Building an Engulfing Power for a Goopy Shapeshifter

[nrjervis]

Hi everyone, been a while. I've added a new player to my game who is playing an amorphous, elemental shapeshifter. All her powers are based on changing her substance from one element to another. She has pitched me an idea for a neat power and I'd like your help statting it out (our current AP cap is 55 pts so I'm just gonna assume that's what she'll build towards).

 

The idea is that the character turns into a liquid, splashes themselves on a target, and then hardens into stone, encasing them. To me this sounds like a no-range, small AOE entangle effect. But she doesn't want to just apply an entangle to the target, she wants to actually BE the entangling substance. So she wouldn't be able to take other actions, but she could hold the entangle indefinitely (assuming the target didn't break free). This make me wonder if I should go with some sort of grapple maneuver instead.

Any advice would be appreciated, I built a sort of clunky compound power for this but I have to imagine there's a more elegant solution that I'm not getting (still on my first campaign). 

[archer]

If the engulfing doesn't block senses, it sounds like a grapple with a weird special effect.

 

If the engulfing blocks some of the target's senses, it sounds like an entangle effect which blocks sight, sound, or whatever. And I must say that this sounds like the most boring power ever. If you successfully use it on your first phase, you sit there doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the combat unless you are damaged enough to fall off of the target? If the player chooses the grapple option, at least she could perhaps squeeze for strength damage and eventually stun the target so she could do something besides sit there doing nothing on each of her phases.

 

 

 

 

[薔薇語]

To me it sounds like an intense grapple with a unique special effect. 

To get to this point let's look at what seem to be the mechanic benefits she desires:

Target Can-NOT move. 
She and the target occupy the same space. 
She can not depart the target unless she also releases the target. 

Those are all the mechanical effects of a grab. With only the first part it could be a barrier that engulfs or an Entangle. 

To build this you could take the Martial Grab maneuver from the Martial Arts list, apply AoE (1hex) and Costs Endurance (either to start or maintain as well). 

The tricky part, to me, would be in how we resolve the non-target-able-ness of the now grabbed character. Typically a grabbed character can still be targeted and damaged. 

 

One way to resolve that issue would be to create a very limited engulfing barrier power that largely reflects the character's natural defenses. Let's assume she has a PD/rPD of 20/10.

"Barrier 9 PD/9 ED, 5 BODY (up to 1m long, 1m tall, and 1/2m thick), Opaque Hearing Group, Opaque Sight Group (55 Active Points); Limited Power: Can not offer personal protection - only protection for grabbed target (-1 1/2), Feedback (-1), No Range (-1/2), Restricted Shape (-1/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4)"

The PD/ED and BODY values reflect the hardness of the character's concrete shield. If the Barrier is destroyed, the character's grab immediately ends. Given its nature, it seems reasonable that it blocks one's sight and hearing. Given the character becomes quite large and easy to target it makes sense that the use of this power causes the character to become quite a bit easier to hit (Concentration at 1/2 DcV). The Feedback represents the fact that while a normal grabbed character can be targeted without harm to the grabber, this one is so well engulfed that it MUST harm the grabber in order to get to the grabbed target. You could also add on a minor Side Effect: Heavy (Density Increase up to 800/1600kg with no benefits), representing that if he target is on a weak surface, both characters might break through the ground. 

Those are my initial ideas. 

La Rose. 

Edit: 

Side note about this power build. It requires about a dozen points and 5 END to use. Given that it is essentially protecting a target who is more often than not going to be an enemy, it might not be a bad idea to ditch the "can not offer personal protection" bit. It will cost more points, true, but it would also let the power actually benefit the PC rather than what would typically be an enemy. It can be used on an ally to offer them protection in a pinch, as well. 





 

[薔薇語]

7 minutes ago, archer said:

If the engulfing doesn't block senses, it sounds like a grapple with a weird special effect.

 

If the engulfing blocks some of the target's senses, it sounds like an entangle effect which blocks sight, sound, or whatever. And I must say that this sounds like the most boring power ever. If you successfully use it on your first phase, you sit there doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the combat unless you are damaged enough to fall off of the target? If the player chooses the grapple option, at least she could perhaps squeeze for strength damage and eventually stun the target so she could do something besides sit there doing nothing on each of her phases.

 

 

 

 

I think that the solution I provided above would allow for one to do exactly that: squeeze for strength damage. 

La Rose. 
 

[Ninja-Bear]

Nrjervis yes you can go with Entangle and just use the proper limitation like Backlash and Side Effect: Player can’t move.

[massey]

Particularly with new players, I like to keep character design simple.  I'd suggest something like:

 

+40 Strength, only for grab (-1)

 

and just leave it at that.  Blob Babe slimes the villain and hardens up around him.  She has to stay there to keep him contained, and he can't escape unless he's powerful enough to smash through her hardened form (i.e., has enough strength to escape the grab).  If the player is happy with it, you might be done right there.

