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Mutants & Masterminds 3e - Power Profile - Water Powers
Mutants & Masterminds 3e - Power Profile - Water Powers
Water Descriptors
Water Features
Some potential Feature effects associated with Water
Powers include the following:
Make contaminated water pure and drinkable instantly at a rate of about a gallon per round.
Getting Wet
Immersion in water is covered under Swimming while
the effects of sinking are covered under Suffocation (see
pages 65 and 186 of the Heros Handbook respectively).
Characters with the appropriate Immunity (up to and
including Immunity to Fortitude Effects) need not worry
about the effects of suffocating underwater, although
they may or may not still be able to swim; a heavy construct, for example, may not need to breathe, but might
not be buoyant enough to float, either.
Generally, other unfortunate effects of getting wet are
best handled as complications for the characters involved.
So if a heros device shorts-out because of an unexpected
dip, or getting wet triggers some unusual condition (from
a weakness to an involuntary change of form!) the heros
player earns a hero point.
Offensive Powers
Offensive water powers range from direct blasts of water to
watery weapons or the use of the mere presence or absence
of water as a weapon, suffocating or dehydrating your target.
Blinding Splash
A shocking splash of water in the eyes temporarily blinds
your target. For a broader effect, substitute Cone Area for
the Ranged modifier, sending out a blinding splash in an
arc in front of you over a short distance.
Blinding Splash: Ranged Cumulative Affliction (Resisted
by Dodge, Overcome by Fortitude; Impaired, Disabled,
Unaware), Limited to Vision 2 points per rank.
Dehydrate
You remove the moisture from the targets body by touch,
causing weakness and fatigue. Ranged Dehydrate has a
+1 modifier while Perception Ranged is a +2 modifier.
Dehydrate: Cumulative Affliction (Fatigued, Exhausted,
Incapacitated), Resisted and Overcome by Fortitude 2
points per rank.
Drown
Your targets lungs fill with water, or perhaps the target is
enveloped in water and cut off from outside air, causing
the target to drown. If you maintain this effect without
any action on your part, replace the Concentration modifier with Progressive (+1 cost per rank).
Drown: Ranged Cumulative Affliction (Resisted and
Overcome by Fortitude; Fatigued, Exhausted,
Incapacitated), Concentration 4 points per rank.
Tsunami
You command the unleashed fury of the sea in the form of
a massive tidal wave that engulfs a shoreline area. Half of
Water Blast
You strike with a blast of water strong enough to smash
and damage targets. Since a focused stream of water can
be strong enough to create a cutting water saw you can
add the Penetrating modifier, if desired.
Water Blast: Ranged Damage (water impact) 2 points per rank.
Water Cannon
A powerful stream of water can daze and knock down
targets in its path.
Water Cannon: Line Area Cumulative Affliction (Resisted by
Dodge, Overcome by Fortitude; Dazed, Prone), Limited
Degree; 5 feet wide, 30 feet long 2 points per rank + 1 point per
rank per +1 distance rank to length.
Water Weapon
You form a melee weapon out of hard or concentrated water, as solid and sharp as a conventional weapon,
perhaps more so. If you can form different types of
weapons, apply the Variable Descriptor modifier, good
for a rank of Improved Critical, Reach, or a similar 1-point
modifier based on weapon form and type.
Water Weapon: Strength-based Damage 1 point per rank.
Defensive Powers
Defensive water powers typically involve shaping water
into various defensive forms, like walls or shields, or resistance or immunity granted by control over water and its
effects.
Aquatic Regeneration
Immersion in water allows you to recover quickly from
most injuries.
Aquatic Regeneration: Regeneration, Medium (Water) 1 point
per 2 ranks.
Fire Resistance
Your watery powers make you resistant to the effects of
fire.
Fire Resistance: Immunity 10 (Fire Effects), Limited to Half Effect
5 points.
Mist
You can fill the air with condensing water vapor, creating
a heavy mist that obscures vision. This power may also
be able to counteract water-based mist or fog (natural or
created by other powers) as a countering effect.
Mist: Environment (Limited Visibility) 2 points per rank.
Wall of Water
A cascading barrier of water forms at your command,
blocking incoming attacks or movement.
Wall of Water: Create Barrier, Limited to Walls 1 point per rank.
More full-fledged water shaping drops the Limit modifier, able to form any shape with the effect ranks volume.
Water Shaping: Create Water Shapes 2 points per rank.
