New powers help

[Darren Watts]

Hey all! Thought I'd throw this out to the combined brainpower of Herodom Assembled. I'm working on a villain who can change the size of inanimate objects as her primary power. She primarily uses it to shrink down a bunch of useful items (like rocket launchers and jetcars) to carry in her pockets, but I'm looking for other cool incidental applications of the same concept she can whip out to surprise the PCs. (The base power is a pretty sizable Transform, which heals back rapidly.) I've already got an Entangle based on shrinking a target's clothes or uniform, binding them up, and a couple of other similar nuisance attacks. What can you guys give me? Many thanks in advance- if I use your power you'll be credited, of course. dw

[red_eagle123]

Well if the character can grow things as well as shrink them, then here are some suggestions:

Force Wall: That pebble at my feet is now a boulder I can hide behind

Drain vs. Attacks: That bastard sword of yours would hurt Mr. Sword, except now it's the size of a butter knife

Shrinking, usable on others: Pretty self explanatory I think


In the Avengers West Coast comic, Henry Pym used a gadget pool of items he had shrunken down in his pockets, including such items as a shield, his 'Rover' vehicle and other useful items. Probably treated as a VPP of some sort.

Those are all I can think of off the top of my head...

[Super Squirrel]

We were talking about this the otherday. First it is in some ways a Teleport. Because if a customer is sitting over Drainage Grate or something with larger than normal holes, you are talking about relocating them.

It is a Running Drain if used on tires of a vehicle.

It could be considered an Indirect Knockback Only attack if you shrunk their shoes/boots/etc...

Does it have to affect a whole item or can she affect parts like screws. Because then you have a ton of small things you can do. For example, she could shrink the bolts of a fire hydrant to make it explode or shrink screws to take apart a device. Imagine if she was on a Skyscraper construction and shrunk the bolts holding the beams in place.

[Super Squirrel]

Now for growth related powers:

Summon Variable Weapon
Take one peice of spagetti and use growth and you have a Bo Staff.

Take a thread and you have a whip.

Take a pencil and you have a spear.

[Blue]

I love it. The Pocket Arsenal!

Reach into one pocket and produce a thousand assault rifles.
"What's that for?"
Reach into hte other pocket and produce a thousand shrunken agents.

Shrinking/constricting the blood vessels?
Shrinking any object is great for having it expand and knock the target over when it grows at their feet.

Shrunken heads! Well, okay, not shrunken heads. Obviously I have no ideas.

[BobGreenwade]

An old favorite of mine is to carry a pebble in one's pocket, throw it at a target, and have it grow to boulder-size in mid-air. (For humor value, substitute an anvil, safe, or grand piano.)

I'm trying to decide what might happen if the character happened past a bakery with a lemon merangue pie on the shelf....

Oh, and shrinking an opponent's clothing is worth not only an Entangle, but (if taken far enough) the embarrassment value as well...

[Sketchpad]

Like Red Eagle, this reminds me of some things that Hank Pym has done in the past. Personally, I would make most of the items IAF and just say it's a SFX that makes it shrink.
As far as other abilities ...
- I think that using the Shrink Ray rules in G&G would be a neat application
for an attack against people.
- How about a Change Environment, like shrinking a bridge or a door?
- A bunch of summons would be really cool ... like pre-shrunk bots or
creatures (like ants, bees, etc) that she enlarges to use.
- How about a RKA that's based on shrinking or enlarging something vital
inside a target?
- Area of Effect attacks that start as a pebble and become a boulder mid
throw.
- Change Environment to turn rain or hail into a flood or meteors
- Shrink-based Point Defense field ... basically Missle Deflection that uses
shrinking bullets to such a small size they'll only do minor damage.
- Tunneling based on shrinking walls in front of her or as an attack against a
floor someone's standing on.

Hope it helps ... if I think of more, I'll let ya know

[Lord Liaden]

If the Power has the Trigger Advantage, there are lots of tricks and traps you could use it for: set the support struts of a bridge to shrink as soon as pursuers step on it; shrink a car or truck to the size of a pebble, then toss it into a group of opponents like a grenade when it suddenly expands.

Does the object shrunk have to be a discreet item, or can it be X amount of contiguous matter? If the latter, lots of other possibilities arise: breaking through a wall or door by shrinking part of it until it bursts, or creating a chasm in a road to block passage.

Does it have to be solid matter, or can it be liquids or gasses too? I'm thinking of the effects of explosive decompression if you suddenly shrink the air surrounding an opponent, not to mention the deafening thunderclap when the air rushes back in to fill the resultant vacuum.

[beauxdeigh]

Oh, and shrinking an opponent's clothing is worth not only an Entangle, but (if taken far enough) the embarrassment value as well...

Too true. Better yet, instead of shrinking the costume, make it grow. All the em-bare-ass-ment for the targeted hero, and anyone standing next to him/her is entangled in the flood of fabric folds as well!

Entangles against this character would be pretty useless, too. Anything trapping her would get big enough she could just slip right out. "Why, Nightduck, your duck-cuffs just slipped right off! Oops, your duck-utility-belt, too! Toodles!"

Nice.

[BobGreenwade]

Here's a thought: a large slippery area, as she uses her growing ability on a slab of butter.

[Fedifensor]

An old favorite of mine is to carry a pebble in one's pocket, throw it at a target, and have it grow to boulder-size in mid-air. (For humor value, substitute an anvil, safe, or grand piano.)

Pretty much what I was thinking. Either a EB or EB, one-hex AoE (versus PD). Probably uses recoverable charges, based on the fact that the character has to prep items in advance. Limited range as well, since you can't throw a pebble as far as you can shoot a gun.

[BobGreenwade]

Pretty much what I was thinking. Either a EB or EB, one-hex AoE (versus PD). Probably uses recoverable charges, based on the fact that the character has to prep items in advance. Limited range as well, since you can't throw a pebble as far as you can shoot a gun.

I think it would use Range Based On Strength.

[Blue Jogger]

Instead of a huge flying base of operations, she could shrink it down to the size that could fit in a large moving van. Or perhaps, small enough to place in an envelope and Fed-Ex to the next location.

"Fed-Ex, when it absolutely, positively has to get there before it returns to its normal size of a 20 story skyscraper."

[BobGreenwade]

So, Darren... how helpful are we being?

[Super Squirrel]

Drain Images, Only Affects Images that Create Light and Have a Focus Base -2 Delayed Rate of Return (Insert Lightbulb Joke here)

Special Effect: You shrink the lightbulb and it falls out.