The Care and Feeding of END Reserves

[Michael Hopcroft]

One of the new questions for Steve Long reminded me of something I posted several years ago, so I thought I would see what people thought. The question is what sort of Limitation would be assessed for an END Reserve that starts out empty.

 

The Champions Complete rules, which are the most recent version, describe an END reserve as powering any power or characteristic. You must buy both the END and the REC for the "pool". The END you buy is presumably the upper limit -- the maximum amount of END you can keep in the pool. You can theoretically limit it any number of ways -- only for certain powers, for example.

 

Now there's nothing wrong conceptually with an END "battery" that starts empty and must be "charged". In the old "Seemingly Silly Powers" thread was just such an example of a proposed (but not actually constructed) power. In this case, the character' would gradually absorb power from the ambient environment for the END reserve, which continues to build up until the END is used. If it accumulates too much END (gets closer to the upper limit of the Power) you start getting unpleasant Side Effects. Thus the idea assumes you start with little to nothing in the reserve and it builds up over time. it also means you must "discharge the energy" every so often or risk the consequences of being "overcharged".

 

what seems obvious now, and did not seem obvious at the time, is that your REC in the power determines how fast the pool fills. The pool is probably never totally empty, but you don't start with a full charge. to make the limitation worth something the Recovery rate must be slow. Getting a larger number of points every hour is closer to the concept than getting a small number of points every minute because you don't fill up your reserve nearly as quickly -- and have to watch what you use it for to avoid running out at a critical moment.

 

Of course, you can also theoretically have the Absorption power and have it funnel to the END reserve. You can also in theory have a power tied to the reserve, in either case, that ONLY can be powered by the Reserve. Until there is some energy stored, you cannot use the power at all. Again, this could mean the power is unavailable (or severely weakened) at a time when you really need it.

 

Other thoughts?

[Christopher]

It sounds like you try to have a precise rulification of Marvel Havoks "overcharging". Those things tend to be not clear enough or too granular for the HERO rules. It is better to model that with a Complciation (like a Enraged* or Dependance to Discharge)

 

The one thing is: You would never actually start empty. Indeed it seems unlikely to happen. While you would be inclined to not have it get full, there is nothing to prevent you from discharging 10 hours of worth of REC before going to bed and have an effectively full reserve when waking up.

Any player who is halfway decent at playing would just do that, making it barely worth a -1/4 limitation.

And "Side Effect, only when Reserve at full power" would be

a) not really worth much (it's a Limited Limitation) and

if the PC is knocked out and the SE does Damage, it would keep him knocked out or at worst kill the Character prevent him from ever waking up and discharging to save levels.

 

 

Interesting fact:

APG I 80 lists the Excalamtion Sign variant of "Healing via Absoprtion":

"Healing Effect (+0)". It can only affect one Characteristic (no splitting of effect), but there is generally no maximum effect as with normal healing or postivie Adjustment Powers (of course you can still only Absorb X per Segment). Though only STUN and BODY are noted, I think END would be also a viable target for some builds.

 

 

*Normally Enraged is Pschological, here it is Physical - the power goes out of control and attacks random targets unless you have something to direct it at.

[Lucius]

"Starts out Empty" - quite possibly no Limitation at all, unless there's some reason it might stay empty.

 

Now, "Gradually Drains on a Constant Basis" so that, at any given moment, it probably is empty, would be worth something.

 

You may have noticed in a recent, related thread I posted a power construct with an END Reserve of 1 pt, and no REC, but an associated Absorption power that feeds into it. By definition, Absorption has a fade rate, so this character will probably never enter a combat or crisis with anything in the Reserve (except that 1 pt)

 

As for bad things happening when "overcharged" that sounds like Side Effects. If the way the END Reserve fills is unpredictable or out of the character's control, such as via Absorption, overcharging may be distressingly common.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says if you've been overcharged, you should get a refund.