Mental Paralysis, Stops Working if Mentalist Is Stunned

[BenKimball]

I'm GMing Hero for the first time soon, and overseeing character creation. One of my players has added the Power Limitation "Stops Working if Mentalist is Stunned" (-1/2) to his BOECV Entangle. Is this a valid construction? Hero Designer v2 says no -- presumably because Entangle is an Instant Power...?

Thanks as always for a great game and greater support.

Cheers,
Ben

[Steve Long]

It's valid if you, as GM, want to allow it. Whether HD does or not is irrelevant; as the HD documentation notes, it's not to be regarded as any sort of "official" rules interpretation or the like. The issue is whether you think this restriction actually restricts, hinders, or inhibits the character in some way -- and if so how much. It all depends on how often the character uses that power, how strong or weak it is, how often he gets Stunned, and so on.

Personally, I'd probably allow it. It "makes sense" from the dramatic and special effects perspectives -- in essence the character has a power that he has to "maintain" at a subconscious level even though it's Instant. In some ways he's inflicting one of the "bad" aspects of a Constant Power on this Instant Power, but none of the benefits. But reasonable minds may differ. ;)