Extra Speed to Abort

[Christopher R Taylor]

In the questions section, someone asked if they could buy extra Speed just to abort with, but they wanted to be able to just have a free floating phase they could call on once a turn without losing any of their ordinary actions. Simon properly stated you can't do it that way.

 

But I wanted to discuss ways you could make it work.  Obviously if you go from 4 to 5 speed you gain one more phase, but you cannot just burn that phase whenever, you still are trapped in the way speed breaks down across a turn.  You have 4 phases to act on (3, 6, 9, 12) with 4 speed.  5 Speed adds one (3, 5, 8, 10, 12) but you have to act on the phases allowed.

 

Now I have built characters with 3+3 or 4+4 speed before (3 speed to do anything on, +3 speed only for combat, so you have 4, 8, and 12 to move and execute skills, do presence attacks, etc on, and 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 to fight on).  That simulates a normal person with extraordinary combat ability very effectively in my experience.  But it works best because you're overlapping phases, and it breaks down well on the speed chart.  4+1 is awkward because you cannot act faster than 5 segments a turn, but it looks like you might be able to (look at the chart, I go on 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 12!!).

 

Basically you can move normally at speed 4 but in between some phases you can act once more as an "abort" of your speed 5.  But what's a more elegant way to do it?  Seems like trigger or time delay is a better method.

[unclevlad]

I'll toss out...maybe it shouldn't be SPD related.  There's too much baggage there, as CRT notes.

 

Let's just talk combat utility.  The unit would be once per turn;  you could in principle buy more than 1.  Let's call it Instant Recovery.  The effect is that you are allowed, as the rules thread poster noted, execute an action to which you could abort, even if your phase is over.  You invoke this;  your last action simply "rewinds" from a terminating action, to a non-terminating action.  You then execute the abort action.  Per normal...the character loses his next phase.  For simplicity, I'd probably say he couldn't apply an Instant Recovery again until after the phase he spent for the abort has passed, as per 6E2 22.

 

I'm thinking this wouldn't be cheap, as...while you might not need it that often, when you do need it, it's likely to be at a crucial time.

 

Thoughts...?

[LoneWolf]

I can see allowing a character to put limitations on their SPD but only if the lower SPD is able to go in every phase the faster SPD can.  This is going to mean that you have to buy double your slower SPD.  This avoids the character needing to change SPD during a turn.  The character actual has the higher SPD even if they cannot always act in all their phases.   Otherwise, you would need to wait until both SPDs can act to change SPD which kind of defeats the purpose.  

 

Even doing this is likely to cause problems with END.  The character will need to spend END for powers that cost END for all their phases even those they cannot act on.  The way around this would buy up their recovery and put a limitation on it that it only works for END for the extra phases.  So, you will need to calculate the END cost for any ongoing powers and by enough recovery to cover them.  Since this is actually very limiting it should not cost that much.  

 

For the most part I usually recommend that characters don’t change their SPD during combat and will look carefully at any character that does so.  If I think it is going to be too much trouble don’t allow it.   These types of characters have the potential to really complicate the game and if they do so should not be vetoed by the GM.   In some cases, like what Christopher is talking about they don’t cause problems and should be fine, but other can create a lot of problems.  
 

[unclevlad]

But that's also getting into why you divorce it from the SPD mechanic altogether.  

[tunglashr]

That was my question. This is one of the times where the system (in this case the SPD chart) holds us back. There is no logical reason why its ok to buy 3 extra SPD (if you have 3 SPD) so you can get more attacks, but you are not allowed to just buy 1. It exposes the inherent clunkiness the SPD chart itself brings to the table. The SPD chart already causes excessive 'gaming' anyway - holding a phase now because the enemy has some SPD that makes it advantageous to do so, etc. This is one of the reasons my group hasnt used the SPD chart in 10+ years.

 

The reason I wanted to do this power was so the character in question (I am the GM and making this for one of the players) can use her Deflection to save innocents when it isnt her turn. This is the kind of thing she likes to do. This character has no ongoing powers to pay END on, so many of the issues previously mentioned are unimportant. The one that does make a difference is using block and dodge, rather than just Deflection. 

 

So I was considering +5 SPD (the character has 7 SPD) only for Deflection (-2), only activates once per turn maximum (-2). This way every phase she does not have an action, she has a deflect available, until she uses it.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Well, it comes down to what you're actually trying to do.  What is this supposed to simulate, what do you want the extra speed to accomplish?  Does it have to be speed or could it be better simulated with something else?

