Input sought on a couple power ideas

[Claire Redfield]

I'm statting up my heroine character, Mantis, for use with HERO. Her main thing is that she has a praying mantis' powers adapted to her human form, much like Spider-Man with his namesake. I have most everything figured out. The one thing that is tripping me up are her mantis strikes:

 

Mantis' skin is somewhat hardened, especially on her arms. Among other things, this lets her block and parry edged weapons or strong attacks, and she's pretty adept at damaging objects with her chops, knife-hands and punches. Right now, I just have a general Resistant Protection power on her, but I'm considering either modifying it so that it only applies to her arms, or giving her a bit more, but that portion only applies to her arms. The other part is that I gave her a HTH Attack representing the hardened bones and skin of her hands and arms, which let her hit things really hard, even harder than 40 STR would suggest.

 

How would you go about building this?

[GhostDancer]

I'd go with a List: hardened bones and skin of her hands and arms

1) 2d6 HA Damage Shield, 0 END, Awareness Based (-1/2)

2) +4 PD Armor, Act 8-

 

1) If she senses an incoming attack, she may get her arm or hand(s) in the way.  An offending weapon may break if it hits her arm or hand, though generally not, unless she puts muscle into it.  2d6 is to reflect more damage than a fist load, less than a baton.

 

2) Of course, should a foe successfully target her hand or arm, the Activation is an automatic success.  Dial it up to +5 if her upper limbs are as tough as chain mail.  Consider how much, if any, additional ED Armor she should have.

 

[Claire Redfield]

I'm not sure I understand the Activation part. It works for hit locations, you mean? So if they target her hands it's going ot go off, and otherwise there's the [Activation roll] chance that it will go off (meaning she manages to block)? With the HA, does the Damage Shield part mean she can still use it as an attack?

 

 

I'd go with a List: hardened bones and skin of her hands and arms

1) 2d6 HA Damage Shield, 0 END, Awareness Based (-1/2)

2) +4 PD Armor, Act 8-

 

1) If she senses an incoming attack, she may get her arm or hand(s) in the way.  An offending weapon may break if it hits her arm or hand, though generally not, unless she puts muscle into it.  2d6 is to reflect more damage than a fist load, less than a baton.

 

2) Of course, should a foe successfully target her hand or arm, the Activation is an automatic success.  Dial it up to +5 if her upper limbs are as tough as chain mail.  Consider how much, if any, additional ED Armor she should have.

 

 

[GhostDancer]

Yes, if they target her hands or arms, accidentally or intentionally, the Armor goes off, and otherwise there's the [Activation roll] chance that it will go off, meaning she manages to block, or they randomly hit her tough spot.   With the HA, the Damage Shield part means she can still use it as an attack, though only Hand Strikes and such, not most Grabs, no Kicks, etc.  Below is the Iron Ox Preying Mantis logo from the United Kingdom.

[Cassandra]

Are you looking for this to be an advantage, or a disadvantage?

 

If it's a disadvantages you can take either Gestures, or Restrainable depending on how hard it is to interfere with her power.

 

If it's an advantage you could simply take it as a 1/2 END, because it's easier to do more damage.

[Claire Redfield]

It's a bonus, definitely. She can parry edged weapons and hit even harder than her 40 Strength allows because of it. Also, as a function of said 40 STR and also her powers, hers is a very, very hard grip to break once she has you grappled. Restrainable is definitely appropriate on it.

 

Ghost, how do I guarantee that it goes off on her hands? Just a function of the SFX?

[GhostDancer]

As I built it, it's a function of will, so you state how much, if any, HA and STR you use.  As above, she can tenderly retrieve a raw egg from the refrigerator with no trouble.  Contrawise, you can say, "We combine attacks on Grond, all of us attacking him on the same DEX rank.  Mantis uses everything for 16 dice."*

 

*40 STR = 8d6 + 2d6 HA + 4d6 Iron Ox Gore Offensive Strike.  Campaign damage cap may apply.

 

Here's a Grond pic-

[Claire Redfield]

I mean, how do you guarantee that it will go off when it hits her arms? What modifiers make that happen? Or is it just a function of SFX, saying "This power is on her arms, so logically this goes off when it hits her arms" ?

[Greywind]

Yes. SFX. It is also a logical extension to a Martial Block.

[GhostDancer]

Per game mechanics, the Armor potentially Activates any time she's struck, barring a hit location to the contrary, and every time her arm(s) or hand(s) are hit.  It doesn't matter whether she is asleep, in a coma, Knocked Out, daydreaming, etc.

 

The Damage Shield works whether it is her Phase or not, whether she's taken all her actions or not.  It functions even if she misses her Martial Block, barring a Hit Location to the contrary.  However, as I wrote it in post #2, she does have to be aware of the incoming attack and declare she's using the Damage Shield.  She also must declare how many dice she's using.  Defensively, this would be up to 10 dice, should she implement all her STR, or more, if she Pushes her STR.  

 

My reasoning for building it like this is to parallel other similar activity.  In a sword fight, a successful Block, Parry, etc. does not usually entail determining if one or both swords are damaged.  Hence, if she wants to damage someone's fist or club or such, she simply has to declare it.  If so, it succeeds, unless her foe successfully targets a different part of her body, at a penalty.  Of course, the GM may require an additional or alternate Limitation, such as With Martial Block Only.  Below, I'll discuss the original build.

 

Example #1: Jubei the ninja attempts to Martial Flash our hero, Mantis, by poking her in the eyes with his fingers.  This Maneuver takes no hit location modifier, though it does take -1 OCV and -1 DCV.  Mantis declares she's using her Damage Shield, 10d6, with Martial Block.  Jubei rolls to hit, and succeeds.  Mantis rolls to Block, and fails.  Mantis is temporarily blinded.  I hope those antennae are not just decorative.  However, Jubei stove his fingers, injuring them as he jammed them against and past Mantis' hard arms.  Depending on how much damage is inflicted, he may have even broken a wrist and passed out from severe pain. 

 

Example #2: Jubei and Mantis meet again.  He wants to poke her in her eyes again, and take special care to avoid her arms.  Our GM determines, due to the SFX, this is possible, though quite a challenge.  The Martial Flash Maneuver Mods are -1 OCV, -1 DCV.  To avoid her arms and poke her eyes, our GM assesses an additional -8 OCV (head shot) penalty, for a total of -9 OCV.  Good luck with that, pajama boy- you better roll triclops.  Mantis declares she's using her Damage Shield, 10d6, with Martial Block.  Jubei misses, but Mantis succeeds with her Block.  As such, Jubei's fingers do hit her arm(s) or hand(s), and he takes damage yet again.  Jubei decides to use shuriken next time.  Here's a pic of Jubei-