Penetrating (Extra) vs Impervious (extra)
Incurable (power feat) vs Persistant (power feat)
So these two powers kind of make me laugh.
For one, I've never seen somoene take healing WITHOUT persistant, and I've never seen anyone take INCURABLE.
On top of that, I've rarely seen anyone take PENETRATING despite seeing people take IMPERVIOUS.
I'll tell you why: They're a waste of points!
Let's start with Incurable and Persistant
Incurable stops the damage from being healed through normal means. It's a power feat- which means if I'm ever battling a healer and it's relevant, I can use extra effort to gain the feat as needed. The enemy, on the other hand, can use extra effort when he heals anyway- so why bother to worry about it? This was obviously a design flaw with little thought given.
If it were me, I'd require that persistant be an extra only gainable through hero points to add dramateic tension when incurable comes up- and make incurable only takeable with power points, not with extra effort.
PENETRATING vs IMPERVIOUS
Here's another odd combo. Impervious only works when purchased in advance. First, it only blocks attacks LESS than the power level. All things being equal- you'll probably have an attack at the same level as the protection. Even if you don't. you can boost your attack damage with tradeoffs, extra effort, team attacks, power attack, and similar means- without reverting to penetrating?
But what if PENTRATING is the only way? Penetrating only reduces the impervious, so even if you have it, it might not be enough. But even if it is- you can just extra effort, take an alternate power with penetrating, add an equal value flaw (like distracting or something) and be ready to go.
The ease of getting penetrating makes impervious useless.
This can be avoided by not allowing alternate powers though extra effort, though nothing bypasses the point that impervious is usually fairly easy to get around. Given the fact that enemies will usually be of higher PL than the party- impervious is useless when a PC takes it (most of the time).
Besides, impervious can be gotten around other ways- perhaps with nullify, drain, or by boosting penetrate into your powers.
It's one of the things that has no easy answer- except perhaps to just ignore these powers. It's not a problem, so you need not worry about it, but more of a warning when making characters.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Drain
Drain- an often overlooked power.
First, let's compare it to nullfiy. Nullfy, when targeting a person, uses the GREATER of their power level of the power or their will save. Drain affects fort save (though with alt save the type of save is irrelevant).
Drain can be used to drop that pesky will save down and be used in conjunction with nullify, or to reduce regeneration or nullify (which due to the number of ranks might not be POSSIBLE to nullify!) and effectively make it usesless.
Drain isn't permanent like nullify can be- and it isn't used to turn off power effects on people, but when it comes to just combat uses, drain can be just as useful, if not moreso. Besides, if you drain the will save and the powers, it's that much easier to nullify the powers!
Again, you can use alternate powers to really get a lot out of this power, rather than spending all your points getting it to 5 points per rank. 2 points per rank is enough to break most things. Besides, you don't need to REMOVE the power- you only need to drain it down to the point where you'll always be making your opposed check (attack roll, saving throw, power level check, etc).
Also, drain doesn't have to be big to be useful. You can boost up the DC (perhaps with powers such as all out attack) and have even a low rank drain be useful. Pull out those alternate power feats! Pull away an extra from a power. Immunity can become quickly useless if it goes from rank 30 to rank 29- depending on how the points were spent!
Not a huge power, certainly doesn't have the SAVE OR DIE issues with powers like transform, and it doesn't affect innate powers, but it's not a bad one on its own.
First, let's compare it to nullfiy. Nullfy, when targeting a person, uses the GREATER of their power level of the power or their will save. Drain affects fort save (though with alt save the type of save is irrelevant).
Drain can be used to drop that pesky will save down and be used in conjunction with nullify, or to reduce regeneration or nullify (which due to the number of ranks might not be POSSIBLE to nullify!) and effectively make it usesless.
Drain isn't permanent like nullify can be- and it isn't used to turn off power effects on people, but when it comes to just combat uses, drain can be just as useful, if not moreso. Besides, if you drain the will save and the powers, it's that much easier to nullify the powers!
Again, you can use alternate powers to really get a lot out of this power, rather than spending all your points getting it to 5 points per rank. 2 points per rank is enough to break most things. Besides, you don't need to REMOVE the power- you only need to drain it down to the point where you'll always be making your opposed check (attack roll, saving throw, power level check, etc).
Also, drain doesn't have to be big to be useful. You can boost up the DC (perhaps with powers such as all out attack) and have even a low rank drain be useful. Pull out those alternate power feats! Pull away an extra from a power. Immunity can become quickly useless if it goes from rank 30 to rank 29- depending on how the points were spent!
Not a huge power, certainly doesn't have the SAVE OR DIE issues with powers like transform, and it doesn't affect innate powers, but it's not a bad one on its own.
Boost
Boost- one of the most breakable and horrible powers of all!
