Transform

Type: Alteration

Action: Standard (active)

Range: Ranged

Duration: Sustained (lasting)

Saving Throw: Fortitude

Cost: 3-6 points per rank

You can change a target into something else. Make an attack roll to hit your target, who makes a Fortitude save (DC 10 + Transform rank). If the save fails, the target transforms. Inanimate targets transform automatically, so long as you can affect their mass.

Characters can make a Reflex saving throw for any worn or held object. You can transform 1 pound of inanimate mass at rank 1. Each additional rank moves this one step up the Progression Table. The transformation lasts as long as you continue sustaining it. When you stop, the target reverts to normal. What

you can transform affects cost per rank:

• 3 points: Transform one thing into one other thing (flesh into stone, people into frogs, metal into wood, broken objects intorepaired ones, etc .).

• 4 points: Transform a narrow group of targets into one of a narrow group of results (animals into humanoids, or vice versa, one type of metal into any other, etc.). Transform targets of a broad group into one result or a single target into any of a broad group.

• 5 points: Transform targets of a broad group into one of a broad group of results (inanimate objects or living creatures).

• 6 points: Transform anything into anything else. You can change around a transformed target’s physical traits, so long as their point total remains the same or less. Adding new traits (such as giving a target wings) can be paid for by adding drawbacks or reducing other traits to compensate (or by Linking an Affects Others Variable structure to Transform, allowing you to add traits to the subject).

TRANSFORMING DEVICES AND EQUIPMENT

Transforming someone’s devices or equipment requires targeting them first, as given under Attacking Objects (from M&M, page 155): a held object has a Defense of the holder’s Defense + the object’s size modifier + 5, while a worn or carried object has a Defense of the holder’s Defense + the object’s size modifier. So transforming a held weapon like a gun requires an attack roll against the holder’s Defense + 9 (+5 base +4 for a diminutive sized object), targeting a worn suit of armor is an attack against the holder’s Defense (with no modifier for a medium-sized object).

Equipment is transformed automatically so long as the effect has sufficient rank to encompass its entire mass. The holder or wearer of a Device gets a Reflex saving throw to avoid having it transformed (DC 10 + Transform rank); a successful save means no effect. Transform is merely another way of “removing” a Device or equipment, considered a part of the discount that they offer, although transformed Devices should eventually be restored or replaced.

MENTAL TRANSFORM

Transformed targets normally retain their mental traits and personality, although animate targets made inanimate are effectively rendered unconscious. A Transform effect with the Will Save modifier can change targets mentally as well as physically. A mental transformation is considered a separate effect; apply modifiers and power stunts to it separately. To transform a target both mentally and physically at once, link the two Transforms together (see the Linked power modifier). The type of mental transformation determines cost per rank:

• 2 point: Change the target’s memories or recollections, making the target forget something, or remember things differently.

• 3 point: Change around the target’s mental traits.

• 4 points: Completely alter the target’s mind, effectively creating an entirely new personality. You can change around their mental traits as desired, so long as their point value remains the same or less.

POWER FEATS

• Affects Insubstantial: Transform needs this power feat to affect incorporeal targets, but works normally on subjects with lower ranks of Insubstantial.

• Reversible: Transform effects are generally reversible and do not require this feat.

• Subtle: While a Transform effect is not itself Subtle in that the target is clearly transformed, this power feat can help conceal the source of the effect, making it less noticeable or not noticeable at all.

EXTRAS

• Alternate Save: Transform based on Will is a Mental Transform effect; see the previous section for details.

• Area: An Area Transform effect changes all of the targets in the area in the same way. Each target makes its own saving throw, although the GM may choose to make a single save for a group of minions or other undifferentiated characters.

• Duration: Continuous transformations last until you choose to reverse them (or they are nullified). The GM can require that a Continuous Transform effect have some other reasonable way of undoing it, from a kiss from royalty to soaking in water, depending on the effect’s descriptors.

• Selective Attack: An Area Transform with this extra can transform only those subjects you choose, excluding others.

FLAWS

• Duration: Transform with a duration of concentration requires constant attention (and a standard action each round) to maintain. Transform cannot have an

instant duration.

• Limited: Transform effects limited to particular subjects or results should have their base cost adjusted as given in the effect’s description rather than applying this flaw. Transform effects limited in other ways may still have the Limited flaw.

• Permanent: This flaw does not apply to Transform, since permanent transformations are generally more of an advantage, and Continuous Transform is as close to permanent as the effect gets.

• Range: Touch range Transform requires a successful melee attack roll to touch the subject. Transform cannot be personal range and does not work on you; to transform yourself in various ways see Morph and the Variable power structure as well as the Shapeshift power in the following chapter.

Example—Petrifying Gaze: Your baleful gaze can turn living creatures to stone! Take a standard action; the opponent must meet your gaze (see the Sense-Dependent flaw description). Targets get a Reflex saving throw to glance away at the last moment. If it fails, they make a Fortitude save. On a failure, they turn to immobile stone. They remain so until you choose to restore them, your effect is nullified,or they are restored by another Transform effect or the petrification

is countered. This is a singular Transform (flesh to stone, 3 points per rank) with the Range (Perception) and Duration (Continuous) extras and the Sense-Dependent flaw.

It costs 4 points per rank.If anyone even looking at you may be petrified, decrease the required action to reaction, increasing cost to 7 points per rank.

Example—Memory Alteration: You can mentally alter a person’s memories. Choose a target you can accurately perceive. The target makes a Will save. If it fails, the target’s memories are altered as you wish. This is a Mental Transform (memories, 2 points per rank) with the Range (Perception) extra.It costs 3 points per rank.

Under the Hood: Transform

Transform is a powerful effect, particularly in the hands of a cunning player. To a degree, Transform can duplicate certain other effects, such as trapping a target by transforming air into a solid material (Snare) or turning oxygen into an unbreathable gas (Suffocate). This is perfectly allowable; use the rules for those other effects as guidelines.

Keep in mind, however, that Transform has a Sustained duration (not Instant like Snare, or Concentration like Suffocate), which may affect how such “tricks” work (e.g., the snare disappears if the character is stunned, the suffocating gas dissipates unless the character concentrates each round to continue transforming it, etc.). As always, the GM should use common sense and good judgment, following Rule Number One (see Rule Number One, M&M, page 7). Gamemasters may wish to limit the higher levels of Transform and Mental Transform, especially the “anything into anything” level, to NPCs only.

The 5-point level of any inanimate object into any other works well for “transmuter” characters, however. You may wish to require characters using Transform to acquire money (gold, precious gems, etc.) or other permanent material goods to spend power points on rank of the Benefit feat to reflect this newfound wealth; otherwise, the goods fade or remain impermanent in some way.