[Doc Democracy]

1 hour ago, tunglashr said:

So I was considering +5 SPD (the character has 7 SPD) only for Deflection (-2), only activates once per turn maximum (-2). This way every phase she does not have an action, she has a deflect available, until she uses it.

 

This is the way I would do it.  I would not bring in the extras Lonewolf was mentioning (that she is now a SPD 12 character as far as ongoing powers are concerned) because I would't deliver ongoing benefits, like recovery or ground speed.

 

The key question would be cost.  You are proposing it would cost 10 points. So no advantage on regular SPD.  But this way would vary.  A SPD 3 character would have to pay 18 points. 

 

I suppose it makes sense to cost less for faster characters, there is less additional utility, but I don't think it should ever cost less than 12, because, the utility to use the action on ANY phase makes it better than just 1 regular SPD.  The justification for floating the cost would be that your second limitation is probably worth less for higher SPD characters.

 

Doc

[LoneWolf]

A lot of powers provide ongoing benefits so you don’t actually need to purchase extra SPD.  This is particularly common for defensive powers that you can abort to.  Deflection is based on blocking which you can continue to do after the first try even in phases you do not go on.  When you continue blocking you take a -2 penalty for each additional attack after the first.  A better way to do this would be to simply buy a bonus to the deflection and not worry about SPD at all.

 

If you want to abort to different defensive actions after already having aborted a phase that is essentially being able to act in more phases in which case you should buy up your SPD.  The only other possible reason for this would be to somehow be able to abort to an action after you have already gone in a phase, this should not be allowed.  If you want to be able to do a specific action buy that with the advantage trigger with an automatic reset.  The ability to automatically be able to perform any defensive action without losing any of your normal phases is not balanced and should not be allowed.  

 

To me this whole concept is kind of a red flag.  How would you describe this without using game terms?  For me anytime a player wants a power that they cannot describe without using game terms that is often a red flag.  If it is something obvious like wanting to be able to defend against the body of killing damage that is one thing, but other than those types of things I want my players to be able to describe what they are doing without using game terms.  Using game terms to define the game mechanics is fine, but they should be able to define the power without doing so.  
 

[Jason Reid]

Can't something like this be bought and tweaked as a naked Trigger advantage on the Deflection?

[Simon]

As LoneWolf notes, the problem with this is not in the rules or how to build it, it's the base concept -- it's being defined not as an effect but as a rules construct. 

"The character can abort to defensive actions without losing his next Phase."  Great...what if the character is a SPD 4, it's Segment 3 and the character has already acted.  Can they take a defensive action in the same phase (effectively acting twice)?  What if they're attacked on Segment 4, abort to a defensive action, and then are attacked again on Segment 5 -- can they abort again to a different action? Not defining the power concept without directly referencing rules opens it up to a slew of inconsistencies and problems.

If you define it in terms of effect, you're able to follow one of the cardinal guidelines in HERO -- reasoning from effect.  

"The character is extremely skilled in combat, they're able to move so well that they are extremely difficult to hit."  Well, that's pretty easy to build -- increased DCV.  

 

"...but this only applies for melee combat. Ranged attackers are able to target the character without issue."  Good! We've just moved from straight DCV to defensive combat levels, HTH only.

 

"...and they're able to move in a manner that sets them up for their next attack."  Let's toss in some offensive combat levels with a few appropriate limitations.

 

And so on - the better you define the effect you're after the clearer the build becomes.

 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah, that was what I was trying to get at: what does this power actually do?  Don't think in terms of speed, think in terms of effect, then figure out what that means in terms of build.

[Duke Bushido]

10 hours ago, tunglashr said:

 There is no logical reason why its ok to buy 3 extra SPD (if you have 3 SPD) so you can get more attacks, but you are not allowed to just buy 1.

 

I hadn't intended to go terribly long winded here, but as I read further, I realized I wanted to make more than one comment.  Apologies in advance.

 

First comment:  the only thing stopping you from doing this is the rules said no.  Remember that the rules also say things like "dramatic sense," "with GM approval," and "change anything except what I have already changed."  There are others, of course, but these are the ones to focus on.

