[Powers] Neutralize & Energy Reserves

[Azulan47]

What would happen if you used Neutralize on a person's Energy Reserves, assuming it was of a power source you could Neutralize. Would the person simply lose access to their Energy Reserves for the duration of Neutralize? Would it be reduced to zero until they can regenerate it?

[Kelly Pedersen]

Well, to start, I'm not sure you can Neutralize an Energy Reserve. Energy Reserves are linked to a particular source, it's true, but they don't generally take that source's power modifier - Energy Reserve (Magical), for example, doesn't have Magical, -10% on it. It's the power modifier that suggests whether or not something is vulnerable to Neutralize, so if the Reserve doesn't have that, it shouldn't be Neutralizable.

That said, if you do decide to allow it (basically implying that the link to a source is an inherent power modifier), I would go with Neutralize making the Reserve unavailable while Neutralized (and I would also say it doesn't regenerate, if it's Neutralized long enough for that to matter), but it should be drained. Draining an Energy Reserve is more the department of an Innate Fatigue Attack specialized to work on Energy Reserves.

[Azulan47]

The Energy Reserves in question would be akin to something granted by a magic potion or gained from DR (Absorption), so a Special Recharge version. The character doesn't have the Energy Reserves until the Special Recharge is met and it is not an inherent ability of the character, but rather a granted power of the other ability.

The Innate Fatigue Attack would work. I was just seeing if Neutralize would be a comparable alternative.

[Nereidalbel]

Energy Reserve generally can't be targeted in any way. I'd definitely allow a limitation on Fatigue Attack to only target ER, or, an enhancement to drain ER first, then hit FP. As far as Neutralize goes, yeah, I'd say hitting the ER means they can't use it to power their abilities, and it doesn't recharge for the duration of the Neutralize.

[Azulan47]

I don't see why it couldn't be targeted by Neutralize. Can you target advantages such as Blessed or True Faith with Neutralize? If Energy Reserves has the same inherent source limitation as them, then I don't see why Energy Reserves would be an exception.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Azulan47

I don't see why it couldn't be targeted by Neutralize. Can you target advantages such as Blessed or True Faith with Neutralize?

Not automatically, no. Neutralize can affect abilities from a particular source that "the GM deems susceptible to neutralization" (Powers, p. 97). If a power source is susceptible to neutralization, it should include the -5% for anti-powers being available in it. If a power modifier doesn't include that, it's not susceptible to neutralization, by definition. And Blessed and True Faith don't, by default, include that limitation.