I have a number of problems with these powers, largely because they lack purity and don't fit the descriptions. Ex: A player with APS:Fire doesn't really alter his physical structure; the player has an aura of fire around his human body. This may be a vaild power, but it doesn't seem to cover the ability as it is named.
Due to length considerations, my corrections (as well as some additions) have been placed on a separate page: APS: Revision of Powers
New powers to fill the gaps left by these revisions are:
1. Ice Form: The character's body is transformed into a solid structure of ice, shaped roughly like his unaltered form. The character can move without penalty, unconsciously shifting the ice to translate into normal body movements. While the character's "muscle mass" is unchanged, the incredible pressures offered by the expansion of freezing water upgrades his strength class to Extraordinary.
Increased Damage Capacity: SDC 350; Natural Armor Rating 12
Augmented Strength Class: PS Attribute as Normal (unless augmented as below); Lift 100x PS in pounds, Carry 200x PS in pounds
2. Absorption and Augmentation: With a ready source of water, the character can create and absorb ice into his body, temporarily increasing his physical strength attribute and damage potential (by adding mass, spikes, etc to the fists, shoulders, knees, feet). One gallon of water will allow the character to either increase his PS by four attribute points or his melee combat damage by +1D6. The character's SDC increases by 10 for each gallon absorbed regardless of purpose.
Range: Touch / Self
Attacks per Melee: Each usage requires two melee attacks
Duration: Five minutes plus one minute per level of experience in any 4 hour period
Limitation: Can absorb a maximum of one gallon of water per experience level (for this purpose) at any one time
3. Stretch Limbs: The character can stretch his body and/or limbs without increasing the actual volume of ice used. Mental blocks require that the limbs use joints as normal until the fifth level of experience, after which the character can spend an extra attack per melee and concentrate on flexing his limbs like prehensile tentacles.
Range: Touch / Self
Attacks per Melee: Stretching requires one attack for each limb
Duration: Maximum of two minutes per level of experience in any 4 hour period
Effect: Multiply limb length by up to 1x per level of experience; Stretching legs will increase Speed attribute by same multiplier
4. Damage Regeneration: With a ready source of water the character can repair damage sustained in his ice form. Each 20 SDC requires about one gallon of water, which isn't much, but the power is more directly limited by experience level.
Regeneration: 1D6 per level of experience
Range: Touch / Self
Attacks per Melee: Requires one attack
Duration: Instant / Permanent
5. Frost Touch: The ice character can absorb heat with a touch, causing damage to normal biological tissue and lowering the temperature of one pound of inorganic material per level of experience to freezing temperature. Frost will grow on any surface affected, increased up to one square foot per level if that's the intention. The frost is slippery, and should require a balance check for anyone crossing the area.
Damage: 2D6 + 1D6 per level of experience to organic material
Range: Touch / Self
Attacks per Melee: Requires one attack
6. Other Abilities and Bonuses
My Problem and Solution:
This power isn't very powerful, except for the inconsistent Fire Blast sub-ability, and
doesn't really have a very wide scope of control over fire. I've revised it to be more
comparable to the other CEF powers.
The power to manipulate and control aspects of elemental fire. This power pulls heat out of the character's surroundings and focuses it for his uses. Oddly enough, the end result is often a temporarily lowered temperature.
1. Spontaneous Combustion: Identical to Ability 2. of Non-Revised power (HU2, pg 259).
2. Fuel Flame: Identical to Ability 3. of Non-Revised power (HU2, pg 259).
3. Create Flame Wall: Identical to Ability 4. of Non-Revised power (HU2, pg 259).
4. Extinguish Fire: Identical to Ability 5. of Non-Revised power (HU2, pg 259).
5. Redirect Fire: Given a large open fire within sight, the character can redirect the flames towards an intended target. This ability can be used on the fires created and manipulated using the other abilities of this power. The range, damage, and area effect of this attack relies on the size of the fire: Small being about the size of a torch, medium about the size of campfire, large being comparable to a bonfire, and very large being anything larger. Stats below are given in the form (Stat): (small)/(medium)/(large)/(very large).
