Taking Advantage

Advantages are traits in the Mutants & Masterminds system that fall in-between Skills and Powers, particular edges or resources characters have, often letting them bend the rules in specific ways under particular circumstances. Valiant Adventures includes many familiar Advantages from the M&M core rules, along with some that have been updated in various ways, and a few new advantages as well.

When we provided pre-generated characters for the Valiant Quickstart, we included descriptions of all of their Advantages. However, when we offered previews of some of the signature Valiant heroes, there wasn’t space on their character sheets to provide descriptions of all of their Advantages: For characters like Ninjak, it would have taken an extra couple of pages!

So here is a quick summary of the new Advantages the sample Valiant heroes have. The rest can be found in the Mutants & Masterminds Hero’s Handbook or Basic Hero’s Handbook. Please note that this is not final text, but a behind-the-scenes look at just a sample of what is in store in the Valiant Adventures manuscript!

Counterattack: If an opponent hits you with a Close Attack, you can use your Reaction to make an immediate Attack against them, before your Resistance Check against their attack’s Effect, if any.

Exploit Momentum: If an opponent misses you with a Close Attack, you can use your Reaction to immediately attempt a Trip Attack against them, and they do not get an opportunity to try and trip you.

Fallen Inspiration: When you are Incapacitated (including Dying or even Dead) you immediately gain a Hero Point and can then divide your current total Hero Points as you wish among any allies able to see or hear you.

Gadgets: You have access to one (or more) Gadgets, temporary Devices. Each Rank in this Advantage lets you produce one Gadget per adventure. The Gadget can have total Effect Ranks no greater than the series Power Level and any Extras count as additional Ranks equal to the base Effect Rank. Each Gadget is good for one Scene, after which it is no longer usable, unless you expend an additional use of this Advantage. All of your uses of Gadgets reset at the start of each adventure.

Menacing Attack: If you render an opponent Incapacitated (including Dying or Dead, at the GM’s discretion) you can use your Reaction for an immediate Overwhelm Action against all Minion opponents able to see and hear you.

Opportunity Attack: When an opponent within range of your Close Attack moves, and their movement would take them out of your Close Attack range, you can use your Reaction to make an immediate Close Attack against them before they leave your range.

Power Stunt: Each Rank in this Advantage lets you perform a Power Stunt without suffering any Fatigue. All of your uses of Power Stunt reset at the start of each adventure.

Ripose: If an opponent misses you with a Close Attack, you can use your Reaction to make an immediate Close Attack against them.

Sleeper Hold: You can put a target into a hold to knock them out. Make a Close Attack Check against a target’s Parry Defense as a Standard Action. If you hit, the target must make a Fortitude Resistance Check against a DC of (10 + your Strength Rank):

Success: No effect.
Failure (one degree): The target is Dazed.
Failure (two degrees): The target is Stunned.
Failure (three degrees): The target is Asleep.

On your Turn, you can take the Concentrate Action to maintain the sleeper hold, requiring a new Resistance Check from the target. Success removes the condition imposed by the sleeper hold and the target escapes. Failure means the Effect increases by one degree until the target is asleep. Sleeping targets get a Fortitude Resistance Check each minute to wake up unless they’re deliberately awakened.

Split Attack: When you take the Attack Action, you can divide your attack between two different targets. This usually represents rapid, but less forceful, attacks in order to hit more than one target. Divide the Effect’s Rank between the two targets as you wish and make an Attack Check for each target. The attack works on each target normally at its reduced Rank.

Tactical Advance: When you impose the Dazed or Stunned Condition on an opponent, allies able to hear you can use their Reaction to move their Speed towards that opponent.