Drain Longevity

[Ximenez]

I don't think this is a rules question. What (if anything) does the power Drain Longevity do? I say "if anything" because "no, you can't buy that" seems like a reasonable response. But if you follow the logic, it's a really cheap way to eliminate (or perhaps incapacitate) that 600-point vampire lord.

[Greywind]

Would turn it off for the duration. I don't think that it would cause accelerated aging.

[sentry0]

56 minutes ago, Ximenez said:

I don't think this is a rules question. What (if anything) does the power Drain Longevity do? I say "if anything" because "no, you can't buy that" seems like a reasonable response. But if you follow the logic, it's a really cheap way to eliminate (or perhaps incapacitate) that 600-point vampire lord.

 

The effect you're describing sounds more like a Transform which would not be a cheap way to off a 600 point Vampire Lord.

[archer]

1 hour ago, Greywind said:

Would turn it off for the duration. I don't think that it would cause accelerated aging.

 

Yeah, that's how I'd handle it.

 

If you were to turn off some other type of Life Support, say his ability to breath in an atmosphere, that effect wouldn't kill a person instantly due to the accumulated amount of time he had already spent in that atmosphere. Rather he'd only suffer effects starting from that point forward.

 

Now as far as the idea of Draining or Suppressing Longevity goes, I think it'd be a great idea to build a lich or vampire lord which is Susceptible to some amount of damage per phase from having his immortality turned off. That seems very appropriate for the way the undead are written in some fictional settings.

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

I've personally houseruled that Life Support is Innate, because:

A - turning off water breathing in Atlantis basically means the target dies.  Way too much impact for a tiny effect.  3d6+1 Drain is enough to turn off any individual Life Support, and the impact from doing so when it's in use is staggering.  

B - it's honestly not very good.  It defends you only against things that explicitly say it does, so it's a mother-may-I defense.  It comes up if and only if the GM or a PC has just the right thing for it to matter. 

C - there's a major category of character that "needs" to have total or heavy Innate LS to make sense, and that's a massive concept tax.  I'm probably going to sit down and adjust the points on LS someday, it's way too expensive if you're buying a lot of it. 

[eepjr24]

1 hour ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

I've personally houseruled that Life Support is Innate, because:

A - turning off water breathing in Atlantis basically means the target dies.  Way too much impact for a tiny effect.  3d6+1 Drain is enough to turn off any individual Life Support, and the impact from doing so when it's in use is staggering.  

B - it's honestly not very good.  It defends you only against things that explicitly say it does, so it's a mother-may-I defense.  It comes up if and only if the GM or a PC has just the right thing for it to matter. 

C - there's a major category of character that "needs" to have total or heavy Innate LS to make sense, and that's a massive concept tax.  I'm probably going to sit down and adjust the points on LS someday, it's way too expensive if you're buying a lot of it. 

I don't think I'd go as far as adding Innate for free, I'd probably just rule it is a Defensive Power for purposes of Drain. I have ruled the same in the past for Defense Maneuver because of the outsized impact a small drain can do.

 

- E

[Duke Bushido]

I'm with Greywind:

 

It would turn off the effect of the power.  That is, the moment you turned it off, he would begin to age.

 

At the "normal" one minute = one minute rate.  When the Drain "healed back," he would stop aging again.

 

Like GB(i!), I have ruled that certain things are innate, simply because it makes dramatic sense.  However, some of these can still be affected by Drains, Suppress, etc---  this is one of those instances where SFX is _important_.  For example: I'm not going to let a Drain: Flight just automatically rob a winged character of his Flight because the mechanics say so.  If the Drain were defined as doing something to the portion of the brain that controls Flight, or turning the air into Jell-O-- something like that?  Okay, sure.  Wing Guy can't fly for a bit.  It's a double-edged sword, though: I'm not going to let him fly if there isn't room to spread his wings, either, even if he didn't opt for the Limitation: Restrainable.

 

To use the Atlantean reference given above:  someone with Drain: Life Support isn't going to automatically deprive another character of his gills.  If, however, this Drain was defined as a cloud of billion teensy bits bits of plastic that are released into the air (or water), then yes: I will without problem let them affect gills (when released into the water) as easily as they might affect lungs (when released into the air).

 

I also know that I'm an odd-man out; there are a lot of people who will rule "it works because there's a mechanic," without regard to how appropriate the interaction may or may not be.  Mileage will vary.

 

 

 

[Duke Bushido]

Ah-- having re-read the original post a bit more closely-- that part about "a cheap way to off a vampire lord" bit--

 

that's going to depend on how the _vampire_ is written up: that "rapidly ages to dust" trope?  That's a character disadplication.  If he has something on his character sheet-- something like "Dependent: Life Support Longevity" with the side-effects of being deprived of that as something akin to "6d6 KA per segment,"  then yes-- it's an inexpensive way off him (eventually).

 

But as-written, all a Drain does is turn a power off, period.  (I suppose I might let a Drain: BODY take someone out, if only because it's a really expensive way to do it.  You've sort of earned it.  But again: that trope works because of an inherent problem with the vampire himself; not because the Drain did something wonderfully devious.)