in the roll so we can see what bonus people are rolling at?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Yeah I have it treating 20 as 25 (although I think I changed that for attack rolls). The other one is odd though, I'll need to take a look and see where the issue might be, maybe update the outputs.

[Quellian-dyrae]

I assume that's with balanced Offensive/Defensive bias? Logically for glass cannons initiative is more important and for walls it would be less important, since that affects the expected length of the combat in rounds. Initiative is also important for anyone who still has some way to spam Defend actions, since they don't get caught without one in that first round. That being said I'm still surprised it's so low; the phenomenon of focused fire in large team battles might make it more important since the early rounds are swingier.

Yeah, it was just a weird bit of info I got before I had coded an initiative function in. It was "all else being equal".


So this makes it better to have highly biased offense and worse to have highly biased defense, in general. This is probably for the best because biasing your offense is dangerous: if someone biases their defense in the other direction they're very difficult for you to hurt.

Yeah what it comes down to is, a defensive tradeoff/enemy's offensive tradeoff will in general make you harder to affect with attacks (since if either defense succeeds, you're fine, or maybe just bruised), but if the attack does succeed, it'll be more powerful (more Bruises or conditions, and conditions will last longer). And yeah, if they're "opposite" trades (like, high Defense vs. high Force) it gives the defender a noticeable edge, while trades in the same direction give the attacker the edge (since you offset the benefit of the defensive tradeoff, but the attacks are still harder to recover from).


I had the intuition that Improved was pretty strong before, if boring, but I'm a little concerned about this version being too weak. It's hard to see myself taking it on an attack now outside of a power with Fluid, but maybe that's the point?

According to my numbers, this version is about par with the average +1/rank Extra. It does seem unintuitive, but apparently when it comes to overall chance of victory across a large number of battles, straight numbers boosts are one of the more important things, boring though they may be.


Maybe make it +1/rank/app but just hard cap it at Brutal 2 or 3? Seems simpler. The intuitive reason this feels scary to us is because it's so swingy, so you might even be better off just not capping it at all, and letting characters gamble with it if they want (high variance abilities help underdogs, for whatever that's worth.) It's really dangerous with Lethal damage though, would be a nasty thing for a DM to bring out against PCs.

That may be the way to go.


Edit: When a circumstance bonus from an Advantage doesn't specifically call itself a Tradeoff bonus, does that mean it ignores the PL+5 cap? Evasion and Improved Defense are two examples I remember offhand. It's a bit odd that other Advantages which are also specific do get PL capped, like Favored Environment.

Correct. I'll take a look when my latest readthrough gets to Advantages.


Edit again: Defensive Manhandle should probably only work in close range. It also should maybe require something to do with Prowess checks. Maybe they need to be in range of a Manhandle action of yours or something?

Fair point, I'll take a look at adjusting that one.


The Passive Flaw mentions Fragile, looks like a copy paste error.

Whoops! Fixed, thanks.

[DeAnno]

This is kind of a weird question, and I think it's something I may have failed to understand about core in the first place:


Switching between Alternates requires a free action and can be done once per turn.

Is this once per turn limit for all your arrays together, or for each array independently? For example, if I have Two Arrays:

Array 1
-A
-B

Array 2
-C
-D

Let's say combat starts and I'm set to A and C. Can I switch to B and D both on the same turn?

[Quellian-dyrae]

It's something of a GM call, but I don't think I've ever actually seen anyone do it as across all arrays; every game I've played has had a separate limit for each array. That said, it's something I forgot to clarify, so I'll add it in.

[DeAnno]

So I've been messing around with various character creation for the past two weeks or so in this system (I happen to have a stock of concept powersets around the appropriate scale which were happy to get fleshing out) and I've noticed a few things and have some thoughts about them. In roughly descending order:

---

The tradeoff system is good, but still can get a little borky. In particular, sometimes you can find something you don't care about and then trade it down into the bedrock, letting a bunch of the rest of your stats inflate a lot. One common variant of this is having a Schtick with one or two powers, trade those powers up at the cost of other powers, and then also trade powers in general down to boost up skills and a stat. You can end up with your general powers (which you don't use) at PL-8, your schtick powers at PL and PL+1, and your skills and one stat at PL+3. There are of course many similar versions of this.

The other thing that I've done sometimes is dump Accuracy and Force completely, use tradeoffs from them to boost everything else, and then use some combination of Manhandle Actions, Aid Actions, Manipulate Actions, or even stranger approaches to avoid ever having to "Attack". One interesting model I had (codename "Kicker") basically dumped ~100 PP/150 VPP into an Invested Affects Others Versatile and theoretically could have gone with no stats at all!

I think to a certain degree this behavior is interesting, but perhaps the bedrock dumping of tradeoffs is a bit much. My thought is that you just shouldn't be able to dump anything deeper than PL-5 (before teammate penalties.) It's also possible that even non-attack attacks like Manipulate and Manhandle should use Accuracy/Force in some way.

---

Another thought I had was on different types of Ranges. Manipulate actions already have a sort of odd "Interaction" range, where you basically need to be able to communicate and take penalties for difficulties with that. Being able to get that onto general powers seems like it could be a reasonable thing to me, but they might need to be limited to certain delivery modes (definitely Focus, maybe Afflict) It's definitely a good fit for Thinker-type characters that are fluffing their attacks as "break-them-by-talking".

Something like that also might be useful for Hypnotic Pattern sort of effects (Flash?), which work as long as people can see them, even over TV or whatever, but this stands a bigger chance of being flat out broken. In a similar vein, certain very specific Effects like Reading might do well to have a range like "Observation", where you just need to be able to observe the target.

---

A lot of common tropes involve capes that get stronger as a battle goes on, or based on the degree of difficulty of the battle (The Hulk and Lung (http://worm.wikia.com/wiki/Lung) came to mind as staples of this sort of character.) This could be accomplished by applying something like: Limited (After 3 rounds of combat) or similar, but it might be worth creating either a Flaw or Extra dedicated to simulating it. A related issue is capes that use some form of Vampirism or Energy Drain; there exists a defensive Absorb and Consume that such Extras might be based on.

---

You probably shouldn't be able to reconfigure a Variable power more than once per turn, even with Reduced Action, not only because it's really strong but also because it lets you do obnoxious things like turn Insubstantial on and off more than 1/turn. It should also be clarified if all Effects and +cost/rank Extras cost "PL" VPP, or if they cost VPP equal to PL*(cost/rank), since the example with Attack priced Attack at PL*0.5. A separate but related question is if you have to pay VPP to pick up both "Defend" and the "Defend (Actions)" extra in a Variable power.

---

I have a suspicion that dynamic arrays are rarely more cost effective than multiple standard arrays. the logic is:

Assume each letter is 10 PP
Dynamic: {ABC, DEF, GHI} Cost: 35 PP/60 VPP
Standard: {A,D,G} + {B,E,H} + {C,F,I} Cost: 36 PP/30 VPP

The Dynamic array doesn't offer many advantages. It lets you combine ADG or BEH or CFI, and it costs 1 less PP, but for that it costs 30 more VPP. This isn't a huge deal, but it makes Dynamic Arrays a little bit of a trap in most situations (the math remains similar in a lot of similar cases.)

---

It's a bit rough that Environmental Hinder effects don't offer a roll, they just autohit you if your Resistance is too low. Environments can get pretty big. Having to roll once per turn/when you enter vs the Resistance DC would feel less terrible (you could maybe run the logic something like the Cloud Area effect.) I guess you do need to be careful about people who keep stepping in and out, which might have been the incentive to set them up the way they are in the first place.

---

The Noticeable flaw can feel a bit weird, in that some capes that are extremely flashy or noisy will tend to put it on all their effects and reap a sort of omnipresent -1 PP discount. The negative effect of it definitely has diminishing returns, but at the same time being unable to stealth and never getting concealment is pretty painful, so maybe it's just an ok reasonable thing.

[Quellian-dyrae]

The tradeoff system is good, but still can get a little borky. In particular, sometimes you can find something you don't care about and then trade it down into the bedrock, letting a bunch of the rest of your stats inflate a lot. One common variant of this is having a Schtick with one or two powers, trade those powers up at the cost of other powers, and then also trade powers in general down to boost up skills and a stat. You can end up with your general powers (which you don't use) at PL-8, your schtick powers at PL and PL+1, and your skills and one stat at PL+3. There are of course many similar versions of this.

The other thing that I've done sometimes is dump Accuracy and Force completely, use tradeoffs from them to boost everything else, and then use some combination of Manhandle Actions, Aid Actions, Manipulate Actions, or even stranger approaches to avoid ever having to "Attack". One interesting model I had (codename "Kicker") basically dumped ~100 PP/150 VPP into an Invested Affects Others Versatile and theoretically could have gone with no stats at all!

I think to a certain degree this behavior is interesting, but perhaps the bedrock dumping of tradeoffs is a bit much. My thought is that you just shouldn't be able to dump anything deeper than PL-5 (before teammate penalties.) It's also possible that even non-attack attacks like Manipulate and Manhandle should use Accuracy/Force in some way.

That makes sense. Trading Powers really low I was less concerned about because even if you don't use powers it's like...you still don't have powers! But the schtick version is more of a concern, as is the offense version. I'll see about adjusting tradeoffs some.


Another thought I had was on different types of Ranges. Manipulate actions already have a sort of odd "Interaction" range, where you basically need to be able to communicate and take penalties for difficulties with that. Being able to get that onto general powers seems like it could be a reasonable thing to me, but they might need to be limited to certain delivery modes (definitely Focus, maybe Afflict) It's definitely a good fit for Thinker-type characters that are fluffing their attacks as "break-them-by-talking".

Something like that also might be useful for Hypnotic Pattern sort of effects (Flash?), which work as long as people can see them, even over TV or whatever, but this stands a bigger chance of being flat out broken. In a similar vein, certain very specific Effects like Reading might do well to have a range like "Observation", where you just need to be able to observe the target.

This I wouldn't want to do. It is probably more-or-less possible to create such things using existing rules (Extended Range, Phasing, Sense-dependent, etc), but I'd rather tie everything in with range to keep the costs for and limits of range equivalent. Like, normally, you could get Perception Range and then each application of Extended Vision was X10 range, Penetrates Concealment lets you target through walls, etc. Or Perception Area's weird interactions with the Communication power. And so on. Stuff like that is still doable, but the cost and power requirements should be more in-line with how powerful the effects really are.


A lot of common tropes involve capes that get stronger as a battle goes on, or based on the degree of difficulty of the battle (The Hulk and Lung (http://worm.wikia.com/wiki/Lung) came to mind as staples of this sort of character.) This could be accomplished by applying something like: Limited (After 3 rounds of combat) or similar, but it might be worth creating either a Flaw or Extra dedicated to simulating it. A related issue is capes that use some form of Vampirism or Energy Drain; there exists a defensive Absorb and Consume that such Extras might be based on.

That's a cool idea, I'll see if I can come up with a viable implementation.


