"Mutants & Masterminds, or M&M for short, is an adventure roleplaying game in which you, the players, take on the roles of fictional superheroes having thrilling adventures in an imaginary world. One player, the Gamemaster, takes on the job of creating that world and the stories for the other players to take part in. Together, you create your own tales of heroic action and adventure, like your favorite superhero comic books, television shows, or movies. You don’t need any expensive computers or video game systems to take part though. You just need a book, some friends, and plenty of imagination."
>Atomic Think Tank archive (Created when Atomic Think Tank merged with he official forums. Has a lot of community made content including builds of DC and marvel characters that better approximate the abilities of the official facsimiles.)
>What the hell is happening to the SRD's formatting? Some of the stuff is getting jumbled up and shit, are they updating it or something? >What are some great new Advantages, Extras for Powers, etc. have you come across for Mutants and Masterminds 3e outside the Hero's Handbook, homebrew or official? >What is the most ridiculously complex power have you ever seen statted or in action?
Trying to build a power that's a 30ft. aura that damages enemies when they either step into it or end their turn similar to Spirit Guardians from DnD 5e.
Would Reaction and Area Burst work for this? How would I stat it if I want it to go straight to the Will Save without having them dodge or without having its range any more than 30ft like it would with Perception Range?
Noah Russell
>How would I stat it if I want it to go straight to the Will Save without having them dodge or without having its range any more than 30ft like it would with Perception Range?
This is something I've been thinking about for close range 'unblockable' attacks (Lightsabers, for example) where I want a dodge save but not a toughness one.
You can combine perception range with alternate resistance (dodge) to make an attack that ignores toughness, but it needs to be perception range and that's not right. I think a -1/r flaw to limit a perception attack to Close range while keeping the rest of the mechanics - no attack roll or dodge check, requires accurate senses - would be fair (you might need to buy extta senses specifically for close area attacks, but I'm okay with an extra PP tax on disintegration beams)
In your case I'd buy perception area damage, custom flaw it back to close range , buy the duration up to sustained or permanent, and add selective. Comes out to 5 PP/rank, which is comparable with reaction perception damage with a -1/rank flaw.
Oliver Sullivan
Oh wait, I just remembered, Reaction doesn't require an additional Close Range attack for close ranged auras, so I'm guessing even with Burst Area, because its a reaction, would also skip the dodge roll for that very same reason, hence why reactions are required to be limited to power level no matter what range.
I think for your lightsaber power, all you'd need is Alternate Resistance Parry since technically its a close range attack. I'd say lightsabers are more Penetrating than that though since its still just a laser effect that can be resisted with tough enough materials. There's also Weaken Toughness for things that melt stuff such as acid or a blow torch, I think it'd work for a lightsaber too.
Alternate resistance dodge or parry on damage seems like something more akin to a sphere of annihilation or VANILLA ICEU.
Daniel Williams
What would be a reasonable range for levels for bosses with Power Level 12-14 Player Characters?
Hunter Garcia
Area reaction sounds like it hits everything in the area whenever the triggering circumstances occur, which I don't think is what you're going for (unless you take shapeable area and pick the 30 ft range as part of the trigger condition, maybe?) I'd definitely allow it to function the way you intend, though.
I'm not actually sure how reaction works with attack checks. Now that I think about it I don't think we've ever rolled for them, but I'm not sure if that's actually how it's supposed to be played.
As far as Lightsabers and spheres of annihilation go, regardless of the descriptors the point is it's weird that only ranged attacks can ignore attack rolls. Even without worrying about alternate saves, you can't easily build a super Kung Fu guy who never misses but you can easily make a guy who can do the same thing at range with perception damage.
I can easily stat a sphere of annihilation summoner (Scrub from Worm, for example) as perception range area damage with an alt. save, but if I want a close burst (Like Vanilla Ice) my opponent gets to roll dodge once from the area modifier and again for the resistance roll. This seems like a weird mechanical hole that could be fixed with a 1/r extra to just let a close attack ignore the attack roll.
Basically I really want to make a close area (line) that needs to be dodged, but it's not well supported by the mechanics.
Lucas Lewis
>I can easily stat a sphere of annihilation summoner (Scrub from Worm, for example) as perception range area damage with an alt. save, but if I want a close burst (Like Vanilla Ice) my opponent gets to roll dodge once from the area modifier and again for the resistance roll. This seems like a weird mechanical hole that could be fixed with a 1/r extra to just let a close attack ignore the attack roll.
