How do Quickness and Inventing/Artificer/Ritualist work(M&M3e)?

Question

Is it possible to have, say, Quickness 20 (Limited to One Task (Inventing)) and thus push the time it takes to create an invention below a second and thus make an invention in under a second (hypothetically even a free action)? If so, that seems overpowered: the ability to just have any device (or any magic power, for Ritualist or Artificer) available whenever you want without having to spend a hero point or risk the negative effects of jury-rigging. Please help, knowledgeable people of the interwebs!

Answer 1

Honestly, it works exactly the way that you state. Both the design and construction can be done as routine checks, and therefore can have Quickness applied to them. So, theoretically, it means he could create anything within the limits of the his technology check, as you say, on the spot.

But what about materials?

Nothing in the rules for Inventing says that you have to have raw materials to work with.

Isn't that broken?

Yeah, a bit.

But what if your GM says no?

Then no, you can't do this. M&M defaults to a very strong Rule #0 where the GM is expected to run the game in a way where everyone has fun. They can outlaw any power combination or concept they like, and the player gets to either accept that decision or not play. And the GM can make that decision at any time, including in the middle of the game.

M&M does not try to be a balanced game. It is a game with all sorts of exploits. And, sometimes, that is fun, to see just how broken you can make a game, but honestly, it's something that way not be fun long term for you, the GM, or anything else.

Answer 2

While this is possible, there are two important factors that limit the scope of how much damage someone can do with this combination (even with just regular Quickness 20): the Skill-Check required and GM ruling.

For the first part, the DC you have to meet in order to successfully create the design of the invention/ritual is equal to "10+ the Inventions Point Cost" (Mutants and Masterminds 3e: Heros Handbook, page 159), not including the Removable flaw; you then need to succeed on this check a second time to actually construct it, not to mention these are tests that your Game Master makes in secret, not by the player themselves. In any case, the upper limits of what you can pull out of nowhere is directly limited by the Power Level of the campaign you are participating in. Say, for example, you are in a PL 10 campaign and maxed-out the skill you use for Inventions/Rituals. This gives you a +20 on your roll to make a thing, meaning the only thing you can nearly always succeed on is a 10pp power (such as a Rank 5 Ranged Damage attack). If you go all the way up to a 20pp power (making the check a total of 30), you have a 25% chance to actually get what you're asking for. At PL10, anything worth more than 20pp is statistically beyond your ability to create. Between this heavy restriction and how points-heavy particular powers can be (such as Variable, Shrinking and Summon), Inventions and Rituals are comparatively benign.

Moving on, and the more important point, the Game Master is well within their power to either veto this particular interaction or enforce the inherent limits on physically constructing a thing. Mutants and Masterminds is an extremely simple system to exploit a lot of the time, requiring a lot of oversight from the GM to make sure everyone is tuned down (or more rarely tuned-up) to an equal standard of play. Moreover, scenarios in Mutants and Masterminds are rarely straight forward brawls with their opponents; there are usually several elements that you need to juggle with combating the villains (such as saving civilians, dealing with complications, struggling against the environment, etc.). As to what the GM may enforce upon such a power, it could be limited by your access to adequate tools and the clutter-free work-space necessary to weld, glue and screw your contraption together. Another possible condition that can be enforced is the need for raw materials to work with. If you have a power to permanently Create these materials, they can rule that you're limited to how much of a material you can produce for construction purposes each turn and/or require you to have a highly robust array of Creation powers in order to have the correct materials at your disposal.

I hope all of this helps, have fun!