You reduce the damage from a fall by 5 points.
One creature you touch can have sexual encounters with no chance of causing pregnancy or transmitting an STI. This protection lasts for ten hours.
You are trained in tasks related to sailing and trained in the geography of islands and coastlines.
You're familiar with open space. If you spend an hour using your spacecraft's sensors and make a difficulty 3 Intellect roll, you can find salvage in the form of abandoned spacecraft, drifting motes of matter that were once inhabited, or a place to hide from pursuit in what most people would otherwise assume to be empty space (such as in a nebula, an asteroid field, or the shadow of a moon). Salvage you turn up includes enough food and water for you and several others, as well as the possibility of weapons, clothing, technological artifacts, survivors, or other usable items. In other contexts, this ability counts as training in tasks related to perception.
Action to initiate, one hour to complete.
For one hour, your skin grows subtle, supple scales in vulnerable places, granting you +1 to Armor if you do not wear physical armor.
Action to initiate.
You scan an area equal in size to a 10-foot (3 m) cube, including all objects or creatures within that area. The area must be within short range. Scanning a creature or object always reveals its level. You also learn whatever facts the GM feels are pertinent about the matter and energy in that area. For example, you might learn that the wooden box contains a device of metal and plastic. You might learn that the glass cylinder is full of poisonous gas, and that its metal stand has an electrical field running through it that connects to a metal mesh in the floor. You might learn that the creature standing before you is a mammal with a small brain. However, this ability doesn't tell you what the information means. Thus, in the first example, you don't know what the metal and plastic device does. In the second, you don't know if stepping on the floor causes the cylinder to release the gas. In the third, you might suspect that the creature is not very intelligent, but scans, like looks, can be deceiving. Many materials and energy fields prevent or resist scanning.
You render one machine within short range unable to function for one round. Alternatively, you can hinder any action by the machine (or by someone attempting to use the machine) for one minute. Improved robot assistant level 4; health 12; inflicts 4 points of damage
You can choose to phase in a way that “scratches” normal matter in a long streak as you run using Phase Sprint. This tears a bit at you, too, reflected by the Might cost. When you use Phase Sprint, you inflict 2 points of damage (ignores Armor) to one target you select as you pass within immediate range, without triggering Disrupting Touch. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the number of targets along your path that you can attack as part of the sameAction. Make a separate attack roll for each foe. You remain limited by the amount of Effort you can apply on oneAction. Anything that modifies your attack or damage applies to all of these attacks.
Alternatively, if you apply Effort to increase the damage rather than ease the task, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); the target takes 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll.
You cause a willing creature's fingers to lengthen into claws and their teeth to grow into fangs. The effect lasts for ten minutes. The damage dealt by the target's unarmed strikes increases to 4 points.
You create an object of solid light in any shape you can imagine that is your size or smaller, and it persists for about an hour. The object appears in an area adjacent to you. It is crude and can have no moving parts, so you can make a sword, a shield, a short ladder, and so on. The object has the approximate mass of the real object and is level 4.
You have gotten used to rough seas and unexpected surges. You are trained in balance. Any movement task that would be hindered by a pitching deck, moving through rigging, and so on is a routine task for you.
Old Gus' Daft DraftsAt the end of each one-hour and ten-hour recovery roll, you can transfer the effects of a subtle cypher in your possession into a snack you have prepared. For the next 24 hours or until it is activated, the food item continues to count against your cypher limit. Another creature can use an action to eat the snack, activating the cypher and gaining its effects. Action.
You touch an object, read the subtle echoes of its existence through time, ask the GM a question about the object's past, and get a general answer. The answers are often in the form of brief images or sensations rather than specific answers in a language you know. The GM assigns a level to the question, so the more obscure the answer, the more difficult the task. Generally, knowledge that you could find by looking somewhere other than your current location is level 1, and obscure knowledge of the past is level 7. After you use this ability, you have an asset on identifying the object.
Based on all the variables you perceive, you can predict the next few minutes. This has the following effects
You can automatically perceive creatures and objects that are normally invisible, out of phase, or only partially in this universe. When looking for things more conventionally hidden, the task is eased.
You can see through matter as if it were transparent. You can see through up to 6 inches (15 cm) of material for one round. Doing so is a task whose difficulty is equal to the material or object's level. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to see through another 6 inches of material for each additional level of Effort you apply toward that goal.
Time is an illusion, as all time is one time. With great concentration, you can see into another time. You specify a time period regarding the place where you now stand. Interestingly, the easiest time to view is about one hundred years in the past or future. Viewing farther back or ahead is a nearly impossible task.
This takes anywhere from one action to hours of concentration, depending on what the GM feels is appropriate due to time, distance, or other mitigating circumstances. However, you don't know in advance how long it will take.
Action to initiate; action each round to concentrate.
You throw a handful of seeds in the air that ignite and speed toward a target within long range, scratching the air with twisting smoke trails. The attack deals 3 points of damage and catches the target on fire, which inflicts 1 additional point of damage per round for up to a minute or until the target uses an action to douse the flames.
Tasks for tracking, looking for, or hiding from other creatures are eased.
Within one minute of successfully using your Draw Conclusion ability, you can take one additional, immediate action, which you can take out of turn. After using this ability, you can't use it again until after your next ten-hour recovery roll.
If you succeed on a Speed defense roll to resist an attack, you gain an action. You can use the action immediately even if you have already taken a turn in the round. You don't take an action during the next round, unless you apply a level of Effort when you use Seize the Moment.
You are never surprised by an attack.
You are trained in sensing lies and whether a person is likely to (or already does) believe your lies.
You can see in dim light and darkness as if it were bright light, and you can see up to a short distance through fog, smoke, and other obscuring phenomena. In addition, if you apply a level of Effort to perception or searching tasks, you get a free level of Effort on that task.
