So your GM has given you a power level, but you're just as powerful as every other character. How can you min/max break power level limits and make the most powerful character- and as a GM, what should you be wary of?
Tradeoffs- You can trade attack bonus for maximum toughness DC. This can double your effective power rating, but comes with the side effect of being unable to hit. You can trade defense for toughness. (This only really makes sense in favor of toughness since perception powers will wreck you otherwise). These tradeoffs also come in the form of feats that allow up to +5 to be traded off (power attack, accurate attack, all out attack, defensive attack).
Now, this might not seem so bad- a guy with high save DCs will never hit anyway, right? Well, consider the aim action, or ultimate effort (aim), and now you're making up for that deficit and getting all the benefit.
Improved Aim: You can get +10 by spending a full-round action aiming. Use extra effort to attack right away, or use ultimate effort to roll a basic 20.
At PL 10, you can give yourself a toughness save of 15(base), +20 (tradeoffs) = 35. The enemy (without tradeoffs) gets +10 to save, and must make a 25 or better to be fine(not possible), 15 or better to avoid stun, and 10 or better to avoid staggered.
Autofire Extra: This power extra can be taken 3 times.
1: For every 2 points you exceed the Defense of the target, get +1 to save DC, max +5 (or halfe attack level)
2: Now it's 1 for 1.
3: Now it's max +10 or the power level.
So autofire of 3, if you use aim and ultimate effort or something can grant you an extra +10 to DC. Now you're at toughness DC 45. They will always be at least stunned, and must beat 15 to avoid staggered.
Team Attack: This requires that the base DC is in line, but for every attack that hits you can get +2 to the save DC- no limit. This alone can crush damage limits.
Inspire: An ally could give up to +5 to attacks, skills, and saves for 1 round with a hero point. That can make up for those tradeoffs or boost autofire.
Critical Hits: +5 to save DC on a critical hit- and with improved critical you can easily make any attack that hits be a critical hit.
Master Plan: Can grant up to +3 to skill checks and an attack roll during an encounter, breaking PL limites.
So between inspire, aim, and master plan, you could get +18 to hit (above your regular attack), which is likely more than you had available BEFORE tradeoffs.
Cover/Positioning: Betters your defense. If you have Prone Fighting or slithering, you can get +4 defense against ranged attacks just from being prone, and suffer no ill effects yourself. Same thing from taking cover.
Concealment: Concealment provides 20% miss chance (or 50% if totally concealed). Total concealment can also block perception based attacks. So you can add concealment to super-high defense, and protect yourself from being hit on top of defense against perception attacks.
Weapons: A chainsaw can add +6 to melee damage by itself. This is on top of strength, which could be bought way up due to tradeoffs and such. Above there was a save DC of 45, now we're at 51. The chainsaw may break from one attack, but with create object or summon or something you could have an endless stream of chainsaws, or chainsaws hard enough to withtand the damage. Even hitting people with cars or telephone poles can add some much needed damage on the fly.
Extra Effort: Extra effort can add +2 to the PL of an attack, or 2 ranks to a power (generally the same thing).
So now we can see all the in-game reasons you can "break" the power level limits in the game and make characters who cannot possibly be saved against, and not at a very high price either.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Friday, December 21, 2012
Unkillable Enemies
What kind of enemies cannot be killed by the players? How do you make an enemy interesting and stop the party from beating it to a bloody pulp? Sure, you can use your PL X enemy, or having an enemy immune to everything, or just hand out hero points, but what if you want something more unique?
Well here are some concepts you can exploit in your own campaign without being cheap.
1) The enemy is already dead.
Consider this: The villain has the power to project himself astrally into the future. Once there he can possess people, or otherwise affect things without being physically present. Now consider that this man has been dead for 2000 years. He is projecting himself into your present. Now even if you "defeat" him you just send him back to his own time. He doesn't have any phyiscal form in your own time- he's been dead for millenea. How can you defeat him? You can't you can only stop him. Even if you manage to kill him somehow, he can return. If you kill him on your Monday and His Monday, he can return on YOUR Tuesday, and his Sunday. CheckMATE party!
2) The enemy is not a person- and not a thing!
Consider this: The enemy is a malevolent emotional state, he is a demon (such as the possession demon from the movie Fallen, or he is a corporation or nation that has become self aware- like computers tend to. Perhaps the enemy is a hivemind like a swarm, or the borg, or is an organization with no leader (like the Klu Klux Klan or something with no ultimate leader). How do you defeat it? What if the enemy is a drug that keeps getting made by various chemists? You can't destroy it, it's not something you can not beat on. Lots of opportunity here for a recurring "villain" without it being a villain.
3) The enemy is you.
Consider This: The enemy is YOU but from the future. The PC fights himself, perhaps at a higher power level. He has to consider how to defeat his future self, while trying to discover why he is evil and working against himself. The enemy will probably never kill the PC, and the PC could always win by committing suicide (unless resurrection is a thing), but will the PC be hesitant to kill his future self? Makes things more interesting!
4) The enemy is not aware
Consider This: There is no enemy. You have to deal with a plague, zombies, mold, the world is losing color, a meteor falling towards the earth, the sun is about to go out, or there is some major problem with NO ANTAGONIST! How do you beat the crap out of a problem like that? HA! CheckMATE!
