Broken Tactics

So you want to build a character that's not fair? Or you are afraid your PC might? Here are some broken tactics that I've seen employed in play to watch out for.


Perception Power + ESP- So you can blast people from anywhere? How about perception+attack teleport- you just start teleporting item directly to you from anywhere. You can sit home in the saftey of your bathtub closing your eyes and blasting supervillains.

How to Defeat:Well there's obscurement, that's a big one. You can counter the esp if you're aware of it. The nasty guys will look back through your esp and target you back, or you can be a medusa or something where viewing your face causes the viewer to turn to stone.

Superspeed+Move by attack: I move 500 miles, attack the villain, and continue to move 500 miles away. I am the speedster and I can totally do something crazy like that.

How to defeat: Ready an action to attack/trip/grapple/blast/dodge, or throw down some entangling glue.

Invisible- Not just invisible, invisible to all senses, even smell, ultrasound, hearing, infrared vision, etc. Add incoporeal for extra pain. Now you can spam them and they can't do anything about it.

How to defeat: Detect powers mainly. for non-incoporeal there's smoke, sprinkler systems, and other ways to detect the invisible, or you can just obscure the area and put you on equal footing.

Teleporter- I teleport to (home/another dimension) and heal myself, then teleport back into battle. I teleport in- blast, then extra effort to teleport out again. Another pain in the ass.

How to defeat: readied actions, teleport nullifys, or just leaving the area while the guy's gone so he doesn't know where you went. Some ability to trace teleport is nice too, so they can just follow you.

Ricochet + Range- I literally had a PC who shot the pope by ricocheting his blast off the moon. He targetted using a television showing the pope's speech. 50% miss chance? worth it. for the record- the party still almost lost that fight

How to defeat: redirect, a good dodge roll. or just hiding.

Hide in the Wall- With incoporeal or phasing the PC hides in the wall/floor/ceiling/desk and attacks the enemy while wearing a shield of object to protect him.

How to defeat: a high strengh guy who smashes the item out of the way, a similar power to phase in and get him, flying away from objects you can hide in, or readied actions, or nullify him so he's stuck in there.

Super-regenerator- A quite common one, the PC regenerates all damage, even "incurable" at a rate so quickly that he is indestructable- even regenerates from death in one round. They can usually stand from prone as a free action.

How to defeat: Entomb them in a created object, drown them, grapple/snare them, transform them into something else (like a rock), remove his limbs with attack anotomical separation.

Effort Battery- Use empathic healing to heal the fatigue of your team members- but make it an area effect. While each PC is fatigued or exhaused, you can heal 5 people at once, gain 10 fatigue conditions (which is the same as taking 3 fatigue conditions) and pass out. Then with a DC 20 heal check you can be woken back up to do it again. How will you wake back up? Well, one guy can use extra effort to get to you and heal you, while the rest of the party takes double extra effort actions.

How to defeat: Kill that man, keep him away from the party, use a fatigue power on him so he passes out early. Power use to force him to use it on you instead.

Not Here- I'm always astral, I'm in another dimension looking in, or whatever, but I can still blast you, or possess you or whatever, while being completely inperceptable and undefeatable by you. If you defeat me, I just go back to my body and come back next round.

How to defeat Find the prime body, trap him in a body if he's possessing, shoot him back with interdimensional power (extra effort!), have someone walk into his home dimension.

The Magic Device: I have a wand(device) or ring (device). For 4 power points I gain 5 in talents. I purchase with it the Magic power (costs 2 points, grants 2 points worth of powers). Then I buy down the device with flaws and the magic with flaws.
So I have a magic wand (costs 3 points) with the flaw (uses somatic componants) and distracting (lose dodge to AC) So I get 5 points worth of powers for every 1 point I spend.
I buy the power MAGIC with the flaw (with the limited, only works when I speak). So for every 1 point of MAGIC I buy, I get 2 points worth of powers.

I spend 5 points on my device. This gives my 25 points to spend.
25 on the magic power, which gives me 50 points worth of powers.
I then put flaws on those powers to make them even cheaper.

This allows you to break the maximum of 1 rank : 5 ranks with flaws, down to 1 rank : 5 for device (which gives you 25 via the device power) to 1:5 with magic (which gives you 2 per rank, so 1:10) and then each power inside 1:5.

1 rank of device here gives 25 points to spend on magic, 125 points to spend on powers within magic, and 625 ranks worth of powers inside it.

Then you can just buy alternate powers if you want too.

How to defeat: Disarm that guy, break his device, have it taken, or tell him to make a new character.

Nested Alternate Powers: Another one like magic device.

I have mind control costing me a total of 50 points.
I have an alternate power (costing me one point). I buy a 48 point power with 1 point of alternate power. I then get a 47 point power with 1 point to alternate power, I then get a 46 point power with 1 point of alternate power).
You end up with a very specific power array that ends up being very cheap, since you only actually pay for the alternate power feat once, as each other alternate power feat is paid with the auto points from the new power you got cheaper.

How to defeat: You really can't- it's a cheap way to save points on buying alterate powers. Sure, each one must be 1 point cheaper, but you start adding flaws (or making it cheap powers like super senses) and it won't matter.

Megaboost: Do you know it's cheaper to buy boost-all traits and have it up all the time with fades than it is to buy all the skills and stats? In fact, if you buy your stats DOWN to 1, you can boost them up even cheaper with those bonus build points you got. Nullify got you down? Make it innate!

How about this one- buy a rank 1 power with all the fun extras, then boost it up with a cheap, low duration boost. Now you've got powers you can't possibly afford, all the time.

How to defeat: "Evil Boost" the enemy boosts the hero with power feat "innate", or boosts just one trait to the limit so the PC is not a valid target for his own boost. Take that hard power level limits!

Nested Mimic: So you can only mimic 5 people's powers at once? Easy. Make your mimic "affects others", give 5 people that power, then mimic it back from them. Now your 5 "slots" are used with 5 mimic abilities, each which can hold 5 people's powers- 25 total people's powers. (see where this is going?)

Or boost your power to "affects others". Let your ally mimic all your powers as one set, then mimic it back to turn 5 people's power into 1 person's powers! (There's always a loophole)

How to defeat: Kill that mimic. Mimic him back. Nullify the mimic so he loses all nested powers and has to start all over again. See my troublesome power entry.