Absorption

Effect: Boost, Protection

Action: Reaction (passive)

Range: Personal

Duration: Continuous

Saving Throw: None

Cost: 4 points per rank

You can absorb a particular type of damage, and use its energy to improve a trait or heal yourself. Choose physical or energy damage when you buy this effect.

Subtract your Absorption rank from the damage bonus of the affected attack. If the remaining bonus is +0 or greater, make a normal Toughness save against

the remaining damage bonus, otherwise you ignore the attack’s damage completely. Your Absorption rank counts as a bonus to your Toughness saves for power level purposes.

You gain 2 temporary character points per +1 damage bonus absorbed. After absorbing damage, as a reaction, you can immediately use these temporary character points, either to improve a particular trait (like a Boost effect) or to heal yourself, applying points to the Healing effect (one rank of Healing per 2 character points, as usual).

Choose which effect you can do when you acquire Absorption; if you choose the Boost effect, you must also determine what trait it will be applied to. Your Absorption Boost can increase a power you don’t normally have—such as Blast—granting you temporary use of that power. If an Absorption Healing attempt fails, you can try again the next time you absorb energy (rather than having to wait or spend a hero point like Healing normally requires). You can acquire the other effect of Absorption as an Alternate Power feat, but you can’t use both at the same time. So if you have Absorption Boost, you can acquire Healing as a power feat, but have to choose one effect or the other (Boost or Healing) each time you absorb energy. You can also acquire different forms of

Absorption Boost as Alternate Powers, or apply Boost modifiers to your Absorption for a broader boosting effect (see the Boost effect description for details).

Example: Energizer has Energy Absorption 9 and is hit with a +7 damage lightning bolt. Since the damage is less than her Absorption rank, she absorbs all of it, gaining 14 temporary power points (+7 damage x 2). She can apply those absorbed points to the Blast power, of the same energy type as she absorbs; so, on the following round, she can throw a lightning Blast 7 right back.

POWER FEATS

• Energy Conversion: You can convert absorbed energy from one type to another (sound into light, or kinetic energy into heat, for example). This allows you to absorb one type of energy and project another, if you have a Blast power (or if your Absorption Boost grants you a Blast power).

• Slow Fade: This power feat can reduce the rate at which your stored energy fades, if you have the Energy Storage extra (see the following).

EXTRAS

• Both Types (+1): You absorb physical and energy damage, not just one or the other.

• Energy Storage (+1): You can “store” absorbed energy. Each attack gives you energy equal to the damage bonus your Absorption stops. You can have up to (rank x 10) energy points at once (excess energy dissipates harmlessly). Stored energy harmlessly “bleeds off ” at a rate of 1 point per round. You can reduce this rate with the Slow Fade feat. You can use your stored energy points to fuel your other absorption effects (Boost or Healing) as desired on a 1 point per rank basis. The Progression feat increases your storage capacity by one multiple per application (x 11, x 12, and so forth).

• Power Magnet (+1): You can absorb energy from suitable sources (such as bonfires, generators, speakers, and so forth) at a distance of (power rank x 100 feet) with a ranged attack roll. It takes a standard action to absorb energy in this way. Reduce the power source’s output that round by your power rank and gain temporary power points equal to twice its rank or twice your power rank, whichever is less. This extra allows you to use Absorption to counter powers of the appropriate type at a distance and absorb their energy (see Countering Effects, page 18).

FLAWS

• Limited (–2): Your Absorption affects only a specific type of energy, such as cold, electricity, heat, radiation, and so forth.