You probably shouldn't be able to reconfigure a Variable power more than once per turn, even with Reduced Action, not only because it's really strong but also because it lets you do obnoxious things like turn Insubstantial on and off more than 1/turn. It should also be clarified if all Effects and +cost/rank Extras cost "PL" VPP, or if they cost VPP equal to PL*(cost/rank), since the example with Attack priced Attack at PL*0.5. A separate but related question is if you have to pay VPP to pick up both "Defend" and the "Defend (Actions)" extra in a Variable power.

I don't think you can. If that isn't prohibited it's an error on my part and I'll adjust it.


I have a suspicion that dynamic arrays are rarely more cost effective than multiple standard arrays. the logic is:

Assume each letter is 10 PP
Dynamic: {ABC, DEF, GHI} Cost: 35 PP/60 VPP
Standard: {A,D,G} + {B,E,H} + {C,F,I} Cost: 36 PP/30 VPP

The Dynamic array doesn't offer many advantages. It lets you combine ADG or BEH or CFI, and it costs 1 less PP, but for that it costs 30 more VPP. This isn't a huge deal, but it makes Dynamic Arrays a little bit of a trap in most situations (the math remains similar in a lot of similar cases.)

I'm...not sure that calculation's correct. Say you have an array of the following:

Attack (Multiattack, Secondary Effect)
Attack (Cumulative, Brutal)
Attack (Area, Selective)

Normal that's 22 PP, 30 VPP. Dynamic it's 25 PP, 60 VPP.

Now, with a normal array, those are the only combinations you have. With a Dynamic Array, though, you could freely do:

Attack (Multiattack, Secondary Effect)
Attack (Multiattack, Cumulative)
Attack (Multiattack, Brutal)
Attack (Multiattack, Area)
Attack (Multiattack, Selective)
Attack (Secondary Effect, Cumulative)
Attack (Secondary Effect, Brutal)
Attack (Secondary Effect, Area)
Attack (Secondary Effect, Selective)
Attack (Cumulative, Brutal)
Attack (Cumulative, Area)
Attack (Cumulative, Selective)
Attack (Brutal, Area)
Attack (Brutal, Selective)
Attack (Area, Selective)

Off that one array. It doesn't change your raw versatility any - you're still working with the same six Extras - but it's a huge increase to flexibility. Buying all that as a regular array would cost 34 PP and 140 VPP.


It's a bit rough that Environmental Hinder effects don't offer a roll, they just autohit you if your Resistance is too low. Environments can get pretty big. Having to roll once per turn/when you enter vs the Resistance DC would feel less terrible (you could maybe run the logic something like the Cloud Area effect.) I guess you do need to be careful about people who keep stepping in and out, which might have been the incentive to set them up the way they are in the first place.

The Noticeable flaw can feel a bit weird, in that some capes that are extremely flashy or noisy will tend to put it on all their effects and reap a sort of omnipresent -1 PP discount. The negative effect of it definitely has diminishing returns, but at the same time being unable to stealth and never getting concealment is pretty painful, so maybe it's just an ok reasonable thing.

I'll review these, thanks!

[DeAnno]

I'm...not sure that calculation's correct. Say you have an array of the following:

Attack (Multiattack, Secondary Effect)
Attack (Cumulative, Brutal)
Attack (Area, Selective)

Normal that's 22 PP, 30 VPP. Dynamic it's 25 PP, 60 VPP.

Now, with a normal array, those are the only combinations you have.

First of all, I think the VPP costs there are 20 and 40, since you don't pay VPP for the first array slot?

But with respect to the go around, I don't think I was clear enough. Suppose instead you had this setup:

Attack {1}

10 point Array {12/10}
-Attack gains Multiattack
-Attack gains Cumulative
-Attack gains Area

10 point Array {12/10}
-Attack gains Secondary Effect
-Attack gains Brutal
-Attack gains Selective

So I paid 25 PP and 20 VPP, and I still get nine different combinations of effects. This is less than the 15 of the Dynamic Array, but for half the VPP, and if I structure it cunningly the combinations I don't get will all be ones I would rarely want to use (usually I put one generally good option in each array and multiple special case options.)

It doesn't completely invalidate Dynamic Arrays, but it makes it so I would very rarely want to use one. It might be a playstyle thing.

[Quellian-dyrae]

First of all, I think the VPP costs there are 20 and 40, since you don't pay VPP for the first array slot?

Yep, duh. :smallredface:


But with respect to the go around, I don't think I was clear enough. Suppose instead you had this setup:

Ahhhhkay, I get it now. Yeah, that makes sense, I'll look into it. Thanks!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Okay, serious updated uploaded (http://www.trulyuniqueweb.com/unrealquests/mm/). Let me see if I can remember at least all the major stuff.

First off, the array system has undergone an extensive rework. The basic functionality of it is still like normal (pay X points, then pay 1 PP per mutually-exclusive power based on those points), but the system's been expanded. Variable has been folded into it, and some options like mimicry, bestowals, "blue magic", and so on have been tied into it as well, among some other options. This is all likewise tied into a new thing called Scope, which is essentially the Effects and Extras that are "available" to your character. Arrays no longer cost VPP in and of themselves, but they have to draw from your Scope, and adding stuff to your Scope requires either purchasing it normally, or spending VPP to buy it. Resultantly, the VPP cost for arrays, variables, and other stuff like them is now all consolidated under Scope, and the things themselves have their own PP costs.

The system that was created for Immunities and Weaknesses has been expanded. Benefits, Communications, Morphs, and Senses are now all under this heading, which is called Utilities. Utilities all use the same level-based cost chart, and are purchased directly with VPP. I also tossed a few new immunity options in there - things like Reroll, Variable Immunity, Adaptive Immunity, and Insubstantial.

Teammates have been refined a bit more and tied into Scope. Metamorphs and similar things are now under the Teammate heading as the "Alternate" Teammate modifier.

As a result of all this, the Communication, Feature, Insubstantial, Morph, Senses, and Variable Effects have been removed from the Effects list. The astute will notice that this means the only Effects remaining are those that have normally-scaling ranks. And so while I was in there, I've adjusted all Effects to always have a base cost of 1 PP/rank. A new Extra, Augmented, is a catch-all for improving Effects in a special way defined by the Effect itself. So, now a basic 20-point power can always have some Extra attached to potentially distinguish it from someone else's power. Attack and Defend are once again now properly ranked (but they give a free Extra since the ranks themselves don't do anything).

Tradeoffs have been modified some to hopefully avoid various cheese issues and weird interactions with Attack and Defend powers. Partly, this comes from the notion of Active Trait and Passive Trait modifiers - a form of tradeoff bonus (or penalty) that applies to all traits when using them to affect others (Active) or avoid being detrimentally affected yourself (Passive).

The basic skills rules have been expanded some to codify the new paradigm for DCs and such that exists due to the whole "skills capped at PL, but Supremacy is a thing" bits. Supremacy itself is no longer an Advantage or weird Extra - it's simply an option for buying skill ranks. Normal ranks are still 1 PP/2 ranks, Supreme ranks bring the cost up to 1 PP/rank. Supreme no longer changes Routine results or "threat range". It just reduces penalties, improves degree of success, or reduces degree of failure.

To account for that, I've gone through the skills (including Downtime Actions) and adjusted DCs and such. Super-high DCs are much rarer, the 10-20 DC range tends to be more granular, and a lot of things have been redefined to work with Supremacy. Most stuff that used to increase DCs now imposes penalties on checks, or scales with degree of success, ensuring that Supremacy provides significant benefits.

I added a little rule to Flaws where if a Flaw is meant to directly weaken a power, but is effectively irrelevant in a scene, you have to pay VPP equal to the discount to use it in that scene. This is mainly for stuff like Activation and Increased Action which are big problems in combat but meaningless out of combat.

Or, well, maybe not quite so much anymore, because I also added a new thing called Efforts which primarily applies to skills. Efforts are largely dovetailed to actions, and essentially represent performing a free/move/standard/full round action every round. This makes clear just how much characters can do at once even out of combat. Effort is also tied into the duration system, so now there's actually a way to do a power that say you have to spend a move action each round concentrating on. A new Advantage, Skill Simplicity, lets you lower the Effort of a single use of a skill, and a new Extra/Flaw pair, Increased/Reduced Effort, can change Effort for powers that involve it.

And then I've done some various little tweaks. Removed some things that no longer have a place. Made Absorb and Consume usable with offensive powers. Adjusted Penetrating a bit to distinguish between Defense and Resistance immunities but also make it better at dealing with multiple-immunities...probably some other things that I'm forgetting.

I'm also revising the archetypes, but they're not done yet. Will probably get them up tomorrow.

[Llyarden]

In the Core Stats section, 'Buy Skills as Supreme' should probably say 'Buying Skills as Supreme.'

I think the section on VPP gives an outdated example when it comes to arrays.

Can you perform the reverse of the Active/Passive Shift? (That is, lower Defence and Resistance to raise Accuracy and Force)? The example implies you can but it doesn't actually say so.

How is Range calculated for the purposes of Extended Vision? (For instance, if you happen to have a Ranged Attack in an array, does that suddenly make you more able to perceive things at a distance whenever you turn it on?) Never mind I just found the Extend power. That might be worth bringing attention to in the Misc Stats section.

The 'How Skills Work' section has a typo in that it says 'separaate.'

The entries Choosing Between Skills sidebar now show up on the contents page. Not sure if that's intended.

Insubstantial mentions the 'Flow' extra, which doesn't seem to exist.

How would an Immunity to non-mundane effects be priced? (For instance, someone who was Immune to Mental attacks by dint of a superpower but still subject to things like Deception or Persuasion.)

As something of an aside, I think buying Full Immuity to Exert both costs more and is less useful than buying Immunity to Manhandle.

Also, can you still do the thing of giving Permanent effects the Activation modifier?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Seriously, this proofreading/error-checking/inconsistency catching stuff you guys do is super useful and deeply appreciated, all the more when instead of making some quick fix to the problem I go in and make sweeping changes to half a dozen areas that inevitably cause more issues to crop up. So, just in general, thank you all! I don't think I say that enough. :smallsmile:


In the Core Stats section, 'Buy Skills as Supreme' should probably say 'Buying Skills as Supreme.'

The 'How Skills Work' section has a typo in that it says 'separaate.'

Fixed, thanks.


I think the section on VPP gives an outdated example when it comes to arrays.

Yeah, that entire bit was kinda outdated by this point. It's revised now.


Can you perform the reverse of the Active/Passive Shift? (That is, lower Defence and Resistance to raise Accuracy and Force)? The example implies you can but it doesn't actually say so.

Whoops, yes. Added explicitly.


How is Range calculated for the purposes of Extended Vision? (For instance, if you happen to have a Ranged Attack in an array, does that suddenly make you more able to perceive things at a distance whenever you turn it on?) Never mind I just found the Extend power. That might be worth bringing attention to in the Misc Stats section.

Yeah looks like that was also in need of some updating. Revised.


The entries Choosing Between Skills sidebar now show up on the contents page. Not sure if that's intended.

Huh, look at that. Fixed.


Insubstantial mentions the 'Flow' extra, which doesn't seem to exist.

