Desolid/advantages on zero points

[Sean Waters]

Shadow thief wants to reach inside a small wall safe (not big enough for him to re-solidify all of himself inside) with his desolidification power, grab the gems inside, desolid them and take them out.

 

I don't think you can do that with the power at its basic level: you need to be solid to grab something solid and then turn desolid to take it with you (assuming that you can carry the weight). At least that is how I've always played it.

 

The first thing I thought of was 'how do you touch the real world when you are desolid'? Answer: Affects real world on strength.

 

OK, but if all you want to do is touch you don't need it on all your strength, do you? In fact you could happily have it on zero strength, but then that wouldn't cost any points (+2 advantage on zero points). Bargain!

 

How would you accomplish this?

[paigeoliver]

Re: Desolid/advantages on zero points

 

Reason from effects?

 

The affect is that he retrieves an object/s from a sealed container that he cannot open, nor fit inside of.

 

I would base it off of teleportation of the object, or even transform and multipower it with the desolidification since he can't do both at once.

 

Or, rule that he simply CAN do what you are describing. I see no reason why a person couldn't go partially desolid.

[KA.]

Re: Desolid/advantages on zero points

 

I would say that this is something you would have to pay some points for.

Most likely it would be a Naked Modifier "Affects Physical World" on up to 5 points of STR. Cost is 10 pts.

Seems pretty reasonable, and in genre.

Kitty Pryde, the main Desolid character that I got to see improve her powers with time, was not able to do this sort of thing right from the start.

It was more like a skill that she learned.

 

I don't think 10 points is unreasonable.

 

It would allow your character to do what your described, as long as you are talking about small hand-held objects like jewels. Based on the Desolid rules, only hand-held stuff can be made Desolid along with you. Something bigger would just stay solid and not pass through the safe.

 

You could also do things like push buttons, type on a keyboard, grab away Foci, etc., all while in the relative safety of being Desolid. Sounds like a good deal to me.

 

KA.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Desolid/advantages on zero points

 

I was thinking about this today (when I was supposed to be working) and I suppose the official way would be to buy UBO (simultaneous) and put an advantage 'affects real world' on the points in the advantage, but as that would cost at least 60 points it seems a bit silly.

 

I like the sound of an adder, which is more reasonable cost wise. I suppose there is potential for abuse (I grab his focus and make it desolid), so you'd have to have some sort of limitation on the adder that it requires concentration or extra time.

 

The teleport idea is a good one, but wouldn't allow you to, for instance, grope around inside the safe to feel what is there as 'affects real world' on a point or two of strength would, and adding touch clairsentience would seem excessive and probably a bit expensive.

[Dr.Device]

Re: Desolid/advantages on zero points

 

For the desolidifier in my group, I just gave him 1" stretching, does not cross intervening space (+1/4). It's not exactly as you describe, since he can only use this trick while otherwise solid (ie, vulnerable to attacks), but he was satisfied with it.

 

If he wanted to do the trick while desolid, I would probably want him to go the UBO route you described, as that is pretty darn powerful.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Desolid/advantages on zero points

 

For the desolidifier in my group, I just gave him 1" stretching, does not cross intervening space (+1/4). It's not exactly as you describe, since he can only use this trick while otherwise solid (ie, vulnerable to attacks), but he was satisfied with it.

 

If he wanted to do the trick while desolid, I would probably want him to go the UBO route you described, as that is pretty darn powerful.

 

I'm sure he was satisfied: I'm not sure this is what was envisaged when they came up with 'doesn't cross intervening space'. My understanding is that it would allow you to stretch to something that you could reach in any event, but avoid all the nasty consequences of getting grabbed and so on. I don't think it means you can stretch through solids.

 

Having said that, if it works in your game, go for it.

[KA.]

Re: Desolid/advantages on zero points

 

I like the sound of an adder, which is more reasonable cost wise. I suppose there is potential for abuse (I grab his focus and make it desolid), so you'd have to have some sort of limitation on the adder that it requires concentration or extra time.

 

I don't think this would be a problem, most of the time anyway.

Having 5 pts of STR with Affects Physical World, means that you can exert 5 pts of STR on the Physical World.

I would not have things become Desolid until you have "control" of them.

Which means that you would have to win a STR vs. STR battle with your 5 pts of STR, to grab the item away, before you could turn it Desolid.

Anything bought as Inaccessible could not be taken away like this, and even an OAF would be hard to snatch with 5 STR.

You could take Foci that were not being held, unless the owner aborted to a Defensive action to hold on to them.

But overall, you would not be getting a lot of free Focus snatches in my game.

That is part of the internal beauty of the Hero System, a lot of things just work out.

If you only spend the points to have a little STR while Desolid, then you can't do too much with it.

If you want to do more, you have to spend more points.

Balance.

 

KA.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Desolid/advantages on zero points

 

That is part of the internal beauty of the Hero System, a lot of things just work out.

KA.

 

Really good points. Thank you.

[KA.]

Re: Desolid/advantages on zero points

 

Really good points. Thank you.

 

Helpful is my middle name!

 

(It used to be Cyril, but that just sounded so wimpy. )

 

KA.

[zornwil]

Re: Desolid/advantages on zero points

 

I like the Teleport idea. Another idea is to say he needs a Transformation to make something temporarily Desolid while moving it. If he's normally doing this against small objects and the like, it shouldn't be too costly. You could fashion it as a Transformation Damage Shield to be really snazzy and the cool kid on the block...