"Touch" however does not require a line of sight, and it occurred to me there could be tricks with other super powers used to give powers to people from a further sense of detachment.
I got the idea of a hands-off villain who doesn't expose themself to risk but gives powers to their minions, or even just random people in society, to create trouble. I'll list them and was wondering what commentary people had on them, plus any additional ideas/powers that come to others' minds.
MAJOR POWERS
1) Stretching/Elasticity (HU2 pg 292) lets you grab stuff 170ft away, so off the bat it gives a greater reach than a max-level no-touch version - although I'm not sure how instantly you can span that distance. You could also flatten yourself against a floor and maybe just empower people walking on top of you without them even knowing you're there? Good way to prowl.
2) Sonic Speed (pg 289) lets you move a mile every 5 seconds (3 miles per melee round) so in relation to the "how long does it take to stretch your body that far?" in previous channel - you could just run up superfast and run away superfast probably without people noticing... I can't find rules how "Speedster Prowl" though. There's probably a loud sonic boom to tip people off that something is happening if you do this, but by the time they actually turn towards where the sound is, you're probably already gone - isn't this near to effective invisibility in some functional ways for average people's reaction times?
3) Shrink (99% prowl) or Invisiiblity (pg 277) could let you approach and remain topping up super powers (HP permitting) without getting noticed, but they still keep you in range of danger if the person you empower gets hit with Area Effects.
4) Intangibility would let you approach/exit gifting powers from interesting angles, and by phasing mostly into objects you could probably hide from plane sight or get cover from the rare abilities that could hurt you. It might also be argued that this could prevent (or at least miniimize) the sonic boom created by Sonic Speed, since maybe you're interactive with air molecules? Begs the question of "does the intangible invisible man walking through smoke create a silhouette?" I guess? You clearly still have to breathe air while intangible so there's SOME interactions... and we know gas can enter the bloodstream by phasing through it.
5) Mechano Link (pg 282) might be a bit of a stretch, but if "man and machine become one" is taken more literally than metaphorically, then perhaps anyone touching the machine you're linked to is also touching you? Like for example if you're the "Power Pilot" flying a 250ft Beoing then maybe you could just give superpowers to people in the back of the plane you're linked to?
6) Machine Merge (pg 74 of PU3) might be a more literal version of this though
7) Multiple Selves could be used to have your copies go out and give powers to people while you remain behind with an alibi - you an instantly absorb them from 100ft away so you have a more flexible exit-plan, and if they get hurt in the process, they'll recover within a day.
Swarm Selves (PU3p101) shares elements of Shrink and Multiple Selves - but the copies only have 5 hit points and so it's unclear if they could even activate Grant Powers given that it burns 1D6+6 Hit Points (7 to 12, 9.5 on average). We do know that a mini-self (the technical term) can fall into a coma (this happens automatically if a mini-self is ever more than 20ft away from another mini-self.... travel in pairs!) so perhaps this could just be seen as automatically putting them in a coma due to negative hit points? The auto-dodge and prowl abilities make them solid on the approach, but unless they hide themselves well they're vulnerable during that coma and will probably die - unlike normal humans who can persist PE hours in a coma these things tend to expire in under 17 minutes. On the plus side there's no permanent stat loss when this happens - you just heal the HP.Normally I wouldn't think negative HP suffered to a mini-self would carry over to the original ("the loss of Swarm-Selves reduces the hero's total Hit
Points when he transforms back" would be pretty brutal otherwise) but I think in this instance, where HP is consumed as a resource to power a super ability, having the full amount spent on the power carry over to the original would probably be fair.
Duration/Range of powers is also 1/4 so if a mini-self could use Grant Powers instead of 3 minutes per level you're only getting 3 melee rounds per level. I'm not sure if healing powers (which pair well with both Grant Powers and Swarm Selves, obviously) would be similarly compromised. Something like Super Regeneration (pg 99 - 2d6 per melee) could otherwise reverse coma-inducing damage pretty quickly - though it doesn't say anything about standard coma recovery rules not applying, so HU2 pg 18-19 (surviving PE hours without treatment, up to PE below zero) probably applies - meaning hourly recovery rolls? It seems treatment from another person is always needed though, except in the case of a swarm self going into a coma from the 20ft gap rule.
Many powers give a +??% bonus to save vs Coma and Death, which supplements these base abilities, I'm just not sure how it works with zero treatment - is that considered a 0% base chance, meaning you have a chance to survive even without help? Or would the "unprofessional, medical individual, but with medical skills: 01-18%" always be required as a base to apply a % bonus to?
The way Optional Damage Rules (pg 19-20) could apply to these powers is interesting to imagine. I think the baseline -1 initiative/strike/parry/dodge and -5% skills/speed per 10% hit points lost seems the best way - the Minor Injury Table is when you suffer "attacks" after all - and instead of cumulative 10% losses of HP is I think meant to only apply to an all-at-once loss of that HP.
MINOR POWERS
1) Extraordinary Speed - for a similar effect as Sonic Speed on a lower tier
2) Line Transit (PU3p16) lets you move 5 miles a melee (it mentions a mile per action, every 3 seconds, assuming people have 5apm...) and it's maintainable for several melees before needing to pop out at exit nodes. Seems like an aspect of what APS electricity can do? I'm not sure the consequence if you reach the max duration without an exit node though. Great for selling 'super powers for thrills' for wired internet customers, but not as useful for sending minions into the field.
