Attack with Continuing Charge -opinions please

[Lord Liaden]

Hi, gang. I could use a little advice on a weapon construct I'm developing. It's based on the Ego Whip from the old Champs supplement Gadgets!. This device discharges a lethal energy on contact which slowly destroys the victim's nervous system. The writeup looks like this:

 

1D6 RKA, AVLD - Mental Defense (+1 1/2), Does BODY (+1), Continuous (+1), 16 Charges lasting 1 Turn (+1/2), No Range (-1/2), OAF Whip (-1). Active Points 75, Real Points 30.

 

The attack effect is visible to the Sight, Hearing and Mental Sense Groups. While the target is being affected he suffers pronounced muscle spasms and involuntary pain sounds, while radiating energy obvious to anyone with Mental Awareness.

 

What I'm unsure about is what would be a "reasonably common" way to turn off the Charge once it's started. This is for a Supers campaign in which mentalists of one sort or another are not rare. What I was thinking was that any Mental Power which rolled for effect equal to the victim's EGO would shut down the Continuing Charge, but I'm not sure if any mentalist faced with this situation would think to try using a Power on the victim to help him.

 

Do you think that that would be sufficient, or can you suggest something other than or in addition to this method? I'd like to stay within the "mental" SFX, but I'm open to any other logical method you'd care to suggest.

 

Any input would be appreciated.

[Xandarr]

The problem is that the energy type isn't as well defined as it could be. I looked at the original write-up from "Gadgets", which wasn't much more specific. The weapon was created by DEMON, and uses a metal whip-like coil to transfer the energy, so I supposed one could assume it's some kind of mutated electricity that directly attacks the nervous system. Your description of the SFX seems to support that theory. Consequently, you might allow any type of "grounding" to turn off the charge, such as touching a metal post such as a lamppost or parking meter maybe?

 

Just a thought,

Steve

[Gary]

Re: Attack with Continuing Charge -opinions please

 

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

Hi, gang. I could use a little advice on a weapon construct I'm developing. It's based on the Ego Whip from the old Champs supplement Gadgets!. This device discharges a lethal energy on contact which slowly destroys the victim's nervous system. The writeup looks like this:

 

1D6 RKA, AVLD - Mental Defense (+1 1/2), Does BODY (+1), Continuous (+1), 16 Charges lasting 1 Turn (+1/2), No Range (-1/2), OAF Whip (-1). Active Points 75, Real Points 30.

 

The attack effect is visible to the Sight, Hearing and Mental Sense Groups. While the target is being affected he suffers pronounced muscle spasms and involuntary pain sounds, while radiating energy obvious to anyone with Mental Awareness.

 

What I'm unsure about is what would be a "reasonably common" way to turn off the Charge once it's started. This is for a Supers campaign in which mentalists of one sort or another are not rare. What I was thinking was that any Mental Power which rolled for effect equal to the victim's EGO would shut down the Continuing Charge, but I'm not sure if any mentalist faced with this situation would think to try using a Power on the victim to help him.

 

Do you think that that would be sufficient, or can you suggest something other than or in addition to this method? I'd like to stay within the "mental" SFX, but I'm open to any other logical method you'd care to suggest.

 

Any input would be appreciated.

 

How about the obvious solution? The victim or an ally spends an attack action unwrapping the whip from him, or destroying the whip?

[Lord Liaden]

Xandarr: excellent point about defining the energy effect more sharply. It would be easy to make the SFX look more "electrical" (sparks flying off the character, etc.) so that grounding would be more likely to occur to someone. Thanks!

 

Gary, my understanding of the Continuing Charge (from the description and example power on FREd pp. 182-83) is that it keeps working after the attacker starts doing something else. In this case the user of the Ego Whip could successfully hit someone with it, then attack someone else with the same weapon while the charge does its work; the whip wouldn't have to remain in contact with the victim.

 

Any other thoughts?

[Captain Obvious]

It would seem that a Mental Awareness Perception roll would pick up the nature of the energy. Any sort of Mental Aid or Mental Healing or whatnot would be an easy follow up at that point.

[Gary]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

Gary, my understanding of the Continuing Charge (from the description and example power on FREd pp. 182-83) is that it keeps working after the attacker starts doing something else. In this case the user of the Ego Whip could successfully hit someone with it, then attack someone else with the same weapon while the charge does its work; the whip wouldn't have to remain in contact with the victim.

 

Any other thoughts?

 

Ah, I misunderstood. I thought the attacker had to keep the whip wrapped around the victim.

 

I think you need Uncontrolled if you want the attacker to be able to do something else. Continuous simply means that the attacker doesn't need to make another attack roll.

 

Assuming the attack is Uncontrolled, perhaps an Ego roll at -5?

[Pattern Ghost]

Another possibility is disrupting the energy by shocking the victim's nervous system with an electrical attack. So, either a successful mental power use or electrical attack would be possibilities.