Can you implant minions in someone?

Question

I will be playing in a M&M game in two weeks and my character concept is an A.I who is everpresent(Represented by summon and teleport abilities) and I was wondering if I could implant an insubstantial minion inside someone via a microchip as sort of a fail safe with the minion being able to watch over that persons actions and activate control procedures(Repeatedly hit them with affliction till they are controlled) should they do something evil?

Answer 1

Firstly you need to remember that M&M cares about the effect of powers, not the mechanics. So if I have a power that lets me open a small portal and punch through it (making a melee attack against an opponent at range) one way to build that would be to buy ranks of Elongation equal to the range of your teleport. The descriptor would then be "Opens portal to punch through" and you would likely buy an extra to indicate that you don't need to have a direct path, and a Limited to indicate that you don't gain the benefit to grapple checks.

So for your example of implanting a chip into someone to monitor them and allow you to mind control them from a distance would be Remote Sensing, Limited to those you have had helpless for (however long chip implantation takes), and another Perception-Range Cumulative Affliction Sense-Dependent on Remote Sensing.

That's the best way to build the Effect, in my opinion, and I hope you remember to get GM approval of the concept - this guy would make an EXCELLENT villain, but I'm not sure how this power works for a hero.

Answer 2

Implanting minions is probably out of the question, since a) the game really doesn't have a built-in setup for people invisibly riding others, and b) Summon is pretty prohibitively costly for a lot of summons, and the Minion advantage technically does not have any provision for multiple minions in a way that doesn't require you to spend a power point on each minion.

Easier would be the Triggered modifier.

You can “set” an instant duration effect with this modifier to activate under particular circumstances, such as in response to a particular danger, after a set amount of time, in response to a particular event, and so forth—chosen when you apply the modifier. Once chosen, the trigger cannot be changed.

The circumstances must be detectable by your senses. You can acquire Senses Limited and Linked to Triggered effects, if desired. Setting the effect requires the same action as using it normally.

A Triggered effect lying in wait may be detected with a Perception check (DC 10 + effect rank) and in some cases disarmed with a successful skill or power check (such as Sleight of Hand, Technology, Nullify or another countering effect) with a DC of (10 + effect rank).

A Triggered effect is good for one use per rank in this modifier. After its last activation, it stops working.

The Gadget Guides entry for Traps has some additional rules for Triggered, including additional modifiers to make the Triggered effect harder to detect, disarm, etc. The one tricky bit is the line about how "The circumstances must be detectable by your senses". You technically would need to build a way to surveil those people you have tagged, although as noted, you can buy Limited Senses (or Limited Remote Sensing) that only apply to detecting that trigger condition.

Alternately, you could combine Remote Sensing with a Perception range Affliction to be able to zap people from anywhere. But that kind of gets into something else you'll have to consider with your character, the bathroom mentalist, basically, building characters that are never at risk, because they're never actually there, instead using powers to target people from afar, the classic case being the mentalist who never leaves their heavily fortified bathroom. With AIs, the general way in which that's avoided involves primary interaction being via a robot suit that is the player. There was also a Green Ronin construct (it might be from 2E) that built the AI as an immobile Insubstantial character with a Teleport that required an internet connection as a Medium and a Device that bought back up the absent Dexterity/Agility/Strength to provide a robot suit with the applicable weaponry while selling back the Insubstantial.