You create an immobile, invisible sensor within immediate range that lasts for 24 hours. At any time during that duration, you can concentrate to see, hear, and smell through the sensor, no matter how far you move from it. The sensor doesn't grant you sensory capabilities beyond the norm. If you also have this ability from another source, it lasts twice as long.
Action to create; action to check.
You are trained in using starcraft sensory instruments. These instruments allow users to answer general questions about a location, such as “How many people are in the mining colony?” or “Where did the other spacecraft crash?”
You establish a connection with a camera-enabled device within short range, such as a security camera, smart TV or game console camera, optical cyberware of a creature (living or dead), or a mobile phone. At any time during the next 24 hours, you can see through this camera, no matter how far you move from it. (If the device also has a microphone, you can hear through that when you look through it.)
Action to create; action to check.
You scan an area equal in size to a 10-foot (3 m) cube, including all objects or creatures within that area; the results of your scan are compared to a database of information (facial recognition, object recognition, police database, and so on) to determine what it is you're looking at. The area must be within short range. Scanning a creature or object always reveals its level. You also learn whatever facts the GM feels are pertinent about the objects and creatures in that area. For example, you might learn that a device is made of metal, plastic, and electronics. You might learn a person's name, occupation, whether or not they have any standard cybernetics, and that they have several outstanding parking tickets. You might learn that the creature in front of you is an exotic mammal (such as a tapir), and that owning it requires an expensive permit. However, this ability doesn't tell you what the information means. Thus, in the first example, you don't know what the metal and plastic device does—it might be a radio or a land mine. In the second, you don't know the person is intent on harming you. In the third, you don't know if the creature is dangerous. The information you do get from the initial scan probably gives you enough of a lead to perform an internet search to find more information. Many materials (such as lead shielding, a Faraday cage, or concrete) prevent or hinder scanning.
You build a tiny robot assistant. It is level 1 and cannot take independent actions or leave your immediate area. In truth, it's more an extension of you than a separate being. It gains a modification in using machines and other technological devices.
To use Serv-0 Defender, Serv-0 Repair, Serv-0 Scanner, and similar abilities, you must have a Serv-0 assistant.
Your Serv-0 aids you in ranged combat. It gains a modification in ranged attacks.
Your Serv-0 aids you in melee combat. It gains a modification in melee attacks.
Your Serv-0 aids you in combat by blocking attacks. It gains a modification in Speed defense.
Your Serv-0 aids you in repairing other devices. It gains a modification in repair.
Your Serv-0 gains the Scan ability.
You can send your Serv-0 up to a long distance away for up to ten minutes and see and hear through it as though its senses were your own. You direct its movement.
Action to initiate.
Path of the PlanebreakerYou call upon your stitched shadow for one or two effects.
Action to initiate.
Path of the PlanebreakerWhen you wish it, your shadow manifests three midnight.black claws that last for up to ten minutes. As an action, you can use the claws to attack, making a separate attack roll for each. Each claw inflicts 4 points of damage. Otherwise, the attacks function as standard attacks. If you don't use the claws to attack, they remain but do nothing.
Path of the PlanebreakerYou merge with your shadow for one minute, which makes you partially out of phase. You gain an asset to sneaking tasks and Speed defense tasks, and can fly an immediate distance each round. While partially out of phase, you can move through solid barriers (but not energy barriers) at a rate of 1 foot (30 cm) per round, and you can perceive while phased within a barrier or object, which allows you to peek through walls. You can apply Effort to increase your flight speed (an additional short distance per round per level of Effort), increase the duration of this ability (an additional minute per level of Effort), or both.
Action to initiate.
Path of the PlanebreakerYour shadow helps you attack a foe within long range, flitting to your target and grasping at their limbs, which eases your attack by two steps. The ability works for whatever kind of attack you use (melee, ranged, spell, and so on).
Path of the PlanebreakerYou and your stitched shadow increasingly comingle in mind and soul, so much so that you can switch places with them. You send your shadow racing to an unoccupied space you can see within a long distance. There must be no intervening barriers between you and that space. The shadow takes only a moment to get there, and when they arrive, you immediately teleport to them.
If you succeed at a stealth task, you and your shadow arrive at the destination unnoticed, as if you had moved there stealthily (even if it would be impossible for you to move there unnoticed on your own).
If you make a melee attack on your turn when you arrive, the attack is eased.
If you apply one or more levels of Effort to this ability, each level of Effort adds a short distance to how far you and your shadow can travel.
Path of the PlanebreakerYour shadow's ability to help you improves. When using Shadow Action to get a helping hand from your stitched shadow, they can assist you with an attack roll or Speed defense task.
If your training in a defense task is greater than that of an ally within short range, your advice and insight allow them to substitute your training for that defense task.
You share a memory of your choice with a willing creature you touch. The length of the shared memory can be no longer than about five minutes, but you can summarize longer memories (such as how you met, courted, and married your partner) with a “montage” that covers the most important details and underlying sentiment. The target experiences the memory as an instantaneous vision, and is aware that it is your memory rather than their own memory or experience. The memory is as vivid and accurate as you personally remember it.
When you use Drain Creature or Drain Machine to drain energy, you can transfer it to another creature, restoring points to their Might or Speed Pools (or health for an NPC) instead of yourself. You can spend points from your Siphon Pool (from the Store Energy ability) in the same way. You must touch the creature you want to heal, unless you have the Drain at a Distance ability, in which case they can be up to a short distance away.
While your duplicate created by the Duplicate ability is in existence and within 1 mile (1.5 km), you know everything it experiences and can communicate with it telepathically.
You are trained in all tasks involving perception.
Because you must always keep an eye out when you're traveling, you are trained in all tasks related to perception and navigation.
