Probability Manipulation [Powers]

[AlexanderHowl]

Imagine that you have a super character with the following traits (as well as enough other traits to bring them up to 500 CP):

IQ 12 [40]
Will 20 [40]
Probability Alteration Talent (Super) 4 [20]
Daredevil 4 (Super, -10%) [54]
Luck (Ridiculous; Super, -10%) [54]
Visualization (Based on Will, +20%; Blessing, +100%; Link, +20%; Reduced Time 7, +140%; Reliable, +10, +50%; Super, -10%; Uncontrollable, -10%) [41]
Visualization (Based on Will, +20%; Cursing, +100%; Link, +20%; Reduced Time 7, +140%; Reliable, +10, +50%; Super, -10%; Uncontrollable, -10%) [41]

What type of utility would they possess as part of a super group in your campaigns? If they were a supervillain, what type of threat would they present to your supers games? How would you further customize them to 500 CP to make them an interesting addition to your games?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Visualization (Based on Will, +20%; Cursing, +100%; Link, +20%; Reduced Time 7, +140%; Reliable, +10, +50%; Super, -10%; Uncontrollable, -10%) [41]

What type of utility would they possess as part of a super group in your campaigns?

They would be banned. I've banned Visualization in combination with Reduced time and reliable from at least two of my games. Your play style is probably better than mine for handling massive bonuses to everything though.

The character probably fills in the gaps doing everything anyone else isn't specialized in. He's the best medic unless you have healing powers, he's the best planner, talker, driver, geek, and infiltrator you have, unless you have more specialized people. He might be your best sniper. Anything with a default, he can probably succeed at. He probably looks like a encyclopedic action hero in a supers game. So maybe like Nick Fury?

[Gold & Appel Inc]

I'd throw on No Signature for Visualization if he's a villain, to make him an almost undetectable saboteur. Probability Manipulators in my games usually show up with a bucket of Serendipity, also. On a team, he fills a supporting role mostly, as jack-of-all mundane trades and buffing his allies.

[JulianLW]

This character averages +8 to all skill rolls, +12 to skill rolls considered "risky." And gets to force a reroll once every ten minutes.

What this character can't do is handle being attacked by two skilled attackers at the same time, nor can she make a difficult defense roll. Or get away from danger fast enough. I'd spend some of those CP on Enhanced Dodge and/or some kind of movement ability. All it takes is one successful Deceptive Attack with a hefty defense penalty, and no amount of rerolls against a dodge of 8 - penalized down to 5 or 4 or lower - is likely to save her.

A skilled Martial Artist with two reasonably strong, high-skill attacks in a single turn is probably going to take her down; the first attack gets Cursed to fail, the second attack gets through and meets no resistance or defense except Luck, and now there's ten long minutes ahead where this character is mostly defenseless against the second attack in any given turn.

This character will devastate any mundane opposition, but is unlikely - without some kind of help - to hold her own against supers.

You have 210 CP left. I'd give her a DX and HT boost, increase Move and Dodge, and sink a few points in Acrobatics, Pistol, Karate, Knife, Judo, and Stealth.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by JulianLW

This character averages +8 to all skill rolls, +12 to skill rolls considered "risky." And gets to force a reroll once every ten minutes.

Let's not lose sight of the reason why Visualization is cheap - Its bonus is cut down by 1/2 if the influenced act is not precisely as you pictured, and by 2/3 if something is clearly different, which is almost always going to be the case with something as unpredictable as a fight.

[JulianLW]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Let's not lose sight of the reason why Visualization is cheap - Its bonus is cut down by 1/2 if the influenced act is not precisely as you pictured, and by 2/3 if something is clearly different, which is almost always going to be the case with something as unpredictable as a fight.

With Based on Will, Reliable +10, Will at 20, and Talent 4, the Visualization roll is at 34 every time. If the roll is a 10, that's a 24 margin of success, for +8 every time.

If the Character has no opposition, the bonuses could be as high as +12 or +24 or higher.

Edit: If the behavior is risky, this build gives another +4 to skill rolls on top of any bonus from Visualization. So: +8 or +12 once a turn for combat skill rolls.

Another edit: Here's a question. Can a probability super use the bonus from Visualization to make a Deceptive Attack? Or do the bonuses only apply to the roll? If Deceptive Attack rolls are limited to at least 10 or more, then this character, maybe with Karate at 12, can only make a -1 Deceptive attack at skill roll 10, boosted for Visualization to certain success.... Can the Daredevil bonus apply to Deceptive Attacks? What about Targeted Attacks? I've forgotten if there is a max skill reduction for that. Does this build make it necessary for the character to always make targeted attacks to the eye to take advantage of the bonuses in combat?

