Device

Effect: Container

Action: None

Range: Touch

Duration: Special

Saving Throw: None

Cost: 3 or 4 points per rank

A Device is a type of Container (see the Container power structure): an item granting you the use of certain traits. A Device might be a piece of super-science technology, a magical artifact, or focus of cosmic power. Each Device rank gives you 5 power points you use to purchase the Device’s traits. So long as you have the Device, you have access to its traits. You cannot use points from a Device to buy another Device. The cost of a Device depends on how easily you can lose it. For 4 points per rank (an effective –1 flaw), the Device is hard to lose. It can only be taken away from you while you are helpless (see Helpless, M&M, page 171). Examples include a suit of armor or a magic ring. For 3 points per rank (an effective –2 flaw), the Device is easy to lose. It can be taken away from you with a successful Disarm action (see Disarm, M&M, page 156). Examples include a hand-held weapon or hat that can be snatched from you. An item that cannot be taken away from you at all isn’t a Device, just a descriptor for another effect. For example, a bionic arm may grant you Enhanced Strength, and have a technological descriptor, but since it can’t be taken away (short of surgery or severing it from your body) it doesn’t count as a Device. With the GM’s permission, you can split power points from this effect into several Devices, so long as they can all be taken away from you in the same manner. It’s harder to take away all of your Devices at once, but easier to remove their benefits one-by-one.

DAMAGING DEVICES

Devices are subject to damage like objects (see Damaging Objects, M&M, page 166). Treat the Device’s Toughness as (10 + Device rank). A disabled Device no longer functions, while a “dying” Device is destroyed and must be replaced or rebuilt. Repairing a Device is normally a Craft skill check, with the DC and time required depending on the damage: simple (DC 15 and 1 hour) for repairing an “injured” Device, and complex (DC 25 and 24 hours) for repairing a disabled one. Destroyed Devices must be completely rebuilt.

DEVICES AND EXTRA EFFORT

When you acquire a Device choose whether the strain of using extra effort applies to you or the Device itself (see Extra Effort, M&M, page 120). If it applies to you, follow the normal extra effort rules. If it applies to the Device, then using extra effort to enhance the Device’s traits places stress on its construction or systems. A “fatigued” Device loses 2 power points from each of its effects. An “exhausted” Device loses 6 power points from each of its effects, and a Device

pushed beyond exhausted is disabled and stops working. The modifiers last until the Device is repaired (a simple or moderate repair task, respectively, see the Craft skill, M&M, page 45).

POWER FEATS

Note that a Device’s effects may have power feats of their own. These are associated with the particular effect and come out of the Device’s pool of power points. The following feats apply to the Device structure itself. Their cost is therefore in addition to the structure’s cost per rank.

• Accurate: A Device with this power feat applies its attack bonus to all of the Device’s effects requiring attack rolls.

• Indestructible: Your Device is not subject to damage (see Damaging Devices, previously) although it is still subject to the effects of extra effort, if they apply to the Device rather than to you. The GM may disallow the application of extra effort to Indestructible Devices, if it better suits the setting.

• Innate: The Device structure is Innate by default and cannot be altered by trait effects like Boost, Drain, or Nullify, although they may affect a Device’s traits, depending on descriptors. The Innate quality of a Device cannot be removed.

• Restricted: Only certain people can use your Device. It might only work for members of a particular bloodline, people with extraordinary (20+) Strength or Wisdom, only women, and so forth. For everyone else, the Device has no powers at all. If you apply this feat twice, only you—and no one else—can use your

Device. It can be taken away, but not used against you. With three ranks of Restricted, only a limited group can even lift your Device (which may require extraordinary strength or some other quality) and only you can properly use it.

EXTRAS

• Affects Others: A Device has a certain degree of this modifier already, since an unrestricted Device (see the Restricted power feat, previously) is usable by anyone. Since you lose the use of the Device, this is essentially a +0 modifier. A Device’s various effects might also have Affects Others, particularly if they are

intended to extend their benefits beyond just the Device’s user, such as Affects Others Immunity for an “atmospheric envelope” generated by a Device.

FLAWS

• Duration: A Device’s duration cannot be changed. Devices technically don’t have a “duration” at all, since they’re independent items, albeit ones considered

part of a character’s traits. At the GM’s discretion, a Device that stops working when the user is unable to take free actions (like a sustained power) may have a

–1 flaw, but consider this option carefully, as such a “Device” may just be a descriptor for a sustained power rather than an actual Device structure.

DRAWBACKS

• Normal Identity: The need to activate or don a Device (such as a magical amulet or suit of power armor) may constitute a Normal Identity drawback. So, if a character gains all of his powers from a battlesuit Device, for example, and it takes a full-round action to put on the suit and power up its systems, then that’s good for a 4-point Normal Identity drawback for those occasions when the character needs to change into his armor in a hurry.

• Power Loss: The loss of a Device and its effects is already included in the Device’s cost, so the Power Loss drawback is not applicable in that case