You interrupt the fundamental force holding normal matter together for a moment, causing the detonation of an object you choose within long range. The object must be a small, mundane item composed of homogeneous matter (such as a clay cup, an iron ingot, a stone, and so on). The object explodes in an immediate radius, dealing 1 point of damage to all creatures and objects in the area. If you apply Effort to increase the damage, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); targets in the area take 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll.
Your words reverberate destructively in the brain of an intelligent level 1 target within short range that can hear and understand you. They destroy tissue, memories, and personality, triggering a vegetative state. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the target. Thus, to shatter the mind of a level 5 target (four levels above the normal limit), you must apply four levels of Effort.
The vegetative state created by Shatter Mind can be healed by advanced magic or science, or by a condition remover cypher that cures psychosis.
Your focused shout sets up a destructive resonance in a creature or object within long range. Nothing happens on the round you strike your target other than an ominous humming or buzzing sound emitted by the target. But on your next turn, the resonance shatters discrete inanimate objects, inflicts major damage to structures, or inflicts 4 points of damage on a creature (ignores Armor).
If you shatter a discrete object, it shatters explosively, inflicting 1 point of damage on all creatures and objects within immediate range of it. If you apply Effort to increase the damage rather than ease the task, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); targets in the area take 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll.
Action to initiate.
You shed your normal likeness, revealing a terrifying 30-foot (9 m) long rattlesnake. For one minute, your abilities change as follows: You add 8 points to your Speed Pool, 1 point to your Speed Edge, 2 points to your Intellect Pool, and 1 point to your Intellect Edge; and you gain the "air gliding" ability (you can fly a long distance each round).
After reverting to your normal form, you lose the benefit of air gliding, your Edge values return to normal, and you must subtract the same number of points you gained in your Pools (if this brings a Pool to 0, subtract the overflow first from your Might Pool, then your Speed Pool, and then, if necessary, from your Intellect Pool).
While the ability was active, if you did not deal damage with Venomous Strike, your rolls are hindered by two steps until after your next ten-hour recovery roll. Each additional time you use Shed Skin before your next ten hour recovery roll, you must apply an additional level of Effort.
Action to initiate.
You inflict 3 additional points of damage when engaging in combat that directly relates to advancing the needs of a community you are associated with. (You and the GM can decide whether a particular situation warrants the additional damage.)
When you make a melee or ranged attack and hit with your Force Field Shield, it releases an explosion of energy, inflicting an additional 2 points of damage on the target and everything within immediate range of the target. If you applied Effort to inflict additional damage as part of the attack, each level of Effort inflicts only 2 additional points to all targets instead of 3 points. If you use Shield Burst with a melee attack, you and creatures behind you are not affected by this explosion. If you use Shield Burst with a ranged attack, the shield dissipates after the attack and then reforms in your grasp.
When you use a shield, in addition to the asset it gives you (easing Speed defense tasks), you can act as if you are trained in Speed defense tasks. However, in any round in which you use this benefit, your attacks are hindered.
If you use a shield, Speed defense tasks are eased by two steps instead of one.
For ten minutes, all tasks you attempt while on a spaceship are eased.
Action to initiate.
You can make basic maneuvers from a planetary distance with a starship that you have bonded with using Machine Bond. You can send it to a designated place, call it to you, have it land, allow or deny entrance, and so on, even if you are not on board. Bonding is a process that requires a day of meditation while jacked into the ship.
Neon RainA foe within short range temporarily experiences SHITS and spends its next turn attacking the nearest creature (if multiple creatures are the same distance away, you can choose which one they attack). As long as you continue to use your action each turn to maintain this berserk state in the target, they continue to attack the nearest creature (switching to a new creature if their current target drops). This effect ends when you stop using your action to control the foe, or if they are out of short range.
Action to initiate.
Your hands crackle with electricity, and the next time you touch a creature, you inflict 3 points of damage. Alternatively, if you wield a weapon, for ten minutes it crackles with electricity and inflicts 1 additional point of damage per attack.
Action for touch; Enabler for weapon.
Your machine parts grant you +1 to Armor and +2 to your Speed Pool.
Shooter Chrome is a variant of Enhanced Body for a setting where cybernetics are common and have limited self-healing capabilities; it doesn't grant as many Pool points as Enhanced Body, but doesn't have the limited healing drawbacks.
You stand still and make ranged attacks against up to five foes within range, all as part of the same action in one round. Make a separate attack roll for each foe. You remain limited by the amount of Effort you can apply on one action. Anything that modifies your attack or damage applies to all of these attacks.
You instantly teleport to any location within a short distance that you can see. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase your range, teleport to a location you can’t see, or bring other people with you. Each additional short distance costs one level of Effort. Teleporting to a destination you can’t see costs one level of Effort. Each additional target brought with you costs one level of Effort (you must touch any additional targets). These levels of Effort are counted separately, so teleporting an additional short distance away to a location you can’t see with one passenger costs a total of three levels of Effort.
Your presence overwhelms a creature that you touch and ask to aid you. Essentially, if the creature fails to defend against your presence, you control its actions for up to ten minutes. The target must be level 3 or lower. Once you have established control, you maintain control through verbal instruction. You can allow the target to act freely or override control on a case-by case basis. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the target. Thus, to affect a level 5 target (two levels above the normal limit), you must apply two levels of Effort. When the effect ends, the creature vaguely remembers doing your will, but it's as blurry as a dream.
Action to initiate.
When you use Disrupting Touch, Scratch Existence, or Phase Detonation, you inflict an additional 5 points of damage that ignores Armor.