Waterproof
Your powers protect you from the harmful effects of
water: water-based effects do not work on your, you
cannot drown from immersion, even your clothing and
items you carry are protected from water damage or even
getting wet, if you do not wish them to.
Waterproof: Immunity 10 (Water Effects) 10 points.
Water Shield
A thin layer of hard water surrounds you, lessening the
impact of attacks and dissipating energy attacks directed
against you.
Water Shield: Impervious Protection, Sustained 2 points per
rank.
Movement Powers
Water movement powers are, naturally enough, primarily
concerned with moving through, over, or on water.
Aqua-Port
You can vanish into a body or source of waterfrom a river
to a faucetand immediately emerge from another some
distance away without crossing the space in between.
Additional Teleport modifiers, particularly Accurate, Easy,
and Extended, are common for this power.
Aqua-Port: Teleport, Medium (Bodies of Water) 1 point per rank.
Dolphin Leap
You can vault from the water high into the air like a
leaping dolphin. Rather than a standalone power, this one
is commonly an Alternate Effect of another movement
Swimming
You move through the water at great speed, either propelled by conventional swimming or your control over the
watery medium itself.
Swimming: Swimming 1 point per rank.
Water Walking
You can walk on the surface of water as if it were solid
ground.
Water Walking: Movement 1 (Water-Walking) 2 points.
Utility Powers
Water is an adaptable medium, providing utility powers
based on shaping it in various ways, or adapting the character to the watery medium.
Aqua-Healing
Water is mystically associated with healing. You can draw
upon this power to heal others.
Aqua-Healing: Healing 2 points per rank.
Aquatic
Youre adapted to survive underwater: you can breathe
water and ignore the cold and extreme pressures of
the ocean depths. Your vision is adapted to the dimmer
light of the depths and you are not impeded moving underwater, although you still move at normal swimming
speeds unless you also have the Swimming power (previously).
Aquatic: Immunity 3 (Cold, Drowning, Pressure), Movement
1 (Environmental Adaptation: Aquatic), Senses 1 (Low-light
Vision) 6 points.
Dousing
Theres nothing like a splash of cold water to douse a fire,
short out an electrical system, or even shock people back
Hydrokinesis
Water moves and shifts at your command, moving almost
like a living thing. You can affect a total mass of water
based on your rank.
Hydrokinesis: Move Object, Perception Range, Limited to Water
2 points per rank.
Marine Mastery
You have power over marine life and can summon
aquatic creatures to aid you and obey your commands.
The creatures must travel to you using their own movement. Schools of small sea creatures may be considered
aquatic swarms (see the Summoning Powers profile).
You can use the crocodile, dolphin, shark, squid, and
whale archetypes for some of the creatures you can
summon (see pages 134136 of the M&M Gamemasters
Guide).
Marine Mastery: Summon Marine Life, Horde, Mental
Link, Multiple Minions, Variable General Type (Marine
Life), Limited to in or near water, Self-Powered (see the
Summoning Powers profile) 1 point + 4 points per rank, +2
points per rank per additional rank of Multiple Minions.
Marine Telepathy
You can communicate with the creatures of the deep.
You do not control them (see Marine Mastery, previously) but can use interaction skills with them and may be
able to convince them to do favors for you. You can also
ask them for information, convince them not to attack,
and so forth.
Marine Telepathy: Comprehend 2 (Animals), Limited to Marine
Life 2 points.
Water Creatures
You can summon or create semi-independent creatures
formed out of water that obey your commands. The creatures you summon are not truly alive, merely animated
masses of water. They can look like virtually anything,
from humanoids to mythic creatures like mermaids or
sea serpents. You can apply the various modifiers for the
Summon effect to get additional water creatures or to
make them more active or capable (removing the minion
type from the template).
Water Creatures: Summon Water Creature 8 120-point
minion (see following template) 16 points.
Water Creatures
PL8 MR12
Water Form
You transform from flesh-and-blood into an intelligent
and animate mass of water, which may resemble your
normal form, albeit with less distinct features. Your water
form is able to flow through small cracks or openings, essentially anything that is not watertight. Youre not solid;
physical attacks simply pass right through you, although
energy attacks still affect you and area effects like explosions can disrupt your watery form. However you have
no effective Strength and must use powers to affect the
physical world. You can apply ranks of Affects Corporeal
to your Strength in order to solidify your form enough to
exert some degree of force. Youre immune to most fleshand-blood concerns in water form, virtually invisible when
you are merged with a larger body of water, and able to
move easily through the water. You may also have other
powers, such as Aqua-Port, Hydrokinesis, or various offensive water powers while you are in water form.
