by Adam Friedman
About This: I’ve tried to boil down the various changes which exist in the Wizkids Clarifications section for Modern pieces into distinct categories; the objective is to give a sample of effects that have been changed, and how they’ve been changed. I have not included pure templating changes or instances which appear to be mainly cosmetic (such as changing effects from ‘as a free action’ to FREE:). Where I have noticed a trend, it should have some game-play impact which can occur while interacting with various effects. I will do what I can to list effects which should have altered interactions. I will also cite the powers that are relevant to a given description (though perhaps not every single one). Citation format will be the collector’s number for the figure and the name of the effect. For certain trends the number of cases were sufficiently numerous that citation has been deemed unnecessary and cluttering, and they are left off there.
Locked Values:
M-G004 Omni Wave
M-028 Blue
ADW 101 They Must Still Fear
D-026 4th Dimensional Teleport
D-026 Send you through
M15-001 Bodyslide
NFAoS 24 Deadly Sniper
JW006 Invasion from the skies
Basically every Punisher Weapon
M16-001 The Arms of the Octopus
Locked is now a defunct game term, however there is not a universal wording change. How an effect has been altered seems to depend on the kind of value that was being locked, and/or why it was locked. Effects that locked a value at a higher value than printed now create a minimum (Deadly Sniper now has minimum 10-Range). The difference here is that it is possible to utilize a greater value if you achieve it without use of the minimum (so giving Winter Soldier a Sniper construct and then Perplexing up his range will allow him an 11-Range for Outwit/RCE, whereas previously locked 10 meant this was impossible).
Effects dealing with range will often state to perform the effect “with a range of.” This means the range value has no impact whatsoever, regardless of how it is modified. (see punisher weapons). Effects which actually cause the character to move will no longer involve the speed value. Instead it will just state how many squares the character can move (see Invasion from the skies). This means other effects that alter speed will not impact them anymore (such as the old D20 Brown power interacting with Sidestep or other effects). Where damage is involved, previously locked effects will instead deal a specified amount instead of normal damage. (see Omni Wave) there are not many effects that were able to mess with this, but again effects like D20 Brown no longer interact.
Maximum Values are used to limit effects to a smaller number than expected/normal. (see Blue) This means effects that reduce values still potentially apply (such as Carry’s penalty) whereas they would previously be inapplicable.
Where a value is actually being replaced with a different value, and it is desired to not be modified the language “With a value of… which cannot be modified” is used instead. (see Punisher weapons generally, for specific example Frag Grenade). The effects that work this way are likely to involve attack and/or range values specifically, as other more-preferred templates are available for damage and movement (I suspect defense-replacement-effects to generally get the same treatment as Defend, using printed values, however there were no examples present on the clarifications for modern).
Where more than one of these templates could apply it isn’t entirely clear why it should be one over another (for instance I think it makes much more sense to have Deadly Sniper be ‘with a value’ instead of a minimum, to put it in line with the Punisher weapons and similar effects. My personal suggestion is to avoid minimums/maximums when another template works instead such as ‘with a value of.’ Also the ‘move up to’ template should be preferred over any alternative that interacts with combat values).
Lightning Bolts:
MP16-s109 Flamethrower (as well as other punisher weapons, though they are largely single-target)
Changes to the Lightning Bolt symbol now appear to be defunct, instead effects will specify an alteration to the ‘number of targets.’ I don’t know every effect that exists, so characters that care about numbers of bolts will be affected by this change.
Example hypo: [character] has an effect that says “When [character] hits with a ranged attack, deal damage to the target equal to the number of :bolt:s they have in addition to normal damage.” Will no longer deal more damage because a character is equipped with the Doc Ock Arms relic (which originally gave 4 bolts, but I would suggest now grants the character ‘up to four targets when making ranged attacks’). The effects that gave extra bolts were somewhat rare, and I don’t actively recall any “targets matters” effects, however such an effect could easily be printed in upcoming sets, so having this issue known and dealt with now just saves trouble later.