5) The enemy can't hurt you either
The enemy is a living illusion, a ghost, or is some cripple who uses ESP from some other nation or plane. He is able to convey information, but unable to physically affect anything. As such, he is also unable to be physically affected by the players- considering he's not there. Or he COULD affect the players, firing perception powers via esp or across dimensions with dimensional powers. Even more mean then!
6) Duplication
This enemy can duplicate into multiple forms, and you never see the prime villain, only his duplicates. No matter how many times you kill him, he can re-duplicate and fight you again. Maybe there's a limited amount of duplicates, or you can capture the duplicates rather than kill them to prevent him from re-absorbing?
Well here are some concepts you can exploit in your own campaign without being cheap.
1) The enemy is already dead.
Consider this: The villain has the power to project himself astrally into the future. Once there he can possess people, or otherwise affect things without being physically present. Now consider that this man has been dead for 2000 years. He is projecting himself into your present. Now even if you "defeat" him you just send him back to his own time. He doesn't have any phyiscal form in your own time- he's been dead for millenea. How can you defeat him? You can't you can only stop him. Even if you manage to kill him somehow, he can return. If you kill him on your Monday and His Monday, he can return on YOUR Tuesday, and his Sunday. CheckMATE party!
2) The enemy is not a person- and not a thing!
Consider this: The enemy is a malevolent emotional state, he is a demon (such as the possession demon from the movie Fallen, or he is a corporation or nation that has become self aware- like computers tend to. Perhaps the enemy is a hivemind like a swarm, or the borg, or is an organization with no leader (like the Klu Klux Klan or something with no ultimate leader). How do you defeat it? What if the enemy is a drug that keeps getting made by various chemists? You can't destroy it, it's not something you can not beat on. Lots of opportunity here for a recurring "villain" without it being a villain.
3) The enemy is you.
Consider This: The enemy is YOU but from the future. The PC fights himself, perhaps at a higher power level. He has to consider how to defeat his future self, while trying to discover why he is evil and working against himself. The enemy will probably never kill the PC, and the PC could always win by committing suicide (unless resurrection is a thing), but will the PC be hesitant to kill his future self? Makes things more interesting!
4) The enemy is not aware
Consider This: There is no enemy. You have to deal with a plague, zombies, mold, the world is losing color, a meteor falling towards the earth, the sun is about to go out, or there is some major problem with NO ANTAGONIST! How do you beat the crap out of a problem like that? HA! CheckMATE!
5) The enemy can't hurt you either
The enemy is a living illusion, a ghost, or is some cripple who uses ESP from some other nation or plane. He is able to convey information, but unable to physically affect anything. As such, he is also unable to be physically affected by the players- considering he's not there. Or he COULD affect the players, firing perception powers via esp or across dimensions with dimensional powers. Even more mean then!
6) Duplication
This enemy can duplicate into multiple forms, and you never see the prime villain, only his duplicates. No matter how many times you kill him, he can re-duplicate and fight you again. Maybe there's a limited amount of duplicates, or you can capture the duplicates rather than kill them to prevent him from re-absorbing?
What they Don't Tell you about Power Level
Ah Power Level. The system says that PL 3 is about the power level of normals, PL 5 is something like batman, while superman is closer to PL 15, right?
Well here's a well kept secret- Power Level is a punishment, not a reward!
We've been conditioned by games like Final Fantasy, and even Dungeons and Dragons to tell us that your character's level is a measurement of his progression.
The difference in Mutants and Masterminds is that power level is completely irrelevant! It affects saving throws and NOTHING ELSE!
When building a starting character, your starting PL controls the amount of power points you have, but only powers with saving throws are limited by power level. Teleport, Flight, Immunity, Regeneration, these are limited only by your power points, and with the ability to take flaws until you're paying 1 point for 5 ranks, Powre Level is mostly irrelevant.
Now, since you know your GM will be creating enemies that are geared to your challenge level, instead of referring to them by their power level, you can refer to them based on your own. The enemy isn't PL 8, it's PL is +1 (your PL 7, +1 to indicate he's a bit of a challenge). If you were PL 10 he would be PL 11, if you were PL 3, he'd be PL 4. The enemies real level is only relevant as far as how far away it is from your own.
When completing missions, the players are granted power points, which they can spend on any power, including new ones. So the player given 5 power points (who generally has already maxed out his blast power) is free to buy flight, or teleport, or whatever.
But when you give a power level to the players, they are forced to spend their power points increasing their existing powers. Basically, you're not levelling them up, you're levelling DOWN all their powers by 1 PL. Instead of buying new powers and abilities now they have to waste their points keeping their own powers up to date. If they DON'T level up their powers, they'll slowly become unable to harm the enemies, who are increasing their saving throws and blast powers as they become more powerful.
Oddly enough, the best way to halt player advancement (for a while) is to grant them a new power level. If you add a power level every 5 points instead of every 15 as the guide suggests, they won't be able to increase their powers fast enough to keep pace with the villains. If you do it every 20, they'll be gaining new powers while still being able to increase their existing ones.
Something to keep in mind!
On the other hand- there is one aspect where this is not true, and that's the Luck power. The luck power is limited by 1/2 the PL of the PCs, so they CAN get more hero points, which is just better at all levels. Still, they're trading a bunch of power points levelling up their existing powers, so it may be worth granting a free hero point now and then.
