Damage

Type: Attack	Action: Standard (active)
Range: Touch	Duration: Instant
Saving Throw: Toughness (staged)	Cost: 1 point per rank

You have a damaging attack. Make an attack roll to hit the target. The attack|s damage bonus equals your rank. Damage is a basic damaging effect, but has many possible variations using different power feats and modifiers.

Damage And Range

The basic Damage effect is touch range, usable as a melee attack. It does not take the user|s Strength modifier into account unless the effect has the Mighty power feat (see Power Feats, following), in which case the user|s Strength adds to the damage bonus. A ranged Damage effect is usable at either melee or normal (rank x 100 feet) range. A perception range Damage effect works at any range, without the need for an attack roll, so long as the user can accurately perceive the target. So a Damage effect usable at melee and normal range that adds the user|s Strength is a Mighty Ranged Damage effect. See the following power feats and modifiers for more information.

Power Feats

Accurate: This power feat is functionally the same as the Attack Specialization feat, except it is a quality of the effect itself rather than a measure of the character|s skill or talent in using it.

Affects Insubstantial: Depending on the descriptors, this power feat can represent Damage attuned to a particular wavelength, dimensional phase, radiation band, or supernatural source, allowing it to affect insubstantial targets.

Mighty: Damage effects with this power feat stack with your normal Strength damage, allowing you to apply your muscle-power to enhance the effect. One rank of the Mighty feat is sufficient for a touch range Damage effect to stack with Strength (which is also touch range). For a normal range Damage effect, each rank of Mighty allows 1 point of Strength damage bonus to stack with the effect. So a character with +4 unarmed damage needs Mighty 4 to add his entire Str bonus to his ranged Damage effect. For perception range Damage effects, every 2 ranks of Mighty allow 1 point of Strength damage bonus to stack. Strength over the amount allowed by the Mighty power feat rank doesn|t stack and doesn|t apply to the effect. The GM should decide on a case-by-case basis if ranged or perception Mighty feats are appropriate.

Precise: A Damage effect with this feat may be capable of precision cutting, etching, welding, or the like, depending on its descriptors. Ranged Precise Damage effects also gain the benefits of the Precise Shot feat (see Precise Shot, M&M, page 63): ignoring the -4 penalty for allies in melee with a target.

Split Attack: This power feat is commonly used with Damage effects to represent the ability to make a single "focused" attack or multiple smaller attacks against different targets and may suit characters with multiple clawed limbs, two- (or more) handed fighting styles, dual weapons, and so forth.

Subtle: Damage with this power feat may involve a medium that|s harder to notice: a near-invisible gas, for example, or an attack that occurs too quickly for the eye to follow. A Subtle Damage effect may be suitable for making surprise attacks under the right circumstances. To be most effective, Subtle Damage effects need to be normal or better range, since it|s considerably easier to know the source of touch range Damage (although, if the Damage is delayed in some way, perhaps not even then).

Thrown: You can "throw" your Damage effect to hit a target at a distance, with a range increment of (Thrown feat rank x 10) feet and a maximum range of five increments (Thrown feat rank x 50 feet). This feat may represent a throwing weapon or the ability to "throw" a natural melee attack like quills or claws. If you have a Mighty Thrown Damage effect, you can add your Strength bonus to the damage, but no more than the rank of the Damage effect or the Mighty feat, whichever is greater. Once you have used Thrown with a Damage effect, you cannot use it again until you recover it. This may involve picking up a thrown weapon, re-growing a natural weapon, building up a sufficient charge, or the like. The exact circumstances are up to the GM, but it should usually be something you can do automatically at the end of a combat. For a "throwing attack" you can use every round, either because of unlimited ammunition or a weapon that automatically returns to you after it hits, apply the Range extra to make your Damage effect normal or perception range, possibly with the Reduced Range drawback.

Extras

Action: It|s recommended the GM not allow move action and free action Damage effects, due to their potential to allow characters to make an overwhelming number of multiple attacks. Reaction Damage effects are best handled by the Aura extra (see the following) although the GM may find other suitable applications of Reaction Damage effects, provided the circumstance doesn|t create an effect so useful as to be unbalancing.