Phasing usage during movement:
D-026 Send you through
An effect that directly moves a character through terrain no longer does so via power-granting. Where and effect previously would have Phasing utilized, now instead the character will just gain the relevant movement symbols. I did not spot any such examples for Leap Climb, Flight, Swim, or Sizes. The main difference here is that effects that interact with the Phasing power no longer do so (so Orange Battery would no longer stop these effects if Phasing was chosen).
As there is only the one example I found, I am not sure if this is particular to Weird, or is a general trend. But it is worth being aware of for similar/equivalent powers that might exist in golden age.
General New Wording Conformity:
Where a standard power has undergone noticeable changes, but not a complete overhaul (Quake, Pulse Wave, Energy Explosion, but NOT Regeneration), effects are reworded to conform as closely as possibly to old functionality under new templating. Most common example is effects specifying how much damage will be dealt while using the power, such as “Pulse Wave but with 2 damage instead of 1” and various wording changes to Energy Explosion that make things more clear, such as specifying ‘original targets’ (because now the additional characters become targets rather than using old AoE templating.) For these effects, reword to new templating and fit the effect as closely to prior functionality as simply and easily as plausible.
Best example for how to adapt, compare FF SFoSM 001’s Web Slingshot under old wording versus as clarified, it shows a good example of what is considered a minor change (the power does mostly the same stuff), and also a good example the kinds of fixes that ought to be applied. MOST cases where a modification of a standard power occurs should follow this model, I will note the specific cases where this is not true in their own sections below.
Range and Line of Fire:
Compare the changes in
UXM 064 Bio-electric tongue of extreme length; and
006b Nick Fury’s Personal Bodyguard
There are some cases where language surrounding range and line of fire has changed. I cannot quite understand the how or why here. I think the best bet is just do what intuitively makes sense for the specific effect, assuming the old language doesn’t just ‘work.’
For general trends, if you are doing something with relation to a square and it needed range and line of fire before, it will still use that language. However if you are targeting as part of a ranged attack, line of fire language will be eschewed (but still required in terms of rules). I believe this is largely just cleaning up redundant language under new templating, but there may be weird cases so it’s worth being aware of.
Carry is now Passenger: X
This change is actually noted in the general clarifications log, the Carry term is now defunct. Wherever you saw Carry under old wording replace it with the Passenger symbol with the relevant number. Apply any restrictions to that use of passenger as appropriate. This is a substantial functionality change, because different ‘carry’ effects no longer automatically stack (like how Flight + size change used to).
Generate:
Noted in the general clarifications log, where an effect creates bystanders it now uses the term ‘Generate.’ What it means to generate is now covered more extensively in the core rulebook, rather than having a series of ad-hoc rulings for particular bystander creation effects.
Counter is now ‘can’t use’:
UXM 015 Just one Touch
SFoSM 023b I AM THE CURE
CACWm 012 Sow Insurrection
CW 002 I wanted to talk, but…
DXF 064 Smash well-developed sense of irony
WI046 Imprison and cure super beings
Counter is now a defunct term, old instances of the word have been replaced in one of two manners. Most effects that previously used Counter now instead just replace that term with “Can’t use.” These effects are no longer stopped by Power Cosmic or similar effects (which are all changed to Protected: or PROTECTED: Outwit, now). They also can affect powers not showing on dials or otherwise ‘possessed’ as defined under old rules.
However in some cases the effect has been re-templated to actually use the power Outwit instead of merely changing to “can’t use.” As a general rule, the use of Outwit occurs when the countering would occur ‘after actions resolve’ (now ‘after resolutions’), in all other cases just replace counter wording with can’t-use wording. For examples, see:
014 SMWW Electromagnetic Pulse
JW 040 Sleep Gun
Untargeted effects may now target:
WF054 I’ll kill every Batman there ever was
Where an effect implicates multiple figures with the same effect, the old templating was to just include them in the effect (similar to how AoE worked). Under current templating it appears these additional characters are now just also targeted. This has implications for effects that care about targeting, such as Subterfuge Luthor.
