Defender's EMP Pulse

[GreyGuardian]

Is Defender's EMP pulse power useful against automatons and or comupter systems? If so which point total should it be compared to?

Focused EMP Pulse: Dispel Any Electrical Power 16d6, Expanded Effect One At A Time (+1/4) (60 Active Points) (uses END Reserve)

It seems that most systems that get shut down can just be restarted on the victim's next phase unless there is an extra time limitation associated.

[JohnOSpencer]

Dispel states that if used against an independent device and it works, the item is broken and cannot be fixed without GM permission.

John Spencer

[GreyGuardian]

But is an automaton (ie robot - android etc) an independent device or a character or a summoned character (the builder created it.... could be a summons of a type)?

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by GreyGuardian
But is an automaton (ie robot - android etc) an independent device or a character or a summoned character (the builder created it.... could be a summons of a type)? That depends on the special effect. If it's a robot or android but not a PC, I'd call it an independent device. If it's a PC android, then it probably has BODY and STUN like normal characters. It might do a "Data" and reset after a certain interval.

Automatons can be non-robotic; zombies and skeletons are often built this way.

[GreyGuardian]

ok if the automaton is one device you would need to roll more on the dispel than the total points of the automaton?

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by GreyGuardian
ok if the automaton is one device you would need to roll more on the dispel than the total points of the automaton? Don't have my FREd in front of me, but IIRC Dispel works against one Characteristic or Power at a time, not against the total cost of the target. Your quote above of Defender's EMP Blast tends to support this. It looks to me like his EMP Blast would disable or destroy one ability at a time on an electronics-based automaton, not the whole thing in one shot.

So shot one, he takes out its IR Vision. Shot two, he destroys its laser. Shot three, its Running, and so on.

[GreyGuardian]

And because an automaton is an object the power can not simply be turned back on...

Thank you. I think this gives me enough to go re-read dispell the faq etc and make sense of this.