 

First, that last one is the absolute easiest to ignore.  I mean, guve the history of this game, it borders on offensive as a rule anyway, so go ahead and highlight that with black Sharpie.

 

Now focus (I have got to figure out how to write rules onto this autocorrect; the auto-typo for that is going to get me banned if I ever fail to catch it) on the better, more traditional rules:  they boil down to "if a change works for you, then make that change."

 

Additionally, we have been able to buy Characteristics as Powers since Day One, and "extra bonuses to characteristics" since shortly after that.  In all cases, we have allowed the use of that +X characteristic at any time the Player wished.  For some reason, we _assumed_ that we couldn't do that with "plus X SPD," in spite of the fact that like _all_ Plus X Characterisitcs, we have been doing it since before there were actual rules for it.

 

 

Once you embrace the parts of the rules that say "change things if something else works better for your games", the only thing holding you back is, quite literally, the least important consideration:  the approval of a couple dozen strangers around the world who in all likelihood will never game at your table anyway.  It is reminiscent of the high school dating scene:   I really, really, liked her, but my friend said she wasnt cool enough and my other friend said I should find a thinner girl, so we broke up."

 

 

Personally, I would playtest it first.  When I say that, I do _not_ mean "do some mental exercises, roll some dice, check the math, and maybe look at some anydice probabilities.  I mean when your game settles in for a session, announce "I am going to allow this, but I need,everyone to understand that I may revoke it at any time if it proves problematic to the overall game or the flow of the plot."  Then play a session.  If it doesnt prove problematic, play another.  After five or six sessions, you should have a better feel on if you wqnt to continue allowing.  You may disallow it; you may tweak it.

 

 

 

 

10 hours ago, tunglashr said:

It exposes the inherent clunkiness the SPD chart itself brings to the table.

 

The Speed Chart as is doesn't bring any clunkiness; rigid adherence to the rules while trying to work _outside_ the Speed Chart creates clumsiness when attempting to model a character with faster reaction times, more movements, or more actions overall than other characters.  Modeling characters who get ten actions for every two actions another character might have is only possible because of the speed chart.  The Speed Chart even opens up some interesting options beyond that; talk to Scott about facing off against a monstrous opponent with an SPD of Negative One.

 

Now here are the two ways I dealt with this problem back in the eighties, and still do.

 

 

The first was deciding to allow a power called "extra Phase."  Extra Phase cost 30 pts, being built as SPD +1 with the +2 advantage that it could be used at any point within a turn.

 

This power was built originally for a "Stranded Time Traveller" concept who was able to see just far enough into the future that he was prepared to defend or press an opening.

 

Typically, Players used the "Linked" construct (I don't think this survived into 6e; now you just write ut all on one line or something) to create things like a "preemptive counter-strike" (thank you, GWB) provided a successful Danger Sense roll, or to create an instanteous "decoy duplicate" by, in game terms, stepoing back in time a phase to "also Dodge the incoming attack against my decoy."

 

At other times, they would pick a specific use for it (only,to,speed up Haymker" was hugely popular with bricks.  In this case, we dediced it allowed a brick to make one Haymker in a single Phase per Turn.  This was for a character who was a boxer who developed super powers from experimental perfoemqnce enhancing drugs.  His trained boxing reflexes,"kept him prepare to deliver a devestating blow with the tiniest of openings.

 

We used it for super sharp-shooters in a similar fashion, allowing then to set or brace or whatever instantaneously to simulate- again- a combination of intense precision training and super-reflexes.

 

 

Despite all the nay-say, it worked _fine_ and proved totally non-problematic.  Still use it periodically for Speedsters and psychics.

 

Later, at some point around the turn of the century, we realized that we weren't playing a lot of supers (most of us are scif-fi fans), and at some point we started ignoeing the rule that doesn't let you use a held action on your actual phase and hold the action from your actual phase.

 

That is: I hold my actions for Phase 3.  I have a Phase on Phase 6, but I burn my held action then and hold Phase 6, etc.

 

I mentioned that one here once some months back as a solution for someone wanting to do something similar to that, but again- I was met with a list of the rules I was ignoring.

 

Apparently it was just one, but some folks found it important enough that it should be pointed out more run once.

 

The problem with this rule is that what I am doing still plays within the confines of the Speed Chart:  you only get a "fresh" action on your Phase, and you cant have more than one held action.  It also simulates the source material where a prepared character is ready for a surprise action, reacts to it, and is still able to respond to a follow up action _immediately_.

