Mutant Cure

[CaptainCoulson]

Watching the Agents Of Shield and the X-Men films again, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas how to stat a serum that could be carried around in an device to cure mutants or inhumans if one was encountered in the middle of a field mission? Not against their will, even.

 

For instance, Rogue could be treated so she could actually touch people again. Or if Magneto's initial plan had worked completely the way he'd intended, making world leaders into mutants, they could be treated, if they so desired.

[Greywind]

Plot device; handwavium.

[Ninja-Bear]

Severe Transform cumulative. Not sure how many dice.

 

[Grailknight]

Easy using 6th  and not really expensive. Transform is inherently Cumulative.

 

Mutant Cure:  Severe Transform 0 1/2d6 (Mutant into Normal Human, Reversal Medical Treatment), Damage Over Time, Target's defenses only apply once, Lock out (cannot be applied multiple times) (33-64 damage increments, damage occurs every 5 Minutes, can be negated by Antidote; +3 1/2) (45 Active Points)

 

One injection that will do 128 BODY over the course of 5 hours and 20 minutes while only being subject to Power Defense once. Damage Negation is probably ineffective although Damage Reduction at the 1/2(possibly) or 3/4(likely) will make a target immune.

[CaptainCoulson]

24 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Severe Transform cumulative. Not sure how many dice.

 

Well, would a mutant/inhuman/etc typically have some level of Power Defence, from being a mutant? Or would an individual PC need to have taken that specifically, either separately or as part of their own specific mutant power?

 

Because, if the nature of the mutant "gene" includes some kind of biological defence against being made dormant again, then multiple dice would definitely be advisable. But without such an issue, just the one dice, with cumulative, will eventually work.

 

Would a willing subject with Power Defence potentially be able to voluntarily "lower" their Power Defence? Like a person with armour plating in their skin staying still and allowing a medic to inject them in a less heavily armoured part of their body, but for Power Defence, rather than Physical Defence? (I assume that would work for Physical Defence if those were the special effects? Would it also depend on the special effects of the Power Defence, then?)

[unclevlad]

36 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Severe Transform cumulative. Not sure how many dice.

 

 

In the movies, the effect is immediate so you can't use Damage Over Time or a continuing charge.  You gotta buy it.  At that point...far, far, far too many dice to count.  PLUS the buyback has to be extended a LOT, so that's a big advantage.  Also, this is absolutely not a Transform.  I don't buy that AT ALL. It's a universal power Drain;  the transform is SFX.  

 

Ever read the Equipment Guide writeup for a nuclear bomb?  IIRC, 6000 points or so.  They didn't cheap out.  The effects are complex and HUGE, with damage in several ways.  Saying this is a Transform is cheap.  Saying it's damage over time is dirt cheap.  No....drain 200d6, points recover once a day.  THAT is more like it.  Or even, variable special effects (any power), 8x powers at once, drain...30d6.  Because defense powers have that rule they're implicitly hard to drain.

[unclevlad]

Another criticism with Transform.  It makes a Jean Grey far easier to negate than her points would suggest, and a brick with very high BODY but generally limited powers overall, much harder.  Sure, that's fine for Flesh to Stone or the like, but here?  This strips *powers*.  The target is the active points on the sheet.  Not just BODY.

[Grailknight]

11 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

In the movies, the effect is immediate so you can't use Damage Over Time or a continuing charge.  You gotta buy it.  At that point...far, far, far too many dice to count.  PLUS the buyback has to be extended a LOT, so that's a big advantage.  Also, this is absolutely not a Transform.  I don't buy that AT ALL. It's a universal power Drain;  the transform is SFX.  

 

Ever read the Equipment Guide writeup for a nuclear bomb?  IIRC, 6000 points or so.  They didn't cheap out.  The effects are complex and HUGE, with damage in several ways.  Saying this is a Transform is cheap.  Saying it's damage over time is dirt cheap.  No....drain 200d6, points recover once a day.  THAT is more like it.  Or even, variable special effects (any power), 8x powers at once, drain...30d6.  Because defense powers have that rule they're implicitly hard to drain.

 

11 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Another criticism with Transform.  It makes a Jean Grey far easier to negate than her points would suggest, and a brick with very high BODY but generally limited powers overall, much harder.  Sure, that's fine for Flesh to Stone or the like, but here?  This strips *powers*.  The target is the active points on the sheet.  Not just BODY.

 

Never said I'd allow such a construct, but just presenting a RAW method(totally different from a fair and balanced method).

 

Note that making it take 64 segment(1 min, 04 seconds) just ups the cost to 65 points.

 

Severe Transform 0 1/2d6, Damage Over Time, Target's defenses only apply once, Lock out (cannot be applied multiple times) (33-64 damage increments, damage occurs every Segment, +5 1/2) (65 Active Points)

 

Hideously overpowered, sure. Legal by RAW, also sure. Constructs like this are what GM's are for.

 

[CaptainCoulson]

Thanks guys. I think I know what I'm doing now.

[Ninja-Bear]

22 hours ago, Greywind said:

Plot device; handwavium.