Now granted, PL 20 is generally considered the max, and if you use the static PLs of the enemies and "normals" then PL might be more relevant, but there's no reason you can't make "on the fly" enemies of any power level- so think of that next time you're deciding whether to level up the party using a power level.
Well here's a well kept secret- Power Level is a punishment, not a reward!
We've been conditioned by games like Final Fantasy, and even Dungeons and Dragons to tell us that your character's level is a measurement of his progression.
The difference in Mutants and Masterminds is that power level is completely irrelevant! It affects saving throws and NOTHING ELSE!
When building a starting character, your starting PL controls the amount of power points you have, but only powers with saving throws are limited by power level. Teleport, Flight, Immunity, Regeneration, these are limited only by your power points, and with the ability to take flaws until you're paying 1 point for 5 ranks, Powre Level is mostly irrelevant.
Now, since you know your GM will be creating enemies that are geared to your challenge level, instead of referring to them by their power level, you can refer to them based on your own. The enemy isn't PL 8, it's PL is +1 (your PL 7, +1 to indicate he's a bit of a challenge). If you were PL 10 he would be PL 11, if you were PL 3, he'd be PL 4. The enemies real level is only relevant as far as how far away it is from your own.
When completing missions, the players are granted power points, which they can spend on any power, including new ones. So the player given 5 power points (who generally has already maxed out his blast power) is free to buy flight, or teleport, or whatever.
But when you give a power level to the players, they are forced to spend their power points increasing their existing powers. Basically, you're not levelling them up, you're levelling DOWN all their powers by 1 PL. Instead of buying new powers and abilities now they have to waste their points keeping their own powers up to date. If they DON'T level up their powers, they'll slowly become unable to harm the enemies, who are increasing their saving throws and blast powers as they become more powerful.
Oddly enough, the best way to halt player advancement (for a while) is to grant them a new power level. If you add a power level every 5 points instead of every 15 as the guide suggests, they won't be able to increase their powers fast enough to keep pace with the villains. If you do it every 20, they'll be gaining new powers while still being able to increase their existing ones.
Something to keep in mind!
On the other hand- there is one aspect where this is not true, and that's the Luck power. The luck power is limited by 1/2 the PL of the PCs, so they CAN get more hero points, which is just better at all levels. Still, they're trading a bunch of power points levelling up their existing powers, so it may be worth granting a free hero point now and then.
Now granted, PL 20 is generally considered the max, and if you use the static PLs of the enemies and "normals" then PL might be more relevant, but there's no reason you can't make "on the fly" enemies of any power level- so think of that next time you're deciding whether to level up the party using a power level.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Minion Tactics
Ah minions. They go down in one hit, can usually be beat up all at once, and tend to have power levels less than that of a PC. So what can they do? Why would the PCs even pay them any attention?
Here are some things minions can do to make them a viable target for the PCs, and make them more than just simply background guys in the combat.
HEALING- they can heal the big bad(s), or they can use empathic healing to take fatigue from the big bad. Think about it- the big bad uses extra effort every turn, and the minions take turns absorbing his fatigue! Good way to get the PCs' attention!
INTERPOSE- Especially mind controlled, robots, or fanatics. They can jump in the way, bull rush the boss, or similar, as readied actions, when the PCs target the big bad. Sure, they can't do much against perception attacks, but they can mess up aim.
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS- They can maintain obscurements, high temperatures, fricton control, gravity control, or other effects that make the battleground more complicated- so that defeating them can help the PCs focus their attacks properly on the main boss.
TEAM ATTACK: Whether it's a mass grapple or a legitimate team attack, when minions join up they can drastically increase their DC. In 3rd edition DC max is +5, but in second edition there's no limit.
AFFECTS OTHERS: They can provide the boss with "affects others" powers, effectively granting the boss immunities, regeneration, flight, or other powers he doesn't normally have, making defeating him difficult (if not impossible) without defeating the minions first.
CAUSE CHAOS: Minions can hold civilians hostage, destroy buildings, operate doomsday devices, etc. They may actually be a bigger threat here than the boss! They can disarm, trip, or steal things from the PCs in combat.
VOLTRON: They can use powers like gestalt- either combining together, or combining with the big boss to grant higher PL and powers.
MIRROR IMAGE:They can use disguises, illusions, morph, or similar to disguise themselves as the main boss, making it difficult for the PCs to know who to target. When escape is needed, they can scatter, making it hard to know WHO to chase.
BE THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE: When minions are mind controlled or possessed innocents, they can be damaging the PCs without the PCs wanting to hurt them back, causing a battle complication.
BE ANNOYING: They can mimic PC powers as readied actions, use teleport to move the PCs out of combat, ready actions to nullify the PCs' powers, summon blocks or things to disrupt charges and blasts.
AID IN ESCAPE: They can physically cast the teleport, or they can drive the getaway car while the big bad shoots out of it, or fly in the helicoptor, or simply engage all the PCs while the big bad runs.
OPERATE EQUIPMENT: A helicoptor with turrets, a tank, shoot a bazooka or other weapons with set toughness DCs, minions can easily hold even powerful party members at bay if they're over-equipped.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Combat Complications
Combat: Trading attack rolls and toughness saves with the big bad until combat is over. La ti da. How can we make combat more interesting?
