Continuing from yesterday's post, more villain Approaches:
Skilled
Skilled villains have barely average Power dice but stronger and more numerous Quality dice, slightly below-average Health and the usual two ability choices from the following list:
Best in the Biz - Solid self-Boost bundled with a minor Hinder. Despite the name, a rather weak villain ability. If you want to make it more attractive, adding "This bonus is persistent and exclusive." to the boost effect would do the job nicely.
Dodge and Weave - Defensive reaction that stops damage and deals the same amount to another target.
Consistently Capable - Unique innate ability that reduces the size of penalties you take by one.
Flexible Expertise - Versatile ability to take any basic action using your Max die, bundled with moderate healing. The best of this style of "wild card" basic action abilities.
Incomparable Inequity - Strong persistent Hinder.
Misdirection - Solid multi-target Hinder that adds a moderate Attack on each target if you roll doubles.
Something of a jack-of-all-trades list, the standout features are probably the innate penalty reduction option and the "do anything well and heal" trick. It also has a solid reactive option that both blocks and inflicts damage and two good Hinder abilities, one multi-target with an unreliable Attack rider and one persistent. The sole Boost ability is pretty lackluster, but I've suggested a homebrew patch for it above. There's not much in the way of reliable damage dealing here, so you'll probably want to look for an Archetype that offers some.
Not sure this needs any homebrew help beyond that one patch, in part because I struggle to see what the theme of the Approach is. Hindering, I guess? Versatility?
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Specialized
This is something of the inverse of the Focused Approach, with narrow arrays of both Power and Quality dice but good die sizes. Health is average and it gets three ability choices, only two of which can use the strong d12 Quality die.
Active Cover - Defensive reaction that deals damage to a nearby target equal to the amount of damage prevented. Unusually, it only works on Attacks that only target you.
Cleaving Slash - Efficient Attack that uses all three of your dice on three different targets.
Focused Attack - Strong Attack bundled with a moderate self-Defend.
Known Target - Unusual innate that gives a small persistent and exclusive bonus whenever you Attack a target you've dealt damage to before in the scene. This effectively can't be removed once triggered since a new bonus will be created each time you Attack a valid target. You could generate a lot of +1 bonuses at once in a short time with repeated multi-target Attacks, but since they're all exclusive it doesn't help much to have multiples of them per target - unless your Archetype has a way to burn bonuses with an ability (see Inventor for an example).
Neutralizing Strike - Strong Attack that the target cannot Defend or use reactions against. Their allies aren't restricted this way, so watch out for their reactions. It also doesn't ignore actual damage reduction, just Defends.
Tangled Torment - Decent Hinder bundled with a same-target Attack.
Another list with a reaction that blocks and inflicts damage, three fairly strong Attack options with varied extras and a Hinder/Attack bundle. The sole innate ability is decent for an aggressive villain but doesn't feel overly impactful most of the time. The most outstanding aspect is getting to choose three of these instead of the more common two. The big d12 Quality die will help with two of those abilities, but only two.
The only thing I could see adding as a homebrew is an ability that could use duplicate exclusive bonuses your innate ability might generate so it's a more viable choice without an archetype combo. This might work:
Take Every Advantage (A) Attack one target using [Power]. Use your Max die. Increase the damage dealt by one for every bonus on you and every penalty on the target.
A simple damage dealer that can get very strong if there are a lot mods on you or the victim. Since you're just counting (rather than using) the mods, exclusivity and the restrictions of Known Target don't matter. And of course you can still apply bonuses using the normal rules.
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