unclevlad

Yeah, I think this is handled on a case by case basis when there's no points involved...like normal clothes.  If points are involved, then the rules say each form has to pay the points.
 
Literature and comics go both ways.  Werewolves, for example, often trash their clothing, especially in a hybrid form that's usually rather larger than human;  but a shapeshift spell often just says the clothes et al. just disappear while transformed, then reappear.  Note that this applies to things on the shifter when the shift occurs...a cell phone sitting on the table never transforms.  Fnally, you'll see "shifter clothing" quite a bit, and that's generally a freebie.  Cuz this covers the Growth and Shrinking types.  GMs may do this just to avoid adding an implicit Complication onto these.  Now, that said...if the Shift is a curse like Lycanthropy...then trashing the clothing is more fitting.
 
 

Lifestyle changes the direction of the perk and comes with several advantages in game.  It releases its value as a quantitative money function and changes it more towards a role playing/character flavor aspect.
 
Wealth as it is written is a hard currency thing in US dollars by definition.  $100,000 a year in the US is Well Off in most places, but probably not in San Francisco, Manhattan, etc.  In places like Madagascar or El Salvador, $100,000 a year would be considered quite wealthy.
 
It removes a modern monetary constrain so that the perk can be used in a variety scenarios.  Wealth has a numerical connotation which may be difficult to translate into certain scenarios.  In a fantasy setting, is the king wealth or filthy rich?  In a sci-fi scenario, is that Ksafkwectian average or wealthy because he servants?  Lifestyle denotes how much hardship vs. comfort a person has in their day to day living.  It represents how many options are open to this person in this society.
 

The point is, saying it's "lifestyle" says it's already allocated, rather than in the bank.  Think of it as the inventory of a store rather than the cash to buy the inventory.
 
No, it's not a big difference, but it is a mindset difference.  

To track, Radio Perception is the obvious basis. 
 
After that it's a matter of special effects.  The quasi-Mentalist approach would be Mind Scan, Mind Link, Mind Control, all affecting phones rather than minds.  The tech basis would be Radio Percept and Transmit, with Discriminatory (to find the right signal out of the sea of numbers) and Targeting (to track the signal to the phone).  The hack is basically no different from hacking a computer over the internet.  Note that probably the Radio Percept/Transmit might need Invis Power Effects to trick the phone to accept the credentials you need to get into the OS and actually do the hack, but if you think that's overthinking this...that's fine.  Remember:  the phone user will have a direct indication that he's receiving data.
 
I would think there's some source materials that gives some decent examples of hacking a computer.  This shouldn't be easy or quick.
 
 

Sorry, but I go the other way altogether.  This is NOT a limitation where one size fits all.  If this is being applied to a 50 point Blast, then it's far more serious than if it's being applied to a 120 point Entangle.  
 
I'm saying treat this as Charges, in terms of how many times it can be used with any purpose.  Some assumptions have to be made there.  Is this an instant power or a constant power?  Effectiveness rolloff might be no big deal for a Force Field that lasts 5 minutes per use because that's likely the full combat, but a big deal for an instant power like Blast.  Also, is this a "I only need to do this once" power, or something needed regularly?   100 Active is quite a bit...is this a bit overpowered for the campaign, where maybe the 3rd and 4th shots are more on par?  Well, then, the rolloff is at the 5th or 6th shot.  Same comment applies if the defense is uncommon, or the power has an ongoing effect like Entangle, so that it may not be needed more than a couple times.
 
Hm.  Another way to say this might just be Side Effect:  Power Fades with Use.  Automatic.  Side effect is 10 point Drain...well, that's a 3d6 Drain, and that's 30 points.  So that's a Major Side Effect.  Automatic raises that to a -1.  If you want a one size fits all, this seems pretty decent.  I'll certainly grant mine's more complex.
 
Oh, and a side note, interpreting this as a Side Effect (Drain) defines how fast the power 'recharges' back...takes 2 turns per use.  
 
 
 
 
 
 

I'm inclined to go a completely different route.  The 4th shot is at -30 Active...which strongly suggests it's largely a waste of time.  It's gonna bounce off defenses.  If these are standard charges, I'd say 
 
1 charge:  -2
2 charges:  -1 1/2 or -1 3/4, depending on average Active Points involved.  If it's, say, 50?  The 2nd shot's at 80%.   At 65+, the second shot's still fairly effective.
3 charges:  similar, leaning to -1 1/2.
4+:  -1 1/4, or even - 1 1/2 if the initial Active Points are low-ish.
 
It may also depend on the Power.  AVAD and Flash might remain decently effective even at -30 points.  So I'm looking at it as, how fast does the effectiveness fall off?  And once it's Basically Useless, it's like you're out of charges anyway.
 

