Need help with time powers.

[Tim]

OKay a newbie player has come up with a cool character concept. A young man given time powers by Himself (as an old man). One power is that he want's to freeze someone in time, so time doesn't pass for them.

 

How would I model this?

 

I'm of 2 minds myself; my first idea was a mental entangle. But as I thought it didn't quite fit. So my second thought was a Transform, but I'm not sure what level. Except for being frozen in time (it would automatically wear off in a day if not dismissed sooner) nothing changes. SO Minor or Major?

 

What would you do?

[Moody Loner]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

Extra-Dimensional Movement, Usable As Attack.

[CBikle]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

Both options you mentioned would work. Personally, I'd go with the Transform attack myself and I'd consider it a major transform.

 

Other effects could be that the transformed target couldn't be directly attacked or perhaps even moved(maybe needing the transdimensional modifier) and his or her medical condition would be stabilized (would immediately stop bleeding if at negative body) and the target would have no knowledge of what has passed since he was transformed.\

 

In one of the Digital Heros, there was an article on time-stop powers.

[zaras]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

I run a Kronos worshiping time controlling monk in a game, personally i would use a drain or supress versus speed. Special effect would be leaching all the time out of a individual gradually. In terms or game mechanics having 0 spd means you can do nothing, effectively time is stopped for you. To simulate how difficult resisting the loss of time is i use penetrating. My time controlling character is included below in .hdc, if its not too abusive it may be of use to the noob or you.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

I don't know, I'd peg it a Major Transform only if the victim is helpless the whole time. If they are impossible to harm or interact with in any way for the duration, I'd peg it a Minor Transform.

 

There's also the NND Entangle option, ala Captain Chronos.

[Lord Beavis]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

I agree, this sounds like a major transform. This affect is similiar to the Grey Gargoyle from marvel comics who has a turn to stone touch attack. A major transform which eventually wears off.

 

The target who is turned to stone, doesn't suffocate, and automatically gains armor while in the stony prison.

[MikeyMitchell]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

I previously came up with a similar character. He was modeled on a Suppress vs. SPD. The idea was, if the fellow never gets an action, he's effectively "frozen" in time. Had to get rid of him because he was beyond unbalanced...

 

You could do something similar. A Drain vs. SPD would work, with a long recover time. The other suggestions on this thread would work too - Transform would probably be my second choice. In either case, the character is probably broken or near-broken, so the GM might want to look at him carefully...

[Metaphysician]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

I agree, this sounds like a major transform. This affect is similiar to the Grey Gargoyle from marvel comics who has a turn to stone touch attack. A major transform which eventually wears off.

 

The target who is turned to stone, doesn't suffocate, and automatically gains armor while in the stony prison.

 

Yeah, but they are still relatively easy to injure or even kill while petrified, from a super perspective.

[GamePhil]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

If the character can control when the target is released, and if the target cannot be affected while in stasis, I'd go with Extradimensional Movement, Usable As Attack, through time. The special effect is not that the target is being moved through time, but simply that he is in stasis until he reaches the destination, at which point he is released. There is a statue there the whole time, and someone with the proper powers might be able to release the victim, which is a Limitation on the Power (and the character at that point is, instead, sent to when he is released, rather than sent when your guy wanted him to go).

 

The defense against this would probably be Temporal Powers and the like.

 

Otherwise, I tend toward the Transform, but it should have both a Mental and a Physical component to it, because the target cannot think or act while in stasis. Whether or not it also freezes the victim's soul in time is a subject for the philosophers.

 

Hmm, wait a minute...

 

This option also allows you to use the Partial Transform Advantage to cause the target to get sluggish, if that fits your concept.

 

The problem with Drains against SPD and the like is that they can only get you so slow. If you want to go the Drain route, I'd actually suggest a Drain against INT: the character's thought processes get more and more sluggish, and when he gets to -30, he can't think or act, or perceive time passing, so that might be close enough. Or, possibly a Drain, 1 appropriate Characteristic at a time, starting with SPD and then INT after SPD is 1.

