Forums of the Megaverse®

How have you modified a power to have more style or be unique?

If you want your superpower to be different than the next hero with the same power this thread is for you!

For example, I once changed APS: Fire to APS: Coldfire...everything was about the same, except with cold instead of heat.

For multiple selves, the first copy comes out the opposite sex! Really making people wonder what will happen when you are able to make two copies!

For multiple lives, perhaps you have to be reborn, but there is no limit to the maximum times you can be reborn.

How have you modified a power to have more style or be unique?

Ive recently had the same idea with the cold fire, his flame was blue and I called him Frost Bite

I had Immune to Highspeed Kinetic Attacks make the bullets go around him in an arc instead of just stopping cold (subconscious mind watching his back)

made a character with Animal Metamorphosis: Wolf (a minor i created) mixed with Multiple beings and Giant, the giant power and multiple beings only kicked in when she turned into a wolf so that she could turn into a giant wolf pack but be normal sized when human

Another character i made had permanent APS metal under the skin, she looked normal on the outside but was all metal just under the skin

I mixed the Hardened Skin ability with Solar powered, the character had to 'summon' his hardened skin (which was gold colored) to use it and to be able to absorb sunlight (kinda like solar paneled)

also a character with insect wings and EE fire, he had to breath the fire out of his mouth, he was called Dragon Fly

created an immortal angel character with semi permanent APS Light, she looked solid but couldnt touch anything, she could only turn solid for 10 min per day +10 min per level

Made a tier level speedster, he could use Extraordinary Speed normally but could punch it to sonic speed by spending PE (like 1 per min) or even boost to Teleporational Speed at a cost of 1 PE per melee round (found in Rifter 12 under Duo Sider RCC); and they dont stack

a character with Animal abilities: Large Cat with EE Sonic Boom, the Sonic boom power was his roar and could only be used from the mouth

I recently made an immortal golem with the ectoplasmic armor major ability, the actual golem was a metal human skull and it used the ectoplasmic armor to create its body, all other uses of the power were the same.

one of my recent villains has APS Plastic, Object control (forgot the powers real name), and Transferal possession. She is able to transfer her essence to Mannequins only and the APS plastic power makes the current body stronger and more versatile, she uses the Object control power to control her mannequin 'henchmen' of course her name is Mandy Quinn.......

Another character that is mystically bestowed with APS fire and Matter Expulsion Metal, when she changes into her bestowed form she is always encased in her metal armor over her APS fire, this makes her eyes and mouth glow and the metal hot, when she gets angry or wants to display her power then fire blasts out of the seems in the joints and around the neck and face for a cool affect

Had an immortal that was permanently stuck at 10yrs old even though he was 200! The villains constantly underestimated him.

for future ideas......

Im making a character with Force Aura with Weapon limbs, Extraordinary Speed and PP, it will be the Force aura that will grow the weapon limbs and the power will allow the character to create hands with it, the Ext spd and pp will also only be provided by the force aura, the guy will be a normal human without it

Another Force based character will have Create Force constructs and Mega Wings, he'll be an Bestowed Angelic Warrior type that will use the Create Force Constructs power to create the wings along with his armor, a shield, and a sword to battle evil with. In other words, the one major power will provide the other

I have a character that I'm in the process of creating with Tentacles of Hair. Instead of the hair on top of the head, the character is bald but has a fu-manchu style mustache/goatee thing. The tentacles originate from that area. He also has Super-Consumption, so his tentacles are generally used to lash out and bring food into his mouth.

Modifying powers I allow in my game, as long as the modified power is no more potent than the original.

For example, I have this concept character who has Sensory Orb and Hyperdensity that are linked, he can cend out the orb, leaving his body an unbreakable statue...but when the hyperdensity ends the orb vanishes as well.

I also have a character who has Transmutation and Orbital Spheres. I've modified the Orbital Spheres to allow usage of Transmutation through them, provided only 1 sphere is sent out to attack. Boosts the range on the Transmutation, but decreases the number of spheres to be able to send out at one time.

