Major Transform on a large scale/repairing numerous objects

[Parallaxus]

  I was in the process of making a cosmic level powered hero, similar to Silver Surfer, when I hit a snag.  I am making a transform power with very little limit on what it can do, and one of the most common uses for it is to be able to, in a huge area, undo damage to structures and flora in that area.  To be able to avoid micromanaging the knowledge skills of how all of these things work and their molecular make-ups, I base it as a time reversal on a various area size depending on what objects need time reversal to restore them to a certain point in time, without affecting much space around the desired targets. 

 

  Now the snag.  Transform specifically says the player can NOT use area of effect to transform things into different things.  All things in the area of effect would be transformed into the same thing.  This essentially nullifies my original intent to buy it with area of effect to affect, for example, several buildings that have been destroyed/damaged back to their original state, since each is an individual, different object that would have to be restored to its original individual state.  All buildings are different, so I could not transform them all into their respective forms before damage was done with one use of Transform, which is the power the character would have. 

 

  So now my question:  How do I achieve this with this rule blocking me?  I've seen Silver Surfer effectively restore the beginnings of life on a planet by replacing its atmosphere and instantly creating various flora across the surface.  These were basically done in one action each, not a septillion different uses of Transform.  I know this power, the way I want it to work shouldn't be that troublesome, it's pretty simple and straight forward, despite being extremely powerful.  I am certain the rules weren't intended to block this kind of use of the power.  I would have used AoE selective, but this won't allow me to go around that rule either.  So do I just get to disregard the rule for this particular power or is there a way within the constraints of the written rules to buy it?

[Hugh Neilson]

I doubt you can make it without a bit of a handwave. How about a low dice Damage over Time transform? 1 point severe transform (5 points), Damage over Time (+1), Every Segment (+2), 8,000 damage increments (+4) is 40 AP. It starts small and spreads over the entire city/planet(his target) to Transform from "damaged city"/"dead world" to "undamaged city"/"lush world". NOTE: This is a question of scale - you are not transforming individual buildings, but the city itself. I would also suggest, in your Buildings example, that you are transforming them all into the same thing - "undamaged original version of building". When you Transform things to stone, dogs become stone dogs and flowers become stone flowers.

 

It might take a minute or two to feel the full effects (that's 60 - 120 BOD in total), but 8,000 maximum BOD should cover a pretty wide area, especially if we apply the "+1 BOD doubles the size of the hole" rule for damaging large objects to also mean "+1 BOD doubles the size of the area transformed".

 

Such a character has a pretty potent Cosmic VPP, so as long as the pool can hold the power, does it matter how expensive it is?

 

BTW, if the Surfer can Transofrm a dead world into a lush, living world, how is it he could not make lush, living worlds with no intelligent life and prepare a sumptuous buffet for The Big G?

[massey]

1) Ignore what the book says.  This is the easiest method.  Or...

 

2) Justify it.  You're not transforming a bunch of different things.  You're not transforming this pile of rubble into a building, and that pile of rubble into another building, etc.  You're transforming one thing.  You're transforming "Midtown Manhattan: Demolished" into "Midtown Manhattan: Fixed".  You don't have to use Transform separately on every piece of brick, do you?

[Wardsman]

We used to use change environment for this but it now seems mostly negative in 5th.

What does CE in 6th say about this?

[Christopher]

You have a mixup of special effect and game effect:

You do not need transform to restore damaged stuff. That is what the power Healing is there for!

 

Healing can easily "repair lost body" on non-living mater just as well. Add the Resurrection adder just to be on the save side if something was utterly destroyed (you 'resurrect' the building from it's ashes).

Do not forget that Hero deals in game effects only, the names of Powers and powers do not imply anything about what they do or can not do. The text defines what they can/can not do.

[Armitage]

To support what Massey said:

 

The Miraculous Healing power in Champions Powers and UNTIL Superpowers Database II uses Transform to remove permanent disabilities without including the Improved Results Group Advantage, which is needed to cause more than one single transformation.

