Changing Other People's SFX

[Blue]

It occurred to me that a very cool power would be to alter not the actual power of opponents, or weaken it, but just to give it a totally different special effect.

 

Example: Pryomaniac gestures with his hand and wills the building to catch fire but instaed it spontaneously ices over. Same damqage, different special effect.

 

Suggest some ideas for how to do this. Thanks!

 

I tend to use Transformation Attack as a crutch for everything. So if you have other suggestions, I'd like to hear them.

 

I'm thinking a guy who reverses the SFX of other people's powers would be fun. As would someone who taps into the chaos of the universe and has no control over what SFX his opponent's power will change to.

[Lord Liaden]

After Transform (which is the means of last resort for many HEROpiles), my first thought would be Variable Special Effects as a Naked Advantage, with Usable As An Attack applied to it, and probably Usable At Range as well. You'd have to define the range of Powers it could apply to, and the Active Points it could affect, which would be balancing factors to its utility. The trickiest part would probably be convincing a GM to give it broad enough applicability to affect the desired variety of Powers.

 

Whatever you decide to use, No Conscious Control at the -1 level is a great Limitation to apply to those random result-type Powers.

[dugfromthearth]

I think LL has the right idea

 

just naked power advantage usable against others.

[Blue]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

After Transform (which is the means of last resort for many HEROpiles), my first thought would be Variable Special Effects as a Naked Advantage, with Usable As An Attack applied to it, and probably Usable At Range as well. You'd have to define the range of Powers it could apply to, and the Active Points it could affect, which would be balancing factors to its utility. The trickiest part would probably be convincing a GM to give it broad enough applicability to affect the desired variety of Powers.

 

Whatever you decide to use, No Conscious Control at the -1 level is a great Limitation to apply to those random result-type Powers.

Ingenious. I knew you guys would have another idea.

 

I think I'll try it both ways and see what I get.

[Killer Shrike]

LL the Cosmically Aware has the right idea -- its definitely an odd ability, as it is more of an annoyance attack. However, it might be interesting vs a character w/ vulnerabilities/susceptibilities to an oppositional SFX, like the classic Fire vs Cold axis.

[Farkling]

It's a toss up on the expense also...

 

The naked UAA Advantage versus the accumulated Transform BODY to shift the actual attacks....hmm...do you technically need to rewrite the entire power? Or is an SFX a 0 pt modifier on the power. If I use Transfrom to "confine the beam generation" of an attack, and put AP on it, do I need to transfrom the 60 AP of the attack? Or just add on 30 AP for the advantage?

 

Need to break out the book and check it out.\

 

On a side note...the UAA advantage would be a localized effect, the Transform would last past the end of the encounter...

 

IE:: the UAA would have all the line of sight limitations and such of standard powers. The Transform allows an effect that lingers. As a matter of fact, the Transform allows for "confused" effects if the partial transform advantage is applied (half fire, half ice - or maybe a fire bolt that ices overr the target instead of burning it...)

[Blue]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

LL the Cosmically Aware has the right idea -- its definitely an odd ability, as it is more of an annoyance attack. However, it might be interesting vs a character w/ vulnerabilities/susceptibilities to an oppositional SFX, like the classic Fire vs Cold axis.

My current idea is a guy who is part of a team and who uses this ability to randomize his allies' powers. You'd have a hard time preparing for a team that always has different SFX. And once they notice that the SFX hurts a guy more than it should, they make a note, for future use. This is likley the transform.

 

I also think that if I can bring the cost down far enough it'll be a great "color" power for someone with chaos-based attacks. Just there to muck up the works. This would be the usable against others, uncontrolled...