Power Feats

Power feats expand a power's utility in various ways. Acquiring a power feat costs 1 power point, just like a normal feat. Power feats are options for a power; you can decide to use them or not when you use the power. Characters can use extra effort to temporarily acquire a power feat they don't already have (unlike acquiring normal feats, which requires the expenditure of a hero point).

Here's just a sample of the power feats found in the Mutants & Masterminds 2e rulebook:

Affects Insubstantial

A power with this feat works on insubstantial targets, in addition to having its normal effect on corporeal targets. One application of Affects Insubstantial allows the power to work at half its normal rank (rounded down) against insubstantial targets; two applications allow it to function at its full rank against them. Mental and sensory powers do not require this feat, since they already affect insubstantial targets.

Homing

This feat grants a power an additional opportunity to hit. If an attack roll with a Homing power fails, it attempts to hit again on the following round on your initiative, requiring only a free action to maintain and leaving you free to take other actions, including making another attack.

The Homing power uses the same accurate sense as the original attack, so concealment effective against that sense may confuse the Homing attack and cause it to miss. You can buy Super-Senses Linked to the Homing power, if desired (to create things like radar-guided or heat-seeking missiles, for example). If a Homing attack is blocked or countered before it hits, it loses any remaining chances to hit.

You can apply this feat multiple times, each time moves the number of additional chances to hit one step up the Progression Table, but the attack still only gets one attack roll per round.

Innate

A power with this feat is an innate part of your nature. Trait effects, such as Boost, Drain, or Nullify, cannot alter it. Gamemasters should exercise caution in allowing the application of this feat; the power must be a truly innate trait, such as an elephant's size or a ghost's incorporeal nature. If the power is not something normal to the character's species or type, it probably isn't innate. Unlike other power feats, the use of innate is not optional: a power is either innate or it is not.

Precise

Powers with this feat are especially precise. You can use a Precise power to perform tasks requiring delicacy and fine control, such as using a Precise Blast to spot-weld or carve your initials, Precise Telekinesis to type or pick a lock, Precise Cold Control to match a particular temperature exactly, and so forth. The GM has final say as to what tasks can be performed with a Precise power and may require a power, skill, or ability check to determine the degree of precision with any such task. An attack power with the Precise feat gains the benefits of the Precise Shot feat, which is essentially the same thing.

Alternate Power Arrays

The Alternate Power feat is actually another power or powers, mutually exclusive with the primary power this feat is applied to and any other Alternate Power feats of that power, which can't be used or maintained at the same time. For example, a Blast power with the descriptor of laser might have a visual Dazzle as an Alternate Power: the same light beam can be used to damage or blind a target, just not both at once. Think of Alternate Powers as different "settings" for a power. A set of Alternate Powers is called an array.

An Alternate Power can have any power, rank, or combination of modifiers and power feats. Alternate Powers may also have different descriptors, usually thematically linked, within reason. This allows you to have two versions of a Blast power, for example: a fire blast and an ice blast. Permanent powers cannot have Alternate Power feats, nor can they be Alternate Powers (since they can't be turned on and off).

The Alternate Power cannot have a total cost or rank greater than the primary power. So a rank 10 primary power costing 20 power points can have any Alternate Power with a cost of 20 power points or less and no more than 10 ranks. This cost does not include the cost of any Alternate Power feats the primary power may have. So if the 20-point power has 5 Alternate Powers (making the final cost 25 points), each Alternate Power is still limited to a total value of 20 points (including any power feats it may have), that of the base power.

An Alternate Power may be made up of two or more other powers, but that Alternate Power cannot exceed the cost of the primary power. Adrian Eldritch, Earth's Master Mage, has Astral Form at rank 6. Eldritch's player chooses the Alternate Power feat and selects Flight at rank 3 and Force Field at rank 12 with the Impervious extra. Even though Flight and Force Field are two powers, they count as only one Alternate Power, usable together, but not at the same time as Astral Projection.

Alternate Powers cannot be used or maintained at the same time as any other power in the same array, they are mutually exclusive. Switching between powers requires a free action and can be done once per round. If anything disables, nullifies, or drains any power in an array, all of them are affected in the same way. The effects of Lasting powers remain, even if you switch your array to a different power, until the target recovers.

Dynamic Alternate Powers: For two ranks (2 power points) an Alternate Power is dynamic; it can share power points with other Dynamic Alternate Powers of that power (so a power must have two Dynamic Alternate Powers for this option to be useful). You decide how many power points are allocated to the various powers once per round as a free action. Making the base power of an array Dynamc requires one Alternate Power rank (1 power point).

Example: Adrian Eldritch, Earth's Master Mage, has the Magic power at rank 16. Eldritch's player chooses Mystic Blast as the power's free effect (and primary power in the array) as well as the following Alternate Powers as spells Eldritch has mastered: Dazzle (visual), ESP (visual and auditory), Illusion, Obscure (visual), Obscure (auditory), and Telekinesis.

Each Alternate Power can have a cost of up to 2 power points per Magic rank (or 32 points total) and a rank no greater than 16. For those powers costing 2 points per rank, like Dazzle, Obscure, and Telekinesis, this gives them the same rank as the power, or 16. ESP for visual and auditory senses costs 3 points per rank, so it has a rank of 10 (30 points), and Illusion for all senses costs 4 points per rank, so it has a rank of 8 (32 points). Eldritch can only use one Magic power at a time. If he wants to use his Mystic Blast, he has to stop using Illusion, Telekinesis, or whatever other Alternate Power he's currently using.

Later, Eldritch's player decides to make some of his Alternate Powers dynamic. He spends an extra power point on the ESP, Obscure (visual), and Telekinesis Alternate Power feats. This allows Eldritch to mix-and-match points from his Magic power between those three Alternate Powers. So he could split his points between two or more of them at one time, for example. However, he can still only use the other Alternate Powers one at a time. If the player wants to make Eldrich's Mystic Blast (the primary power) Dynamic as well, it costs 1 power point to do so.

If Eldritch's player comes up with a particular spell he wants the Master Mage to pull off during the game (one not already on Eldritch's character sheet as an Alternate Power), he can use extra effort or spend a hero point to acquire the new Alternate Power feat as a power stunt.

Next: Our power preview concludes with a look at power modifiers you can use to customize how a power works, and some sample modifiers, including Alternate Save, Disease, and Sense-Dependent.