Range: 3 ft / 10 ft / 25 ft / 35 ft ; + 1 ft per level of experience
Damage: 1D6 / 3D6 / 5D6 / 6D6 ; + 2 per level of experience
Duration: Instant
Attacks per Melee: Requires one hand to hand attack
Bonus: +2 strike
6. Pillar of Fire: If the character concentrates for a time he can gather the heat from a large area and concentrate it into a pillar of fire. This attack is very difficult to dodge, as it is silent, invisible (until it strikes), and comes from the ground. It is unwise to stand still in the vicinity of an opponent with this ability....
Range: 85 ft + 15 ft per level of experience, strikes an area of diameter 3 ft + 1 ft per level of experience
Damage: 1D6x10 + 4 per level of experience
Duration: One full melee after pillar is unleashed
Attacks per Melee: Requires one full minute of concentration (no other attacks possible), plus two hand to hand attacks to unleash
Bonus: +6 strike specific target
7. Create Smoke: Identical to Ability 6. of Non-Revised power (HU2, pg 259).
8. Sense Heat and Flame: The character can sense nearby sources of heat and flame, required for the full extent of his powers. Range: 10 + 1D6 miles. The character can also smell smoke from large open fires within 20 miles, plus 2 miles per level of experience.
9. Other Abilities:
The is invulnerable to fire, smoke, and heat (no damage), including
magic attacks. The character seems to radiate heat from within, and is immune to cold
within normal atmospheric ranges. Extreme and intense cold attacks will cause half damage.
Can accurately sense air temperature above freezing within 1D6 degrees,
as well as the temperature of fires and hot items.
My Problems:
My Solutions:
The nature of the power is that the character can make a transition to an intangible state. The character's power keeps these unbound molecules in place while in this state, until the character can bring them back into their natural tangible state.
Limitations:
This is more of a clarification/consequence than a correction, but I think it belongs here.
The dark spots and blurs are detectable from all directions around the character. They are strongest while standing behind the character, and very weak standing to the side of the character. The magnitude of the effects is somewhere imbetween the two extremes from in front of the character. None of these options provide 360 degree vision. The angular range of the character's vision is unchanged; eyes are reasonably complicated optical systems, and require light to be focused by the lens onto the photosensitive cells at the back of the eyeball. The eyeball will absorb light from every direction, but will only be able to process light from the forward direction.
The ability to control magnetic fields lends a character limited telekinetic control over ferromagnetic objects, most commonly iron. The more magnetic material is available, the more powerful a character grows.... The nature of magnetization does have some inherent restrictions, most notably that the forces created through ferromagnetism are attractive. One magnetic object must be attracted towards another! Of course, in the modern world one rarely finds himself without iron surroundings- Buildings are made from iron frames, automobiles and other equipment have very high iron content.
This power comes into its own when used to attract two magnetic objects toward each other. A magnetic master doesn't usually hurl objects at their victim, so much as at a large metallic object behind their victim. Unless the character is made of metal (which isn't so unlikely in this game) or is strong enough to wear hundreds of pounds of metal himself (even more likely), he cannot affect objects with his own body. This means that, without metal in his surroundings, he is relatively powerless!
1. Lift/Carry Iron: Iron is the standard by which this power is measured, being easily magnetized and readily available.For every 100 pounds of iron an object contains, the character has an effective Extraordinary PS equal to his experience level with which to manipulate that object.
For example, a third level character can magnetize a 500lb iron object, allowing him to manipulate it with an Extraordinary PS of 15. This is enough force to lift 3000lbs, and carry 1500 lbs; if the 500lb object were attached to much larger non-magnetic object, the character would be able to lift the entire assembly! For small objects, multiply the weight of iron by the character's experience level to determine how much weight he can "carry" with that object.
