M&M 3rd ed. N00b Questions

[wootersl]

Ok. So our group is going to try out M&M 3rd Ed. I am playing with the character builder. Everything seems pretty straight forward. But, I need an explanation on what this means. I loaded the Energy Controller Archetype and started playing with the powers to suit my character. So I went into Fire Control and removed the Teleport portion and changed the attack type to Shapeable Area Blast. This is how the power looks now:

Flight Control: Energy Control 12
Range: 300/600/1200 ft, DC27
Blast Wave: Shapable Area Blast 6 [Alt]
Range: 150/300/600 ft, DC21; Shapable Area 6: 900 feet, cucbic [2 ranks only]
[X] Create Fire: Create 8 [Alt]
Range: 200/400/800 ft, Volume: 250 cft, DC 18; Movable [5 ranks only]

So, I'm confused by the [2 ranks/5 ranks only]. What does that mean?

And I assume from the above stats that I can control fire at ranges 300/600/1200, Shoot fire in whatever shape up to ranges 150/300/600 ft, and Create and move said fire creation within ranges 200/400/800 ft.

Another question. Since I can check the Create Fire with Blast Wave active I can create an object and it will stay in existence while I shoot off some fire? But, when the Teleport ability was on there as an alternate (this is for later) and I could only have 1 checked then I could create an object, but if I use the teleport, then the creation goes away?

Finally, the Shapable area of 900 cft is larger than my range of 150/300/600 ft, how does that work? Am I just losing the extra 900cft until I can increase my power?

Sorry for all the questions, just trying to understand this.

 

[Duggan]

Ah. The [2 ranks only] suggests that you reduced the number of ranks of the Area to partial ranks. Under the Partial column inside your Blast Wave, does it still have 6 ranks? Ah wait, I see. OK, you're slightly confused on how the Area Extra ranks work out. The first adjuster is for the number of times the Extra is applied, which increases the size of the area affected. The second part is for how many ranks are affected (normally, the "Partial" is equal to your actual number of ranks). You also removed the Reduced Range to make it actually a ranged attack. As you have the power built above, you can choose to place your 900 cubic feet anywhere within 800 feet. You can attack a single target at the center of there for all 6 ranks of your blast. Anyone else within those 900 cubic feet that you choose to make of the area attack, as well as your target if you miss, takes 2 ranks of damage. I doubt that's what your intent is.

According to 3E rules, the Created object will disappear when you change array slots unless they're Permanent. Within 2E, there was a clarification that Continuous Objects would stick around until you stopped paying attention to them even if you switched. *shrug* It's one of those points of clarification that got lost with the transition. So, Rules As Written, the object goes away when you switch array slots.

Similarly, the 5 ranks only on Moveable suggest that you reduced the rank there. Basically, the effect will be that when you create objects, if you only create them within the size of Rank 5, you can choose to move them afterwards while you maintain the power. Larger/Tougher objects can't be moved that way.

As regards that Shapeable area question, the range is where you can place the area. The Area part of it is how much extends outside of that, which could exceed your range. In things like Burst, it's assumed that the effect centers on where you target the Area. Goodness knows how Shapeable works, but I'd probably argue Center of Mass there too.

 

[wootersl]

Well the Shapable means I can make it a cone, a line, or even a giant hammer. I lowered the ranks because any more ranks in either one gave me an error that it cost too much. So, if I understand, the first Rank determines distance and size of shapable area (as listed) above and that is for a single target in that area and then everyone else within the blast takes 2 ranks of damage (so, like an exploding hit). And with the Create I can create an object up to rank 8, but can only move it if it's up to size Rank 5? That's confusing. It would be nice if it listed something along those lines. But, instead, to make it easy on myself, I just adjusted the numbers within to avoid the partial. lol So I en up with this:

Solar Energy Control: Energy Control 12
Range: 300/600/1200 ft, DC27
Blast Wave: Shapable Area Blast 4 [Alt]
Range: 100/200/400 ft, DC 19; Shapable Area 4: 250 feet, cucbic
[X] Create Fire: Create 8 [Alt]
Range: 200/400/800 ft, Volume: 250 cft, DC 18; Movable

So it reduced my distance, area and DC, but nothing is partial now.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Duggan]

{nods} The reason why you had to reduce the number of ranks compared to the original is because you removed the Reduced Range flaw.

And yeah, Partial ranks are confusing, with poorly defined behavior in a lot of cases. Within 2E, the general rule was that you could only apply the Extras as far up as you bought them and past that, you had to do without them. 3E introduced some really weird cases such as Blasts that hit at the full range and affected an Area on a miss.

Lastly, Shapeable is a mess because, well, the usual treatment of the board is 5x5 cubes, right? So, if you affect a 5x5 cube with the default 30 cubic ft, you only affect an area a foot high that targets one person. Alternately, you wind up with the potential for a Shapeable effect that could cover infinite distance by making its cross-section small enough. In my opinion, they should have kept the setup of 2E where it consisted of a series of connected 5x5x5 cubes. Following the pattern of how they created the fixed-size areas, that would create 6 such cubes, not nearly as much area as the others, but much more controllable.