 

So in this case, I posit that the Speed Chart is not clunky; the rule is there specifically to restrict it from its potential in this aspect.

 

There is absolutely no argument that the Speed Chart  leads to racism, but at some point, this is a problem with _all_ simulations: you have Combat, Maneuvers, and mapped movement.   The things that you have available are all you have.  It follows that your tactics (if you are better at that than I have ever been, anyway) are composed of the things you have available.

 

No one can convince me that they have never built a DnD character to fully-utilize Attack of Opportunity selected race, class, and alignment specifically to put together a,percieved "unbreakable defense" or "unstoppable attack."  Tactics.  You use what the game is built from to implement them because the game is built to work that way.  Even in Traveller, you are hard pressed to find anyone wearing Reflec _under_ anything.  Player Characters will try to put it on over battle dress the same way they want to put ablative under something heavy.

 

 

Still, gaming rhe Speed Chart is another reason I suggest talking to Scott about SPD: -1.

 

There is potential within the speed chart that just doesn't get tapped because most folks are concerned with how to "get one over" on it.

 

 

 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

There is no logical reason why its ok to buy 3 extra SPD (if you have 3 SPD) so you can get more attacks, but you are not allowed to just buy 1.

 

No one has argued that you cannot, only that it won't work the way you want it to.  Its awkward to do so because of how the speed chart works; if you do not have overlapping phases, it gets weird figuring out when and how that extra phase fits into the mix.  I'll explain in more detail.

 

If I buy 4 SPD, then +4 SPD for combat, the speed chart looks like this in terms of what segments my character normally acts on:

4 speed acts on 3, 6, 9, 12

8 Speed acts on 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12

So the total chart looks like this (bold face is the phases the character can do anything on): 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12

You can easily see what phases you can act on only for combat, and which ones you can act however you want.  Those phases are shared and regularly spaced through the turn.

 

But if you have 4+1 speed it looks like this:

4 speed acts on 3, 6, 9, 12

5 speed acts on 3, 5, 8, 10, 12

because of the lack of simple overlap the speed chart is a mess: 3, 5, 8, 10, 12

So what phases do you act on, and which do you only get combat action?  If you try to squeeze 4 speed into 5 it looks like this (italics being the segments phase 4 acts on, but 5 does not): 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12

 

You can't get MORE phases in between, because you only paid for 4+1.  You don't get a free 7 speed with a weird count just because you purchased 5 speed.  So what phases do you get to use only combat on?

The answer is that you have 4 speed, and in between sometimes you have another segment you can act on, and can pick which you want; in this case 5, 8, or 10.  But only one of them.  Its confusing, excessively complicated, and not very elegant, which is a huge help in Hero character design.  Elegant saves time, doesn't require you to re-figure out how the character works each game session (once every week or two?), and is clean and easy for your GM to grok.

Edited July 16, 2023 by Christopher R Taylor

[Doc Democracy]

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Yeah, that was what I was trying to get at: what does this power actually do?  Don't think in terms of speed, think in terms of effect, then figure out what that means in terms of build.

 

I think it is a bit different from the usual kind of question, what it wants to do, is provide the character with a but of added potential to do heroic actions, the character can intervene to protect innocents and, once every 12 seconds, the character can do that even if they do not have an action, or an abort, available.

 

The reason I would have little issue with it is that it facilitates an heroic shtick.  Even when it appears impossible the heroine finds a way to put herself between an innocent and danger.  The rule is even easy for a GM to understand, "the player can, once a turn, use deflect to protect an innocent, even if they don't have a phase to abort to".

 

Yes it is outside the normal use of the rules, but that is what makes it special.  The big question for me is how much you charge for it.

@Duke Bushido is right.  Do it, use it on probation for a few sessions, then decide whether it works or not.

[LoneWolf]

4 hours ago, Jason Reid said:

Can't something like this be bought and tweaked as a naked Trigger advantage on the Deflection?

 

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?  If all you want is to be able to use deflection multiple times you don’t need to do anything except take a -2 penalty to the roll for each additional use as long as you did not miss the prior roll.  To counter the penalties simply purchase one or more 2-point skill levels with deflection.   This not only counters the penalty it also increases the chance of deflecting in the first place.    