For 3 points per rank, it can be used to charge up all your skills to max ranks! (Take 1 rank of each skill and now you're a master!). Or it can push all your stats to full.
Discount Spending
Of course, the best use is to buy out your powers with a bunch of extras, then 3 point boost to power them all up at once, and get a huge discount on your powers. Sure, they can be nullified, but it's still cheaper to use boost this way.
Minions
Have a minion who's a PL below you? Not if you boost him up!
Have a bunch of normals or minions? Now they're attacking at YOUR power level!
Break Limits: Extra effort with boost to break power level limits. There's a problem!
Extras: Boost gives extra power points to use- so you can boost your normal powers to just gain extras or power feats AS NEEDED.
Power God: For 2 power points per rank you can effectively use boost to grant any person any power!
Immunity- I have rank 1 immunity to critical hits. Now, thanks to boost (3 points per rank) I am immune to whatever I need to be!
Alternate Power- I'll use 3 point per rank boost to max out my skills (slow fade), then alternate power to the one that maxes out my powers (1 more rank for alt power), then switch over to the one that maxes my stats. Then I'll just switch to my 2 point per rank that gives me whatever powers I need whenever. I'm awesome! Because it's a fades power it doesn't turn off automatically when you switch to an alternate power!
Flawless- You can boost to remove flaws rather than gain extras or PL. Got a power that only works on women? Not anymore! What's more- you only need to boost 1 point to give the alternate power feat to switch the power to one with a different flaw at identical cost. Now it only works on men! Yay!
My Power Level- not yours!- So you can boost someone based on your power level. Did that guy trade off attack rolls for more damage? Here comes BOOSTER to pull his attack power right back to where it belongs. You've turned a tradeoff into just a damage increase! Hell, your sidekick could be the booster and this would be perfectly fine.
Of course, everyone knows how horrible boost is already- but I thought I'd just mention these things.Why would you ever buy 5 point per rank boost, when you can buy 3 points per ranks and use alternate powers to switch to other versions to fully boost up.
Then of course, there's
TURBO BOOST: Buy boost at rank 1. I boost the boost- now it's rank 2. I boost my boost to rank 3 (1 + 2), then to rank 4 (1+3), and so forth until my boost is at max power level- then I boost my other powers with the boost. Huzzah!
For 3 points per rank, it can be used to charge up all your skills to max ranks! (Take 1 rank of each skill and now you're a master!). Or it can push all your stats to full.
Discount Spending
Of course, the best use is to buy out your powers with a bunch of extras, then 3 point boost to power them all up at once, and get a huge discount on your powers. Sure, they can be nullified, but it's still cheaper to use boost this way.
Minions
Have a minion who's a PL below you? Not if you boost him up!
Have a bunch of normals or minions? Now they're attacking at YOUR power level!
Break Limits: Extra effort with boost to break power level limits. There's a problem!
Extras: Boost gives extra power points to use- so you can boost your normal powers to just gain extras or power feats AS NEEDED.
Power God: For 2 power points per rank you can effectively use boost to grant any person any power!
Immunity- I have rank 1 immunity to critical hits. Now, thanks to boost (3 points per rank) I am immune to whatever I need to be!
Alternate Power- I'll use 3 point per rank boost to max out my skills (slow fade), then alternate power to the one that maxes out my powers (1 more rank for alt power), then switch over to the one that maxes my stats. Then I'll just switch to my 2 point per rank that gives me whatever powers I need whenever. I'm awesome! Because it's a fades power it doesn't turn off automatically when you switch to an alternate power!
Flawless- You can boost to remove flaws rather than gain extras or PL. Got a power that only works on women? Not anymore! What's more- you only need to boost 1 point to give the alternate power feat to switch the power to one with a different flaw at identical cost. Now it only works on men! Yay!
My Power Level- not yours!- So you can boost someone based on your power level. Did that guy trade off attack rolls for more damage? Here comes BOOSTER to pull his attack power right back to where it belongs. You've turned a tradeoff into just a damage increase! Hell, your sidekick could be the booster and this would be perfectly fine.
Of course, everyone knows how horrible boost is already- but I thought I'd just mention these things.Why would you ever buy 5 point per rank boost, when you can buy 3 points per ranks and use alternate powers to switch to other versions to fully boost up.
Then of course, there's
TURBO BOOST: Buy boost at rank 1. I boost the boost- now it's rank 2. I boost my boost to rank 3 (1 + 2), then to rank 4 (1+3), and so forth until my boost is at max power level- then I boost my other powers with the boost. Huzzah!
Anatomic Separation
Here's an often overlooked ability. Anatomic separation. Let's look at the ways we can use and abuse this power.
First the power- 2 points per rank, each rank allows you to take off a specific body part (like a head or hand). With the variable split extra (+1/rank) you can change what parts get deattached each time.