If an effect specifies it doesn’t target, I would suggest that it actually still does not target. However where an effect is silent as to whether it targets, then if the original choice is a target then all the additional choices should also be a target. (So if you Perplex one character and get to apply it to more, all of them should be targets, because Perplex targets. If you give Enhancement bonuses to multiple characters it will still remain untargeted because Enhancement does not target).
Probability Control and Rerolls:
M-027 To Fight Another Day
Probability Control no longer applies to rolls other than breakaway or attacks, so all effects that gave use of Probability Control for other purposes now just grants a single ‘re-roll.’ This has a subtle gameplay impact, because it means none of these re-roll effects prevent one another (so if a character gets a free ‘prob’ only to use on Regen, it will now just be a re-roll, and Probability Control can still be used in addition, since the Regen-re-roll was not a use of the power Probability Control).
Regeneration was Overhauled:
DXF 057 Cannonball
ADW 010 System Reboot
ADW 040 Count Nefaria
d15-006 Can’t keep the main man down
SMWW 038 Many Deaths and Mind Swaps
SMWW 041 SHAZAM!
JW038 Undead and Undying
Because of the complete reformatting of Regeneration, Wizkids has gone further to attempt to conform old functionality into the new templating as much as reasonably possible. This does NOT always result in a 1-1 analogue to how the effect previously worked, but compared to other effects they have gone out of their way to try and get close. Where other changes will just let weird incidental differences go (such as many Counter effects now bypassing Power Cosmic), special forms of Regeneration have had extra effort put into them.
My recommendation is to try and find the closest analogue on this list and apply the same fixes as were done there. For a sample, here are some relevant ones to keep in mind. Common themes to look at are “what is this doing TO a normal regen roll.” Because of how involved this is I’ll go through each instance to demonstrate here.
Cannonball: Old wording meant roll a D6 heal that much. New wording means roll D6 heal that much. He received additional changes to remove the -1 heal penalty from STOP because he was able to have a guaranteed heal while taking the DPA under old functionality.
Iron Man: Old wording was roll d6 heal 1 less than roll (profile of 0-5). New wording is add 1 to the heal result (profile of 2-4). This change has the same result net of the changes to regen itself: Iron Man’s heal is always 1 better than normal. It is just that “1 better than normal” has changed in meaning, so his new wording has changed to conform, despite this changing his functionality in terms of results.
Count Nefaria: old wording was roll D6 heal that much, new wording does the same.
Lobo: Old wording roll d6 subtract 3 (profile of 0-3), new wording reduce amount healed by one (profile of 0-2). The reverse of Iron man, Lobo heals 1 less than normal when healing as FREE, the change in regen means there is a change in results.
Dr Cyber: old wording when cyber heals at least 1 off regen get a bonus effect, new wording bonus effect when healing at least 2. There are two plausible readings of this. One is that the effect used to succeed on a 3+ so the new effect needs to succeed on a 3+. Alternatively it is that he procced on one greater than minimum result so new effect procs on one greater than minimum result. I think the latter interpretation is easier to apply to other effects that might be similar and would recommend reworking them in that way.
Mary Marvel: Old function was roll d6 heal that, new function is same. Same note regarding STOP as Cannonball.
Talon: Arguably the most confusing change, also the one that most requires looking at the profile. Old wording meant roll a d6 subtract action tokens, heal that much (profile of 0-6). New wording is roll d6 add 2, then subtract number of action tokens (profile of 1-5). In both cases the effect is “regen, but heal 2 more while on 0 tokens, 1 more while on 1 token, and normally while on 2 tokens.” However the changes to regen necessitate different results (similar to Iron Man’s change).
Overall the best advice I can give, is to look at what the effect did to the old regen roll (typically it is either make it better, make it worse, or remove penalties from the roll), and try to find the closest analogue from this list and apply it. I suspect there will not be many cases where these examples don’t cover how to handle it.
