Lets take a second look at Desolidification.

[PhilFleischmann]

If you're going to make Desolid a finer-grained power, I'd recommend basing it on passing through BODY rather than DEF. This is the way is seems to be for most genres. I had come up with something a long time ago (pre-4th) similar to schir's Protean Form, above. I called it "Fluidification." At a fairly low level, you could become like jelly or coarse sand. At a higher level, like water or powder. For even more points, you could be smoke or gas. And for 40 points, you were completely desolid.

 

There was a Spiderman villain called Will-o-the-Wisp who seemed to have Desolid Always On, with STR affecting physical world. IIRC, Spidey couldn't lay a hand on him, and just had to keep taking the blows.

 

Here's a nasty trick a GM pulled on me once:

 

***** SPOILER WARNING *****

*** DIRTY TRICK YOUR GM MIGHT WANT TO PULL ON YOU, SO DON'T READ THIS! ***

He had a villain with Invisibility and Images of himself only, combined with Indirect on his STR (STR comes from the Image). This looks like a completely desolid guy who has no problem hurting you, killing innocents, or destroying physical objects. He's a hologram with real strength.

 

My character was a "damage sink." All I could do was interpose myself between him and his target and suck up the damage, while my teammates tried to figure out how to stop him. AE attacks or Detect Invisibility or some other sense that he's not invisible to. Hooray for teamwork!

 

This is definitely a "Stop Sign" combination, but it works as long as there is some way to find and hit the invisible guy.

***** END SPOILER *****