Type: standard power/attack power Duration: constant
Target: target’s Dcv Range: 10m x Base points Costs END: yes
Cost: see change environment combat effects table; the Area Of Effect advantage is usually applied
A character with Change Environment (“CE”) can cause changes to his environment, which involves inflicting penalties or other difficulties on a single character or over an Area. A character could, for example, alter the temperature, make someone clumsy, create an intense magnetic field, generate a fogbank that makes it hard for people to see, or cause all plants in the area to bloom.
BuyING CHANGE ENVIRONmENT
To buy Change Environment, a character must first decide what type of effect he can create (such as making an area hotter, changing the weather, or making it gloomy so other people have difficulty seeing). A character must specify the effect he can create when he buys Change Environment, and cannot change it thereafter (but see Varying Effect, below). For information on simulating various natural effects, see Chapter Six of 6E2.
After he decides on an effect, the character must buy the combat effects that represent the penalties or other difficulties created by that effect (see Combat Effects, below, and the Change Environment Combat Effects Table). A Change Environment must have at least one combat effect, but can have more if desired.
At its base level, Change Environment only affects a single target. However, characters often buy the Area Of Effect Advantage for it (typically in Radius form) so that it affects an Area.
uSING CHANGE ENVIRONmENT
To use Change Environment, the character must make an Attack Roll to hit his target (or, if it’s an Area-affecting CE, against DCV 3 to hit the target point). If a Change Environment power has Area Of Effect, using it counts as an Attack Action with an Area-affecting Constant Power (see 6E1 127).
Change Environment costs END. Once the character stops paying END to maintain the Change Environment, the Power stops func- tioning, though its effects may linger for some time thereafter. For example, if a character used Change Environment to make all plants in the area bloom, those blooms remain when he turns off his CE, but quickly wither and die without the power of the Change Environment to keep them alive (unless normal conditions in the environ- ment would keep them alive). An ice sheet created by Change Environment melts (at a rate dictated by environmental conditions, but typically in 1-5 hours) after the Change Environment stops functioning. If the change has little or no combat effect (for example, a speedster’s or witch’s ability
POWER EXAmPlES:
BlAST
light Blast: Blast 8d6 (total cost: 40 points) plus sight group Flash 4d6 (20 active points); linked (-½) (total cost: 13 points). total cost: 53 points.
Blaster Pistol: Blast 10d6 (50 active points); oaF (-1), 2 clips of 12 charges each (-0). total cost: 25 points. Fire Bolt Spell: Blast 8d6, armor piercing (+¼) (50 active points); oaF (copper wand; -1), gestures (-¼), incanta- tions (-¼), requires a Magic roll (-½). total cost: 17 points.
volume 1: character creation n chapter Five 175 to clean a room in the blink of an eye), then it may
even be permanent. At the GM’s option, long- lasting Change Environment effects require the
Long-Lasting Adder (see below).
Characters cannot use Change Environment to duplicate existing Powers (like Darkness), nor can CE create light (use Images, Only To Create
Light (-1)).
COmBAT EFFECTS
Change Environment can have negative effects on combat or Skills, or cause minor amounts of damage or related combat effects. For example, creating a fog or an area of deep shadow might affect PER Rolls; an intense magnetic field might act as very low-STR Telekinesis against ferrous objects.
Buying Change Environment means buying the combat effects(s) the character wants. For example, to create a fog, a character might buy -2 to Sight Group PER Rolls. Characters can choose from the following combat effects:
n -1m of a particular Movement mode n a -1 to the PER Roll with one Sense or Sense
Group
n a -1 to a Characteristic Roll and/or related Skill Roll(s)
n a one-step change in the Temperature Level n increase the penalty imposed by the Range
Modifier or other Combat Modifiers
n 1 point of damage (GM must approve type of damage; the character may, at the GM’s option, include appropriate Advantages; otherwise Advantages may be purchased for the damage) n 1 point of Telekinesis STR
n a one-step change in the Wind Level
n any other noncombat effect of equal magnitude listed on the accompanying table, or which the GM permits (the exact effect should be deter- mined by the GM)
If applicable, the combat effect includes forcing an affected character to make at least one Char- acteristic, Skill, or PER Roll. For example, if a character is hit with a Change Environment that imposes a -3 to DEX Rolls, it doesn’t just affect any DEX Rolls he has to make for other reasons — he has to make a DEX Roll when hit, at the listed penalty. (The same would apply if he entered an Area-affecting -3 to DEX Rolls CE.) Area-affecting Change Environments that interfere with percep- tion use the same rules as for Images to determine if they block Line Of Sight (see 6E1 237).
A Change Environment can have as many combat effects of whatever types a character wants, but once the combat effects are chosen they can’t be changed thereafter (unless the Change Environment has the Varying Combat Effects Adder; see below).
The GM may limit how much of a negative modifier or other effect characters can create with Change Environment. Life Support often counter- acts the negative effects of Change Environment (see 6E1 245 and Chapter Six of 6E2).
A character doesn’t have to use the full combat effect of his Change Environment if he doesn’t want to. For example, if a character has a Create Fog power which imposes a -4 penalty on Sight Group PER Rolls, he could create a light fog that only imposes -2 to Sight PER Rolls.
In addition to causing damage or related combat effects, Change Environment can exploit a character’s Susceptibilities or Power Limitations.
Example: Lodestone can create a low-level magnetic field. The basic field acts as a 1 STR Telekinesis to pull ferrous metal objects straight up; for every +5 Character Points, the field has +1 Telekinetic STR. The field also harms char- acters who are Susceptible to Intense Magnetic Fields and prevents powers that Will Not Work
In Intense Magnetic Fields from functioning. Change Environment should not be as effec- tive at causing damage or creating other effects as other Powers (i.e., a Change Environment effect should not do nearly as much damage or have as strong an effect as a similar Power for the same amount of Character Points). If necessary the GM should adjust the cost of a Change Environment power to ensure that it doesn’t unbalance the game.
Example: Winter Dragon wants the power to
create a slippery sheet of ice beneath people’s feet to make them fall. He buys this as Change