Found another loophole besides the Feat Card Victory Points loophole I found in both the FF and BN starter rulebooks.

I was reading the fine print in the 2010 Rulebook regarding Assigning Feats and Using Feats.

When Assigning Feats, I know you must meet the prerequisites on your dial to assign a feat a feat, and when using a feat, the powers or combat values must be present at the time of use.

And the rules regarding Using Feats are very clear... you cannot modify combat values to meet a prerequisite, and you can modify a combat value, as long as it doesn't dip under the minimum needed for the feat.

However.... is what is not mentioned, and by the wording under Using Feats... it appears you can use Replacement Values to Use Feats, but not Assign Feats.

For example:

Let's say I have a feat and the prerequisite is a 17 . I assign the feat to Spider-Man with the Fantastic Four TA. Spidey takes damage, and is down to a 15 . I use the Fantastic Force ATA card to replace Spidey's 15 with Sue Storm's 19 . Now Spidey meets the prerequisite again, and is able to use the feat card again.

I'm getting this from a strict reading of "Using Feats" in the rulebook, which is a separate section from "Assigning Feats." As I said before, the Using Feats section only states that combat values cannot be modified to use feats, but states nothing about replacement values. Replacement values would not allow a feat to be assigned... but to be used however if the feat is already assigned to the figure.

I'm not sure how this is a 'loophole'.
At most it is a little unclear.

Yup, nothing new here. Hope you didn't hurt yourself patting yourself on the back.

LOL nothing like a morning smile..

Not yet, but like I said elsewhere, I'm available for interviews.

I don't think it's a big deal. What feats does this affect? Slippery? Thundering Blow? Nothing major that I can think of.

This "loophole" has been around since Support first showed up. Replacing has always been different from modifying.

Your head will explode once you figure out that "loophole" and the rule of three...

While discovering this major loophole you missed that for feats that don't require giving an action (Slippery with it's big replacement issues for example), the rules never actually say that the prerequisite is required to use the feat. On the plus side, normalview has indicated that this will be corrected in the next Player's Guide.

Click here for more.

And that's not to mention that those replacements won't be in effect when Slippery would be triggering.

So this is a major loophole that, until we get other feats, pretty much only affects Thundering Blow. The game is BROKEN!!

Oh noes! Won't someone think of the children?! The poor incapacitated AND damaged children!

There is one feat with a prerequisite of a 17 Defense Value as well, but I'm too tired to look it up. This can be used with replacement values as well.

And I said it was a loophole because to assign a feat... your actual combat value has to be showing somewhere on your dial to ASSIGN the feat. And under normal conditions... the actual combat value has to be on the ACTIVE stat slot for you to use the feat.

So even though Spidey doesn't currently have showing the 17 DV that he needs to use the feat... he can replace his value with another, and use the feat anyway.. even though his dial currently says 15 DV.

You can't replace powers with other figures in most cases.. unless it is a special power... but replacing combat values is pretty common.

It is a possibility that the game designers designed it this way, but I don't think it was their intention for a Spidey with a 15 DV showing on his dial be able to use a feat that requires a 17 DV.

The feat is Slippery, but Harpua indicated that the replacement won't be in effect when Slippery would be triggering. (This is another loophole you could bring up since the rules actually don't prevent the replacement.)

From p. 6 of the Blackest Night Rulebook:
You could argue that using Slippery is a game effect that requires you to calculate a combat value, thus you could use the replacement.

But the bigger loophole is that for feats that don't require giving an action the rules never actually say that the actual combat value has to be on the ACTIVE stat slot for you to use the feat. Isn't that much more exciting?

The reason this isn't earth shattering is that it affects 1 (maybe 2) feats. If you want something more exciting check out this thread and Nico with Rip It Up. (nbperp is still working on an answer for that one.)

Thank you for the reply and help!