I think there's nothing really wrong with that though, since ultimately it still takes dodge to avoid it and nothing else. Having the AoE dodge roll and the Alternate Resistance dodge ensures that it plays by the same rules as every other Area power. A high toughness/low dodge character, especially one with Growth, will most likely get fucked up badly by this ability. Don't even get me started how this would affect buildings even with two rolls.
As for the whole concept of "guy who never misses" concept, technically even Perception can "miss" if there's concealment or cover involved. Even then, the Limited flaw would do just fine if that's what you wanna do. Homing, Precise Attack, Improved Aim, Luck or Ultimate Aim advantages would work pretty well though.
Isaac Parker
Yeah you'll have to basically homebrew.
Difference between Ranged and Perception range is that it hits without a roll at a cost of 1 more point/rank So you can just homebrew it as its own Extra - call it Autohitting. So you can have melee range autohit, or area autohit or whatever.
And of course Alt Resistance (Will), costs 0.
So it'll be Close Area (2ppr) + Autohit (+1 ppr) + Reaction timing (every turn; iirc that'd be +2ppr) + Selective (don't damage friendlies; +1ppr) for a total of 6 points per rank. Pretty steep desu.
Alexander Ramirez
Actually I figured this out here
that Reaction doesn't require any Close Range Attack roll or Dodge save to begin with. So I'm good. Looking up the power Flattening Wake also helped clarify some things.
I do have another question though: How would I handle a boss that's immune except for certain weak points on their body? I was thinking of a boss similar to the Dragon's Dogma Dragon fights. So far I was thinking of statting it as a separate unit with its own stats (plenty of shrinking). Alternatively, I could give the boss enhanced dodge/parry based on the smaller size ranks of its weakpoints with the complication that it loses its immunity/immortality when it comes into play.
Cooper Johnson
I'd do it as give him high dodge and parry and low toughness, and describe failed attacks as harmlessly bouncing off his armor rather than avoiding.
Maybe still give him high toughness but with Limited (non-direct attacks) so that any attempts to bypass the weakpoints would be met with that. That would be likely violating PL limits, but NPCs can do that.
Grayson Brooks
Trying to make powers that are basically the sword magic from FFT(or War of the Lions) for the PSX(or PSP), specifically the Crush line, which are targeted, ranged sunder that deal damage to the target. If anyone has any idea what I'm talking about, help would be appreciated.
Dominic Carter
I think both options would work, but the first option seems the easiest. I'm also tempted to just have it as a Complication.
Nicholas Baker
Yeah, either approach works.
Lincoln Walker
Probably a Nullify or Weaken for Equipment/Device powers. If you want you can attached Improved Smash to that and have it linked with a Strength-based damage effect.
Brody Hall
Nullify 1 for Devices & Equipment for one target at a time, with Duration(Continuous), No Saving Throw, and Objects Only, along with Progression to increase the range. Like seven-ish CP? That's not bad.
Link it, or whatever effect the particular ability uses, to a Strike power and that handles all of them as an Alternate Power array. Thanks.
Nicholas Adams
>nullify devices >objects only Aint that redundant
Nicholas Baker
It's a +0/rank Extra, it makes no difference.
Ethan Johnson
I hope this isn't too fetishy for the thread, but the talk of destroying equipment has gotten me thinking. How would you build a power that routes damage to a target to their clothes? Like, you punch them with enough damage to paste them, and instead of hurting them, it just causes their clothes to explode off.
I already know how to use it on yourself: immunity to damage, limited so that it functions by rerouting damage meant for you to your clothes, one piece at a time. But, if you were going to do it to someone else..? Would it just be strike with objects only, fluffed to just effectively be causing their clothes to explode?
Lucas Thomas
Disarm/Smash attacks let you attack held or worn device or equipment, with mundane clothing being basically free and statless equipment, so it would get destroyed easily.
However if you want to go full Senran Kagura, you'd need to either 1)make it an actual premise of the game, representing ALL toughness damage as clothing damage, for everybody involved 2)link your smashing to an affliction, targeting will save, causing staggering and unconsciousness simultaneous with nakedness.
Luke Barnes
For the personal version I'd go for the five uses version of unreliable (Shirt, pants, shoes & socks, underwear top, and underwear bottom for a lady) and a quirk for losing clothing. If you could soak damage until you ran out of individual articles of clothing that' wouldn't be nearly limited enough for a full flaw (Oh no, that attack tore off my cummerbund and an earring!)
Expect to get naked *very* fast if you soak every attack with your unreliable protection, though. You could alternatively take a big immunity limited to half effect if you wanted to be a little more durable and less lewd, since that would put you in charge of how quickly you lose clothing instead of automatically running out in five hits.
For the attack version, you'd just be making a smash attack targeting their clothes as recommends.
