How to buy?

[SullenSandman]

I have a character that uses a staff as a primary method of attack. It is bought as a multi power. the player want the staff to be able to extend from 6" to 6' for storage and consealment purposes. I was thinking of not charging any points for it but then i started to think a little more on the topic. By allowing this it would let him very easily conseal something that would normally be very difficult to conseal. i was thinking of making him by some type of shapeshift outside the multipower that only affects the staff. What do you guys think? :help:

[TheEmerged]

Chances are the staff is being bought with Obvious Accessible Focus (-1). Since the weapon can be concealed, it might be closer to Inobvious Accessible Focus -- but it's still obvious when being used.

Personally, I have a long-standing house rule that tags this as a Obvious But Concealable Accessible Focus at -3/4, allowing it to be concealed using the Concealment skill.

Another route I've seen done is to give the staff another slot representing a bonus to the Concealment roll.

[Old Man]

Or buy the attack with linked Stretching. So it is always short except when you attack with it.

[Agemegos]

I have a character that uses a staff as a primary method of attack. It is bought as a multi power. the player want the staff to be able to extend from 6" to 6' for storage and consealment purposes. I was thinking of not charging any points for it but then i started to think a little more on the topic. By allowing this it would let him very easily conseal something that would normally be very difficult to conseal. i was thinking of making him by some type of shapeshift outside the multipower that only affects the staff. What do you guys think?

I think that it is a disadvantage that the character needs a staff to begin with, not an advantage that he can conceal his staff. If he just bought the multipower outright he would be able to make the attacks with his hands and feet. That is the baseline you ought to compare with.

This is an obvious focus that is accessible in combat and inaccessible out of combat. Treat it as OAF if your campaign is heavily combat-focussed, halfway between OAF and OIF if you have a fair preponderance of non-combat sequences in which characters might normally have trouble if they carried obvious focusses. (As TheEmerged suggests.)

And by the way: I don't like to seem fussy, but this thread is very badly titled. Aim in future for thread titles that are specific and memorable, so that people who read them in the list of posts have an idea of what subject is being discussed, and that people who come back to the forum after a few days can remember which thread they were interested in. "How to buy?" could be any thread about a power build. It could also be a query about where it is best to obtain HERO System materials. "Shrinking quarterstaff" or "Concealable focus" would have been a better title for this thread.