Alright, this is a short page today since the top half of the page is just artwork; if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was Foxbat (Champions fans, you know who I'm talking about). Anyway, that leaves only about half the page for the text, so this shouldn't take long.
We start with an example of Pushing a power, in this case Strength. There's a wall falling on a helpless old lady, and the unnamed hero has a STR of 40. Pushing his STR to the max will give him a STR of 50 for a brief period, hopefully enough to allow the old lady to get out of the way. The END cost for this is 8 for his normal STR of 40, plus 10 for the maximum pushing, for a total of 18 END. Worth it for the old lady, I think.
There's also a note that you can't push a power that doesn't cost END. Well, that makes sense. I can't think of any of those powers that would need to be pushed. Maybe Armor, but the rules say no.
Okay, now we get away from the physical stuff and into the psychological stuff. No, not mental combat. This is all about Presence Attacks. Let's face it, superheroes and villains make an impression. Picking up an F-150 and throwing it down the street makes an impression, too. Sometimes heroes and villains will use this impressive attribute to shake people up or make them 'ooh' and 'aah', or maybe just collapse in fear. In Champions, this is known as a Presence Attack.
Basically, a Presence Attack is an attack that requires no attack roll; everyone who witnesses the Presence Attack is affected. For every 5 points of PRE the character has, 1D6 is rolled. A surprise Presence Attack gives an additional +1D6, as does doing something violent (F-150 tossing, for example). If other unusual circumstances warrant, the GM can give additional bonuses. Total up the dice and compare it to the PRE of everyone in the vicinity. It can be assumed that normal people have a PRE of 10 to save time.
If the total of the PRE Attack is equal to or greater than the target's PRE score, the target is impressed, and hesitates long enough for the character to act ahead of them in that phase. The rules here aren't clear on whether or not a PRE Attack is actually a full phase action, although that would make sense to me. I don't remember if that was clarified in later editions, although I think it's safe to assume it was.
If the roll is at least double the target's PRE score, the target is very impressed and will hesitate for 1/2 a move; the character making the PRE Attack gets to move ahead of them in that phase.
If the roll is at least triple the target's PRE score, the target is awed and will hesitate for a full phase, being at 1/2 CV for that entire phase.
And if the roll is at least four times the target's PRE score, the target is cowed, may surrender, faint, or run away; the GM makes that call. Again, a PRE attack affects everyone in the area, not just one target. So a violent PRE Attack is a great way for a villain to get people running and screaming, the better to distract the hero.
If you try to do a second PRE attack against the same targets, it's not going to be as effective; each successive PRE attack takes a cumulative -1D6 to the roll. I guess people do get used to just about anything, don't they?
Lastly, we have Perception Rolls. These have been mentioned before, of course. But here we learn that a PER roll is for noticing things that aren't all that obvious (very useful for detectives), or to notice something going on while you are in combat. PER Rolls are always determined as 9 plus INT/5. So the average person (INT 10) will have a PER roll of 11 or less. Reed Richards, with an INT of at least 30, is going to have a minimum PER roll of 15 or less. Considering how obtuse Reed can be, that doesn't ring quite true. Nevertheless, that's where we stand. Of course, PER rolls can be improved by Enhanced Senses.
And that's it for this page. As I said, it's a short one thanks to the artwork. The next page has no art, so there will be more to talk about. Until then, may your Spider-Sense always tingle.
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