[Tim]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

A couple of notes.

 

I am the GM, the player asked me to make the characater for him as he has never played HERO. ( I have 3 newbies in my group )

 

From arguements listed here, I'm going to go the Major Transform route with Phys and Mental components. Spd will be reduced according to how much body is transformed vis-avis gradual transform. (lose a 3rd of total body, lose a third of Spd.) If teh Character does not release the target wthin 6 hours, they will transform back on their own. Or another Time character could infuse the victim with cronal energy.

 

The character already has a Spd drain, and a Spd Aid.

[Outsider]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

Major transform I think, too, mostly because it is expensive, and will probably require a bunch of phases to fully stop a target. EDM vs Others would be way too cheap of a way to defeat pretty much any opponent in a single phase. Unless chronal powers are very, very common...

[GamePhil]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

Well, he's already decided, but the EDM would be a base of 40 with a +1 Advantage minimum, +1 1/2 with Range, so it would be at least 100 points. I would recommend more defenses than Temporal Powers, that's just the most obvious one.

[Outsider]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

I dont know if it is clear that the base cost for the EDM 'time stoppage' would be 40 points rather than 20. The character isnt exactly travelling through time in the traditional 'there and back again' sense, so much as he is changing the rate at which time passes. The EDM text example for time stoppage is that the traveller goes to a dimension where everything except the character is frozen in time. He's not travelling through, so much, so that would be a 20 point dimension. The mirror image of this would be to have the character travel to a dimension where [/i]nothing[/i] except the character is frozen in time. Then just slap UaO on it.

 

One thing to wonder about : EDM without the variable desitination adder allows only a single target dimension destination. You travel from where you activate your power to that destination, and noplace else. Not a problem for the traveller, because the temporal frame travelled to in the other dimension moves forward, even if the physical frame travelled to doesnt. If you add the 'through time' adder, though, you get a single physical and temporal destination, which means that a character using the power twice would end up intersecting himself, with messy and possibly explosive results.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

If the character can control when the target is released, and if the target cannot be affected while in stasis, I'd go with Extradimensional Movement, Usable As Attack, through time. The special effect is not that the target is being moved through time, but simply that he is in stasis until he reaches the destination, at which point he is released. There is a statue there the whole time, and someone with the proper powers might be able to release the victim, which is a Limitation on the Power (and the character at that point is, instead, sent to when he is released, rather than sent when your guy wanted him to go).

 

The defense against this would probably be Temporal Powers and the like.

 

Otherwise, I tend toward the Transform, but it should have both a Mental and a Physical component to it, because the target cannot think or act while in stasis. Whether or not it also freezes the victim's soul in time is a subject for the philosophers.

 

Hmm, wait a minute...

 

This option also allows you to use the Partial Transform Advantage to cause the target to get sluggish, if that fits your concept.

 

The problem with Drains against SPD and the like is that they can only get you so slow. If you want to go the Drain route, I'd actually suggest a Drain against INT: the character's thought processes get more and more sluggish, and when he gets to -30, he can't think or act, or perceive time passing, so that might be close enough. Or, possibly a Drain, 1 appropriate Characteristic at a time, starting with SPD and then INT after SPD is 1.

 

Um, why exactly couldn't you drain Speed to 0??

[GamePhil]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

Because I have versionitis, the inflamation of the brain with rules from previous versions of the game.

 

Which is to say, you didn't used to be able to. Now you can. Learn something new every day

[GamePhil]

Re: Need help with time powers.

 

I dont know if it is clear that the base cost for the EDM 'time stoppage' would be 40 points rather than 20.

 

For my version, it clearly would be, as the entire point of the power is to send the victim into the future to the point where he is released from stasis. That gets expensive, though I didn't look up the actual mechanics to see how expensive it would get.

 

I thought that's what you wanted