Air Control

Effect: Array (Move Object)

Action: Standard (active)

Range: Perception

Duration: Sustained

Saving Throw: See description

Cost: 2 points per rank

You have the ability to shape and direct masses of air. You can create powerful winds, moving objects with an effective Strength of (Air Control rank x 5). So a character with Air Control 5 can create winds able to move objects with an effective Strength of 25 (5 x 5), moving a heavy load of up to 800 lbs. and pushing

up to 4,000 lbs. or so (like pushing along a wheeled vehicle, for example).A powerful gust of wind can knock a target off his feet. Treat this as a trip attack, with no attack roll required since Air Control is perception range. The target makes a Strength or Dexterity check (whichever is greater) against the results of your Air Control check. If you win the opposed check, the target falls prone. The target does not get the opportunity to trip you, since it’s the air, and not

you, doing the tripping.

COUNTERING

The ability to control the air offers a number of opportunities for countering different effects. You can counter the effects of natural wind as well as others’

use of Air Control. An air controller can blow out fires (an Air Control check against the fire’s rank or damage bonus) and counter specific uses of Fire Control,

although powerful gusts of air only feed fires with enough fuel, and the GM can rule that large areas of fire—say (Air Control rank x 5 ft.) in radius—are beyond

a particular character’s ability to extinguish. Air Control can counter some forms of Flight, creating powerful winds that ground their target. This depends on the Flight power’s descriptors and the GM’s judgment. Finally, while it’s not really “countering” per se, you can use Air Control’s ability to move things to create “cushions” of air to catch falling objects, perhaps even those that have had their Flight countered! Subtract the power’s rank from the falling damage

each round; a few rounds are usually sufficient to slow a fall enough to land feather-light on the ground.

ALTERNATE POWERS

The following are additional Alternate Powers suited to an Air Control Array:

• Air Blast: You can fire a powerful blast of compressed air, like a use of the Blast power, inflicting power rank damage at normal range.

• Air Rifle: You can use a burst of compressed air to propel small objects like bullets, inflicting power rank damage at normal range like Blast. The primary difference between this and the Air Blast feat (previously) is Air Rifle has a ballistic descriptor, which may interact differently with various effects, and it may also be able to inflict lethal damage where Air Blast cannot, depending on the guidelines of the campaign.

• Mist: You can summon a thick mist or fog that obscures vision like a use of the Obscure power, affecting all visual senses and filling an area 5 feet in radius at rank 1, moving one step up the Progression Table per additional rank.

• Solid Air: You can solidify air into a hard, crystalline substance and shape it as you see fit like the Create Object power at your Air Control rank.

• Stench: You can taint the air around a subject with a sickening stench, like the Nauseate power at perception range, so it has an effective rank of half your Air Control rank, giving it a saving throw DC of (10 + half your Air Control rank).

• Suffocate: By controlling air you can cut off a target’s oxygen. This works like the Suffocate power at perception range, so it has an effective rank of half your

Air Control rank, giving it a saving throw DC of (10 + half your Air Control rank).

• Tornado: You can whip up a powerful vortex of wind that causes damage in a wide area, acting like a Blast with the Area Burst modifier. This tornado continues inflicting damage on the affected area as long as you concentrate on it (giving the effect a concentration duration). Damage bonus is half your Air Control rank, rounded down, and the tornado’s radius is five times its damage bonus in feet, so Air Control 8, for example, has a damage bonus of +4 and a radius of 20 feet.

• Wind: You create a strong wind in your area that automatically extinguishes open flames and imposes a –2 penalty to thrown weapon attacks and auditory Notice checks. At twothirds your normal rank, you can create a severe wind that increases the penalty to –4 and has a 50% chance of snuffing out protectedfflames as well (like those of lanterns). At half your effective rank, you can whip up a windstorm where muscle-powered ranged weapon attacks automatically miss and all other ranged attacks are at a –4 penalty, auditory notice checks are at –8 due to the howling wind, and even protected flames have a 75% chance of going out. Finally, at one-third your rank, you can create hurricane-force winds that extinguish all flames, impose a –20 penalty on all auditory Notice checks.

• Wind Screen: You can use powerful winds to turn incoming projectiles off course so they miss you. This works like the Deflect power against slow projectiles, usable as a reaction, so it has a bonus equal to half your Air Control rank, rounded down. You may wish to make this Deflect effect an associated power (outside of your Air Control Array) in order to use it at the same time as your other Air Control effects.

POWER FEATS

• Affects Insubstantial: Air Control already affects gaseous forms (Insubstantial 2) with the appropriate descriptors and doesn’t require this power feat to do so. The application of this power feat allows Air Control to affect energy and incorporeal forms as well.

• Freshen Air: Any time you wish you can clean and freshen the air in a radius of (Air Control rank x 5 ft.) within perception range. This eliminates unpleasant

odors, a nd may (at the GM’s discretion) allow you to cover scent traces and use Air Control to counter scent-dependent effects.

• Indirect: As a perception range power, Air Control already has some Indirect qualities. Some Air Control effects, particularly Blast powers, may take the Indirect feat to reflect their ability to originate from different directions.

• Precise: Precise Air Control allows you to direct the exact intensity of the wind, creating a whirlwind in a tightly controlled area, for example, or even filtering

certain impurities out of the air as you move it, based on their different densities. It does not, however, allow you to move objects with a fine level of control, just the air (see the Move Object effect for details).

• Subtle: Although air cannot generally be seen, its effects can be heard and felt, so Air Control isn’t considered Subtle by default.

• Wind-Blown Effects: This feat extends your unconscious control over air so you are never unnecessarily mussed by the wind, but always have just the right gust of air to ruffle your hair or cape at just the right moment. The GM may occasionally give you a +2 interaction check bonus for favorable conditions, as desired.

EXTRAS

• Affects Corporeal: Note that a being with Insubstantial 2 does not need this extra on Air Control; it can use the power normally while in a gaseous state.

ASSOCIATED EFFECTS

• Air Bubble: Some characters with Air Control may even be able to create air, or at least “recycle” it, scrubbing carbon dioxide and replenishing oxygen levels. This power can range from a sustained duration form of Immunity to Suffocation (2 ranks) to a version of the same power with Affects Others and Area, creating a “bubble” of breathable air with a base radius of 10 feet around the user. The Progression power feat can expand the maximum size of the air bubble.

• Air Form: A character with Air Control might also transform into air or mist (see the Alternate Form power for information about air and gaseous forms).

• Sense Air Flow: By sending the flow of air around you, you can pick up on the movement and positions of objects. This is a form of tactile blindsight (see the Super-Senses effect for details).

• Wind-Riding: Powerful winds can lift you aloft, allowing you to fly. This is the Flight power, generally limited to the maximum speed of the wind (and your ability to breathe). Generally, this is Flight 5, a speed of around 250 MPH. Some wind-riders have the Gliding flaw of Flight, only able to soar on the winds, but unable to gain altitude on their own.

• Wind Shield: By surrounding yourself with a tightly focused whirlwind, windscreen, or even “shell” of “hard air” you gain additional protection against harm. A Wind Shield is a kind of Force Field, granting a Toughness save bonus with a sustained duration.