[AlexanderHowl]

While they could do some amazing things, I think that they would probably be better used to make specialists more amazing. For example, giving someone with Healing a +24 to heal a disease would make it possible for even the worst healer to cure the worst diseases. Of course, they would also be useful for combat and, since they have Link, they could give the Brick a +8 to hit and give the Brick's target a -8 to defend every turn.

For supervillains, I agree that No Signature would be key, which would add 4 CP to the overall cost. Now, imagine that it is the enemy Brick getting the support of a probability manipulating supervillain, and you can imagine how deadly such a character can be. With a +8 to their skill, the villainous Brick could Deceptive Attack (-4 to defense) with their base skill and, with a -8 to their target's Dodge, a targeted speedster with Dodge 20 would only be able to avoid the first blow on an '8-'. Even a heroic Brick would be feeling some concern when they suffer a -8 to their attacks and their targets benefit from a +8 to their Dodge.

[JulianLW]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Even a heroic Brick would be feeling some concern when they suffer a -8 to their attacks and their targets benefit from a +8 to their Dodge.

Just reread the Visualization advantage. It says "task," not "skill"! I had been under the impression that the bonus could not be applied to a Dodge, but it obviously can.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by ericthered

They would be banned.
I've banned Visualization in combination with Reduced time and reliable from at least two of my games.

P87 mentions that if using Reduced Time 7 +140% in combat it "only affects one die roll per turn, and the chaos of battle cuts the bonus to 1/3"

That would be an interesting guideline to adopt for "free action" abilities in general, come to think of it.

If "absolutely no more than one" is seen as too extreme (Altered Time Rate being the only way around it) then the "buy Rapid Fire" approach that Warp uses (I've also seen it suggested for limiting how many times Aura will hit someone you're hitting or who is hitting you, per second) could be one option to add 'extra uses per turn'.

Other flexibility that's easy to overlook for GMs overwhelmed with Visualization is B96's "not quite the same" (half bonus min 1) and B97's "clearly different" (1/3 bonus min 0) when circumstances fail to respond at least "almost exactly" to what the player describes.

The more you can reduce the time the less likely this is to happen (there's less time for things to change) but that can still be the face.

A key thing to me is even when you activate a free action at the start of your turn: you still don't 100% know what your foe is going to do next in most situations.

Unless they have Decreased Time Rate and already started to make an attack (in which case the GM might actually tell you what attack they're making) you might say say something like "I visualize my foe throwing a spinning right-handed all-out attack uppercut at my nose".

If that's EXACTLY what he chooses to do: you should probably get your full bonus PLUS an extra +2 (max possible) for a good description

If 1 thing is off: only a +1

If 2 things are off: only your standard MoS (still "correspond almost exactly")

If 3 things are off: 1/2 margin (min+1)

If 4 thing are off: 1/3 margin

If 5+ things are off: 1/3 margin minus additional penalties (1 up to ANY size, no limit) because it becomes a progressively "bad description".

The fairest way is just to increment by 1 point per each 'changed detail'.

Also for fairness (so the GM doesn't metagame either) probably the best way to do things IRL is have the player write down their vision in a note, and then the GM only gets to look at it after he's described the circumstances, so that he doesn't just choose to have things happen differently than in the PC's vision.

Not sure how you'd do this online... I guess the closest thing I can think of would be a "Delayed Send" e-mail but I think those get time-stamped at the time they're delayed until, so there wouldn't be any way to distinguish them (time stamp of when the delayed send was initiated) from something you just chose to send later.

One downside to this is that PCs who can predict how GMs will run NPCs have an advantage (writing more accurate visions) than PCs who can't.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

What type of utility would they possess as part of a super group in your campaigns?

Uncontrollable (Prankish/Hostile) force going after obvious foes might happen at times that are inconvenient to you.

Like for example: Foe A has thrown you (or shoved you back, perhaps) at Foe B

If Foe B is able to dodge you, this will avoid a collision damaging you both.

But your ability penalizes Foe B's dodge, so he fails to get out of the way, and you're both hurt (perhaps you more than him)

[JulianLW]

Combat descriptions for Visualization seem like they'd be a major drag. If you're going to allow Reduced Time on Visualization to make it a free action in combat, why not just go all the way and add something like "Second Nature, +70%" from Clairsentience (Powers 44) to make it just work reflexively, without descriptions. The player picks the thing he wants to give a bonus (or, with Cursing, a penalty), and rolls, but without a description, he can never get a bonus or penalty better than 1/3 MoS. And then it becomes a real Probability Alteration superpower - everything the character does just works, and most attacks on the character just fail.