Powers

"Powers" are the word for anything in *Phoenix* that has an extranormal or supernatural effect. These pages detail all rules related to powers, starting with how they're organized and ending with optional rules. The Powers Table makes up the bulk of this material, and it's available below as well as in the Powers Table.

## Power Information

### **Power Subtypes**

"Powers" refers all fantastic abilities, regardless of their in-game explanation. All powers have an "Origin," a narrative explanation of where they come from. There is one standard form of powers and five sub-types.

**Standard powers** are in your body in some way, and they either enhance the way that your body works, giving you strength or insight for example, or they manifest something in the world outside of your body such as an energy effect. Standard powers can have any Origin.

**Traits** are powers that are so intimate to how your body works that there's no way to separate them from you or negate their effects. Traits always enhance your body's natural abilities rather than producing effects outside of your body.

**Metapowers** are powers that affect or interact with other powers. They include Power Absorption (steal someone's powers) Power Detection (sense powers near you), Power Duplication (copy someone's powers), Power Leech (take someone's power points) Power Nullification (keep someone from using their own powers) and Power Resistance (ignore some of the effectiveness of powers aimed at you).

**Items** are objects or devices that can manifest powers. You can buy items as powers: Gadgets, Power Armor, Esoteric Items, and Iconic Items. You can also build them yourself using the Craft/Invent feats, in which case they can be mystical, psionic, or supertech. Finally, you can make temporary supertech items using the Supertech Invention power.

**Spells** and **Psi-powers** are available as Mystic Spellcasting and Psionic Manifestation, respectively.

### **Power Groups**

Below, you will find all the powers arranged into groups of like powers. These groups have no hard rules attached to them, but they can be a useful way to organize yourself when you're making or upgrading a character. There are ten categories in total:

*Body Shifting* powers change the nature of your body

*Enhancers* grant bonuses to pre-existing abilities (e.g., skills)

*Item* powers are literally items that grant powers

*Manipulation* powers affect other people or animals

*Metapowers* affect the powers of others

*Miscellaneous* powers didn't fit anywhere else

*Movement* powers enhance your movement or grant different kinds of movement

*Offensive* powers cause damage or other negative effects on others

*Protection* powers keep you from being harmed and/or dying

#### **Body Shifting**

Alter Appearance, Amphibious, Animal Form, Appendages, Duplicate Self, Liquid Form, Longevity, Metamorph, Need Not Breathe, Need Not Eat, Need Not Sleep, Phase, Pressure Adaptation, Size Shift, Space Adaptation, Stretching

#### **Enhancers**

Ability Boost, Ability Enhancement, Amazing Accuracy, Amazing Combat Skill, Amazing  AC, Amazing Deflection, Amazing Diplomacy, Amazing Dodge, Amazing Fighting, Amazing Initiative, Amazing Leap, Amazing Scrutiny, Catfall, Danger Sense, Mighty Lifting, Penetrating Vision, Photographic Muscle Memory, Super Senses

#### **Items**

Esoteric Item, Gadget, Iconic Item, Power Armor

#### **Manipulation**

Animal Affinity, Charismatic Aura, Dominate Animals, Healing Touch, Life Leech, Possession, Probability Manipulation, Repairing Touch, Summon Creatures, Summon Objects, Technopathy, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Weather Mastery

#### **Metapowers**

Power Absorption, Power Detection, Power Duplication, Power Leech, Power Nullification, Power Resistance

#### **Movement**

Flight, Shadow Affinity, Super Speed, Surface Adhesion, Teleport, Temport

#### **Offensive**

Cause Blindness, Cause Confusion, Cause Deafness, Cause Earthquake, Cause Fear, Cause Pain, Cause Pleasure, Cause Unconsciousness, Energy Attack, Gremlinism, Natural Weapons, Webbing

#### **Protection**

Damage Reduction, Energy Resistance, Force Field, Invisibility, Natural Armour, Regeneration

### **Origins**

**All powers must have an origin**, anything with an origin **is "super,"** and anything super **bypasses most DR** (i.e., "super" replaces the category "magic") and **can be affected by the metapowers**. There are five origins:

