Drain with Limitation

[Acroyear II]

Hi all,

 

One of my players would like to create the following power for his hero:

 

Withering Heat: Drain END 4d6, Not vs Life Support: Safe Environment (Intense Heat)

 

My concern is the value of the Limitation Not vs Life Support (Intense Heat). I'm not sure what would be the best value. -1/2 or -1 or something different? He thought it might be worth a -2 value, but I think that is far too steep.

 

What do you guys think?

[wylodmayer]

Re: Drain with Limitation

 

I'd say -2 is way too much of a Limitation; on the other hand, the Life Support in question is VERY cheap and totally cancels the power. Still, that more or less makes it on par with an NND, which is a +1 Advantage, so a -1 Limitation sounds about right to me. Unless that Life Support is more common in your game; for instance, in a high powered game where there are a lot of androids, cosmically powerful interstellar policemen, and flying bricks from other planets, I'd rack it up to at least -1 1/2. But for the average superhero game, -1 sounds good to me.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: Drain with Limitation

 

A -1 Limitation would normally mean that the power only works about half the time. Do half the likely targets in your world have LS: Immune to Heat? If not, then it's not worth a -1 Limitation. Look at the guidelines under Limited Power for how much effectiveness the power loses.

 

Personally, I'd make this a -1/4 to -1/2.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Drain with Limitation

 

I agree with Derek. In my games, LS: Intense Heat would be common enough to merit a -1/4 to -1/2. I'd likely round down to the former. Even removal of 20% of the cost implies one target in 5 will have LS: Intense Heat.

 

The character will presumably have other attack options, and can easily conclude that attacking the flaming character with an attack that only works on people affected by intense heat will only waste a phase.

[1EyedJack]

Re: Drain with Limitation

 

It depends on the prevlence of life support in your campaign, keeping in mind targets still get to use their power defense even if they don't have life support I would say it should be bettewn -1/2 and -1.

[tesuji]

Re: Drain with Limitation

 

Hi all,

 

One of my players would like to create the following power for his hero:

 

Withering Heat: Drain END 4d6, Not vs Life Support: Safe Environment (Intense Heat)

 

My concern is the value of the Limitation Not vs Life Support (Intense Heat). I'm not sure what would be the best value. -1/2 or -1 or something different? He thought it might be worth a -2 value, but I think that is far too steep.

 

What do you guys think?

 

he's one of YOUR players so the question is "how frequent will he in your game be faced with foes with this trait?"

 

none of us know that.

 

now the catch is maybe you don't know that either having not built every foe your PCs will face... but that amkes it easier. Pcik a value and then have enough people show up with it to make you look like you made the right call.

 

-1/4 means once in a while, maybe one session in four, he meets a foe who has this immunity.

-1/2 means more like every other session he meets a foe.

-1 means every session.

 

now by meet a foe i dont mean everybody has it but instead someone does.... and he may or may not run into them as a target.

 

Matter of fact, since he is likely a bright boy, he probably will use clues like "geee, that enemy is a fire throwing sheath of angry flame" to decide " i think i will use my attack on someone else" or "i will use my other attack on flaming guy" thus avoiding the limitation

 

Which is why my frequency is rather high.

 

I would want to set the value at -1/4 myself so i can keep the enemies scripted to force his lim into play to be rather rare but however far you wanna take it, is up to you.

 

I mean, certainly if you plan to have "invasion of the fire flementals" as a campaign theme... it should be more.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Drain with Limitation

 

I'm with the 1/4 or 1/2. IMG, I'd be 1/2, since Life Support for Heat and Cold is frequently part of the standard superhero costume package for 'Bulletproof Spandex' costumes ... might as well insulate 'em while you're at it.

[Acroyear II]

Re: Drain with Limitation

 

Thanks for all of your input, guys and gals. Your thoughts on the matter have helped me to determine that I should assign a -1/2 Limitation to the power based on the likelyhood my player will face this defense in my campaign world.

 

As always, I appreciate all your help!

[Silbeg]

Re: Drain with Limitation

 

Thanks for all of your input' date=' guys and gals. Your thoughts on the matter have helped me to determine that I should assign a -1/2 Limitation to the power based on the likelyhood my player will face this defense in my campaign world.[/quote']

 

That definitely sounds like a fair estimation. Especially when he'll probably be facing things like Automatons (robots) on occassion, not to mention guys in power armor, etc.

 

 

The only key then is to make sure it happens on occassion.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Drain with Limitation

 

That definitely sounds like a fair estimation. Especially when he'll probably be facing things like Automatons (robots) on occassion' date=' not to mention guys in power armor, etc.[/quote']

 

The power is useless against automotons with or without the limitation, as they don't have END. I wouldn't increase the limitation for a game with a lot of robots for that reason.

[Silbeg]

Re: Drain with Limitation

 

The power is useless against automotons with or without the limitation' date=' as they don't have END. I wouldn't increase the limitation for a game with a lot of robots for that reason.[/quote']

 

I agree... though I thought Automatons could have END, but they customarily don't. In any case, they do usually have the LS anyways.

 

SO, Hugh, we are in perfect agreement. I thought the lim was appropriate because of things like automatons, not in spite of it.