Last Resort

[Guest Kolava]

Would it be feasible to build an immense power to represent a character's "ultimate last ditch technique" with the entire thing bought with "only when pushing"? I only ask because I recall seing this limitation in FRED, applying to part of a power. Would buying the whole thing NCC work better, working under the assuption that the power decides when it is the last resort and the character can't throw it around arbitrarily?

[Snarf]

I think Only When Pushing would work if the GM treats pushing as something unusual. My group uses pushing very rarely but I've heard of some games where it's routine for characters that have enough endurance.

[Javed]

The NCC thing sounds better, although most players are generally hesitant to let control of their powers slip.

 

Another way to do it might be a limitation, only works when user is down {X} or more STUN/END/BODY/Combination thereof.

[Guest Kolava]

Thanks for the input. The "down by so much stun/body" is interesting in theory, but I envision this technique as being used at the threat of certain death, not necisarily after a savage beating.

[Dust Raven]

An insteresting construct I've seen is a very high powered attack (or other Power) with the Limitations 1 Charge & Cost END. I've also seen it done just by putting Increased END x5 or x10 on it to represent the strain it puts on the character. But if it's something that is done rather easily, but only as a "last resort" you could just use Charges.

[BNakagawa]

You could buy it with side effects that are guaranteed to waste the character, or at least send them to GMOpolis.

 

That would pretty much guarantee that nobody would really want to use the power unless they were in truly dire straits. This may not be quite so effective if you have healers in your campaign that can put someone back on their feet instantaneously, though.

 

$0.02

[Talon]

I've had trouble with this kind of power -- if it just has Side Effects that waste the character, the character uses it to take out every Big Bad Guy knowing that it's worth the sacrifice and that his teammates will back him up.

 

In theory, you could make the power waste the character for a longer period of time (character loses powers for a week, for example)...but then the player might get bored sitting around with no powers for a while.

 

Having the power decide when it is a last ditch situation is a bit annoying to the players, because it's basically the GM making the call -- unless the power has a clear purpose (such as wanting to slay demons in particular).

 

In short, you want to make sure that the player isn't just trying to get around campaign DC limits and that the power will be used in a way that makes the game better, not worse.

[Fireg0lem]

Talon makes some good points.

 

My advice is to build it with one charge, and buy up the recovery time. If it can only be used once per month...the character won't use it to take out someone unless they're absolutely sure it's the only way they can win.

 

Side Effects, Only While Pushing, Costs End, and Increased Endurance are all good too. If the Extra Recovery Time won't be enough on it's own, consider making some of the Side Effects long term - for example, a Drain with recovery time increased.

 

Either way, it insures a long-term problem for the character.