* Biological (bio)
* Cosmic
* Mystical
* Psionic (psi)
* Super technological (supertech)

**Your powers must all have the same origin** unless you take Multiple Origins. **Any power can have any origin**, except as stated above. All that's required is a sufficient explanation. An *Energy Attack* can come from a mutant ability you discovered when you were 10, or a bolt of pure will from the depths of your mind, or a Buck Rogers ray gun. Your Origin will have a lot to do with your origin story: where you got your powers and how they work. From a character/story point of view, it makes a big difference if your powers are perceived as part of the world of science (supertech or bio), magic (mystical), pseudo-science (psionics), or something totally mysterious (cosmic).

Origins only come up in the rules when powers interact with each other. The Metapowers, for example, are often keyed to specific origins, as are some of the Resistance powers. There is also is a significant difference between mystic, psionic, and supertech items.

#### **Biological**

This Origin indicates powers that **come from your physiology** in some way. It includes mutants and aliens, as well as genetic alterations, deliberate or otherwise. All Traits are biological. We often shorten it to "bio."

#### **Cosmic**

This Origin includes **any energy source that is misunderstood and mysterious**, from the totally illogical results of being bitten by radioactive animals or struck by lightning, to empowerment by forces from beyond the stars. It is the catch-all explanation for the unexplainable.

#### **Mystical**

This Origin **comes from the supernatural** in its traditional forms, harnessing blind forces of the universe, receiving blessings from deities, etc.. It includes both the Arcane and the Divine. All spells, spell-like effects, and magic items are mystical.

#### **Psionic**

This Origin indicates the **external manifestation of internal power**, sheer force of will and mind over matter. All psi-powers, psionic effects, and psionic items are psionic.

#### **Supertech**

This Origin includes **technology that is beyond the mundane**. What is actually beyond the mundane changes about every fifteen minutes, so the rule of thumb when in doubt is if the technology in question directly duplicates a power, then it's Supertech. Inventions (Super Equipment. Super Weapons, Superchemicals, Gizmos, and Ray Guns) are all supertech. Most Gadgets and Power Armour are supertech, but they can be of any origin.

### **Flavour Text**

Our descriptions for powers might, at first, seem a bit dry. There is a reason for this. We've written them to be abstract because the superhero genre is extremely varied and flexible. Instead of writing up specific descriptions for every power we could think of, we simply made powers that apply somewhat generic bonuses or grant abilities ruled by existing game mechanics, at least as much as possible. This way, **you can apply any description you'd like for your powers.**

An Energy Attack: Concussive can be a giant ghostly hammer that slams out of your forehead. Natural Weapons can be golden daggers you shoot out your nose. Mighty Lifting could be a gleaming steel exoskeleton grafted onto your body from head to foot. **How the powers manifest and what they look like is entirely up to you.**

**You can describe powers as if they're combined.** Appendages can have Natural Weapons built onto them. Your Amazing Leap might actually be a side-effect of shooting your Energy Attack: Heat downwards like a rocket. Your Power Armour could grant Amazing Accuracy because it has a HUD built into it. **You can attribute all your powers, no matter how many or how diverse, to one source, if you want to.** If you have Ability Enhancement*s,* Super Speed*,* Energy Attack*: Heat,* and Amazing Dodge, you're breaking no rules if you consistently claims that these all derive from the awesome power of your pecs.

**You can invent visual effects for your powers with a limited freedom.** You can't alter your abilities, and you can't duplicate a skill, a feat, a power, or an ad/comp through a visual-effect. You also cannot duplicate any mundane technology. For example, you might give off a slight glow or glitter effect when you use a particular power, but you can't shed enough light to read by. A power's manifestation can't have a useful, in-game effect that isn't listed in its description, but you're free to describe it in impressive terms. Basically, if it doesn't impinge on the hard rules governing you or your powers, you can describe them any way you like. **We provide the rules and you provide the flavour.** That's how this particular game works best. It's a *very* fantastic genre, so have fun with it.

### **Power Points**

Power Points are **what you expend in order to use powers**. They represent willpower, grit, or in the case of Items, an abstracted fuel or a power source. Powers that are "always on," which includes most traits, don't require PPs, but powers that manifest a one-time effect, including Mystic Spellcasting and Psionic Manifestation, generally do.

