Rystil Arden
First Post
There's several, and since I don't want to use it anyway, it's really not worth it to get into a debate--just quickly (and knowing that you didn't carefully write this when presented with Martin, I can say things like 'is unfathomable to me' now ):
Without getting into material components, which are actually an even larger drawback, especially when it comes to the expensive component spells due to M&M's Wealth system (and you'll have to carry a component pouch that is essentially an easy to lose Device that makes you lose all your magic), the V,S component thing is clearly a Very Common Drawback--Any enemy, any time, can just grapple you (and a mage that's as good at grapple as other Supers is weird, so it will almost surely succeed), and you lose all your powers, plus there are many other ways to affect a similar loss of speech or movement. The GM might choose not to do so artificially, but the option exists in every single fight you'll ever encounter--this, to me, is even more common than some Very Common drawbacks I've seen listed. Making it Uncommon is rather unfathomable to me.
As to things that aren't D&D-inspired at all, the Distracting flaw is rather glaring--if D&D Wizards became flat-footed every time they used magic, they'd all be dead before level 2. The argument that this mimics the fact that casting provokes an AoO is extremely weak and makes no sense. If the author on ATT wanted to mimic an AoO, she could have written the flaw such that any enemy in melee reach of the caster gets a free attack as a Reaction whenever the caster uses magic.
To reiterate, though, it doesn't really matter--I just like to think about the theory of the game, and designing (or dissecting the existing design of) complex arrays or powers like that is fun to me.
Without getting into material components, which are actually an even larger drawback, especially when it comes to the expensive component spells due to M&M's Wealth system (and you'll have to carry a component pouch that is essentially an easy to lose Device that makes you lose all your magic), the V,S component thing is clearly a Very Common Drawback--Any enemy, any time, can just grapple you (and a mage that's as good at grapple as other Supers is weird, so it will almost surely succeed), and you lose all your powers, plus there are many other ways to affect a similar loss of speech or movement. The GM might choose not to do so artificially, but the option exists in every single fight you'll ever encounter--this, to me, is even more common than some Very Common drawbacks I've seen listed. Making it Uncommon is rather unfathomable to me.
As to things that aren't D&D-inspired at all, the Distracting flaw is rather glaring--if D&D Wizards became flat-footed every time they used magic, they'd all be dead before level 2. The argument that this mimics the fact that casting provokes an AoO is extremely weak and makes no sense. If the author on ATT wanted to mimic an AoO, she could have written the flaw such that any enemy in melee reach of the caster gets a free attack as a Reaction whenever the caster uses magic.
To reiterate, though, it doesn't really matter--I just like to think about the theory of the game, and designing (or dissecting the existing design of) complex arrays or powers like that is fun to me.