Enhancements

Notes

See Also: Power Modifiers

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).

The GM should take at least a cursory look at every enhancement-laden ability. See Cautions. ( symbols are not yet added onto this page.)

Accurate

+5%/level

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

Any ability with the Ranged enhancement can have Accurate. See Reliable for an enhancement that affects die rolls other than those for ranged attacks.

Affects Insubstantial

+20%

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

Affects Insubstantial is common on the abilities of divine, magical, psi, and spirit powers. Advantages modified with it affect those using Clairsentience, Jumper, or Warp with the Projection modifier – not just targets using true Insubstantiality. The GM may permit the following variant:

Affects Insubstantial (Selective): You can choose to affect just insubstantial targets, just substantial targets, or all targets. (If you can only affect insubstantial targets, take the Insubstantial Only limitation). +30%.

Affects Others

Variable

You can extend your advantage's benefits to others. If you can affect a limited number of willing subjects by touching them, Affects Others costs +50% per person. This isn't an attack – it has no effect on unwilling recipients. You must take a separate Ready maneuver to make contact with each companion, who must be within reach. This bestows the effects of the advantage, not the ability to use it. You turn it "off" and "on," set its level, and so on, and your decisions apply equally to you and all subjects.

Your ability only affects others while they're touching you. They can end its effects at any time by breaking contact with you. To affect those who are merely nearby, add Area Effect – in which case a Ready maneuver lets you affect any number of people up to your limit, if they're in your area.

The above version of Affects Others is for movement abilities (e.g., Flight and Permeation) and physical transformations (e.g., Growth and Shrinking). It's a good way to keep the PCs together on adventures that would leave behind those who can't fly, shrink, etc. The GM may allow Affects Others on other traits when it serves this purpose.

If you apply Force Field to one of the defenses listed for that enhancement (below), you may add Affects Others for a flat +50%, provided you also take at least one level of Area Effect. Together, these three modifiers let you extend your advantage's protection to everyone inside your area. This force field works against attacks and hazards crossing it from the outside. Threats inside the force field bypass its protection.

If based on Damage Resistance, the force field impedes movement, too. Foes who wish to cross it must force their way in. Those who try this as a free action (allowed once per turn) roll thrust damage. Those who use Attack, Move and Attack, or All-Out Attack to blast their way in roll their attack's usual damage. If damage exceeds DR, they make an opening large enough to step through. This closes at the end of their turn, and doesn't weaken the force field.

The GM shouldn't allow either form of Affects Others on advantages that let the user do something, such as Healing, Innate Attack, and Mind Control. To grant forbidden traits or affect unwilling subjects, buy Affliction with a suitable Advantage enhancement.

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!

Those who possess Clairsentience, Jumper, or Warp with the Projection modifier, Shadow Form, or any similar ability that renders them effectively insubstantial can use this modifier to let advantages that wouldn't normally affect the physical world do so. As with Affects Insubstantial, a variant exists in some worlds

Affects Substantial (Selective): You can choose to affect just substantial targets, just insubstantial targets, or all targets. +50%.

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.

For advantages that already affect an area, the area of effect sometimes depends on the advantage level. If so, the only way to increase the area is to buy a higher level of the trait – Area Effect is off limits.

Area Effect makes it possible to affect groups of people with non-attack advantages that normally affect just one target; e.g., Healing, Mind Control, and Telekinesis. Several special rules apply to such abilities:

• If the advantage has a FP cost, multiply this by the radius in yards. Paying this cost lets the user affect everyone in the area – he doesn't pay FP separately for each subject. For instance, on a single subject, Healing costs 1 FP per 2 HP healed; on everyone in an eight-yard radius, it costs 8 FP per 2 HP healed (which the GM may interpret as 4 FP per HP).
• If the advantage affects the target via a Quick Contest, the user must roll a separate Contest with each potential victim in the area.
• If the advantage specifies a penalty to affect each victim after the first, the user has a penalty equal to the total number of potential victims, less one, on his roll for each subject. For example, to use Mind Control (Area Effect) on four people at once, roll to affect each of them at -3.
• If the advantage has user-defined effects, these must be the same for all subjects. In the Mind Control example above, the controller could tell all four victims, "Attack those men by the door!" He could not order, "John, save the girl. Paul, grab the treasure chest. George and Ringo, attack the men by the door!" If the ability is ongoing, it takes a second (or the usual amount of time for the advantage, if longer) to specify different effects for a particular subject, during which time the others continue to experience the last effect specified.

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.

The GM may allow this modifier – as an enhancement or a limitation – on attacks affected by specialized defenses other than DR. Adjust the defense's level just as you would DR. For example, an Affliction with Vision-Based (which bypasses DR) could add Armor Divisor (5) to reduce the effects of Protected Vision from +5 to +1.

When using this option with the Armor Divisor limitation, treat targets that lack the specialized defense as if they had the lowest level of the defense. For instance, a radiation beam with little penetrating power might be a Toxic Attack with Radiation and Armor Divisor (0.5). Targets with Radiation Tolerance would get double its divisor; those without Radiation Tolerance would gain the benefits of Radiation Tolerance 2 (the lowest level).

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.

