Enhancements

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You can apply enhancements to advantages, and more rarely to basic attributes and secondary characteristics. The GM might even permit specific enhancements on certain skills, but this is difficult to justify unless the skill functions much as an advantage (which is sometimes true of racially innate skills possessed by non-humans).

Accurate

+5%/level

Your attack is unusually accurate. Each +1 to Accuracy is a +5% enhancement.

Affects Insubstantial

+20%

Your ability affects insubstantial targets in addition to normal, substantial things.

Affects Substantial

+40%

Your ability affects substantial targets even when you are insubstantial. It also affects insubstantial creatures normally. (Do not add this enhancement to magical or psi abilities; these can already affect the substantial world at -3.)

Note to GMs: This enhancement is very powerful. It lets insubstantial characters affect the material world with little fear of retribution. Feel free to disallow it, restrict it to NPCs, or to make sure that lots of foes have the Affects Insubstantial enhancement!

Area Effect

+50%/level

Your ability works as an area power instead of affecting a single target. Everything in the area suffers the attack's damage or other effects. On a miss, use the scatter rules to see where the area is centered. Active defenses don't protect against an area attack, but victims may attempt to dive for cover or dodge and retreat to leave the area. For more information, see Area and Spreading Attacks.

Radius Modifier

Radius	Modifier
2 yards	+50%
4 yards	+100%
8 yards	+150%
16 yards	+200%

Further levels continue to double the radius. If applied to an advantage that already covers an area, each level doubles the base radius.

Area Effect is a prerequisite for Mobile, Persistent, Selective Area, Bombardment, and Emanation.

Armor Divisor

Variable

Your attack can pierce more armor than its base damage would indicate.

Armor Divisor	Modifier
(2) +50%
(3) +100%
(5) +150%
(10) +200%

Only Innate Attacks and Afflictions can have this enhancement. Armor Divisor is a "penetration modifier"; you cannot combine it with other pen- etration modifiers, such as Contact Agent and Follow-Up.

Aura

+80%

Your attack takes the form of a malefic aura that affects anyone you touch (reach C) or who touches you. If a weapon strikes you, your aura affects the weapon. You can switch the aura on or off at the start of your turn (if not, take Always On. You must take Aura in conjunction with Melee Attack at the -30% level (reach C), and you cannot claim the extra -5% for "cannot parry" – an aura cannot parry in the first place.

The classic example of an Aura is the sheath of flame surrounding a fire elemental. See Body of Fire for how to write this up.

Based on (Different Attribute)

+20%

This enhancement is only available for abilities that allow a resistance roll against ST, DX, IQ, HT, Perception, or Will. It moves the resistance roll from the usual attribute or characteristic to a different one, specified when you buy the ability. This is considered an enhancement because it lets you fine-tune your ability to be more effective against targets with known weaknesses.

Blood Agent

+100%

On an attack with Area Effect or Cone, this is an enhancement. See the Blood Agent limitation for details.

Cone

Variable

Your attack spreads to affect everyone in a cone-shaped area. Cones use special rules; see Area and Spreading Attacks. Decide on the maximum width of the cone, in yards, at the attack's maximum range. Cone costs +50% plus +10% per yard of maximum width.

You cannot combine Cone with Area Effect, Aura, Jet, Melee Attack, Rapid Fire, or Emanation.

Contact Agent

+150%

On an attack with Area Effect or Cone, this is an enhancement. See the Contact Agent limitation for more information.

Cosmic

Variable

Your ability operates on a "higher level" than is usual in your game world. This allows it to work under all circumstances, and possibly even ignore opposing powers! The value of the enhancement depends on the underlying trait:

Ability other than an attack or a defense. Your ability is not subject to the usual built-in restrictions. For instance, your Healing might cure otherwise "incurable" diseases, your Insubstantiality might allow you to penetrate barriers that would block other insubstantial beings, or your Shapeshifting might be immune to negation by external forces. +50%.

Defense or countermeasure. Your defensive trait provides its usual benefits against offensive abilities modified with the Cosmic enhancement. +50%.

Attack with a lingering special effect. Your attack has an enduring effect that only another Cosmic power can counteract; e.g., a burning Innate Attack that sets fires that water cannot extinguish, or a toxic Innate Attack that inflicts Cyclic (below) damage that medical technology cannot halt. This does not negate the target's protection! DR still affects Innate Attack, a HT roll is still allowed for a Resistible attack, etc. +100%.

Irresistible attack. Your attack does negate the target's protection; e.g., an Innate Attack that ignores DR, or Mind Control that ignores Mind Shield. The target may still attempt an active defense against the attack, if applicable. You cannot combine this enhancement with other "penetration modifiers," such as Follow-Up. +300%.

Cyclic

Variable

This enhancement is only available for Innate Attacks that inflict burning, corrosion, fatigue, or toxic damage. It represents an attack that persists on the victim: acid, disease, liquid fire, poison, etc. (For attacks that linger in the environment, see Persistent.)

A Cyclic attack damages its target normally – but once the target has been exposed, the attack damages him again each time a set interval passes! All penetration modifiers (e.g., Contact or Follow-Up) continue to apply; for instance, a Cyclic attack with Follow-Up continues to ignore DR. Worst of all, the victim cannot recover HP or FP lost to a Cyclic attack until the attack stops damaging him!

You must specify a reasonably common set of circumstances that halt any further damage from your attack. For instance, to halt cyclic corrosion or burning damage, the victim might have to wash the acid off or roll on the ground to extinguish the flames, taking one or more seconds and a DX or IQ roll. Fatigue or toxic damage might require drugs or medical care (use Physician skill). Details are up to the GM.

The base value of Cyclic depends on the damage interval.

Interval	Modifier
1 second	+100%
10 seconds	+50%
1 minute	+40%
1 hour	+20%
1 day	+10%

Burning or corrosion attacks shouldn't have intervals longer than 10 seconds. At the GM's option, someone taking damage at one-second intervals might have to make a Fright Check!

Multiply the base value by the number of cycles after the first. The GM should consider limiting large numbers of cycles to attacks that do less than 1d damage.

Cyclic attacks are often Resistible; if so, an extra resistance roll is allowed for each cycle, with a success preventing any further damage. If the attack is Resistible, halve the value of Cyclic.

Some Cyclic attacks are contagious. While affected, the victim can inadvertently infect others, per Illness. This increases the final cost of the enhancement, after all other factors: +20% for a "mildly contagious" attack or +50% for a "highly contagious" one.

These factors are cumulative. For instance, a resistible disease with 31 daily cycles would cost +10% × 30 × 1/2 = +150%. If it were highly contagious, it would cost +200%.