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Mutants & Masterminds - [Review] Power Profiles #16: Talent Powers


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Power Profiles #16: Talent Powers

Vitals: Published By Green Ronin • 6 pages • $0.99 • full color PDF

What the heck are talent powers? They are those skills, superior training, and savant like abilities of the non-powered supers. Wanna play Hawkeye or Bullseye? Talent Powers.

Descriptors, Countering & Features

Discussion of Talent as a descriptor and the use of Advantages. There is discussion of the Innate extra on power effects to show talents that cannot be taken away with Nullify. A brief discussion of countering follows. Features is a discussion rather than a list of suggestions. Advantages are pretty much the definition of Features and there is a further discussion of how to create your own Skill Advantages. This is useful as it helps expand the roster of possible Advantages in a concise way and puts more power in the hands of the GM to customize the game.

Offensive Powers

The five powers here represent unique ... err... talents, or levels of supreme skill. "Naked" extras are present here in two powers, allowing for the modification of attacks that derive from equipment or other abilities equally. This isn't the first time we have seen this but it is a nice call out here and clever players will see other ways to build similar ... umm ... talents (Aside: Boy this is difficult.) Not surprisingly the Third Edition valedictorian, Affliction, makes an appearance here as well proving its insane versatility.

Defensive Powers

Four powers based heavily on the Immunity effect. Acquired Immunity could easily be tooled as an Advantage itself; its effect and cost being right in line with those already in the book. Perfect Defense is a (relatively) rare instance of a non-permanent duration Immunity, and while it may cost a hefty price the effect is well worth it for some character types.

Movement Powers

Six effects, many of which utilize the Check Required flaw. Check Required is something that GMs need to be careful of, a check of DC 11 for a character with a +15 skill mod is no flaw in my book, and a sidebar or note about this would have been nice. On the other hand the Parkour talent is phenomenal, really allowing a character to move with the kind of reckless abandon that you would expect without requiring copious rolls, and risks.

Utility Powers

Thirteen powers which pretty much makes this the jackpot. More so than with prior profiles the utility section here really covers the full gamut of possibilities one expects from "Utility Powers". Various enhanced senses, natural quirks, or inborn and trained abilities, many of which are a single power point and could easily be an Advantage.

Complications

Eight Complications finish out the profile. The Fame, Identity, Reputation, and Rivalry complications are especially suited to characters of supreme talent and skill rather than powers or technology (though a tech hero may also have talents as well).

Closing Thoughts

This was a tough profile to review as it often defied the conventions that we have seen setup in the past fifteen profiles (ok, maybe 14, I'm still sore over the Magic profile). The value in this profile comes as much from discussion of the talent descriptor and ways to thematically emulate such abilities as it does from specific powers. Clever builds and unique applications for effects certainly help of course but even the more obvious effects help to flesh out the idea of the Super Normal, or the Everyday Hero.

Rating: 85%, A solid profile. While it defines much and does offer some room for expansion on the system it lacks the punch of other profiles in my opinion.

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