The **Power Die** listed in your class description functions the same way as a Hit Die. At every class level, you roll your Power Die and add that to your pre-existing total. Like Hit Points, when you take your first superhero level, you get your full Power Die. Like Hit Points, you modify your Power Points by an ability score, though you modify your Power Points by your Intelligence.

Also like HPs, you naturally regenerate PPs over time. **Every 6 hours (i.e., 4 times a day), you regenerate a number of power points equal to your character level.** If you get a full night's sleep (or equivalent trance, meditation, etc.), then you regain *all* your PPs.

#### **Power-Point Deficit**

You can cannibalise your own body in order to fuel your powers even after you're out of actual Power Points. Doing so requires that you trade **1 point of Constitution for a number of PPs equal to your Character Level (1 Con = 1PP / CL)**. This happens in the same action that you spend the PPs. Remember that as you reduce your Constitution, you also loose HPs, your Fortitude save goes down, and you reduce all your Constitution-based stats accordingly. If you reduce your Constitution to zero, then you die, instantly.

Instead of regenerating PPs, if you go into power-point deficit, you regenerate *only* your Constitution score by a rate of 1 per hour. Until you regenerate your full Constitution score, you do not regenerate PPs.

#### **Power Stretch**

Every power has a standard use, expressed in terms of rules and stats. However, **it's also possible to "stretch" your powers in order to do things not listed in the text**. **Power Stretching costs 1 Hero Point**, and your GM has final say on whether or not your Power Stretch works, whether there is a check (using a skill, an attack, etc.) or any other special circumstances involved in your particular attempt to stretch your power beyond its normal use. There might also be a PP cost associated with the stretch (doubling the Activate cost for example) or just a flat PP cost decided by the GM. For example, a character with super strength might want to clap his hands loudly enough to deafen opponents. Such an action would (a) require a PP cost equivalent to a similar kind of attack (*Energy Attack: Sonic*, for example), and (b) would have a saving throw associated with it. A more directed effect might have an attack roll attached.

### **Power Descriptors**

#### **Powers**

These are physical or energy-based manifestations that you **generate with your body, will, mind, or soul**. You buy them with Character Points. Most of them require that you expend Power Points, but a few don't. Most are one-time effects, like *Energy Attack*. Traits, items, metapowers, spells, and psi-powers are subtypes of powers.

#### **Traits**

These are a special kind of power. When the text refers to "powers" in general, it refers to traits as well. Only when referring specifically to traits does the text use the term "traits." **Traits have no activation or sustain costs and they are inherent to your body's physiology**. They're often physical attributes that are not necessarily supernatural, such as an extra limb (Appendages) or retractable claws (Natural Weapon), but you can also be little knacks and abilities that are so fundamental to you that you simply can't distinguish them from your own body?Amazing Leap or Longevity*,* for example. This is why they are **unaffected by the metapowers**. Their origin is most typically Bio (they're parts of your body), but they can be anything in theory, assuming you provide a good enough explanation.

#### **Items**

As their name suggests, these are physical objects that act as conduits for powers. The item powers are Gadget (including Power Armour), Iconic Item, Esoteric Item, Super Vehicle, and nominally Supertech Invention.

Gadgets are items that can **manifest a single power** (never a trait) and are automatically replaced if you lose them. They are most typically Supertech. Power Armour is a collection of Gadgets with armour plating. Gadgets grant a CP discount as a percentage of the total cost of their power because they can be lost, used against you, or even potentially destroyed.

Iconic Items are nigh-indestructible objects that **manifests all of your powers**. Iconic Items grant a one-time discount because they cannot be destroyed, but on occasion could be lost or stolen.

Esoteric Items have **one or more of the standard enhancements** from the SRDs and/or the item/device sections of the Mystical, Psionics, and Supertech sections. Their origins are therefore mystical, psionic, or supertech. Esoteric Items do not grant powers, so there is no CP discount. Instead, there is just a cost for the item and the mystic, psionic, or supertech special abilities that the item carries.

