I’m fiddling around with Mutants and Masterminds at the moment, and I’ve been trying to come up with a sample build to get used to the trickier aspects of the game. This post is going to get a little bit more mechanical than usual, so please bear with me.
It’s also an open call to those who are used to the M&M system. I’m a HERO guy at heart, so any help will be great.
Okay… for our sample character, let’s work with Megavolt, a PL 6 gadgeteer with the following gadgets:
- A Jetpack
- Energy Gauntlets that can fire electromagnetic beams, or compress electromagnetic energy into a sword-like hand to hand weapon
Seems simple enough. So, let’s get to work:
The Jetpack seems pretty straightforward. M&M has a Power called Device used to simulate magic items or high-tech gizmos that grant powers to the user. 1 rank of Device grants 5 Power Points worth of effect, neatly bundled up in some special effect object. Since a Jetpack isn’t something I want to be easily taken off, I’ll buy it at the 4 point per rank price.
So:
4 Power Points = 1 rank of Device containing 5 PP of powers.
A Jetpack is obviously for flying, so let’s grab the Flight Power which costs 2 points per rank. 2 Ranks of Flight allows the character to go 25 mph, a decent speed in combat, and for a total cost of 4 PP. Did I really save any points for buying a device? Not really.
So let’s see what happens if we try to slap on a second power in the same device and see if we can get more mileage out of it since that’s 1 wasted point from the 1 rank of Device.
So let’s slap on an extra rank of Device:
8 Power Points = 2 ranks of Device containing 10 PP of powers, 4 of which is dedicated to Flight.
Given that we now have 6 PP leftover, and that Force Field is 1PP per rank, let’s max it out.
Furthermore, I’m interested in the Restricted Feat, that basically means that nobody else can use this device but the character who bought it.
so, the final build looks like:
10 PP Electromagnetic Propulsion Jetpack: Device 2 (difficult to take away, feat: Restricted, self-only) Powers: (Flight 2, Force Field 6)
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The next item on the agenda would be the gauntlets. From the way it looks, it’s yet another Device, also difficult to take away since it can’t be disarmed. Primary power for the Gauntlets would be a Strike Power, at 2 PP per rank, and a secondary power using the Alternate Power feat, would be a Blast, at 1 PP per rank, with the Accurate and Autofire feats on them.
so here we go with 3 ranks of Device:
14 PP Electromagnetic Gauntlets: Device 3 (difficult to lose, feat: Restricted, self-only) Powers: (Strike 6 [Feat: Alternate Power], Blast 6 [Accurate, Autofire] )
—
So, for 24 PP we’ve got a guy who can fly, has some measure of defense, and a ranged and close combat attack. Overall not too shabby for a PL 6 game with a budget of 90 PP for everything.
Of course, I’m not entirely certain of my understanding of the system just yet, so that’s where you come in. If you’re a veteran of M&M, comment and tell me where I went wrong or how to make it better.
