The closed catalog of rider and drawback terms. Riders cost damage budget (each one is −1 damage from cost + mastery); drawbacks refund it (+1 damage each, max 2 per power). Most drawbacks have no ranks — Charge is the notable exception, not the rule. Total net modifier points (rider points minus drawback points) on a power cannot exceed its energy cost. If net points equal or exceed cost, the power deals no damage at all — its whole budget went into effects. Mastery never raises this cap. The sheets enforce this automatically: damage reads 0 once the cap is hit. How to use these terms when translating a player's fiction into a balanced powerset lives in Building Powersets.
Control Stacking general rule: if a character is afflicted by multiple controlling effects that each allow or require an attribute roll to escape or mitigate them, note the required attribute options from among each of those effects. The character may use their highest attribute from among all of those listed options to roll. They only roll once with that attribute, and compare the result to each DC of the effects they are inflicted by, succeeding against any they meet or exceed individually. If one of these effects is from the Restrained rider, and they choose to spend energy to buy down the DC, the -2 modifier to DC applies against every simultaneous DC they are rolling against, not just Restrained itself.
Control riders
Bind. Applies its degree as a penalty to the target's attacking rolls for one turn, maximum 3. Bind is a debuff, never movement denial. For holding someone in place, use restrained (below, usually on the base quirk).
Restrained. The target cannot move under its own power. Escape DC is set by ranks alone — 1 rank is DC 7, 2 ranks is DC 9, 3 ranks is DC 12 — using the game's standard / challenging / difficult ladder. Restrained caps at 3 ranks; buy bind, stagger, or another rider instead of higher ranks. The DC diminishes by 2 automatically each round. Rolling to escape is a standard action: roll Might, Finesse, or Speed (narrate how — break it, slip it, or outmaneuver it before it hardens), and the escapist may spend any amount of energy as part of that action to reduce the DC by 2 per point spent. Energy spent this way is expended only on success of the roll. Once the DC has decayed to half its starting value (round 2 or later for most powers), the victim also gets one free unmodified escape roll at the start of each of their turns — the ice is cracking, the tape is stretching — before deciding how to spend their actions.
Forced reposition. Any involuntary movement of someone else: push, pull, yank, slide, slam, or moving an ally out of harm's way. The power's description defines the allowed direction when narrow. Rank 1 locks one predefined direction at build time (Tape Snare always pulls toward the user; Canyon Cannon always pushes away). Rank 2 lets the user choose push or pull per use. Rank 3 allows free directional choice, such as hostile telekinesis. Most powers are rank 1.
Reposition. Personal-scale movement only — the user moves themselves. Grants an immediate unhindered move on use: 1 point = half move distance, 2 points = full move distance. Ranks 1–2 grant no hold: ending midair means falling on the same turn unless landing on stable ground. 3 points = full move distance, and the no-fall hold lasts one turn after use: the user stays suspended through the following turn, then falls on the turn after unless the power is used again or a sustained power keeps them up. Unlike forced reposition, direction is always unhindered. Escape, blink, rocket-dash, and shadow-travel movement all use this term. Movement granted this way avoids reactions against that movement.
Setup (mark / stealth). 4-rank rider. Rank 1 is mark: the tagged target grants +1 to the next attack roll against them (by anyone), expiring after 1 turn if unused; multiple marks do not stack. Mark never improves with further ranks. Ranks 2–4 add stealth on top of mark: the user (or the attack's origin) cannot be directly targeted until they attack or the turn ends. An enemy may spend a standard action on an Insight check to spot a stealthed character early, ending the concealment — DC 7 at rank 2, DC 9 at rank 3, DC 12 at rank 4. Attacking always ends stealth.
Area. Hits everyone in the affected zone, friend or foe. Indiscriminate is not implied; take the drawback below for friendly fire. Default to one of four shapes — radial burst, ranged burst, cone, or line — and invent a new shape only when none fits the concept smoothly. Weight each point of area rider against the power's range: cones value accompanying range more than lines do, since lines reach further but cover a narrower area; radial burst grants a larger area per point of area rider than ranged burst does.