Allude to an Extra and then totally forget to add it. Great job, me. Added, though note that it's a special Movement Extra so it won't be in the basic Extras list.


How would an Immunity to non-mundane effects be priced? (For instance, someone who was Immune to Mental attacks by dint of a superpower but still subject to things like Deception or Persuasion.)

Added a section for excluding immunities. Basically, discount the price of the excluded stuff -2 levels, max discount of half the immunity's cost.


As something of an aside, I think buying Full Immuity to Exert both costs more and is less useful than buying Immunity to Manhandle.

I don't think you'd actually take Immunity to Exert, since Exert just raises the user's Strength and allows them to add Extras to Manhandle actions. In short, you can't be immune, because you're not the target. So for this sort of thing, Immunity to Manhandle is what you want.


Also, can you still do the thing of giving Permanent effects the Activation modifier?

Yep, added that in explicitly (with the additional wrinkle that for Permanent powers, deactivating them takes the same action as activating them).

[DeAnno]

I think the Affects Insubstantial Extra is too underpriced now (or possibly the Insubstantial utility is overpriced.) Consider buying the effects of Insubstantial (You affect others) ala carte:

Immunity to Material, Physical, and Physiological (Level 8) [Restricted: Trait as a Power] {75*.8=60}
Immunity to the Manhandle Action (Level 4) [Restricted: Trait as a Power] {15*0.8=12}
For a total of 72 VPP.

Insubstantial (Basic, You affect others) is a level 8 that costs 75 VPP. But Insubstantial is beaten by the much, much cheaper Affects Insubstantial Extra instead of by Penetrating! Each rank of Affects Insubstantial does about as much (slightly more, since 2 negate entirely) than each rank of Penetrating, but the levels of Penetrating cost 10x as much for a PL 10 character. In addition, Insubstantial requires a movement power with Flow to work. Since Flow mainly covers grabs and Material attacks, you even have to pay for some of the same benefits twice, and could have both your movement and utility temporarily negated by a single Counter action.

I think that possible solutions might be:
1) Make Affects Insubstantial a +1 cost/rank power, equivalent in price to Penetrating.
2) Reduce the price of Insubstantial, to represent the much lower opportunity cost in countering it.
3) Possibly most elegantly, merge Affects Insubstantial and Penetrating into one Extra.

[Quellian-dyrae]

That's fair. I do want to keep Affects Insubstantial separate from Penetrating for much the same reason as I now have Penetrating specifying between Resistance and Defense - thematically, it's a very different capability. There's no reason armor-piercing bullets should affect ghosts, and there's no reason a holy sword should be able to cleave through tank armor.

Dropping Insubstantial down a level seems like the best option (since -1 level to be affected by Affects Insubstantial is an explicit option anyway). Affects Insubstantial I think is way too niche to justify being more expensive in most games.

I'll also adjust Flow and Permeate to not give the protections themselves, but note that most characters with them would have some level of Material Immunity. Cleaner that way.

EDIT: That's done, and I also removed the "tied to movement" thing from Insubstantial. I did, however, add a Flat -1 PP Flaw called Synchronized that causes multiple powers to be tied together so if one is countered or deactivated, all of them are.

[DeAnno]

Another quick question, on my first pass of this: When you take the Talent tradeoff now and lower your Effective PL for Powers, does that mean you can't effectively take the Attack Power without a penalty to your Accuracy/Force? Is it intended that characters with the Talent tradeoff always use the basic attack action and don't use Attack powers with Extras?

EDIT: Nevermind, I see you don't take PL adjustments into account. There were two similar phrases in one place (the other tells you you don't take a PL boost from active bonuses into account) and I think somehow I managed to miss the phrase relevant to my question.

EDIT 2: Actually, wait, the phrasing is ambiguous enough that I'm still confused:


However, having a properly-ranked Attack power is important. For each rank your Attack power is below your PL you take -1 on either your Accuracy or Force stat when using the power. For this purpose, don't count any adjustments to your Powers PL, but if you have an Active Trait penalty, apply it to your PL for this purpose, allowing you to get away with lower-ranked Attack powers. You don't apply an Active Trait bonus to your PL for this purpose.

On the third read, this seems to mean that if you nerf your Powers PL, you won't be able to buy your Attack Power high enough, and so you will take a penalty on Accuracy/Force when using any Attack power.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Actually, looks like I need to clarify, because yes, a character who makes a Talent tradeoff will suffer an Accuracy/Force penalty if using an Attack power (of course, since the tradeoff also comes with +1 to a combat stat, it kinda gets bought off). The "don't take your Powers tradeoff into account" bit means that the Attack rank has to hit your actual PL, not merely your Powers PL. Part of the purpose of this update was making the Powers PL limit apply to all Effects instead of having half a dozen weird exceptions.

EDIT: Yeah that :smallamused:. I'll clear it up.

EDIT 2: And updated. That should be clearer.

[Quellian-dyrae]

For those playing along at home, the archetypes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?493552-I-Might-Have-KINDA-Rewritten-M-amp-M&p=20982610#post20982610) have been updated to the latest rules.

[DeAnno]

Multi-Bestowal [Array +1]: You can keep your array after bestowing one of its slots using the Bestowal modifier, although you must remain on that slot or the bestowal ends. To do this, you must spend VPP equal to the value of the slot bestowed. This VPP remains invested for as long as the extra bestowal remains, and is refunded once it expires. You may only do this once per application of this modifier, regardless of your VPP available (so if you add +4/5 PP to the array cost, you would be able to bestow to two allies while keeping the array, or to three allies if you give up the array, assuming you have enough VPP to invest).

For some reason the example doesn't make sense to me. In the example, does the Array have Bestowal 1, Multi-Bestowal 3? Wouldn't that let you Bestow 3 times and keep, or 4 times without keeping (either of those for 3xVPP cost)?

On a lighter note:


Soothing Healing: When you use the power, roll a Healing check against DC 10; if you succeed you remove one Bruise, plus one additional Bruise per two degrees of success beyond the first. You can make as many attempts to heal Bruises as you wish. A Healing power capable of being used to heal other conditions

Seems to be cutoff there.

[Quellian-dyrae]

For some reason the example doesn't make sense to me. In the example, does the Array have Bestowal 1, Multi-Bestowal 3? Wouldn't that let you Bestow 3 times and keep, or 4 times without keeping (either of those for 3xVPP cost)?

Hah, wrote the example when I was thinking of pricing them as Array +2 each, changed it and forgot to change the example. Fixed.


Seems to be cutoff there.

That was going to be a thing about overflow healing, which I moved up to the general description and apparently promptly forgot the half-sentence I had written on the subject. Removed.

[DeAnno]

One concern I have with the array changes is that it's impossible to apply a flaw to an array itself (the semi-logical workaround before was to apply the flaw to Variable.) This can make it pretty tricky to simulate various esoteric packages that people can pull out either as a result of desperation or in a use/day manner. Heroic, Tiring, Costly, and even Invested were the sort of thing that tended to be interesting to stick on Variable before (along with various increased/reduced action modifiers, but that was sort of rubbish, I admit). I'm not sure what was there previously was exactly balanced persay, but some way of simulating it would probably be good.

---

Also, I noticed I made a mistake with the calculation of the ala carte cost of the Immunities above; I forgot Physical was usually common, so the total cost would be more fairly (75+30+15)*0.8=96 VPP.

However, ala carte cost if you use the Insubstantial modifier is now (50+20+10)*0.8=64 VPP. Since Insubstantial 1 (Affects Corporeal) can either cost 50 VPP or 75 VPP, it does still makes sense that it should cost 50, or else buying it as a package is a trap :smallcool: So what's there now does check out as the most correct pricing.

Similarly, ala carte of Insubstantial 2 (Affects Corporeal) is (100+20+10)*0.8=104 VPP, compared with the current package cost of 100 VPP. So that checks out even better. Great.

---

I'm a little sad to see the multiple identical lesser teammate thing is gone, but the new rules for teammates in general do seem a lot tighter (I think in general Teammates were probably too good before.) I suppose if the mob of teammates is focused enough it still sort of works that way, since you could do something like 1 Ringleader and 6 Elites @ 90PP, with all of them at nearly full active tradeoff.

---

EDIT: With respect to Absorb:

Absorb can also be added to offensive powers. In this case, the reactive Aid triggers if the target fails its resistance check against the power.

Should probably mention that the reactive Aid uses the defender's Resistance as the basis of the check. Nothing else makes much sense, but it needs to be said :smallsmile:

---

EDIT 2: This is a weird one. Can a character have multiple incidences of the same power, and have them all function as long as it makes sense? Imagine this:

30 points of stuff:
Regeneration 10
Regeneration 10
Regeneration 10

Would the character roll three Regeneration checks against each condition it gained, and reduce the duration for each success? Or maybe the Regeneration can't exactly stack with itself, but does this allow 3 different checks, only one of which has to succeed to lower the duration by one total step?

This probably shouldn't work, since it's a lot better than Improved, but I can't quite point to the rule that stops it.

---

EDIT 3: How exactly do large applications of Penetrating work now? For Warrior's power:

Peerless Strike: Attack 10 (Impairment Tree; Improved, Penetrating 2 [Defense, Resistance], Fluid 2, Focused 2).

If you Fluid Improved into the Penetrating, does Penetrating 3 cancel two immunity levels each of Defense and Resistance, or only 2 of one and 1 of the other? If you Fluid away into Improved 2, Penetrating 1, can you choose which type of Penetrating to keep? Or could you even upgrade to Penetrating 3 [Defense, Resistance, All Immunities]?

If the original power was only (Improved, Penetrating [Defense], Fluid), could you use Fluid to upgrade to Penetrating 2 [Defense, Resistance] or could you only boost the Defense stripping power?

Honestly, the better fidelity of what Penetrating means now is interesting, but I think it might be getting a little overpriced with its reduced versatility. I'm not really sure how it even interacts with Fluid as evidenced by this post but I feel it's likely that might be the only actual practical way to use it.

---

On a similar note, if you had a power like:

Attack 10 (Daze Tree; Additional [Vulnerability Tree], Improved, Fluid)

Could you use the Fluid to apply another Additional? It's a little weird, since Additional needs to choose a specific effect when you buy it.

---

Edit 4: Extend is a cool mechanic and I like it; it definitely accomplishes things more elegantly than what was there before. It's a bit of a shame it makes far-ranged senses so expensive even without a corresponding Ranged Attack though; would Limited [Senses Only] (or perhaps Restricted?) be a reasonable flaw?

[Quellian-dyrae]

One concern I have with the array changes is that it's impossible to apply a flaw to an array itself (the semi-logical workaround before was to apply the flaw to Variable.) This can make it pretty tricky to simulate various esoteric packages that people can pull out either as a result of desperation or in a use/day manner. Heroic, Tiring, Costly, and even Invested were the sort of thing that tended to be interesting to stick on Variable before (along with various increased/reduced action modifiers, but that was sort of rubbish, I admit). I'm not sure what was there previously was exactly balanced persay, but some way of simulating it would probably be good.

