Powers that run independently like pets?

[Sailboat]

By way of introduction, this idea came from the Storm Summoning powerset in City of Heroes, an old but beloved MMORPG some of you may be familiar with.

 

The powerset has two powers which create "entities" that fight on their own--after creating them, the character can move on and do other things while these powers continue to attack bad guys.  The net effect is a force multiplier, as the powers continue to fight while the player is free to act on their own, albeit with the upfront cost of having used actions and resources to start the powers.  But it's also damned cool.

 

1) Lightning Storm:  a cloud that hangs in the air for a while and throws out targeted lightning bolt attacks at regular intervals at nearby foes. 

 

2) Tornado:  a small whirlwind that runs for a while, chasing after bad guys on its own, and attacks them by engulfing them, manhandling them, and doing continuous DoT

 

Both these powers have properties that seem tricky to represent in Champions: 

 

a) they are intangible, do not block movement, and cannot be targeted/attacked.  Enemies know to ignore them.  This would seem to be unsuitable for a summoned pet...?

 

b) while their target prioritization seems somewhat random,  they do not attack friendlies, only enemies.  This might be too tricky to pull off in Hero; certainly "does not affect friendlies" is cheesy and won't pass GM muster...but maybe a semi-intelligent summons could apply it's own judgment when choosing targets?  I could *maybe* live with versions that target indiscriminately,  although I would have to be much more circumspect about using them.

 

c) the player can only have one (or two, with significant investment of late-game resources) of each of these powers in play at any given time.  For Hero system play, just one at a time would work.  They run for something like 30 seconds...the exact duration could be changed a bit without ruining the concept.

 

What's the best way to do this in Champions/Hero?  I like Summons, bought to be loyal, but them being targeted seems wrong...since they are reasonably easy to re-summon, drawing fire off the caster would seem almost too good to be true.  Is there any better way to do this, perhaps with Continuous?

 

I am hoping the clever build gurus here can propose some way of doing this that makes sense and will pass GM approval.

[LoneWolf]

Using a summon is not the way to build this.   Off the top of my head it would seem like this would be best built with a trigger that automatically and instantly resets.  

[Sailboat]

Intetesting take.  How would that work mechanically?

[Duke Bushido]

Indirect is your friend here.  So is Continuous.

 

The rest is special effects.

 

 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah Summon could work but you're better off with an indirect (can move around the battlefield, including behind objects), continuous, uncontrolled power in an area effect that only hits one random target each phase in the area for the whirlwind.  The special effect is a little vortex that chases people down, it looks like the way the game works.

 

The storm cloud is a continuous indirect (overhead) uncontrolled area effect, it seems to me: it looks like a cloud that zaps people at random but probably just one target a phase.

[LoneWolf]

Trigger is an advantage in 6th edition.   The details can be found in 6E V1 Page 349.   Other advantages may also be helpful.   Duke’s suggestion about indirect and continuous would also be useful depending on how you want it to work.  If the GM is willing you could set the trigger as any enemy within range.  

 

These powers could be very expensive.  It may end up that your character may not be able to afford it, or it may go over campaign limits.   Keep in mind that the game requires balance so sometimes you may not be able to buy a power even if you can write it up.  
 

[Sailboat]

Thanks, I will see what I can manage.  I am keenly aware it may prove too expensive or otherwise draw GM disapproval.

 

When I proposed to build a version of this for a Mutants and Masterminds campaign, the GM immediately balked.  He thought it sounded like I was trying to attack more often than other characters, which is a big no-no in that system.  Champions, however, does contemplate at least the possibility that one character might act more often than another in a turn.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Sailboat

[Duke Bushido]

If it helps:

 

Many, many years ago- back in the days of Sega Genesis- I had a player in a fantasy game who wamted to emulate a character from the video game Samurai Showdown.  Specifically, the ninja with the dog.

 

We built the dog as an RKA, indirect, continuous, and added a couple of details such as cutting the range in half and figuring range based on the location of the last attack (dog runs from one target to the next) and a custom limitation that managing to "grab" the "dog" dispelled the attack (we had Fantasy HERO,  but we didn't have "Restrainable" or "physical manifestation" way back then).  We knocked down the orice of Indeoendant by about a quarter (if I recall) by declaing that it xould only be used against targets who were "accessible to a German shepherd" or some such thing.

 

 

 

 

[Sketchpad]

I really don't see using Summon as a problem if you define things right. Maybe you summon a "Storm Elemental" that does what you'd like it to do. 

[Christopher R Taylor]

The main drawbacks to summoning are the delay when it appears, the need for control, and the disorientation.

 

The Summon takes a full phase to accomplish, requires an EGO Roll to control the being, and it shows up stunned and takes a full one of its phases to recover from that.  So those features might make the power not work as desired.

 

Oh, also unless you buy it desolid etc, people can attack and destroy your cloud or tornado

Edited November 22, 2023 by Christopher R Taylor

[Grailknight]

Thinking slightly outside the box, use Damage over Time on each power.  It keeps the attacks on one target without needing to buy anything else, bought with Lockout, you can only have one going at once and you can set the deactivation method and only buy enough increments to last 3 turns at maximum. It's still going to be expensive but that can't be helped. 

 

Or you can Use Summon and have Intangible Automatons with Affect Real World their single power. Also quite expensive.