You (and your clothing or suit) become much smaller than your normal size. You become 6 inches (15 cm) tall and stay that way for about a minute. During this time, you add 4 points to your Speed Pool and add +2 to your Speed Edge. While you are smaller than normal, your Speed defense rolls are eased, your movement speed is one-tenth normal, and your attacks inflict half the normal amount of damage (divide the total damage in half after all bonuses, Effort, and other damage modifiers). You can return to your normal size as part of another action. When the effects of Shrink end, your Speed Edge, movement speed, and damage return to normal, and you subtract a number of points from your Speed Pool equal to the number you gained (if this brings the Pool to 0, subtract the overflow first from your Might Pool and then, if necessary, from your Intellect Pool). Each additional time you use Shrink before your next ten-hour recovery roll, you must apply an additional level of Effort (one level of Effort for the second use, two levels of Effort for the third use, and so on).
Action to initiate.
You can use Shrink on other willing creatures within an immediate distance. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to affect more targets; each level of Effort affects one additional target. Unless these creatures have an ability to change their size, they remain small until the one-minute duration of Shrink ends for them.
At your command, your entire body becomes shrouded in flames that last up to ten minutes. The fire doesn't burn you, but it automatically inflicts 2 points of damage to anyone who tries to touch you or strike you with a melee attack. Flames from another source can still hurt you. While the shroud is active, you gain +2 Armor against damage from fire from another source.
For ten minutes, the Cardsharp gains +1 to Speed Edge and eases Speed defense rolls by two steps. Tasks to distract onlookers by the Cardsharp's ability to shuffle and manipulate cards are also eased by two steps. Draw card, throw dice, or flip coin (each a separate action) to activate.
The Shyster's face seems to peel away and reforms in some other guise, allowing them to hide their identity or attempt to impersonate someone else, granting two assets to any tasks involving disguise for one hour. Wink, raise an eyebrow, or quirk mouth (part of same action) to activate.
By taking advantage of microgravity conditions, you gain an asset to stealth and initiative tasks while in zero-gravity or low-gravity conditions.
Choose one type of attack in which you are not already trained: light bashing, light bladed, light ranged, medium bashing, medium bladed, medium ranged, heavy bashing, heavy bladed, or heavy ranged. You are trained in attacks using that type of weapon. You can select this ability multiple times. Each time you select it, you must choose a different type of attack.
Choose one type of defense task in which you are not already trained: Might, Speed, or Intellect. You are trained in defense tasks of that type.
When you successfully strike a foe of level 5 or lower, make another roll (using whichever stat you used to attack). If you succeed on the second roll, you kill the target outright. If you use this ability against a PC of any tier and you succeed on the second roll, the character moves down one step on the damage track.
Finding the clues is the first step in solving a mystery. You are trained in perception.
Old Gus' Daft DraftsYou make a hindered melee attack against a target with the intent to impair one of its senses. If the attack is successful, it inflicts 1 less points of damage than normal. Choose which type of task to hinder: vision, hearing, smell, taste, or touch (movement). The effect lasts for 10 minutes. Immediately after you use this ability, you can move up to a short distance, but there is a 50% chance the target makes a melee attack against you if you do.
This is a quick attack with a bladed or pointed weapon that is hard to defend against. You are trained in this task. If the attack is successful, it deals 1 less point of damage than normal.
You attempt to slip away from a selected target and hide from view in a nearby shadow, behind a tree or a furnishing, or in the next room, even if in full view of the target. For each level of Effort applied, you can attempt to affect one additional target, as long as all your targets are next to each other.
Action to initiate.
You are trained in escaping any kind of bond or grasp.
When you apply Effort to tasks involving escaping from bonds, fitting in tight spaces, and other contortionist tasks, you get a free level of Effort on the task. Thanks to your experience, you are also trained in Speed defense tasks while wearing light armor or no armor.
For the next hour, when using Shrink, you can fly through the air. You might accomplish this flight by growing wings from your body, extending wings from your suit, calling a tiny creature to carry you, or “surfing” air currents. When flying, you can move up to a short distance as part of another action or a long distance if all you do on your turn is move.
Action to initiate
When you use Shrink, you can choose to shrink down to about half an inch (1 cm) high, and you add 3 more temporary points to your Speed Pool.
You can make two gun attacks as a single action, but the second attack is hindered by two steps.
You gain smart link cybernetics in both of your hands.
Your gun blazes with flame for ten minutes, glowing red and discharging a tendril of smoke from the barrel. The flames don't burn you, but you inflict 1 additional point of damage with the gun while it burns. While the gun burns, it automatically flares when anyone tries to touch you or strike you with a melee attack, dealing 2 points of damage to them. Flames from another source can still hurt you. While your gun smolders, you gain +1 Armor against damage from fire from another source.
Alternate Energy. If you'd prefer another element or energy source, such as ice or necrotic energy, work with your GM to adjust this and related abilities.
You calm an ophidian creature within short range. You must speak to it (though it doesn't need to understand your words), and it must see you. It remains calm for one minute or for as long as you focus all your attention on it. The GM has final say over what counts as a snakelike creature, but unless some kind of deception is at work, you should know whether you can affect it before you attempt to use this ability on it. If you spend 1 additional Intellect point when you use this ability, you can calm all nonhuman beasts, as the GM determines (aliens, demons, animals that can speak, and forgeborn never count).
You are trained in stealth and initiative tasks.
If you spend one action aiming, in the next round you can make a precise ranged attack. You have an asset on this attack. If your attack is successful, it inflicts 4 additional points of damage.
By dint of almost constant practice playing games that simulate making ranged attacks, your hand-eye coordination is off the chart. You have an asset on all ranged attacks.
When you use a vehicle as a weapon, you inflict 5 additional points of damage.
The body and the mind are connected. All healing tasks you attempt are eased by two steps.