- Takes place with breakable objects or volitile
chemicals or something where damaging nearby items can cause consequences
-The big bad has multiple "forms" and evolves into them with each "defeat"
- Surrounded by innocents who can be attacked or hit by
friendly fire
- Takes place on moving platforms (cars/trains etc) and
the platform itself can be targeted by the villain to help him escape (such as
attacking the car)
- The battle is timed in some way (the villain must be
disarmed of his gizmo before the moon crashes into the earth)
- The boss is load-bearing in some way (he maintains the ice
fortress or the bubble around the undersea city)
- The boss is possessing/employing innocents in some way
that can hurt but shouldn't be hurt back
- The party destroys the mcguffin by destroying the boss
(like in Antrax- destruction of the AI would also destroy the information
contained within it)
- The boss has diplomatic immunity or some other reason
he shouldn't be killed
- The boss often employs mind controlled decoys so it's
hard to know if you're killing the right person.
- The boss is shielded by secondary targets so he can
damage you without being harmed until the targets are destroyed
- The boss will
explode or carries a bomb or whatever so he will damage people if he is not let
go.
- The bad guy doesn't realize he's doing wrong, or is
doing it accidentially/passively (he's leaking radiation, his anger is killing
people)
-The battlefield/combat arena is littered with traps or
obstacles making it difficult to manuver (less of an issue with flying or
perception powers)
- A bad guy can only be harmed by "weaker"
attacks (like his is not harmed by powers, only by physical punches or guns for
example)
- You cannot tell when you are damaging a bad guy, so you
assume that you aren't.
- The bad guy's regeneration is powered by absorbing the
life of people around him (including resurrection?), so hurting him will
actually hurt those around him (including PCs!)
- The bad guy absorbs wounds (reverse of above) so you
hurt him by damaging yourself.
- The bad guy must be killed with mcguffins or plot
coupons (go find his heart in the egg or whatever)
-The minions are more powerful than the big bad (or more
deadly anyway) so represent more of a threat.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Too Many Actions
Let's look at some of the most troublesome powers:
Duplicate, Animate Objects, Summon
THe big problem with these powers is in combat.
One one hand- the ability to grant +2 to damage rolls via team attack makes you easily able to break damage limits to an unbeatable degree. 3rd edition solved this somewhat by limiting the total increase to +5, whereas 2nd edition allows limitless increases.
On the other hand, if you don't use your minions to team attack, now you could be working out 10 different actions per character. One PC could be bogging down combat with his minions each needing to act.
The heroic extra (+1/ rank) and horde (+1/rank) allow for multiple minions to be summoned at once- all who are about as strong (if not as strong) as the PC who summoned them.
So what can you do? Obviously you can outright ban the powers- but that's not the way a clever GM handles things.
1) Area effects: Most of the time the summoned creatures are minions, and as such they are one-hit kills. Now, for the cost of an extra, this problem can be avoided, but area effects are still useful in crowd control for the PC who summons too much. Even an area effect snare or something can keep those pesky minions out of a fight.
2) Takedown Attack: With minions as opponants, the enemy can attack, drop a summon, then attack the next one. Without minions, there's still one extra melee attack.
3) Complex Tactics: Remember, it's a move action to issue a command. You can command everyone to "attack", but to direct them in any more complex way requires actions just to control everyone- don't forget that. The PC loses his own actions controlling his minions.
4) Nullify/Power Control- Duplicate is personal ranged: so nullify just on the main character nullifies all duplicates. Likewise, power control used on the main character can force him to "banish" his summons or duplicates (or cease animation of objects)- allowing the tide to be turned with one attack- even if the heroic extra is purchased. With summons and animate objects you need an area effect to nullify multiple summons at once- though a power control at the main character can dispel everything.
5) Mind Control- If an enemy mind controls the summoner, by extension he can control all the summons- quickly changing the outcome of a battle.
6) Mimic- Of course, the enemy could always summon, animate, or duplicate himself and have his extras fight the PC's extras. Otherwise he could mimic the power outright and use it.
GOOD USES OF DUPLICATE/SUMMON
From a role-playing perspective, it's handy if a duplicate can help hide a secret identity, or to stay at the player's day job while he's out superheroing. It's when they are used as a personal combat army for the PC.
Hopefuly this helps level the playing field a bit.
Duplicate, Animate Objects, Summon
THe big problem with these powers is in combat.
One one hand- the ability to grant +2 to damage rolls via team attack makes you easily able to break damage limits to an unbeatable degree. 3rd edition solved this somewhat by limiting the total increase to +5, whereas 2nd edition allows limitless increases.
On the other hand, if you don't use your minions to team attack, now you could be working out 10 different actions per character. One PC could be bogging down combat with his minions each needing to act.
The heroic extra (+1/ rank) and horde (+1/rank) allow for multiple minions to be summoned at once- all who are about as strong (if not as strong) as the PC who summoned them.
So what can you do? Obviously you can outright ban the powers- but that's not the way a clever GM handles things.
1) Area effects: Most of the time the summoned creatures are minions, and as such they are one-hit kills. Now, for the cost of an extra, this problem can be avoided, but area effects are still useful in crowd control for the PC who summons too much. Even an area effect snare or something can keep those pesky minions out of a fight.
2) Takedown Attack: With minions as opponants, the enemy can attack, drop a summon, then attack the next one. Without minions, there's still one extra melee attack.
3) Complex Tactics: Remember, it's a move action to issue a command. You can command everyone to "attack", but to direct them in any more complex way requires actions just to control everyone- don't forget that. The PC loses his own actions controlling his minions.