Water Form: Concealment 4 (Visual, Limited to Underwater),
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects), Insubstantial 2, Swimming 2
(2 MPH), Activation (Move Action, 1 point) 45 points +1 point
per additional Swimming rank for underwater movement.
Water Scrying
You can use the reflective surface of a body of water, from
an ocean to a puddle or even the contents of a cup as a
medium for visions of distant places, allowing you to see
and hear as if you were looking through a watery window
into that location. Some mystic water scryers add mental
senses to the effect as well, allowing them to target certain
mental sensory powers through their scrying window (see
the Mental Powers profile for some ideas).
Water Scrying: Remote Sensing (Visual and Auditory), Medium
(Water) 2 points per rank.
Water Complications
Prejudice
Accident
As noted under Water Descriptors, a good soaking can
do some real damage; theres a reason why most things are
carefully water-proofed to protect them. Characters with
water powers, especially ones that manifest or control
large amounts of water, can potentially do some damage
or have unexpected side-effects. The GM can bring these
complications into play, such as distracting the heroes in
the midst of a battle with the problem of flooding subway
tunnels or electrical wires fallen into standing pools of
water, or in the clean-up and public reaction that follows a
hero who has left an area all wet.
Similarly, heroes lacking the Feature waterproofing their
equipment (see Water Features) might suffer equipment
failures or damage due to immersion or moisture getting
into things.
Disability
Adaptations for water often translate into disabilities on
land. The classic example is the fish-tailed mermaid (or
merman) able to swim swiftly, but unable to walk and
likely confined to a wheelchair or similar device on land.
Similar aquatic adaptations creating disabilities include
an inability to speak due to communicating underwater
via telepathy, hypersonics, or similar means, or a sensitivity to light due to aquatic adaptations to deal with the
dimmer lighting found in the depths. Characters may
have equipment, from artificial voice boxes to simple sunglasses, to help deal with these complications, meaning
they come into play (and provide hero points) when those
measures fail.
Power Loss
A primary form of Power Loss for water powers is the simple
lack of water, but this drawback is often accounted for in
the powers effects with Limits like only in or near water or
only while immersed or the Medium (Water) flaw. In these
cases, the simple absence of water is not a Power Loss complication, just a built-in Limit of the power.
Other situations may qualify as Power Loss complications,
however. For example, if a water-controller loses access
to her powers due to a sudden shock or outside event
like being doused with a chemical, that can be played as
a Power Loss worth a hero point award. Similarly, if a hero
can normally use Marine Mastery to summon aquatic aid,
but the GM has set things up so that the toxic environment
around the villains undersea base keeps away all marine life
Water-powers or aquatic adaptations may lead to a character with obviously inhuman traits, ranging from oddly
colored skin (blue or green, for example) to things like
scales, gills, or fish-like eyes. An aquatic character may be
a literal fish out of water when it comes to dealing with
ordinary people.
Responsibility
Three-fourths of the Earths surface is covered by water,
but much of it is unclaimed by any one nation and the
waters of the world have few advocates willing to advance
their needs. Water-controlling and (particularly) aquatic
heroes often feel a sense of responsibility to protect the
worlds bodies of water, even if that sometimes puts them
into conflict with the laws of the surface world or even
their own heroic teammates. For some, responsibility to
protect the waters goes from a complication to the heros
primary motivation (Heros Handbook, page 27)
Reputation
The sense of duty discussed under Responsibility previously can give characters a reputation as a loose cannon
or environmental radical which can complicate matters
where the authoritiesand fellow heroesare concerned.
Weakness
Water-controlling characters may be more dependent
upon their element than most. At the most severe level, a
character could be solely aquatic and incapable of breathing air or surviving for long out of the water. The character suffocates (Heros Handbook, page 186) in air just like a
surface-dweller would underwater. This is a fairly severe
complication, given that the character would need to
wear some type of life-support gear to function out of the
water and the complication would come into play whenever that life-support was threatened or compromised.
A less severe version is an occasional dependence on
water; the character needs regular immersion to remain
healthy, but can breathe air and spend time out of the
water. Exactly how much time depends on how often the
complication is intended to come into play, anywhere
from an hour (or even less) to a day or more. This degree of
Weakness makes a good complication for the GM to wield
as a deathtrap without crippling or over-complicating the
characters ability to take part in adventures.
Water characters may also have some simple Vulnerabilities to chemical, heat, or fire effects, given the nature of
their powers.
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