You calm a nonhuman beast within 30 feet (9 m). You must speak to it (although it doesn't need to understand your words), and it must see you. It remains calm for one minute or for as long as you focus all your attention on it. The GM has final say over what counts as a nonhuman beast, but unless some kind of deception is at work, you should know whether you can affect a creature before you attempt to use this ability on it. Aliens, extradimensional entities, very intelligent creatures, and robots never count.
It's Only MagicYou have a soul familiar who accompanies you and follows your instructions. Your soul and their soul are interconnected (or the familiar might actually be a physical manifestation of your soul). The familiar loves and cares for you like the best combination of a pet and a close friend.
The familiar is no larger than a large cat (about 20 pounds, or 9 kg); a typical soul familiar looks like a bird, cat, rat, lizard, snake, or toad, but more unusual forms (such as a tiny demon, dragon, elemental, fey creature, or floating skull) are also possible. You and the GM must work out the details of your familiar, and you’ll probably make rolls for them in combat or when they take actions. The familiar acts on your turn. Their movement is based on their creature type (avian, swimmer, and so on).
You and your familiar can communicate telepathically within long range, or empathically within very long range. Beyond this range, you can only sense each other’s general level of well-being.
Your familiar’s presence within short range counts as an asset for magical tasks that require at least one minute to activate or maintain.
If your familiar is within an immediate distance of you, you can roll any defense task for them, gaining the benefit of your skills, assets, and Effort (the familiar’s Speed defense tasks are eased by two steps due to their size). While within this distance, your familiar also gains the benefit of any ongoing spell you cast on yourself (for example, if you cast a spell on yourself that lets you breathe water, your familiar can breathe water).
Foes can use your soul familiar’s connection to you against you. If a foe is holding or restraining your familiar (or touching it while it is held or restrained by another creature or a device, such as manacles or a cage), the foe’s attacks and defenses against you are eased.
If an attack against your familiar would reduce their health to 0, you can magically intervene so their health is instead reduced to 1 and you move one step down the damage track. If your familiar dies, you move one step down the damage track. If you die, your familiar instantly dies.
You can replace a dead familiar (or revive them, if you have their remains) by performing a magical ritual that takes 1d6 days.
A soul familiar with an animal form looks like a normal animal—there’s nothing obvious about them to indicate they’re anything other than what they appear to be.
Soul familiar: level 2, Speed defense as level 4 due to size
You determine the weaknesses, vulnerabilities, qualities, and mannerisms of a single creature within long range. The GM should reveal the creature's level, basic abilities, and obvious weaknesses (if any). All actions you attempt that affect that creature—attack, defense, interaction, and so on—are eased for a few months afterward.
Attacks that hit you—especially energy attacks like focused light, heat, radiation, and transdimensional energy— are partially converted to surges of harmless noise similar to the sound of a wave crashing to shore. This ability grants you +1 Armor against all attacks and an additional +2 Armor against energy attacks.
Old Gus' Daft DraftsYou gain a level 2 follower. One of their modifications must be cooking.
When you use Sous Chef, the GM may require that you actually look for a suitable follower.
By taking advantage of microgravity conditions, you can use inertia and mass to your advantage. If you spend a round setting up a melee attack (or an attack from a thrown or launched object) while in zero-gravity or low-gravity conditions, the attack inflicts 6 additional points of damage.
You can ask a question of a dead being whose corpse you are touching. Because the answer comes through the filter of the being's understanding and personality, it can't answer questions that it wouldn't have understood in life, and it can't provide answers that it wouldn't have known in life. In fact, the being is not compelled to answer at all, so you might need to interact with it in a way that would have convinced it to answer while it was alive. For each additional Intellect point you spend when you activate the ability, you can ask the being an additional question.
When you hit a target with a gun attack, you can choose to reduce the damage by 1 point but hit the target in a precise spot. Some of the possible effects include (but are not limited to) the following:
You are specialized in using the stone fists from your Golem Body ability as a medium weapon.
You are specialized in attacks with all weapons that you throw.
It's Only MagicYou conjure a spectral servant, a semi-real magical construct that resembles the vague nonthreatening outline of a person. It is more of an extension of your will than a separate being, and it automatically assists you in simple tasks like bringing drinks to houseguests and dealing with chores. It cannot attack or defend, and it vanishes if you are ever more than a short distance from it. The servant lasts for one hour before disappearing.
You can take two separate actions in this round. In the following round, all actions are hindered. You cannot use this ability two rounds in a row.
Your words enhance the normal regenerative ability of a character within short range who is able to understand you. When they make a recovery roll, they must spend only half the normal amount of time required to do so (minimum one action).
In your hands, a typical handgun or rifle never needs to be loaded because you can automatically conjure a standard bullet for it as part of your attack action with that weapon.
Alternatively, instead of casting a spell in the normal manner, you can channel it through your handgun, firing it like a bullet. This is as loud as firing a normal bullet and uses the handgun's range (typically long) if that is longer than the spell's normal range. If the spell is an attack spell, instead of making an Intellect-based attack you make a Speed-based attack; assets and skill with guns apply to the attack, and you use your Speed Pool if you apply Effort to ease the attack. This means you use Intellect to cast the spell (and for applying Effort for additional effects or extra damage) and Speed for the attack roll (using Intellect Edge and Speed Edge for their respective Pools).
You can use Spell Bullet to cast a spell that affects multiple targets. This might look like you're firing multiple times or the one shot is passing through or ricocheting off each target.
You initiate a transaction with another person or business cashier within short range, giving them an amount of money that you specify. The currency comes from cash in your possession, money in your account, or a mix of both; the recipient receives this money in the same form as it came from you. For example, if you send someone $150, $50 of which is cash in your wallet and $100 of which comes from your bank account, they suddenly have $50 cash on hand and $100 in their bank account. Instead of a transaction between two people, you can instead use this ability to access your account, withdrawing or depositing cash as if using a teller machine.
