Transform or Change Environment...

[Caped Crusader]

I've been trying to figure out the appropriate Power construction to use to allow a character to freeze a section of a river or other body of water. Would the appropriate power be a Transformation (Major or Minor) or would Change Environment suffice? Of course, I could be barking up the wrong tree entirely...

[Steve Long]

Since this is a how-to, I've moved it to the appropriate board.

 

What do you think, Herodom Assembled? I will confine my comments to noting that a spell on FHG 108 built to do this uses Change Environment. But that doesn't mean there aren't other possibilities....

[Hugh Neilson]

While the possibility of TRansform Water into Ice has a certain apeal, I'd say the effect is pretty minor and CE is appropriate.

 

This also avoids the issue of whether "Water is water", so it's minor or "Ice and water are different" so it's not, as well as how many BOD = 1 hex of river.

[Blue Jogger]

I would say if he has enough Change Environment to freeze the water, then he could make ice. Note that I would give huge bonus to anyone who was about to be frozen in a block of ice a huge advantage to escaping. After all, it's not an Entangle attack.

 

This might be the other way to do it. Ice Entangle, area based on how much water is available. Look up Icicle as an example of how strong ice entangles can be.

 

Remember, a hex of ice weighs (very roughly) 100 kilos (an underestimate to be sure, but lets be heroic). Carrying a 3-hex radius block of ice will take roughly 35 STR.

[lemming]

Originally posted by Blue Jogger

Remember, a hex of ice weighs (very roughly) 100 kilos (an underestimate to be sure, but lets be heroic). Carrying a 3-hex radius block of ice will take roughly 35 STR.

 

One cubic meter of water weighs in at 1000 kg at 15 C, so a hex of water.

2 meters across and 2 meters high weighs in at: 5196 kg, ice is .917 as heavy at 4764 kg.

 

So a hex of ice takes 38 STR. For a 3" flat radius (19 hexes of ice) would take: almost 60 STR

 

Of course, this depends on me not making some horrible math error.

[Fenixcrest]

Personally, I'd go with Transform water to ice with an area effect variable shape. Change environment is a bit too vague for me in this case, because it would make everything cold. In the case of just freezing water, you only want to make the water cold.

[Outsider]

Is it mainly meant to represent the character's "chill presence" or do you forsee it being useful in other ways? Will it be instantaneous, changing great volumes of water into ice in the blink of an eye, or will it simply make it cold enough that ice can/will form (perhaps quickly), with more forming the longer the character hangs out in the area (with the power on)?

 

Examples :

1) Can the character use his Icemaking abilities to bridge bodues of water, or is it only going to create a sheen of ice (an inch or two) over the surface (not enough to support any but the smallest of characters, or those who put a lot of surface area onto the ice)

 

2) Can the character use his Icemaking abilities to entrap things? (ie freeze the badguy's feet into the puddle he is standing in, prevent boats from moving, dam rivers)

 

3) Will the ice formed by the power -unform- unnaturally fast, or will it need to melt as per normal physics, which would make great solid chunks of ice extremely durable.

 

 

 

If I were GM, I'd probably wouldnt allow a Change Environment that turned water in a great radius solidly into ice. , though I would allow one that changes the temperature to 40 below, which would form ice pretty quick, and then let the person buy a multipower for "rapid ice formation" containing entangle and maybe a freezeray of some sort (EB, energy, chills whatever it hits (to a certain body total) to sub zero temperatures (if the target is inanimate, or animate and killed by the body damage, it becomes appropriately frozen) with maybe more slots for AoE EB (E) (if a hex of water weighs in at ~5700 kg, then it will have about 13 body. So I'd rule that a 6d6 EB (AoE, Rad) would freeze a lake surface about half a hex deep on average)

[Legendsmiths]

I'd go with entangle or a multipower entangle and flight if you don't allow people to walk across entangles as bridges.

 

If the water freezes to slowly to trap something, then make the entangle only to create barriers. If it can trap something, but still takes time, just add extra time... most things will then get out of the way unless you hold them there.

 

I think entangle is your best choice. It's easy to determine how much it can hold (it has DEF + BODY) if you allow people to stand on it (calculate the average BODY damage exterted by the STR required to lift the object per hex).