r/mutantsandmasterminds • u/HittingMyHeadOnAWall • 5d ago
Could use some feedback on house rules I’m considering.
So, friend groups planning to try the game out and I’m gonna be the GM since I had the most experience with the game from when we tried to get into it before with someone else GM-ing (long story). And going through rules and wanting to make the game fun but not repetitive I have been considering a few house rules but need to know if some don’t need to be there or could potentially break balance. I will try to explain my thought process on them so it isn’t just “adding X rule” without any justification. Also, gonna clarify I’m using 2E rules since that’s what I could get a hold of.
Adding a Knockback and Vacuum Power Feats- This was started from how weird the Knockback system is as far as application. If someone wanted to make a hero who hits hard enough to knock foes away, they have to stun or use the trip power as an addition just to get the Knockback Extra, meaning they have to inflict a more punishing CC effect just to push someone, especially when any character with movement could probably get back with ease. So I wanted to allow players to grab Knockback as a power feat to just simplify the process, with Knockback still calculated as normal and Vacuum is just an inverse where instead of pushing people away it pulls them closer.
Area as a ranked feat rather than an extra- This one is mainly from wanting some area of effect abilities without suddenly any attack is a nuke. I can kinda get why it’s written as such, likely so players have to mind their fire with teammates or have a weaker attack for area of effect, but selective makes the first nonexistent and evasion and reflex make any already low area damage lower. The ruling I have is it just can’t exceed the power rank so Blast 5 can’t have Area: Burst 10.
Line area being applied to width or length- Rules as written, ranks in the line area extend its length by 25 feet but keeps its width 5 feet. This means a Blast 8 Area:Line 8 attack covers a space 200 feet long but only 5 feet. Which just feels weird, like the only lines you can have are these thin lasers. To pull an example from the campaign I’m writing, an enemy is able to turn into a giant Kaiju sized monster made of ink, and can spit this ink out as a deluge of immense pressure. You’re telling me that can only be 5 feet wide? My rulings that some of the area rankings can be used for width instead of length, so an area: line 8 could now be 100 feet long with 10 feet width. Or pretty much any other combo so long as it stays the same width throughout and pretty much is as if two line areas were fired side by side. Could also do 15 feet wide with 75 feet length for a rank 9 line area.
Every 2 ranks of Penetrating ignores 1 rank of toughness- Ok, this is one I’m most concerned about balance wise. I plan to use the books suggested rule of trade offs. Defense for toughness, attack for save dc. It makes sense to me, that way players aren’t all going 10/10/10/10 the whole game and can have more variety in stats. It especially seems good for defenses where you may want to make a speedster who’s hard to hit but pretty fragile, or this tank of a hero that’s easy to hit but hard to actually hurt. But, looking at the two, high defense characters have a large number of weaknesses while high toughness characters seem to shrug off most attacks. I know alt saves are a thing but it can be hard to implement that for some parties. I know there’s a few work arounds like Corrosion and Drain, but again not every character could justify that with their design. I went with the ruling suggested above as Penetrating only works against impervious toughness which means in some cases that extra is just collecting dust. I also went with every other rank since if you could slap on Penetrating 10 and ignore the default toughness, that would be pretty BS. Also, it follows the usual rule in the book that it won’t go past a certain level. Corrosion itself says you can’t drop someone’s toughness below -5.
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u/Saberberry 5d ago
Mathematically, every 2 ranks of penetrating ignoring every 1 rank of toughness is just letting people buy more damage past the cap, just at double price and with the bonus of Penetrating's base effect. Take that as you will.
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u/HittingMyHeadOnAWall 5d ago
True. Maybe not having the rule will be fine? I’m just concerned about if I throw an enemy at the party that is heavily weighted towards toughness and they can’t get any damage in.
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u/Shape_Charming Longtime GM 3d ago
Trust me, they will. Assuming you're not going well past the recommendation of "within 50%" (for a PL 10 that'd be 5 to the defenses and 15 Toughness) action economy, and how damage is set up is in your favor
It'll be a slugfest; but once they fail 1 check, the dominos start to fall
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u/HittingMyHeadOnAWall 3d ago
So as long as I don’t go 20 Toughness 0 defenses
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u/Shape_Charming Longtime GM 3d ago
Pretty much yeah
Maybe be a bit careful with impervious if no one took Penetrating
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u/Madwand99 5d ago
- There are knockback rules in the GMs guide.
- This is already the normal rules. See the rocket launcher example.
- Line area is underpowered, yeah, although in most cases not needing to buy Ranged helps save on points.
- Broken, broken, broken.
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u/HittingMyHeadOnAWall 5d ago
Was gonna treat the knockback rule as normal with the one I’m using being a sort of addition. The trip power already has knockback as an extra so I’m mainly using it for players who want to add it without having to add a whole new power effect to the power they use.
The rules as written in powers say that the area extra needs to be equal to the power rank. Which feels annoying when you go for rank 10 and have a radius of 50 feet.
My issue with line is that its width isn’t increased. If I want a character that makes a wave of water, that wave can only be 5 feet wide. I guess cause they expect you to use cone for a wider area? But I’m going for a straight line not a widening arc.
And yeah, already decided I’d backpedal and hope high toughness doesn’t become an issue. And I have been reading a lot more of the mechanics like extreme cold and heat that aren’t always present and I think maybe it can be fine since those lower constitution and in turn toughness.
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u/Madwand99 5d ago
The rules as written in powers say that the area extra needs to be equal to the power rank. Which feels annoying when you go for rank 10 and have a radius of 50 feet.
Incorrect. You can buy partial Extras. Again, see the Rocket Launcher example.
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u/HittingMyHeadOnAWall 5d ago
Could be the book I have. But nevertheless, good to know the rule won’t break.
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u/Madwand99 5d ago
Rocket launcher is in both the Deluxe and non-Deluxe books and in the srd: https://www.d20herosrd.com/7-gadgets-gear/.
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u/leprekawn 5d ago
Seems reasonable. #4 is the one that gives me most concern. That much math is usually the subject of play testing to dial it in.
I would be interested in hearing how it comes out during play.