[Raekai]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

I like what you are going for, but you point out right here a likely easier way of going about it. To keep the abilities as AAs instead of in addition to, you could drop the multiplier to x3 from Wildcard powers. Which, now that I compare some math, breaking that into lesser levels would be 10pts/lvl if you can't slot full cost abilities of the main power (close to what you had, but without the bigger buy in cost. Then again, that extra cost coincidentally lines up with UB's normal cost of 10pts...).

Yep, in my blog post, I talk about how the costs come out to almost be the same with that weird little Unusual Background cost thrown in there. That's how I knew that my pricing was quite fair. The reason I didn't go that route, however, is that I want a system that accepts modifiers. I mean, you could also just say that you have Flight [40] and Wildcard Power Pool 40 [80], and then slap modifiers onto the Wildcard Power Pool, but that felt less legal to me. Though, I suppose, if I wanted to go even simpler, that works too.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Nice writeup. I've been a fan of this technique for quite some time, but its great to see someone else talk about it.



Some tweaking of the modular ability cost to bring it down would be nice, but if you don't want to worry about that, sure, its fine.


When trying to bring the cost down, the Mental/Physical divide is exceptionally awkward. I'm looking at list of advantages: affliction is physical (always, I think), altered time rate is mental (what?) healing is mental (ok, I can see that under certain circumstances), Insubstantial is labeled as possibly both...


on the other hand, advantage types specify the GM has final say, and the markers just assist it. So if the power won't have mental advantages (fairly common for most narrow powers) the cost drops to 8+8/level, because the modular ability is using physical only+50%

I've been struggling with the mental/physical divide since I started getting feedback about my system. I'm going to work on tweaking some things, but, right now, I'm looking at...

Modular Powers is Modular Abilities (Slotted Cosmic Powers; Physical, +100%; Reduced Time, +20%; and Trait-Limited, Alternative Abilities, -20%) for 14 points for the base cost, + 10 points/level.

For me, it's important to keep Reduced Time for instant configuration because you already have to spend a moment switching between powers anyway. It also makes the cost a bit smoother, which is nice. I also knock off the 4 points from the base cost because this is not Cosmic yet (which makes it effectively the same as the Modular Abilities that Sorcery uses).

Now, Modular Powers 8 [90] could just take the Limited Scope limitation to restrict it to physical powers only. Modular Powers 8 [90] (Limited Scope, Physical powers only, -25%) [68]. (The -25% comes from the mental part of Physical, +100% only equating to 1/4 of the total build cost. Though, with standard limitation pricing, it seems fairer that it would be -20%, which would make it 72 points.) If AlexanderHowl had used a 10-point base and had Reduced Time on his build, it would have come out to 68 points, so we've arrived at the same numbers. Both are still just a bit more expensive than doing something like Wildcard Power Pool 40 (Limited, Physical powers only, -20%) [64]. That's because Modular Abilities have that pesky base cost.

Without the base cost, Modular Powers 8 [80] is now the same as Wildcard Power Pool 40 [80]. Now, say that Modular Powers requires an Unusual Background equal to the cost of an extra level of the power Talent. That can be 5, 10, or 15 points, which seems fair, and will usually end up being the same price as the base cost of Modular Abilities (for this build) anyway. Might as well just say that Wildcard Powers now require the same Unusual Background. Now, they're the same price anyway.

Of course, this is only slightly different than what I did with the Cosmic modifier anyway. Throwing +50% onto Modular Powers (including the base cost) is the same as having Cosmic Talent and adding Social, +50% to the meat of the advantage to cover truly everything.

So, yeah, the price works out, and you can justify keeping or dropping the extra cost as an Unusual Background or whatever.

The only thing is that Limited Scope, Mental powers only, -20% will never bring it down to the price of the unmodified Modular Abilities, but I am a-okay with that. A small price to pay for salvation.