Darkness and Shadow Powers Questions

[Doc Democracy]

more important than being rules-legal is for GM and player being on the same page on how things will play out in-game.

[Hugh Neilson]

6 hours ago, Cool_Manchu said:

Thank you everyone for the well thought out responses. This truly is one of my favorite forums.

 

So this is how it is shaking out, Clinging Darkness is going to be part of a 40 active point Mulitpower that includes the characters Desolidification, Invisibility, Teleportation, all of which are fixed. I don't have an issue with the 0 END as it will still need to be line of sight. 

 

The player and I talked about his vision of how the "only in shadows/darkness" works. He explained that all of the powers listed above only work when he or his target is fully immersed in shadow (i.e. you are fighting downtown, unless it's high noon, a side of the building will be projecting a shadow. So given that he's set a size/parameter, I think it's much more workable.

 

I would ensure the player understands that switching the multipower will shut off the darkness.

 

It would be interesting to see an opponent with Darkness (same or different SFX) - which would remove LoS.

[Christopher]

8 hours ago, Cool_Manchu said:

The player and I talked about his vision of how the "only in shadows/darkness" works. He explained that all of the powers listed above only work when he or his target is fully immersed in shadow (i.e. you are fighting downtown, unless it's high noon, a side of the building will be projecting a shadow. So given that he's set a size/parameter, I think it's much more workable.

"Only if there is a path along shadows" is a lot more workable as a Limitation.

Have you asked how exactly night (de-facto the earth throwing a shadow) interacts with this? What about artificial lightning at night?

 

The only big downside is that you have to declare when the Limitation applies. With stuff like "only in strong magnetic fields", you have natural sources of those. Stuff like Labs, below a powerline, next to a transformer, etc.

While the stuff that throws shadows is always tehre, if it actually connects a path depends on how the sun is standing, if there are any signs sticking out of the top of the buildings, how the top of trees connect, etc. This could put pressure onto you.

 

If you are using a map/hexgrid, maybe just declare 1 half of the battlefield in shadow, 1 half not in shadow? And you can varry the percentages basd on how the sun is standing. Maybe roll a D8 or two, to get the cardinal directions the "shadow border" falls? I rememebr a old boardgame where you where sailing ships, and how the wind fell each turn was pretty important. And since it was randomized, it was inherently balanced:

i.e., take this thing and ignore the 3rd tier arrows:

If you roll 1D8 and it comes out 4, the shawdow border would go across SE and NW angles.

Alternatively you could roll 2D8 and if they come out 4 and 6, the border would be betwee SW and SE direections, covering either very little or most of the combat area (depending on from where the shadow falls).

 

The build in "you missed your AoE" rules however define the direction with a D6 (6E2 40) as for Historical reason, HERO asumes a Hex Grid Map.

 

2 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

I would ensure the player understands that switching the multipower will shut off the darkness.

 

It would be interesting to see an opponent with Darkness (same or different SFX) - which would remove LoS.

Or Flash (Sight Group) for that mater.

 

 

It still am very carefull regarding this power. It is like 3 warning Signs stacked on top of each otehr:

- Sense Affecting Power

- Personal Immunity on a Sense Disabling Power (rather then a seperate sense)

- Useable as Attack