"Active" Drain

[psyber624]

Been reading through APG I&II recently, and it got me to thinking about various powers and effects and such. One thing I have wanted to see is a modification to the way Drain works. I thought I would throw out the idea of doing this with an advantage on drain (if something like this has been suggested before, my bad. My forum fu is still weak.)

 

Drain normally works by weakening the power/characteristic its targeted. What I am going to call "Active" Drain for purposes of this discussion doesn't weaken the affected power/characteristic, it opposes it. Basically, from my thoughts this has a number of positive and negative aspects listed below (at the base +0 advantage level)

 

A power/characteristic that has been hit with an "Active" Drain still has all its active points. However with each use, the effect (and only the effect) of the power is reduced by the active point total of the drain. This means:

 

1. The character has to pay full end for all active points spent, including the points that are drained

2. The character would have to allocate points in a MPP (or VPP to a lesser extent) for all of the points he intended to use including the points that would be drained.

 

However, in all respects the character is still considered to be using his power at full power (or whatever level of power he chooses to use it at.) So linked powers work normally, and Active Drains have no effect on Unified Powers either. Even if the power were "fully drained" he could still activate it to trigger linked powers, other powers set to go off using this power as a trigger, adders and the like would work normally, etc. He would simply have to pay the end cost normally.

 

By increasing the advantage to (+1/2) the drain would apply to linked/unified powers and etc as normal.

 

Kind of wordy and complicated, but thats mainly for clarity, it could be summarized and written up a lot simpler.

 

 

As an example. If my opponent has a 12d6 Energy Blast with a Linked 6d6 Flash bought as a variable slot in a multipower, and I apply a 20 point Active Drain to it, He can still use it at "full power" but he pays full end, has to slot full active points in the MPP, and can roll the full 6d6 Flash effect. The only thing my Drain would do would be to reduce him to rolling 8d6 damage for the EB, instead of the normal 12d6.

 

In this example it basically functions like Damage Negation, except that its applied to his powers (so would affect anyone he uses it against not just me) and also it can also be applied to powers/characteristics which don't have DC's.

 

Thoughts?

[Grailknight]

Re: "Active" Drain

 

Actually, you may be overthinking this. What you want is more a limitation on Drain so it does not affect Unified or Linked Powers. (I'd go with -1/4 but it may be worth -1/2 in some campaigns.) Your point 2 is actually the way Drains already work per the FAQ. Never dealt with the END cost question but I see no reason your point 1 would not be the rules default.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: "Active" Drain

 

I guess I will have to go back and read the rules, but I have always treated Drains in the way you describe. The exception is that if a power is Drained to zero, it shuts off completely and can no longer be used even to trigger a linked effect. I have never had a problem with running it this way.

 

That said Drains are not common in my games, because players tend to prefer more direct attacks and I avoid them for NPC's unless highly appropriate because most players hate having their characters crippled, even temporarily, so YMMV.

[psyber624]

Re: "Active" Drain

 

Hmm, my understanding of the rules is that a Drain wont reduce the AP requirement of a fixed cost slot in an MPP, but since a variable slot is designed so that you can increase or decrease the amount you are using the power by a drain would mean you would simply allocate fewer points to the slot. Although honestly that was just a side effect of the way I was thinking the power would work. The primary intent was to require the power to still cost END as normal. As far as I can tell in the rules, if your EB (for example) is drained by 20 AP then the END cost would be reduced by 2 (just as if you had voluntarily lowered the power by 20 AP yourself, you can always choose to use a power at lower than maximum strength unless you take a limitation that states otherwise, such as Beam). I may be wrong about that, I'll have to check the rules again.

 

Of course overthinking things is something I do a lot, so its entirely possible this is just another case of that. (WAY too much time on my hands).