>What is the most ridiculously complex power you have ever seen statted or in action?
I've seen a contagious variable attack linked to triggered mind control used to stat, basically, a chaos cult. You give someone a summoning power and let them spread it around, and once enough people have it they all get together and sacrifice themselves to summon a big nasty monster. I'm pretty sure everything is supposed to have subtle and insidious on it, too.
I think a contagious summon duplicate effect would also be hilarious. Maybe make it give everyone super speed while you're at it.
Andrew Lopez
Could take unreliable five-use immunity to physical, big load of parry/dodge and then like five points of regular stamina/toughness. So she'd dodge a lot, soak five hits with clothing, and will be a bit of a glass jaw afterwards but not an instant KO.
Nolan Parker
Any chance of a 3rd ed pdf? This thread has inspired me to give the game a go with my comic book mates, DCA would work nicely as well
Brandon Scott
Actually, I think the best way to do it would be the unreliable protection plus dodge and parry limited to while naked in equal amounts. So you're toughness shifted for the first five hits, but then you gain active defenses to make up for your lost toughness.
Total cost is exactly equal to just buying all three defenses up to the cap if the trade-offs are centered at your PL, less one point for the quirk where you lose all your clothes.
Am I the only one who finds it really annoying to build a shapechanger in M&M if you're not being lazy and buying a Variable for it?
Brayden Ward
Dynamic arrays are your friend there, but it's still a pretty big pain.
I did an Animal Man style shapechanger with a bunch of dynamic powers in 5, 10, 15, and 20 point blocks (themed around specific animals, so 20 points of bear strength, 10 points of hawk flight and vision, etc..) so I could easily choose sets of blocks adding up to the array limit without fiddling with individual ranks of everything.
I *did* use a large variable power as the array base, but mostly because I was using Hero Lab and it ties a dynamic array's size to its largest individual power.
Dylan Kelly
See, the player in question wanted something more like a Druid's Wildshape, complete with stat replacement, and I could never find anything that wasn't the godawful cancer that was Metamorph that would allow it to lower some stats to get it to work as intended so I had to improvise with houserules to allow Alternate Form to do the job.
Cooper Richardson
Just an array, with each form's package in it as its own entry if you're doing whole hog shapeshifter. Hell I could just go to GM Kit and rip off the totem animal archetype straight up.
What's even the difference between the two?
Robert Torres
There's no formal mechanic for reduced capabilities when you're in an another form EXCEPT for Metamorph, and Metamorph requires you to create a new form exactly equal to your PP, which gets really really really goddamn annoying when you get PP rewards when it was already annoying to deal with at first.
Logan James
You can buy negative stats as part of anything. Any sort of power package, arrays, devices, forms, whatever.
Also just copypaste most of the statblock for metamorph.
Christian Powell
Not in 2E.
James Perez
Why not.
Connor Cooper
2E allows you to reduce your ability scores, so at worst you can lower your stats to the minimums of every form and then buy up from there for each one. You might need to spend an extra PP to add 'regular human' to your list of forms, but it's mechanically feasible.
And I'm pretty sure you're just allowed to take enhanced abilities with negative values in 2E anyway.
Oliver Miller
>I've seen a contagious variable attack linked to triggered mind control used to stat, basically, a chaos cult. You give someone a summoning power and let them spread it around, and once enough people have it they all get together and sacrifice themselves to summon a big nasty monster. I'm pretty sure everything is supposed to have subtle and insidious on it, too.
I think a contagious summon duplicate effect would also be hilarious. Maybe make it give everyone super speed while you're at it.
I might use that in the campaign I'm running...at least the contagious Speed.
Justin Perez
About to be running my game in the next couple hours. Place your bets on which of these will my players be picking for their mission:
>1. Some guy is kidnapping people, and the PCs companions might be next. >2. The BBEG's minions are doing unusual shit down in some colony ruins. >3. Some other monsters are starting to spread from some abandoned factories and possibly into the city. >4. Ambushes have been reported in desolate areas outside the city and have been taking out several other heroes.
Place your bets now.
Hudson Hernandez
Considering that jewelry isn't an article of clothing, having the version using Limited is basically the same thing(it even has the same amount of impact on the cost, -1/r), except for a guy the amount of clothing is more limited. So, there's no real difference between Limited(transfers damage to clothing, one major article at a time) and Unreliable(five uses, each earmarked to one article of clothing), except that your character might have more or less uses depending on what they're wearing. Jacket, muffler/scarf & hat, shirt, pants, underwear, and socks & shoes vs night shirt, underwear, and socks & house shoes, for example.
