MM 3 Power Builds

Return to Mutants and Masterminds

These are worked examples, built using existing effects as a showcase of what the system can do. They include "Build" notes at the end so you can see how I did it.

Create Black Hole

Action: Standard
Range: Ranged
Duration: Sustained
Cost: 3 points per rank

You may place a pinpoint-sized black hole anywhere up to 100' away. Anything and anyone within 30' of the hole is immediately pulled toward it with effective Strength equal to your rank. Once pulled to the center, they take damage equal to your rank each turn. Anything destroyed or anyone killed is sucked into the pinpoint hole, never to be seen again. (In comic books, of course, this often means they end up an alternate dimension -- and maybe we just thought they were killed!)

Sentient, mobile subjects use the same rules, but can struggle against this in two ways.

• When the hole is first created, anyone in the area gets a single Dodge (with evasion modifiers) roll against your rank + 10 to dive toward the outside edge. If successful, they're still affected by the gravitational pull, but at only half the normal effect rank. (If they get 3+ degrees of success, they may exit the area completely.) If they move toward the hole in any way, they immediately lose this benefit.
• Each turn, active targets in the area resist the pull using the better of Dodge or Strength against your rank + 10. Success means they can move freely this turn, but will have to resist again each subsequent turn unless they leave the area. Failure means they're effectively restrained (immobile and vulnerable) — or bound (defenseless, immobile, and impaired) if they were already restrained or had 2+ degrees of failure — and are immediately dragged toward the center (or damaged, if they're already at the center). Treat breaking free as escaping a grab (see pp. 195-196).

You may only have one hole active at a time. The hole exists until you create a new one, choose to end the effect, or become stunned or incapacitated.

Build: Move Object with Area (30' Burst), Damaging, and Limited Direction (Only toward black hole). Subjects' evasion benefits are canceled if they move toward the hole but this is balanced by stricter-than-normal limits on the effect's ability to move things and damage them.

Extras

Use Area (+1 cost per rank) to increase the "reach" of the hole, Extended Range (flat +1 point/rank) to increase the distance at which you can create one, and Split (flat +1 point/rank) to create multiple holes.

• Impedes Movement*: Even if someone resists the hole's pull, their movement is hampered. Anyone in the area moving away from the hole in any way is at -2 Speed; otherwise, anyone moving in any direction except directly toward the hole is at -1 Speed. In addition, all movement-related Acrobatics and Athletics rolls made in the area are at -5. Flat +2 points.

Duplication

Action: Standard
Range: Close
Duration: Sustained
Cost: 4 points per rank (or more)

This is less of a power build and more "power advice."

Duplication is built as Summon Duplicate (2 points/rank) plus Heroic (+2 points/rank). But it often calls for other extras, like Multiple Minions (+2 points/rank per doubling), Horde (+1 point/rank to summon all Multiple Minions at once), and Mental Link (flat +1 point).

Fine-Tuning the Level

As mentioned on the MM3 Powers page, characters can buy fractional ranks, at 1 point each. Each fraction adds 15/(cost per rank) points to the power of the agent(s) summoned, rounded down. This adds complexity, but is often useful for duplicators.

Example: Pisces can summon a twin of herself, bought as Summon Duplicate with Heroic (4 points per rank). She's PL9 and built on 135 points, so she takes Summon Duplicate 7.25 for 29 points. This leaves her 106 points to build her character, which is good, because her Summon lets her call up to a 7.25 x 15 = 108-point agent. (The 2-point difference gives her some room to grow before she has to raise her Summon another quarter-level.)

Without using this rule, Pisces would have had to buy Summon Duplicate 8 for 32 points. She'd then have had 103 points left on which to build her super, which seems imbalanced considering she has enough Summon to call a 120-point agent!

Helpful Hint: To find the minimum level of Summon Duplicate needed for a single copy of yourself, start with the character's total points, subtract any flat-cost Summon extras (like Mental Link), then divide by 15 + (cost per rank of Summon). Round up to the nearest appropriate fraction (or to the nearest whole number if not using the rule above). For example, with the build above, Pisces needs 135/(15+4)=7.11 ranks of Summon, rounded up to 7.25.

Created Equal

Some duplicators don't create "clones"; they just split into multiple versions of themselves, with no one copy being the "alpha" or original. In practice, this changes only one thing, though it's a big one. Normally, if a duplicate is incapacitated (or dies), the original and all other dupes are fine, but if the original is taken out, all of the dupes vanish. If every dupe is "the original," then no matter who gets taken out (temporary or permanently), all of the other copies are just fine. Essentially, you cannot die unless every single dupe is killed.

