Tentacles...

[Bloodstone]

Ok, here's the plan: I'm going for a vaguely Omega Red type, minus the death factor. The character will also have a damage shield of some kind, though I haven't made up my mind wether it wil be spiky quills or something like heat or electricity that he can conduct down his tendrils. Unlike Big Red, the tentacles will be a natural part of this character, who is going to be an agile, brick-light, possibly with some martial arts overtone that will favor grappling.

The main power will be Stretching, limited to the Tentacles. Since I'm building the tentacles into the characters arms, I'm not sure if I should buy them as Extra Limbs or not? Opinions?

Additional powers will probably include the Damage Shield I mentioned, Swinging, some kind of HA/HKA, possibly with an AoE: Radius to simulate him whiping the hell out of everyone in the area around him. I'm damn tempted to put a Transfer STR in there too, as that is just a sweet power for any grappler.

Now the idea is to use Stretching to deliver damage and grapples at a range via the Tentacles. The latter attck for is where I am running into conceptual problems though...

Should I focus the character on Grappling based martial arts moves or would it be better to go with an Entagle? What do more experienced people feel the pro's and cons of these two methods are? Perhaps a hybrid of the two attack forms?

If I go with Entangle, what kind of limitations would be appropriate for a character with the Entagle permenantly attached to his arm? Feedback seems obvious... Should it be Limited Range, and then limit it to something less then his stretching to show that the coil needs to wrap around the foe? Should it be No Range and have the character deliver the entangle using his inches of Stretching?

Opinions? Comments? Flames?

[Hugh Neilson]

The main power will be Stretching, limited to the Tentacles. Since I'm building the tentacles into the characters arms, I'm not sure if I should buy them as Extra Limbs or not? Opinions?

For sure I would buy them as Extra Limbs. You have limbs that others don't.


Additional powers will probably include the Damage Shield I mentioned, Swinging, some kind of HA/HKA, possibly with an AoE: Radius to simulate him whiping the hell out of everyone in the area around him. I'm damn tempted to put a Transfer STR in there too, as that is just a sweet power for any grappler.

Save yourself some points and make it an STR drain. Your STR won't go up, but the drain won't be capped at the max die roll. [nb: Yes, I hate that rule and house rule the cap on drains away, but that's not the topic of this thread.]


Should I focus the character on Grappling based martial arts moves or would it be better to go with an Entagle? What do more experienced people feel the pro's and cons of these two methods are? Perhaps a hybrid of the two attack forms?

I'd go with the simpler option, being Grappling. An entangkle gets into so many conceptual issues, as you discuss. The Grapple benefits from your extra STR in tentacles only, your Stretching and can be enhanced by some fairly inexpensive maneuvers like Martial Grab, Crush, etc. Plus, it will mesh with your STR drain/transfer (if you go that route) without the need to make that power Ranged.

[yamamura]

Eek! Tentacles!

G

Sorry Blueseed flashback

[Lord Liaden]

The thing about using an Entangle is that it's normally "fire and forget"; the target is wrapped up (or whatever the sfx is) and his attacker can do something else while the target breaks loose. Since your character has a limited number of tentacles to work with, that wouldn't seem to apply. I'd suggest a Custom Limitation I've seen for a number of published characters with similar abilites: "One Target At A Time" (-1/2), meaning that the Entangle has to be removed/broken out of by one target before you can use it on another. Limited Range and Feedback would make sense for some concepts, as well.

However, if you intend for the tentacles to be able to do things like deliver your Damage Shield damage to a target who's trussed up, I think the Entangle approach is unnecessarily complicated. My suggestion would be to buy extra Strength, probably with No Figured Characteristics, and maybe Only For Grabs (I'd call that an additional -1/2). In conjunction with Stretching that would give you more versatility.

As far as buying these tentacles as Extra Limbs, that would depend on whether you see them as merely extending the range of his normal reach/attack etc., or if they would allow him to perform additional actions. For example, if the character could seize and squeeze one victim, then while he's doing that also "whip" another target, that would be Extra Limbs. If you do that you could also purchase his enhanced Strength as "Only With Extra Limb." Ankylosaur in CKC has that Lim; on his character sheet it's -1, but that seems to subsume "No Figured."

As far as striking multiple targets in an area: AOE is a perfectly legitimate Advantage to take for this effect, but if your campaign allows the optional Sweep Maneuver, a Sweep in conjunction with Stretching would give you a similar result more cheaply. Perhaps add a few Penalty Skill Levels to offset the Sweep penalties for multiple targets.

I hope that's of use to you. :)

[palehorse]

Just as an aside, there's a very cool writeup for Doc Ock-style tentacles in Gadgets & Gear; they're purchased as followers so they can act independently, get their own attacks, etc...

Verrrry nifty. :)

[Blue]

Yes, I loved that idea. It amazes me sometimes how there's still unmined potential in the system.

[Jarekk]

Well, personally...

I'd buy the tentacles as Extra Limbs, so you can have them do stuff while your hands are doing other stuff--like, grab someone while picking up a big rock, and then having the two meet all friendly like. :D

And, I'd go with grappling skills instead of entangles because... I like grappling MAs. :) It seems cooler to me to grab someone ("Now I CRUSH you!") rather than... just hold them. Er--that didn't make much sense.

It's like, you could buy a throwing knife as an RKA... But that's not really what it is. It's a ranged HKA.

The grappling MA seems to fit better--you can do whatever, but I think it would be more fun to play as a grapple.

My $.02

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