Creatures that bleed acid, flame, and so on when wounded have a Burning Attack or Corrosive Attack that combines Aura (+80%) with Always On (-20%), Blood Agent (-40%), and Melee Attack (-30%), for a net -10%. Always On is worth -20% because it's inconvenient to fry your possessions whenever you're cut. Blood Agent works "in reverse" here; see Blood Agent for details.

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.

Some sinister entities (e.g., demons) can "aim" Afflictions, Mind Control, and so on at their victim's weaknesses. If the GM permits, an attack can have several instances of this enhancement, letting the user choose how his attack is resisted. Each attribute – including the one that normally resists the attack – costs +20%. For instance, to target IQ, HT, or Will costs +60%. The attacker must choose the target attribute before he attacks.

The GM may permit this modifier on advantages that require the user to roll against his own DX, IQ, HT, Will, or Per, shifting the roll to another of these scores. This still costs +20%. He can take this enhancement twice to change his roll and his target's roll, where logical.

Blood Agent

+100%

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

Can Carry Objects

Variable

A physical transformation normally affects your body but not your belongings. With this enhancement, your advantage also transforms objects you're carrying or wearing. It ceases to affect these things when you put them down. Can Carry Objects is already defined for Insubstantiality, Invisibility, Permeation, Shadow Form, and Shrinking, but it's also useful for Chameleon, Elastic Skin, Growth, Morph, and anything else the GM allows.

Cost depends on how much you can carry: No encumbrance is +10%; Light, +20%; Medium, +50%; and Heavy, +100%.

To affect people you're touching, add Affects Others. To extend defensive effects to your possessions, take Force Field (below).

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.

The notes under Area Effect also apply to Cone. The only difference is that the user multiplies the FP cost of non-attack advantages by the maximum width of the cone instead of a radius in yards.

When combining Cone with Malediction – which has no Max statistic – assume that the cone spreads by one yard per yard of range. It attains its maximum width at a range equal to that width (e.g., at five yards, for a five-yard-wide cone), and has no effect on more distant targets. Work out the range modifier separately for each target within the cone, following the usual rules for Malediction.

Contact Agent

+150%

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

Attackers who must touch victims with their bare skin should take Touch-Based, not Contact Agent; see Sense-Based.

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%.

See Also: Power Modifiers: Cosmic.

New Options (Powers Book)

   ?

The following new options are powerful, and not suitable for every campaign:

No die roll required. Only for abilities that require a success roll. Your advantage works if you have any chance of success. Apply all the usual modifiers to your base skill. If your effective skill is 3 or more, you succeed – don't bother to roll. The only way you can fail is if your effective skill falls below 3. You can add this enhancement to attacks, but not to abilities with effects based entirely on margin of success. This excludes such resisted abilities as Mind Control and Maledictions. +100%.

No active defense allowed. Only for attacks that the target can dodge, block, or parry. Your target gets no active defense against your attack, no matter how fast or skilled he is. If your attack roll succeeds, you hit. The victim's DR and other purely passive protection works normally, and this enhancement doesn't prevent resistance rolls. +300%.

Cosmic options are cumulative.

For instance, an Innate Attack that requires no roll to hit (+100%), allows no active defense (+300%), and ignores DR (+300%) is +700%. An Attack maneuver lets you immediately apply your damage roll to your target's HP!

No version of Cosmic bypasses the resistance roll against Affliction, Mind Control, Maledictions, and similar abilities. Despite its name, "irresistible attack" simply negates protection such as DR and Mind Shield – it doesn't deny the target his chance to resist. On a carrier attack, all forms of Cosmic raise the cost of Follow-Up on the follow-up attack.

Cosmic as a Power Modifier: At the +50% level, Cosmic is often a power modifier. On abilities with this modifier, reduce the total cost of all Cosmic options by +50%. In effect, the first +50% of Cosmic is built in. When using Powers, Great and Small, each tier has an enhancement cost, and pays a premium equal to that cost for a lingering attack, or five times that cost for an irresistible attack. "No die roll" and "no active defense" are at full cost, less the value of the tier enhancement.

Cosmic vs. Cosmic: When Cosmic abilities conflict, handle it as if neither side had Cosmic. For instance, DR with Cosmic subtracts from "irresistible" attacks with Cosmic. The not quite-cosmic powers of Powers, Great and Small only count as Cosmic against lower tiers – and only top-tier powers count as Cosmic against wild abilities. Powers on the same tier interact as if neither were Cosmic.

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%.

Contagious Cyclic Attack

If the attack is contagious, those who come into contact with victims must roll against HT, per Contagion. "Mildly contagious" (+20%) means the required contact is holding or being held by an infected victim for a full cycle, or contact with bodily fluids. "Highly contagious" (+50%) means the effects spread at the slightest touch.

Damage Modifiers

Variable

You may give an Innate Attack one or more of these modifiers to further qualify the way it does damage.

Double Blunt Trauma (dbt)

+20%

Available for Innate Attacks that do burning, corrosion, cutting, impaling, or piercing damage. Burning and corrosion attacks enhanced this way inflict 1 HP of blunt trauma injury per 10 points of basic damage resisted by flexible armor. Cutting, impaling, and piercing attacks with this enhancement inflict the same blunt trauma as a crushing attack: 1 HP of blunt trauma injury per 5 points of basic damage resisted by flexible armor.