You could always just take a Variable array, and then add the Flaws to the powers created. Things like Heroic and Tiring (and...Costly if you already have other Costly powers, I suppose) are pretty much always valid on-the-fly Flaws. Or just power stunt it.


EDIT: With respect to Absorb:


Should probably mention that the reactive Aid uses the defender's Resistance as the basis of the check. Nothing else makes much sense, but it needs to be said :smallsmile:

I was actually figuring it would still work just as stated - it uses the attack's Force. I'll take a look and see how much sense that makes though. EDIT: Hedged my bets and specified it as equal to the power's rank.


EDIT 2: This is a weird one. Can a character have multiple incidences of the same power, and have them all function as long as it makes sense? Imagine this:

30 points of stuff:
Regeneration 10
Regeneration 10
Regeneration 10

Would the character roll three Regeneration checks against each condition it gained, and reduce the duration for each success? Or maybe the Regeneration can't exactly stack with itself, but does this allow 3 different checks, only one of which has to succeed to lower the duration by one total step?

This probably shouldn't work, since it's a lot better than Improved, but I can't quite point to the rule that stops it.

They cannot. I think I have that written somewhere, something about multiple powers stacking up to the PL limit? I'll double-check. EDIT: It wasn't explicitly stated actually, so now it is in the Building Powers section.


If you Fluid Improved into the Penetrating, does Penetrating 3 cancel two immunity levels each of Defense and Resistance, or only 2 of one and 1 of the other? If you Fluid away into Improved 2, Penetrating 1, can you choose which type of Penetrating to keep? Or could you even upgrade to Penetrating 3 [Defense, Resistance, All Immunities]?

If the original power was only (Improved, Penetrating [Defense], Fluid), could you use Fluid to upgrade to Penetrating 2 [Defense, Resistance] or could you only boost the Defense stripping power?

Honestly, the better fidelity of what Penetrating means now is interesting, but I think it might be getting a little overpriced with its reduced versatility. I'm not really sure how it even interacts with Fluid as evidenced by this post but I feel it's likely that might be the only actual practical way to use it.

Actually, the way I have it written as [Defense, Resistance] isn't quite correct, rereading how I have Penetrating. That should really be "All Checks". I see where this weirdness comes in; Penetrating is the sort of thing where you make a separate choice for each application of the Extra (I say "the sort of thing" despite the fact that I'm not sure if there are any other Extras that work like that), so it comes down to the question, in those cases, does Fluid let you make those choices on the fly? Which I haven't defined. I'm going to go in and say it can't - in fact, for each such choice you want to be able to make, you have to buy Diverse allowing that choice as well. In the case of Penetrating, the basic effect of additional applications will remain in effect - that being, removing one additional step of protection.

That being said, yes, the benefits of multiple applications of Penetrating apply fully to all immunities affected by it now (before if they had multiple immunities, Penetrating would only knock one step off of one, now it works on all of them). That should help ensure it remains competitive price-wise. EDIT: Actually, just looked, that's an option for an Extra. Hrm...I'mma look over Penetrating a bit and see if it needs some recalibration. EDIT 2: Okay, Penetrating applies to all valid immunities by default (still for only one stat without a dedicated application).

Penetrating should also be helped by the fact that immunities are now a major part of the combat system, and while Penetrating is more expensive than an additional Attack Mode, an alternate power with Penetrating isn't, and will fit the theme of some characters better.


On a similar note, if you had a power like:

Attack 10 (Daze Tree; Additional [Vulnerability Tree], Improved, Fluid)

Could you use the Fluid to apply another Additional? It's a little weird, since Additional needs to choose a specific effect when you buy it.

Yep, same issue as above. I'll clarify this in the rules, but the answer is "no, unless you also have Diverse/Broad". EDIT: Clarified, and more specifically, made it so that you can only choose between choices you already have on the power. That should cover weird cases like Penetrating.


Extend is a cool mechanic and I like it; it definitely accomplishes things more elegantly than what was there before. It's a bit of a shame it makes far-ranged senses so expensive even without a corresponding Ranged Attack though; would Limited [Senses Only] (or perhaps Restricted?) be a reasonable flaw?

Restricted is what you'd use for that, yeah, and it is indeed totally valid. It is fairly expensive, but long-range senses are actually really pretty useful (and/or headache-inducing :smallamused:).

[DeAnno]

Some legacy code hanging around:

-References to "0/rank" powers in Power Creation (Cost/Rank)
-Proportional mentions Attack limiting both Accuracy and Force, which sort of still happens but probably not in a way that can make sense with this.
-Incurable references the rank of the power used. Since the power rank isn't directly used in Recovery DCs (the Accuracy or Force is instead), Incurable doesn't seem to do anything now.

---


You could always just take a Variable array, and then add the Flaws to the powers created. Things like Heroic and Tiring (and...Costly if you already have other Costly powers, I suppose) are pretty much always valid on-the-fly Flaws. Or just power stunt it.

The nice part about Variable is you could sort of stuff an entire powerset into the Flaw, rather than a specific Power. A concrete example is Hammer, who is basically Supergirl, but only for minutes per day:


Variable 10 (Superhuman; 50 PP Pool [Attack, Defend, Defend (Actions), Exert, Movement, Regeneration, Additional, Area, Improved, Linked, Penetrating, Immunity Level 4]; Costly 1 [5 Daily], Tiring 1 [Suppression Tree]) {50 PP/150 VPP}

Variable 10 (Reduced Action [Free]; 50 PP Pool [Same as above]; Costly 4 [5 Daily], Tiring 3 [Suppression Tree]) {10 PP}


Either she could fight reasonably well 5x per day spaced an hour apart each, or be completely ridiculous 1x day but be totally done afterwards. It's an interesting sort of global effect on a character that's difficult to achieve in other ways (aside from maybe Complications, but this would be putting a lot of weight on Complications that they aren't really designed to bear.)

In the current system, you could still make a build that made use of Costly and Tiring for all its powers, but that would be clearly suboptimal (compared to just a few Costly or Tiring powers) because the resources would disappear extremely quickly, possibly not even lasting one whole encounter.

Granted, this particular setup also fails to work now because if Variable was a power you couldn't run two instances of it at the same time, but I think this particular implementation was "fair", for whatever that's worth.

[Quellian-dyrae]

I'll fix those, thanks!

Far as the multiple Flawed powers thing...I think I can see a way to work it in, but I need to think some on how exactly to implement it. It should be there, but I'm not sure it should offer the full discount for all flaws. Like, something like Distracting kinda becomes "Well, if I got it once, I may as well put it on as much as I can." Stuff like Costly, Tiring, and Heroic, you may not want to tie as many points to, but everything you do tie to them increases the value of what you get compared to the cost you're paying. And then there are things like Limited where you can just add them to as many powers as you want and the limitation will scale proportionately.

But the basic idea I have is expanding Synchronized to also give a -X PP/5 points of the discount the Flaw would otherwise provide, where X is kinda based on the type of Flaw. This of course will also require defining types of Flaws, which is probably a good idea anyway as that allows me to specify clear rules for where certain kinda of Flaws are appropriate to add to a power.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Okay, turns out the 0/rank reference was correct (it was for a power reduced below 1/rank, not for the old Attack/Defend bit), other issues have been fixed.

I also added a sidebar for Flaw Types to the Flaws section, gave each Flaw a type, expanded Synchronized and added Curtailed to allow for multiple Flaws against type limits at a reduced discount, and I also added the Buildup Flaw and the Scaling and Fast Charge Extras to handle powers that need to "charge up" over time in some way, or that can be charged up to greater strength (or both). Buildup also has functionality which lets it be used for things like "must spend a move action moving before use" or the like, removing those from Restricted and providing a better outline for what requirements are worth what.

[DeAnno]

"Restrictions" aren't mentioned in the flaw sidebar.

---

The flaw rules also suffer from a sort of divide-by-zero error when a character's maximum VPP is zero, which had previously been a pretty reasonable choice if there wasn't going to be more than a pittance left anyway. You just drive yourself into deeper and deeper negative VPP, spending a currency that effectively doesn't exist for you. A possible fix to this is to set a max percentage of VPP that can be spent on permanent purchases, and/or to set a max negative value you can crash your VPP to.

---

Enhanced Extras can't be synchronized now. In the interests of allowing maximum breadth, maybe it should be that an Enhanced Extra can't synchronize to an Effect it's enhancing, or another Extra Enhancing that same Effect?

---

Two different Scaling powers on the same character probably can't use one trigger, or if they do it probably shouldn't add to both at full strength. The flaw rules already protect Buildup from something of this level of perversity.

---

With the rules as they are now, could you just directly add Improved to a stat or a skill to boost it above your tradeoff limit? This would be a way for a Powers-tradedown character to Improve their attacks, or for any character to improve specific skills, albeit at a significant cost.

---

Currently, when you pay VPP for a Flaw that was unimportant, you pay the same VPP for Flaws which discounted VPP instead of PP in the first place, such as Flaws on Utilities. Perhaps this should be halved? (or even 2/5thed, depending on how many pennies you want to slice)

---

Edit 1:


In addition, flaws that simply outright make the power substantially weaker (give-or-take half normal effectiveness is the target here) are fair as Limits. Beneficial powers that normally can affect others as well being Limited to Self Only or Others Only is a good example, as are things like Limiting an Attack to only two tiers of conditions (or Limited 2 to only one condition) or halving the degrees of success for a power (rounding down).

Those are probably a Restriction (maybe Restricted?) and a Downgrade respectively, rather than "Limitations" in the Flaw type sense. Unsure how you want to handle that.

---

Edit 2:

I'm a little concerned that some types of Scopes might be overly tight. It used to be that the impact of a flaw, especially certain flaws, was uneven; when the flaw was hitting you it was bad (generally worse than the PP discount), but on occasions where it didn't matter much it was better. There was a sort of expectation that you would at least try to play around your flaws, and in doing so they would have a big impact on your style even when they didn't directly come into effect.

Now, for any flaw with a scope of one scene or less, you're sort of perversely not encouraged to try to play around it any more since that costs you VPP. Someone with a Distracting power has less incentive to hide in the back, someone with a Costly power has less incentive to minimize their number of encounters/day, and someone with a Noticeable power doesn't have the same incentives to lure fights into clear open spaces. When you need to constantly justify that your weakness is actually a weakness, it prevents you from acting rationally in a way that someone with that weakness would actually behave.

I'm not sure what the solution is to this since Flaws that are never flaws are definitely an issue, but I think in general scopes are too tight right now. Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding the intent of significant, but it does seem like it doesn't really take indirect behavioral influences into account.

Edit 3:

As another point to the last thought, part of what's sticking in my craw might be that Hero Points were already sort of the "currency of negative feedback" in that it's expected that when things go poorly for you, you get some Hero Points and maybe can turn it around. VPP being drained by flaws sort of turns that into a negative feedback currency too (if the tactical situation is in your favor, you start to bleed VPP), which to me feels sort of wrong; negative feedback is the job of Hero Points in this system.

