Feat Requests

[Rei]

May I use these feats for my in-process Grue?

Untapped Potential (Fortune): Folks expect you to grow into your powers eventually, but you’re special; you haven’t even begun to tap into the full extent of your abilities. With Untapped Potential, you can push your powers beyond their current limits and touch upon that greatness for a short time. When you use extra effort (M&M, page 120), you can increase a power by 3 ranks rather than 2. (Hero High Year book)

Bitch Slap

You are able to make a humiliating attack that demoralizes an enemy’s teammates.

Prerequisite: Leadership, Inspire.

Benefit: You make a normal attack against an opponent with Leadership. Attack and damage results are determined as even if the attack is successful, however, it does no damage. If the Damage saving throw roll would normally result in the target taking a hit of damage, the target instead loses all advantages from the Leadership and Inspire feats for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma bonus. For this period, your own companions gain an additional +1 bonus to all attack and defense rolls against the target’s allies. More than one application of this feat may not be in place at one time against one set of foes. (Power Corrupts 3)

[Rei]

Thought I'd bump this.

[Heridfel]

The consensus among the referees is that we'll allow the first feat if it is appropriate for the character, but that the second feat is not allowed.

[Rei]

Any particular reason since I was hoping to port/bring over more skills from that text.

[Heridfel]

The feat is not appropriate to the theme of Freedom City, and it looks like it came from a book that was written for First Edition. Both of those reasons contributed to the decision.

[Rei]

I was hoping to create a character whose well-versed in support skills, something that the second edition is lacking. Is there any way there skills could be changed to fit the current game? If the name's a problem I could easily change it to something else.

[Dr Archeville]

What more support ability do you need aside from what's already present (Inspire and Leadership) or that can't be done with existing (like Boost, or assorted powers with the Affects Others extra)?

[Rei]

The problem I’m having is abilities in the Green Ronin book were incredibly a general; they gave clear reference with enough flexibility to create anything. The Third Party expansions focused on the worlds within a world creating abilities for specific concepts and situations. Devil’s Workshop in particularly emphasized co-operative combat in their strategy feat that used Leadership and Inspire to tweak a situation into the team’s favor. Back up*, for example, gave a character the advantage when joining a battle already in progress. While Regroup**, allow a team to recognize.

I was planning to create tactical field leader, filling the same niche as Oracle, (Ultimate) Nick Fury, Norman Osborn, and Brainiac 5. The strategy feats are better suited for this concept than the general abilities listed in the core manual.

*Backup

Characters with this strategy feat receive a +1 to attack and Defense bonuses on the first round entering a battle already in progress.

**Regroup

This is a common strategy learned by many groups. When participants spend one round not attacking their foes in order to regroup at a rally point determined by a character with Leader¬ship, they automatically take the initiative on the first round after reaching this rally point. These characters will be able to act before their opponents, no matter who has the highest initiative.

[Heridfel]

Some of those abilities might be able to be recreated just as easily through powers, while others aren't needed in M&M (and never were, which is why I hesitate to look at the mechanics of those feats). Your first feat didn't make sense - why would the target need to fail a Damage (a.k.a. Toughness) save to be affected?

If I were building it in M&M 2E, here's how it would look.

Dishearten (1 pp/2 ranks):

Drain (2 pp/rank; feats); (Limited to Inspire, Leadership, Teamwork (-3)); Range (Perception) (+2); Hearing Dependent (-1); Alternate Save (Will) (+0)

Power Feat: Reversal of Fortune: When an opponent fails a save against Dishearten and loses use of one of the feats described, you may use Inspire as a free action.

Backup is probably usable as is; it is roughly equivalent to Favored Environment.

Regroup is unneeded. This is roughly equivalent to the Delay action undertaken by all of the allies, thanks to the cyclical initiative of d20. There are some minor differences, but the limitations outweigh potential benefits.

[Rei]

A few more feats lifted from Hero High, I was wondering I could use them for my in-progress Caster (one of Saku/Naxy summons)?

Cool Skill, Ranked

You have a certain style and calm method to your actions that works on anyone under 20 years old. This gives you a +5 bonus on one Charisma-related skill when rolling checks (Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Intimidate, or Perform) involving teens. Adults don’t “get it,†and are thus immune to your hip charm. Each rank in this feat adds an additional Charisma-related skill, and the bonus given can never give you an effective total skill bonus higher than the campaign’s power level limits.

Disarming Fortune, Ranked

It started with Mom and Dad, the way you could wrap them around your little finger with a doleful puppy dog stare. You’re cute and innocent looking, and when you want to, you can make villains really nervous about hitting you. Oh they’ll blast you if they have toâ€â€they are evil after allâ€â€but they’re likely to pull their punch because attacking you is like blasting away at Thumper or a Tribble.