4) Nullify/Power Control- Duplicate is personal ranged: so nullify just on the main character nullifies all duplicates. Likewise, power control used on the main character can force him to "banish" his summons or duplicates (or cease animation of objects)- allowing the tide to be turned with one attack- even if the heroic extra is purchased. With summons and animate objects you need an area effect to nullify multiple summons at once- though a power control at the main character can dispel everything.
5) Mind Control- If an enemy mind controls the summoner, by extension he can control all the summons- quickly changing the outcome of a battle.
6) Mimic- Of course, the enemy could always summon, animate, or duplicate himself and have his extras fight the PC's extras. Otherwise he could mimic the power outright and use it.
GOOD USES OF DUPLICATE/SUMMON
From a role-playing perspective, it's handy if a duplicate can help hide a secret identity, or to stay at the player's day job while he's out superheroing. It's when they are used as a personal combat army for the PC.
Hopefuly this helps level the playing field a bit.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Mind Reading
So many GMs want to limit or outright ban mind reading. While it can be a powerful ability- it's not the game-breaking power many people assume it is.
First of all, the subject gets a cumulative +1 bonus to saves against mind reading in the encounter.
Second of all, by default you gain surface thoughts. In order to mind probe, you give the character another save (with +1 to +5 based on how private the info is), you use a full round action, and you grant cumulative save bonuses again. If the info is subconsciously known and not actively known, the subject gains +5 to +10 on his save.
Subtle- First of all, you need to remember that powers without subtle are not subtle- meaning a character may know that his mind is being read, which will change his surface thoughts- if not cause him to actively resist. Remember, you can use extra effort to gain another save against an ongoing power- NPCs can do that too.
Surface Thoughts- You need to beat sense motive with a bluff check in order to force the target to think about something in particular. Failure means that the target doesn't think about that- and may have detected the ruse. He may then get a sense motive roll to realize that you are reading his mind- assuming that powers are not a secret to the character being read.
Double Mind Readers- If you're probing a target for information, and someone else is even reading his surface thoughts, they could become aware when the target is being forced to think of specific topics, partiularly since you effectively "ask a question" and receive your answer. Another mind reader could be aware of your influence, and may be able to take action.
Concentration- A character who has reason to suspect he is being mind read, or who knows he is, could potentially concentrate on a specific topic or something to avoid having his surface thoughts read. Use the concentration check result in place of the sense motive check or will save to avoid thinking of a given topic.
Horrific Thoughts- Some people may have surface thoughts (either naturally or on purpose since they suspect mind readers) that are so horrible, vile, offensive, or explicit that is bothers those looking inside their head. So if Betty the mind reader starts reading Ted's mind, Ted could be thinking of horrible details concerning the rape and murder of Betty, or something similar. In this case, he might cause Betty to either make a will save or concentration check to avoid breaking the mind reading connection because they can't bear to continue the connection.
Need to Know- While most people know who their immediate supervisor is, many might not have any idea why they're doing what their doing, or what the boss's master plan is. Take the Joker from The Dark Knight. In their first bank robbery he murders all the people involved in the plot from his own team. Those people had no idea what the total plan was, and mind reading them would have gotten misleading or false information. A behind the scenes puppetmaster villain could be doing the same with his minions- or even giving them false reasons for doing things, which would make mind reading useless without that being the reason that mind reading is useless.
Forced Amnesia- A character could be forced by mental effects to forget sensitive information. In this case, the information is considered subsconsciously known, giving a +5 to +10 to the will save associated with mind control, and that save cannot be voluntarily failed.
Not My Mind- A character being possessed, mind controlled, or otherwise acting against their own will might have the host mind read, the possessing mind read, or may simply have no memory of the events in question as they were not mentally present for them.
I've Been Tricked- Remember, you're reading the target's mind. If he was tricked by illusion, disguise, or other similar powers, he's going to remember things that way. This means you could be getting false information from mind reading. His own predjudices may take effect here also. If Bob is certain that Jim killed Fran, if for no other reason than a hunch, or a strong dislike for Jim, that could come across in the mind reading.
So before you start banning mind reading- just remember that it's not the end all be all power it might seem like.
First of all, the subject gets a cumulative +1 bonus to saves against mind reading in the encounter.
Second of all, by default you gain surface thoughts. In order to mind probe, you give the character another save (with +1 to +5 based on how private the info is), you use a full round action, and you grant cumulative save bonuses again. If the info is subconsciously known and not actively known, the subject gains +5 to +10 on his save.
Subtle- First of all, you need to remember that powers without subtle are not subtle- meaning a character may know that his mind is being read, which will change his surface thoughts- if not cause him to actively resist. Remember, you can use extra effort to gain another save against an ongoing power- NPCs can do that too.
Surface Thoughts- You need to beat sense motive with a bluff check in order to force the target to think about something in particular. Failure means that the target doesn't think about that- and may have detected the ruse. He may then get a sense motive roll to realize that you are reading his mind- assuming that powers are not a secret to the character being read.
Double Mind Readers- If you're probing a target for information, and someone else is even reading his surface thoughts, they could become aware when the target is being forced to think of specific topics, partiularly since you effectively "ask a question" and receive your answer. Another mind reader could be aware of your influence, and may be able to take action.
