Capabilities

While abilities define the majority of a hero’s capabilities, there are a few others important to game play: movement speed, size, and carrying capacity (how much your character can lift).

MOVEMENT
Heroes in the comics move around a lot. The GM moderates the pace of a game session, and determines when movement is important enough to be worth measuring. During casual scenes, you usually won’t have to worry about movement rates. If a hero arrives somewhere and takes a stroll around to get a feel for the place, or is flying around town on patrol, there’s no need to know exactly how fast the character goes, it just happens.

MOVEMENT PACE
Characters generally move at a normal, accelerated, or all out pace. A normal person’s base movement speed is 30 feet, meaning a character can walk 30 feet as a move action. The following movement paces modify your base speed: You can move all out for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution score. After that you must succeed at a Constitution check (DC 10) to continue moving all out. You must check again each round, and the DC increases by +1 for each check. When you fail a check, you become fatigued and must drop to an accelerated or normal pace (see Fatigue, page 167).
 * Normal: A normal pace represents unhurried but purposeful movement at your speed, 30 feet per round for a normal unencumbered human.
 * Accelerated: An accelerated pace is twice your speed, 60 feet per round for a normal unencumbered human. Taking two move actions in a round is accelerated movement.
 * All Out: Moving four times your speed is an all out pace, the equivalent of running or sprinting, 120 feet per round for a normal unencumbered human. All out movement is a full action, and you lose your dodge bonus, since you can’t easily avoid attacks. However, if you’re using a movement power (see Chapter 5) you gain a +2 bonus to Defense per rank in that power; so a hero with Flight 5 moving all out gets a +10 Defense bonus for his speed (it’s harder to hit a fast-moving target).

Characters with movement powers have a normal speed granted by their rank. Accelerated movement doubles that speed. All out movement quadruples it.

HAMPERED MOVEMENT
Obstructions, bad surface conditions, and poor visibility hamper movement. The GM determines the category into which a specific condition falls (see the Hampered Movement Table). When movement is hampered, multiply movement speed by the penalty (a fraction). For example, a character that normally could cover 60 feet with an accelerated move can cover only 30 feet while moving through thick undergrowth.

If more than one condition applies, multiply speed by all appropriate movement penalty fractions. For instance, a character that normally could cover 60 feet with an accelerated move covers only 15 feet moving through thick undergrowth in heavy fog (one-half times one-half, or onequarter his accelerated move speed).

JUMPING
Jumping is a special type of movement, based on your Strength. A jump is a move action. Distance moved by jumping counts as part of your normal movement in a round.

You can make a running long jump of (Str modifier + 10) feet, a standing long jump of half that distance, and a high (vertical) jump of a quarter that distance. Round all distances down to the nearest foot. So a Strength 10 (+0 modifier) character can make a running long jump of 10 feet, a standing long jump of 5 feet and a high jump of 2 feet (2.5, rounded down to 2). Increases to your Strength, including extra effort (see page 120), increase your jumping distances as well. Super-Strength (see page 104) does not increase jumping distances. Extra effort doubles your jumping distance for one jump. The Leaping power (see page 90) greatly increases the distance you can jump.

If you make a long jump and fail to clear the distance by your height or less, you can make a Reflex save (DC 15) to grab the far edge of a gap. You end your movement grasping the far edge. If this leaves you dangling over a chasm or gap, getting up requires a move action and a Climb check (DC 15).

SIZE
While heroes come in all sizes and shapes, most are generally within the human norms of size, ranging between four and eight feet tall or so (Medium-sized). Some heroes have the ability to alter their size using the Growth and Shrinking powers (see Chapter 5). Others are normally a different size, either larger or smaller. These characters have ranks of either Growth or Shrinking with a Permanent duration.

A character’s size affects certain qualities. Modifications for size are shown on the Size Table. Permanent size modifiers count toward campaign power level limits.

ATTACK/DEFENSE MODIFIER
Larger characters are easier to notice and hit relative to smaller characters, while smaller characters are harder to notice and hit. These modifiers cancel out for characters of the same size, who attack and defend normally against each other.

GRAPPLE MODIFIER
Larger characters have an advantage in trying to grapple smaller opponents. In addition to the modifier to grapple checks, a larger character can grapple more opponents of a smaller size: double the number of opponents the character can grapple at once per size category the attacker is larger than the defenders. So a Medium attacker can grapple one Medium opponent, two Small opponents (one under each arm, for example), four Tiny opponents, and so forth.

STEALTH MODIFIER
Larger characters have a harder time sneaking around, while smaller characters have an easier time remaining unseen and unheard. Apply this modifier to Stealth checks made at this size.

INTIMIDATION MODIFIER
Larger characters are more imposing, while smaller characters are less. Apply this modifier to Intimidation checks made at this size. Like Attack and Defense modifiers, they cancel out against opponents of the same size.

