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.
