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Dispel vs constant powers?


taylorar

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So in looking at the power Dispel, our initially honed in on things like Mind Control, Entangle and the more offensive powers.  But started thinking outside the box and quickly went beyond the limits of the MHI book.

 

Could Dispel be used as an Anti-buff?  Shut down a monsters Damage Reduction or Life Support?

 

If so, how would that work?  Would the character have to re-roll each phase, or if he hits the first time, can he just keep paying the END cost?

 

For things like life support, if you were to successfully dispel the life support on an undead creature, would that be essentially an insta-kill?

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Can Dispel be used offensively like that?  Yes.

 

However, Dispel is Instant, so an ability that is Dispelled can normally be restarted the next phase(barring limitations on the ability).  You'd need to add the Constant advantage or use the Suppress power to make it continue.  If you have that, the first effect roll continues at that level until the suppressing power ends.  However, you can make additional attacks with the power which would then add their effects.

 

No, Dispel Life Support is not an instant kill, at least by the rules as written.  It just means they'd have to start eating, breathing, etc. from that point.  Whether or not that makes sense in game is a different question.  And is one of the reasons the advantage Inherent is often used.

 

Chris.

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Could Dispel be used as an Anti-buff?  Shut down a monsters Damage Reduction or Life Support?

Most defense powers are persistent by default, so they cannot be disabeled by Dispel.

You can use Dispel against:

Constant Powers

"Instant with Lasting effect" (Barrier and Summon are the most common examples)

Instant, if you fire it directly into the attack using a held action (either Drain or Dispel had rules for that)

Time Limit Powers might be succeptible too (both advantage and Limitation variants)

 

 

If so, how would that work?  Would the character have to re-roll each phase, or if he hits the first time, can he just keep paying the END cost?

After you hit with a Constant attack, all you have to do is pay End.

Special Rules apply for Constant Area of Effect attacks.

 

For things like life support, if you were to successfully dispel the life support on an undead creature, would that be essentially an insta-kill?

Dispelling or Draining Life Support an beings that are "naturally" immune to those things is a problematic area.

Technically the LS has to be build with "Inherent (+1/4)" to be immune to drain (Dispel is covered by it being Persistent). But most GM's would just disallow a "Drain Life Support" alltogether.

It might work in some cases (draining Supermans or Green Laterns ability to survive in space), but for Robots and Zombies it obviously makes no sense to have them drained of Life Support.

If you think about allowing Drain: LS, consider changing the Sheets for Robots, Zombies and the like to include Inherent. They are usualyl asumed to have inherent Life Support, but since "Drain: LS" is that uncommon it is just not listed/asumed to be a +0 Advantage.

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