Godhood

There is a trait that PCs have but players do not need to be aware of called Transcendence. Transcendence can't be enhanced or obtained in any way, such as from Variable or Enhanced Trait, but can only be granted by the GM or due to power level. The short explanation of what Transcendence does is to say that minions have Transcendence -1 and players have Transcendence 0 but there is also a Transcendence 1 and above. There is no Transcendence below -1. Characters with Transcendence 1 (aka Transcendent 1) are so much more powerful than Transcendence 0 and may interact with them using the minion rules. Characters with Transcendence 1+ are not necessarily gods although citizens tend to have a hard time telling the difference between god-like characters and actual gods and demigods due to the immense power.

At power level 20 a character will have Transcendence 1 and every 20 power levels after that gain another Transcendence. It is possible for a character to have more Transcendence than power level would suggest but not less: power level 20 characters must have at least Transcendence 1. Minions have Transcendence determined by power level as normal but have a maximum Transcendence equal to 1 less than their master. All player characters have a minimum Transcendence of 0. All objects have Transcendence -1. Non-player characters with power levels 0-2 have Transcendence -1 and power levels 3-19 have Transcendence 0. Citizens and other irrelevant characters are usually minions (T -1). If you don't like the idea of a sudden ascendance of power from PL 19 to PL 20, you may decide to ease in the transition by allowing some features but not others at a lower PL.

Minion Rules Revised

As long as your HP is 1 or less you are treated as though you had 1 less Transcendence than normal (with exceptions).

You cannot score critical hits against an opponent of higher Transcendence. This only applies to natural Transcendence and not one imposed by low HP.

If you attack an opponent of lower Transcendence you may do so as a routine check (only against active defenses not passive).

If you are 2 or more Transcendence lower and you use Nullify or Weaken against your opponent, you automatically fail.

If you are 1 Transcendence lower and you use Nullify or Weaken against your opponent, you are considered to have rolled a -3 instead of rolling but this is not considered a critical failure.

If Transcendence is the same then Nullify and Weaken are rolled normally.

If you are 1 Transcendence higher and use Nullify (but not Weaken) against your opponent, you are considered to have rolled a +3 instead of rolling but this is not considered a critical success.

If you are 2 or more Transcendence higher and use Nullify (but not Weaken) against your opponent, you automatically succeed.

If a character with Transcendence -1 fails a defense check, that character suffers the worst degree of the effect. This only applies to natural Transcendence and not one imposed by having 1 HP or less.

HP minimum is always -3. A character with Transcendence -1 has a maximum HP of 1 everyone else has a maximum HP of 6.

Benefits Of Transcendence

The following rules apply to characters with Transcendence 1 or more:

Characters with Transcendence 1+ are also allowed to use Fortitude to resist Nullify since their powers have become a part of them.

There are some powers and upgrades that are listed below that can only be purchased by a character with at least Transcendence 1 (see New Traits below).

New Traits

Each of the following powers and advantages can only be purchased by a character with at least Transcendence 1 although you may make exceptions. God-like characters tend to also have Concealment from Detect Transcendence and Concealment from Analytical Detect Powers assuming they don't already have the Beyond Mortal Godhood advantage. If (Senses) Detect Transcendence is used on a character with Transcendence -1 or 0 it will indicate absence and if used against a character of Transcendence 1+ it will indicate presence. Each of the Transcendent advantages can't be mimiced in any way even by a higher Transcendence character (not even via A God I Am). In order for a device to have a Transcendence power the maker must be at least Transcendence 2.

Table: New Traits

*Note that it is not possible to buy Alter Metaphysics, see page for details.