How Do I...? "Gaze Defense" Question

[Black Rose]

In my setting, there are a small number of "gaze attacks", which are what they sound like -- creature (or caster) looks at their target, and the target is (usually) affected; think Dracula's Mind Control, Medusa's petrifying gaze, or Cyclops from the X-Men's optic blasts.

 

I'm trying to build a defense that only covers gaze attacks. The problem is, these things are all over the map -- Blasts, Flashes, RKAs, Mental Blasts, Mental Illusions, Mind Control, Transforms... you get the idea. I need something that isn't insanely expensive but does the job. I considered Damage Negation, but even if I bought Gaze Damage Negation, it doesn't cover Flashes, Transforms, etc.

 

Anyone have a good idea, or can point me to somewhere obvious that I missed?

 

TIA

[Christopher R Taylor]

If you're looking to cover something as broad in special effect as medusa's gaze to cyclops' eye beams I do not see any way to cover that with one single defense.  Its one thing to have a power that protects from eye contact, but to protect from anything whatsoever that originates from the eyes, I cannot think of one overarching defense to cover that.

 

A character can protect themselves with a darkness, a very specialized entangle, or a transform that forces the target's eyes closed, for instance, that would usually tend to prevent any group of eye-based attacks from working, but that's not really a defense.

[Duke Bushido]

Three options, one of which is the suggestions Christopher gave:  spells that make you difficult to see (darkness only against Gazer Beams,   illusion:  no; I'm over there! etc.

 

Alternatively, decide what you want to be the defense- magic stones, being aware of the attacker, blue pinstripes on plaid pants- whatever.

 

Then build that limitation into the powers themselves: does not work against / half effeciltive against anyone with a pocket fish- whatever.

 

These are, of course, total immunity if you are meeting Condition X.

 

For a more traditional armor-like "reduces the effect of" kind of thing, look at a defense you think is appropriately priced for the effectiveness you foresee:  flash defense, Ego defense, resistant defense- whatever.  Copy the structure and call it Gaze Defense.  Might be interesting to consider if it is or can be hardened, made resistant, etc.

 

 

 

[Ninja-Bear]

@Black Rose, are you looking at avoiding the gaze attack? IOW, if eye contact isn’t made then no affect? If so, how about a type of Block Maneuver? It could be based on MOCV vs MOCV. If the player successfully makes the Block the SFX is that the player avoided his eyes in time.

[Ockham's Spoon]

I don't know what the special effect of the ability you are considering, but you might also go with +6 DCV, only vs. Gaze Attacks, which wouldn't keep them from being hurt on a lucky roll, but would keep them from being affected by gaze attacks very often.

 

Desolid only vs. Gaze Attacks might be another option, but then you would need Flash Defense as well.

 

You could also house rule that Damage Negation to say it does work for Flashes and such just for this specific application of the power.

[dmjalund]

the problem is that Cyclops blast is just a normal blast who's focus point is the character's blast

it has really nothing in common with attacks that require eye contact

[DShomshak]

dmjalund beat me to it, but to explicate further: Cyclops' eye beams don't work anything like, say, a medusa's petrifying gaze. If Cyclops can see you, he can strike you with his eye-beams. In Champions terms, it's just a Blast (though his OCV is likely quite high).

 

But a medusa's "gaze attack" is misleadingly named. To affect you, you have to see her eyes. If you're blind, you're immune. The HERO System Bestiary (using the more generic "gorgon" -- Medusa was the personal name of one of three sisters, the Gorgones) writes up this power as a Transform, requiring the medusa to make an attack roll, with the Limitation "Eye Contact Required": A target can avoid the attack by averting eyes, only looking at the gorgon in a mirror, etc -- requiring an EGO roll every Phase to keep watching the reflection instead of looking at the gorgon herself, and suffering a -3 OCV penalty as a result. If you have some way to target the gorgon nonvisually -- say, bat sonar -- just close your eyes and you're immune while suffering no penalty at all.

 

A more point-heavy write-up would make the petrifying power Continuous and Area Effect, to represent how the gorgon/medusa doesn't have to make an attack or use her Phase to turn you to stone. As long as you are in range and can see her eyes, you can be affected. The primary defense is still "Don't see her." If you don't want any ad-hoc rule about averting eyes or using a mirror while you fight, just use the standard rules about fighting an opponent you can't see.

 

If you want a specific Power, "Gaze Attacks Don't Affect Me," you can resist a medusa's petrifying gaze with Power Defense. This will also work against other "gaze" attacks that are defined as Drains or NND/AVAD attacks versus Power Defense. If an attack is defined with some other Power as the defense, too bad.

 

(For instance, imagine a Plague Demon that makes you sick if you see its eyes. You could represent this as a Drain, but also as a NND Blast or KA with Life Support: Immunity to Disease as the defense.)

 

If you want to create a spell or other Power that unconditionally defends against all gaze attacks, well, if you're the GM you have to set a "world rule" that all gaze attacks must operate vs. Power Defense; or at least include that as a valid alternate defense. If you're the player, you have to negotiate with your GM, and possibly accept that in this setting there might not be such a universal defense. It's averting your eyes, nonvisual targeting, or case-by-case defense (e.g., Power Defense against the medusa, LS: Disease Immunity against the plague demon).

 

Dean Shomshak

[Ninja-Bear]

19 hours ago, dmjalund said:

the problem is that Cyclops blast is just a normal blast who's focus point is the character's blast

it has really nothing in common with attacks that require eye contact

You can say though that Cyclops has very striking eyes!

[LoneWolf]

Something that blocks a wide variety of attacks should be expensive especially if the thing being blocked is fairly common.  Being that you said these attacks are not common it will be cheaper.  Normally a gaze attack requires more than just looking at the target.  Usually, they require the user to meet the eyes of the target.  That means that they are never area of effect attack, which means that they all require normal attack rolls and have a limitation must meet gaze.  As other have said Cyclops’s eye blast are not really gaze attacks.

 

The way I see it there are two ways to avoid a gaze attack.   The first is if you cannot hit your target because of a high DCV.  This is probably the easiest but is not guaranteed to work.  Buy this as extra DCV and MDCV only vs. gaze attacks, with the limitation only vs gaze attacks (-1).  That works out to be 15 pts for +5 DCV and +5MDCV.   The other way to do that would be to purchase have non-sight-based combat sense.   Buying targeting on one of your other sense groups costs 20 pts, or you could pick up the talent combat sense.