Density

Type: Alteration

Action: Free (active)

Range: Personal

Duration: Sustained

Saving Throw: None

Cost: 3 points per rank

You can increase your mass, and therefore your Strength and Toughness. Every rank of Density active gives you +2 Strength (a +1 Str bonus). Every two ranks give you +1 Toughness with the Impervious extra (see Impervious under Protection). Every three ranks give you a rank of Immovable and Super-Strength (see those effect descriptions in this chapter) and move your mass one step up the Progression Table: x2 at rank 3, x5 at rank 6, x10 at rank 9, and so forth.

DENSITY EFFECTS

Additional Strength from Density does not improve your Strength based skills or the distance you can jump, since your mass also increases. In fact, you automatically fail Swim checks while Density is active at 3 ranks or more, because of your negative buoyancy.

POWER FEATS

• Affects Insubstantial: A character with Density may be able to apply this power feat to Strength at the GM’s discretion as a reflection of increased density impeding the passage of insubstantial or incorporeal forms.

• Buoyant: Your Density is such that you can still swim with Density activated. You do not automatically fail Swim skill checks, although additional Strength from your Density still does not add to your Swim bonus.

• Innate: This power feat is appropriate for beings that are inherently denser, making their Density part of their physical makeup. It should generally be coupled with the Permanent modifier on Continuous Density.

• Subtle: Note that as an active effect Density is not Subtle by default; the character is assumed to take on some other form or outward manifestation of increased density (bulking up or transforming to a dense material like stone, for example). Density with the Subtle feat is less noticeable while 2 ranks of

the feat allow you to maintain an outwardly normal appearance regardless of your relative density.

EXTRAS

• Attack: A Density Attack grants all of the effect’s benefits along with increased mass, and “Limited to Increasing Mass” is not a viable flaw for a Density Attack (since it actually makes it a more effective attack, not less). For an example of an attack that increases a target’s mass or weight, making it difficult to

move, see the Gravity Control power in the next chapter.

• Reflective: At the GM’s discretion, you can apply the Reflective extra of Protection to the Impervious Toughness gained from Density, representing extreme hardness or toughness and costing 1 power point per 3 Density ranks. See Reflective under Protection for more information.

FLAWS

• Distracting: Since it’s reasonable for increased mass to make a character somewhat less quick and graceful, this flaw may apply to Density, causing you to lose your dodge bonus while at an increased level of mass. If it only applies to a certain level of Density (such as only after activating 6 ranks), apply the

flaw only to the higher ranks.

• Immobile (–1): When using Density, you are unable to move from where you stand when you activate the effect, although you can still take actions, so long as they don’t involve movement. If you are completely immobile (and helpless) while using Density, increase the flaw’s value to –3.

• Permanent: Continuous Density may have this flaw, usually to reflect a character that’s always more dense and massive than normal. Permanent Density often has the Innate power feat as well.

ASSOCIATED EFFECTS

• Damage: Denser fists may be able to strike harder blows than even a dense character’s enhanced Strength, in which case Damage with the Mighty power feat is an appropriate additional effect.

• Insubstantial: This effect may be based on the ability to decrease mass and density, becoming less substantial. A chacter may have both Density and Insubstantial as Alternate Powers in an Array (see the Array structure in this chapter).

• Shrinking: For characters who become more dense without additional mass, essentially reducing the space between their existing molecules and therefore their overall size, see the Compression extra of Shrinking in this chapter.

• Super-Strength: Some dense characters become very strong. Additional ranks of Super-Strength are a common effect associated with Density (as are additional ranks of Immovable and Impervious Protection) and may be Linked to Density and stack with its effects, subject to power level limits.

POWER STUNT: AS HARD AND IMMOVABLE AS DIAMOND

A common comic book stunt of Density is becoming tremendously dense and impervious at the cost of mobility. The default version of Density does not do this: your extra Strength is assumed to compensate for the additional mass, allowing you to move normally. Gamemasters who want to allow this sort of Density can use the following optional rule. Characters can have ranks of Density that increase their Toughness save bonus beyond the normal power level limit of the campaign. However, for each +1 increase to Toughness beyond the limit, the character suffers a –1 penalty to defense and –5 feet to base movement speed, reflecting a reduction in mobility. This is essentially a dynamic Toughness/Defense trade-off that occurs during the game rather than beforehand. Characters at this level of density can only move at normal pace, not accelerated or all-out. Defense bonus and movement speed cannot be reduced below 0 and at 0, the character cannot move at all until Density decreases. This option can apply to using extra effort to temporarily increase Density rank as well as acquiring and using Density ranks beyond the campaign’s normal power level limits.