STRIKE

Effect: Attack

Action: Standard

Range: Touch

Duration: Instant

Cost: 1 points per rank

Saving Throw: Toughness

Optional: Fatigue

This power inflicts damage in melee combat. It might be claws, energy fields, focused striking strength, and so forth, depending on your descriptors. Melee weapons are devices or equipment with this power (see Chapter 7).

Your Strike rank substitutes for your Strength modifier to determine your melee damage. This means there’s no reason to take Strike at a rank less than your Strength bonus without the Mighty power feat (see the following). Your maximum damage is limited by the campaign’s power level (see page 24).

POWER FEATS

• Mighty: You can add your Strength bonus to your Strike rank to determine your melee damage when using your Strike. The total damage is still limited by the campaign’s power level. Any extras applied to your Strike damage must also be applied to your Strength damage (increasing the cost of your Strength) in order for your Strength bonus to stack. So, for example, if you want your Strike to be Penetrating (a +1 modifier), you must also pay the cost of a +1 modifier to your Strength in order to add it to your Penetrating Strike.

• Thrown: Your can “throw” your Strike attack to hit a target at a distance, with a range increment of (Thrown rank × 10) feet and a maximum range of five increments (Thrown rank × 50 feet). Each application of this feat increases your throwing range. It may represent a throwing weapon or the ability to “throw” natural weapons like quills or claws. If you have a Mighty Thrown Strike, you can add your Strength bonus to the damage, but no more than the Strike’s rank (so you can only add +2 Strength bonus to a rank 2 Mighty Thrown Strike). Once you have thrown your Strike attack, you cannot use it again until you recover it. This may involve picking up a thrown weapon, or regrowing a natural weapon. The exact circumstances are up to the GM, but it should usually be something you can do automatically at the end of a combat. For a “throwing attack” you can use every round, either because of unlimited ammunition or a weapon that automatically returns to you, take the Blast power (page 77).

EXTRAS

• Ranged: Strike can have a range greater than touch. One application increases the attack to normal range, and second application of this extra increases it to any range at Perception.

UNDER THE HOOD: STRENGTH AND STRIKE

The primary reason why Mighty Strike pays a premium on extras is to prevent a strong character from taking a rank 1 Strike with a lot of extras, adding Strength bonus on top of it, and getting all the benefits with almost none of the cost. If you want a kind of halfway point between requiring an additional cost on Mighty Strike extras and not having one at all, you can allow unmodified Strength to add to the Strike at a lesser bonus, based on the Strike’s total cost. Essentially, each point of Strength bonus provides an extra “power point” for adding to the Strike. For an unmodified Strike—with a cost of 1 point per rank—this is a 1-to-1 increase; 1 point of Str bonus equals +1 Strike damage. For a Strike costing more, divide Str bonus accordingly. For example a Strike with +2 in modifiers (costing 3 points per rank), divides Str bonus by 3 before stacking it, a +6 Str bonus would add only +2 damage to this Strike. This option involves a bit more complexity, but also offers a little more flexibility in terms of applying power modifiers to Mighty Strikes.