 

At that point, the player looks to see if there are other aspects of the power as envisioned that are important enough to include.  These might be extra effects, or certain restrictions on how the power works.  For instance, can Blob Babe squeeze the target to cause damage?  Does the target suffocate while he's in the stone covering?  Can the target see or hear what is going on around them while encased in stone?  Remember, just because something makes logical sense, doesn't mean it's important enough to include it as an element of the power.

 

The last step is to build those extra effects and compare to 1) the Active Point cap in your campaign, and 2) other versions of the power without the extra do-dads.  Do all these little extras really help the power function as envisioned, or do they hurt it?  Is the power going to be effective as it is played in the game?  Is this power way too expensive for what it actually allows you to do?

 

--

 

So let's look at Blob Babe and what this power might entail, and how it might be used in the game.  It's a 55 active point limit, so without a special exception by the GM, we're stuck with that as our maximum.  How is she going to use this power?  Well, all it does (as described) is incapacitate a target, while also taking her out of the fight.  It requires her constant attention to keep the target disabled.  This means it's really not that useful for taking out minor threats, like agents and guards.  This is really a "jump a powerful villain and hold him while the rest of the team does other stuff" kind of ability.  So we have to keep that in mind.

 

Since this is a 55 active point game, powerful villains are probably going to have near 55 active point attacks.  This means her ability needs to be strong enough to hold her average likely target.  So it's going to need to have close to 55 active points of "grabby-ness" for it to work good.  We have to be careful that our add-ons don't reduce our ability to actually hold our target.

 

So... what add-ons might we have?

 

Maybe the target can't see or hear while he's being grabbed.  You can do that with either the Darkness or Flash powers, but you're not going to be able to reliably blind/deafen someone without 20-30 active points worth of power.  Personally, I'd lean towards Darkness instead of Flash, because I don't see why somebody having "polarized goggles" or "ear protection" would let them see through stone.  You could go with something like Darkness vs sight and hearing: 1 hex, personal immunity, no range, one target only, must maintain grab, not vs n-ray vision.  Now people you've grabbed can't see or hear.

 

Is this useful?  Meh.  I guess it's okay.  But will the points for this add-on go against the 55 active point total?  If it doesn't, then it's not too bad.  If it does, it screws your grab completely.  You won't be able to hold anybody who is a real threat at all.  In a situation like that, I ask "is there a way I can justify not having to buy this?"

 

While your opponent should technically be blinded (and they should suffocate), I'd just invoke comic book physics.  In a comic, it wouldn't be uncommon at all to see a character encased in stone, struggling to escape, but no mention is ever made of them needing to breathe.  Or they seem to be aware of what is happening outside their stone prison, when they kinda shouldn't be able to see.  "Oh no, while I am trapped here, my team is in danger!  I must escape to help Storm!"

 

--

 

So personally, unless the GM was willing to let me have some extra Active Points in my power (and he should, since this would be a Combined Power and no single power is exceeding 55 APs), I'd just go with +X Strength, only for grab.  I'd declare that my normal "squeeze" damage that I get from the Strength represents them passing out due to lack of air/whatever.  I lean more towards usefulness in the game rather than a perfect representation of every tiny detail of how somebody thinks the power should function.

[massey]

One more thing -- depending on how limited this power is, I might ask the GM for more points beyond the Active Point cap just to make it useful.

 

For instance, let's say you take my above build (total of 55 Str, only for grab) to the player and she says "No way.  I don't want to be able to squeeze a target.  I just want to incapacitate them temporarily, I don't want to damage them at all."  Well, now the power really sucks, by concept.  As archer said above, it's the most boring power ever.  "I don't get to do anything for the rest of the fight!  Yay!"

 

In fact, there are additional limitations that might apply.  Not only do you take yourself out of the fight, you may prevent anybody else from attacking the villain you're engulfing.  They have to shoot through you to get to the bad guy (Grab doesn't normally do that, but it's a logical aspect of the power).  Now maybe that's useful in certain circumstances, but it's really a very limited move.  And it's only a 55 Active Point power, so it's not even all that reliable.  You make yourself an easy target for the villains team-mates, and you have to spend Endurance every phase to keep the villain contained.  And any villain with a high Str score should be able to break out 50% of the time.  And a villain with a blast power that comes out of his hands or his eyes might be able to just shoot you without even requiring a to-hit roll.

 

Again, these aren't existing limitations to the grab maneuver, these are possible limits to the power, depending on the player's conception of it.  At a certain point, the power becomes so limited that it's not really a viable tactic anymore.  At a certain point, I'd ask the GM for permission to exceed the Active Point limit for the game, so that the power has a use.

 

--

 

So imagine that Blob Babe is attacking the main villain.  Her goal is to incapacitate him while the rest of the team steals the Infinity Gauntlet/disables the space laser/destroys his robot minions.  So the main villain has a 55 Strength and 11D6 Energy Blasts because he's a generic space conqueror type.  If she's limited to the campaign maximum (55 active points), then how is her intentionally-limited power any better than some other guy who has a multipower with an 11D6 EB, a 5D6 NND, and a 5 1/2D6 Entangle?  Or the super martial artist who can do a 55 Str grab and then knee the guy in the crotch for 11D6?