To represent this, build your dupes as an exact copy of your character sheet, including the Duplication power. This doesn't increase how many copies you can create! It simply (A) applies the rule above and (B) allows any copy to spawn more dupes, up to your total limit. Note: This is incompatible with the Sacrifice modifier!

Example: Pisces wants her twin to count as herself in every way; if either one is incapacitated, the other continues to act. This means that her twin has Duplication, which makes the build far simpler. Because they're both PL9 and built on 135 points, she needs Summon 9 for 36 points.

Drone Army

Action: Standard
Range: Close
Duration: Sustained
Cost: See below

You can summon and technopathically control any of the drones from MM3 Gear. You may summon any number up to your maximum (total), but summoning more than one drone at a time leaves you Vulnerable from distraction until your next turn. The drone(s) cannot act until next turn and go under their own initiative. Drones are completely under your mental control and part of your mental awareness. If you're hit by an attack in combat, you can shift it to any drone if it's within range. You can dismiss any drone as a free action, by touch.

Drones are minions. If a drone is incapacitated, it either disappears or becomes inert (decide when taking this power). Each incapacitated drone reduces the total number you can summon; you'll have to put in the time later to repair each one to address this. If you're incapacitated, all of your drones disappear or become inert immediately.

The cost of this ability in PP depends on how many drones you can summon.

Build: Summon Drones 5 with Active, Controlled, Horde, Mental Link, Multiple Minions (level of this varies), Sacrifice, and Variable Type 1.

Extras

• Ranged: You can summon and dismiss drones at up to 500' away from you. Flat +5 points.
• Reassembly: Even if you never get around to repairing a drone, it is considered repaired after 24 hours. (Yes, this is much longer than a living being would take to heal; that's because drones are constructs.) Flat +1 point.

Flaw

• Tricky: Each summoning requires a DC 20 Technology check (no matter how many drones are summoned). If this fails, the action was wasted. If combined with Ranged, your check is at -2 from 126-250' away, and -5 from 251-500' away. Flat -5 points.

Force Wall

Action: Standard
Range: Ranged
Duration: Sustained
Cost: 1 point per rank

You can create a barrier of raw force to protect yourself and others. Decide (when buying this power) whether the barrier is opaque (total concealment), partially opaque (partial concealment), or translucent (no concealment). Either way, the barrier has Toughness equal to rank; anyone trying to penetrate it must first break it, using Damage to Objects (p. 192) or Punching Through Barriers (MM3 General House Rules). You may take a standard action at any time to "shore it up," repairing any damage. It lasts until you stop sustaining it (voluntarily or not) or create another wall.

Find the surface area of your wall on the table below. For example, with Force Wall 2 you can create a 48-sft. (square foot) wall: 4' x 12', 6' x 8', or any appropriate combination you want. The longest dimension cannot exceed the listed surface area; e.g., with Force Wall 2 you could make a 1' x 48' wall, but not a 0.5' x 96' one. You may always choose to create a smaller wall. Your wall can be placed anywhere you wish, even in mid-air, where it will hang, motionless. It has no weight and cannot inflict damage.

A common use of Force Wall is to create a dome over people on the ground, or a sphere over those in the air. Find the radius of either on the table below. You may try to trap someone within such a structure, but this requires a Ranged Combat attack check (against their Dodge); if you hit, the target gets a free Dodge resistance check against your rank + 10 to get out before the wall forms.

Force Wall can support weight, useful when you need a bridge or to shore up a crumbling building. Its effective Strength equals its effect rank. With concentration (standard action each turn) you can temporarily improve its effective Strength by +1.

Concealment and Toughness work both ways! If your force wall is opaque, anyone behind it has total concealment from you as well, and you cannot attack through it without breaking it.

Your Force Wall effect rank is not PL-limited, but Toughness defense in general is. As such, (A) the effective Toughness of your wall itself (i.e., if someone is directly attacking the wall) is limited to PL and (B) the extra Toughness it provides to other people as cover cannot cause their defenses to exceed campaign PL limits. As such, this ability tends to be great at protecting innocent bystanders, while offering marginal benefit to PCs with fully optimized personal defenses.

And so on. Each additional level doubles the area. Every two additional levels double the dome or sphere radius.