Let's look at this by istelf:
Spying- You can remove an eye or ear and leave it somewhere where you want to see or hear things. (Great for places that nullify remote viewing!). Joined with flight each piece can move itself. (or with teleport!).
Communicating- You can remove your mouth/head to give conversation elsewhere, or remove a hand for mose code or sign language. So if your buddy is carrying around your hand, you can see something and give him a sign language message, he could respond Hellen Keller like by giving you messages in braille or by signing into your hand.
Squeezing- Good for getting into tight spots, reaching that lever outside of the jail bars, etc- Your head can't fit through the bars? Leave it behind and go get the key! The candi stuck in the machine? Put the hand in by itself and have it crawl up there to get it!
Swimming- Can't breathe water? Can't breathe in space? Leave your head somewhere with oxygen so it can do the breathing for you!
Item Slots- Can I borrow your magic ring? How do I know you'll bring it back? Well, I'll leave my hand here- it will wear the ring, and I'll come back for the hand- the ring never leaves your possession! Except for how damage is tracked, removed parts are fully functional, so a hand can wear a ring, or a glove, etc.
Can I touch you?- Here is where it gets good! Remove your fingers from your left hand. Have your companions wear the fingers (as a necklace, in a pocket) and you can deliver touch spells through the fingers- effectively giving you unlimted range on a touch attack! You can throw a hand at an enemy turning any touch attack into instant ranged-touch. Ally teleported away and you don't know where they are? Teleport them back!
Attack! Ah, the attack extra. Turns a power like the ability to remove your head into the ability to remove your ENEMY's head! Regenerator giving you trouble? Sure you could encase him in cement, but then one day someone digs him up. Why not pull him into pieces (fully functional pieces so they don't regenerate back!) and leave him in multiple areas. Need him alive? He won't be using perception powers without those eyes! He can't very well attack you if you only interrogate his head! A prisoner can't escape wtihout his legs!
Teamwork! What if one of your arms was put on a teammate? Or one of your eyes? Now you can close see two places at once, and so can he, if you each have the power (or you can do it to both of you!). Put your arm on him, and you can attack once, then he can attack once! Now you have a PC (or enemy!) with seemingly multiple attacks when it's really a group of people with an assembled body! Run and full attack at the same time by putting your legs on someone else! (Sure, you'll need a way to SEE, but there's workarounds for that!). Teammate knocked down but still running or clawing away? Disconcerting and LEGAL!
I'm everywhere! My flying fingers encircle my teammates- then they use deflect/redirect to send enemy attacks backwards. (Or they'll simply get in the way of attacks since they only become disabled). Or they allow me to cast my touch spells at a range!
One of us has to stay behind! - But the bomb doors are only controlled from here and the base is about to blow. That means... one of us has to stay behind! No longer can only the teleporter, the summoner, the duplicator, the regnerator, the guy who busts through walls, or the animator bypass this scenario. Just leave a hand behind. You can go back and get it once it's disabled.
Feign Death- I ready an action to fall apart when hit with an attack. Chances are the enemy's not worried about you just yet. For that matter you can be packed away in pieces to travel better. Hard to sneak someone into Grigots Bank, but easy to slip a series of limbs into Gringots, each in a seperate package.
The Heartless Giant- Ever hear the story of the giant who took out his own heart so that he couldn't be killed or feel emotions? The power itslef is very vague as to what constitutes your "core". Each seperated part can only be disabled, not destroyed or killed, and it's implied that the torso is he main part (perhaps the heart?). Why not just remove the parts that give you trouble? Would remove your vital organs render you immune to critical hits at the very least? Probably. Take away the core and the enemy either has to go find it (where it's helpless) or attack and disable each of your limbs seperately (though what's holding them together- I don't know).
Unusual Shapes- Keep in mind, in M&M you may not be playig as a humanoid. A robot, a multi-tentacled alien, a 4 armed person, there may be all kinds of goofy limbs you can remove. If you have 2 heads, you can leave one with a firend for communication. If you have 4 arms you're at no real disadvantage when you take them off. What if you had wings you could just take off and put away when you needed a disguise? A robot might have treads instead of legs, or use a body part to connect a circuit.
Partal Immunity- Kind of hard to hear that siren song or see the medusa when you've left your eyes and ears at home. Good way to avoid sense dependant powers when you know you'll be running into them. (Sure you could cover your ears and close your eyes, but this is kind of cooler!)
Stowaway- Can't catch the bad guy? Leave a finger or hand in his trunk, briefcase, etc, and follow him that way. Sure, you don't necessarily know where you are, but an eye can provide a teleport description (or spy with x-ray vision). Or you might have a seperate power to locate your body parts for just such an emergency.
Switch- What better time to use mind switch than when you're all over the place? Break yourself apart, and let him take the time putting yourself back together again!
First the power- 2 points per rank, each rank allows you to take off a specific body part (like a head or hand). With the variable split extra (+1/rank) you can change what parts get deattached each time.
