Contagious Immunity

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

That's not true, actually. At least not if you count the FAQ as RAW.

See also the aura of power in PU4 :
Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Aura,+80%;
Malediction 1, +100%; Melee Attack, Reach C, -30%;
...

[Aldric]

Well, the FAQ itself says it might not be canon :D
And Auras of Power are a mess, at least based on what I've read on this forum about them, since I don't have that book.

I prefer Emanation with Persistent to Aura and Area Effect, but to be honest, they both have some issues

[oneofmanynameless]

Originally Posted by Aldric

Well, the FAQ itself says it might not be canon :D
And Auras of Power are a mess, at least based on what I've read on this forum about them, since I don't have that book.

I prefer Emanation with Persistent to Aura and Area Effect, but to be honest, they both have some issues

I'm curious what the issues are with both of them. If you would be willing link to those discussions or paraphrase them for me. They seem like they do different things:

a persistent emanation is kinda like a fart: you release it, it fills an area around you without troubling you at all, and remains in that area for 10 seconds even if you leave.

a aura with area effect moves with you without affecting you because it is constantly emitted by you.

[AlexanderHowl]

Well, the problem is that Aura with Area Effect would only effect people when they cross the border of the Area Effect (similar to a Wall), your skin effectively extends to the radius of the Area Effect, and not effect them when they are within the radius. With Emanation, you would effect everyone in the Area Effect each time it activates (once per turn with Persistent).

[awesomenessofme1]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Well, the problem is that Aura with Area Effect would only effect people when they cross the border of the Area Effect (similar to a Wall), your skin effectively extends to the radius of the Area Effect, and not effect them when they are within the radius.

Except that isn't what the worked examples say it does.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Well, the problem is that Aura with Area Effect would only effect people when they cross the border of the Area Effect (similar to a Wall), your skin effectively extends to the radius of the Area Effect, and not effect them when they are within the radius. With Emanation, you would effect everyone in the Area Effect each time it activates (once per turn with Persistent).

That's not the way Area Effect works, so I have no idea why you think it would work like that with Aura. The question then becomes if Aura is compatible with Area Effect, and plenty of official builds (and the FAQ) indicate it is. There is the issue that Melee, C is arguably inappropriate, as it affects targets further away than Reach C, even if RAW states otherwise. For small auras, Melee, C-2 and Melee, C-4 work (those aren't official, but I'd eyeball them at roughly -15% and -10%, respectively). For larger auras, one could make the argument for Jet and Increased Range - +0% for C-8 (Jet is normally 5/10; the two average out to 7.5, which is probably ok to round up to 8), +10% for C-16 (one level of Increased Range), +30% for C-32 (three levels of Increased Range, as with Jet each level is +100% rather than x2), +70% for C-64 (seven levels), and so forth. This makes Aura more expensive when combined with Area Effect, but honestly given you don't even need to attack for Aura to come into play (it's a free action on your turn whether the Aura is active or not), that seems appropriate.

[AlexanderHowl]

Aura explicitly says that it works when someone is touching you or when you are touching them, which is why Aura plus Area Effect is weird. Either Aura plus Area Effect becomes a replacement for Emanation and Persistent (at a higher cost), or it functions like Emanation, Persistent, and Wall (at the same cost). Either way, Melee should not be a legal modifier beyond Reach 4, because it is really no longer melee range for most people.

[awesomenessofme1]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Aura explicitly says that it works when someone is touching you or when you are touching them, which is why Aura plus Area Effect is weird. Either Aura plus Area Effect becomes a replacement for Emanation and Persistent (at a higher cost), or it functions like Emanation, Persistent, and Wall (at the same cost). Either way, Melee should not be a legal modifier beyond Reach 4, because it is really no longer melee range for most people.

What are you talking about with Persistent? It's not Persistent. It affects the area around you at the time and nowhere else. And it requires Melee Attack because the center of the Area Effect has a range of 0, and because Aura always requires Melee Attack.

[AlexanderHowl]

Emanation is the RAW limitation that centers the Area Effect around its user. Now, I could see a combination of two different attacks, one with Aura and one with Emanation, but they would be different effects.

For example, you could have Burning Attack 2d (Aura, +80%; Link, +10%; Radiation, +100%; Melee, C, -30%; Selective Effect, +20%; Selectivity, +10%) [29] plus Burning Attack 1d (Area Effect, 16 yards, +200%; Emanation, -20%; Link, +10%; Radiation, +100%; Selective Area, +20%; Selectivity, +10%) [21]. When the character turns on their radioactive aura, they automatically trigger a lesser radioactive emanation that irradiates an area with a radiation, though they have sufficient control over their powers to avoid attacking anyone that they would rather not.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Aura explicitly says that it works when someone is touching you or when you are touching them, which is why Aura plus Area Effect is weird. Either Aura plus Area Effect becomes a replacement for Emanation and Persistent (at a higher cost), or it functions like Emanation, Persistent, and Wall (at the same cost). Either way, Melee should not be a legal modifier beyond Reach 4, because it is really no longer melee range for most people.

The logical thought for "Aura plus Area Effect" is "Area Effect around me." I wouldn't attempt to bring Wall into it, as that performs completely differently from anything you'd remotely want for an area effect aura - it creates a straight line with a width of 1 yard and a length of 3 yards per yard of radius, optionally reshapeable at a higher price. The higher cost compared to Emanation+Persistent probably comes from it moving with you (while this can occasionally be a problem, I think it's more often useful) and being something you can turn on and off with a free action on your turn. As I noted above, I think it probably undercharges at current, and the character should have to pay for Reach equal to Radius (either in the form of a less-restrictive variant of Melee, or Jet with Increased Range as needed).