Finally, Supertech Invention allows you to make **short-term, sometimes single-use** Supertech devices.

#### **Metapowers**

Power Absorption , Power Detection, Power Duplication, Power Leech, Power Nullification, and Power Resistance are metapowers, which means that their primary function is to interact with powers. They do not work on traits because traits are so fundamental to how your body works that they're indistinguishable from your basic physiology.

### **CP Cost**

Every power has a cost in **Character Points**. This is a one-time expense. Most powers also have enhancements, which also cost CPs. Costs say "varies" when there are options within a power that can change the price. Sometimes, they indicate a certain number of CPs "per rank." In such cases, the text describes what benefit one "rank" of a power provides.

No matter how many discounts or limitations you pile on, **the minimum cost of a power is its base price** before enhancements, *or* 1CP per rank in the power. A power, trait, or item can never be entirely free of charge.

### **Prerequisites**

(enhancements and limitations only)

You have to have all the prerequisites for an enhancement or limitation before you can purchase it. In almost all cases, the prerequisites are other enhancements/limitations.

### **Activate**

**(PP cost; action)**

This is how much time and energy it takes to start a power. It refers only to the **first round in which you start a continuous power or the single use of an instantaneous power**. Activation costs are listed in PPs, then a semi-colon, and an action type, such as "2PPs; standard action." They often specify a **PP cost per unit of the power**, as in "2PPs per d6; standard action" or "1PP per 100lbs.; use-activated (attack)." The action type is sometimes listed as "**use activated** (blank)," which means that there is some other action (in brackets) that has to take place to use a power, usually the action is making an attack, moving, or employing a skill, as in "use-activated (Acrobatics)." The **minimum activation cost of a power is 1PP**, regardless of discounts (except "by level" powers, see below).

**You can activate a continuous power only once per round, and it lasts at least one round.** You can activate instantaneous powers such as attacks, as many times per round as you have the appropriate actions.

There is one special kind of activation. The "**By Level" (or "By CL" for "character level")** designation means that there is a numerical element of your power (damage, healing, bonus points, weight, etc.), and **you can activate a number of *units* of that element equal to *half* your character level for free**. The "units" vary from power to power, and the activation line will specify them: **e.g., "By CL (per 1d6)"**. Usually, it's a number of dice, a bonus amount, a weight, a distance, or the like. You get these first few units for free, after which you must pay PPs. This means that you can activate/sustain these powers at a minimum level of effectiveness for free, for ever, and at will, but if you want to exceed that minimum, then you have to pay. **You must have at least 1PP left in order to activate a By Level power.**

The activation entry will state the cost in PPs as "per" the power's effects (e.g., damage, healing, weight, distance, etc.) but By Level. This means that **if you stay under your By CL maximum, the activation is free**, but go above that maximum and you pay per effect. For example, you are a 10th-level character with *Energy Strike*, which is "1PP per d6 By Level." That means that you can activate up to a 5d6 *Energy Strike* for free, but a 6d6 *Energy Strike* would cost 1PP.

**A power's activation time determines whether it provokes attacks of opportunity**. The rule is that activation times that take up actions in combat do provoke, but activation times that are roughly equivalent to free actions do not, and use-activated powers do or don't provoke based on the action needed to activate them.

The upshot is that **the following activation times *do* provoke attacks of opportunity:**

full-round action, move action, standard action, use-activated (manifesting), use-activated (skill check), use-activated (spell-casting)

While **the following activation times *do not* provoke attacks of opportunity:**

free action, immediate action, swift action, use-activated (attack), use-activated (move), use-activated (special)

In addition, **any power with an activation time of "use-activated (attack)" automatically counts as a weapon.** Therefore, **you are armed if you have one of those powers** and can activate them (i.e., you're awake, you have PPs left, etc.). Also, **you can apply weapon-based feats to them**, so you can take Improved Critical Range for *Energy Attack*, for example. You still need to qualify for all the prerequisites of the feat(s), of course, and some feats have no affect on some powers. For example, Improved Critical Damage would have no affect, one way or the other, on Power Absorption.

