(Followup) Charges and UOO

[Christopher]

Your answer only pointed me to the rules that spawned the question in the first place, perhaps rephrasing the question helps:

1) When a Granted Power has charges, are these charges "Per Granting" or "Per per day/adventure/[charges recovery timespan]"?

 

2)Asuming that "Per Granting" is the default, where do I apply the limitation value to make the charges "per day/adventure" or "per life", so that charges used in one granting don't come back in the next granting?

Especially, could you make this with "Increased Recovery Time" or "Never Recovers" respectively?

[Steve Long]

Re: (Followup) Charges and UOO

 

I think I understand what you’re getting at, though I still think what you want to know is answered by the text I previously cited when read in conjunction with the standard rules for UOO and for Charges. I’m going to rephrase your question so that my answer is clear.

 

Q: According to 6E1 360, taking Charges on a Usable By Other/Usable Simultaneously power indicates the number of times per day that power can be granted to another person. The recipient isn’t restricted by the Charges — he can use the power as often as he can afford to pay END for it. If the grantor wants the recipient to only be able to use the granted power a restricted number of times, he has to build the granted power using the “differing modifiers” rules and apply Charges to it. This being the case:

 

1. Does the fact that the granted power has Charges affect how often the grantor can grant the power?

 

2. Is it possible to further restrict how often the recipient can use the granted power?

 

 

A:

1. No. If the grantor wants to restrict how often he can grant a Usable On Others power, he applies Charges to it as usual. If there’s no Charges Limitation on the Usable On Others power, the grantor can grant the power as often as the form of Usable On Others he’s paid for will allow him to (subject to any other restrictions or requirements, of course, such as paying END). Since this could in some respects “invalidate” the Charges on the granted power, the GM should consider very carefully before letting characters do this at all.

 

2. Yes, per the standard Charges rules. The Charges on the granted power could have Increased Recovery Time, Restricted Recovery, or Never Recovers, for example, or the granted power could have some other Limitation that affects how often (or under what conditions) the recipient can use it. Again, though, because this could effectively counteract the restrictiveness of Charges, the GM should review any such powers carefully before allowing them into play.

 

 

Example: Arkelos, who’s really wishing he hadn’t signed that contract to be a part of so many examples in the rulebook, wants to be able to grant the following spell to his comrades:

 

Sword Of Lightning: RKA 3d6, Lasts Through Unconsciousness (+½) (67 Active Points); Extra Time (Full Phase; -½), Gestures (-¼), Incantations (-¼), 4 Charges (-1). Total cost: 22 points.

 

Pursuant to the differing modifiers rules, that 22 point cost becomes the Base Cost for his UOO spell: Usable By Other (+¼) for Sword Of Lightning spell (27 Active Points); OAF (Wizard’s Staff; -1), Gestures (-¼), Incantations (-¼), Requires A Magic Roll (-½) (total cost: 9 points).

 

Since Arkelos only bought Usable By Other, he can only cast Grant Sword Of Lightning on one person at a time. Because Sword Of Lightning has the Lasts Through Unconsciousness (+½) Advantage (6E1 355), the recipient keeps control of it even if he’s Stunned, Knocked Out/asleep, or the like. Until the recipient relinquishes control, loses it through some other means, or uses up all the Charges, Arkelos can’t grant Sword Of Lightning to anyone else. The recipient could in theory keep Sword Of Lightning for days, weeks, or longer, though since it has 4 Charges he can only cast the spell four times per day.

 

Once Arkelos regains “control” and can cast Grant Sword Of Lightning again, he can freely cast it — the fact that Sword Of Lightning itself only has 4 Charges does not limit Arkelos to only casting it four times per day, or in any other way restrict his ability to cast Grant Sword Of Lightning. In theory he could keep casting it on the same person again and again after the recipient uses up the Charges each time, effectively giving the recipient an unrestricted number of Sword Of Lightning spells to cast. The GM threatens to withhold some of Arkelos’s royalty payments if he ever tries to pull this sort of stunt.

 

Suppose Arkelos had instead bought Grant Sword Of Lightning this way: Usable Simultaneously (8 people; +1) for Sword Of Lightning spell (44 Active Points); OAF (Wizard’s Staff; -1), Gestures (-¼), Incantations (-¼), Requires A Magic Roll (-½) (total cost: 15 points). In that case he could grant Sword Of Lightning to eight people at a time, significantly increasing his group’s firepower. He couldn’t cast it on one person multiple times at once, however.

 

Suppose further that Arkelos only wanted the recipient to be able to cast Sword Of Lightning four times regardless of how long he kept the spell. In that case he’d build the spells this way:

 

Sword Of Lightning: RKA 3d6, Lasts Through Unconsciousness (+½) (67 Active Points); Extra Time (Full Phase; -½), Gestures (-¼), Incantations (-¼), 4 Charges which Never Recover (-3). Total cost: 13 points.

 

Grant Sword Of Lightning: Usable By Other (+¼) for Sword Of Lightning spell (16 Active Points); OAF (Wizard’s Staff; -1), Gestures (-¼), Incantations (-¼), Requires A Magic Roll (-½) (total cost: 5 points).

 

With that version of the spell, the recipient can only cast Sword Of Lightning four times, regardless of how long he keeps control of it. Once he casts it four times, control of it automatically reverts to Arkelos, who can then freely cast Grant Sword Of Lightning again.

 

The GM decides that this in effect renders “Never Recovers” meaningless and reduces its value from -2 to -0 (thus changing the Real Cost of Sword Of Lightning to 22 points, and the Active Point/Real Point cost of Grant Sword Of Lightning to 27/9 points). He also threatens Arkelos with a paternity suit over that incident with the half-orc barmaid last October. Wanting to avoid an expensive and reputation-damaging litigation, and to cut his Character Point costs, Arkelos suggests that he could take a -0 Limitation, Can Only Be Cast On A Person Once Per Year. The GM decides this is a valid balancing factor and changes Never Recovers to a -1 value (thus changing the Real Cost of Sword Of Lightning to 17 points, and the Active Point/Real Point cost of Grant Sword Of Lightning to 21/7 points).