Power effects and misdirection

[dsatow]

Here's a question that's come up and how I normally adjudicate may be incorrect.

If a power does not have invisible power effects, its very distinctive as to what that power is. Thus an EB effects are different than a KA effects and can be determined via the 3 senses rule.

In the case of invisibility and say teleport, I generally adjudicate that a person going invisible looks to be disappearing while a person teleporting (without IPE) looks to be teleporting.

1) Am I wrong by the rules in this assumption?

2) Should invisibility use masquerade as other powers (teleport, hyper shrinking, an illusion being dropped, etc.)?

[Steve Long]

You're incorrect that each Power has a distinctive "appearance" that tells it apart. Appearance is determined by special effect, not by Power. If someone's flinging a Fire Bolt at you, you have no way of knowing, from appearance alone, whether it's an Energy Blast, an RKA, a Sight Group Flash, an NND, a Drain, or what have you. (Of course, you'll probably figure it out once the GM rolls the dice and tells you what happens. ;) )

Whether one Power can look like another based on special effects is up to the GM. Dramatic sense tells us that, generally speaking, Teleportation is obviously a means of Teleporting and that Invisibility is not, but ultimately it's up to the GM to decide. Personally, if I had a player that routinely wanted to play that sort of trick ("I'm going to make him think I'm Teleporting away, but really I'm just going Invisible and staying here"), I'd make him pay for it via a +1/4 IPE, or require a successful Acting roll each time, or making him buy a Linked Images power, or some such thing to justify the utility.