Range: 100 meters, +50 meters per level of experience (within eyesight)
Damage: Depends on amount of iron used; treat as a standard melee attack fueled by Extraordinary Strength
Attacks per Melee: Magnetizing a large object requires one melee attack; each subsequent use requires one melee attack.
Bonus: +1 strike per odd level of experience (including first)
2. "Hurl" Iron: Objects containing less than 100 lbs of iron can still be affected by this character, but do not lend him the same raw strength. Hurling a small magnetic object towards another can catch a target imbetween; with enough iron in a character's surroundings, he can manipulate objects in any direction he wishes and hit any target within range. As many as one object per level of experience can be manipulated at a time, but must be manipulated with separate melee attacks.
Range: 200 meters, +20 meters per level of experience
Damage: 1D6 per 10 lbs of iron (to a maximum of 1D6x10), +2 per level of experience
Attacks per Melee: Each manipulation of an object requires one melee attack
Bonus: +2 to strike, +1 every third level; +1 to block/parry per third level
3. Manipulate Ambient Magnetic Fields: Natural magnetic fields on the surface of the earth are small, about 1000 times smaller than that of a common kitchen magnet. However, a character with this power can focus the magnetic flux of his surroundings into a small area, creating small but measurable forces. This results in a limited telekinesis, even without iron surroundings, applicable only to objects made of at least 90% iron, with a weight limit of one half pound per experience level. Hurling a small object (or a number of objects, all under the weight limit) at a target is possible.
Range: 10 meters per level of experience
Damage: 1D4, +1 per level of experience
Attacks per Melee: Each use of this ability requires one melee attack
Bonus: +3 to strike
4. Crush Metal Objects: The character can create magnetic fields within a metallic object that warp and bend the material. Fine-tuned manipulations of an object (ie bending) without inflicting damage are possible but very difficult, requiring a character's full concentration and often external metal surrounding for use as a brace. Use the character's Extraordinary PS with that object, as determined above, for a guideline as to what he can do.
Range: 100 meters, +20 meters per level of experience
Damage: 1D6 per 10 lbs of iron, plus 1D6 per level of experience
Weight Limit: 50 lbs per level of experience
Attacks per Melee: The first use requires two melee attacks, each additional use requires one
5. Shield: This ability can be used to block incoming damage if incoming objects are electrically conductive (but not necesarily magnetic, like brass or stainless steel). Projectiles are slowed to a halt using the concept of magnetic drag force. Affected projectiles will fall harmlessly to the ground. Ideally, this power is put into place before any fast-moving attacks are launched.
Duration: One melee round (15 seconds)
Range: 3 meters, +1 meter per level of experience
Effect: Negate up to 1D6x10 SD, +10 per level of experience
Attacks per Melee: Use of this ability requires two melee attacks
Bonus: +1 as a parry
6. Magnify Magnetic Field: The attractive power of any external magnet can be temporarily increased far above its usual level; multiply the strength of the magnet by the character's level of experience. This can be used on permanent magnets, electromagnets, etc. The effect can be maintained indefinitely by expending one attack before the duration expires. This ability can also be used to create a permanent magnet out of magnetizable material.
Range: 1 meter
Duration: 10 minutes, plus 1 minute per level of experience
Attacks per Melee: One full melee of concentration
7. Magnetic Pulse: The character can create a magnetic pulse powerful enough to damage or destroy insufficiently shielded electrical circuitry. Unshielded electrical circuits can be reset or completed with a finely-tuned magnetic pulse. This can effectively be considered a skill (15%, +8% per level of experience), where the character must roll to determine whether the desired effect has occurred. Failed rolls usually mean that the circuit was damaged.