Concentration- A character who has reason to suspect he is being mind read, or who knows he is, could potentially concentrate on a specific topic or something to avoid having his surface thoughts read. Use the concentration check result in place of the sense motive check or will save to avoid thinking of a given topic.
Horrific Thoughts- Some people may have surface thoughts (either naturally or on purpose since they suspect mind readers) that are so horrible, vile, offensive, or explicit that is bothers those looking inside their head. So if Betty the mind reader starts reading Ted's mind, Ted could be thinking of horrible details concerning the rape and murder of Betty, or something similar. In this case, he might cause Betty to either make a will save or concentration check to avoid breaking the mind reading connection because they can't bear to continue the connection.
Need to Know- While most people know who their immediate supervisor is, many might not have any idea why they're doing what their doing, or what the boss's master plan is. Take the Joker from The Dark Knight. In their first bank robbery he murders all the people involved in the plot from his own team. Those people had no idea what the total plan was, and mind reading them would have gotten misleading or false information. A behind the scenes puppetmaster villain could be doing the same with his minions- or even giving them false reasons for doing things, which would make mind reading useless without that being the reason that mind reading is useless.
Forced Amnesia- A character could be forced by mental effects to forget sensitive information. In this case, the information is considered subsconsciously known, giving a +5 to +10 to the will save associated with mind control, and that save cannot be voluntarily failed.
Not My Mind- A character being possessed, mind controlled, or otherwise acting against their own will might have the host mind read, the possessing mind read, or may simply have no memory of the events in question as they were not mentally present for them.
I've Been Tricked- Remember, you're reading the target's mind. If he was tricked by illusion, disguise, or other similar powers, he's going to remember things that way. This means you could be getting false information from mind reading. His own predjudices may take effect here also. If Bob is certain that Jim killed Fran, if for no other reason than a hunch, or a strong dislike for Jim, that could come across in the mind reading.
So before you start banning mind reading- just remember that it's not the end all be all power it might seem like.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Postcognition
Another problem for the investigative missions is precog and postcog.
Precog is hard enough to deal with just because you can't predict the behavior of the PCs- but most players will grant you that. Sometimes it can just be a bit of a pain.
Postcog can be worse. According to the rules you can make a DC 30 perception check and see events as if actually present. So let's look at what that means.
As if you were present- This doesn't mean you have a DVD of the past- where you can slow down time, rewind, and such. So you'd need precise or accurate or something to target a given event, though you could search or something to find something specific like a murder. Still- you may need to make skill checks. Using postcognition means you still have to beat opposed stealth / sleight of hand/disguise checks, etc with your perception. It doesn't help you understand foreign languages or code if people speak in it. So if a man was murdered from hiding, you might just see him die with no explanation. Especially if powers were used: invisibility, TK, etc. Likewise the scene you see might be misleading.
Tracking: Some GMs might say that postcogntion only reveals significant events. A man walking down the street is not significant, so while you might see a man committing a crime, you can't postcog to follow him back to his house.
Illusion/Obscurement: This is my favorite: The illusion power with the limited: only affects temporal vision. You look into the past and you see a birthday party instead of a murder? Why, because they were using the illusion power at the time they committed the crime. Obscure also works, and one could even use Obscure: limited to temporal vision, to hide their crimes from being forseen with precog or discovered with postcog. Of course, the illusion would have to have been done in the past, so people would have to have been preparing for postcogs- but the obscurement could be in effect "now" or "then" and have the same effect.
Precog: What if you looked into the future, and you saw a man looking into the past? Could you talk? What if using postcog alerted the man in the past that you were watching him- and he could look at you and say something to you. Might make you less likely to use that power on him! (Ultimately it wouldn't matter, if he had precog he might be able to look forward and see you anyway- but it's still unnerving)
Postcog Traps- You are extending your senses into the past- so you might be vulnerable to passive sensory dependent abilities. If you can hear the past you might be entranced by a siren's song, or if you can see the past you might be turned to stone if you see medusa's visage. Horrific scenes may cause fear effects, or seeing a naked nymph (using D&D rules) might even kill you! Not something you'd want to abuse- but something to keep in mind for the PC who is using postcognition to solve EVERYTHING!
Precog is hard enough to deal with just because you can't predict the behavior of the PCs- but most players will grant you that. Sometimes it can just be a bit of a pain.
Postcog can be worse. According to the rules you can make a DC 30 perception check and see events as if actually present. So let's look at what that means.
As if you were present- This doesn't mean you have a DVD of the past- where you can slow down time, rewind, and such. So you'd need precise or accurate or something to target a given event, though you could search or something to find something specific like a murder. Still- you may need to make skill checks. Using postcognition means you still have to beat opposed stealth / sleight of hand/disguise checks, etc with your perception. It doesn't help you understand foreign languages or code if people speak in it. So if a man was murdered from hiding, you might just see him die with no explanation. Especially if powers were used: invisibility, TK, etc. Likewise the scene you see might be misleading.
Tracking: Some GMs might say that postcogntion only reveals significant events. A man walking down the street is not significant, so while you might see a man committing a crime, you can't postcog to follow him back to his house.