That sequence works nicely for me, massey.  Plays up the prime aspect...the horrific nature of this beastie.  
 
As a thought in this approach, toss in a straightforward Drain, targeting Ego, PRE, or both.  He can't fight back.  After the poor vic's been hosed 6 ways to Sunday, NOW you can throw in a relatively small, cumulative Mind Control and build it to sick levels.  The impact here would be the Mind Control on its own wouldn't be strong enough to do much against anyone who wasn't brain-drained.
 
This is now very nicely cinematic....BUT.  If there is to be an effective difference between this all taking several turns, and everything just happening all at once more or less (a few phases rather than turns)...there's got to be a way that this wears off, or can be reversed, at least until the whole sequence is complete.  Which really is OK.  I don't know the source material, but it sounds like it takes the vic and remains...discreetly, generally quietly.  Fine;  this gives regular opportunity to reinforce both the transform and the mind control.  The vic won't fight as long as the reinforcement's regular enough...buy Delayed Recovery (5/day) or something and you're good...and say that after a couple weeks the process has become permanent.  Sure feels like this is consistent with the critter's WH40K presentation.  It should be feasible with no major rules mangling, and feels internally consistent.

Cool.
 
We don't know the power level...and translating between systems makes this doubly hard.  He did say, this was something to face up against high-level characters, so it's not a 300 point monster.  
 
And, yes there is a point...to see, oh gee, this really is frightening.  There are occasional examples of glass cannons...monsters whose Risk is extremely high relative to their defenses.  In old D&D...the leprechaun.  Polymorph any object...for a 1 HD critter.  HUH?  And, IIRC, exceptional magic resistance but almost no physical.  Of course, your sword's now a long feather.  While it's not a physical Threat...as a challenge, it's quite a bit higher than one would anticipate.  Another, the cockatrice...that stoning attack.  Another lesson was, "It won't work very often" does not counterbalance "and...you're dead"  when it does work.
 
The point of all this is to say...recognize that the Transform is super incredibly powerful.  Honor that by not trying to cheese out the build.  If it is a 300 point monstrosity, it's a 300 point monstrosity...even if you can build it on 50. It's all too easy to lie to ourselves as players and GMs...but as a player, hopefully the GM's there to audit things.  The GM doesn't have that, so IMO has to be much more stringently compliant.  One aspect I'm so strongly against your slow, ongoing Transform is, you're taking a cheese approach while also hand-waving away quite a few problems, as I mentioned...and kind of patting yourself on the back for pulling it off.  Hey, ok, if you have to hand wave on one point, that can be ok...but so many aspects?  No.  Don't do that.  That's too much like the path the GM took that I'd mentioned, where he'd make something that legitimately cost 600 points, but ignore this, fudge that...and admire his own cleverness for squeezing 600 points of combat powers onto a 350 point villain. 

BTW, grail, sorry if I'm coming across as too critical/strident.  Bad experience with things like this...a GM who said an RKA Autofire Based on ECV was allowed to do Body on its own because it was a killing attack.  And used advantages that made limitations utterly meaningless *all* the time.  
 
You're right that this is VERY much like a werewolf transformation.  (Not necessarily a vampire one...most of the time, that transformation starts with the vampire killing the victim, so the transform takes place on an object...the corpse.)  But figure...what, really, is the difference in fantasy between a troll and a werewolf?  Trolls are a major PITA to kill because they just KEEP COMING BACK!!!!  ARGH.  Werewolves take special weapons to hit, so lots of defenses too.  Probably lower damage output.  What's more feared by PCs?  The werewolf...because of the transformation risk.  So, why cheap it out?  
 
Those are all plot device aspects.  The keys are things like, what can you do to stop or reverse this?  How long do you have?  What steps to take?  BROADLY, what might prevent this?  Werewolf in D&D, the infection takes place (or not, if the save's made) immediately.  You're cursed.  There's specific conditions for countering it in the first hour, the first few days, and then later.  None of these are limitations;  IMO, the fact that the trigger's a full moon is also not worth a cost break on the Transform.

This could also be done via trickery, and anyone Entangled or deeply stunned is at risk.  Yeah, I get such a person could be killed by simpler means, but still.  
 
First, while scaling a Transform for something like this is tricky...I don't see 4d6 being *close* to enough.  
 
Seocnd...why try to make the point cost sane?  This SHOULD be insanely expensive in points, given the consequences.  IMO, it's a pretty common flaw to look for price breaks because we're so focused on points.
 