Edit 4:

Aside from all this contentious flaw stuff, I was thinking about Counters/Nullify/Suppression Tree and there are some confusing things that I've found I don't understand:


What do you roll against for the rank check when Countering (or Nullifying) a Utility that is a power? You could use the Utility's level, but that seems a bit harsh since it'll tend to be an easy check.
Does the effect of Counter have an instant duration? If you counter a Sustained or Concentration power, does it only "blink" off? Could you get through a Removable-as-a-Power Immunity by readying a Counter to go off when your ally made an attack?
How do the Suppressed and Drained conditions of the Nullify Tree work for Removable-as-a-Power Utilities?
Drained mentions 10+Force as the DC; should this be the Recovery DC instead? Perhaps the Recovery DC-5, since success is usually only partial when you don't succeed by 5?
It's a little weird that you use your Powers PL against Drained for Stats or Skills Removable as a Power instead of your appropriate tradeoff modified Stat/Skill. Especially because by the way its worded a Schtick Power (probably?) gets a +2 bonus to the check. The fact that powered Advantages exist complicates this thought though, since they probably like rolling at Powers PL for lack of anything better to roll.
Do all Synchronized Powers need to individually pass against Drained for any to be usable, or can they all roll together?


Separately, I noticed that you changed the Attack action so that you do not get a penalty if you don't have the Physical Attack Mode. This sort of results in everyone half-having it by default, which might be fine, but is a little incongruous at times. Particularly, random blastery or castery capes whipping out the Physical/Impact Kung-Fu at their full Accuracy/Force, even when the target is immune to their usual attacks or when those usual attacks are Drained.

I'm not really sure what to do about it. Maybe characters without Physical/Impact don't have a default attack action? Maybe the Default Attack action can use any of your attack modes, but has to use the Dazing Tree? Maybe you just specify your default attack action with full creative control of mode/condition tree on a new character? Versatile Attacker exists for 1 PP, so it isn't exactly game breaking to allow a virtual free one.

Edit 5:

Counter probably uses the Attack Mode of whatever power is being used to Counter, right? I assume Immunities and such would still apply?

How does an Insubstantial Ignore Extras Immunity work? Does it cancel out ranks of Affects Insubstantial, and if so, how many? Could someone have more than 2 ranks of Affects Insubstantial to fight against this strange happenstance?

[Hyperbolic sine]

This is probably a minor thing, but still.

A schtick has to be a single combat stat or an Effect: however, as far as I can tell choosing Attack boost both Accuracy and Force (only for purposes of Attacks, but I can imagine a lot of characters for whom that'd be the only Effect for which Accuracy and Force mattered). Is this intended?

[Llyarden]

Can you use the +1/rank extra that Attack and Defend get for free to partially pay for a more expensive extra? (For instance, could you buy Attack 10 (Aggravated) for 20 PP?)

[Quellian-dyrae]

Okay, getting back to this thing.


"Restrictions" aren't mentioned in the flaw sidebar.

Heh, forgot I removed that one. Flaws that had been listed as Restrictions are corrected.


The flaw rules also suffer from a sort of divide-by-zero error when a character's maximum VPP is zero, which had previously been a pretty reasonable choice if there wasn't going to be more than a pittance left anyway. You just drive yourself into deeper and deeper negative VPP, spending a currency that effectively doesn't exist for you. A possible fix to this is to set a max percentage of VPP that can be spent on permanent purchases, and/or to set a max negative value you can crash your VPP to.

I'm working on something that should help with that.


Enhanced Extras can't be synchronized now. In the interests of allowing maximum breadth, maybe it should be that an Enhanced Extra can't synchronize to an Effect it's enhancing, or another Extra Enhancing that same Effect?

I'm not quite following you here.


Two different Scaling powers on the same character probably can't use one trigger, or if they do it probably shouldn't add to both at full strength. The flaw rules already protect Buildup from something of this level of perversity.

Fixed; you can apply the same trigger to multiple powers, but charges for the same trigger have to be divided among all such powers (you can reallocate such charges once per round as a free action). So, as long as you're using only one at a time, you can always use your full charge, but if you want to use them simultaneously you have to divide it.


With the rules as they are now, could you just directly add Improved to a stat or a skill to boost it above your tradeoff limit? This would be a way for a Powers-tradedown character to Improve their attacks, or for any character to improve specific skills, albeit at a significant cost.

Yep, Improved lets you circumvent PL limits, but at a steep cost.


Currently, when you pay VPP for a Flaw that was unimportant, you pay the same VPP for Flaws which discounted VPP instead of PP in the first place, such as Flaws on Utilities. Perhaps this should be halved? (or even 2/5thed, depending on how many pennies you want to slice)

This I think I'll leave. It's meant to be a fallback option, not a tactical one. If anything, that fact will just encourage players to make sure their Flaws matter.


Those are probably a Restriction (maybe Restricted?) and a Downgrade respectively, rather than "Limitations" in the Flaw type sense. Unsure how you want to handle that.

Fair point. I'm going to go in and add a few more "essentially a custom Flaw of a given type" Flaws to make sure these are all covered easily.


I'm a little concerned that some types of Scopes might be overly tight. It used to be that the impact of a flaw, especially certain flaws, was uneven; when the flaw was hitting you it was bad (generally worse than the PP discount), but on occasions where it didn't matter much it was better. There was a sort of expectation that you would at least try to play around your flaws, and in doing so they would have a big impact on your style even when they didn't directly come into effect.

Now, for any flaw with a scope of one scene or less, you're sort of perversely not encouraged to try to play around it any more since that costs you VPP. Someone with a Distracting power has less incentive to hide in the back, someone with a Costly power has less incentive to minimize their number of encounters/day, and someone with a Noticeable power doesn't have the same incentives to lure fights into clear open spaces. When you need to constantly justify that your weakness is actually a weakness, it prevents you from acting rationally in a way that someone with that weakness would actually behave.

I'm not sure what the solution is to this since Flaws that are never flaws are definitely an issue, but I think in general scopes are too tight right now. Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding the intent of significant, but it does seem like it doesn't really take indirect behavioral influences into account.

As another point to the last thought, part of what's sticking in my craw might be that Hero Points were already sort of the "currency of negative feedback" in that it's expected that when things go poorly for you, you get some Hero Points and maybe can turn it around. VPP being drained by flaws sort of turns that into a negative feedback currency too (if the tactical situation is in your favor, you start to bleed VPP), which to me feels sort of wrong; negative feedback is the job of Hero Points in this system.

I think this is my wording failing, possibly along with a bit of intention drift as I was writing it, so I'll see about revising it. Probably the salient point that I think I kinda lost in there is that VPP shouldn't really be assessed just because the Flaw doesn't come up so much as because it can't come up. Distracting (Vulnerable) wouldn't charge you VPP in a combat scene where, due to tactics or circumstance, you just happen to not get attacked. It would charge you VPP if you use the power in an entirely non-combat scene, because at that point there's no way for being Vulnerable to matter. Likewise, Costly shouldn't charge VPP just because five possible uses for the power don't come up that day - but if it's something like Resurrection Healing where in the vast majority of cases you won't need it five times in a day, a VPP cost is more appropriate. I'll think on it some.


What do you roll against for the rank check when Countering (or Nullifying) a Utility that is a power? You could use the Utility's level, but that seems a bit harsh since it'll tend to be an easy check.

PL. I know I intended to put that in there, it was a big part of the reason I created Utilities in the first place, so those weird "infinite rank" powers had a sensible interaction with other ranks. But looks like I might have forgotten to actually write it.


Does the effect of Counter have an instant duration? If you counter a Sustained or Concentration power, does it only "blink" off? Could you get through a Removable-as-a-Power Immunity by readying a Counter to go off when your ally made an attack?

It's Instant, yes. However, a Countered power is ended, so it must be reused before it turns back on. Since using a power is typically at least a free action, that means even for sustained things it'll generally be down until the start of the target's next turn. A Removable Immunity could indeed be Countered and then the target attacked through the immunity until it reactivates it.


How do the Suppressed and Drained conditions of the Nullify Tree work for Removable-as-a-Power Utilities?

...Well, that's a good question. I'll need to figure that out.


Drained mentions 10+Force as the DC; should this be the Recovery DC instead? Perhaps the Recovery DC-5, since success is usually only partial when you don't succeed by 5?

Nah, this is actually about the raw potency of the attack, which is Force.


It's a little weird that you use your Powers PL against Drained for Stats or Skills Removable as a Power instead of your appropriate tradeoff modified Stat/Skill. Especially because by the way its worded a Schtick Power (probably?) gets a +2 bonus to the check. The fact that powered Advantages exist complicates this thought though, since they probably like rolling at Powers PL for lack of anything better to roll.

Figure it's just your own raw power against the draining effect. The relative effectiveness of your various abilities isn't the relevant part. ...Actually, come to think of it, I might just deal with some of the Counter bits above by using the same premise, straight Powers PL vs. Powers PL regardless of ranks. I'll think about that.


Do all Synchronized Powers need to individually pass against Drained for any to be usable, or can they all roll together?

Individually, yeah, since none of them activate until they're all activated, meaning they still get activated separately.


Separately, I noticed that you changed the Attack action so that you do not get a penalty if you don't have the Physical Attack Mode. This sort of results in everyone half-having it by default, which might be fine, but is a little incongruous at times. Particularly, random blastery or castery capes whipping out the Physical/Impact Kung-Fu at their full Accuracy/Force, even when the target is immune to their usual attacks or when those usual attacks are Drained.

I'm not really sure what to do about it. Maybe characters without Physical/Impact don't have a default attack action? Maybe the Default Attack action can use any of your attack modes, but has to use the Dazing Tree? Maybe you just specify your default attack action with full creative control of mode/condition tree on a new character? Versatile Attacker exists for 1 PP, so it isn't exactly game breaking to allow a virtual free one.

Whoops! Set it to use your default Attack Mode, with Impact/Physical as a bonus option...which treats your Force and Accuracy as 0.


Counter probably uses the Attack Mode of whatever power is being used to Counter, right? I assume Immunities and such would still apply?

It would have the same Attack Mode, yeah. As far as immunities go...probably, but only for powers on the person itself. I'll clarify this sort of thing.


How does an Insubstantial Ignore Extras Immunity work? Does it cancel out ranks of Affects Insubstantial, and if so, how many? Could someone have more than 2 ranks of Affects Insubstantial to fight against this strange happenstance?

Heh. No, Affects Insubstantial/Affects Objects take full precedence. I'll specify that.


A schtick has to be a single combat stat or an Effect: however, as far as I can tell choosing Attack boost both Accuracy and Force (only for purposes of Attacks, but I can imagine a lot of characters for whom that'd be the only Effect for which Accuracy and Force mattered). Is this intended?

Attack rank doesn't boost Accuracy and Force, it just penalizes them if below PL. An Attack Schtick is actually useless; for that function, you want a plain old Accuracy or Force Schtick.


Can you use the +1/rank extra that Attack and Defend get for free to partially pay for a more expensive extra? (For instance, could you buy Attack 10 (Aggravated) for 20 PP?)

Yep. I'll specify that.

[DeAnno]

I'm not quite following you here.