Range: 10 meters, +2 meters per level of experience
Damage: 1D6 per level of experience, damage can be regulated
Attacks per Melee: Requires one melee attack
Other Abilities:
This power could considerably slow gameplay without the following assumptions and rules of thumb:
Reference of Common Magnetic Fields, in Tesla
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Magnetic Susceptibility: A measurement of how magnetic a material is- The higher a value, the larger effect an external magnetic field will have. In game terms, this multiplies the effect of a given amount of material, allowing one to use more or less of it compared to iron. Comparison of ferromagnetic materials
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My Problems:
The mechanics for dealing with this power are too complicated. Some combat skills receive bonuses while others do not, implying that you're supposed to take the combat bonuses from the specific style your fighting against. This means you have to constantly look up bonuses for different styles.... Overall, I think it should be easier to make a character that was just born knowing how to fight.
My Solution:
Building on the concept of the original power, this version offers bonuses that don't change with the fighting style of your opponent. You do, however, get bonuses depending on your familiarity with your opponent. I've also allowed for some variation between different natural combat styles and abilities.
1. Incredible Attributes: Part of what makes this character so formidable in combat is their exceptional physical condition. While not quite equivalent to Extraordinary status, some of this character's attributes will be higher than normal. The player may choose any two of the following:
2. Fighting Style: Characters express their powers with differing styles; players can choose one of the following (or GM might allow choice of N&SS-style Martial Art Form):
3. Adaptive Fighting: As the character fights an opponent he can memorize the way that person moves. Rather than adopting his opponent's style of fighting, he gradually learns to counter that style. Use of this ability costs one attack per melee, but every melee the character engages his opponent results in a cumulative +1 bonus to any and all combat rolls made against that opponent to a maximum of +1 per level of experience of the character. The bonuses remain in effect until the character disengages the power (and gets his melee attack back); the experience will allow him to start with half of that bonus the next time he engages the power against that opponent. Observing an opponent without engaging him requires a full minute for each +1 rather than just one melee, and the character can engage only one opponent per odd level of experience at any given time using these bonuses.
4. Other Notes:
My Problems:
The logic / physics / game mechanics of this power are, in my opinion, deeply flawed:
My Solution:
The character can convert his body, but no external objects, into negative matter, as well as vastly increase the magnitude of the anti-gravitational field emanating from his own negative matter. The most immediate side effect of possessing a body made up of negative matter is that the earth's gravitational acceleration will be reversed, turned into a repulsion. An anti-gravitational force, equal in magnitude but opposite in direction to the character's weight, will immediately act on the character and he will begin falling upwards! While indoors, the character will naturally walk on ceilings rather than floors, just as positive matter characters walk on floors but not ceilings. Outdoors, however, the negative matter character would be repulsed by the earth into outer space.
This effect can be controlled with a simple solution: The character must wear heavy positive matter weights to avoid being flung upwards, just as a diver wears a lead diving belt to cancel the buoyancy of his body while underwater. If the character wears "clothes" equal in weight to his body the gravitational attraction of the clothes to the earth will cancel out the anti-gravitational repulsion of his body from the earth, and he will float in a perpetual freefall. If he wears more clothes he will be held to the ground with a corresponding amount of force. The bonuses and penalties for weightlessness and over-weighted characters laid out in the super ability Weight Manipulation will apply to this character, governed by the combined weight of his body and clothes. Of course, if the character doesn't mind attaching furniture to his ceiling, he can function indoors without penalty or additional positive weights. Finally, keep in mind that a character will eventually either take off their weights while in negative form or turn back to positive form while wearing the weights. Both have consequences....
1. Kinetic Repulsion: While in negative form, the character can vastly increase the effects of his own anti-gravitational field. The character will unconsciously, automatically repel any incoming objects; he is surrounded by a force field. Most incoming objects will be lose momentum as they approach but gain an equal amount of momentum as they are wildly repelled outward from the character. Attacks that are fired "dead-on" will be slowed down, and if they don't have sufficient momentum will be reversed back towards the attacker. Because momentum and kinetic energy are more closely related to damage than any other game statistic, this results in a "damage barrier" around the character. Objects with high momentum will be less deflected than those with low momentum. The end result is a severe penalty for attackers to strike the character with kinetic-based attacks, lessened as attacks increase in momentum.