 

Answer: it's not any better.  In fact it's way, way worse.  She's only got a 50% chance of holding him in any given phase, and when she does hold him, she can't do anything to him.  She also keeps other people from attacking him as well.

 

However, if she got GM permission to boost the power, say up to a 70 Strength or something like that, now it may be useful.  Now she can reliably hold the Big Bad Villain, even if she can't do anything else.  Her DCV drops to crap, she can't actually hurt him, she takes herself out of the fight.  But if she's able to incapacitate a team villain for a little while, then it's a good option to have.  But this requires the GM to be able to judge how effective the power is, beyond just looking at the points.

 

 

[BoloOfEarth]

I created a liquid metal supervillain (basically the Terminator T-1000) for my Champions game, and gave him the following power (I think I took it pretty much straight from the Champions Powers book):

 

Gotcha:  Entangle 5d6, 5 rPD / 5 rED, Constant (+½), AoE (Personal Surface; +¼), 0 END (+½); No Range (-½), Only Traps Objects / Limbs Used to Grab or Strike Him (-½), Feedback (-1).  (Note that this is far more than the 55 AP cap that the OP mentions.)

 

I went with that rather than a STR Grab because this, being a damage shield, doesn't require waiting until the character's Phase and action.  And since he can form Extra Limbs and still attack, I didn't want to make it be all the character can do while he's holding someone.  So this build may not really be what the OP is looking for, but I wanted to point it out as a possibility.  (To get within the 55 AP cap, you'd want to make it Entangle 2d6, 3 rPD / 3 rED with Costs END only at activation for +¼ instead of the 0 END.)

 

Going strictly with the OP's info, you could go with Entangle 3d6, 5 rPD / 5 rED, AoE (2m Radius; +¼); No Range (-½), Feedback (-1), Lockout (-½), or Entangle 2d6, 4 rPD / 4 rED, stops Sight Group with the same Advantage and Limitations.  Personally, I'd suggest the latter one as it would significantly hinder many mentalists.

 

[BoloOfEarth]

One downside to a Grab build is that it only restricts two limbs.  As La Rose pointed out, it also doesn't cover (pardon the pun) the encompassing aspect of the power, perhaps requiring something clunky like the Barrier build LR mentions. 

 

That said, if going the Grab route rather than an Entangle, I'd suggest a high-STR (only to Grab / Hold), plus a handful of martial arts maneuvers, talking the GM into allowing a custom one for the encompassing maneuver

 

Glop Fu

3  Glop-Pow:  Basic Strike (+1 / +0 / STR + 2d6 Strike)

3  Glop Your Feet:  Legsweep ( +2 / -1 / STR + 1d6 Strike, Target Falls)

4  Mouth Fulla Glop:  Choke Hold (-2 / +0 / Grab head, 2d6 NND)

5  I've Got You Covered:  Custom maneuver (-1 / -2 / Grab head + 4 Limbs, 1d6 NND)

 

Edit to add:  I think the number of limbs covered would mean that the shapeshifter is effectively between the target and any attackers.

 

[Ninja-Bear]

Bolo you could grab multiple limbs, but that requires using sweep (can’t think what that’s called in 6th) so I think going by grab actually gets more complicated than just grab as Massey suggests.

[Duke Bushido]

Despite a couple of dissenting opinions, I thought it was a pretty cool power. 

 

Though as has been pointed out, it's hard to know which base to start with (Grab or Entangle) without knowing a bit more: does it. Cut off the target's perception?  Dose it protect the target at the character's expense?  Does it completely incapacitate the character?  If so, Grab seems logical.  Entangle could allow the simulation of having a few amorphous limbs available to rattle the teeth of anyone adjacent to you.  So would Extra Limbs. 

 

Though honestly, there have been enough really solid ideas presented that you likely have you ideas together by now. 

[Tech]

I agree with Duke; it sounds like a cool power. I'd go with a "1 Hex" advantage on her Str. She has to Grab the villain. This gives her lots of extra points for whatever else, such as Darkness 1" to sight, no range, with maybe a little extra PD/ED while Grabbing for the stone effect. The grab means she's right there holding the bad guy. Since she IS the entangling substance, blasting/punching/etc the goop (her) to get away means she'll take damage - which makes sense.

[nrjervis]

Thank you all for your advice. I have some good ideas now, and I think I will try to sell her on a version of +Str to grappling. I may be flexible with that AP cap for the sake of adding in the barrier effect as well, though I'm going to play a bit in Hero Designer before I make any final decisions. I like the idea of being able to use it as a form protection for an ally as well.

 

As some folks pointed out this power seems kind of weak/useless and I agree that it'd be a boring way to spend a lot of phases, as well as not very effective against really strong baddies. But I think this move may have a place in our campaign, since a lot of our combats have (thus far anyway) featured at least one physically weak villain who could potentially be incapacitated in this way, even just temporarily. We have a lot of niche "rock-paper-scissors" powers in the group already so this really isn't out of the norm for us.