Double Knockback (dkb)

+20%

This lets a crushing or cutting attack inflict twice as much knockback as usual; see Knockback.

To make this meaningful for low-damage attacks, double the basic damage of the attack, for knockback purposes only, instead of doubling yards of knockback.

Explosion (exp)

+50%/level

The attack produces an explosion at the point of impact (on a miss, check for scatter). The target takes damage normally; anything nearby receives "collateral damage" equal to basic damage divided (3 × the distance in yards from the blast). If the attack also has an Armor Divisor, it does not apply to this collateral damage.

You can take up to two additional levels of Explosion if you desire a blast that isn't as affected by distance. The second level divides basic damage by twice the distance in yards and is +100%; the third level divides damage by the distance in yards and is +150%. Explosion is usually limited to crushing and burning attacks, but the GM may permit other combinations.

For more on explosions, see Explosions.

Fragmentation (frag)

+15% per die

The attack scatters damaging fragments on impact. Decide on the dice of fragmentation damage and note this in brackets after the attack's basic damage. Everyone within 5 yards per die of fragmentation damage is attacked with effective skill 15, modified by range penalties from the point of impact; see Fragmentation Damage.

Fragments inflict cutting damage. If you add Fragmentation to a burning attack or one with the Incendiary enhancement (below), the fragments are Incendiary at no extra cost. If you apply it to an attack with Follow-Up, penetration indicates the fragments automatically hit the victim but no one else. Fragmentation often accompanies Explosion, but this is not required.

Fragmentation costs +15% per die of fragmentation damage. A damage of [2d] or [3d] is typical of a grenade-sized blast. Maximum fragmentation damage is [12d] or the attack's basic damage, whichever is less.

Hot Fragments: The fragments inflict burning damage with the modifiers Cyclic (Six 10-second cycles) and Armor Divisor (0.2) instead of cutting damage. Cost is unchanged.

The GM may permit options other than regular and hot fragments. Large Piercing Fragments, like the ball bearings hurled by modern antipersonnel mines, cost +15% per die. Impaling Fragments, like the flechettes scattered by some artillery shells, cost +20% per die. In all cases, use the usual fragmentation rules; damage type is all that changes.

Hazard

Variable

You may give an Innate Attack that inflicts fatigue damage one of these enhancements: Dehydration, +20%; Drowning, +0%; Freezing, +20%; Missed Sleep, +50%; Starvation, +40%; or Suffocation, +0%. Treat FP lost to the attack identically to FP lost to the relevant hazard for all purposes, notably recovery.

Traits that protect the target from the hazard in question also shield him from this damage. For instance, a Starvation attack would inflict FP that could only be recovered by eating a meal, but someone with Doesn't Eat or Drink would be immune.

Incendiary (inc)

+10%

An Innate Attack other than a burning attack may be Incendiary. This gives the damage a secondary flame effect that can ignite volatile material (fuel, dry tinder, etc.).

Optionally, to represent superscience and magical attacks with fire-starting potential out of proportion to damage, add Incendiary to a Burning Attack. This moves the effective flammability class of anything damaged by the attack up a step; see Making Things Burn.

Missing Damage Effect (limitation)

If the GM agrees and the special effects support it, an attack may lack one of the normal "side effects" of its damage type. The absence of an effect that damages the target's HP, FP, or DR is worth -20% (like No Blunt Trauma); e.g., No DR Reduction, for a Corrosion Attack. Most other limitations are worth -10% (like No Knockback); e.g., No Incendiary Effect, for a Burning Attack.

No Wounding (limitation)

The GM may allow this on Burning and Corrosion Attacks. For a Burning Attack, roll damage normally but use it only to determine whether the attack sets a fire; see Making Things Burn. In the case of a Corrosion Attack, the damage only serves to reduce the target's DR.

Radiation (rad)

+25% or +100%

The attack irradiates the subject. Roll damage normally, but whether or not the attack penetrates DR, it inflicts 1 rad per point of basic damage rolled. See Radiation for effects. For a toxic attack, this dosage is instead of regular damage, and the enhancement is worth +25%; this is typical of "ordinary" radioactivity. For a burning attack, the radiation dose is as well as regular damage, and the enhancement is +100%; use this for particle beams. Other damage types cannot have this enhancement.

In settings that feature weird, mutation-inducing radiation, attacks with this modifier can bathe the target in these energies instead of causing regular radiation damage. Effects are up to the GM.

Surge (sur)

+20%

The attack produces an electrical surge or pulse that can disable electronics or anything with the Electrical disadvantage.

Electronics that take over 1/3 HP from an attack with this enhancement must make a HT roll to avoid shorting out. Failure disables the target for seconds equal to the margin of failure; critical failure disables it until repaired (see Repairs).

Delay

Variable

This enhancement delays the attack's effects until sometime after you hit the target. This lets you simulate time bombs and the like. You must specify some way to neutralize the effect before it occurs. Work out this detail with the GM.

A fixed delay (e.g., 2 seconds) is +0%.

A variable delay is +10% if you can set it for any time from "no delay" to 10 seconds, or +20% if you can set it for longer (minutes, hours, days...). You must select the delay before you roll to hit.

Triggered Delay: Instead of a time delay, the effects are triggered by a simple action: a radio signal, touch, pressure, a metal object passing within a yard, etc. Specify the trigger when you buy the attack. +50%.