Damage Barrier: 10 SDC + 5 SDC per level of experience; Any kinetic (physical) attack doing less damage than the damage barrier will have no chance of striking the character. Attacks that do strike the character will be reduced in damage by an amount equal to the damage barrier.
Strike Penalty: Kinetic based attacks will suffer a penalty of -10 to strike, counteracted by +1 for each five points of damage above the character's damage barrier. Ex: An attack doing 20 points of damage more than the damage barrier will be -6 to strike the negative character.
Attacks per Melee: In theory, unlimited; This defensive ability works automatically on all incoming objects.
Limitations: This repulsion occurs instinctively on all moving objects near the character, and requires an active decision to "turn off." The character has no direct control over the objects' deflections, making him dangerous to be near in a firefight. Deflected objects will be reduced somewhat in range, but not in damage. Finally, when this power is engaged any loose objects carried by the character will be pulled from his body. Everything carried by this character must be secured.
2. Offensive Damage Bonus: Any kinetic attacks, such as thrown melee weapons or bullets (even fired from a gun), engaged by the negative character will gain a damage bonus equal to the damage barrier. It is not possible to regulate this damage bonus, except to negate it completely with an active decision.
Damage Bonus: 5 SD per level of experience; This bonus applies only to kinetic attacks originating from the negative character. The bonus is automatic, and cannot be regulated except by turning it completely off.
Strike Penalty: Because the attacks will be naturally deflected off center, they suffer -5 to strike, counteracted by +1 per 5 points of damage.
Attacks per Melee: Equal to the number of hand to hand attacks of the character.
3. Effective Pushing Strength: Self-propelled physical objects, including people, robots, rockets, etc, can be pushed with increasing strength as they approach the character. The strength of the anti-gravitational field is proportional to the distance away from the character squared. The strength at one meter will be four times larger than at strength at two meters, nine times times larger than at three meters, but only one fourth as large as at one half meter.
Effective PS: At one meter (just outside of arm's reach) the character has an effective PS, appropriate only for pushing objects away, of 20 + 2 per level of experience.
Limitations: The character, especially if his net "weight" is low, might not have enough traction to hold his ground without some kind of backstop. An opponent might be able to push the character around without physically touching him.
4. Limited Anti-Gravitational Flight: Instead of focusing intense anti-gravitational forces on incoming objects, the character can direct his power downwards at the earth. The strength of this power is easily enough to exceed the most extreme biological limitations on acceleration and altitude. The main drawback to this power is that the character can only fly directly upwards and fall directly downwards without pushing horizontally off of some object.
Velocity Limit: Effectively none, except that the character can only fly directly upwards. Keep in mind that most characters can accelerate no faster than 5-10 times the normal acceleration due to gravity without experiencing severe trauma and unconsciousness.
Altitude Limit: Effectively none, as the character can defy gravity. The biological restrictions mentioned for the power Gravity Manipulation apply to this power; Altitudes greater than 30,000 ft require independent breathing apparatus and pressurized apparel.
Weight Limit: The character can safely fly with as much additional weight as his physical strength allows him to lift.
Attacks per Melee: The leap itself requires only one attack, but sustaining for a continuous time requires two attacks per melee.
5. Anti-Gravity Assisted Falling: If the character falls from any kind of height he can use his gravitational repulsion to safely land.
Height Restrictions: Effectively none.
Attacks per Melee: One to reduce falling damage by the amount of the Damage Barrier (above); Spending two attacks allows the character to land without sustaining any damage.
Other Bonuses: Continually wearing body weights will lend the
character a bonus of +2 to their PS and PE attributes.
This power lends the character a 10% bonus on aerial skills, such as
acrobatics.