Persistence. Leaves a hazard or residue that triggers on contact. Unless the core theme differs, the default function of the persistence rider creates a zone of difficult terrain that requires a Speed check to navigate through successfully. The number of ranks of Persistence rider sets the DC. 1 rank = DC 7. 2 Ranks = DC 9. 3 Ranks = DC 12. Failure causes the person navigating the hazard to take damage equal to one-half the damage of the power that spawned the hazard. A persistent hazard lasts for a duration of 2 turns total, and a character can only have one persistence hazard active at a time. Activating a new one causes the old one to vanish. In order to have the persistence hazard produce other effects, such as slowing or immobilizing opponents, those effects have to be purchased through other riders added to it, such as restrained or stagger.
Stun. One step of DC per point of stun rider (1 point = DC 7, 2 = DC 9, 3 = DC 12). The DC applies to any attempt by the stunned character to take a standard action; movement is unaffected. Lasts until the character succeeds on a check to take a standard action, or until they spend a move + standard action in a turn on nothing but clearing it. The check is Might or Insight, whichever is higher.
Sleep. Full disable and unconsciousness. Lasts a number of rounds equal to the points of sleep rider the power carries. The sleeper wakes automatically on taking damage or being physically shaken awake; the GM may allow an Insight check to wake from loud nearby noises when narratively appropriate. The sleeper may wake early by spending energy equal to the cost of the power that put them to sleep, but takes no action on the turn they wake.
Blind / deafen. Blind penalizes rolls that need sight; deafen penalizes rolls that need hearing. Either typically lasts one turn per degree.
Stagger. Movement and footing disruption, scaling with points. 1 point = slowed: half move distance for 1 turn. 2 points = trip: half move distance for 1 turn plus a −1 penalty to defense rolls for that turn. 3 points = knockdown: the target is prone — half move distance and −1 to defense rolls while prone, and standing back up costs a move action.
Pierce. Cover-penetration. Each point buys one rank, cumulative: rank 1 ignores penalties to hit from soft cover; rank 2 also lets the power strike a target fully hidden from view behind intervening cover at −2 to the attack roll, and such a blind shot uses Insight as its key attribute for the attack roll; rank 3 removes that −2 penalty.
Multi-hit. A flurry of strikes that escalates its carried riders. Roll each strike separately against the target; a miss never stops the chain — roll every strike regardless. The power's total damage is divided as evenly as possible across all strikes, so effects that trigger per hit apply more than once while effects that blunt a single hit blunt only one strike. Each hit beyond the first adds +1 rank to every other rider the power carries, up to a maximum of rank 3 per rider. Each point of multi-hit adds one extra strike to the flurry. Multi-hit itself adds no damage or effect value on its own — its budget cost pays only for the chance at escalation.
Drain. No ranks — a single flat rider. On hit, the user recovers 1 endurance.
Defense. 5-rank rider. The user reduces the next application of damage they receive by an amount equal to the ranks of defense. If on a sustained technique, this refreshes at the start of each of the user's turns.
Heal. Restores endurance on the power's target equal to two points per rank of heal. Cannot be applied to powers with greater than zero damage. Ranks of this rider are subtracted from the target's energy pool when healed.
Debuff. A temporary, targeted attribute sap. The targeted attribute is chosen at ability creation and is never chooseable on ability use. On hit, the target takes a −1 nonstacking penalty to that attribute (minimum 0) for 1 round per rank of debuff. Multiple applications do not stack — they only refresh duration. The penalty applies to all rolls using that attribute and to every derived stat except endurance pool.
Augmented. Sustained-specific. Each version is a unique 1-point rider that adds the user's mastery level to one aspect covered by one attribute. Examples: strength adds mastery to non-quirk damage; speed adds mastery to effective speed for movement distance; awareness adds mastery to the difficulty for enemies to remain hidden. Etc. Augmented never adds mastery to to-hit rolls.
Knockback, pull. Retired terms. Both are now forced reposition rank 1 with the direction fixed in the power's description.
Burn as a standalone term. Retired term. Ongoing damage of any kind — flames, acid, frostbite, discharge — is now the linger drawback.