Supernatural attacks often use a variant of Triggered Delay that goes off if the victim performs some forbidden act: attacks someone, speaks, etc. This is worth the usual +50% if the triggering condition is fixed, +100% if the attacker can specify the details of the curse when he attacks. The traditional way to neutralize such attacks is with an exorcism, Remove Curse spell, or similar measure.

Drifting

+20%

You may add this enhancement to any attack with Delay (above) or Persistent. The initial attack roll places the effect. It then drifts from that point with the wind, water currents, solar wind, etc., as appropriate. Use this for poison gas, ball lightning, floating mines, and so forth.

Extended Duration

Variable

This enhancement increases the normal duration of your ability. "Multiple" applies to the original duration (or changes it to permanent).

Multiple	Modifier	Caution
3×	duration +20%	—
10×	duration +40%	?
30×	duration +60%	?
100×	duration +80%	?
300×	duration +100%	?
1,000×	duration +120%	?
Permanent*	+150%	?

*You must specify a reasonable set of conditions that will dispel the effect (or cure it, for abilities such as Affliction and Mind Control). The GM is the judge of what is "reasonable." If there is no way to end the effect, the enhancement is +300%. To keep PCs from granting each other free advantages, the GM may wish to forbid this level of Extended Duration on Afflictions with the Advantage modifier.

To add Extended Duration to an attack, the attack must either have Aura, Persistent, or Wall, or specifically allow this enhancement. You can also add Extended Duration to any advantage that has the Ranged enhancement.

If the modified trait has multiple facets with separate durations, you must specify which duration you are extending. For instance, a cloud of sleeping gas could have this enhancement to extend the duration of the sleep it induces or the length of time the cloud persists; to do both, buy this enhancement twice.

Duration occasionally depends on advantage level. If so, the only way to increase it is to buy a higher level of the advantage; Extended Durationisn't allowed.

The +300% level of Permanent can be unbalancing on Afflictions with the Advantage enhancement. If the GM permits this combination, the best way to keep things fair is to require the recipient to buy the granted advantage with unspent points if he wishes to keep it. Otherwise, the benefits vanish after the usual duration.

Follow-Up

Variable

Your attack's effects are delivered by a "carrier." Use this to represent poison on a dart, an explosive in an armor-piercing shell, etc. Pick a different attack as the carrier. This can be either body weaponry (e.g., Claws or Teeth) or an Innate Attack (usually one that does cutting, impaling, or piercing damage).

A Follow-Up attack need only list its damage amount and type. All other details depend on the carrier attack. The Follow-Up attack only hits if the carrier attack hits. If the carrier attack penetrates the target's DR, DR has no effect on the Follow-Up attack's damage or HT rolls.

If the carrier attack is a natural weapon, such as Claws or Teeth, Follow-Up is a +0% enhancement. (Exception: On a passive carrier attack such as Spines, Follow-Up is a -50% limitation.)

If the carrier attack is an Innate Attack, the cost of Follow-Up depends on the modifiers on the carrier attack. The cost of Follow-Up equals the sum of the costs of whichever of the following modifiers apply to the carrier attack: Always On, Aura, Cone, Drifting, Emanation, Emergencies Only, Extra Recoil, Guided, Homing, Increased Range, Jet, Limited Use, Malediction, Melee Attack, Preparation Required, Rapid Fire, Reduced Range, Takes Extra Time, Takes Recharge, Unconscious Only, Uncontrollable, or Unreliable. If none of these modifiers apply to the carrier attack, Follow-Up costs +0%. Note that the Follow-Up attack itself cannot take any of these modifiers. Only its carrier attack may have them.

Follow-Up is a "penetration modifier"; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers (although the carrier attack can have them).

Follow-Up is only valid on attacks that can'§t normally ignore DR. If an attack that normally ignores DR (e.g., Leech) only works if a natural weapon – Claws, Teeth, etc. – pierces DR, use the Blood Agent limitation (-40%) instead.

Guided or Homing

Variable

You can guide your attack – or perhaps it "homes in" by itself! Use this enhancement to create guided missiles and supernatural effects such as magical javelins that seek your foes.

Guided:

You steer your attack to the target using your own skill. This lets you ignore all range penalties to hit! If the target is so distant that your attack needs multiple turns to reach it (see below), you must take a Concentrate maneuver each turn. If you lose sight of the target while the attack is en route, your attack automatically misses. +50%.

Homing:

Your attack steers itself. Decide how it seeks its target: with ordinary vision or a sensory advantage such as Detect, Infravision, Night Vision, Scanning Sense, or Vibration Sense. The attack uses this sense for the purpose of combat modifiers; e.g., radar ignores darkness but can be jammed. To "lock on," you must Aim at the target and make an unmodified skill roll. Do not roll against your skill to hit. Instead, use the attack's skill of 10 – plus Accuracy, if you made your skill roll – and ignore all range penalties. Homing costs a base +50%, plus 1% per point the chosen homing mechanism would cost if bought as an advantage (without any modifiers); e.g., Infravision costs 10 points, making Homing (Infravision) +60%. Ordinary vision uses the base +50%.