Illusion/Obscurement: This is my favorite: The illusion power with the limited: only affects temporal vision. You look into the past and you see a birthday party instead of a murder? Why, because they were using the illusion power at the time they committed the crime. Obscure also works, and one could even use Obscure: limited to temporal vision, to hide their crimes from being forseen with precog or discovered with postcog. Of course, the illusion would have to have been done in the past, so people would have to have been preparing for postcogs- but the obscurement could be in effect "now" or "then" and have the same effect.
Precog: What if you looked into the future, and you saw a man looking into the past? Could you talk? What if using postcog alerted the man in the past that you were watching him- and he could look at you and say something to you. Might make you less likely to use that power on him! (Ultimately it wouldn't matter, if he had precog he might be able to look forward and see you anyway- but it's still unnerving)
Postcog Traps- You are extending your senses into the past- so you might be vulnerable to passive sensory dependent abilities. If you can hear the past you might be entranced by a siren's song, or if you can see the past you might be turned to stone if you see medusa's visage. Horrific scenes may cause fear effects, or seeing a naked nymph (using D&D rules) might even kill you! Not something you'd want to abuse- but something to keep in mind for the PC who is using postcognition to solve EVERYTHING!
Mimic
So the first power the immediately looks to be problematic in any mutants and masterminds campaign is mimic. There's always someone who decides he can get around everything by just having "all the powers".
With the right extras, you can hold near-unlimited powers. That means all your great villains, all the other PCs, every powered NPC- suddenly all the great powers are inside one PC.
So how do you handle this?
Well let's look a bit at mimic and how it works, which might provide some limitations a clever GM can exploit.
Innate- Innate powers can't be nullified or drained. Some might argue that they can't be mimicked. I mean, can a mimic gain the flight power from a bird or bat? Can he gain scent from dogs? Those aren't "powers" so much as the standard abilities of a given race. Birds only fly because they have wings. Unless your mimic is gaining wings he won't gain flight.
Nullfiy/Power Control- You don't actually gain any powers when you mimic- you are holding them inside a "mimic array". You can nullify the mimic and he will lose ALL the powers he's mimicked so far. Sure, he could go re-mimic them (if he can find them again), but he has to start over every time he's nullified. Likewise, the "power control" power can force a mimic to "turn off" his mimic ability- purging him of all held powers. With power control you could also force a mimic to "fill up" by forcing him to mimic specific people.
Mimic- Remember, you don't actually "gain" mimicked powers. So you realistically shouldn't be able to mimic powers from another mimic. Now, in fiction this isn't always accurate. Peter Petrelli gets TK from Sylar, and Arthur Petrelli steals all Peter's held powers, but as written it doesn't seem like you could actually mimic powers which are gained via mimic. So there's that.
Bad Powers- Don't want your mimic stealing powers all the time? Start having enemies have powers that have horrendous drawbacks. (Maybe an always active flight power that's distracting and has a linked strength drain or something). Remember, a character won't know what powers he gets until he mimics them. And unless he has selective, he must take ALL powers from a character he attempts to mimic- he can't pick and choose. (Sure, he could link precognition to learn the powers prior to mimicking them- but that forces him to choose). And remember, unless the mimic is REVERSABLE AND SELECTIVE- he can't choose what powers to drop. Once he fills up he must drop all his powers in order to start filling them up again.
Devices- Like innate- a mimic may not be able to mimic devices. Certainly he can't gain flight from an airplane or blast from a gun, right? So by having enemies carry weapons instead of powers you can limit the power of the mimic.
You control the powers- Remember, you control what powers the mimic comes into contact with. You can always have the enemies use dumb powers. I remember a mimic in a campaign I ran ended up with powers such as "Mind control: limited to hacidic jews" and "create object: limited to uninflated balloons" and "super movement: slithering". You can also have powers which contain limited so as to make them useless- such as flight when wearing a red cape, or burrowing when wearing a luchador mask, etc. The mimic will be forced to dress like a buffoon to use all his powers.
Max Ranks- By the mimic power description, you can't gain more ranks in a power than your ranks in mimic. (Which itself is probably limited by your PL). That means powers like immunity and regeneration (perhaps also teleport and such) which themselves aren't limited by PL or which are effectively a ton of rank 1-2 powers are severely limited to a mimic. A PL 5 character could have a rank 20 immunity if he wanted- but a PL 5 mimic can only mimic up to 5 ranks of immunity- not nearly as useful.
Immunity- You could always go cheap and have a villian with immunity: mimic. (You might even have non-mimickable as a 1 point extra on a given power). Kind of a cheap way to nerf the power, but it's legitimate.
Now that you've seen some ways to nerf mimics- I'll just quickly list some of the "novel" mimic I've seen used.
The Reverse Mimic- He doesn't copy your powers- he gets the reverse of your powers. This came to be very useful when they fought Molam Ram and could put hearts back into the body, or when the King of Atlantis with the power to project himself into the future and possess people attacked, and the reverse mimic was able to go back in time and fight the king in his physical form. It's more work on the GM sometimes to figure out what the reverse of a power is sometimes, but it was novel.
Disease Mimic- This guy copies a disease and then can inflict it on others. The downside- he almost always has at least one disease- the good news, he can be cured by bringing him around another disease.
Muscle Mimic- This guy could only mimic innate powers and physical skills. Been done on Heroes and Alphas before, but it comes up to not be as broken as your straight mimic.
Ramza Mimic- The mimic from final fantasy tactics- he doesn't keep your powers or hold them, he can just use your powers on you in response to you using your powers on him. Like deflecting except he doesn't actually block the original power. Breaks the "one action per turn" concept- but still pretty cool.
