Effect: Array (Damage)
Action: Standard (active)
Range: Ranged
Duration: Instant
Saving Throw: Toughness
Cost: 2 points per rank
You can generate and project blasts of radiation as a Ranged Damage effect. Note this is “comic book” radiation, visible as glowing energy with effects similar to intense heat. More realistic radiation is Subtle (invisible to all but specialized radiation detection) and has effects more like a Drain Constitution Disease (see
Alternate Powers in the following section).
COUNTERING
Radiation Control can counter other radiation effects, including its own, and the heat it generates can counter cold effects. High levels of radiation may be able to counter other effects at the Gamemaster’s discretion; disrupting radio waves and similar forms of communication is one possibility.
ALTERNATE POWERS
The following are some suitable Alternate Powers for a Radiation Control Array:
• Dazzle: Radiation can cause temporary or even more severe blindness, as visual Dazzle effect. The basic effect is a visual Dazzle with a rank equal to your Radiation Control. For more serious radiation damage to the eyes, the GM may allow a Dazzle effect with a sustained or even continuous duration, requiring
medical treatment (or a power like Healing or Regeneration with the Regrowth power feat to) to recover.
• Drain Constitution: More realistic radiation inflicts cellular and genetic damage, best duplicated with a Drain Constitution effect. This may be a Ranged Drain Constitution at your Radiation Control rank or a more progressive Ranged Drain Constitution Disease at half your rank, doing progressive damage to the target’s health over time.
• Environmental Control: You can temporarily irradiate an area, creating a moderate level of radiation there (see Radiation Sickness, Mastermind’s Manual, page 125 and the previous chapter for details on radiation levels). This is an Environmental Control effect at your power rank.
• Nauseate: A pulse of radiation causes temporary illness and disorientation, a Ranged Nauseate effect at two-thirds your Radiation Control power rank.
• Nullify: At the Gamemaster’s discretion, Radiation Control may be able to Nullify certain powers with a genetic power source through temporary (or even permanent) genetic damage. Examples include mutant powers (either natural or induced) or genetically engineered powers of one sort or another. This is typically a Nullify effect at your power rank, although longer lasting versions are possible.
• Obscure Radio: A low-level radiation field may disrupt radio communication and sensing into and through an area, creating an Obscure Radio effect, possibly Linked with a low-level of radiation via an Environmental Control effect.
• Transform: Your Radiation Control can induce temporary mutations in others, a 4-point Transform effect, for a rank half that of your Radiation Control power.
Such transformations may be continuous in nature, but might also be Uncontrolled, in that you don’t decide how the subject transforms (a great opportunity for the Gamemaster to introduce the occasional complication).
POWER FEATS
• Affects Insubstantial: This power feat suits Radiation Control, allowing certain wavelengths of radiation to affect insubstantial—particularly energy- or incorporeal-form—targets. It’s also an effective power stunt for radiation controllers.
• Incurable: This is a suitable power feat for some forms of radiation damage, making ordinary Healing and Regeneration ineffective against it.
• Subtle: Most radiation effects are not Subtle by default; comic book radiation is usually visible as glowing light. A rank of this power feat can make a radiation effect noticeable only by specialized senses able to pick up radiation, like Geiger counters and such.
EXTRAS
• Disease: This modifier suits “radiation sickness” effects, whether Damage- or Drain-based. They’re not particularly effec-tive in combat, but can inflict serious (even deadly) harm over the long term.
• Linked: Radiation Control might have certain Linked effects in its Array, such as a Damage effect with a Linked Disease Drain for a blast of radiation that does initial damage and also inflicts lingering radiation sickness, for example, or a Ranged Damage radiation effect with a Linked Visual Dazzle effect for a radiation blast that causes temporary blindness (or longer, if the Dazzle effect’s duration is increased).
• Penetrating: Certain types of radiation Damage might have this modifier, allowing them to penetrate otherwise Impervious Toughness.
• Selective Attack: Given the hazards of certain area effect radiation powers, this is an especially useful extra, allowing you to shield your allies from the dangerous effects.
FLAWS
• Side Effect: Radiation may cause various Side Effects; the most common in the comics are progressive Drains or direct Damage. Note for a slight, gradual side effect use a drawback rather than this flaw, which is intended for major, immediate side effects.
DRAWBACKS
• Full Power: Some or all Radiation Control effects may have this drawback, representing an inability to limit them to a lesser effect on a target. If all the effects in your Radiation Control Array have this drawback, apply it to the cost of the Radiation Control power, if only particular effects are limited to Full Power, apply the drawback to only those effects, “freeing up” points from the Array, but not affecting the Array’s overall cost.
• Toxic: A radiation controller who constantly emits low levels of radiation, exposing those in close proximity to mild radiation, has an common and major drawback (4 points), very common for low radiation exposure (5 points). Those spending a day or more with the character must make Fortitude saves (DC 12 or
15, respectively) to avoid suffering radiation sickness (1 day/12 hours, 1 Con damage per failed save). Those with Immunity to Radiation are unaffected.
• Weakness: A radiation controller might be dependent on doses of radiation or consuming radioactive materials and suffers from a weakness when unable to do so.
ASSOCIATED EFFECTS
• Flight: Your exotic radiation field can negate the effects of gravity on you, allowing you to fly.
• Force Field: You can surround yourself with a protective energy field.
• Immunity to Radiation: Immunity to radioactive environments (1 rank) is common for radiation controllers, as is immunity to their own powers (1 rank). Other levels include Immunity to Radiation Damage (5 ranks) and Immunity to Radiation Effects (10 ranks).
• Radiation Absorption: You have the ability to absorb radiation and channel the energy to enhance your other traits (see Absorption and apply Limited to Radiation, a –2 modifier).
• Radiation Aura: You can surround your body in an aura of damaging radiation (see the Energy Aura power for details). Your Radiation Aura might be Linked to a Force Field power.
• Super-Senses: Super-Senses effects associated with Radiation Control include infravision and ultravision (1 rank each, from the ability to see other radiation wavelengths), detect radiation, and X-ray vision (possibly from the actual ability to emit and perceive X-rays).