Last...those Psy Lims aren't the end of it.  Is the victim aware, in any way, of these changes?  They are at the genetic level.  I think the "OMG what am I now???" hasn't been captured at all.  You're also missing the "run away from everyone that I know" that's another essential part of this.  You're also missing some MASSIVE Hunteds that would be implicit...because every other race out there, presumably, would have Kill On Sight against any Genestealer or progeny.
 
Part 1:  if this is an all or nothing to create at least 40 points of Psy Lim...that's 12d6 to me.  I get the special effect aspect that Ego Def doesn't make sense...but is this why you're not taking the Mental Transform stuff...or are you trying to cheese the cost?  Concentration throughout on the extra time?  I don't see that.  Where's the 0 End?
 
Part 2 represents a fundamental restructuring of the victim's DNA.  OK, that's a BODY Transform by my lights.  So, to start with, you need to do 2x the BODY.  You started at 4...without recognizing the doubling aspect, that might be close.  You want to make sure that it takes a VERY bad roll for the Transform not to happen.  I'd push a little higher.  Then...double it?  9 or 10d, if you want to maintain the All or Nothing.
 
Last, there's no recovery at all.  Fine.  Pay for it.  Delayed Return Rate, 5 points per 5 years *at least*....+3 1/2.  Another at least +1 to say the transform's not affected by Regen...or is it?  Or by Healing.
 
If this costs 400 points, it costs 400 points.  It doesn't matter anyway.  This is pure, unadulterated plot device.  All you need is the time required to pull this off, and the fact the vic has to be incapacitated, because those are aspects of the plot.  Nothing else has to be particularly formal...except perhaps to cover What If?  Like, what if the vic has 20 points of Power Def?  Or 2 Body per Turn regen?  But those are corner cases that you can wing as they arise.

Well, the first thought is Sticky.  That's anyone who touches a victim, for +1/2.  That's already nasty enough.  If you make it "anyone within 2 meters" you've got something super-infectious.  I'd consider adding extra time for activation and even 14- activation.  And of course there's the obvious Not Vs the right knds of life support.  
 
How nasty you want this to be, will impact those points...what's the range for it to spread from A to B?  What's the probability B will be infected?  How long does it take for B to become contagious?  How long after infection before the onset of the damage?  How long after infection before the infection starts showing?  How much contact is required for A to transmit to B...airborne might require, say, a full turn, casual contact like a handshake, soft tissues contact like a kiss (herpes), fluids.  I'm assuming airborne, but say A is infected and doesn't yet know it.  He's a jogger.  He passes by B, a biker in the bike lane next to the running path.  Total time they'd be within 4 meters of each other is maybe a second.  Does that do it?  

Indie bands still hired recording studios, paid someone to master their tracks, mail out their marketing material. In fact, it was that they did all these things themselves rather than struck a deal with a recording label to handle it all for them that made them Indie.

At a guess?  Age.  It's toooo old!  *6* editions????   That's not new and interesting.  That's Old Skool.  Your DAD played Champions, dude!!!

Well, that force field flicker might be a small limitation, IF this is the main defense.  But the limitation may relate to the attack power:  Not when under a Continuous Attack.  Because you can't drop the FF.  As far as targeting it?  Notionally, the window's on the order of MAYBE 0.1 seconds, and most likely...a lot less than that.  Sci fi weapons usually mean you're including light speed energy beams and near light speed particle beams/bursts, so even a tenth of a second is a LONG time.  
 
I suppose in theory something like Find Weakness and Precog?  Find Weakness to even realize the opening is there, then Precog to give you a shot to know in advance...but even with something like this, the time window's just so brief.  Unless the source material suggests it's intended to be a (barely exploitable) weakness, it's just foo.  The "drop, fire, restore" sequence is just a way of saying the attack doesn't require BS explanation like "it phases through the field."  It's pure hand waving.

6E147-8.  Bottom para on 147, continuing to 148.  Discusses "Star Trek force fields" that get worn down.  That's part 1.  Part 2 might be an Aid, Always On, to the resistant defenses.  This is the shield generator.  I think you can throw in an Extra Time limit so the Aid only kicks in occasionally, but this might not be needed if the whole vehicle speed isn't very high.  So you can try to burn through the shields, but you haven't got long before they're back to full.

At -1/2, you're only counting Body to see if it deteriorates.  At -1, you're counting Stun...which means, practically every regular attack will wear it away.
 
reference:  6E147.  Second paragraph discussing Ablative.

At -1/2, you're only counting Body to see if it deteriorates.  At -1, you're counting Stun...which means, practically every regular attack will wear it away.
 
reference:  6E147.  Second paragraph discussing Ablative.

At -1/2, you're only counting Body to see if it deteriorates.  At -1, you're counting Stun...which means, practically every regular attack will wear it away.
 
reference:  6E147.  Second paragraph discussing Ablative.