So imagine this scenario. A Warrior normally has:

Attack 10 (Brutal)
Defend 10 (Counter)

However, he also has a Haste ability (that might be a part of some array)

Movement 10; Attack 10 gains (Multiattack; Synchronized [Movement]); Defend 10 gains (Augmented, Reduced Action [Move]; Synchronized [Movement])

It's pretty niche, but in cases like this Independent Extras don't seem to break intent by being Synchronized.

Perpendicularly to that, I think Synchronized is one of the Flaws that suffers the most from tight scope. A lot of the time it doesn't apply and will cost VPP, but when it does apply it's extremely punishing; the whole power can turn off. "Sharp" flaws like this seem like they should either be up-priced in a Scope world or have lengthened Scope. Compare to Full Power, which also might rarely come up, but when it does come up likely won't be nearly as damaging a flaw as Synchronized.


An Attack Schtick is actually useless; for that function, you want a plain old Accuracy or Force Schtick.

This actually isn't strictly true. If you take the Attack Schtick, a 5 point Talent tradeoff, and a 3 point Schtick tradeoff, you can get +5 to a stat and skills and normal ability to use Attack powers. I look at it as a much more extreme version of a stat Schtick, where you're paying by lowering your non-Attack powers PL by 8.

EDIT 1:

Could you use Scaling with Diverse to provide an extra +cost/rank extra choice? Could you use it with Additional to provide an extra type of trigger? For example:

Attack 10 (Scaling )

Relatedly, what happens if you have two Scaling powers with the same Charge Pool and one is Fast Charge?

Attack 10 (Scaling [Improved; When you hit an enemy], Fast Charge)
Defend 10 (Scaling [Improved; When you hit an enemy])

Does the Fast chargeyness apply to the whole pool?

I think its possible that Scaling should be an [I]Effect instead of an Extra or Flaw. Like, the Effect would be your charge pool, and that would be modified in different ways and apply itself to different things. It's possible that even Buildup would be a Flaw on a power that required you to have the scaling Effect for it to work, or a Flaw on the Scaling Effect itself.

----

A couple places use the phrasing like


Powers: No individual power that you possess can have a rank that exceeds your Power Level, with the exception of Communication, Feature, and Senses. If you lower your Powers limit from tradeoffs, Communication and Senses do become limited to a maximum number of ranks equal to your PL.


Powers that aren't limited by PL (Communication, Feature, and Senses) have their effective ranks capped at PL for all purposes relating to Counters.

I assume this stuff is depreciated and needs to be revised, since none of those actually have Ranks?

---

EDIT 2:


This I think I'll leave. It's meant to be a fallback option, not a tactical one. If anything, that fact will just encourage players to make sure their Flaws matter.

The more I think about it, this is a sort of worrying stance. I don't see how flaws on Utilities are any more gamey than Flaws on powers, and the punishment mechanism should probably be about the same strength for everything, for fear of making Flaws on Utilities a "trap" option. It is an extra rule, but this isn't a system that usually flinches from extra rules to make things more fair.

Players can try to take flaws that matter, but even if they're trying they don't really have control of whether they come up or not. My thoughts on this might be entangled with my issues with the Flaw Scope system in general though, so maybe take this with a grain of salt.

EDIT 3:

Slow should be a (Limitation). As a (Downgrade), it'll trigger a Scope violation literally whenever you're able to use it. The longer scope window also would help explain why Slow 1 is worth less PP than Increased Action.

EDIT 4:

More (unrelated-ish to each other) thoughts on problems with Flaw Scope (I know I've been harping on it lately, sorry)

Flaws with natively longer Scope are inherently more forgiving (perhaps "better") than flaws with shorter scope. A poorly chosen scene scope flaw can drain VPP several times per refresh AND still hamper you several times over the course of an adventure. A poorly chosen adventure scope flaw will at worst either hamper you or drain VPP once.

One major subcategory of what Scope does seems to be punishing the gamey act of putting on a flaw that doesn't fit the effect (like Costly Resurrection). While it'd be rather labor intensive, it strikes me as wiser to just list the flaws that don't go with certain effects (maybe using a categorization system?) This would possibly cause difficulties with flawed extras.

Another problematic subcategory of flaws is flaws that cause trouble in combat, but are on a power that is useful in and out of combat. I think a reasonable solution to things like this is just make the flaw half-cost. You could just phrase the idea generally, or even make a list of "half-combat" effects (Healing, Movement, etc) and "combat" flaws (Increased Action, Distracting)

The only part of the Flaw Scope VPP rules that feels solid to me now is how it handles Limitations with Adventure duration Scopes. The VPP refresh is matched to the drain, so it can't cascade out of control, and there is an appreciably long time for the flaw to trigger so the character doesn't have to feel constantly hampered.

Overall, I think what's bothering me about the whole system is that it feels rather punitive. The punishment for similar offenses is out of proportion, it hits different types of characters too differently, and despite it being a "backup" mechanism I can't really imagine it not triggering extremely frequently. VPP is sort of changed from being a strategic resource that every character uses differently to a hit point pool that can't be relied on in any predictable way, unless you eschew any flaw that seems like it could ever possibly fail to trigger, which seems like it rather defeats the whole point.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Alright, I'm convinced. Trying to rewrite it to fit the intent I had wound up being either too vague or too annoying to keep track of in play. Scope of flaws and VPP fallback costs have been removed. Instead, I just included for each type of Flaw some guidelines on what they should be used for. Doesn't risk accidental resource attrition, requires less bookkeeping, and means I'm not using the word scope to refer to two different things :smallamused:.

I've also added some new Flaws, mostly things that I've regularly used Limits and stuff for: Capped (power's degrees of success are capped), Conditional (target must have a certain condition/effect on it), Contingent (you have to get a certain result on an action/check to use it), Requirement (you have to take a certain type of action before using it each time - this function was removed from Buildup on the basis of that being a way more convoluted way to do it), Selfish (only benefits you), and Selfless (only benefits others).

As a result of all this, I've removed that "Choosing Between Flaws" sidebar. At this point, Limited and Restricted aren't really meant to be "choose your own disadvantage" Flaws anymore - Limited means the power is only usable in certain situations which aren't under your control, and Restricted means you can only use one option the power normally makes available. If anyone has any ideas on other Flaws that might have normally been forms of Limited but might not fit anymore, let me know!

I also adjusted Costly and Fades some, to set official usage and recharge rates. Added some more things to charging rules (under the Scaling Extra) for stuff like rank-based comparisons and specific descriptors and such.

I added a little parameter called Maintained duration, for stuff like Create and Transform that can be deactivated while continuous without losing active instances and get a few other duration-based edges. Just a bit more clear than trying to describe what sort of powers such rules apply to.

--


So imagine this scenario.

Got it, yeah that makes sense. Fixed.


Could you use Scaling with Diverse to provide an extra +cost/rank extra choice? Could you use it with Additional to provide an extra type of trigger? For example:

Attack 10 (Scaling )

Yep.


Relatedly, what happens if you have two Scaling powers with the same Charge Pool and one is Fast Charge?

Attack 10 (Scaling [Improved; When you hit an enemy], Fast Charge)
Defend 10 (Scaling [Improved; When you hit an enemy])

Does the Fast chargeyness apply to the whole pool?

Edited so Fast Charge changes the necessary number of charges/starting charges, rather than influencing charge gain.


I think its possible that Scaling should be an [I]Effect instead of an Extra or Flaw. Like, the Effect would be your charge pool, and that would be modified in different ways and apply itself to different things. It's possible that even Buildup would be a Flaw on a power that required you to have the scaling Effect for it to work, or a Flaw on the Scaling Effect itself.

I kinda liked this idea, but thinking about how to make it work in play was problematic, since it'd mean you needed to get a certain Effect as a prerequisite to adding certain Extras or Flaws to other powers.


I assume this stuff is depreciated and needs to be revised, since none of those actually have Ranks?

Yep. Those instances fixed. No guarantees that there aren't others. :smallredface: :smallsigh:

[DeAnno]

First Thoughts:

Limited and Quirk both reference a sidebar that no longer exists; maybe migrate some of the old text?

Fades might be overpowered if used creatively in arrays, I'm not sure. The theoretical worst case scenario is a large array of big similar powers that all have Fades 3 or something, where it's sort of like a better orthogonal version of Costly and the cost you're spending is burning up array slots. This is another case where it would be cool if flaws could be applied to entire arrays, though in this instance I'm unsure how the rules would even work.

If an Attack Roll (as opposed to a resistance roll) is capped, that means it's limited to 2 (or 3?) Bruises right? Or is the attack unable to even apply any Bruises to characters that already have 3 Bruises? (The latter feels more balanced)

[Quellian-dyrae]

First Thoughts:

Limited and Quirk both reference a sidebar that no longer exists; maybe migrate some of the old text?

Whoops, fixed.


Fades might be overpowered if used creatively in arrays, I'm not sure. The theoretical worst case scenario is a large array of big similar powers that all have Fades 3 or something, where it's sort of like a better orthogonal version of Costly and the cost you're spending is burning up array slots. This is another case where it would be cool if flaws could be applied to entire arrays, though in this instance I'm unsure how the rules would even work.

My gut instinct is that what makes Fades more severe is that it actually reduces the rank rather than just limiting usage. The array thing is a concern though. Come to think of it...I'll go ahead and say multiple powers with Fades all lose a rank if any are used (unless it's a Synchronized Flaw, in which case any one loses a rank if any are used), since it's normal for costs that they all kinda draw from the same resource. Fixed.


If an Attack Roll (as opposed to a resistance roll) is capped, that means it's limited to 2 (or 3?) Bruises right? Or is the attack unable to even apply any Bruises to characters that already have 3 Bruises? (The latter feels more balanced)

As I had it written it was capped at inflicting no more than 2 (or 1) Bruises. Also means it can't inflict critical hits (no benefit for natural 20). Although actually, I should adjust that to be natural results, to account for Improved Critical. Also, looking back at it with a fresh brain, I realize it shouldn't be based on possible degrees. Capped should be max one degree normally, but change to two degrees if it's something that has at least four degrees and can "stack" between repeated uses, in which case it also loses its ability to stack. Changing it to that, yes, it would mean a capped Attack roll won't be able to impose Bruises if the target already has two Bruises (or one with a second application), which will be more balanced. Fixed.

[DeAnno]

A couple thoughts about Regeneration:

Regeneration would universally benefit from a passive shift and suffer from an active shift right?

If a condition hits you and Regeneration is activated later, you roll when you activate Regeneration, and the effects of Regeneration are suppressed when you turn it off; all this is pretty sensible (though it might be worth noting what happens if the Regeneration making a Permanent condition Prolonged is turned off for some of an adventure but not all of it, and then turned on at the end of that adventure.)

What happens if you turn on Regeneration, make the check, but then your passive/active shift changes, or your amount of Regeneration ranks change (maybe because of a Dynamic Array slot)? Do you keep the initial roll (meaning you might be able to push it into a success somehow if it failed) or the initial result (meaning you can gut your Regeneration power but still keep it working on that effect as long as its on at all)? It's a sticky situation.

