Deflect
| Type: Defense | Action: Standard (active) |
| Range: Touch | Duration: Instant |
| Saving Throw: None | Cost: 1-3 points per rank |
You can block ranged attacks as well as melee attacks. This is like a melee block (see Block, M&M, page 155) using your Deflect rank in place of your normal attack bonus. You can attempt to deflect any number of attacks in a round, but each attempt after the first imposes a cumulative -2 modifier on the block roll. If you take a full-round action to block, you take no penalty for deflecting multiple attacks. Once you fail a block roll you cannot deflect again until your next turn.
Deflect rank is limited to the same value as your defense bonus by the campaign|s power level limits and your trade-offs (see Power Level, M&M, page 24, for details). So if your Defense bonus limit is +12, for example, then you cannot have more than 12 ranks of Deflect.
Attack Types
The types of attacks you can deflect determine the effect|s cost per rank. For 1 point per rank you can choose one of the following: slow projectiles (including thrown weapons and arrows), fast projectiles (like bullets), and energy attacks (like lasers and lightning bolts). For 2 points per rank, you can deflect any two. For 3 points per rank, you can deflect all ranged attacks. Deflect does not work against attacks that do not require an attack roll, such as perception range and area attacks. See the Nullify effect for a means of blocking such things.
Melee Block
You can use any level of deflect in place of your normal melee block if your Deflect rank exceeds your normal melee attack bonus. Otherwise, there|s little reason to do so unless you have Deflect extras that make it more useful than your normal melee block.
Catching Weapons
By taking a -5 penalty on your block roll you can catch an incoming physical weapon, including a projectile, when you successfully deflect it. You can wield a caught throwing weapon normally, up to and including throwing it back at your attacker with the normal required attack action.
Power Feats
- Accurate: This power feat does not apply to Deflect and does not grant a bonus on block rolls with Deflect, since that bonus is defined by the effect|s rank.
- Extended Range: Like other touch range effects, you can use this power feat to extend the range at which you can deflect. It may involve a tool or weapon that extends your reach or the ability to move or contort in a way that does so, depending on your descriptors.
- Homing: This power feat does not normally apply to Deflect, however, the GM may allow it to apply to reflected or redirected attacks if applied to the Deflect power as a whole. Also note that successfully deflecting a Homing attack is considered a "miss," meaning the attack gets another chance on the next round. A reflected or redirected Homing attack that hits a different target is a "hit" and ends the attack.
- Interpose: This feat may be acquired as a power feat of Deflect, allowing you to interpose yourself between an adjacent character and an attack in order to deflect it.
- Precise: Deflect with this feat allows you to "catch" physical weapons without a penalty on your block roll; use your normal Deflect bonus instead. You do not gain the Precise Shot benefit when reflecting attacks; to do so, acquire Precise Shot separately.
- Ricochet: Applied to Deflect, this feat allows you to ricochet reflected and redirected attacks as the GM allows (depending on the attack and its descriptors).
- Subtle: Deflect with this power feat may not be immediately apparent. While it is clear that attacks miss, it may be attributable to chance, near misses, and similar circumstances rather than any action on your part.
- Triggered: This power feat lets you set up a single use of Deflect in advance, usually enough to protect you from a one-shot surprise attack or the like. For an "automatic" Deflect effect usable an unlimited number of times, change the effect|s action to reaction (see the following).
Extras
- Action: You can reduce the action needed to block attacks. If you take an action one "step" higher than required to block that round, you take no penalty for blocking multiple attacks, otherwise you have the normal penalty. If you can use Deflect as a reaction you take no penalty for blocking multiple attacks and you can continue to deflect even if you miss a block roll.
- Area: With this extra you can make a single block roll for all potential targets in the affected area. The roll result essentially becomes the subjects| new Defense, if higher than their normal Defense (of 10 + defense bonus). This lasts for one attack per target. You can make additional block rolls, with the usual penalty for multiple rolls in a round.
- Automatic (+1): You can deflect even surprise attacks, but you must still be able to take the normal action required to use your Deflect effect.
- Range: Ranged Deflect works against attacks made against any target within (power rank x 100 feet) range. You suffer a -2 penalty on your block roll per range increment of (rank x 10 feet) between you and the target. Perception range Deflect works against any attack you can accurately perceive. You must still make a successful block roll, however.
- Reflection (+1): You can reflect a blocked attack back at the attacker as a reaction. Make a normal attack roll to hit with the reflected attack.
- Redirection (+1): You can redirect a blocked attack at any target within the attack|s normal range, as Reflection, above. You must have the Reflection extra to take Redirection.
Flaws
- Action: Successfully deflecting may take up all your attention for the round, requiring a full-round action. In this case, you lose the ability to take a full-round action to deflect and overcome penalties for deflecting multiple attacks.
- Distracting: Since Deflect essentially substitutes for Defense, it|s up to the GM whether or not this flaw can apply. For Deflect requiring at least a move action (and therefore limited in how often it can be used in a round), it should still constitute a flaw, but for Deflect usable as a free action or faster, it does not.
- Duration: Deflect is an instant effect and its duration cannot be changed. For longer "lasting" versions of Deflect, improve the effect|s action (see the Action modifier, previously).
- Range: Deflect|s range cannot be decreased; this flaw does not apply.
MMPoderes
