Basic Action Super Heroes!

Hi,

Some powers are not normally usable on machines, or other targets. Healing, Mind Control, Telepathy, etc. are not usable on machines, for example. To make a power that lets you repair or control machines (and only machines, not people), the solution seems to be to use the enhancement Affects Machines, with a limitation of Only Affects Machines.

My instinct says that is just a mechanical construct to let you re-purpose existing powers, without needing to have a bunch of redundant powers in the book like Machine Control and Machine Repair when you already have Mind Control and Healing.

Unfortunately, there is also a rule that powers can only have one limitation (or at least, only get a cost break for one limitation). Does this rule apply in these specific cases too? Could the matching set of Affects Machines/Only Affects Machines not count as a "real" limitation for the purpose of the only-one-limitation rule?

I'd like to have something like Machine Repair [Limitation: Situational - Requires a Large Electrical Power Source], which conceptually seems like an appropriate power. But since Machine Repair is really Healing [Affects Machines/Only Affects Machines] I end up with two limitations when I can only get points off for one.

Any thoughts?

Hmmm. You bring up a good point. I think That that combo [Affects X + Only Affects X] is fair enough to count as 0 enhancement/limit.

Excellent! Thanks!

would that power need affects others as well as healing only normally works on oneself ?

Yes, good point! In this case the character is a robot and only wants to be able to heal himself anyway, but I didn't mention that part. For it to work on other machines, you're right.

If a power is * inherently* self only, buying "Usable on Others" is worth a 1pt enhancement. That is a significant alteration to the power itself.

So a Robot that can heal itself would have Healing 3 [Enhanement: Affects Unliving] 4pts.

Since healing by default is Personal, he can only use it on himself, unless it is ALSO bought with Usable on Others, in which case he can use it on anybody, including robots. That would look like this:
Healing 3 [Enhancement: Affects Unliving, Usable on Others] 5pts

If it won't work on humans, but will on other robots, then he would take it like this:
Healing 3 [Enhancement: Usable on Others, Affects Unliving, Only Affects Unliving] 4pts