Well to me it,s about two characters having the same power but using it in different ways like Mind control,you can pic that it effect two different specific senses one can be sight dependent and the other can be hearing dependent,you will need different ways to break the control too.

thers also giving different side powers and limiteds like contact with the ground for earth powers to wokr.
People need to come up with things to make ther characters a bit unique.

Kinda reminds me of that one creepy skittles commerical where the dude was using his beard to reach out and grab skittles for him to eat.

PS this is my 100th post!

how about aps:putty but you can ONLY use it it soft form?

I once had a character with invulnerability and karma...
I made it so that his invulnerability was due to uncanny (some might say unnatural) good fortune.

Ahem
Super Energy Expulsion Manifested as:
guns(normal blast) and shotgun/tommygun(superpower blast) normal PP bonuses are lost but can be used with WP plus the bonuses for power.
Bow made of explosive energy: same as above but rather than a power blast is a massive volley of energy arrows


Create Force Constructs: you can choose what type of "force" you are actually harnessing
Dark/shadow: double SDC in shadow and darkness, but half in daylight or bright environment. Animals are made of darkness and have Supernatural PS when in shadow(same as shadow beast)
Light/solid photons: Regenerate lost force SDC by 1d6 point per melee when exposed to light. Weapon and animals constructs inflict +1d6+4 damage in daylight for the fact they are made of laser energy, essentially. But reduce overll SDC by 25% byt night and in darkness and
Sand/Dust: actually the particel are used to "lock" the force and make for easier manipulation: the constructs have an AR of 9+1d4, hae one extra action to "conjure" them, but any speed is reduced by 25%.Animal Constructs Ps is considered robotic/SH PS.

any stylish power usage using the powers in the new powers section on this board?

game favorite is APS fire + healing power = healing flames

sure I lose out on damage capability but every team needs a dedicated healer to keep people
from dying and nothing against palladium but their healing powers need much to be desired.

How about (new power) summon tuxedo along with auburn enhanced M.A.?

While many are stylistic in this thread this one is.... not. It's a different power, which is in the system but weaker and much more limiting.

In other words you've combined multiple powers, taken out the limitations of them and ran with it.

While one guy shooting EE Energy shooting a green beam and the other guy shooting a purple blast is fine...

Taking the "Gun Limb" power and removing the payload restrictions (Which are very restrictive) and HP cost if you run out of 'bullets'.

As to the OP, I allow 'stylistic' changes, with out changing the stats of the power or the results.

For example someone with Matter Expulsion Steel and Energy Expulsion Energy. I'd allow him to form a steel 'weapon' (Pistol) and then channel his Energy Expulsion Energy through it. It changes no stats. No damage. Range etc. It's just a visual. If the Energy Expulsion comes from his eyes or fingertips or a pistol he's manifested in his hand, makes no difference.

If someone has Matter Expulsion Steel and Flight Energy. Instead of the 'energy' coming out of their feet. I might let them channel it through a 'jet pack' that they've made with the matter power. It is nothing but a 'visual'. Same powers. Not 'doing' anything new or special.

If someone wants "Energy Expulsion energy" to look like a yellow blast. Fine. If the next guy wants purple. Fine. if the last guy wants it to be black bubbles. Sure. Stats are the same.

I'm the same on this one. In fact the more the characters can make their powers stylistically unique the better. The modification to matter expulsion steel you suggest is quite a cool one.

Often one of the things that happens at our table is the book isnt clear on a particular aspect of a power, so when the player asks 'does it work this way or does it work that way, and we look it up and the book is not clear, we say 'pick one and stick with it'. Same with energy expulsion. Does it come out his feet or his eyes? Pick one and stick with it. You get to choose, but once you pick, you stick wtih it.

