Quickness

Type: General

Action: Free (passive)

Range: Personal

Duration: Continuous

Saving Throw: None

Cost: 1 point per rank

You can perform routine tasks quickly. For purposes of this effect a “routine task” is one where you can take 20 on the check (see Taking 20, M&M, page 10). At rank 1 you perform such tasks at twice normal speed (x2). Each additional rank moves your speed one step up the Progression Table (x5, x10, x25, and so forth).

At rank 20, you perform routine tasks at 5 million times normal speed! Tasks where you cannot take 20 (including combat actions) are unaffected by Quickness, nor is movement speed. You can take 10 and take 20 normally using Quickness and, if your power rank is high enough, you may be able to take 20 on a task in a single standard action (3 seconds) or less. If you can perform a task in less than a second, the GM may choose to treat that task as a free action for you (although the GM can still limit the number of free actions you can accomplish in a round as usual). Among other things, this allows you to do things like take 20 on a Disable Device check by trying all possible combinations of a lock at great speed, or take 20 on a Knowledge check by reading all available research materials in an instant.

EXTRAS

• Affects Others: You can give someone else the benefits of your Quickness by touch. For a +1 extra, both you and one other can benefit from the effect at the same time. This is useful for helping an ally “keep up” with your quick handling of certain tasks. Use the Progression feat to increase the number of subjects you can affect at once.

FLAWS

• One Type (–1): Your Quickness applies to only physical or mental tasks, not both.

• One Task (–2): Your Quickness applies to only one particular task, such as reading, mathematical calculations, and so forth.

UNDER THE HOOD: QUICKNESS

Quickness is obviously not realistic; it allows you to do things like disassemble an entire car in a single round at high enough ranks, but doesn’t have any effect at all on how many attacks you can make. Why? Two reasons: first because allowing any character potentially millions of attacks per round would slow down the game and be hugely unbalancing (to say the least). Second, and perhaps more important, it’s how superhuman quickness works in the comics: speedsters do routine things in the blink of an eye, but in fights they don’t really act more “often” than anyone else, they just have certain special attacks. See the Super-Speed power description for some examples of the special attacks and stunts speedsters might have, in addition to their Quickness.