Build: Create with Limited (Only Barriers) and Stationary. Surface area values assume the wall is one inch thick, per standard object Toughness rules.

Extras

• Additional Wall: For each level of this extra, you can sustain another wall; e.g., with Additional Wall 3, you could have four walls up at once! However, you must divide your surface area between them all. Thus, this extra becomes more useful at higher levels. Each wall requires a separate standard action to create. Flat +1 point per extra wall.
• Impervious: You may apply this extra to some or all of your wall's Toughness.
• Movable: You can move your wall around as though using Move Object equal to its rank. This does not let it inflict damage (you can't "bludgeon" someone with it). +1 cost per rank.
• Opacity Control: You can change how opaque your wall is. If you also have Subtle 2, your wall can range from invisible to fully opaque, and if you also have Selective, you may make your wall "one-way transparent" as well. For +1 point, you can decide this every time you create a wall. For +2 points, you can also change the opacity of an existing wall, as a free action. Flat +1 or +2 points.
• Selective: As a free action, you can make your wall block certain attacks but not others, or make it incorporeal to some people but not others, allowing you and your allies to attack from a position of safety. +1 cost per rank.
• Subtle 2: Your wall is completely invisible. You cannot make it visible (or opaque) unless you also have Opacity Control. (Subtle 1 is not appropriate for Force Wall.) Flat +2 points.

Flaw

• Proportional: Your wall must split its effect ranks between surface area and Toughness. (Its effective Strength is based on allocated Toughness.) For example, with Force Wall 10, Proportional, you could put 4 ranks toward surface area (180 sft.) and 6 ranks toward Toughness (Toughness 6), or you might put 9 ranks toward surface area (6,000 sft.) and 1 rank toward Toughness (Toughness 1). Neither can go below 0 or above Force Wall rank. (If you only have one such configuration, take that as a Quirk in addition to this flaw.) -1 cost per rank.

Glue Spray

Action: Standard
Range: Ranged
Duration: Two Rounds or Instant
Cost: 6 points per rank + 1 point

You can fire a stream of quick-hardening glue, either at the ground (in a 15' radius) or to cover a person. If you spray the ground, anyone in or entering the area must roll Strength vs (10 + rank). Failure by one degree leaves them Hindered and Vulnerable; failure by 2+ leaves them Defenseless and Immobilized. Worse, this is Progressive, so if they fail a roll, they must roll again every round until they succeed, with the effect worsening for each failure.

Spraying a single subject requires hitting them (vs Dodge). It acts as above, except that failure by 3+ degrees Incapacitates them, as the glue hardens over their face and/or constricts their body completely.

Build: Affliction (Alternate Effect, Alternate Resistance, Cloud Area, Extra Condition, Limited Degree, Progressive, Ranged) [6/r]. Alternate Effect is Affliction (Alternate Resistance, Extra Condition, Progressive, Ranged) [6/r].

Grease Spray

Action: Standard
Range: Ranged
Duration: Two Rounds
Cost: 6 points per rank + 1 point

You can spray a 15'-radius area with grease, an ice slick, a friction-nullifying field, etc. It lasts for two rounds. Anyone in or who enters the area suffers three effects. Note that effects #2 and #3 are resisted by Will, representing the subject having to maintain perfect concentration and focus to keep their balance.

1. In the area, any movement based on contact with surfaces is reduced by 2 ranks (1/4 speed). For similar reasons, most Acrobatics and Athletics rolls are at -5.
2. Those within must roll Will vs (10 + rank) or be Impaired and Vulnerable (or Disabled and Prone at 2+ degrees of failure). This is Cumulative, so if they're already Impaired/Vulnerable, any failure leaves them Disabled/Prone.
3. If they have any Movement based on surface contact (like Sure Footed, Wall-Crawling, or Safe Fall with Limited to Near Surfaces) they must also roll Will vs (10 + rank). Failure reduces their effective PP invested in Movement, to a maximum of your rank; this can go negative. Their Movement recovers 1 PP/round.

Build: Affliction (Cloud Area, Cumulative, Extra Condition, Limited Degree, Link, Ranged) [4/r] + Environment 1 (Impede Movement 2, Link, Ranged, Quirk: Acts as Cloud Area, Quirk: Doesn't block most Flight) [1] + Weaken Movement (Cloud Area, Limited, Link, Ranged) [2/r].

Return to Mutants and Masterminds