"Severe Transform 3d6 (person with physical disabilities or deformities to otherwise identical person without those disabilities or deformities)"

 

The same thing is done with the Cure Illness spell in Hero System Grimoire and the Fantasy Hero Grimoire.

"Major Transform 4d6 (sick person into well person)"

 

Based on that, it would appear that Transforming targets into pristine versions of those targets is a single transformation, not different types of transformations, so it could be used on multiple targets simultaneously.  It's similar to how Time Travel to "1 year from this exact moment" is bought as a single point in time, not a related group of time periods.  A variety of results are available, but they're all based on a fixed starting point.

[Parallaxus]

My reason I ask the question in the form of Transform, is that some of the uses of this power WILL take the form of healing, and could also be used to summon, change environment, and also to damage/kill, so those powers will be bought as well to simulate those aspects of this ability.  For the purposes of replacing objects, including plant life that may be completely annihilated, possibly even gone for hundreds or thousands of years, there is the very valid argument that I am creating something out of nothing, or in the case of making new flora, or building new buildings, which the character could also do, would require transform.  So thus the question remains, however, after these answers, I'm getting the feeling of an overall consensus that ignoring the rules or making up the interpretation (which I don't like doing btw) that it's transforming one big object, is how to approach it.

 

I also asked this question in the Steve Long answers section, but since he hasn't answered yet, I'm not expecting a response.

[Parallaxus]

I need to add on to what I just wrote.  I didn't notice what else Armitage wrote and that solves my problem by confirming that what Hugh Neilson and Massey said are actual game rule as well. 

 

Thanks a ton guys, especially Armitage for those quotes.  That means I can do what I was intending, since those examples are parallels to my issue.

[NuSoardGraphite]

How about Transform with Autofire. Autofire 10 would let you transform 10 different objects at once, you just have to pay the Endurance for all 10, making it self limiting.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Also, I agree with Armitage.

[bigdamnhero]

Transform specifically says the player can NOT use area of effect to transform things into different things. 

Just tack on an additional "Variable Effect" Advantage or whatever you want to call it that let you exceed this normal limit. As a GM, I'd want to have a long talk with the player about how they envision using this power, because the potential for abuse is high. But for what you're describing, it sounds like a neat idea.

[bigdamnhero]

I also asked this question in the Steve Long answers section, but since he hasn't answered yet, I'm not expecting a response.

I don't see any posts from you in that section? You might want to check if your post went through or not. Steve's always really good about responding.

[Hadmar von Wieser]

BTW, if the Surfer can Transofrm a dead world into a lush, living world, how is it he could not make lush, living worlds with no intelligent life and prepare a sumptuous buffet for The Big G?

Because of the "size" of Power Cosmic involved:

Galactus is Power Cosmic incarnate. But he has to devour whole worlds' life force - which means this life force is at least one form of Power Cosmic.

The Silver Surfer was created with a small PART of Galactus' Power Cosmic.

So even if he expends all HIS Power Cosmic this will not be enough for one meal of Galactus.

 

Or to put it less epically: If you create a Tamagotchi, it does not contain as much energy as one chicken with french fries.

 

[whitekeys]

I don't see any posts from you in that section? You might want to check if your post went through or not. Steve's always really good about responding.

 

He never answered my question  I asked it over a month ago. 

 

But to answer your question, Parallaxus, it sounds like a bit of creativity is in need. Not in terms of character creation, but in terms of how these rules can be applied in ways not specifically stated in the rulebook. That's one of the things HERO does well - toolkitting! 

[bigdamnhero]

He never answered my question  I asked it over a month ago.

I'd suggest sending Steve a Message. He's kindof moving around at the moment, so it's possible he just missed it, or meant to get back to it once he'd had time to look something up and forgot or something.

 

Edit: Sorry, I didn't catch this wasn't from the OP. In Parallaxus' case, I don't think his question ever posted to the Ask Steve section, as I don't see any post from him there.