Normal Identity

You have two identities: an empowered one and a normal one. This is not the same as having a secret identity (although you may have that, too, especially in games of the superhero genre). The difference is your normal identity has none of the FX or extraordinary abilities of your empowered self. So in your normal identity you might be an average teenager, businessman, or other everyday person. Characters with Devices may have this Complication, but not necessarily. For example, a character who wears a suit of magic armor might have a Normal Identity while he’s out of the armor, but someone who wields a magic ring doesn’t have a Normal Identity unless he can’t wear or have the ring with him in his normal identity for some reason.
To qualify for this Complication there must be some reasonable means of preventing you from changing from your normal to your empowered identity. For example, you might require access to a Device (which can be stolen or disabled), you might need to speak a magic word or incantation (blocked by an Auditory Obscure, a gag, or a simple chokehold), you might need to take a particular pill or formula, and so forth. The GM decides whether or not a particular condition qualifies for this Complication. If you can switch between a normal and empowered identity at will and nothing can prevent it, you don’t qualify for this Complication. If you can’t always control switching between identities, you also have the Involuntary Transformation drawback.
You define the traits of your Normal Identity. Your Normal Identity cannot have any FX by definition, and the GM may restrict the application of feats and Ability Scores above 5. Your Normal Identity must also be built on fewer Character Points than your empowered identity (how many fewer is up to the GM, but no more than half is a good rule of thumb). The simplest Normal Identity has the same traits as your empowered identity, minus any FX. Your two identities may have different appearances.
Normal Identity is only a Common Complication if you need a significant amount of time to switch between identities. If it takes you more than 2 Actions to switch into your empowered identity, Normal Identity is a Common Complcation.
Category:Rulebook
Category:Characters
Category:FX
Category:Drawbacks
Category:FX Drawbacks