End cost only to activate

[ChampionGamer]

Steve,

I recently ran into clinging built as:

Clinging - normal str - 10pts

Costs End -1/2

Costs End ony to start power +1/4

Increased Endx3 -1

This power has +1/4 advantage.

This creates a power that as I understand it has a 1 1/2 limitation.

 

Question:

1.) Is the active cost of this power 10pts or 12pts. I thought you applied the advantage costs end only to start first and then applied the limitations. So that you would have 10pts * 1.25 or 12pts as the active point cost.

The player had build the power as if Costs End and Costs end only to start power was a -1/4 limitation not as a limitation and an advantage. So he claimed the active points of this power was only 10pts. This matters for Elemental controls and for GM specified point limits: example the max active points in any power can only be 30pts.

 

2.) The above power would cost 3 end to turn on, then no end thereafter to use. The player who came up with this power said that it was limited because even though it cost no end he would have to turn it off to take a recovery. Is this true? I thought a power that did not cost end did not affect a player who took a recovery.

 

Thank you!

[Steve Long]

Re: End cost only to activate

 

1. That power has an Active Point cost of 12 points. 5ER 243 specifically states that you don't "add" the Advantages and Limitations together to derive one final value; you apply Advantages (which determines the Active Point cost) then separately apply the Limitations (which determines the Real Point cost).

 

 

2. The rules question here, generically stated, is this: does a power that Costs Endurance Only To Activate prevent a character from taking a Recovery while it’s in use, even if using it doesn’t actively cost END?

 

The answer is yes. Only Constant Powers may take the Costs Endurance Only To Activate Advantage, and as noted on 5ER 424, a character who wants to take a Recovery as an Action can do nothing else, “not even maintaining a Constant Power[.]” It doesn’t matter whether that power costs END or not, he can’t maintain it and still take a Recovery.