Adjustment Powers vs. Variable Effect

[innominatus]

It used to be, when a target was hit with a Drain vs. Variable Effect, the target's largest power was Adjusted first, and then the next, and so on down the line. Now, the attacker gets to decide what power he adjusts. Which leads me to a couple of questions I came up with regarding such situations:

1.) How do you handle a character who's Draining (or otherwise Adjusting) the powers of an unknown opponent? Does the GM have to inform the character of what powers the target has available to affect, or can the attacker only Drain those powers he's aware of (or the target demonstrates in combat), or can he simply declare "I Drain his biggest power first"?

2.) What happens if the character attempts to Drain a specific power, but it turns out said power isn't derived from the special effect the Drain works against? Is the attack wasted, or does the attacker get to pick something else, or what? (For example: Haywire uses his "Glitch Touch" (Drain vs. any technological device) to try to Drain Armored-Suit-Guy's Force Field power, which he assumes is generated by the suit. However, A-S-G actually is secretly a mutant, and the Force Field is one of his mutant powers. Does the GM say, "Nope, your power has no effect on the Force Field, better luck next time," or "Nope, the Force Field doesn't count as a technological device in this case; pick something else to Drain" (possibly revealing information about A-S-G he doesn't want known yet)?

Thanks in advance for your input.

[Steve Long]

1. If the character doesn’t know the target’s powers, he can take a shot in the dark if he wants and hope that a particular power fits into the category of things he can target. At the very least he’ll learn something about the target’s abilities. The GM can allow tactics like “I Adjust his largest such-and-such power first” if he wants, but in most cases I think it’s best if the attacker has to specify which power he’s Adjusting. (For the record, the rule you’re referring to, if it ever was a rule, wasn’t even part of the Fourth Edition; the 4E rules specifically state, as do the 5E rules, that the attacker can choose which power to target.)

2. The attack fails and is wasted — though the character has learned something, which may in the long run be a lot more helpful than just hurting the target.