Spellpay can access any monetary account you use, such as a checking or savings account through a bank or credit union, or a mobile payment service such as Apple Pay, PayPal, or Venmo.
It's Only MagicAny car you have driven for at least a minute responds to you like a well-trained robot, allowing you to mentally give it orders from a long distance away. This control includes any aspect of driving the car (such as steering, accelerating, and braking) and any moveable parts on the car (such as opening or closing the doors, hood, or trunk). The car takes actions on your turn, and you make rolls for it in combat or when it takes actions. You can only control one car at a time with this ability (although you could manually drive one car and magically control another car at the same time). If you are driving the car you're controlling with this ability, your driving tasks and extreme tricks with the car (such as jumping a ravine or other vehicle, spinning in the air, landing safely on another vehicle, and so on) are eased.
You stand still and make attacks against up to five foes, all as part of the same action in one round. All of the attacks have to be the same sort of attack (melee or ranged). Make a separate attack roll for each foe. You remain limited by the amount of Effort you can apply on oneAction. Anything that modifies your attack or damage applies to all of these attacks. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the number of foes you can attack with this ability (one additional foe per level of Effort used in this way).
You convince all intelligent creatures who can see, hear, and understand you that you are someone or something other than who you actually are. You don't impersonate a specific individual known to the victim. Instead, you convince the victim that you are someone they do not know belonging to a certain category of people. “We're from the government.” “I'm just a simple farmer from the next town over.” “Your commander sent me.” A disguise isn't necessary, but a good disguise will almost certainly be an asset to the roll involved. If you attempt to convince more than one creature, the Intellect cost increases by 1 point per additional victim. Fooled creatures remain so for up to an hour, unless your actions or other circumstances reveal your true identity earlier.
A level 3 spirit accompanies you and follows your instructions. The spirit must remain within immediate range—if it moves farther away, it fades at the end of your following turn and cannot return for a day. You and the GM must work out the details of your spirit accomplice, and you’ll probably make rolls for it when it takes actions. The spirit accomplice acts on your turn, can move a short distance each round, and exists partially out of phase (allowing it to move through walls, though it makes a poor porter). The spirit takes up residence in an object you designate, and it manifests as either an invisible presence or a ghostly shade. Your spirit accomplice is specialized in one knowledge skill the GM determines.
The spirit is normally insubstantial, but if you use an action and spend 3 Intellect points, it accretes enough substance to affect the world around it. As a level 3 creature with substance, it has a target number of 9 and a health of 9. It doesn’t attack creatures, but while substantial, it can use its action to serve as an asset for any one attack you make on your turn.
While corporeal, the spirit can’t move through objects or fly. A spirit remains corporeal for up to ten minutes at a time, but fades back to being insubstantial if not actively engaged. If your spirit accomplice is destroyed, it reforms in 1d6 days, or you can attract a new spirit in 2d6 days.
Old Gus' Daft DraftsYou can apply a free level of Effort to a task. You can't use this ability again until after you complete a one-hour or ten-hour recovery roll.
You throw a handful of mushrooms that speed toward a target within long range. The attack inflicts 3 points of damage and envelops the target in a haze of toxic spores, which inflicts 1 additional point of damage per round (ignores Armor) for the next minute or until the target uses an action to wash the spores away.
If a creature that you can see has a special weakness, such as a vulnerability to fire, a negative modification to perception, or so on, you know what it is. (Ask and the GM will tell you.)
If a weapon has the ability to fire rapid shots without reloading (usually called a rapid-fire weapon, such as a crank crossbow or submachine gun), you can spray multiple shots around your target to increase the chance of hitting. This ability uses 1d6+1 rounds of ammo (or all the ammo in the weapon, if it has less than the number rolled). You are trained in making this attack. If the attack is successful, it deals 1 less point of damage than normal. You can also use this ability on multiple thrown weapons (stones, shuriken, daggers, and so on) if you‘re carrying them on your person or they are all within reach. An insubstantial creature can't affect or be affected by anything unless indicated otherwise, such as when an attack is made with a special weapon. An insubstantial creature can pass through solid matter without hindrance, but solid energy barriers, such as magical fields of force, keep it at bay.
You hiss and release a spray of burning, flesh dissolving venom at one target within short range, inflicting 5 points of damage. Even on a miss, you inflict 1 point of damage.
If you apply a level of Effort when you make an attack with this ability (either to increase the odds of hitting or to increase damage), you can also choose to spin about as you spray venom, attacking every creature you choose within short range, and the improved chance to hit or deal damage applies to each attack. As with the base use, even on a miss, you inflict 1 point of damage. However, spinning as you spray venom is dizzying, leaving you dazed for a round afterward, during which time all your tasks are hindered.
Whenever you succeed on a Speed defense roll, you can immediately move up to a short distance. You cannot use this ability more than once in a given round.
It's Only MagicYou choose a short area, such as a typical room in a house, two rooms in a small apartment, or two automobiles. Over the next few minutes, the area is thoroughly cleaned—floors are swept, vacuumed, or mopped; surfaces like countertops and sinks are wiped down with a gentle soap and disinfectant; and so on. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can use Effort to increase the area or clean more quickly; each level of Effort affects an additional short area or reduces the cleaning time from minutes to rounds.
You can run a short distance and make a melee attack to grab a foe of your size or smaller. A successful attack means you grab the foe and bring it to a halt if it was moving (this can be treated as a tackle, if appropriate).
You select an ally within immediate range. If that character applies Effort to a task on their next turn, they can apply a free level of Effort on that task.
You gain an asset to all types of movement tasks (including climbing, swimming, jumping, and balancing).
While standing watch (mostly remaining in place for an extended period of time), you unfailingly remain awake and alert for up to eight hours. During this time, you are trained in perception tasks as well as stealth tasks to conceal yourself from those who might approach.