If a Guided or Homing attack has a 1/2D statistic, read this as the attack's speed in yards/second. The attack can hit a target at up to its 1/2D range on the turn you launch it. It requires multiple turns to reach more distant targets. Do not halve damage, but defer the attack roll until the attack reaches its target.

For more information, see Guided and Homing Weapons.

Cinematic Missiles

Cinematic missiles don't crash on a miss...they turn around and make another pass. Add +10% to the enhancement per pass after the first; e.g., a Guided attack that gets three chances to hit is +70%. If the initial attack misses, reroll it a second later, using the same effective skill as on the first attempt. Roll again once per second until the attack hits or runs out of extra passes – or, if Guided, the attacker stops guiding it.

For attacks with Rapid Fire and either Guided or Homing, make the attack roll as usual, but the roll is for the entire pack of missiles. Success means one missile hits, plus additional missiles equal to the margin of success, to a maximum of the attack's RoF.

Increased Range

+10%/level

You may add this enhancement to any advantage that has a range; e.g., Innate Attack or Scanning Sense. Each level increases range as follows:

Range Multiple	Modifier
2×	+10%
5×	+20%
10×	+30%
20×	+40%
50×	+50%
100×	+60%

Further levels follow the same "2-5-10" progression.

If applied to a ranged attack, each level increases 1/2D and Max. You may increase 1/2D or Max individually at half cost (that is, "Increased 1/2D" and "Increased Max" are +5%/level). However, you cannot increase 1/2D past Max. At most, you can make 1/2D equal to Max – this means the attack has no 1/2D range. For attacks that already have no 1/2D range, you can increase Max for +5%/level.

Increased Range isn't allowed on advantages whose range depends on advantage level. To increase the range of such traits, buy more levels of the advantage. When adding this enhancement to a trait that normally doesn't work at a distance, Ranged is a prerequisite.

Jet

+0%

Your attack is a continuous stream, like a flamethrower. Treat it as a melee weapon with a very long reach rather than as a ranged weapon. Do not apply penalties for target range and speed.

An attack with Jet has no Acc, and has 1/2D 5 and Max 10 instead of its usual range. Increased Range increases range by 100% per level instead of its usual effects.

Jet is incompatible with Area Effect, Aura, Cone, Follow-Up, Melee Attack, and Rapid Fire.

Jets have limited range but enjoy many benefits reserved for melee attacks. They can use All-Out Attack (Double), Deceptive Attack, Feint, and Rapid Strike, and get +4 to hit with All-Out Attack (Determined). A jet is narrow – no thicker than a pole weapon – and must engage targets one at a time. For a "jet" that can sweep an area, take Cone. Jet is for force blades, flame jets, plasma swords, and so on that are longer than Melee Attack allows.

Link

+10% or +20%

You can use two or more advantages simultaneously, as if they were a single ability. For +10%, your abilities are permanently linked into a single power, and must be used together – you cannot use them separately. For +20%, you can also use them separately. You must add this enhancement to all the abilities you wish to link.

If you link two attacks into one and give them identical Malf., 1/2D, Max, Acc, RoF, Shots, and Recoil, you can treat them as a single attack with one attack roll but separate rolls for damage. This is not the same as the Follow-Up enhancement!

Link is a key building block of custom abilities – without it, a tangler grenade that strikes its target for damage (Crushing Attack) and releases webbing that restrains and blinds the victim (Binding and Affliction) would be impossible. Label each Link on the character sheet in a way that distinguishes it from other Links and makes all connections clear. No trait can have multiple Links, but a single Link can connect any number of advantages.

The GM wish to use these optional rules:

Asymmetric Links: A set of linked advantages can mix the +10% and +20% versions of Link. The advantages with the +20% level work both as part of the Link and on their own. Those with +10% level are only available when using all of the linked advantages at once.

Discretionary Links: When a set of advantages has Link at the +20% level, the user can specify that he's using one, some, or all of them, in any combination. For instance, if his Affliction, Binding, and Innate Attack had a +20% Link, he could use just one of the three attacks, or any of three combinations of two, or all three at once.

Low or No Signature

+10% or +20%

An attack normally has a "signature": a flash of light, a sound, etc. If left unspecified, this is assumed to be similar to a gunshot or a stroke of lightning – that is, a brilliant flash and a loud report. This enhancement makes your attack less obvious.

Low Signature: The attack is no more easily identifiable as an attack than the loud pop of a champagne cork; e.g., a suppressed pistol shot. +10%.

No Signature: The attack is almost completely unnoticeable; e.g., a blowgun's dart. Alternatively, it is utterly undetectable by normal means, but leaves a magical or psionic trace. +20%.

These enhancements make any ability less noticeable – they aren't just for attacks. If the GM desires extra detail, he can charge +5% per -2 to rolls to notice the ability, and treat -10 (+25%) as "undetectable." These penalties apply to Sense rolls to spot most abilities, or to supernatural attempts to trace those that are magical, psionic, etc. If the ability is obvious and traceable, buy the enhancement twice to foil both forms of detection.

Malediction

Variable

Your attack is not a conventional ranged attack; it works more like a Regular spell. It lacks Malf., 1/2D, Max, Acc, RoF, Shots, and Recoil statistics, and cannot have any enhancement or limitation that modifies those statistics. Most importantly, the target's DR has no effect on the attack's damage, resistance roll, or other effects!

