Useful Low-Powered Abilities [Powers/Supers]

[khorboth]

One of my favorites was Hailstorm:
Crushing attack 1 (Armor Divisor (0.5) -30%; Double Knockback, +20%; Environmental (Air) -5%; Increased Range (1/2d only) (x10), +15%; Rapid Fire (+10) +100%; Super -10%) [10]

She shot a very rapid stream of baseball-sized hailstones from her hand. It cost no fatigue unlike most powers in that game. Being a single die of crushing and having Armor Divisor of 0.5, it was extremely unlikely to hurt any super. But the 10d of double knockback was really useful. Hordes of minions were thrown aside. Anyone but a brick could be buffeted back. Cover was knocked down, cars toppled, computers smashed... And with no danger to teammates. Even a horde of mind-controlled civilians faces only moderate damage.

If power parry rules are used, it's also a pretty efficient way to get dice of damage up there. It could be frustrating for a bad guy to launch a massive attack which is defeated by glorified snowballs.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by khorboth

Being a single die of crushing and having Armor Divisor of 0.5, it was extremely unlikely to hurt any super

maxing out AD limits is sometimes more attractive than No Wounding

[naloth]

Originally Posted by khorboth

One of my favorites was Hailstorm:
Crushing attack 1 (Armor Divisor (0.5) -30%; Double Knockback, +20%; Environmental (Air) -5%; Increased Range (1/2d only) (x10), +15%; Rapid Fire (+10) +100%; Super -10%) [10]

She shot a very rapid stream of baseball-sized hailstones from her hand. It cost no fatigue unlike most powers in that game. Being a single die of crushing and having Armor Divisor of 0.5, it was extremely unlikely to hurt any super. But the 10d of double knockback was really useful. Hordes of minions were thrown aside. Anyone but a brick could be buffeted back. Cover was knocked down, cars toppled, computers smashed... And with no danger to teammates. Even a horde of mind-controlled civilians faces only moderate damage.

Eh? It's - at most - 10 1d (x2) knockback attacks, each of which double DR and about a 50/50 chance to do 1 yd of knockback. It can't do anything if you have at least DR3 and HP14. It's useful, but you'll need to back it with a pretty good skill (points in either skill or attributes) to be able to count on hitting enough to knock anyone back even one yard.

[khorboth]

Originally Posted by naloth

Eh? It's - at most - 10 1d (x2) knockback attacks, each of which double DR and about a 50/50 chance to do 1 yd of knockback. It can't do anything if you have at least DR3 and HP14. It's useful, but you'll need to back it with a pretty good skill (points in either skill or attributes) to be able to count on hitting enough to knock anyone back even one yard.

I suppose I should qualify. We had world rules set to double knockback on all attacks already so that superheroes would knock stuff around extra. I recommend this for most supers games.

In addition, we use simplified knockback where every humanoid who didn't have a special advantage or disadvantage gets knocked back as if they have 10 HP. I generally recommend this for all games because the increased realism of the knockback isn't worth the calculation time.

So, she was throwing a yard of knockback for every 2 points of damage. Your mileage may vary.

We use these rules regularly enough I sometimes forget they aren't RAW.

[AlexanderHowl]

Water Cannon: Crushing Attack 10d (Jet, +0%; Double Knockback, +20%; Limited Use, 1 per day, Slow Reload, 6 seconds, -35%; No Blunt Trauma, -20%; No Wounding, -50%; Variable, +5%) [10]. Notes: An attack that launches a gallon of high velocity water from an internal water reserve within the attacker. After using, the attacker must reload their reservoir through drinking a gallon of water. By altering the force of the launch, the user may vary the damage dealt by the attack.

[khorboth]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Water Cannon: Crushing Attack 10d (Jet, +0%; Double Knockback, +20%; Limited Use, 1 per day, Slow Reload, 6 seconds, -35%; No Blunt Trauma, -20%; No Wounding, -50%; Variable, +5%) [10]. Notes: An attack that launches a gallon of high velocity water from an internal water reserve within the attacker. After using, the attacker must reload their reservoir through drinking a gallon of water. By altering the force of the launch, the user may vary the damage dealt by the attack.

Yah. Same principle. There are a thousand ways to make it, and yours is better with RAW. Some good knockback is not to be underestimated. And a flexible GM will let you do lots with it.

[johndallman]

I got a surprising amount of value out of this:

Psychometry: Reliable (+2) +10%, Magical -10%, Costs Fatigue (4) -20%, Immediate Preparation Required (1 minute) -30%, Takes Recharge (1 hour) -30% [4].

It doesn't replace normal investigative work, but it lets you test many hypotheses and thus make progress faster.

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by khorboth

Yah. Same principle. There are a thousand ways to make it, and yours is better with RAW. Some good knockback is not to be underestimated. And a flexible GM will let you do lots with it.

With an average of 70 points of knockback, it can knock the average human back 8 yards, causing them to suffer 1d+2 crushing damage if they hit an immovable object (like a wall). Of course, they will suffer more damage if they get knocked off a cliff or into oncoming traffic.

[CeeDub]

Flying Broomstick
Flight (Gadget: Breakable (DR2, SM-4), -35%; Gadget: Can Be Stolen, Does Not Work For Thief, -15%; Slow, -25%) [10]

[Donny Brook]

Universal Skill Boost [10]

Stats: Modular Abilities (Cosmic Pool 10/Pt) (Reduced Time (=0s) +20%, Talents only -30%, Maximum Duration (10 min) -50%, Aftermath (-1 Per + Hidebound + Short Attention Span) -10%, Power modifier (?) -10%. Net -80% = [2/pt]), 5 modular points

Instantly Gives the user any Talent worth up to [5] for 10 minutes and thereby effectively gives the user +1 on any roll against a skill (including defaults) that exists in any Talent worth [5] or less.