Power to emulate sacrificing a minion?

[BossMorgrum1337]

So I'm going to have my fantasy party fight a sorcerer here shortly, and I want him to have a bunch of minions in the room that are A) cannon fodder to get in the way B ) components for his spells. Like to use Dread Curse he has to kill one of them. To use Ultimate Dread Curse he has to kill two, etc. I think having him take an action to physically stab a minion is too slow, so I just want them to drop dead when he casts the spell (They are essentially Charges). And sure, I can DM fiat the spells to do exactly that, but I was trying to think of an actual mechanic to kill them off with. Something like Requires Multiple Users, Side Effect (Bunch of BODY damage)?

[BoloOfEarth]

19 minutes ago, BossMorgrum1337 said:

So I'm going to have my fantasy party fight a sorcerer here shortly, and I want him to have a bunch of minions in the room that are A) cannon fodder to get in the way B ) components for his spells. Like to use Dread Curse he has to kill one of them. To use Ultimate Dread Curse he has to kill two, etc. I think having him take an action to physically stab a minion is too slow, so I just want them to drop dead when he casts the spell (They are essentially Charges). And sure, I can DM fiat the spells to do exactly that, but I was trying to think of an actual mechanic to kill them off with. Something like Requires Multiple Users, Side Effect (Bunch of BODY damage)?

 

Side Effect is probably the way to go. 

 

In a Champions game, I had a villain mage who had a magic item... need to look it up... ah, here it is...

 

Shield Self Pendant:  +50 STUN; OAF Difficult to Obtain (-1¼), Gestures and Incantations (at activation; -½), Side Effects (automatic when takes damage, only affects environment; nearest ally takes same damage;   -0), Must Have Allies Nearby (-¼) plus +10 BODY; same disads (-2) 

 

So technically he'd take the damage - it just went against the bonus STUN & BODY.  For your purposes, you may want the Side Effects to do additional damage (e.g. nearest ally takes 2x BODY).

[Jhamin]

The power doesn't have to mechanically kill the minion.  For Gm villains, it is enough that the side effects of the power *say* a minion dies.

Curse: 5d6 transform (normal to cursed), Gestures, incantations, side effects (nearest minion dies).  And done.

 

 

Many years ago I remember there was a thread on the old boards where everyone was proposing writeups for powers that would destroy a planet.  I recall one submission was something along the lines of
"Badass Dude": +5 to Pre, 1 consumable charge, Never Recovers (Planet you are standing on)
Everyone agreed that wasn't really what we meant, but it *was* mechanically sound.....

[mallet]

I would agree on side effect, but maybe it would need to be differently worded. The bad guy’s “Nearest minion” might actually be 100’s of miles away or even on another planet in certain settings, which is still rules legal, but probably not the effect they are going for. 

so maybe “nearest minion within 100m dies” plus a second limitation “power doesn’t work unless at least one minion is within 100m of user”. 
 

[Grailknight]

But it's not a Side Effect. Those occur simultaneously or after the Power goes off. Without the minion, the Power can't be used in the first place here.

 

This is an Expendable Focus. Using the Power uses up the minion, you'll need another to use the Power again.

[Jhamin]

GrailKnight, I nod to your HeroFu.

 

Now that you say it, it is obvious to me the minion *is* an expendable Focus.