Malediction requires a Concentrate maneuver rather than an Attack maneuver to use. It can target any victim you can see or otherwise clearly perceive. To determine if the attack succeeds, roll against your Will, applying the range penalties detailed below. Your foe may choose to resist; if so, resolve the attack as a Quick Contest of Will. You must win to affect the victim.

When enhancing an Affliction, the Quick Contest above replaces the usual resistance roll. You roll against Will, but your target rolls against HT – or other attribute, if the attack has Based on (Different Attribute) – modified as usual for the Affliction. For instance, an Affliction that allows a HT-1 roll to resist would result in a Quick Contest of your Will vs. the target's HT-1.

The value of Malediction depends on the range modifiers it uses. If it takes -1 per yard of range, like a Regular spell, it costs +100%. If it uses the range penalties on the Size and Speed/Range Table, it costs +150%. And if it uses the penalties given under Long-Distance Modifiers, it costs +200%.

Malediction is a "penetration modifier"; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers, nor with modifiers that apply only to conventional ranged attacks.

A Malediction affects substantial and insubstantial targets equally, whether the user is substantial or insubstantial. This makes Malediction especially suitable for divine, magical, psi, and spirit abilities. In some settings, it might only be available for abilities with supernatural power modifiers.

Mobile

+40%/level

You may only add this enhancement to an attack that has both Area Effect and Persistent. The area of effect moves under your control. Move equals the level of the enhancement (Move 1 at +40%, Move 2 at +80%, and so on), and cannot exceed the attack's Max range.

To move the area of effect, you must take a Concentrate maneuver. To make the mobile area autonomous, add Homing (which causes it to attack the nearest valid target) and possibly Selective Area (so it only seeks out enemies). Buy these enhancements twice if they're intended to apply to both the initial attack roll and the autonomous area.

Mobile is mutually exclusive with Drifting.

This enhancement is legal for any ability with an enduring area effect, even if it lacks one or both of Area Effect and Persistent; e.g., Obscure with the Ranged enhancement.

Overhead

+30%

Your attack can alter its angle to strike from a different side of the target – usually the top. This bypasses any cover that does not provide overhead protection, and negates attack penalties to hit crouching, kneeling, sitting, or prone targets. (If you are already above or below your target, adjust this appropriately.) Use this to represent a rain of fire, a missile that swoops up and then dives down at the last moment, an airburst grenade, etc.

The target of an Overhead attack defends at -2 the first time he's attacked; after that, assume he's on the lookout (see Attack from Above). Defenses against attacks that swoop around the target and strike from behind are also at -2 (see "Runaround" Attacks).

The GM may allow a special variant:

Surprise Attack: Your attack originates behind the target. Victims with 360° Vision or Peripheral Vision defend normally, while those with Danger Sense may defend at -2 on a successful Perception roll. Otherwise, no active defense is possible. This is most suitable for attacks that teleport or emerge from extradimensional portals behind the target. +150%.

Persistent

+40%

You may only add this enhancement to an Area Effect attack. This causes the area of effect to remain in place for 10 seconds, continuing to damage (or attack and possibly damage, if taken with Bombardment) anyone entering or passing through it. Use Extended Duration to increase the duration.

An advantage doesn't need Area Effect as a prerequisite for Persistent if it affects an area innately. Any Persistent ability can be "on" in several different areas simultaneously as the result of successive attacks, unless the underlying trait forbids this. Multiple uses in the same area never "stack," however.

Ranged

+40%

This enhancement gives range to an advantage that normally affects your immediate area, or that requires a touch to affect others. By default, it has 1/2D 10, Max 100, Acc 3, RoF 1, Shots N/A, and Recoil 1. Duration is 10 seconds, unless the ability lists another duration (like Neutralize or Possession) or is instantaneous (like Healing), and you cannot use the ability again until all existing effects have worn off. You can apply other modifiers to change the ranged combat statistics and duration.

This enhancement is normally restricted to Healing, Mana Damper, Mana Enhancer, Neutralize, Possession, and Psi Static. The GM is free to allow it on other traits, but it should never modify body weaponry (such as Strikers or Vampiric Bite) or abilities that already have a range.

Abilities that are normally "touch only" or "zero range" – Control, Create, Healing, Illusion, Leech, Mana Damper, Mana Enhancer, Neutralize, Possession, Static, etc. – often work at a distance in fiction. The GM may also permit Ranged on information-gathering abilities (such as Mind Probe, Precognition, and Psychometry), allowing them to "read" distant subjects. Ranged doesn’t prevent an advantage from working the usual way (in an area around the user or by touch, as appropriate) when the wielder wishes. For other rules on using Ranged with specific advantages, see the advantage text and the notes in this chapter. Where Ranged appears as a special enhancement, as it does for Obscure, use that version of Ranged and not the general one. When creating abilities based on advantages that normally have no range, Ranged is a prerequisite for all modifiers that affect ranged-attack statistics (Range, Acc, RoF, Shots, and Rcl).