Action to initiate.
One doesn't play games of chicken with other maniac drivers without gaining mental strength. You're trained in Intellect defense tasks.
You track down where you or a fellow prepper stashed a vehicle, pristinely stored to remain in working order with minimal repairs required. The vehicle has a viable power source (such as hundreds of gallons of gasoline treated to resist decomposition, or a rechargeable battery with options for solar or wind recharging). The vehicle could be an all-terrain vehicle (ATV), a truck, or something else; work with your GM to figure out the particulars.
You surround a foe of your size or smaller with scintillating energy, keeping it from moving or acting for one minute, as if frozen solid. You must be able to see the target, and it must be within short range. While in stasis, the target is impervious to harm, cannot be moved, and is immune to all effects.
You transform into a lifelike bronze or stone statue of yourself for a specific period of time (one minute, one hour, ten hours, or twenty-four hours). When in statue form, you are in stasis; you don’t age, can take no actions (other than making recovery rolls while you “sleep”), and gain +10 to Armor against all forms of damage, including damage not normally affected by Armor.
If you take enough damage to get through your armor, the stasis effect immediately ends.
Statue Stasis is often used for pranks and creating temporary “art,” but some magicians use it to safely rest in public or dangerous areas.
When your companions are flagging, you can help inspire them with a well-timed word or two. Any ally (except you) within immediate range can make a recovery roll that is not an action and does not count toward their daily limit.
When you use Copy Power to copy an ability, the creature you copied it from loses access to that ability for about a minute. While you have their ability, any attempt by the creature to use their ability requires them to succeed at a task (Might, Speed, or Intellect, as appropriate to the stolen ability) opposed by your eased Intellect task. If they succeed, they regain the use of their ability and you lose it.
You are trained in your choice of two of the following skills: disguise, deception, lockpicking, pickpocketing, seeing through deception, sleight of hand, or stealth. You can choose this ability multiple times, but you must select different skills each time.
While you are within immediate range of any blaze symbol you've previously marked, you and up to three willing characters who are next to you travel to a point of your choosing earlier in time, when you were all traveling on the same trail the marker is part of or a connecting trail. When you appear in the past, you do so at the location you were along the trail then, replacing earlier versions of yourself in so doing. Upon arriving at your temporal destination, you and your fellow time travelers are stunned (and unable to act) for one minute. Using this ability is usually a one-way trip. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to bring additional people with you; each level of Effort used in this way affects up to three additional targets.
Editor's Notes — Using Step Across Time might create a temporal paradox, making it impossible for the PCs to return from their new tangent universe to the one they originated from.
Drawing upon the power of your Golem Body, you freeze in place, burying your essence deep in your stone core. During this time, you lose all mobility as well as the ability to take physical actions. You cannot sense what’s happening around you, and no time seems to pass for you. While Still As a Statue, you gain +10 to Armor against damage of all sorts. Under normal circumstances, you automatically rouse to normal wakefulness and mobility a day later. If an ally you trust shakes you hard enough (with a minimum cost of 2 Might points), you rouse earlier.
Action to initiate.
Your words encourage a target you touch who can understand you. The next action it takes is eased by three steps.
Path of the PlanebreakerYou have a connection to a creature from another dimension. This creature might be as normal as a rat swarm, as strange as a devil or a dinosaur, or something that people have only heard about in stories. Your shadow always looks like the shadow of this creature. If the creature is normally larger or smaller than you, your stitched shadow shrinks or grows to approximate your actual size. The stitched shadow allows you to use your Shadow Action ability.
Even though your stitched shadow is a separate creature as well as your shadow, they can't be targeted independently of you, except starting at tier 6 when you use Manifest Monster.
Depending on what your shadow looks like, these attacks might look like claws, bites, weapons, or something else entirely.
Your attacks against objects inflict 4 additional points of damage when you use a melee weapon that you wield in two hands.
When you drain energy with your focus abilities, you can store some of it for later in a Siphon Pool. You can spend points from your Siphon Pool as if they were from your Might or Speed Pool, or use an action to spend them to restore an equal number of points to your Might or Speed Pool. Your Siphon Pool can safely store up to 3 points; each point beyond that hinders all of your tasks.
If outside or in a large-enough enclosed space, you can seed a natural storm of a kind common to the area. Doing so requires at least an hour's concentration as you use your connection to the air (whether this is due to nanobots, elemental spirits, magic, or some other source) to initiate proper conditions, though it could take longer if the GM feels there are additional obstacles at play. Once the storm begins, it lasts for about ten minutes. Once during that period, you can create a more dramatic and specific effect appropriate to that kind of storm, such as a lightning strike, a squall of giant hailstones, the brief touchdown of a twister, a single gust of hurricane-force winds, and so on. These effects must occur within long range of your location. You must spend your turn concentrating to create the effect, which occurs a round later. The effect inflicts 6 points of damage, after which the storm begins to disperse.
Storm Seed usually calls thunderstorms, but in an area where stranger weather is common, a Storm Seed could call that instead. For instance, some settings have particular kinds of magical weather.
Action to initiate, an hour or more to complete.
You are trained in one of the following tasks (choose one): breaking things, climbing, jumping, or running.
Having an action plan in place before facing a challenge improves the odds of success, even if that plan is eventually changed or discarded once it's put into play. If you and your allies spend at least ten minutes going over a plan of action, all of you gain one free level of Effort that can be applied to one task you attempt during the execution of that plan within the next 24 hours. The plan of action must be something concrete and executable in order to gain this benefit.
Action to initiate, ten minutes to complete.
When you and your companion from the Beast Companion ability are within immediate distance of each other, you inflict 2 additional points of damage when you attack and both of you gain an asset to defense actions.
