M&M questions RE: Stunt vs Extra; creating a new power

[Dannyalcatraz]

First some background:

I'm designing a PC for M&M loosely based on an alien race from a Greg Bear novel.

The PC in question looks like an extremely long metallic coil or cable-essentially a sentient slinky. He is from a hypermassive gas giant (think Jupiter) and can coil its body to appear humanoid, although it retains its metallic cable based appearance. Biologically, he is based on carbon (nanotubes), mercury, and several exotic metals. As such, he is EXTREMELY tough, strong, flexible, and, of course, heavy as hell.

Kable, as he is known, was a pilot & adventurer (not unlike Race Bannon of Jonny Quest fame) who took aliens on wilderness cruises of Earth. However, on a routine hillbilly buzz, his ship's engine was struck by a microsocpic black hole, causing the ship to crash. He was the only survivor, stranded on our underdeveloped, backward planet. After some time, he decided to take up the mantle of superhero.

The questions:

1) I'm using the Shapeshift power to model many of his abilities, but I need to add bouncing & leaping. Does the Shapeshift extra Elongation allow me to take Leaping and Bouncing? If so, are they Stunts or Extras?

2) To simulate his superdense metallic body, I gave him Density Control. Obviously, it must have the flaws Increase only and Permanent, but should I take "Full Strength Only" as well?

3) Kable secretes acid for a variety of purposes. It is his Energy field, but also he uses it to feed (corrode materials) and Tunnel. Should I buy the powers independently or should they be together as an Energy Control or Energy field? If so, once again the question is Extras or Stunts?

4) The question is similar for Kable's glue secretion, which he uses for Snare, Immovability, and Clinging. These powers all need to be linked up because he has only 8 daily uses of glue total to divide up between the 3 uses. Is this an Energy Control? If so, what is the base power and what do I need to buy as a Stunt or Extra?

 

[Rybaer]

1) I'm using the Shapeshift power to model many of his abilities, but I need to add bouncing & leaping. Does the Shapeshift extra Elongation allow me to take Leaping and Bouncing? If so, are they Stunts or Extras?

2) To simulate his superdense metallic body, I gave him Density Control. Obviously, it must have the flaws Increase only and Permanent, but should I take "Full Strength Only" as well?

3) Kable secretes acid for a variety of purposes. It is his Energy field, but also he uses it to feed (corrode materials) and Tunnel. Should I buy the powers independently or should they be together as an Energy Control or Energy field? If so, once again the question is Extras or Stunts?

4) The question is similar for Kable's glue secretion, which he uses for Snare, Immovability, and Clinging. These powers all need to be linked up because he has only 8 daily uses of glue total to divide up between the 3 uses. Is this an Energy Control? If so, what is the base power and what do I need to buy as a Stunt or Extra?

Well, I don't have my book handy and I'm hardly an authority, but here's my quick take on how I'd answer these questions for a player in my game:

1 - Leaping would probably be an acceptable extra for Elongation. Bouncing, if I recall correctly, is a stunt for Leaping...and remains so even if Leaping is an extra for another power.

2 - Probably not. The Full Strength Only flaw should only be applied to powers where having to use it full power is genuinely problematic at times. I would rule that this overlaps just a bit too much with Always On. Someone else might rule otherwise on this...it's one of those GM call situations.

3 - I'd say Tunneling would fit as an extra for the Energy Field. Not a stunt, because it is a movement effect. The corrode effect from eating sounds mostly like visual flavor than a power. Maybe call it a stunt, maybe just a freebie, depending on how you envision using it.

4 - For this, I'd probably suggest picking either Snare or Clinging as the base power and the others are extras, not stunts. Essentially, one is an attack, one a defense, and one is a movement...hence extras and not stunts. You can rename the "package" of three powers anything you wish.

Good luck. Sounds like a neat concept.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Thanks!

Your answer gives me some insight.

I think I need to make the corrode at least a stunt. He can tunnel because the acid allows him to eat, but he can only tunnel so far so fast, and certain substances would be beyond his ability to tunnel through. By corroding something for a while (and eating), he can weaken something enough to tunnel through, and eventually eat his way through almost anything.

If I might query further about the 4th question: I pick a power as the base and call it an Energy Control with the others as extras- do I purchase as the base power or do I purchase as an Energy Control?

