Dumb, much answered question

[Col. Orange]

Scarecrow's fear gas: Mental Illusions Based On Con. The victim choosing what form the illusions take based upon their greatest fear - is this modeled with the Uncontrolled advantage?

[TheEmerged]

Re: Dumb, much answered question

 

Scarecrow's fear gas: Mental Illusions Based On Con. The victim choosing what form the illusions take based upon their greatest fear - is this modeled with the Uncontrolled advantage?

 

You're confusing Uncontrolled with No Conscious Control.

 

The Fear Gas may well have Uncontrolled (+1/2) depending on how you build it. This means the power is "fire and forget", it sticks around regardless of what the user is doing. You can knock the user out, entangle him, heck even Mind Control him -- and that gas isn't going away. It lasts as long as...

 

a> it has END in the "pool" created when the power is used. If the gas costs 7 END a phase, the user spends END to create its "pool" of END -- so if s/he spends 21 END this way it will last 3 phases. In the case of Mental Illusions this means 3 phases will pass before the EGO roll starts going up...

 

b> the "breakout" hasn't occured. All Uncontrolled powers must have a fair means of negating it -- much like an NND. Since Mental Illusions has a built-in breakout that's probably all you need.

 

c> if built as a Continuing Charge, it also ceases when the charge runs out.

 

No Conscious Control (-2 or -1) on the other hand is how HERO handles powers the user doesn't have full control of. In this case the effect will always be negative for the victim -- the user just can't pick what it is. So that's the -1 level tops.

 

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There's actually at least two other ways to do this.

 

If you're most interested in the way this distracts the victim (making them less effective), consider a Usable As Attack (+1) Change Environment that hurts important combat stats (like OCV and/or DCV).

 

If being faced with their fear is supposed to damage the victim, use an Ego Attack (against CON). While Mental Illusion has a mechanic for the illusion doing damage, it's more of a trivia question than effective most of the time.

 

Of course, you could use those two *in addition* to the main effect using the multiple-attack-roll rules, you'd just have to make sure they have the same attack roll.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Dumb, much answered question

 

To be honest, if I were designing this power, I'd actually buy it with Mind Control as the base, with the limitation that it's only command is to make the victim feel fear ... but that's just my take.

[TheEmerged]

Re: Dumb, much answered question

 

To be honest' date=' if I were designing this power, I'd actually buy it with Mind Control as the base, with the limitation that it's only command is to make the victim feel fear ... but that's just my take.[/quote']

 

Main reason I'd suggest Illusion over Control is the prospect for a strong enough illusion to make it so the victim "goes catatonic" -- is no longer interracting with the real world. It's also easier IMO to achieve appropriate effects with Illusion.

 

The USPD Emotion option for Mind Control seems to see it your way, however. Now this is just my opinion but sensations should be handled through Illusion not Control.

[Zed-F]

Re: Dumb, much answered question

 

A nD6 Mental Illusions, Only to realize target's fears (-1/2), is probably how I would do it. It's certainly not worth the (-1) from No Conscious Control. The user of the fear gas has full control over which option of possible effects to choose from, it's just there's only one option on the list. No Conscious Control (-1) would be if the gas could cause any illusion, but the person using it didn't know what the target would see.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Dumb, much answered question

 

A degree of No Conscious Control is appropriate, because he really doesn't have any control over what the target sees (and is unaware of what the target is seeing unless he starts brushing himself off and screaming 'SPIDERS! GET THEM OFF! GET THEM OFF!' or something similar). For instance, going with the classic Scarecrow gassing Batman, Batman would presumably have a flashback about his parents being killed; however, unless he reacted in such a way that gave it away, Scarecrow wouldn't have any information to try to track down Batman's secret ID.

 

Point well made about the catatonia, Emerged. Hadn't thought of that.

[Col. Orange]

Re: Dumb, much answered question

 

I would have thought not knowing a target's greatest fear, but making them see it anyway would have been an advantage, not a limitation.

[TheEmerged]

Re: Dumb, much answered question

 

RE: Why it's a limitation: because you're giving up flexibility and control.

 

With Mental Illusion itself, you have a power with a suprisingly broad capability -- it really deserves to be seen alongside Transform, Change Environment, and Mind Control in my opinion.

 

The gas you're describing has one effect -- the victim experiences their greatest fear. So it can't be used to make a character think an innocent on the other side of the block is being threatened -- unless that happens to be their greatest fear. You can't make a land-bound character think a chasm just opened between them and their enemy -- and even if that is somehow a great fear for them, you can't control where the chasm is.