REACH
A normal (Medium-sized) character has a 5 ft. reach, which means the character can make a melee attack at any target up to 5 ft. away. Larger and smaller characters have a longer or shorter reach, as shown on the Size Table.

SPACE
A normal (Medium-sized) character is assumed to occupy a roughly 5-ft.-by-5-ft. space. Larger and smaller characters occupy more or less space, as shown on the Size Table.

CARRYING CAPACITY
Larger characters can lift and carry more, while smaller characters can lift and carry less. Larger characters gain an increase in effective Strength for carrying capacity: +5 points (a doubling in capacity) per size category. Smaller characters’ carrying capacities are multiplied by the value in this column. So a Tiny character with Str 10 has a heavy load of (100 × 1/2) or 50 lbs.

ATTACK AREA
If you are three size categories or more larger than your opponent, you have a chance to hit an opponent even if you miss your attack roll! If your attack roll misses due to your size modifier, your attack is considered an area attack filling the fighting space of an opponent three size categories smaller than you. So a Gargantuan attacker has a 5-ft area attack against Medium or smaller opponents. A Medium attacker has a 1-ft. “area” attack against Diminutive or smaller opponents, and so forth.

If you roll a successful attack, it has the normal effect. If you miss, but would have hit if not for your size modifier, then the attack still hits, but the target gets to make a Reflex save for half effect (or none, if the target has Evasion). Other targets in the area of your attack are also hit by a normal area effect. See page 159 for details on area attacks.

Example: A Gargantuan robot tries to stomp on the Bowman, who’s a normal (Medium-sized) target. The robot has a –4 to hit because of its size. If it succeeds, it hits Bowman square on. If it misses, but by 4 or less (the amount of its size modifier), then the stomp of its massive foot still has a chance of hitting Bowman. He gets a Reflex save to halve the damage and, since he has the Evasion feat, if he makes his save, he suffers no damage, leaping and rolling out of the way at the last second. If the robot’s attack roll misses by more than 4, it misses Bowman completely.

CARRYING CAPACITY
Carrying capacity determines how much weight characters can lift and how much additional weight slows them down. See the Carrying Capacity table for how much a character can lift based on Strength score. Characters with Super-Strength add +5 per rank to their Strength score when figuring carrying capacity (see Chapter 5).
 * Characters can lift and carry up to a light load without any penalties or difficulties.
 * Characters carrying a medium load have a maximum dodge bonus of +3 and a –3 penalty on all actions. They move at 2/3 normal speed.
 * Characters can lift up to a heavy load overhead. While doing so they have a maximum dodge bonus of +1 and a –6 penalty on all actions. They move at 2/3 normal speed.
 * Characters can lift up to the maximum load off the ground, but can only stagger around with it. While overloaded in this way, characters lose any dodge bonus to Defense and can move only 5 feet per round as a full action.
 * Characters can push or drag up to five times their heavy load weight, moving at ½ normal speed. Favorable conditions (smooth ground, dragging a slick object) double these numbers, and bad circumstances (broken ground, pushing an object that snags) can reduce them to one-half or less.
 * Characters can use extra effort to double their carrying capacity in all categories for one round (see Extra Effort, page 120).

LARGER AND SMALLER CREATURES
The figures on the Carrying Capacity table are for Medium-size creatures. Larger and smaller creatures can carry more or less depending on size category as shown on the Size table.

Larger and smaller creatures, as well as characters with powers such as Density (see page 81), may also weigh more or less than usual. A character’s weight is not a factor in carrying capacity, only effective Strength. Carrying capacity is the lifting and carrying ability beyond that necessary to comfortably support and carry one’s own weight.

THROWING
Characters can throw any object they can lift, up to a heavy load. (You cannot throw your maximum load, only drop it adjacent to you.) Picking up an object is a move action, while throwing it is a standard action, so it’s possible to pick up and throw an object in one round.

The distance you can throw an object is based on its weight and your Strength. You can throw your heavy load 5 feet. For every 5 points of Strength you have over the minimum required to lift an object as a heavy load, move the distance you can throw it one step up the Time and Value Progression Table (see page 70). So, a Strength 40 character has 30 points more Strength than needed to lift 100 lbs. as a heavy load. That means (30 divided by 5) 6 steps up the Time and Value Progression Table. So a Strength 40 character can throw a 100-lb. object up to 500 feet!

When dealing with objects weighing less than 10 lbs., move throwing distance one step up the Time and Value Progression Table every time you halve weight. So a character can throw a 5-lb. object twice as far as a 10-lb. one, a 2-lb. object five times as far, and a 1-lb. object ten times further. Weights below 1-lb. can be treated as 1-lb. for simplicity. So the aforementioned Str 40 hero can throw a baseball (weighing less than a pound) over 25,000 feet (nearly 5 miles)!

For throwing objects as weapons in combat, see Chapter 8.