It's also a little weird that Healing can be attempted again and again by using Extra Effort (possibly during down or slow time) wheras if Regeneration fails it fails permanently. That's possibly balanced by the really high DCs Healing deals with for Prolonged and Permanent conditions, but fishing for the 20 is still usually enough (25+PL > 15+9+PL)

[Quellian-dyrae]

Regeneration would universally benefit from a passive shift and suffer from an active shift right?

Nah, neither would apply. It's not Active since it affects you, and it's not Passive since it doesn't oppose or set the DC for an enemy's action, it just influences the results of an already resolved action.


If a condition hits you and Regeneration is activated later, you roll when you activate Regeneration, and the effects of Regeneration are suppressed when you turn it off; all this is pretty sensible (though it might be worth noting what happens if the Regeneration making a Permanent condition Prolonged is turned off for some of an adventure but not all of it, and then turned on at the end of that adventure.)

Hrm, yeah, or a Prolonged condition reduced to Standard and then you activate at end of scene. Although actually, that's probably fine; the premise would basically just be that you regenerate it between scenes/adventures.


What happens if you turn on Regeneration, make the check, but then your passive/active shift changes, or your amount of Regeneration ranks change (maybe because of a Dynamic Array slot)? Do you keep the initial roll (meaning you might be able to push it into a success somehow if it failed) or the initial result (meaning you can gut your Regeneration power but still keep it working on that effect as long as its on at all)? It's a sticky situation.

Initial roll, I'd say. That should probably be the standard premise for lingering things that change rank for some reason. I'll figure out somewhere to put that in.


It's also a little weird that Healing can be attempted again and again by using Extra Effort (possibly during down or slow time) wheras if Regeneration fails it fails permanently. That's possibly balanced by the really high DCs Healing deals with for Prolonged and Permanent conditions, but fishing for the 20 is still usually enough (25+PL > 15+9+PL)

I might adjust Exertion conditions to just last for the rest of the episode rather than arbitrarily using real time measures for some reason. I'll also add a rule that using Extra Effort between episodes costs a Hero Point instead, since that's a loophole that just should not happen.

EDIT: Although actually, I'll also see about letting Regeneration reroll with Extra Effort. Kinda makes sense.

[DeAnno]

If you wish, you can take a Targeted Environment power instead. In this case, it becomes a Ranged power, its duration becomes Maintained, it no longer moves with you, and your rank doesn't apply to the area; you simply get one free application of the Area Extra (although you can add more normally). However, you can have multiple instances active simultaneously.

How many instances can you have active at once? Also, is there any time limit to holding them in palce besides the next time you happen to be unconscious? (For some characters, that might be 'never') I do like the option as a whole though, I think it brings across a common archetype well.

---

A weird idea: a version of Selfish/Selfless that says either:
A) Teammates only, including yourself.
B) Teammates only, not including yourself.

---

The Influence Tree compels actions, but can you come at things from the other side and shape beliefs with it? I'm mainly thinking of tropes like Jedi Mind Tricks, which aren't covered well by sensory illusions and might not always make sense as purely compelled action, especially in a social context.

[Quellian-dyrae]

How many instances can you have active at once? Also, is there any time limit to holding them in palce besides the next time you happen to be unconscious? (For some characters, that might be 'never') I do like the option as a whole though, I think it brings across a common archetype well.

No explicit limit, as is the norm for M&M (things like Create and Transform are the same way). That said, I'm working on some general "rule 0" type things to kinda blanket cover edge cases, and one of those will get some into how the resources are meant as abstractions and just because a character can, say, use Environment at will in play doesn't necessarily mean the character can actually pockmark the world with 30' radius spheres of whatever every six seconds.


A weird idea: a version of Selfish/Selfless that says either:
A) Teammates only, including yourself.
B) Teammates only, not including yourself.

Interesting thought, I'll see about working it in!


The Influence Tree compels actions, but can you come at things from the other side and shape beliefs with it? I'm mainly thinking of tropes like Jedi Mind Tricks, which aren't covered well by sensory illusions and might not always make sense as purely compelled action, especially in a social context.

This I feel is more a matter for descriptors than explicit mechanics. The fluff behind influencing their actions could be that their beliefs have been manipulated just as easily as their actual thoughts, emotions, memories, personality, whatever.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Okay, Teammates-only options have been added to Selfish and Selfless.

In other news, I've added a few new bits. First, in the Purchasing Traits section of the Stats chapter, there's a new optional rule called Generalist Bonus. It basically gives you discounts on traits that are below your PL limits, because let's be real, you're usually better off with a few maxed-out skills/powers than a bunch of low rank ones. This should narrow the gap a bit, but it's tagged as optional because it means more complicated calculations in character building.

Second, in the Rules chapter, there's a new section called The Game as a Game. This is basically some game philosophy stuff, rules of thumb, and general "look, the rules do what they do, but they're not the most important thing here" type advice. It's probably not anything anyone doesn't really know (give-or-take some personal preferences) but it's worth saying at this point I think.

Finally, there's a new chapter called Rewards, expanding upon the Hero Point system by creating several levels of rewards using Hero Points, VPP, and a sort of quasi-free-Extra-Effort-sort-of thing called Refreshes. Along with the new options for rewards, it includes different ways to "time" rewards, and then a bunch of guidelines and options for what sort of rewards a GM might consider assigning or how to calculate how much a Complication is worth. Basically something more granular than just "take a Hero Point".

[DeAnno]

I think the Generalist bonuses are good second measure for incentivizing more splashy, natural looking characters (Tradeoffs already did some of this). Diminishing returns are always an attractive way of smoothing things in RPGs and this is noninvasive enough that I don't think it'll cause much trouble.

The Rewards chapter felt good, and I think that the the rewards guidelines for conditions especially help a lot with mechanical Complications.

---

I feel like the Effect Immunity target is a bit clunky right now. There are only 19 Effects, and many of them seem like ones that either wouldn't provide a lot of benefit or none at all. Even the ones that do provide benefits seem like there could be a lot of space between them.


Aid: None
Attack: Overpowered, though maybe not if the Level was very very high.
Concealment: None (since it can't negate concealment not targeting you)
Create: Protects from Create attacks I guess? The mechanics of how this would work are a little mind boggling (anti-conjuration field?)
Defend: None
Environment: By RAW, I don't think this works, and it's also covered by some more specialized Immunities anyway.
Exert: By RAW, I don't think it works. Covered by Immunity to Manhandle though, and I think Immunity to Manhandle is almost strictly better even if it did work?
Extend: None.
Healing: Since we don't use D&Desque Undead harmed-by-healing rules this one isn't useful :P (That might be a good option for a weakness though? Or something...)
Illusion: There is a sense utility for this, and also Immunity to Manipulate.
Luck Control: Not very applicable, what's there is probably covered more sanely by Temporal Inertia.
Movement: I guess this protects you from Affects Others Instant Movement. Weird case though.
Nullify: This one works as advertised, but the system might be better off if there was a more specifically worded Immunity which also included the Counter action.
Quickness: None (I think?)
Reading: This one makes sense, but might be overpriced (overpriced as a weakness too?)
Regeneration: None
Remote Sensing: I don't think this can work by RAW. You could maybe make up a Utility where you don't appear on Remote Sensing or Video Cameras or in Pictures or similar.
Transform: Protects against rather niche Transform attacks, which really just prevents action saving and not whatever the attack is.


So in conclusion it's a bit of a mess :smallsmile: I think it might be better to make specific Utilities to replace it with in the few cases it works, or perhaps specific Immunity target levels in the cases where numerical bonuses make sense.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Yep, that makes sense. I'll fiddle with that some.

[DeAnno]

Hmm, despite liking the idea of Extra Effort on Regeneration, I just noticed it has a permanent duration (which would ordinarily prevent this.) Additionally, How would Regeneration (Effortless) work? Roll twice and take the better for each condition (maybe a bit strong)?

I think a lot of this confusion is coming about because Regeneration is in a weird neutral zone between a combat optimized actionless power and a more utility focused power to prevent long term health issues. When you think about it in the first context, Extra Effort seems odd on it, but in the second context, it seems to fit well. Right now it's the only Extra Effortable power that doesn't require an action to use.

---

The Slow Array power has this bit of possible legacy text:


When not tracking actions, the first two steps of this flaw are effectively irrelevant; resultantly, to swap the array in those circumstances you must spend VPP equal to the discount received, as if from a power stunt (so if it's a 20-point array swappable as a move action, it would cost 4 VPP to swap outside of combat).

It's not technically obsolete, but it feels like a relic of the old Flaw Scope ideology.

---

If you added the Rapid Extra to a Skill, that would effectively give you the benefits of Quickness x3 with regards to that specific skill and its uses, right? For example, if you had Perception 10 (Rapid), you could Search an area 10 times more quickly, but none of the other uses of Perception would be affected (since none of the others seem very eligible for Quickness).

EDIT:

Explosive has some legacy text from the old version of Improved in it; it should probably Improve either Force/Accuracy and not both now.

The Illusion Effect is probably Focus/Sensory rather than Flash/Sensory?

[Quellian-dyrae]

I feel like the Effect Immunity target is a bit clunky right now. There are only 19 Effects, and many of them seem like ones that either wouldn't provide a lot of benefit or none at all. Even the ones that do provide benefits seem like there could be a lot of space between them.

I've removed Effect Immunities. I added a bit to Reading that you have to be able to accurately perceive the target, and Concealment can degrade it, so either Immunity to the relevant Attack Mode or a Concealment power can be used to protect against it (Limited to Reading if it's strictly for that).


Hmm, despite liking the idea of Extra Effort on Regeneration, I just noticed it has a permanent duration (which would ordinarily prevent this.) Additionally, How would Regeneration (Effortless) work? Roll twice and take the better for each condition (maybe a bit strong)?

I think a lot of this confusion is coming about because Regeneration is in a weird neutral zone between a combat optimized actionless power and a more utility focused power to prevent long term health issues. When you think about it in the first context, Extra Effort seems odd on it, but in the second context, it seems to fit well. Right now it's the only Extra Effortable power that doesn't require an action to use.

Gonna invoke "specific trumps general" on the Permanent bit. That said, I did rewrite it some. Now you can use Extra Effort to try again against an Instant, Short, or Standard condition, but doing so costs a free, move, or standard action respectively, so Effortless is valid but not automatic. Prolonged and Permanent can be retried as a Downtime Action.


The Slow Array power has this bit of possible legacy text:

It's not technically obsolete, but it feels like a relic of the old Flaw Scope ideology.

Fun fact, that was actually from before Flaw Scope and kinda evolved into it, but yeah, removed and replaced with a "don't do that".


If you added the Rapid Extra to a Skill, that would effectively give you the benefits of Quickness x3 with regards to that specific skill and its uses, right? For example, if you had Perception 10 (Rapid), you could Search an area 10 times more quickly, but none of the other uses of Perception would be affected (since none of the others seem very eligible for Quickness).

Correct.


Explosive has some legacy text from the old version of Improved in it; it should probably Improve either Force/Accuracy and not both now.

The Illusion Effect is probably Focus/Sensory rather than Flash/Sensory?

