Harpoon with cable

[dsatow]

How would you design a harpoon with a cable?

 

I am designing a aquatic villain with such a weapon.  The harpoon itself is easy as a 2d6 or 2 1/2d6 KA.  But here are the problems.

1) A harpooned person is effectively grabbed if it does body and can be pulled back towards the attacker.

2) Yanking a harpoon out is a painful process.

3) Having a harpoon stuck in you is debilitating or at least movement constricting.

 

I am curious what people come up with.  One limitation: No transform, extra dimensional movement, or VPP.

[Greywind]

KA with a linked Entangle?

[sentry0]

I'm guessing some combination of a stretching to grab the opponent, a trigger on stretching for the initial damage, a trigger on the HKA when the grab is broken.  It could probably all be built in a MP.

 

You could probably substitute Linked for Triggered on Stretching too.

[Doc Democracy]

Well,. you have a single attack that has three elements to it.  You have a killing attack, a grab that hinders movement and a continuing triggered attack that will damage until the harpoon is removed.

 

I would buy a straight killing attack.  I would buy a telekinesis (only to pull toward you) with physical manifestation.  I would also buy an attack with a Killing attack NND (does BODY, only when harpoon removed) and a normal attack NND (optional does BODY, only when fighting against the harpoon).

 

This is expensive but you could vary the cost with the extent of the damage done.

 

Doc

[Tech]

I'd go with either Greywind's idea, or simply run it as special effect and roleplay it. Personally, I'd go with running it as special effect and roleplay it. Realism causes all sorts of things to happen that simply don't in a superhero situation. A gun would causes all kinds of problems other than simply injuring; why isn't that 6d6 Fire Blast roasting/burning someone with a 25 ED, etc. Realistic attacks causes all kinds of secondary problems so I guess how realistic is the campaign? Not everything needs to be stated out and is simply special effect - again depending on the campaign.

 

However, howabout this:

1) HKA - simple enough.

2) Stretching, no NCM, no intermediate space, only usable with HKA, linked (if that's still around in 6th ed, don't have book in front of me).

 

 

[Grailknight]

Well let's break this down into it's parts.

 

The first part is a simple KA.

 

Next, it gets tricky. The cable isn't a Grab because it doesn't really restrict actions in that way.  It's more of a combination of Clinging and Stretching with a somewhat fragile focus( the cable). Harpoons also have a chance to damage but not attach.

 

As breaking free does not automatically cause more damage depending on method used, the harpoon becomes a KA with a Trigger on STR-based breakouts but not on attacks on the cable(focus)  The damage can also be avoided with an out of combat First Aid roll. 

 

That's how I break it down, not going to take a stab at a write-up. And of course I may have missed something.

 

 

[dsatow]

7 hours ago, Greywind said:

KA with a linked Entangle?

 

The reason I am not going with this is because in comics you see someone getting hit with the harpoon in one frame and in the next gets yanked towards the attacker for some follow up.  The defender then pulls out the harpoon taking damage doing it or they cut the cord and are hampered a bit with this harpoon sticking out of them.  This is what I want to simulate in a champions game (so I can't really hand wave the combat possibilities as you would in a heroic level game).

 

I am fine if the target pulls on the cable and draws the attacker towards them.

 

I am thinking a RKA for the initial damage.  Stretching with martial grab for the tether with a limitation the RKA needs to do Body. Finally an NND triggered HKA if they pull it out and only if the initial attack does Body.  This all done as a combination attack (thanks for helping clarify the powers!). 

 

The final question is if they don't remove the harpoon, it should be slightly annoying have a 3' long harpoon stuck to your body.  What do you think should be the problem?  I was initially thinking running drain/suppress but writing it out a REC drain/suppress might be better.  What are your opinions?  You have any better ideas, I am all ears.

 

[KA.]

Just off the top of my head, it seems like you would need to do more than one BODY for the target to be hooked.

Thinking of the harpoon as a real object, it seems possible that only one or two BODY would just be a "nick", not an impalement.

I don't know how many BODY makes sense, but more than one or two.

 

For the pulling I would go with a limited form of TK "Only to pull toward", etc

 

The damage for pulling out the Harpoon would be a Triggered KA attached to the initial attack.

It would even make sense to have the Triggered attack do more damage based on the damage the initial attack did.

After all, the more firmly "planted" the harpoon was, the more damage it would do when you removed it.

 

Just some thoughts,

KA.