Help with a power? Strange toxin arrows

[pointyman2000]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to construct a weaponsmaster Bow villain, and I wanted to give her an arrow that delivers a toxin only delivers damage to the target when the target's heart rate is raised above normal. (I know it's a bit odd, but work with me on this :o)

She's designed to be a nemesis level villain for a speedster, and I plan her to catch him with an entangle first, Tag him with the toxin and leave him to try and stop several simultaneously occuring (and orchestrated) crimes vs. his DNPCs

So far I'm seeing: (given a 75 active point limit)

50 pts - Toxic Arrow: Energy Blast 3d6, Persistent (+1/2), Uncontrolled (+1/2), Continuous (+1), No Normal Defense: Life Support: Immune vs Toxins; Target takes a recovery(+1), 16 Continuing Charges lasting 5 Minutes each (+1) (75 Active Points); Conditional Power: Poison only deals damage while target has an elevated heart rate (-1/2), OIF (-1/2), Beam (-1/4)

Is this right? my head is spinning from thinking about it too much. :ugly:

[Trebuchet]

I think your design of the Power is OK, but when isn't the intended target going to have an elevated heart rate? I would think any speedster in hero ID would almost automatically have one; so I'm not sure that's really worth a Limitation. Realistically, pretty much anyone in combat (or even exercising) is going to have an elevated heart rate so that's not really any kind of limitation on the usefulness of the attack.

Would it have zero effect on opponents with no heart rate such as undead or androids? How about a character feigning death or doing yoga?

[Hugh Neilson]

Further to Treb's comments, I would suggest an "elevated heart rate" could be defined based on END usage. Perhaps only a character who would be using long-term END has an "elevated heart rate", such that a character whose abilities are all 0 END, and is spending no, or negligible, END is not considered to have a heightened heart rate.

One cannot maintain an elevated heart rate indefinitely, I believe, so perhaps one could use the ballpark definition that the character had less than full END at the start of the turn (thus spent more END than his REC in the prior turn, or some earlier time) and still has less than full END.

This would mean a 1 turn delay, of course. In Turn 1, Speedy is tagged by the arrow. He goes about his busines, rounding up the thugs, then turning on Bowman. It is now Phase 12.

Speedy has spent 20 END, and has a 12 REC. He starts the turn down 8 END. As he starts to move, the toxins kick in and he takes 10 STUN from the toxins.

"Feel that, speedster" gloats the Bowman. "The toxin in your system won't fade while your heart is racing. So you have a choice - relax and save yourself, or exert yourself, stop me and send the toxins racing through your bloodstream."

Speedy can avoid the next attack by taking a REC and restoring all his END, but he can't spend more than 10 END in any turn without triggering the toxins again.

Hmmm...triggering...there's another option. Maybe the attack has a Trigger -when target heart rate rises above normal - again, perhaps defined in trems of END usage - say spending more END in the phase than his REC/SPD.

I'm not paying a lot of attention to the limitation, mainly because I envision Archers having lots of limits on their arrows anyway, and probably carrying this in a multipower.

And do you really need 16 charges? What about a single charge with a 24 hour timeframe, or just a couple? Hmmm...could we make the Fuel Charges rule work? The toxin stays in your system forever (maybe with a Dispelling antidote) but only acts when your heart rate is elevated?

[Zeropoint]

Fuel charge is a great idea--the toxin will stay in the target's bloodstream for a LONG time, unless it's either burned out by a lot of physical activity, or someone uses some kind of poison removal power on the target.

[pointyman2000]

Okay, thinking about it a little more, This is what I've got:

43 Points

Toxin Arrow: Energy Blast 3d6, Trigger (Power Activates as long as Target has less than full END; +1/4), Persistent (+1/2), Uncontrolled (+1/2), 6 Continuing Fuel Charges lasting 20 Minutes each (+3/4), Continuous (+1), No Normal Defense: Life Support- Immunity to Toxins; Having No Heart Rate (+1) (75 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Beam (-1/4)

If the target decides to willingly drop his speed, he can mitigate the damage done by the toxin in his body. (sort of like how high speed characters can avoid taking hits from drowning). At the same time, Simulating Death or Yoga or any other form of Body Control (ninjitsu?) can also help in avoiding it.

The suggestions concerning a Trigger for every phase the Target has less than full END is great. I would never have thought of it that way. :D

Do you guys think that this is better?

[CBikle]

Whether or not the target has an elevated heart rate could be determined by a Con, EGO or Pre roll with penalties. I think that limit might be worth more than a -1/2 limit though.

Alternatively, you could include one or all of the characteristic rolls as part of the NND's defense. If you do this, I think the NND advantage might be worth only a +1/2 advantage instead of +1.

[prestidigitator]

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[Sean Waters]

Does speedy have power defence? If not, try this:

Sheer Heart Attack: 1d6 Body drain trigger (expends END above X points on any one phase or doing more than a half move, auto-reset) 8 x 1 hour charges 30 active points.

Why continuing charges AND trigger? Well, technically continuous goes off on the attacker's phases, not the targets...building it this way means that the damage is done on the targets phases.

OK this causes a heart attack. If he sits and rests he recovers quickly, (5 points per turn) but if not he WILL die. A spd 6 character would suffer (on average) 10 BODY damage per turn, which would take 4 turns to recover from.

[pointyman2000]

That's... really nasty, Sean.

I like it! :D I might tone it down a bit in lethality but it's a very nice build.

[JmOz]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to construct a weaponsmaster Bow villain, and I wanted to give her an arrow that delivers a toxin only delivers damage to the target when the target's heart rate is raised above normal. (I know it's a bit odd, but work with me on this :o)

She's designed to be a nemesis level villain for a speedster, and I plan her to catch him with an entangle first, Tag him with the toxin and leave him to try and stop several simultaneously occuring (and orchestrated) crimes vs. his DNPCs

So far I'm seeing: (given a 75 active point limit)

50 pts - Toxic Arrow: Energy Blast 3d6, Persistent (+1/2), Uncontrolled (+1/2), Continuous (+1), No Normal Defense: Life Support: Immune vs Toxins; Target takes a recovery(+1), 16 Continuing Charges lasting 5 Minutes each (+1) (75 Active Points); Conditional Power: Poison only deals damage while target has an elevated heart rate (-1/2), OIF (-1/2), Beam (-1/4)

Is this right? my head is spinning from thinking about it too much. :ugly:

If the plan is for it to last five min. then persistant and uncontrolable are unnecesary (Continuing charges does what you are looking for here). I would probably define it as when character spends more than x end per phase/turn. Also the NND condition should also include no need to breath, or full skin covering...

[JmOz]

If you want to make it a little nastier add explosion & Sticky (Shoot the hex, anyone in the hex is effected by it and carries it away do to the sticky)