Making a new limitation for Damage Resistance

[Grunker]

In this thread we discuss how to make DR an "activated", ablative shield with duration. We discussed the Affliction-approach and a few others, but dropped it. Instead, I went the way of making a new limitation for DR that does.

Here are my initial thoughts:

New Damage Resistance Specific Limitation: Duration
Cost: Variable
This is a new limitation that can be added to the Damage Resistance advantage. Adding 'duration' to Damage Resistance changes the advantage so it must be 'turned on' before it works. Turning it on requires a Concentrate maneuver. The Damage Resistance then activates at the end of your turn. The duration limitation also changes Damage Resistance so it only lasts a limited time once 'turned on'. The cost of this limitation depends on the duration of your damage resistance:

10 seconds: -25%
30 seconds: -20%
1 minute: -15%
10 minutes: -10%
1 hour: -5%

Duration can be combined with Ablative. If your Damage Resistance ”remembers” how much DR you lost on last activation, Ablative is still worth -80%. If your pool of Ablative DR ”resets” whenever you reactive your DR, Ablative effectively becomes a minor effect, and is thus worth only -5%.

Duration is often combined with Force Field and Costs Fatigue to emulate a conjured damage shield or similar effect.

One "problem" here is that this basic version of the power, without costing FP, is basically ONLY a question of turning it on and thus only becomes an disadvantage when you do not have the time to take a Concentrate maneuver. I'm thinking the cost is OK for that though. The only problem I have with it is once you add an FP cost it becomes a bigger disadvantage because you can't just activate it whenever you feel like, but must conserve your FP.

What do you guys think?

[ericthered]

I think the costs FP disadvantage is too cheap in the first place, but I'm new to the game.

you could make it automatically take FP.

mostly this looks like a chassis to hang other limitations on.... takes preparation, costs fatigue, ect.

the problem that I see with ablative is that this actually makes ablative better, as it can be regained with a simple activation, rather than waiting for the "injury" to heal

[Grunker]

Originally Posted by ericthered

the problem that I see with ablative is that this actually makes ablative better, as it can be regained with a simple activation, rather than waiting for the "injury" to heal

That's already taken care of, though:

Originally Posted by Grunker

If your Damage Resistance ”remembers” how much DR you lost on last activation, Ablative is still worth -80%. If your pool of Ablative DR ”resets” whenever you reactive your DR, Ablative effectively becomes a minor effect, and is thus worth only -5%.

You might have a point about building a FP-cost directly into the limitation however. The only reason I don't like it is that I'd like to keep it as "general" as possible.

[gilbertocarlos]

According to GURPS Powers:

Maximum Duration
Variable
Only available for switchable, beneficial abilities that you could normally leave “on” indefinitely (e.g., Insubstantiality). Your ability can only operate for a limited length of time. After that, it shuts down without warning and you can’t reactivate it for five minutes. Limitation value depends on the time limit.

[Grunker]

The above doesn't work for two reasons:

1) Shutting down for five minutes does not work for the power we want to create. You must be able to reactive it immediately when it shuts down.

2) If ablative, the power must "restart" the DR when reactivated. Your suggestion doesn't do that.

Take a look at the thread for more info.

The basic idea is to make the Quen-sign of The Witcher into a power. That is; you spend some FP and conjure a DR force field that lasts one minute or until the DR (which is ablative) has been taken down. You can then reactivate the power (restart the timer and ablative DR). In fact you could reactivate the power in the middle of its duration to restart the DR in the middle of the duration if you wanted too.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Grunker

The basic idea is to make the Quen-sign of The Witcher into a power. That is; you spend some FP and conjure a DR force field that lasts one minute or until the DR (which is ablative) has been taken down. You can then reactivate the power (restart the timer and ablative DR). In fact you could reactivate the power in the middle of its duration to restart the DR in the middle of the duration if you wanted too.

Mage armor from World of Warcraft works very much like that (with the added complication of any damage to the forcefield not only reduces the "pool" available to the field, but also costs mana proportional to the amount of damage (energy reserve and/or FP in GURPS).

Costs FP alone should be enough to sort of turn it into a 1 minute duration power - after one minute you need to pay maintenance (half the FP cost). I don't think this is a good place for Maximum Duration - that limitation is really for things that could have been left on indefinitely anyways, and once Costs FP is on there you can't maintain indefinitely. It's both overkill and doubledipping at the same time.

I'd be inclined to call it another -5% or -10% nuisance effect that you can't maintain, you must spend another action (and activation cost) to turn it back on.

[zoncxs]

Here is something:

Force Ward 50pts + 5pts per level

creates a force wall which soaks up damage that comes from the front, once it has taken enough damage it breaks. It takes a second to create another wall after which you should wait at least 6 seconds to use it again or else it won't have time to recover.

DR (5pts)
Ablative, -80%
Costs 1 FP, -5%
Directional: Front only, -20%
Force Field, +20%
Maximum Duration, -65%
Reduced Time, +160%
Requires Concentrate, -15%

Regeneration(45pts)
Accessibility (Only When DR is off), -20%
Limited: DR Only, -40%
Takes Recharge, -10%

it cost a pretty penny but it is a powerful effect in my mind. at the low level it might not be worth it, but spending 75pts gives you a shield that stops 1d6pts of damage its not bad. of course you can drop ablative and regen and direction, which makes the DR cost 10pts per lvl.

[Tuoni]

Originally Posted by zoncxs

Here is something:

Force Ward 50pts + 5pts per level

creates a force wall which soaks up damage that comes from the front, once it has taken enough damage it breaks. It takes a second to create another wall after which you should wait at least 6 seconds to use it again or else it won't have time to recover.

DR (5pts)
Ablative, -80%
Costs 1 FP, -5%
Directional: Front only, -20%
Force Field, +20%
Maximum Duration, -65%
Reduced Time, +160%
Requires Concentrate, -15%

Regeneration(45pts)
Accessibility (Only When DR is off), -20%
Limited: DR Only, -40%
Takes Recharge, -10%

it cost a pretty penny but it is a powerful effect in my mind. at the low level it might not be worth it, but spending 75pts gives you a shield that stops 1d6pts of damage its not bad. of course you can drop ablative and regen and direction, which makes the DR cost 10pts per lvl.

Or you can get DR with Directional: Front only, -20% and Force Field, +20% which is a only 5 pts/lvl and is always on.

[zoncxs]

Originally Posted by Tuoni

Or you can get DR with Directional: Front only, -20% and Force Field, +20% which is a only 5 pts/lvl and is always on.

Or you get just get DR for 5pts only and protects from all directions.