By spending a hero point, you can direct this innocent charm at one villain, forcing the miscreant to make a Will save (DC 10 + rank). If the villain fails, he still attacks, but he “pulls†his punch, reducing his attack’s rank by the amount by which the save failed. The effect lasts until you attack and hurt the villain. If the save succeeds or you attack and hurt the villain, he cannot be affected by the Disarming feat for the rest of that encounter.

Holding Back

This mirrors Untapped Potential, but it’s pretty much the downside of that feat. Holding Back means you possess a lot more power than you’re letting on, but you won’t use it out of a legitimate fear. Can you shatter buildings with a thoughtless word? Can you tap into an endless pit of darkness to fuel yourself? Can you surrender to an indiscriminate battle-fury that turns you into a lethal tornado of death? You can tap into and wield abilities above and beyond the campaign’s power levels. In fact, the current power levels are holding you back from going full-bore. This is a dangerous ploy, however, and a slip could prove worse than the threat facing you now.

With Holding Back, two conditions must be met before you can access this untapped reserve. Over half the team must be unconscious or dying for you to consider making this sacrifice, or many innocent lives should be at stake (possibly including your own), and you must make a frequency check for the drawback to overcome your own years of self-de¬privation training. If both conditions are met, you have access to greater powers for that encounter (during teen hero creation, make two char¬acter sheets for the normal hero and the tricked-out, really dangerous hero; this prevents you from slowing the flow of combat).

• Minor (DC 5): +2 power levels or +30 power points to distribute to various traits.

• Moderate (DC 10): +4 power levels or +60 power points to dis¬tribute to various traits.

• Major (DC 15): +6 power levels or +90 power points to distribute to various traits.

The bad in all this is that once you unleash your full potential, there’s a price to pay. You suffer a complication chosen by the GM for unleashing your full power. See the following section for some possibilities.

Sample Complications

Note that in any of these instances, you can spend a hero point to pre¬vent your powers or actions from killing anyone.

• Berserk: You lose self-control and enter a feral state. Intelligence drops to 1 and until subdued, you’re enraged, like a use of the Rage feat (M&M p63), but with none of the benefits. This may even hap¬pen at the beginning of combat, with your principle target being the threat that started the combat.

• Host: Your powers exist because you’re host to some terrible, evil entity. It might be extraterrestrial, extra-dimensional, or magical, but unleashing its power means it temporarily surfaces and assumes control of your body. It may be hell-bent on destruction, or perhaps it quietly goes about some secret agenda while your conscious is unconscious. You wake up, not knowing what it’s done or who it’s killed, but dreading the impending truth nonetheless. Regardless, regaining control of your body may happen automatically after a few hours, it may happen at dawn or dusk, or it may happen once your body needs rest and falls asleep. It’s up to you and the Gamemaster to decide.

• Hunted: Somebody out there is looking for you, whether it’s the cor¬poration that gave you powers, the mad scientist who built you, or your demon daddy looking to open a gateway through you. Either way, it’s bad news. By unleashing your powers at full bore, you may have given your hunters a way to locate you. They’ll find you and attack you to get you back. If you’re lucky, you have a couple of hours to prepare. If you’re unlucky, they’re already on your back. Gamemasters should cre¬ate this nemesis in advance and keep them ready for use.

• Inert: You reach great heights in your power, only to crash even harder. With this drawback, you shut down, lose cohesion, become a statue, or fall into a coma. Essentially, you are out of commission. You recover as per the Recovery Table (M&M, page 165) from a dis¬abled state, and you cannot use your offensive powers until you are no longer Injured.

• Monstrosity: Your power turns you into a monster for several hours. And no, it isn’t some cute and fuzzy G-Rated critter, but some¬thing exceedingly gross or horrifying, something that would raise an eyebrow on H.P. Lovecraft. It’s so bad, cops will shoot at you, and the armed forces will be called in to deal with you as a threat. Even the people who know and love you won’t be the same. For a week after you revert back, you suffer a –2, –4, or –6 penalty (depending on the power levels you normally gain) on all Charisma-related rolls when dealing with anyone who’s seen you as the beast.

• Power Unleashed: Your power is explosive, and unleashing it is like a meltdown. If you fail to contain it, your most offensive power lashes out randomly at full force until you’re rendered unconscious.

[Dr Archeville]

The Refs have already voted "no" on Untapped Potential (another player wanted it, back in July).

We'll look at the other two.