Environmental Control

You can change the environmental conditions in an area: altering the temperature, creating light, causing rain, and so forth. Your Environmental Control has a Narrow Area at rank 1 (only affecting characters Engaged with you or adjacent to you). Each additional rank moves the maximum radius one step up the Extended Range Table (with a radius of approximately 50,000 miles at rank 20, sufficient for the FX to encompass the whole Earth and the Moon!).
 Each of the following is a separate Environmental Control FX. If you have one you can acquire others as Alternate FX in an Array, but you can then only use and maintain one at a time. To use or maintain multiple Environmental Control FX simultaneously, add their costs together for the FX’s total cost per rank.
* Distraction: You can create conditions to distract anyone attempting to concentrate with a Focus check, such as driving rain, hail, dust storms, and so forth. At 1 point per rank the distraction is DC 5. At 2 points, the distraction is DC 10. At 3 points, the distraction is DC 15.
* Hamper Movement: You can hamper movement through the area with high winds, icy or wet surfaces, or similar effects, creating Difficult Terrain. For 1 point per rank, movement in the affected area costs an additional Move beyond normal; for 2 points per rank, it costs an additional 2 Moves to move within your affected area.
* High Gravity: For 2 points per rank, you can create a high-gravity environment. A character's Move is halved in high gravity, and characters suffer a 1 penalty to attack rolls. The increased gravity imparts a 2 penalties to Acrobatics for jumping and a 2 penalties to Strength-related checks. The attack penalty for high-gravity does not affect characters with effective Strength scores greater than 10.
* Light: You can raise the light level in the area, countering the concealment of darkness, but not other forms of concealment. For 1 point per rank, you can shed enough light to reduce total concealment to partial and partial concealment to none. For 2 points per rank, you can shed light as bright as a sunlit day, eliminating all concealment provided by natural darkness. Obscure effects with the darkness descriptor may be countered with a successful FX check.
* Low Gravity: For 2 ranks, you can create a low-gravity environment. Characters gain a bonus Move when using the Move Action in a low-gravity environment, but suffer 1 penalty to attack rolls. The decreased gravity imparts 2 bonuses to Acrobatics for jumping and 2 bonuses to Strength-related checks. The attack roll penalty for low-gravity does not affect characters with a three-dimensional movement effect like Enhanced Movement (air walking, flight, wall-crawling, etc.).
* Temperature: You can raise or lower the temperature in the area. For 1 point per rank, you create intense heat or cold, which requires characters make an Endurance check (DC 10) every minute or suffer 1 point of Constitution damage. For 2 points per rank, the heat or cold is so relentless that characters must make an Endurance check every round.
* Visibility: You can reduce visibility in the affected area, imposing 2 penalties on Perception checks for 1 point per rank. For more significant obscuring of senses (via darkness, fog, etc.) use the Obscure effect.
==Extras==
* Area: As Environmental Control already affects an area, it cannot have (nor does it require) this extra.
* Independent: Environmental Control can use this modifier where the FX's area diminishes once it is established, the FX no longer under the control of the user. So, for example, a character might have Environmental Control where a change is made and then diminishes over time until it is gone or the effect is countered (by the original user or someone else).
* Selective Attack: Since hostile environments may target Resistances or otherwise hinder targets, Environmental Control is considered an "attack" for purposes of modifiers. With this extra you can vary the environment within your affected area, affecting some while not affecting others, or even mixing and matching different environments (making part of the area cold and another hot, for example).
* Slow Fade: Environmental Control with the Fades modifier (see the following) may have this extra to extend the time interval before the FX fades, although the GM should carefully consider any such extensions.
Category:Rulebook
Category:Characters
Category:FX
Category:General FX