Let's look at this by istelf:
Spying- You can remove an eye or ear and leave it somewhere where you want to see or hear things. (Great for places that nullify remote viewing!). Joined with flight each piece can move itself. (or with teleport!).
Communicating- You can remove your mouth/head to give conversation elsewhere, or remove a hand for mose code or sign language. So if your buddy is carrying around your hand, you can see something and give him a sign language message, he could respond Hellen Keller like by giving you messages in braille or by signing into your hand.
Squeezing- Good for getting into tight spots, reaching that lever outside of the jail bars, etc- Your head can't fit through the bars? Leave it behind and go get the key! The candi stuck in the machine? Put the hand in by itself and have it crawl up there to get it!
Swimming- Can't breathe water? Can't breathe in space? Leave your head somewhere with oxygen so it can do the breathing for you!
Item Slots- Can I borrow your magic ring? How do I know you'll bring it back? Well, I'll leave my hand here- it will wear the ring, and I'll come back for the hand- the ring never leaves your possession! Except for how damage is tracked, removed parts are fully functional, so a hand can wear a ring, or a glove, etc.
Can I touch you?- Here is where it gets good! Remove your fingers from your left hand. Have your companions wear the fingers (as a necklace, in a pocket) and you can deliver touch spells through the fingers- effectively giving you unlimted range on a touch attack! You can throw a hand at an enemy turning any touch attack into instant ranged-touch. Ally teleported away and you don't know where they are? Teleport them back!
Attack! Ah, the attack extra. Turns a power like the ability to remove your head into the ability to remove your ENEMY's head! Regenerator giving you trouble? Sure you could encase him in cement, but then one day someone digs him up. Why not pull him into pieces (fully functional pieces so they don't regenerate back!) and leave him in multiple areas. Need him alive? He won't be using perception powers without those eyes! He can't very well attack you if you only interrogate his head! A prisoner can't escape wtihout his legs!
Teamwork! What if one of your arms was put on a teammate? Or one of your eyes? Now you can close see two places at once, and so can he, if you each have the power (or you can do it to both of you!). Put your arm on him, and you can attack once, then he can attack once! Now you have a PC (or enemy!) with seemingly multiple attacks when it's really a group of people with an assembled body! Run and full attack at the same time by putting your legs on someone else! (Sure, you'll need a way to SEE, but there's workarounds for that!). Teammate knocked down but still running or clawing away? Disconcerting and LEGAL!
I'm everywhere! My flying fingers encircle my teammates- then they use deflect/redirect to send enemy attacks backwards. (Or they'll simply get in the way of attacks since they only become disabled). Or they allow me to cast my touch spells at a range!
One of us has to stay behind! - But the bomb doors are only controlled from here and the base is about to blow. That means... one of us has to stay behind! No longer can only the teleporter, the summoner, the duplicator, the regnerator, the guy who busts through walls, or the animator bypass this scenario. Just leave a hand behind. You can go back and get it once it's disabled.
Feign Death- I ready an action to fall apart when hit with an attack. Chances are the enemy's not worried about you just yet. For that matter you can be packed away in pieces to travel better. Hard to sneak someone into Grigots Bank, but easy to slip a series of limbs into Gringots, each in a seperate package.
The Heartless Giant- Ever hear the story of the giant who took out his own heart so that he couldn't be killed or feel emotions? The power itslef is very vague as to what constitutes your "core". Each seperated part can only be disabled, not destroyed or killed, and it's implied that the torso is he main part (perhaps the heart?). Why not just remove the parts that give you trouble? Would remove your vital organs render you immune to critical hits at the very least? Probably. Take away the core and the enemy either has to go find it (where it's helpless) or attack and disable each of your limbs seperately (though what's holding them together- I don't know).
Unusual Shapes- Keep in mind, in M&M you may not be playig as a humanoid. A robot, a multi-tentacled alien, a 4 armed person, there may be all kinds of goofy limbs you can remove. If you have 2 heads, you can leave one with a firend for communication. If you have 4 arms you're at no real disadvantage when you take them off. What if you had wings you could just take off and put away when you needed a disguise? A robot might have treads instead of legs, or use a body part to connect a circuit.
Partal Immunity- Kind of hard to hear that siren song or see the medusa when you've left your eyes and ears at home. Good way to avoid sense dependant powers when you know you'll be running into them. (Sure you could cover your ears and close your eyes, but this is kind of cooler!)
Stowaway- Can't catch the bad guy? Leave a finger or hand in his trunk, briefcase, etc, and follow him that way. Sure, you don't necessarily know where you are, but an eye can provide a teleport description (or spy with x-ray vision). Or you might have a seperate power to locate your body parts for just such an emergency.
Switch- What better time to use mind switch than when you're all over the place? Break yourself apart, and let him take the time putting yourself back together again!
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