Quote:
Originally Posted by ericbsmith
Power-Ups 4: Enhancements has Alternate Enhancements, which is an extension of the Alternate Abilities rules extended to cover groups of Enhancements with Selectivity.
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I'd definitely use this, but I don't think using the limitations
on the enhancements is the right approach. For one thing, I think the numbers are going to be off there - limitations are priced, generally, with the advantage they're intended to apply to in mind, not an enhancement. Also, what happens if you get a lot of limitations? Even capping the possible limitation at -80%, it's too easy, in my opinion, to make an otherwise-expensive enhancement cheap that way. Consider an extreme case - someone takes some form of Cosmic, +300%, and enough limitations to work out to -80%. If you were just doing the usual modifier math, that would work out to +220%. Whereas, if you allow the limited enhancements build, it comes out to only +60%. That's far too cheap.
Instead, what I'd do is bundle the limitations and enhancements you wanted together, and then apply the Alternate Enhancements divisor to the total of each package.
As an example, consider a laser attack with two modes, one a long range 1000/500 shot (Increased Range X10, and Increased 1/2D Range X5) with some ultra-tech "field jacketing" technobabble that means it can't set fires (No Incendiary Effect), while the second is a short-range, 20/10 range shot (Reduced Range /5 and Increased Range, 1/2D range only, X5) with lots of shots, RoF 16 (Rapid Fire 16). So, you'd total up the two modifier packages, with the first being +30% (Increased Range X10, +30%, Increased Range X5, 1/2D only, +10%, and Missing Damage Effect: No Incendiary Effect, -10%), while the second is +150% (Rapid Fire 16, +150%, Reduced Range, /5, -10%, and Increased Range X5, 1/2D range only, +10%). So, you'd divide the cheaper package price (the +30%) by 5, and you'd end up with a final enhancement value of 156%.
If there were packages that ended up negative, after adding all enhancements and limitations to each, I think I'd treat them as having a final total of +5%, then apply the usual Alternative Enhancements modifier to them. +1% for each option, even if its strictly less useful than the primary mode of the ability, seems fair, just to cover the possible advantages of switching which limitations apply in a given circumstance.