Rapid Fire

Variable

An Innate Attack's base Rate of Fire (RoF) is 1. Consult the table below to find the cost for a higher RoF:

RoF	Cost
2	+40%
3	+50%
4-7	+70%
8-15	+100%
16-30	+150%
31-70	+200%
71-150	+250%
151-300	+300%

Two special options are available for attacks with this enhancement:

Multiple Projectile: Each shot splits into multiple projectiles after you attack, like a shotgun blast or forked lightning. Express this as a multiplier following RoF; for instance, RoF 3×4 means each of three shots fired divides into four individual projectiles. Modifier cost is based on the RoF times the multiplier; e.g., RoF 3×4 costs the same as RoF 12.

Selective Fire: You may designate a RoF 5+ attack as Selective Fire, allowing it to fire as if it had RoF 1-3. This costs an extra +10%.

Rapid Fire assumes the attack delivers its RoF over the course of a full second, but some TL8+ projectile weapons fire their full RoF in a tiny fraction of a second. They shoot so rapidly that recoil isn't felt until after the entire burst is in the air. The resulting stream of projectiles is a lot like a beam. The following option simulates this:

Very Rapid Fire: You fire your full RoF almost instantly. Follow the rules under Rapid Fire, except that you get two extra hits per point by which you make your attack roll. When using rapid fire against close stationary targets, any success means you hit with all shots. You can't attack multiple targets or an area with spraying fire or suppression fire, however – you can only ever attack one target. This costs +10% over and above the cost of Rapid Fire, and is incompatible with Extra Recoil.

Reduced Fatigue Cost

+20%/level

You may only take this enhancement for abilities that cost FP, and never in conjunction with the special modifier "Usually On." You can take it any number of times. Each level cuts the cost to use the ability by 1 FP. If you must "maintain" the ability by spending FP on a regular basis, reduce this maintenance cost by a like amount.

In situations where the rules multiply the FP cost to use an ability, this enhancement subtracts 1 FP per level from the cost after multiplying. For example, when using Healing with Area Effect and Reduced Fatigue Cost, multiply FP cost by radius and then reduce it.

Reduced Time

+20%/level

You may only add this enhancement to abilities that require time to activate. You can take it any number of times. Each level halves the time required to use the ability (round up). Once time is reduced to one second, a further level of Reduced Time makes the ability instantaneous – using it is a free action.

Note that you cannot add Reduced Time to attack powers, to traits that list any kind of special modifier that affects activation time, or to Magery (to reduce casting times).

Respiratory Agent

+50%

Your attack must be inhaled to have any effect, but it ignores all DR. Only Doesn't Breathe and Filter Lungs protect completely – although a victim who makes a Sense roll to notice the attack in time may hold his breath (see Holding Your Breath). To make your attack less noticeable, take Low Signature.

You may only add this enhancement to an Affliction or to an Innate Attack that inflicts toxic or fatigue damage, and you must combine it with one of Area Effect, Cone, or Jet. Persistent is common but not required. Respiratory Agent is a "penetration modifier"; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers, such as Follow-Up.

Selective Area

+20%

You may add this enhancement to any Area Effect or Cone attack. It lets you choose which targets within your area are actually affected.

Abilities without Area Effect or Cone can have "Selective Effect" for +20% if they have the potential to affect an area or multiple targets actively. The GM should work out the details, using the following examples for inspiration:

• Attacks with Rapid Fire. An attack with Selective Effect and Rapid Fire can hose down an area that contains both friend and foe without risking a "friendly fire" incident. The GM might even permit Selective Effect on attacks with RoF 1. This would prevent shots that miss or overpenetrate from hitting allies in the line of fire. Either option is suitable for the "smart bullets" seen in pulp sci-fi.
• Elastic Skin, Invisibility, and Shapeshifting with the Glamour limitation. This keeps the user from being misidentified or overlooked by his allies...and lets him make his enemies look like madmen ("What man? You're talking to a dog!").
• Illusion. Another way to make people look crazy!
• Telecommunication. This lets the user choose who can receive – or make sense of – a broadcast (e.g., by Radio, or Telesend with the Broadcast enhancement). This combination is useful for simulating secure tactical communicators.
• Terror. This is appropriate for dragons, deities, and other powerful entities that can demoralize their foes without frightening off their allies. Neither regular Selective Area nor Selective Effect is compatible with Always On (which is only a limitation if you can't choose who is affected), or with advantages that offer the Discriminatory special enhancement.

Selectivity

+10%

This enhancement lets you turn a trait's other enhancements off and on at will. For instance, if you had an attack with Area Effect, you could turn this enhancement off to affect only one other person. You must specify which enhancements you wish to ignore before you activate the ability. The default assumption is that you are always using all of your enhancements.

By allowing you to select which enhancements you use, Selectivity permits you to have multiple versions of the same ability without having to buy the ability multiple times. This can be extremely useful when creating comic-book supers!

Abilities with Selectivity can have mutually incompatible enhancements, if the GM permits. For instance, a spirit might buy Visualization with Selectivity plus both Blessing and Cursing in order to curse or bless, while a super might take a Burning Attack with Cone, Jet, and Selectivity so he can "dial down" his broad cone to a precise jet in close quarters. The user pays full price for all of his enhancements, but he must choose just one of them when he uses his ability; incompatible enhancements can't be active at the same time.

Sense-Based

Variable

Your attack is channeled through your victim's senses, allowing it to ignore DR! You must specify the sense(s) affected. Examples include vision, hearing, smell, and exotic senses such as Detect. This is worth +150%, plus an extra +50% per sense after the first; e.g., Vision and Hearing-Based would be +200%.