 

A naked advantage on a specific power is by definition not a naked advantage.  Putting a trigger on deflection turns this into a power that can always be used.  If the trigger automatically resets as a 0-phase action you are essentially doubling the characters SPD, by allowing them to attack and use a defensive action in the same phase.  

 

One thing to really keep in mind is that anything your character can do the GM can also use against you.  Do you really want to have to deal with this type of thing from the other end?  How are you going to feel when your opponent's start pulling this?  I would rather face a character with skill levels in deflection than one that can always deflect while attacking and that resets the penalty every phase.   
 

[Christopher R Taylor]

If you want a character who can do heroic things to save people in times of need, then trigger does, to me, seem like the idea solution.  It will be somewhat expensive, but you can buy a trigger that takes no time as a naked advantage to "any action to do something heroic" up to x points and buy that as the power you want.  If it automatically resets one a turn, you now have your extra speed point.  That way there's no need for a new probationary power or testing; its in the rules.

[Doc Democracy]

55 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

If you want a character who can do heroic things to save people in times of need, then trigger does, to me, seem like the idea solution.  It will be somewhat expensive, but you can buy a trigger that takes no time as a naked advantage to "any action to do something heroic" up to x points and buy that as the power you want.  If it automatically resets one a turn, you now have your extra speed point.  That way there's no need for a new probationary power or testing; its in the rules.

 

As I said, it comes down to how much you are willing to spend.  Do you gave a rough idea of what that trigger power would cost?

5 minutes ago, Doc Democracy said:

 

 

Looked at the book, so base Deflection is 20 points and the trigger would be a+1 advantage, so 20 points as a naked advantage.

Edited July 16, 2023 by Doc Democracy

[Christopher R Taylor]

You'd need a suite of different heroic defensive powers, like "put a force field on target" or "grab object/person away" and so on.  Maybe a multipower of Heroic Gestures.  Then the Trigger is based on the Multipower's pool, the most expensive power in most cases.

[Doc Democracy]

6 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

You'd need a suite of different heroic defensive powers, like "put a force field on target" or "grab object/person away" and so on.  Maybe a multipower of Heroic Gestures.  Then the Trigger is based on the Multipower's pool, the most expensive power in most cases.

 

Well, the OP of the question (you opened the thread here) was quite explicit in this thread that it was just deflection.

 

23 hours ago, tunglashr said:

The reason I wanted to do this power was so the character in question (I am the GM and making this for one of the players) can use her Deflection to save innocents when it isnt her turn.

 

So, as an isolated thing, the trigger is not too expensive and would provide a lot more functionality than the one use proposed, so I think either method probably comes out about 12-15 points. 

[Jason Reid]

19 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

A naked advantage on a specific power is by definition not a naked advantage.

 

Huh? Sure it is. From 6E1 314:

Quote

There are two types of naked Advantages: naked Advantages bought to apply to any one of a group of powers (like the Autofire example above); and a naked Advantage bought to apply to a specific power (like the STR example above).

 

As long as the Trigger is bought with it's own advantages/disadvantages, it could be naked. Which would be necessary, because without something limiting the Trigger to a character's off-phases, it would apply to the Deflection 100% of the time and then the player wouldn't be able to use the power without a Trigger (APG2 47).

 

As far as what I'm trying to accomplish, I'm trying to help the player realize their hero fantasy is all. I'm in general not a fan of players finding ways to get more effective speed and actions in combat, since that tends to skew their table time at the cost of the other players', but in this case it sounds like the player wants to model a hero with a little extra capacity for protecting innocents and this seems like a way to do it. I probably still wouldn't allow it as GM but if the GM is cool with it, this is how I'd do it (mainly b/c I'd prefer to base the point cost on the power the player is using off-phase rather than on a more arbitrary limitation on SPD).

[LoneWolf]

1 hour ago, Jason Reid said:

As far as what I'm trying to accomplish, I'm trying to help the player realize their hero fantasy is all. I'm in general not a fan of players finding ways to get more effective speed and actions in combat, since that tends to skew their table time at the cost of the other players', but in this case it sounds like the player wants to model a hero with a little extra capacity for protecting innocents and this seems like a way to do it. I probably still wouldn't allow it as GM but if the GM is cool with it, this is how I'd do it (mainly b/c I'd prefer to base the point cost on the power the player is using off-phase rather than on a more arbitrary limitation on SPD).

