Basic Action Super Heroes!

What's the rule for pulling punches or using a less-powerful version of your power to do less damage?

Say you don't want to use your x6 Damage fireball on a Minion since it could seriously injure or even kill him. Do you just say "I'm going to use my Fireball at half strength" and multiply your damage roll by x3?

That's a good question. If you reduce your multiplier when you 'pull a punch' you risk not doing any damage if you cannot beat the target's Soak roll.

Maybe declare that you might 'Pull your punch' after your roll and then, if it was successful, you could declare how much of the damage that got through the target's Soak that you want to actually apply.

For instance, if you are wanting to impress upon your opponent that you are not a real threat (while still showing him/her that you are a skilled fighter), you could declare that you will 'pull your punch' if successful and then only allow 1 Hit worth of damage. They will have understood that your attack could have been more devastating if you had wanted it to be.

The way I do it: after an enemy is taken down, the Hero can declare they pulled their punch, even if they rolled full damage. The enemy is just knocked-out, not killed. This is actually the "Default mode" unless you are using Iron-Age rules, as a "code against killing" is the assumption.

BASHMAN wrote:The way I do it: after an enemy is taken down, the Hero can declare they pulled their punch, even if they rolled full damage. The enemy is just knocked-out, not killed. This is actually the "Default mode" unless you are using Iron-Age rules, as a "code against killing" is the assumption.

Yes, after one hero knocks the stuffing out of the other, he would offer his hand and help the other hero back up. "Now that we have this disagreement settled, let's get on to those nasty alien invaders," as the player then declares that he was pulling his punches the whole time! Lost Hits return to previous levels and the two heroes get on with the adventure. Rules as written, in action!

Also, damage isn't "lethal" unless you are using special rules for that.