Suppress: Constant or Instant

[bigdamnhero]

I'm confused about whether Suppress is considered Instant or Constant. 6e1 p196 says:

 

Suppress is Drain with the Limitation Costs Endurance (to maintain; -½); it’s considered a Constant Power.

 

...but then p197 also discusses adding Constant as an Advantage to Suppress. My interpretation is that adding Constant allows you to make multiple Suppresses without having to make additional attack rolls, but that even without that the effects of one Suppress are still Constant/Continuing (as long as you continue paying END)?

 

Specifically, can you put Continuing Charges on Suppress without first buying Constant for it? The last two paragraphs of p197 talk about this. The way I read it, the second-to-last paragraph discusses putting Continuing Charges on Suppress without Constant, and the last paragraph covers putting Continuing Charges on Suppress with Constant. That would seem to imply that both builds are legal? But not everyone agrees with this interpretation, and HD doesn't let you add Continuing Charges on Suppress unless you first buy Constant. See: http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/92155-suppress-with-continuing-charges/?do=findComment&comment=2460422.

 

Thanks again,

[Steve Long]

As noted on 6E1 196, Suppress is considered a Constant Power (even though it’s “built” from an Instant Power).

 

Despite that, 6E1 197 discusses the application of the Constant Advantage to Suppress. But this is only for a specific purpose:  to let the attacker use it again and again on the target, Phase after Phase, without having to make more Attack Rolls as he normally would have to. (This is discussed on page 196.) Thus, in this case Constant simply removes/negates one drawback to using Suppress repeatedly; the fact that it can be applied to Suppress doesn’t change the fact that Suppress is already considered a Constant Power.

 

6E1 197 also discusses what happens when characters apply Continuing Charges to Suppress. Those rules don’t require a character to do anything special to Suppress to be allowed to apply Continuing Charges to it — since Suppress is a Constant Power, characters can automatically apply Continuing Charges to it.

 

However, I may have inadvertantly cause some confusion with one of the sentences in that section. The second paragraph begins, “If a character buys a Suppress that’s Constant...”. That refers only to buying Constant to avoid repeated Attack Rolls; it isn’t intended to mean that Suppress isn’t a Constant Power already. If anyone’s reading it that way, my apologies for the confusion.*

 

Now, all that being said, over 14 years and two editions of the rules, Dan and I have had a lot of (fascinating and enjoyable) conversations about a lot of rules in a lot of varying circumstances. Naturally I don’t remember them all; for obvious reasons he tends to keep closer track of them than I do. It’s entirely possible that somewhere along the line during one of our discussions a rules issue came up that caused me to tell him something that might have created confusion on this issue of applying Continuing Charges to Suppress. If so the fault is mine, not his. 

 

Lastly, I should point out a Rules FAQ ruling from some time ago that I don’t believe has been posted in the official FAQ:  “If an Instant Power has the Limitation Costs Endurance (to maintain; -½), a character may buy Continuing Charges for it as if it were a Constant Power, but in this case the value of Costs Endurance is reduced to -0.”

 

 

 

 

*:  Lies! I apoligize for nothing! Nothing! MWAH hah hah hah ha.. ::hack cough wheeze choke::