---
name: power-exploit
description: Stress-test power systems for rule loopholes, resource loops, rank bypasses, counter gaps, stacking exploits, contradictions, and progression inconsistencies. Use after defining or changing any power system, and before relying on a system constraint to create tension.
---
# Power System Exploit Simulator v2.1

Assume a clever character will find the loophole you did not intend. Your job is to find it first, while changing it is still cheap.

## Search strategy

Look for combinations of rules and abilities that produce unintended dominance:

- **Resource loops** — an ability that regenerates its own cost, or creates value from nothing.
- **Ignored limitations** — a cost or condition that stops applying under some sequence.
- **Rank bypasses** — routes to power that skip progression requirements.
- **Counter gaps** — a matchup with no answer, leaving a conflict unresolvable.
- **Stacking exploits** — several weak abilities combining into something stronger than any rank should permit.
- **Rule contradictions** — two rules that cannot both hold.
- **Progression breaks** — advancement that removes the limits that made earlier stages interesting.

The most dangerous exploits are the ones that are *correct*. A character following the rules exactly and defeating a much stronger opponent is the failure this skill exists to prevent.

## Record

For each exploit, record: the rule interaction, the conditions required, severity, narrative impact, current canon status, and the minimal repair available.

Minimal repair is the goal. Closing a loophole by adding a broad new restriction damages the whole system to fix one edge case; closing the specific interaction preserves the design.

## Checks

- Can a character reach a given power level by a route the system never intended?
- Is any ability strictly better than any other at comparable cost?
- Does any counter cost more than the thing it counters?
- Do accumulated abilities make earlier limitations irrelevant?
- Can a system exception be invoked to bypass any rule? If so, every rule is optional.

## Rules

- Never silently patch the system. Record the exploit and route high-impact changes through `canon-manager`.
- An intentional exploit is a design choice and a good one — but it must be recorded as intentional, with the character's route to it, or it will be read as an error.
- Distinguish a genuine loophole from a clever use the system permits. The line is whether the rules were followed or bent.

## Coordination

Use `power-system` for the rules themselves, `battle-choreography` for application in sequence, `power-exploit` findings feed `consequence-engine` where an exploited weakness changes outcomes, and `critique` for narrative-level scaling complaints.