Mega Man- A robot who can only mimic the powers of devices and other robots, like Mega Man. He had the "unreliable-5 uses" flaw on every mimicked power because he ran out of battery power and had to recharge- just like the video game.
The Power Broker- This ended up getting used in Misfits- but this character would mimic the power, but instead of being able to use it, he was instead able to grant it's use to someone else. So he mimic's flight- but cannot fly, he is able to give other people the ability to fly. Great as a support character- he holds powers he is not able to personally use.
With the right extras, you can hold near-unlimited powers. That means all your great villains, all the other PCs, every powered NPC- suddenly all the great powers are inside one PC.
So how do you handle this?
Well let's look a bit at mimic and how it works, which might provide some limitations a clever GM can exploit.
Innate- Innate powers can't be nullified or drained. Some might argue that they can't be mimicked. I mean, can a mimic gain the flight power from a bird or bat? Can he gain scent from dogs? Those aren't "powers" so much as the standard abilities of a given race. Birds only fly because they have wings. Unless your mimic is gaining wings he won't gain flight.
Nullfiy/Power Control- You don't actually gain any powers when you mimic- you are holding them inside a "mimic array". You can nullify the mimic and he will lose ALL the powers he's mimicked so far. Sure, he could go re-mimic them (if he can find them again), but he has to start over every time he's nullified. Likewise, the "power control" power can force a mimic to "turn off" his mimic ability- purging him of all held powers. With power control you could also force a mimic to "fill up" by forcing him to mimic specific people.
Mimic- Remember, you don't actually "gain" mimicked powers. So you realistically shouldn't be able to mimic powers from another mimic. Now, in fiction this isn't always accurate. Peter Petrelli gets TK from Sylar, and Arthur Petrelli steals all Peter's held powers, but as written it doesn't seem like you could actually mimic powers which are gained via mimic. So there's that.
Bad Powers- Don't want your mimic stealing powers all the time? Start having enemies have powers that have horrendous drawbacks. (Maybe an always active flight power that's distracting and has a linked strength drain or something). Remember, a character won't know what powers he gets until he mimics them. And unless he has selective, he must take ALL powers from a character he attempts to mimic- he can't pick and choose. (Sure, he could link precognition to learn the powers prior to mimicking them- but that forces him to choose). And remember, unless the mimic is REVERSABLE AND SELECTIVE- he can't choose what powers to drop. Once he fills up he must drop all his powers in order to start filling them up again.
Devices- Like innate- a mimic may not be able to mimic devices. Certainly he can't gain flight from an airplane or blast from a gun, right? So by having enemies carry weapons instead of powers you can limit the power of the mimic.
You control the powers- Remember, you control what powers the mimic comes into contact with. You can always have the enemies use dumb powers. I remember a mimic in a campaign I ran ended up with powers such as "Mind control: limited to hacidic jews" and "create object: limited to uninflated balloons" and "super movement: slithering". You can also have powers which contain limited so as to make them useless- such as flight when wearing a red cape, or burrowing when wearing a luchador mask, etc. The mimic will be forced to dress like a buffoon to use all his powers.
Max Ranks- By the mimic power description, you can't gain more ranks in a power than your ranks in mimic. (Which itself is probably limited by your PL). That means powers like immunity and regeneration (perhaps also teleport and such) which themselves aren't limited by PL or which are effectively a ton of rank 1-2 powers are severely limited to a mimic. A PL 5 character could have a rank 20 immunity if he wanted- but a PL 5 mimic can only mimic up to 5 ranks of immunity- not nearly as useful.
Immunity- You could always go cheap and have a villian with immunity: mimic. (You might even have non-mimickable as a 1 point extra on a given power). Kind of a cheap way to nerf the power, but it's legitimate.
Now that you've seen some ways to nerf mimics- I'll just quickly list some of the "novel" mimic I've seen used.
The Reverse Mimic- He doesn't copy your powers- he gets the reverse of your powers. This came to be very useful when they fought Molam Ram and could put hearts back into the body, or when the King of Atlantis with the power to project himself into the future and possess people attacked, and the reverse mimic was able to go back in time and fight the king in his physical form. It's more work on the GM sometimes to figure out what the reverse of a power is sometimes, but it was novel.
Disease Mimic- This guy copies a disease and then can inflict it on others. The downside- he almost always has at least one disease- the good news, he can be cured by bringing him around another disease.
Muscle Mimic- This guy could only mimic innate powers and physical skills. Been done on Heroes and Alphas before, but it comes up to not be as broken as your straight mimic.
Ramza Mimic- The mimic from final fantasy tactics- he doesn't keep your powers or hold them, he can just use your powers on you in response to you using your powers on him. Like deflecting except he doesn't actually block the original power. Breaks the "one action per turn" concept- but still pretty cool.
Mega Man- A robot who can only mimic the powers of devices and other robots, like Mega Man. He had the "unreliable-5 uses" flaw on every mimicked power because he ran out of battery power and had to recharge- just like the video game.
The Power Broker- This ended up getting used in Misfits- but this character would mimic the power, but instead of being able to use it, he was instead able to grant it's use to someone else. So he mimic's flight- but cannot fly, he is able to give other people the ability to fly. Great as a support character- he holds powers he is not able to personally use.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)