You attempt a difficulty 5 Speed task to stun a creature as part of your melee or ranged attack. If you succeed, your attack inflicts its normal damage and stuns the creature for one round, causing it to lose its next turn. If you fail, you still make your normal attack roll, but you don't stun the opponent if you hit. If you also have this ability from another source (such as having it as a type ability and a focus ability), using this costs you only 3 points instead of 6 points.
With a slithering flourish and a ghost rattle echoing from some otherworldly source, you redirect a melee attack that would otherwise hit you if you succeed on a difficulty 2 Speed task. When you do, the misdirected attack hits another creature you choose within immediate range of both you and the attacking foe.
You are trained in Might defense tasks.
Your subconscious constantly runs predictive models for avoiding danger. You gain an asset on your Speed defense tasks.
For one minute or until you use some other sound manipulation ability, you emit a subsonic rumble that most living creatures can't hear but which has an effect on them all the same. The effect lasts for one minute and affects all creatures you select within short range. All tasks related to resisting persuasion, intimidation, and fear are hindered by two steps for affected targets.
Action to initiate.
When you move no more than a short distance, you can move without making a sound, regardless of the surface you move across.
You can use your skills and special abilities in ways that don't look like you're doing anything. If the skill or ability would normally require an obvious movement, phrase, or other action by you, it instead seems to happen on its own. Instead of using your tools to pick a lock, the lock clicks open as you stand near it. Instead of manipulating a computer screen, the information you want appears on the screen when you look at it. Instead of bluffing your way past some guards, they step aside as you approach and let you through. This ability usually only works up to an immediate distance. You still must spend points and make rolls to use your skills and abilities with Subtle Tricks. Using a skill or ability in a subtle way hinders the task. This ability can't be used to conceal your attack or defense rolls.
If you take down a foe, you can immediately make another attack on that same turn against a new foe within your reach. The second attack is part of the sameAction. You can use this ability with melee attacks and ranged attacks.
You suggest an action to a creature within immediate range. If the action is something that the target might normally do anyway, it follows your suggestion. If the suggestion is something that is outside of the target’s nature or express duty (such as asking a guard to let an intruder pass), the suggestion fails. The creature must be level 2 or lower. The effect of your suggestion lasts for up to a minute.
In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the target you can affect by 1. Thus, to affect a level 5 target (three levels above the normal limit), you must apply three levels of Effort. When the effects of the ability end, the creature remembers following the suggestion but can be persuaded to believe that it chose to do so willingly.
Action to initiate.
A demon appears within immediate range. If you applied a level of Effort as part of the summoning, the demon is amenable to your instructions; otherwise, it acts according to its nature. Regardless, the demon persists for up to one minute before it fades away—you hope.
Action to initiate.
If you're ever without your six shooter, you can summon it (or another just like it) instantly to your hand, already loaded.
A giant spider appears within immediate range. If you applied a level of Effort as part of the summoning, the spider is amenable to your instructions; otherwise, it acts according to its nature. Regardless, the creature persists for up to one minute before it fades away.
Action to initiate.
The safe limit of your Siphon Pool from the Store Energy ability increases by 3 points. If you spend an hour in sunlight (or an hour in contact with a suitable powerful energy source), you automatically fill your Siphon Pool to its safe limit. You can’t refill your Siphon Pool this way again until after your next ten-hour recovery roll.
A mote of light travels from you to a spot you choose within long range. When the mote reaches that spot, it flares and casts bright light in a 200-foot (60 m) radius, and darkness within 1,000 feet (300 m) of the mote becomes dim light. The light lasts for one hour or until you use an action to dismiss it.
You are trained in searching, listening, climbing, balancing, and jumping tasks.
You are trained in lockpicking and tinkering with devices in an effort to make them work, or at least work for you.
When you use your Duplicate ability, you can create a superior duplicate instead of a normal duplicate. A superior duplicate is a level 3 NPC with 15 health.
You can use this ability in one of two ways. If you're on your mount, you can move a long distance from one location to another almost instantaneously, carried by the creature you ride. You must be able to see the new location, and there must be no intervening barriers.
Alternatively, you can use this ability to summon your mount from wherever it happens to be, leap up into the saddle, and use Trick Rider to make an attack or attempt a riding task. (Your mount can usually reach you even if you are deep underground, high in the air, or in another dimension, because your connection to your mount transcends the natural.)
When you use an action to make your first recovery roll of the day, you immediately gain another action.
If attacking from a hidden vantage, with surprise, or before your opponent has acted, you get an asset on the attack. On a successful hit, you inflict 2 additional points of damage.
When you use your Camera Sight ability to assess a situation and warn another character of an impending threat, that character's next defense roll against the threat you've spotted is eased. Likewise, if you use Camera Sight to advise a character of a foe's weakness, that character's next attack roll against that foe is eased.
Action to initiate.
Given about half a day of walking and scavenging, you find enough edible food and potable water in the ruins or surrounding wasteland for you and up to one other person for one day. The resources might be scavenged from before-times supplies, living flora and fauna, and uncontaminated water sources.
You can move a short distance as part of another action. You can move a long distance as your entire action for a turn. If you apply a level of Effort to this ability, you can move a long distance and make an attack as your entire action for a turn, but the attack is hindered.
This is a quick, agile melee attack. Your attack inflicts 1 less point of damage than normal but dazes your target for one round, during which time all tasks it performs are hindered.
You can swim like a fish through water and similar liquid for one hour. For each level of Effort applied, you can extend the duration by one hour. You swim about 10 miles (16 km) per hour, and you are not affected by currents in the water.
Action to initiate.
This is a quick, agile melee attack. Your attack inflicts 1 less point of damage than normal but dazes your target for one round, during which time all tasks it performs are hindered.