Different backgrounds often account for the different numbers of qualities, and then the combination of power source and archetype typically determine how many abilities and powers your character will have.
So is there something about Interstellar, Alien, Minion Maker that gives a low number of Powers and Qualities?
I'm comparing it to the example heroes in the book, and they're all between 8 and 10.
E: I figured this out, something I accidentally skipped in trying to match other things up.
"For instance, you can't make an ability from your power source key off a power you gained from your archetype"
Where is that rule in the book? Or the wording that implies it?
Edit: Sorry, the original was a bit heated of me.
The wording implies it, basically. In the Guided or Constructed methods, you won't have selected any Power or Qualities from an archetype when you are selecting abilities for your Power Source, and thus they are not available options.
OK, I get what he's saying now -- thank you.
In term of playability (in a group), this limitation makes sure that some of your abilities will be based on 'smaller' power dice, thus encouraging more variety during play.
Can anyone confirm that you can use a power or quality gained in a previous step fo fuel an ability, so long as it otherwise qualifies?
e.g., If the criteria for an Archetype ability is a power or quality "from the [archetype] list," and you have a power or quality that is on that list, but you "acquired" it in an earlier step, is that a legal choice?
There are cases where this must be true, such as with Strength and Physical Powerhouse. But I don't know if those are exceptional or what.
I believe that it is legal in the general case, but would like to be sure.
The Metallian
As long as the quality or power lines up with what it says you're fine. You are definitely fine using Strength for an ability under Physical Powerhouse even if you didn't pick it up as part of the Archetype.
And you could always use your one retcon to change the POWER/QUALITY that an ability uses if you really want an ORIGIN ability to based off a power/quality from your archetype or you RP quality
" And you could always use your one retcon to change the POWER/QUALITY that an ability uses if you really want an ORIGIN ability to based off a power/quality from your archetype or you RP quality."
True. but you would still be on the hook to have had some qualifying power or ability at the time the ability was chosen. And retcons are precious.
The Metallian
I just found this thread, and I wanted to chime in defense of Divided
Divided lets you do a couple unique things:
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Divided Psyche means you have a civilian form that’s rolling Quality+Quality, and a super form that’s rolling Power+Power. That means your civilian form can focus on social and information qualities for social/investigative purposes, which all pair together pretty easily. And then your heroic form can focus on powers that pair together for action scenes.
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Personalities. You can get two Personalities. Getting a d10-d8-d6 personality for your civilian form, which is mostly used in social/investigative scenes with green dice maxes that, and a d6-d8-d10 personality for your heroic form which will mostly be used in higher stakes yellow- and red-zone scenes.
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As someone that played around with Divided a bit, those are definitely the two potential advantages of it. However, both of those advantages have issues that need to be accounted for.
The first is that you end up with exceptionally focused characters. As a rule, you have a total of 9-10dice: three Qualities (counting your RP quality), three Powers, three from your Archetype, and maybe one other one from an Archetype or Power Source. Split evenly, that’s only 4-5 choices per side, and you’re less likely to have high dice in both areas because you’re less likely to have more than one d10 Quality and more than one d10 Power at the same time.
It is a versatility advantage, but no more so that taking a single d8 Power that’s generally useful in your civilian form.
The second, and larger issue is that it really hurts your Abilities. Your civilian form is probably relying almost entirely on Principles, since most of your Abilities can’t be used without Powers.
The final, and largest issue, is that it either eats an action every fight, or forces you to do something weird at the start of a fight. The biggest problem with Divided is that the various ways of transformation either require a full action, or require a specific condition and also only give you a partial action. With the action economy in Sentinels being so sharply limited, this is a pretty huge deal, and it’s one that the other mode-shifting Archetypes account for but Divided doesn’t.
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That’s fair. I made a a sample divided character to see how it worked, and I ended up with plenty of dice, but I think that was partly down to having a dice heavy background and power source.
And even then, I just assumed that the abilities would be for the heroic form only, and that the civilian form would be relying on basic actions only.
I can see it feeling a lot more restricted with a more dice-poor set of backgrounds and power sources.
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Just wanted to flag here that Field of Energy specifically says “Attack multiple targets near each other using [power].” That’s a catch. No other “multiple targets” AoE contains that clause and so they are capable of attacking targets that are spread out across the battlefield (within reason) in a way that Field of Energy isn’t.