Alternate Save: Since Damage requires a Toughness saving throw this extra is a +1 modifier when changing that save to Fortitude or Will. A Fortitude Damage effect may involve direct damage to a target|s physiology, bypass normal physical protection, perhaps even an insidious physical degradation. Will Damage bypasses the body altogether to strike at the mind or even soul. In either case, the result of the saving throw is the same, it|s just a different save bonus that|s used, and damage is applied in the same manner, regardless of its source; characters don|t have separate tracks for "physical" and "mental" damage, for example.

Area: This is a common extra for Damage involving explosions or spreading or engulfing attacks like gases, fiery clouds, and so forth (see the Area extra description for details).

Aura: Damage is a common basic effect for an Aura. It may represent a damaging energy surrounding you or some sort of automatic or reflexive counterattack against anyone who attacks you (see the Aura extra description for details).

Autofire: This extra is common for Damage effects, particularly Ranged Damage like an automatic weapon.

Contagious: Contagious Damage remains so until the target recovers from it (including if the damage is treated with Healing or Regeneration). It may represent a damaging medium like a chemical agent coating the target. Depending on the effect and its descriptors, the GM may also allow certain other effects to counter a Contagious source of damage.

Duration: Damage with a duration longer than instant continues to affect its target on succeeding rounds, requiring a new saving throw each round on the attacker|s initiative. This usually represents an ongoing damaging effect of some sort. This sort of Damage should have some reasonable means by which it can be countered, such as dousing or smothering fiery ongoing Damage.

Penetrating (+1): This extra allows Damage to overcome the effects of Impervious Toughness to a degree; the target must make a Toughness save against a Damage rank equal to the ranks of Penetrating Damage. So, if a Damage 4 (Penetrating 2) effect hits a target with Impervious Toughness 9, the target must make a Toughness save against a Damage 2 effect (equal to the Penetrating rank).

Range: The standard Damage effect is touch range. One application of this extra creates a damaging effect useable at normal range (although still useful at melee range as well), while a +2 extra gets you a perception range Damage effect.

Flaws

Action: A full-round action Damage effect suits an attack requiring some preparation or additional "build-up." For example, a "haymaker" punch might be a Full Action Mighty Damage effect. Generally speaking, Damage effects requiring longer than a full-round action are not useful in combat and tend to be better suited as plot devices, wherein a villain|s death-ray needs to charge up for a minute or two, for example, giving the heroes time to stop it before it|s too late.

Distracting: A Distracting Damage effect is a bit of a trade-off in combat, requiring some risk. It|s good for things like attacks that need bracing (such as certain weapons) or require extra concentration (taking attention away from potential threats).

Limited: Damage can be Limited in a number of ways. The most common include only certain targets (living creatures, machines, or supernatural beings, for example), or a reduced effectiveness against some targets. For the latter, apply the Limited flaw only to some of the effect|s ranks, such as Damage with half effect against targets wearing armor (meaning half its ranks have the Limited to Unarmored Targets flaw).

Range: Reducing the range of a Damage effect to personal is more than just a flaw: it converts the effect into more of a drawback, since the only one you can damage is yourself! For characters with some sort of inherent or automatic ability to damage themselves, consider an appropriate drawback instead. For example, minions that automatically self-destruct when they|re captured have a fairly severe Weakness, worth about 10 power points. Of course, for non-player characters, you can choose to just treat such things as plot devices and not worry about their point-values.

Drawbacks

Full Power: You can only use your Damage effect at its full damage bonus, meaning you can|t "pull" your attacks (see Pulling Your Punch, M&M, page 163) to inflict lesser damage and you|re likely to cause more property damage or collateral effects. The GM decides when, and if, this drawback is truly a drawback for a Damage effect.

Lethal: You can only inflict lethal damage with your effect, which may limit its usefulness in some situations. 1 point.

Minimum Range: Your Ranged Damage effect cannot be used at close range. This is a 1-point drawback if you must use the effect at one-quarter its maximum range and 2 points for one-half maximum range. A Ranged Damage effect only usable at its maximum range has a Limited flaw.

Non-Lethal: You can only inflict non-lethal damage with your effect, which may limit its usefulness in some situations. In particular, objects are unaffected by non-lethal damage. 1 point.

MMPoderes

Lunetas : MMDamage

Revision [878]