Acrobatic Powers

Superheroes in comic books use acrobatics to do all sorts of nifty things, but the Acrobatics skill in Champions doesn't really reflect those leaps, spins, and tumbles. In order to remedy that situation, the following "Acrobatic Powers" have been designed.

These powers can be used to represent the ability to use acrobatics to avoid enemy attacks by agile acrobatic flips and tumbles. Note that because they require a full move, they can't be aborted to, and cannot be used in a phase during which the character wants to attack. They are based on 5 pt. levels since that is the minimum cost for skill levels with advantages or limitations.

"Acrobatic dodge" is better than even a martial dodge, and significantly more expensive; "acrobatic evasion" is expensive for what it gives you, unless the character has a really high acrobatics roll. One option is to buy both and link the two, so that if the roll is made, the character has a large DCV, and if it's made by a lot, the character has an enormous DCV.

The above can be accompanied by the following, which represents an acrobat's ability to leap nimbly out of the way of spears, arrows, bullets, and even laser beams. Note that "missile evasion" is a half-phase action which can be aborted to. This represents the ability to use acrobatics to gain an advantage in combat — leaping over an opponent's head and striking before he can turn, for example. This next ability represents the ability to use acrobatics to swing from one handhold to another — like Daredevil or Batman swinging on a flagpole or jumping from rooftop to rooftop. A failed acrobatics roll in this case can either be embarassing, if the character is close to the ground, or fatal — if he isn't. Acrobats should probably be better than other people at things like rolling with the blow, diving for cover, and coming up again quickly. An acrobat could buy straight skill levels with these abilities, or could base them on Acrobatics and call the result a "Tumbling" skill. Tight rope walking can be purchased as a type of Flight (only to move across narrow surfaces, -½) and pole vaulting can be purchased as Superleap with an Acrobatics roll, an Obvious Accessible Focus, and the limitation "only for vertical leap" (-½).

The skills and powers that an acrobat character should have include, besides Acrobatics itself, Breakfall, Climbing, Stealth, Swinging, and maybe Clinging.

Remember the scene in Blade Runner where Pris, the replicant played by Darryl Hannah, tumbles toward Harrison Ford's Deckard and lands on his shoulders, crushing his head and neck between her thighs? That attack might be purchased as a martials arts manuever, as follows —

— or it may be purchased as a power using advantages and limitations, like so: Essentially, the acrobat does a half move toward the target and makes an Acrobatics roll; if it fails, the scissors choke cannot be used. If it succeeds, the acrobat must then Grab the target, with SFX of leaving the target's arms and legs free — the acrobat's legs are wrapped around the target's head and neck. If the Grab succeeds, the attacker may use a scissors choke on his next phase as a half-phase action that doesn't end his phase; the attacker may also make a half-phase punch attack, for example. No new attack roll is necessary until the target breaks the Grab, at which point the acrobat must begin the whole process over again.