Your attack only affects someone who is using the targeted sense. For instance, a Vision-Based attack cannot affect a blind subject or someone with his eyes closed, while a Smell-Based attack doesn't work underwater or on a target with a gas mask. Advantages (such as Protected Sense) and equipment that protect the sense in question either negate the attack completely or, in the case of attacks that allow a roll to resist (such as Afflictions, Maledictions, and Resistible attacks), give a bonus to the resistance roll.

The most common Sense-Based attack is an Affliction that knocks out the sense it is based on; for instance, Affliction (Blindness; Vision-Based) for a blinding flash. However, Sense-Based attacks can also be deadly, like a banshee's wail or basilisk's gaze. Sense-Based is a "penetration modifier"; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers, such as Follow-Up.

Side Effect

Variable

You may only add this enhancement to an Innate Attack, and you cannot combine it with penetration modifiers other than Armor Divisor. If any damage penetrates the target's DR, he must make a HT roll, at -1 per 2 points of penetrating damage, or suffer a "side effect."

Choose the side effects from the effects described for Affliction. Valid choices are stunning, Attribute Penalty, Disadvantage, and Incapacitation. The cost of Side Effect is a base +50%, plus the cost of the Affliction enhancements. For instance, stunning would be +50%, while Disadvantage (Blindness) would be +100%.

You may specify more than one side effect. If the victim gets a single resistance roll against all of them, treat them as a single Side Effect enhancement, totaling their cost. If the victim must resist each effect individually, take a separate Side Effect enhancement for each effect.

Stunning wears off normally, while other effects last (20 - HT) minutes, minimum 1 minute. If Incapacitation is combined with other effects, the other effects last for another (20 - HT) minutes after the Incapacitation wears off.

An Innate Attack with Side Effect can have Based on (Different Attribute) to shift the resistance roll from HT to another attribute. Use this score instead of HT in the duration formulas, too. This is especially suitable for a supernatural attack that produces a curse-like effect that's tied to wound severity but more logically resisted by Will than HT.

Symptoms

Variable

Symptoms are effects that occur if the cumulative damage (HP or FP loss) inflicted by the enhanced Innate Attack exceeds a fraction of the victim's basic HP or FP. The victim does not get a HT roll to resist Symptoms! The GM should consider limiting Symptoms to attacks that inflict 1d damage or less.

Choose Symptoms from the following effects described as enhancements for Affliction: Advantage, Attribute Penalty, Disadvantage, Irritant, and Negated Advantage. If the threshold for the Symptom is 2/3 the victim's basic HP, use the cost under Affliction. If the threshold is 1/2 basic HP, double this cost. If it’s 1/3 basic HP, triple this cost.

Example: Blindness is worth +50% as an Affliction, but as a Symptom that occurs when the victim has lost half his HP to an Innate Attack, it is a +100% enhancement.

Unlike Afflictions, Symptoms abate only when the damage that caused them is healed. In the example above, the Blindness would only end when the victim's HP healed past the halfway point.

An Innate Attack can have multiple Symptoms, representing different effects that that occur at different damage thresholds.

Underwater

+20%

Attacks are assumed to be usable in air or in vacuum, but ineffective in liquid. This enhancement lets an attack work underwater at 1/10 range.

The GM may permit aquatic heroes to add Underwater to abilities other than attacks – e.g., Scanning Sense and Telecommunication – that don't normally work (or work well) underwater. Like attacks, they function at 1/10 range underwater. This is unrealistic for radio waves, but comic-book supers often ignore such details.

Variable

+5%

Variable is strictly for attacks, which otherwise work at full power at all times. Non-attack abilities don't need it – their range, area, level of effect, and so on are variable automatically

You can reduce the level of your attack. For example, if you have an Innate Attack that normally does 3d damage, you could reduce it to 1d or 2d damage. You must indicate this before you make your attack roll.

Variable is strictly for attacks, which otherwise work at full power at all times. Non-attack abilities don't need it – their range, area, level of effect, and so on are variable automatically.

Wall

If you wanted to know HP and DR of walls, see HP and DR of Structures.

+30% or +60%

You may only add this enhancement to an attack that has both Area Effect and Persistent. For +30%, you can set up your Area Effect as a wall filled with the substance or effect of your ability. This affects anyone or anything passing through it. You get a three-yard-long by one-yard-wide wall per yard of radius in your area.

For +60%, your wall works as above, but you can form it into any shape you choose.

You must define your wall as either permeable or rigid:

Permeable: The wall is composed of liquid, gas, energy, or an amorphous solid (e.g., thorn bushes). It impedes vision, and inflicts damage on anyone who attempts to cross it, but an intruder can traverse it provided he is not stunned, knocked out, killed, etc. by its effects. Anything effective against the substance of the wall will disperse it; e.g., water or a fire extinguisher could extinguish a wall of fire.

Rigid: The wall is a material barrier. This is only possible for Innate Attacks that deal crushing, cutting, impaling, or piercing damage. Each yard of wall has DR 3 and 1/2 HP per die of damage (round up); e.g., a 6d attack produces a wall with DR 18 and 3 HP. The wall does no damage itself, but the damage type applies to the injury inflicted on anyone crashing into it.