Escape as a standalone term. Retired term. Personal escape movement is now reposition.
Mark, stealth as standalone terms. Retired terms. Both are now setup.
Reposition moving allies or objects (e.g. Cement Platform). Retired usage. Moving someone other than yourself is now forced reposition; personal movement only uses reposition.
Slow, knockdown, prone, trip as standalone terms. Retired terms. All are now stagger at the matching rank (slow = 1, trip = 2, knockdown/prone = 3).
Telegraphed as a standalone term. Retired term. Folded into Charge — use Charge ranks for wind-up and broadcast setup instead.
Nullify, copy, counter, open as standalone terms. Retired terms. Power suppression (Erasure-style nullification), power borrowing (Copy-style mimicry), and reactive trigger plays (counter-style responses and the fictional openings they create) are bespoke power descriptions, not general riders — write what the specific power does in its own text.
Drawbacks
Indiscriminate. The power cannot spare allies in its area.
Self-stun. As the rank-1 stun rider, but inflicted on the user. DC 7 against any attempt by the user to take a standard action; movement is unaffected. Lasts until the user succeeds on a check to take a standard action, or until they spend a move + standard action in a turn on nothing but clearing it. The check is Might or Insight, whichever is higher.
Linger. No ranks — a single flat drawback. Shave 2 damage off the power's initial hit; that damage instead plays out as 1 damage per turn over the next 2 consecutive turns (tick at the start of the victim's turn). Re-applying the same power overwrites the lingering damage rather than stacking it, and the victim or an ally can end it early with a move action — cleansed damage is simply lost. Example: a 5-damage power with linger becomes 6 damage on paper, deals 4 up front, then 1 + 1 over the next two turns unless put out or overwritten.
Exhaustion. No ranks — a single flat drawback. After using the power, roll the power's key attribute vs DC 7; on a failure the user gains 1 point of burn.
Charge. Setup time before the power fires, paid in actions on top of the normal standard action to use it. Charge is the one listed exception to the 2-drawback, 2-point refund limit, and a power carrying Charge cannot carry any other drawback if it is higher than 1 rank. 1 point requires the move action in addition to the standard action; 2 points requires both the move action and the focus action in addition to the standard action; 4 points requires a full turn spent charging, taking no actions, with the power firing on the following turn. There is no 3-point Charge — the full-turn setup counts as 4 points to pay a premium for the lost turn. A move action spent on Charge must be unspent — if the user has already moved any distance that turn, the move action is unavailable for charging.
Strain. Sustained-specific drawback. While the power is active, every move action or standard action the user takes costs 1 energy each.
Slow. Sustained-specific drawback. While the power is active, the user's speed is halved for movement distance. If the user's speed is halved again by another source while Slow is active, they become immobile. May be taken as a 2-point drawback for full immobility while active instead.
Focused intent. Sustained-specific drawback. While the power is active, the user cannot use any other power that costs energy.
Conditional. Its own standalone drawback. Heavily relies on GM judgement — the GM / Assistant gets final say on whether the condition is met. The condition must be clearly listed in the technique description (e.g. needs shadow, only while airborne).
Wolfpack. Shiloh-specific scaling drawback. Each rank requires one split body adjacent to the target when the technique is used (Wolfpack 1 = one body, Wolfpack 2 = two bodies, etc.). If the required bodies are not in position, the technique cannot be used. Ranks refund damage normally (+1 per rank, within the 2-drawback limit).
Recoil. The power kicks the user backward on firing. The user suffers forced reposition on themselves of 10 feet plus 10 feet per range category of the power (Close = 20 ft, Mid = 30 ft, Long = 40 ft, Extreme = 50 ft), and takes 1 endurance damage to themselves. Cannot be taken on powers with range less than Close.
Sustained. This drawback has no in-game effect — a sustained duration already costs the focus action every turn to maintain, with activation cost paid once. Do not add it freely: read Building Powersets first, and take it only on a sustained power where it is needed to make the work.
Named drawbacks from specific powers (such as a Dabi bonus) stay on those powers until generalized; do not copy them onto new builds.