It is possible to provoke an attack of opportunity just by moving (i.e., exiting a threatened space) but **activating a power that enhances movement or provides a kind of movement does not *by itself* provoke attacks of opportunity** even though the movement itself could.

### **Sustain**

**(PP cost; action)**

This entry applies only to powers with continuous effects that have to be reactivated every round. Where there is no Sustain line on a continuous power, **you must use a free action to spend the Activation cost** (in PPs) to keep the power "on." The easiest way to adjudicate this at the table is to announce only when you activate and then deactivate a power, rather than declaring, round after round, that the power is still active. GMs will assume that if you activate a power, it stays active and you are paying the PP cost every round. However, **some powers indicate different sustain costs**, either in PPs or actions or both. If you take one such power, make sure to note the special rules on your character sheet and follow them. It's a trust-based game, for the most part, so just police yourself.

There are special Sustain times that have a different PP cost in combat than outside combat. In this latter case, the entry will say **"per round/minute" or "per round/hour,"** for example. This means that in combat, you must pay the PP cost per round, and out of combat, you pay only per minute, hour, etc. Powers just take a lot more juice when you're in a fight.

### **Range**

Ranges of "self" affect only you. Ranges of "touch" require a touch or touch attack. You can always touch yourself. Other ranges are listed in feet or, very rarely, miles.

### **Standard Saves**

Some powers provoke saving throws from your targets. A few list a set DC (e.g., "Reflex 15"), and some indicate what happens if you pass the save (e.g., "Reflex 15 [half]"). Most power DCs, however, follow a standard formula: **10 + half your character level + ability modifier**. When a save DC is *not* specified, that means that you use the standard DC, as in: "Reflex (half), Intelligence." This line indicates that the save type is Reflex (and the target takes half damage if they succeed), the DC is the standard formula, and the relevant ability for the power user is Intelligence.

### **Enhancements**

These are add-ons to a power, tailor-made for that power in particular, and that you can buy with CPs. Enhancements work just like mini-powers and some use the same short-hand as above (activate, sustain, etc.). Every enhancement is specific to its power. You cannot buy an enhancement and apply it to a power other than the one it is listed with, although you will find quite a few enhancements that are common to many powers.

### **Limitations**

These are limiting factors for powers, like a vulnerability, an in-game hindrance, or some other annoyance. Unlike enhancements, Limitations reduce the price of the power to which they're attached. That's the whole point of them. Limitations do not grant CPs. They reduce the cost of the power you're buying. No matter what limitations you put on a power, you cannot reduce its price to lower than the cost of the base power or to the cost of 1 rank in the power.

### **Game Roles for Powers**

The powers in this game are mostly either combat-related (offensive/ defensive) or utility powers. There are very few buffs and only two healing powers (Healing Touch and Repairing Touch, and the latter is useful only on mechanical creatures). **The superhero genre just does not contain many powers that gamers would normally assign to the standard rolls "buffer" and "healer."** We have done this on purpose in order to simulate the genre as closely as possible, and one of the upshots of that decision is that healing lethal damage is not easy (i.e., healers are rare). Players and GMs should both be aware of this dynamic in the game and design their characters and their world(s) accordingly. The standard solution is to make most damage non-lethal and save lethal damage only for particularly dramatic or important encounters.

### **Misc Power Info**

The **CP Costs** in the table below are either listed as per rank (e.g., "5CP/R") or as the base cost of the power before enhancements or upgrades.

The **Activate** column lists a PP cost, which is per rank by default, and an activation time, which is a set action type (i.e., full round, standard, move, swift, free). "Free" or "trait" indicates a power with no PP cost. "By CL" means that the power's cost is based partially on your Character Levels.

The **Sustain** column lists additional information about sustaining the power, if applicable. The format is similar. It indicates how long the power lasts for every fresh activation (i.e., a unit of time), and it lists the action type needed to re-activate the power. **The PP cost of sustaining an action is always the same as the cost to activate.** Sustain times with a slash mark indicate a power that has a different sustain cost in combat than out of combat (e.g., "round/minute" indicates a cost per round in combat, and a cost per minute out of combat). Traits have no activation or sustain costs.

The **Standard Save** DCs are 10 + half your level + ability modifier.