Continuing from yesterday's post, more villain Approaches:
Leech
Leech grants average Power dice, below-average Quality dice and Health, and two ability choices. Their abilities are:
Hypnotic Gaze - Solid defensive reaction that becomes very good if it blocks all damage, at which point it self-Boosts and Hinders the Attacker. The wording is a bit wonky and should really replace "that target" with "the attacker" instead.
Life Drain - Efficient Attack bundled with same-target Hinder and minor healing, uses all three of your dice.
Power Consumption - Unusual reaction that preemptively destroys a bonus used to Attack you and adds it to die roll for major healing. Once foes know you have this they'll probably just not use bonuses to Attack you, which is still helpful but makes it a bit of a one-use trick.
Siphoning Wither - Strong Hinder bundled with a freely targeted Boost.
Unnerving Whispers - Multi-target Hinder with minor healing. Adds a strong single-target Attack if you roll doubles.
Violent Vitality - Decent Attack with a minor but persistent and exclusive Boost that can target anyone.
The list has a good-to-great defensive reaction, two good Attack options, two good Hindering tricks, and a rather strange reaction that translates to a big heal and then nearly shutting off bonuses when Attacking you. Even has a bit of Boosting scattered around, most of which can target allies. Three of the abilities include some healing, which can compensate for the slightly low Health.
I can't see what you'd really need to add that would stay on theme, since messing with foes' dice sizes is the domain of the Dampening Approach rather than the Leech. Still, villains being villains one idea for a homebrew ability does suggest itself:
Uncontrollable Hunger (I) Attack using [Power]. Hinder the same target using your Min die. If you target an ally with this ability, also use your Max die to both Boost yourself and Recover that much Health.
That gives you a fairly weak ability for use against foes that becomes much stronger if you treacherously assault a fellow villain or (more likely) hapless minion. Seems about right.
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Mastermind
The Mastermind has narrow but strong Power dice, an extremely large number of Quality dice with average die sizes, average base Health, and two ability choices off this list:
Contingencies Upon Contingencies - Good self-Boost that can either be made persistent and exclusive, or you can self-Boost again with your other two dice.
If My Calculations Are Correct... - Reaction to take one damage for a reroll on your own dice or a hero who's Attacking or Hindering you. About as versatile as this kind of dice-fixing gets.
Exploit Weakness - Mediocre Attack bundled with a strong multi-target Hinder.
Reversal of Fortune - Reaction that uniquely Boosts you using an Attacker's Max die. Doesn't prevent any damage, though.
Prepared for Anything - Unique reaction that lets you self-Boost at the start of your turn if you have no bonuses in play.
Villainous Monologue - Multi-target Hinder that affects every foe that can see or hear you, so feel free to phone it in from safety. Villains with this trick love having access to public address systems, television broadcasts and the like. Has a good self-Boost bundled with it for added spice.
This is a really selfish Approach, with multiple self-Boost options and none for allies. Very little in the way of Attacks but there are two very strong Hinder options. Despite having three reactions to choose from it doesn't have a direct way to reduce incoming damage, although if it hands out loads of penalties that can help a lot. Unusually, all of its keyed abilities use a Quality despite having a d12 Power die.
It's tempting to add something homebrewed to this to make up for having so many reactions on the list, but given how different most of the abilities are I don't think it's needed for variety.
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