There’s a power in DC Heroes that can take control of an entire room. An entire scene. Maybe the entire session. And it doesn’t touch anything.
Illusion.
You’ll find it on page 56 of the core book. Doesn’t look like much. One of those soft powers people flip past while hunting for Blast or Flight. But if you stop for a second and really read it, you’ll realize Illusion is built for the long game.
It’s a tactician’s weapon. A scene shifter. A power for people who don’t want to win fights. They want to make the other side lose on their own.
Mechanically, it’s simple. APs set the size and how long the illusion lasts. No physical damage. No interaction with the world. Just perception. You can’t walk on the fake floor. You can’t grab the fake sword.
But you can believe it’s real. And if you believe it’s real, that’s all the power needs.
I’ve seen players fake stairwells during chases. Disguise broken doors. Turn a wide rooftop into a pit. None of it real. All of it effective.
If a target believes the illusion did damage, they take Mental damage. It gets resisted by Mind, not Body. So the strong guy who shrugs off lasers? He might drop to one good illusory punch if it rattles him hard enough.
Illusion works best when it’s used quietly. When the player lets the room move just enough to create panic. That’s how it plays. This power is not for players who want the spotlight. It’s for players who want to control the room without anyone noticing until it’s too late.
And GMs? Let them be clever. Let the power matter. If they fool someone, don’t handwave it. Let the villain retreat. Let the henchmen fire at shadows. Let the battlefield feel like a trap.
Because in this game, sometimes the most dangerous thing in the scene... isn’t even there.
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