I loved how they depicted Domio's karmic power in the latest deadpool movie but if I'm being honest, keeping up the kinds of chaotic events that each karmically modiefied die roll produced would start start out being a lot of fun but would quickly get cumbersome. I don't think I could sustain it long term. the Luck power has always been a favorite of mine from Domino and Longshot.

I've not seen the new movie (Not a deadpool fan), but Domino's karmic power always needed 'active' involvement. If she was just standing still it didn't work. she had to be activly trying to do stuff for it to kick in.

Yep. And Longshots power heavily hinged on his intent. Without pure intentions, his luck would be crap. Domino's power was very faithfully rendered in the movie. All she needs to do is be a willing participant, confidently engaging, knowing that with the resulting luck everything will be fine. For her at least. Hillariously sublime on screen and of course deadpool has many of the meta critiques of how it was argued about in its comic days during the film with domino over their communication radios. Took jabs at 'lazy writing', hard to represent the power visually... The kind of writing you'd do if you were the kind of guy who couldnt draw feet, so a personal jab at another notorious shortcoming of the comic artist... Loads of self referential fun and winks to the longtime fans.

Its not a real superpower! Yes it is! No its not! yes it is...

Love this thread and I agree - so long as the power stays true in strength and form, messing with effects oropposites of effect are fine. WOnderful thread to read!

Fear the Beard

Perhaps we can each go through each power in the book in order, modifying it for style!

I will do the first, and each person can do the next. Starting with the main book..
Adhesion:
1-This is a physical mutantion and replaces an unusual physical characteristic for mutants. The characters fingers, hands, toes and feet all are rough on a microscopic level, which allows the power to be used as normal (although its not able to be disrupted by power negation, as its now a physical ability).
2-Because we can all think of many ways to alter the same power...this character can adhere to objects (etc) by controlling gravity! No changes to the actual effects of this power. Perhaps they are a young mutant (or just learning to use their powers), and will gain the gravity power later in life...or not! Perhaps this person already has the gravity superability...and this is just another way to use their gravity power (adding a theme to random or chosen powers).

next up, alter physical body - take it away next poster!

PS for clarity, we are doing this for style, or possibly theme to work better with the characters other powers, not to make things more powerful.

I have done this many times. This is basically how I come up with variants of powers.

My standard change: Rocket fists becomes rocket flight. Same stats, and the same restrictions on handheld weapons, because using an item should be nearly impossible at such speeds, but without the silliness of shooting rockets from your knuckles.

I will always allow a change in flavor text, the mechanics stay the same, but the look, feel, theme, all are up for grabs.

If you want to blast people with ghost chickens with the same stats as EE-Energy, go for it. Your spirit birds will do energy damage, be stopped by the impervious to energy spell, and have the same range and effect. It's all good in this 'hood.
If you want to summon a spirit rifle instead, and thus use WP:Rifle instead of the normal bonuses, not fine. The power dictates the rules, the color text is all flavor.

Some favorites:

Instant Wardrobe, summoned by a special incantation, appears in a flash of arcane symbols, traced in light. If the incantation cannot be said, the power... STILL WORKS. if the player wants to suppress the effect, and be as subtle as an instant wardrobe change normally is, OK. it's Color Text, not a rule.

APS:Metal, the character becomes a mismatched, patchwork man of dozens of different metals, his face becomes silver, his left hand copper, his right hand iron, etc. Cool. "Since my face is silver, can I headbutt a werewolf to death?" Nope.

My Combo is APS: Ragdoll and Shrink. Shrink only works when APS is turned on and the character turns to a 12" Doll of Terror! Combine that with Jekyll & Hyde, the doll can be Mr. Hyde all evil and creepy!

Then add Instant Wardrobe, so the original Character's clothes go into 'Storage' and all the dolls gear appears inside of it (e.g.. Wireless Radio Transceiver, a plasma grenade, and a big ole hunting knife).

Same character also has Impervious to Heat & Fire