 

[Dalamar]

Basically, you have four different powers, which I'd stat like this:

ACID
- Extra: Disintegration
- Extra: Energy Field
- Extra: Tunneling
[Cost per rank: 4PP]

GLUE
- Extra: Clinging
- Extra: Immovability
- Extra: Snare
- Flaw: Uses
[Cost per rank: 3PP]

DENSE BODY
- Extra: Density Control
- Extra: Duration (Continuous)
- Flaw: Limited (Density Increase)
- Flaw: Permanent
[Cost per rank: 5PP]

ORIGINAL BODY
- Extra: Shapeshift
- Extra: Elongation
- Extra: Leaping
- Extra: Duration (Continuous)
- Stunt Bouncing
- Flaw: Limited (One type)
- Flaw: Trigger (Unconsciousness)
- Flaw: Slow (Half action)
[Cost per rank: 3PP, plus one stunt]

These, like all power builds have some rules issues however.
First, you need to decide how often one use of Clinging lasts (one move, one round, one 'scene'?).
Second, the Original Body is kinda wonky (and I'd do it with the Identity Change feat if that didn't prohibit powers and you apparently want the Leaping power for that form).

Then to address why I did some things.
1) Whenever creating a new group of powers, I like to give them a single name and make them a 'new' power instead of just slapping powers on top of each other. I do this by having the 'name power' be something that doesn't do anything, it just costs the base 1PP that almost all powers have attached to them, and then I slap the effects that I want of the power on top.
2) Dense Body and Original Body have the Duration extra because the Permanent flaw refers specifically to making continuous powers permanent
3) The trigger I added to Original Body is to represent Kable 'breaking up' to his normal form when knocked unconscious. I'm not sure if that is really worth a flaw (there's an Uncontrollable flaw mentioned in the book, which removes all control of the power from the character). If unsure, also make the trigger work on being stunned. This flaw, of course, presumes that being in his normal cable form is a hindrance (and I'm not sure if it is), otherwise it shouldn't be there.
4) Dense body has the Permanent flaw (and assumes that that means it's always on at full power, just like Growth with Permanent assumes that you're always at your full size) because it specifically mentions that some surfaces might break from your increased weight. No jumping over tables for you if you have a few ranks if this.

 

[Mark Chance]

Looks good, but check the errata. I think Density Control's cost has been errata'ed.

 

[Dalamar]

Ah, so it has. I keep forgetting to check the errata since I haven't printed it out. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Thanks for the extra input!

BTW, I wanted to go with Corrosion over Disintigration because Disintigration is ranged, and none of the other powers in the ACID group are. Kable's acid is exuded, not squirted or spat, so it has no range. I figured Corrosion was more appropriate than taking Disintigration with a "no range" limitation.

As for the Density Control- it said that the Super Strength increase was proportionate to the mass increase. The way I read this was that if the PC was capable of jumping over a table pre-DC, he would be after...but the floor would suffer MUCH more!

BTW- does anyone have a link to the errata?

 

[Dalamar]

Well, the cost of Acid doesn't change even if you change it to Corrosion (and my mind betrayed me here, I thought that Disintegrate was indeed touch-ranged).

And what I meant with the jumping over tables was more like how Jackie Chan does it, i.e. rolling on the table or cartwheeling over it. You can use the Jump skill just fine, and you aren't impeded by your own weight (except for the fact that you don't gain the bonus from Super-Strength to skill checks, but that's spelled out in the power).

And the errata (as well as a FAQ) can be found >here<

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Thank you for the link, Dalamar!

A couple of additional questions:

1) I appear to have misread the power level chart- where it says Max Att & Def bonus, my mind thought BAB and base defense. Do you get a BAB progression per level or do you have to pay for every last bit of BAB? If so, I'll have to spend more points.

2) Due to Kable's metallic structure, I'm making him vulnerable to electrical attacks as a Weakness. (As an aside, he also has the Disturbing appearance Weakness.) As such, his Protection power will not work against electrical attacks. The question is, however, do I need to/get to take that as a flaw for Protection? What about the "free" levels of Protection he gets from the permanent Density Control (Increase only)? Do I need to take a flaw (partial, of course) on the DC(I) for that?

 

[Dalamar]

1) You pay for each and every point of BAB and Base Defense Bonus (BDB).

2) The Vulnerable flaw makes so that you don't gain any bonus on any saves against that energy type, not even the bonus from your normal Constitution, Dexterity or Wisdom (for Damage & Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower saves, respectively). You don't buy the flaw separately for each of your defensive powers.
You can, alternatively, get the Ineffective flaw on your Dense Body and Protection (remember that the Protection granted by the two only stacks up to your power level), in which case you decrease the cost of them both by one.

On the stacking note, remember that Amazing Save (Damage), Protection, and Super-Constitution are all considered to stack when it comes to your Damage save, so there's no reason to get their total above your power level.