The character can remain in his negative form for virtually unlimited
periods. Eating and drinking are unaffected, since the gravitational interaction of
particles on a chemical level is insignificant. Except for being repulsed by the earth,
which may lead to loneliness while standing upside down, there are no ill-effects to
remaining in a negative matter state.
Vulnerabilities: This power is only effective on physical objects. It
offers no protection against electrical, lasers, and most other energy attacks. The damage
barrier and strike penalties are halved for fire, plasma, and particle beam weapons (which
consist of small but massive particles).
The character must often wear bulky weights distributed across his
entire body. Characters wearing poorly distributed weights while in negative form will
find movement difficult; imagine swimming with either a float or large rock tied to your
foot. Either would significantly impede your movement.
Does Negative Matter Attract or Repel other Negative Matter?
This issue doesn't really affect a single character with this power, because he is the only negative matter object. Materials are held together by forces far stronger than gravity, so negative matter repulsing both positive and negative matter isn't unfathomable. When two character with this power interact, however, I think it would be amusing if their power repulsed normal positive matter, but attracted the negative matter each is made up of.
My Solution:
1. Energy Expulsion: The character must choose a specific type of energy, as in HU2. Damage from blasts can be controlled by changing the multplication modifier. The character can lower the modifier by a factor of two for every level of experience. Ex: A third level character can fire a blast doing 1D6x10, or lower the damage to 1D6x9, 1D6x8, etc, down to 1D6x4. A character can also choose not to use the extra damage bonus (+15). Characters of fifth level or higher can fire "blasts" doing less than one point of damage. The energy beam can also be set for a wide angle dispersion. This does considerably less damage, but can be used to hit multiple targets.
Range: 600 feet (183 m) plus 20 feet per level of experience for normal; 50 feet plus 5 feet per level of experience
Damage: Normal: 1D6x10 + 5 per level of experience; Wide angle: 3D6 + 2 per level of experience
Attacks per Melee: Each blast counts as one hand to hand attack.
Bonuses: Normal: +3 to strike for an aimed shot, +1 for shooting wild. Wide Angle: +6 to strike (no aimed shots possible).
Add a bonus of +1 to strike for every two levels of experience.
2. Energy Storage and Expulsion: The character can store the energy used for a blast rather than release it instantly. This allows the character to release a "super blast" of energy. For example, a character stores the energy from one attack, and releases it (and a new blast) during his next attack. The damage is 2D4x10. If the character stores and releases energy from three attacks, the damage will be 3D4x10. A character is capable of storing energy for one attack per additional level of experience after first. Storing this energy requires some amount of concentration. This concentration reduces the number of attacks available by one every melee the power is used. A detailed example: A fourth level character with six attacks per melee uses his storage power to create a super blast. Storing energy reduces the character to five attacks per melee. The character spends three attacks worth of time building energy, while he performs other actions. He can now use his fourth and fifth attacks to release a blast doing 4D4x10 +20.
Range: 600 feet, plus 200 feet per stored blast, plus 20 feet per level of experience
Damage: nD4x10 + 5 per level of experience, where n is the number of total energy attacks used to fuel the blast. n can never be higher than the character's level of experience. The character cannot intentionally lower the damage of this attack.
Attacks per Melee: Storing energy requires time equal to the number of attacks being stored, but does not require an attack. The actual release of a super blast requires one attack.
Duration: A character can store energy for one full melee round per level of experience. After this amount of time the penalties below accumulate every melee round until the energy is released, as if the character were further increasing his stored energy once per melee.
Bonuses: +4 strike for an aimed shot, +2 for shooting wild. The energy beam is wider than a normal blast.
Add a bonus of +1 to strike for every two levels of experience.
Penalties: While storing energy the character is somewhat distracted. During that time the character loses one attack per melee. Further, for every attack's worth of energy being stored the character is -1 on initiative and other combat rolls (except for the actual super expulsion), and -5% to perform skills.
3. Aura Effect:
4. Ricochet Blast:
5. Other Abilities and Bonuses:
Unchanged from rules in HU2.