Get's a little tedious? Not just tedium, think about how easy you leave it to make a character who can't be hurt when toughness is the prime save. Below is a look at different attack "styles" and the pros and cons of each...
Standard Damage:
This can be energy, physical, strike, blast, but any attack that does damage with a toughness save.
Notable attacks include:
Melee: Easiest to break damage limits by wielding weapons, abusing the AIM manuver, and tradeoffs.
Ranged: Attack from a distance, but enemies in melee, lying down, with cover, etc get some AC bonuses against you.
Perception: Always hits, but not variance to damage. An equal villain should save about 50% of the time.
Corrosion/Disintegrate: Notable in that it lowers the save FIRST (if you fail FORT) then you make the save. (See Debuffs below).
Pro: Can be easy to break TN limits, and since toughness is limited lower than other saves, probably the simplest way to attack.
Con: Because it's everyone's "Go to", many people use immunities or protections to get around it- such as impervious. Also healing and regeneration make even the failed saves of little effect, and those are very commonly taken powers.
Debuffs:
This is mainly drain or some aspect of it, but could include nullify, or power use to turn off powers. These attacks generally help other attacks succeed, by lowering your stats or reducing your powers.
Pro: Targets a different save (usually fort) which would have needed to be bought up separately. Useful against "dodgy" characters with low fort by removing their other suppliment powers.
Con: Toughness and fort are both CON based and usually if one is high, both are high. Nullify grants "best of" opposed PL and saving throw to defender. Hard to justify the missed action in most cases, unless linked to a damaging power directly (like corrosion).
Debilitators:
These attacks don't kill or deal "damage" but they render a status effect onto the enemy, which some situational penalties that go with it. Notable examples:
Fatigue: Many characters take immunity to fatigue, so this power doesn't have all the best use. The best use of this power is when you use the restorative extra so you can heal your fatigue as you grant it to others, allowing you to use more extra effort, drawing your energy "harmlessly" from weak citizens or something nearby. (You aren't actually hurting them, after all). I do see many PCs taking immunity to fatigue.
Stun: Notable in that no one can be immune to stun (since it's a damage condition), and it lasts multiple rounds potentially (unlike the damage condition).
Snare: Relatively harmless and can render enemies helpless.This includes creating objects around enemies. Nice in that helpless enemies remain conscious (unlike fatigue and stun) so you can interrogate them or talk to them still. The down side is that many powers are not prevented, such as mental powers and teleports, and that the snare can often be escaped by either strength checks, escape artist rolls, or damage. Also, between snares and grapples I see lots of PCs take immunity to entrapment effects.
Combat Maneuvers: Trip, Bull Rush, Disarm, Grapple: These are easy to max the roll on and make it difficult to escape, but so few powers rely on anything that these maneuvers effect, and movement powers make it difficult to keep anyone trapped.
Shrinking: With enough size, you can shrink someone into the microcosm, and effectively remove him from the combat (or the world!) until he turns back (if he does).
Pro: The system includes nonlethal "damage" but some damage types (chainsaws) don't make sense non-lethally, and this is a good way to take people out without killing them. Also with the "alternate save" extra you can potentially attack whatever save is the weakest.
Con: When saving throws are maxed they are higher than Toughness and more likely to succeed. PCs tend to use hero points on saving throws more often than anything else. Compared to "save or die" powers (below) these use the same saving throw, but have lowered effects, or tiered effects.
Save or Die:
These effects include anything where the save must win or the target is completely helpless to your character- effectively they have one chance or it's all over. Unlike debilitating effects (above), or toughness saves for damage, the amount by which they fail the save is irrelevant, they either pass or fail, so these tend to be the favored attacks. Notable examples:
Transform: Turning people to frogs, statues, very small rocks, etc. Anyone with shape changing powers can just turn back, but for most people this is effective. Mental transform can remove someone's ability to use their powers and turn them completely into a willing ally immediately. I've also heard "transform you into dead you" as a variant of transform.
Mind Control: A favorite power amongst PCs. Failure and the enemy is yours, and with certain options can be better than mind reading as you can have the enemy tell you anything you want to know. With mind control, each save gives you +1 to successive saving throws, so you can't just spam it at them until they fail. Mental effects is one of the favorite immunities. Alternately using a fort save instead and calling it "body control" to get around the mental immunity, though then you don't control their powers and can't force them to give you information.
Pro: These instantly eliminate the enemy, and also non-lethally also. Some may be very troublesome as you can make a powerful enemy into an ally with some mind alterations.
Con: Whatever extras you put on these, nothing is ever permanent- they can be dispelled later. Also mental effect immunity is cheap and very commonly taken by PCs. They usually include regular saving throws to throw off the effects also, unless you throw extra points into making it continuous.
Non-Standard:
The reason for this entry completely, a list of some attacks that are uncommon, and thus unlikely for an enemy or PC to simply be immune to.
Teleport: Used as an attack, this can remove someone from the battlefield. Leaving them in a jail, underground, wherever can ensure that even with flight or super speed they don't just come back. Sending them into a dangerous environment like space, volcanoes, the sun, or underwater is a big one too. Teleporting characters can just return themselves, but many other characters may be unharmed, but are pretty much out of the fight. Teleports can't save others unless they have some way of knowing where they were sent.
Anatomic Separation: Forcing the limbs off a character (using the attack extra). He can put them back together if he can bring his limbs back together, but in the meantime you may have limited some of his powers or attacks, and regeneration/healing will not regrow the limbs if they are still active. Some powers might not be bothered by having limbs removed, but many do.
Dimensional Pocket: Like teleport, but you force the enemy into a bag, portrait, or whatever. The nice thing is that because it's interdimensional, you can't just teleport back if you're a teleporter, and the enemy has you "where he wants you" and can take you around wherever.
Insubstantial/Astral Projection: Particularly insubstantial 4, but also astral projection or similar powers to force them into a form that can't attack you except with mental effects. You can't contain him necessarily (without other powers) but you can prevent his ability to affect you.
Duplication: With the attack extra, you basically copy the enemy and have him attack the original, such as with a mirror of opposition. What's more, the duplicate knows everything he knows. Keep in mind, you don't by default control the duplicate, though with the right terms you can at least make sure it hates him.
Temporal/Dimensional Movement (with attack): Whether you're going with him and grappling him to count towards your weight limit, or using an attack power, you can strand someone in the deep future or an alternate dimension. Just realize if it's an attack, the save DC will be very low, as this caps out at rank 3.
Power Use/Boost: This one could warrant its own entry, but between Boost, Affects others Powers, and power use, you can force the enemy to use powers that are harmful to himself. Examples include-
- Giving the enemy empathic healing and forcing him to use it on the party with power use.
- Giving the enemy a feedback or side/effect power and forcing him to use it, taking the feedback or side effect.
- Giving him an aura of emotion control; rage to get everyone to attack him, even his minions.
Not only can these create more dynamic and interesting battles, but overcome a lot of those common immunities and defenses as well. Please reply in the comments if you have any additional ideas besides what was mentioned above.
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