Eating Magic

[Black Leviathan]

Tuning up a fantasy race that are basically sentient golems. I like the idea that they nourish themselves on ambient mana in the area just like it fills up a powerstone. And I'd like them to starve and even die if left out in Low or No Mana zones unless they have a powerstone to feed off of. How would you best model this?

Also building a character that's made out of wood or stone is seriousy expensive with a lot of expensive advantages. Is there a way you can think of to pair down the cost on all of the Doesn't Eat, Doesn't Sleep, Unaging, Injury Resistance, Resistance to metabolic Hazards?

[awesomenessofme1]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

Tuning up a fantasy race that are basically sentient golems. I like the idea that they nourish themselves on ambient mana in the area just like it fills up a powerstone. And I'd like them to starve and even die if left out in Low or No Mana zones unless they have a powerstone to feed off of. How would you best model this?

Dependency (Mana, daily) for [-15] or [-30] depending on if you classify mana as Common or Very Common requires you to spend at least one hour per day in the presence of mana or start losing 1 HP per hour. That might be too rapid for you, though.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Doesn't Eat or Drink already presupposes some other fuel source. If that source is mana, you starve at a normal rate without it.

[whswhs]

There are various ways to do this. I discussed them in GURPS Templates Toolkit 2: Races, in the section on Sustenance. My preferred approach if you want it to work like "eating" is to say that you have Doesn't Eat or Drink (Magical, -10%); however, you could also make it a Dependency. Do you want Fatigue issues to be involved, or not?

[AlexanderHowl]

HP issues as well, as you have dehydration as well as starvation.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

No Mana zones unless they have a powerstone to feed off of.

I'm pretty sure power stones, like any enchantments, effectively cease to exist while in a No Mana area, so I don't see any way that could work.

Your best bet is to give them some kind of energy reserve reflecting their food supply which they could "top up" by draining a power-stone prior to going into a no-mana area, which would inhibit feeding on the stone since it would be de-powered.

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

Also building a character that's made out of wood or stone is seriousy expensive with a lot of expensive advantages. Is there a way you can think of to pair down the cost on all of the Doesn't Eat, Doesn't Sleep, Unaging, Injury Resistance, Resistance to metabolic Hazards?

You could apply "mana-sensitive" so that he loses all of these advantages in a No Mana zone. this would cut 10% off all their costs.

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

Dependency (Mana, daily) for [-15] or [-30] depending on if you classify mana as Common or Very Common requires you to spend at least one hour per day in the presence of mana or start losing 1 HP per hour. That might be too rapid for you, though.

I think even "very low" mana would still qualify as mana and fulfill the dependency.

I think maybe what we need to take advantage is of the -5 to skill for low mana or -10 to skill for very low mana and have them make some sort of skill roll to survive regularly, so they would fail it more often at lower levels.

- - -

I think you give your golem ER (Magic) which reflects the amount of magical energy they can absorb, and which they will rely upon for certain abilities. You could give them Regeneration (ER) which is Mana-Sensitive -10% so that they only regenerate their ER when there's mana around. Furthremore, make regeneration "requires HT roll" or something, so that you have something to apply the -5 for low mana and -10 for very low mana in.

That way they still might regen in those, but less often.

Actually Dependency could work if it was for something other than mana, but then buy "Not Dependent" with a "Mana-Sensitive" + "Requires HT roll" limitation, so that to avoid dependency-damage you roll HT normally in normal mana, -5 in low mana, -10 in very low mana.

[Rysith]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

Also building a character that's made out of wood or stone is seriousy expensive with a lot of expensive advantages. Is there a way you can think of to pair down the cost on all of the Doesn't Eat, Doesn't Sleep, Unaging, Injury Resistance, Resistance to metabolic Hazards?

As mentioned, putting 'magical' on them is good for -10%. But GURPS is very much a 'you get what you pay for' sort of system - a character with all of those advantages is significantly better than a character who doesn't, and thus has a higher point value.

You could offset those costs with some inbuilt disadvantages that were part of your golem racial template - Reprogrammable, Duty, Ham-fisted, and No Sense of Humor all come to mind as possibilities there.

But if you're the DM, and especially if these golems are going to be NPCs rather than PCs - the point cost doesn't matter. You can just say 'they have this list of advantages' and they do. And there isn't any issue with having a 500-point golem NPC in a campaign with 100-point PCs, as long as you're building the adventure to not have the golem overshadow everyone.

[AlexanderHowl]

Golems should really have Dependency (Mana, Constant), though they would suffer inactivity instead of damage in a no mana area (it should end up being worth the same amount). As long as a Golem is within a No Mana area, it is inactive and cannot do anything, unlike an entity that suffers damage and will leave immediately. Of course, this is more restrictive than the other suggestions, so YMMV.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Golems should really have Dependency (Mana, Constant), though they would suffer inactivity instead of damage in a no mana area (it should end up being worth the same amount). As long as a Golem is within a No Mana area, it is inactive and cannot do anything, unlike an entity that suffers damage and will leave immediately. Of course, this is more restrictive than the other suggestions, so YMMV.

Portable [-40]
Not Portable (Magical -10%) [+36]
net: -4 point disadvantage?

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Golems should really have Dependency (Mana, Constant), though they would suffer inactivity instead of damage in a no mana area (it should end up being worth the same amount). As long as a Golem is within a No Mana area, it is inactive and cannot do anything, unlike an entity that suffers damage and will leave immediately. Of course, this is more restrictive than the other suggestions, so YMMV.

If they don't take constant damage from a lack of mana, the apropriate disadvantage would be No-Mana Shutdown from Thaumatology (p 119) instead of Dependency.

Originally Posted by Plane

Portable [-40]
Not Portable (Magical -10%) [+36]
net: -4 point disadvantage?

No Legs (Portable) is -30 points (also Thaum, p 119).