Fixed and fixed.

[DeAnno]

Happy to see this churning again!

In the Reading entry, Read Objects mentions:

(as per Read Powers at equal levels of detail)
But no such use of Reading exists (though maybe it should?) The Assessment Advantage is the closest thing I can think of.

Would the point of Additional Reading (as opposed to Diverse Reading) be the ability to read with multiple types on the same target all on the same round? (The only common use I can think of is "Thoughts" & "People", though "Powers" would fit that too if it existed.)

---

In the rules for Power Stunts, Augmented Power has a depreciated line of text:


Extras that you don't already have on your character sheet cost twice as many VPP.

I'm pretty sure that's covered by how Scope generally interacts with Stunts now.

Relatedly, Inventions must now draw from your Scope, but don't have the double VPP rule to escape this clause as Stunts do; perhaps they should? (I sort of saw Inventions and Stunts as occupying very similar rules mechanics spaces before, so it's odd that Stunts have a versatility advantage over them now.)

---

Close range Area powers don't affect you if they are detrimental. Does this apply to powers with the Zone and Aura extras too?

Relatedly, does your own Environment power affect you if it's detrimental? This is a question both for indirectly bad environmental conditions such as a Restricted Sense and for more direct ones like Hamper effects.

---

How legit is it to have Defense bonuses against Attack Modes and/or Resistance bonuses against Delivery Modes? It's often more mechanically advantageous for characters to do it that way (especially due to tradeoff caps), but it's a little counterintuitive. This is complicated more because sometimes certain types of bonuses don't trigger (For example, a Resistance bonus will never trigger against a Manhandle, a Defense bonus will never trigger against a Manipulate, and neither will ever trigger against a Counter.)

[Quellian-dyrae]

In the Reading entry, Read Objects mentions:

But no such use of Reading exists (though maybe it should?) The Assessment Advantage is the closest thing I can think of.

Fixed.


Would the point of Additional Reading (as opposed to Diverse Reading) be the ability to read with multiple types on the same target all on the same round? (The only common use I can think of is "Thoughts" & "People", though "Powers" would fit that too if it existed.)

Yep.


In the rules for Power Stunts, Augmented Power has a depreciated line of text:

I'm pretty sure that's covered by how Scope generally interacts with Stunts now.

Fixed.


Relatedly, Inventions must now draw from your Scope, but don't have the double VPP rule to escape this clause as Stunts do; perhaps they should? (I sort of saw Inventions and Stunts as occupying very similar rules mechanics spaces before, so it's odd that Stunts have a versatility advantage over them now.)

Haven't changed that yet, although I might. As things stand now I'd keep it, because inventions have a lower cost than power stunts. However, some of the stuff I'm working on might sort of change that, so I'll revisit.


Close range Area powers don't affect you if they are detrimental. Does this apply to powers with the Zone and Aura extras too?

Relatedly, does your own Environment power affect you if it's detrimental? This is a question both for indirectly bad environmental conditions such as a Restricted Sense and for more direct ones like Hamper effects.

This...I'm going to have to think some on. I kinda lean towards yes, but I'm going to have to mull over what all that actually means.


How legit is it to have Defense bonuses against Attack Modes and/or Resistance bonuses against Delivery Modes? It's often more mechanically advantageous for characters to do it that way (especially due to tradeoff caps), but it's a little counterintuitive. This is complicated more because sometimes certain types of bonuses don't trigger (For example, a Resistance bonus will never trigger against a Manhandle, a Defense bonus will never trigger against a Manipulate, and neither will ever trigger against a Counter.)

Perfectly legitimate, although perhaps a bit odder to fluff in some cases. I'll see what I can do about situations where bonuses might not trigger when they should.

--

In other news, I'm working on another significant update (not done yet though), the main thrust of which is expanding the actions system to be functional outside of combat time (and removing the Effort system in the doing, which was kinda-sorta supposed to do something of this nature but honestly wasn't very good at it). This is just kinda a pet peeve of mine, where there's kinda "no point in not" taking some action because it's strictly mechanically beneficial to try, and there's no opportunity cost to it. Or it's hard to say when you've conclusively failed at something because you can technically try again every six seconds. Or where certain Flaws and things that work fine for combat powers, but suddenly mean nothing outside of combat. And so on. I might see if I can make conditions work more like this as well. Ideally, the result should be that there is less need for weird exceptions and special rules (the Aid action, for example, no longer needs half a dozen different versions), noncombat challenges should be a bit more "tactical" and thus hopefully somewhat more engaging, and more Extras and Flaws being able to be used more broadly.

[Quellian-dyrae]

And uploaded an update.

Added a new Opportunity system, a point-based system for taking actions outside of combat time. All skill actions now have proper action types. Effort as a system has been removed.

Simplified the Influence action some, and revised it in such a way so that people without great social skills shouldn't feel like they aren't allowed to talk without risk of ruining things.

Clarified "defense" and "resistance" immunities as a specific thing and how they apply broadly. Changed Penetrating to just working on resistance immunities, and added Tracing as the equivalent for defense immunities. Also reduced their costs to 1 PP/2 ranks.

Added the new Extra Easy, a 1 PP/2 rank Extra that reduces Concentration to "Light Concentration" (i.e. Concentration but only a move action each round).

Changed Inventing to be purely a special downtime action (moved its description to the advantage itself, since it's required for use). Also made it a bit more flexible in some ways. Inventions also no longer cost VPP, because you have to spend Downtime actions for them and that's a sufficient cost.

[Malfarian]

Just starting to read this and wanted to say "WOW" on effort.

[DeAnno]

Added a new Opportunity system, a point-based system for taking actions outside of combat time. All skill actions now have proper action types. Effort as a system has been removed.

At first glance this looks pretty ok. It seems to do the narrative job of preventing any one character from hogging the spotlight without being excessively weird about anything, needing to be a thing you hoard VPP for, or generally making a nuisance of itself. Having the foresight to make Movement and similar not cost Opportunity was a good and necessary move.

I don't think you mention how much opportunity Standard actions actually cost outside of action time (I may have missed it), though from context I would assume it's 6.

It seemed a little weird that characters had no opportunity during roleplaying scenes, since even when heroes are kicking back and not doing much of anything in media we often see powers used in a not-so-serious manner. Maybe 10 O instead of 20 O for such scenes, instead of 0? Could probably be worked around with GM fiat but at the same time it feels pretty core to the genre.

The issue of needing to switch to an array slot to do something complex and not having any VPP to do it feels like it might be a little weird-feeling in play. On the other hand someone doing a complex thing probably should be pretty distracted. Maybe 18 O for Complex instead of 20? Being able to throw any one limited free action in there feels about in the scope of what someone can do while severely distracted.


Simplified the Influence action some, and revised it in such a way so that people without great social skills shouldn't feel like they aren't allowed to talk without risk of ruining things.

I feel like this is how most GMs tend to slide into running social skills anyway, one way or another, and it's nice to have it spelled out that if your argument is good (or bad) enough your dice don't matter. Making it into a complex action is also interesting in that there is some more reason for characters other than the social specialist to take part in such an interaction.

In playing D&D 5e, I've often seen people make very good, essentially un-nopeable arguments only to receive advantage on a skill check and still flub it up, resulting in the GM either feeling silly and letting it through anyway or people floundering to try to make sense of the situation. This feels like a substantial leg up from that sort of thing.


Clarified "defense" and "resistance" immunities as a specific thing and how they apply broadly. Changed Penetrating to just working on resistance immunities, and added Tracing as the equivalent for defense immunities. Also reduced their costs to 1 PP/2 ranks.

This definitely feels more solid and better costed to me. You probably want to add that "Tracing" can't affect Insubstantial Immunities, as well as Penetrating.


Changed Inventing to be purely a special downtime action (moved its description to the advantage itself, since it's required for use). Also made it a bit more flexible in some ways. Inventions also no longer cost VPP, because you have to spend Downtime actions for them and that's a sufficient cost.

I like that this no longer costs VPP on both ends (both Scope and Invention). Now Tinker-type characters have the clearer creation goal of spending the majority of their VPP on Scope and don't worry about having to hold some in reserve to be able to use that Scope.

It might be worth adding some sort of "Field-Tinker" Advantage that allows a Character to burn a Hero Point to be able to take a Downtime Invention Action in place of the inter-scene Complex Action.

The Variant Technology Skills sidebar still mentions the 1 Invention cap from before, might want to expunge that.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Just starting to read this and wanted to say "WOW" on effort.

:smallbiggrin:


I don't think you mention how much opportunity Standard actions actually cost outside of action time (I may have missed it), though from context I would assume it's 6.

Whoops, yeah, 6. Fixed.


It seemed a little weird that characters had no opportunity during roleplaying scenes, since even when heroes are kicking back and not doing much of anything in media we often see powers used in a not-so-serious manner. Maybe 10 O instead of 20 O for such scenes, instead of 0? Could probably be worked around with GM fiat but at the same time it feels pretty core to the genre.

For this, I'll refer back to the "Fluff Doesn't Need Rules", err, rule. Uses of powers that don't actually have a meaningful impact on the story or challenges shouldn't really be tracked, whether in role playing scenes or otherwise. I went back in and added some more details to that effect in the section on actions outside of action time.


The issue of needing to switch to an array slot to do something complex and not having any VPP to do it feels like it might be a little weird-feeling in play. On the other hand someone doing a complex thing probably should be pretty distracted. Maybe 18 O for Complex instead of 20? Being able to throw any one limited free action in there feels about in the scope of what someone can do while severely distracted.

Fair enough. I've added a bit so that 1/round free actions can be performed twice per scene free (between them, not individually), with uses beyond that costing 2 Opportunity each.


You probably want to add that "Tracing" can't affect Insubstantial Immunities, as well as Penetrating.

Good catch! Fixed.


It might be worth adding some sort of "Field-Tinker" Advantage that allows a Character to burn a Hero Point to be able to take a Downtime Invention Action in place of the inter-scene Complex Action.

I like it. I expanded it some though; the new Opportunist advantage lets you choose any one type of downtime action (per purchase), and when given an opportunity to take a Complex action between scenes, you can forego that and spend a Hero Point to take a downtime action of that type.


The Variant Technology Skills sidebar still mentions the 1 Invention cap from before, might want to expunge that.

Fixed, thanks!

[DeAnno]

You can refresh your pool of VPP instantly by spending a Hero Point; it might be worth reiterating that use of Hero Points in the section that discusses all the ways HP can be spent (Edit Scene, Heroic Feat, Recover, and so on.) It might be worth adding a core way to burn a HP directly into Opportunity in addition to this (either a set amount like 20-30 or a refresh of the amount you normally get in the scene.)

I'm unsure if it would be too much, but there might be a similar advantage to Opportunist that let you reduce the action time of specific Complex Actions to Full Actions at the cost of a Hero Point, both in the sense of costing 10 Opportunity and being 1 round of combat time. Though after thinking about it, 10 Opportunity isn't a great use of a HP (=20 VP), so you would probably only do it in combat time.

EDIT: Some thoughts about the second bit