 

As I said before deflection is based on the block maneuver so it sounds like they can already do what they want to.   Once you start blocking you can continue blocking additional attacks until your next turn comes up.   The rules specifically state you do not need to abort to do this.  Each block after the first takes a -2 penalty.   Once you miss a block you cannot make further blocks.   

 

I have a character that does this.  The deflection is in a multipower which he has 4 skill levels with, and he has an additional 6 skill levels with deflection for a total of 10 skill levels.  He actually has a low SPD compared to the rest of the characters so spends a lot of time deflecting.  He has been very successful in protecting others including saving a lot of innocents.   Purchase the deflection with the advantage No Range Modifier and the character will be very effective at stopping attacks.  Since deflection’s base cost is only 20 points it only costs 30 points to buy it with No Range Modifier.  If the character has a high OCV in addition, they have a good chance of completely shutting down an energy blaster or other ranged combatant.  

 

Part of being heroic is making the choice to protect others even if it costs you something you want.  Being able to save someone and still attack is in my opinion less heroic than having to decide between saving the innocent or taking out your opponent.   
 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

Huh? Sure it is. From 6E1 314

 

What he's saying is that when you buy a power, and buy an advantage on that power, its just an advantage.  What the book is referring to is, for example, a ring that grants you armor piercing punches, or a set of braces that reduces END on your running.  So you can technically buy a naked advantage on a single power, but only if its something not inherent to that power.

[Hugh Neilson]

2 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

As I said before deflection is based on the block maneuver so it sounds like they can already do what they want to.   Once you start blocking you can continue blocking additional attacks until your next turn comes up.   The rules specifically state you do not need to abort to do this.  Each block after the first takes a -2 penalty.   Once you miss a block you cannot make further blocks.   

 

I have a character that does this.  The deflection is in a multipower which he has 4 skill levels with, and he has an additional 6 skill levels with deflection for a total of 10 skill levels.  He actually has a low SPD compared to the rest of the characters so spends a lot of time deflecting.  He has been very successful in protecting others including saving a lot of innocents.   Purchase the deflection with the advantage No Range Modifier and the character will be very effective at stopping attacks.  Since deflection’s base cost is only 20 points it only costs 30 points to buy it with No Range Modifier.  If the character has a high OCV in addition, they have a good chance of completely shutting down an energy blaster or other ranged combatant.  

 

Part of being heroic is making the choice to protect others even if it costs you something you want.  Being able to save someone and still attack is in my opinion less heroic than having to decide between saving the innocent or taking out your opponent.  

 

I don't think it is wholly unreasonable for the player to envision the character needing to react after having taken an action other than deflection in his or her previous phase.  "I'll just do nothing, just in case something needs deflecting later" seems less than heroic and, more importantly, very boring for the player.

[LoneWolf]

My advice was based on the OP stating his player wanted to be able to use deflection to save more people.  I was pointing out that deflection can already be used in the manner the player seems to want to use it.  There is no reason for the character to have extra phases that can only be used to deflect when he can already deflect every phase until his next phase.  A character with a 5 SPD who acted in 3 can on phase 4 cancel to deflection and continue deflecting thorough phase 7 without needing to buy anything.  The cumulative penalty starts to add up so I had suggested purchasing skill levels to allow the character to deflect despite the penalties for deflecting multiple attacks.   

 

If a character wants to act more often in a turn, they should simply increase their SPD.  Don’t put limitations on it as that complicates things and actually ends up giving them less flexibility.  Part of building an effective character is recognizing what the character will need to function.  A big part of it is giving the character adequate stats.   If you have a defensive ability that requires you to spend time for it to work your character should think of purchasing more SPD.   Don’t assume that you are going to be able to attack in ever phase your character goes in.  A character with a power like deflection should factor in the fact that using it will reduce his ability to attack.  

 

If you want to be able to deflect without spending a phase build your deflection with a trigger that automatically resets immediately after use.   You are probably going to need a variable trigger, so it is going to be expensive.   This is likely to get vetoed by a lot of GMs.  
 

[Doc Democracy]

The point that you can deflect and keep deflecting or, if you have already acted and it is not the same segment, you can abort your next phase to deflect has been made quite strongly.

 

It is possibly quite unlikely this power would ever have to be used.  What is wrong with charging 12-15 points for a power that they might never use.  You would probably let them pay 10 points for a point of SPD for the same extra action per turn that could be used for anything.