Multipower timing

[kengineer]

My 400-point superhero has a power armor multipower with three fixed slots. Each slot has a mix of powers.  Tank mode (slot 1) is heavy on defenses and has 24m of running. Crusader mode (slot 2) has modest defenses and 34m of running. Titan mode (slot 3) has the heaviest attack and 24m of running. Hex is speed 5. A half-dozen speed 4 orcs with very dangerous battle-axes are bearing down on him. 

 

Segment 12 he sets Crusader mode and moves into combat. Segment 3 he makes a 17m half-move, uses a 0-phase action to shift to Tank mode, and hits someone. He is hit by a number of attacks, applying Tank's defenses. Segment 6 he chooses to act at a lower DEX, allowing Tank's defenses to absorb a few more hits before switching to Titan mode and attacking at the end of 6. On Segment 8, still in Titan mode, he plays another frame of Orc Bowling. On 9, two more orcs sprint up; Hex aborts his 10 to shift back to Tank mode. On 12 he again chooses to act at a lower DEX, taking a number of hits on Tank Mode's defenses before he acts, at which time he shifts to Titan mode and attacks.

 

My question is, does this all scan as legal? I shift the multipower once per phase as a 0-phase action. Points remain as allocated until my next phase, unless I abort to shift slots. It's how we have played multipower timing since 2nd Edition. However one of my fellow players has taken issue with the concept of "using points twice" such as in phase 3 when I moved at a base speed of 34m, then shifted the multipower to a slot that only supports 24m of movement before attacking. A 2010 post on this forum to back him up.  I needed to review the ruling again. The 2010 answer makes it sounds as if multipowers "reset" at the end of each phase and need to be re-allocated at the beginning of the following phase, and that using the slot settings from the previous phase is de facto allocating them at the start of the current phase. We're a pretty savvy bunch and it's hard to believe we have been running multipowers wrong for 31 years. By the logic suggested in 2010, I shouldn't be allowed to apply Tank Mode's defenses to attacks before shifting to Titan mode. What happens when I fight someone faster than me? If I end a phase 3 in Tank mode, then get hit in segment 5 before I can re-allocate, am I stuck in Tank mode? Because I have already used those points to absorb damage, so shifting them to movement or attack will end up using them twice in a phase. 

 

My combat example shows the multipower used to maximum advantage, but legitimately so far as our understanding of the rules has stood. Although it gives the hero a very strong phase at the start of the sequence, the no-actions-after-attacks rule keeps it from happening every phase. Look at the character's power allocation a half-phase out of synch. Tracking points allocated from mid-phase 3 to mid-phase 6 and so on reveals points used once per phase on average.

 

To me this illustrates that in addition to the flexibility in power options, the great advantage of the multipower is getting to choose timing of powers. This can be exploited (or abused if you see it that way) as my example showed. This advantage can be reduced significantly if villains think tactically as well, reserving heir attacks "Until he drops the armored shell like he always does before he hits us." Multipowers lose a lot of their tactical advantage when the villains adapt their tactics; they just rarely do.

 

I look forward to your response.

[Steve Long]

First off, thanx for a detailed (and politely worded) post that explained exactly what you were after. There are a couple of intersecting issues here, and figuring out what you wanted to know might have been tricky otherwise.

 

No, that’s not legal — your fellow player is correct and you have in fact been running things wrong for 31 years. (Though in your defense, I don’t believe this issue was specifically spelled out [at least not in a precise and easily-referenced way] in any rulebook prior to 5E. My own gaming group made some pretty serious rules mis-interpretations about Power Frameworks for years before someone pointed out our error. I fought some of the proper interpretations kicking and screaming, but eventually I was intellectually clubbed down with rules text and written examples and had to concede the point.  )

 

. As stated on 6E1 408, while allocating Multipower reserve points is a Zero Phase Action, unless the GM permits otherwise a character cannot allocate Multipower reserve points more than once in a Phase. Having chosen at the start of the Phase to allocate the reserve to Slot 1 (modest defenses, high Running), your character cannot then make a Half Move and re-allocate to Slot 2 (heavy defenses, modest Running).

 

It doesn’t matter if the character begins his Phase with Slot 1 already active; using it or obtaining its benefits in any way means he’s allocating the reserve to that Slot. If he wants to use Slot 2, he has to allocate his reserve points to that using his first Zero Phase Action in the Phase. This isn’t a question of the Multipower reserve “re-setting,” as you put it; it’s that not re-allocating the reserve to Slot 2, and thus maintaining Slot 1, is itself an allocation of the reserve. You have chosen by not choosing in a most Zen-like fashion.

 

In a situation where an enemy with a higher DEX attacks the character when Slot 2 is already active, in theory this “locks” the character into that slot because he’s obtained the advantage of its defenses. This raises two issues. First, I think in this situation that many GMs wouldn’t hold the character to that and would still let him re-allocate the reserve when his Phase begins.

 

Second, it illustrates some potential problems/issues posed by having defenses in Multipower slots — and even worse in this case, slots which combine both defense and movement. This is why the rules state on 6E1 400 that “Characters may not buy more than one Power in a single Power Framework slot unless those Powers are Linked (see above) or the character has the GM’s permission.” I haven’t seen your specific build, and I don’t know what the GM in your campaign permits, but on the face of it the Multipower you’re describing is illegal in and of itself, regardless of reserve allocation issues.

 

Aborting to switch Slots in Segment 9 to gain the benefits of a more defensive slot is legal, unless the GM rules otherwise. 6E2 23 specifically lists this as a “defensive action.”