The problem I have with these type answers are that they aren’t really useful. I get the point that this doesn’t need fully stated out. Even plot devices should have pertinent information listed and questions answered. 

[Ninja-Bear]

21 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

In the movies, the effect is immediate so you can't use Damage Over Time or a continuing charge.  You gotta buy it.  At that point...far, far, far too many dice to count.  PLUS the buyback has to be extended a LOT, so that's a big advantage.  Also, this is absolutely not a Transform.  I don't buy that AT ALL. It's a universal power Drain;  the transform is SFX.  

 

Ever read the Equipment Guide writeup for a nuclear bomb?  IIRC, 6000 points or so.  They didn't cheap out.  The effects are complex and HUGE, with damage in several ways.  Saying this is a Transform is cheap.  Saying it's damage over time is dirt cheap.  No....drain 200d6, points recover once a day.  THAT is more like it.  Or even, variable special effects (any power), 8x powers at once, drain...30d6.  Because defense powers have that rule they're implicitly hard to drain.

That’s why (and I cannot remember where I first saw it) you (GM) declare that X Body works for everyone. I did this for Medusa Body to Stone. So it doesn’t matter if your an Ogre or Halfling it works.

[segerge]

If you're using 6th Edition, don't forget about the Absolute Effect rule (basic discussion in Volume 1, page 133; a more detailed explanation plus some creative uses of it in Steve Long's "Control Powers" supplement).  This might be helpful in a basic stat-out of a "Mutant Cure" power.

[Greywind]

17 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

The problem I have with these type answers are that they aren’t really useful. I get the point that this doesn’t need fully stated out. Even plot devices should have pertinent information listed and questions answered. 

 

If you want stats for something like a cure using any power based effect you end up having to account for why it shuts down Cyclops' eye beams as well as doing the same to Superman if it were something that would also affect his character, equally.

 

The only way you can effectively get that is GM fiat; handwavium.

[Ninja-Bear]

3 hours ago, Greywind said:

 

If you want stats for something like a cure using any power based effect you end up having to account for why it shuts down Cyclops' eye beams as well as doing the same to Superman if it were something that would also affect his character, equally.

 

The only way you can effectively get that is GM fiat; handwavium.

And this is a game so saying handwavium isn’t really useful. Even if the GM says the Mutant Cure affects everyone the same and in 3 turns you turn normal if way more useful info than handwavium. 

[Greywind]

GM's fiat is handwavium. GM says; handwavium.

[Tech]

The original request was: "I was wondering if anyone had any ideas how to stat a serum that could be carried around in an device to cure mutants or inhumans if one was encountered in the middle of a field mission? Not against their will, even".  This seems to be a plot device which no player will be using. However, he asked how it could be built and it can be built since with enough points, any power can be built. However, PsiJudge has already said:  "Thanks guys. I think I know what I'm doing now" so unless he says something, I think he's good to go.

[Ninja-Bear]

43 minutes ago, Greywind said:

GM's fiat is handwavium. GM says; handwavium.

And when the GM asks for help or guidelines, this doesn’t help.

[CaptainCoulson]

I am actually a player. Handwavium was not useful. However, the note about how Transform always, by default at least, works on a cumulative basis, was handy.

 

The fact it works *only* on curing mutants or inhumans (or some similar but copyright free version of a person whose otherwise dormant powers have to be 'activated' in order to appear) was simply a part of the special effect of this as a device for treating mutants or inhumans who don't want their activated powers. It would not work on Superman, for instance, nor would a version of this power that was designed for use on mutants (say, one built for Rogue in the comics) work on an inhuman exposed to the terrigen mists unwillingly, nor vice versa.

 

Having said that, it turned out that making the device limited in ways that made sense for the noncombat role I intend it to have, since my pc designed it for use only on willing targets, made it quite cheap, points-wise, and such a low cost device would probably be quite easy to acquire in multiple forms, reconfigured to affect different forms of unwilling recipients with different sources of super-powers.

[CaptainCoulson]

The version my GM ultimately okayed was:

 

Mutant Dormancy Inducer

Makes unwelcome mutant genetics turn dormant.

 

Transform XD6 (Severe)

Inaccurate (0DCV) (-1/2)

No Range (-1/2)

OAF: MDI (-1)

Real Cost = 5Xrp

 

Transforms anything with an active X-Gene into the same exact thing but with their X-Gene rendered dormant, and any changes made by their X-Gene revoked.

 

Healed by either medical treatment (such as an inverse use of this device, or similar) or by a fresh activation of the X-Gene.

 

(Obviously, if most mutants in your games have lots of Power Defence, then you might need a lot of dice. If a lot of your mutant patients have a high Body score, then they will need a lot of uses of the device before their large/dense body is thoroughly scrubbed of active X-Gene, but that just makes sense.)

 

For my PC, it was 30rp, doing 6d6 Body of effect each time, to be fairly sure of overcoming the Power Defence of our local Rogue-like npc. She is now a non-powered trainee under our PC team.

[Ninja-Bear]

Glad to be of some assistance.