Effect: Variable
Action: Free (active)
Range: Personal
Duration: Continuous
Saving Throw: None
Cost: 9 points per rank
You can learn and memorize the physical skills of others just by seeing them performed; this includes attack and defense bonuses with the “combat skill” descriptor (that is, attack and defense bonuses which are a function of skill or physical ability). You have 5 power points per rank in Reflex Memory to allocate to memorizing physical skills you have accurately perceived. It takes only a free action to memorize a physical skill, assuming you have sufficient free power points to do so, and you can retain a memorized skill indefinitely. If you don’t have sufficient power points to memorize a new skill, you can choose to “forget”
a previously memorized skill to free up points. The forgotten skill can only be regained by observing the subject anew to reallocate character points to it. Example: Duplicat has Reflex Memory 10, providing her with 50 power points to allocate to memorizing physical skills she has observed. She watches an Olympic level gymnast with Acrobatics 12 perform and allocates 3 of her Reflex Memory power points to acquire 12 ranks of Acrobatics, giving her near mastery of Acrobatics instantly, with no practice! She can likewise acquire a higher attack bonus by watching a master of martial arts in action, or a higher Climb skill by observing a skilled rock-climber. She retains all these traits for as long as she wishes, but only to a maximum of 50 power points worth.
If she wants to memorize additional skills, she’ll have to forget some of her previously retained ones to do so. While you generally need to observe a subject in person to memorize their skills, at the GM’s discretion a comprehensive video recording may be sufficient; for example, watching hours of video footage of
the Olympic Games could grant you considerable physical skills in a variety of areas (Acrobatics, Climb, Swim, and so forth). Likewise, news or documentary video of various superhumans in action may be sufficient to allow you to memorize their skills. The GM may wish to treat this as a power feat in some settings (or, conversely, make it a drawback for those unable to do it, if it’s normally something anyone with Reflex Memory can do). A character with an unlimited ability to memorize the skills of any number of subjects and retain them all indefinitely has Reflex Memory as an X-Trait (see X-Traits, M&M, page 211), a capability best reserved for non-player characters under the Gamemaster’s control.
EXTRAS
• Feats: In addition to memorizing a subject’s physical skills, you can also memorize his physical combat, general, and skill feats. The GM decides if a particular feat is sufficiently skill based for you to acquire it, and you allocate points from your Reflex Memory pool to these feats just like you do skills.