Charisma EC

[Psylint]

I was thinking of making a charismatic leader type elemental control/multipower just thought I'd throw it out there for comments.

 

1. Snap out of it. Dispel any mental affecting power 1 power at a time (+1/2? I wanted it to handle Mental Illusions, Mind Control, Presence Attacks and the like), Incantations, limited range.

2. Fortune favors the bold. Aid Armor, AoE Selective, Incantations.

3. Bleed Later. Aid Body. Incantations

4. Come on you apes! You wanna live forever?... Aid Dex, Str, Pre Simultaneously [Adrenalin boost], AoE Selective, Incantations.

 

Of course, that much Aid gets into Active point cap problems, but watcha think?

[gojira]

Re: Charisma EC

 

Hmm, it's a pretty good set of powers for a heroic or pulp campaign. I love the power names! But I'm having a hard time seeing how this fits into an EC framework. How does this get drained as a unit? What's the SFX to sap someone's Heroic Pulp Mojo?

[Psylint]

Re: Charisma EC

 

Fair point. Really, it makes more sense as a multipower, after all the regular use of incantations limits the player to one "power" at a time. The "Elemental Control" thing was just sloppiness on my part. When devising characters or power sets, I conceive of them as "elemental controls" even if they're not. That said, I actually do like the "drain Heroic Pulp Mojo" but I would say that it would be drained as PRE as PRE is the analog for charisma if you look at the skills, so it makes some sense. Also most of these "powers" are just friendly Presence attacks on steroids if you think of it.

 

Others I thought of:

 

1. Browbeat. Telepathy, language barrier, incantations,

2. God loves him. [to replicate the running through crossfires without a scratch] +5 DCV and 3/4 physical damage reduction, only versus non selective area of effect attacks.

3. Get up and soldier, Soldier. Aid Stun, Incantations, Gestures (requires an "affectionate" pat on the head.) limited power, only works on unconscious targets.

4. Inspiring Presence. Aid Pre and Ego simultaneous, area of effect selective [There's just something about the Old Man. Sure he's crazy, but standing next to him... Hell, we'd walk into the Gates of Hell and set up shop if he led the way.]

5. Move! Move! Move!. Aid Running and Endurance simultaneously, incantations, aoe selective.

 

Peace

[Sean Waters]

Re: Charisma EC

 

I'm not convinced that incantations DO limit you to one power at a time: whilst I can see that might be logical for some builds, lockout is a more expensive limtiation that is not subsumed by the incantation limitation.

 

Anyway, a lot of your powers are adjustment which don't 'go away' if you change slots on a multipower, so no loss there then (literally).

 

One point: dispel wouldn't normally work against the result of a PRE attack, and I'm not sure it even works against, for instance, the ongoing effects of mind control, although it is logical enough that it should, MC is an instant power, so dispel should be no more effective than it would be against the effects of an EB.

 

What you might want to look at is an EGO boost: that would be effective both against the effects of a PRE attack and would also give you another breakout roll (as your EGO increases) at a higher level against ongoing mental effects.

[Psylint]

Re: Charisma EC

 

Good points Sean. I agree with the continuing effects of mind control and presence attacks being problematic with Dispel. The problem is that Dispel really is precisely the effect that I want. If you went with Aid Ego, then you'd still have to wait at least most of a Turn to see if it was helpful (you probably wouldn't know that Jake was under a mind control effect until after he failed his first one and did something out of character, thus Aid Ego while mechanically effective for breakout rolls, doesn't get the "snap out of it" effect.)

 

Perhaps I should ask Steve. I know it's an "aggressive" use of Dispel, but I'm not sure that it's abusive to treat continuing effects of Mental powers and Presence attacks as "out there" to be Dispelled, any more than it would be abusive to use Dispel against Summon or a power with Trigger Advantage, both of which I think are considered "out there" to be Dispelled. The advantage level may be off, which is why I put the ? by it. You make a very valid point. If you take my approach, then Dispel is much more effective against mental powers with continuing effects than other instant powers like energy blast or Ego Blast. You can't use Dispel to "dispel" the damage of an EB so why should you be able to dispel the "damage"' of a mind control? A very valid point, one that I really hadn't considered. Thanks.

 

As far as lockout vrs. incantations, I'd go with whichever works. If I were to actually build it, the lockout issue would be subsumed in putting all of the powers in ultra slots in a multipower, but thanks for putting it out. I'd also play it so that if the target of the power couldn't hear the Charismatic Leader, then the power would have no effect. So, if either the target or the Charismatic Leader were in a Darkness Field vrs. Hearing, none of the "incantation" powers would work. Similarly, inspiring presence might not work if the Charismatic Leader cannot be perceived.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Charisma EC

 

I've got a feeling that if your EGO increases you get another breakout roll there and then even if you are on 'long' breakouts by that stage, or at least on your next phase, which should be pretty much the same thing in practice, so you shouldn't need a long wait for effect. If I'm right then it should have an instant 'snap out of it' effect. Mind you, as usual, I could be making that up

[Tonio]

Re: Charisma EC

 

I'm not convinced that incantations DO limit you to one power at a time: whilst I can see that might be logical for some builds' date=' lockout is a more expensive limtiation that is not subsumed by the incantation limitation.[/quote']

 

Incantations DO limit you to one power at a time. That is, you can't use any powers that require Incantations if you're using another power that requires Incantations. Meaning you can't activate more than one power that requires Incantations in a single Phase, and you can't activate powers that require Incantations if you're using a Continuous power that requires Incantations throughout (not just to activate). Ditto for Gestures.

 

Granted, this makes Incantations and Gestures seem underpriced, given that they already include the Lockout Limitation, plus the additional Restrainable-like limitation. I'd guess the intention is for Lockout to cost -1/2 when it's a lasting effect (Continuous powers, or powers with lasting effects like Entangle (there's an example with Entangle in 5ER)), since there's a note to the effect of the value of Lockout being "typically -1/2", but that the GM should adjust it depending on how many powers it affects, how important those powers are, etc.

 

I guess Gestures and Incantations are overpriced if they're used on a single power, or a small number of powers that you wouldn't normally want to use simultaneously, but underpriced if applied to many powers you'd want to use simultaneously. Consider an EB and an RKA both bought with Incantations. You wouldn't normally want to fire them together, so the only limitation here is that you can't fire them in a Silence-type field (Darkness to sound group). Now consider Flight, Force Field, and EB, all with Incantations, Flight and Force Field throughout. You can't fly and shoot at the same time, nor fly and be protected, nor shoot while being protected, etc. Pretty hefty limitation. In fact, it's the equivalent of a -9 limitation on two of the powers, and a +1/10 advantage (no such thing, I know) on one of them... a Multipower with Ultra slots. With the added limitation of not being able to do any of that in a Silence field. Seems to be worth much more than -1/2. =) Then again, you'd probably put all those powers in a Multipower anyway... just seems odd to "force" you to use a Multipower if you're going to use Incantations or Gestures (not that you're really forced to... just that you're doing so already, in effect, so using a Multipower only represents a points savings, no actual mechanics).

[Sean Waters]

Re: Charisma EC

 

Incantations DO limit you to one power at a time. That is' date=' you can't use any powers that require Incantations if you're using another power that requires Incantations. Meaning you can't activate more than one power that requires Incantations in a single Phase, and you can't activate powers that require Incantations if you're using a Continuous power that requires Incantations throughout (not just to activate). Ditto for Gestures............[/quote']

 

 

You are quite right: how silly.