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Old 03-21-2018, 07:00 AM   #1
Icelander
 
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Default Advantage that extends elixir and potion durations?

What base Advantage should I use to represent the ability to have the duration of alchemical and magical elixirs, potions and other potable concoctions increase for a certain character?

This is not an ability to make such things, though it may accompany it in some cases, but rather represents advanced Body Control, alchemical improvements or whatever other fantastical explanation might apply.

This is for a campaign where common types of potion are gear, available for cash, but there are also some rarer types. The main benefit this will have is reducing the cash that this character needs to spend on potions and extending the time that a potion belt of eight to twelve potions can keep him operating at higher than usual performance.

Typical 'common' potions with a duration that PCs buy include Strength Potions, Battle Potions and more powerful versions, such as Potion of Giant Strength or Potion of Heroism.

Potion costs are usually 0.005% to 0.1% of the total wealth of a single PC., which is many, many times the typical Starting Wealth, because they are legendary heroes who command armies and fleets.

I think the main reason the player wants this for his character is his increasing focus on Body Control and tantric chi powers, as well as the fact that he's taken to drinking alchemical-magical elixirs made from the concentrated blood of a particular vampire. He wants to retain the effects longer, which is usually as much bad as it is good. Awesome vampire senses, pretty good chance the character will be embarrassingly infatuated with a vampire.*

*Vampire blood makes the character more easily influenced by the vampire, tends to come with Quirks like Admiration (Crush), Desirous, Likes (Blood from this Vampire), Preferred Looks (Appearance of Vampire), etc. and Disadvantages like Addiction (Blood of this Vampire), Compulsive Behaviour (Drink Blood or Spend Time with Particular Vampire), Obsession (Serve Vampire), Sense of Duty (Vampire), Slave Mentality, etc.
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Old 03-21-2018, 07:22 AM   #2
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Default Re: Advantage that extends elixir and potion durations?

Modular Abilities (limited, only to power advantages granted by potions and alchemical concoctions)

If you can only power ONE potion (or a limited number of potions) then "Slotted".

If not: "cosmic"
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Old 03-21-2018, 07:26 AM   #3
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Default Re: Advantage that extends elixir and potion durations?

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Originally Posted by lvalero View Post
Modular Abilities (limited, only to power advantages granted by potions and alchemical concoctions)

If you can only power ONE potion (or a limited number of potions) then "Slotted".

If not: "cosmic"
Sure, that works.

In the same way that you could buy the ability to use guns in a modern campaign as Modular Ability for Innate Attacks with the Gadget limitation. Or represent the ability to have ammo last longer with such a Modular Pool...

Having to figure out a point cost for every single alchemical potion available to PCs and then spend points form a Modular Ability pool on them to have the duration work longer than for other PCs is not only days of unfun work for little payoff, it will also cost more than taking a lot of supernatural abilities that stack with the potions that you could buy and use.
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Old 03-21-2018, 07:31 AM   #4
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Default Re: Advantage that extends elixir and potion durations?

Altered Time Rate and Decreased Time Rate set the price for "things are time-warped by a factor of ×N" at an effective (N - 1) × 100 points: ×2 is 100 points, ×3 is 200 points, ×4 is 300 points, and so on. The Accessibility limitation "Only for beneficial elixirs, drugs, etc." is extremely huge; I'd set it at the maximum -80%, as it nerfs just about all the really cool effects of ATR. So that would make cost 20 points per level: ×2 duration for 20 points, ×3 duration for 40 points, ×4 duration for 60 points, and so on. I'd hesitate to go for a faster progression similar to that of Extended Duration, as that would rapidly become a nearly permanent duration in many cases.
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Old 03-21-2018, 07:40 AM   #5
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Default Re: Advantage that extends elixir and potion durations?

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Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
Altered Time Rate and Decreased Time Rate set the price for "things are time-warped by a factor of ×N" at an effective (N - 1) × 100 points: ×2 is 100 points, ×3 is 200 points, ×4 is 300 points, and so on. The Accessibility limitation "Only for beneficial elixirs, drugs, etc." is extremely huge; I'd set it at the maximum -80%, as it nerfs just about all the really cool effects of ATR. So that would make cost 20 points per level: ×2 duration for 20 points, ×3 duration for 40 points, ×4 duration for 60 points, and so on. I'd hesitate to go for a faster progression similar to that of Extended Duration, as that would rapidly become a nearly permanent duration in many cases.
Sounds good.

What would be the cost difference if this affected both beneficial and detrimental elixirs, drugs, potions, etc.?

The character has extremely good HT, Body Control and such, but the setting has both HT- and Will-based Afflictions that come in elixir form, and as for the vampire blood example, can come with a beneficial elixir that the character voluntarily imbibes.
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Old 03-21-2018, 08:22 AM   #6
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Default Re: Advantage that extends elixir and potion durations?

Another option could be Imbuements. Remember that if you imbue an object and you give the object to another PC, it looses the imbuement

Examples of Imbuements:

Extend duration
Hide visible effect
Delay effect
Interrupt effect
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Old 03-21-2018, 08:42 AM   #7
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Default Re: Advantage that extends elixir and potion durations?

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
What would be the cost difference if this affected both beneficial and detrimental elixirs, drugs, potions, etc.?
Personally, I think the Accessibility: only for the duration of potions, -80% would already include detrimental potions, so the same cost. However, you could always exercise your right as the GM and decide the Accessibility was actually worth -90% instead of -80%, and allow it to exceed the -80% cap on limitations, so making it 10 points per level, effectively.
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Old 03-21-2018, 08:56 AM   #8
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Default Re: Advantage that extends elixir and potion durations?

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post

What would be the cost difference if this affected both beneficial and detrimental elixirs, drugs, potions, etc.?
Hmm, I'd treat those as two different traits, as I could see the disadvantageous one making sense all on its own as an almost mundane flaw, whereas the advantage is pretty much a magical power. The negative version shouldn't be worth as many points, because someone who has both traits will almost always enjoy a net benefit (mostly because adventurers can engineer things so that they are using beneficial stuff far more often than they are exposed to detrimental stuff). I think looking at Affliction and noting that the advantage-to-disadvantage cost ratio is 10:1 would be fairest: ×2 duration for -2 points, ×3 duration for -4 points, ×4 duration for -6 points, and so on.
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Old 03-21-2018, 09:34 AM   #9
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Default Re: Advantage that extends elixir and potion durations?

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Originally Posted by Fanny View Post

Along this vein, how about an advantage which shortens the durations of Afflictions which you fail to resist? Sort of like slapping on a "reduced duration" limitation. Damage Resistance has "hardened" to cancel out "armor divisor" enhancements, so I'm thinking something which would cancel out "increased duration" enhancements. Like "I can be put to sleep by a Incubus just as easily as anyone, but instead of Extended Duration 100x I only suffer Extended Duration 10x".
That sounds a lot like Recovery with some sort of Cosmic modifier.
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Old 03-21-2018, 03:57 PM   #10
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Default Re: Advantage that extends elixir and potion durations?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
Altered Time Rate and Decreased Time Rate set the price for "things are time-warped by a factor of ×N" at an effective (N - 1) × 100 points: ×2 is 100 points, ×3 is 200 points, ×4 is 300 points, and so on. The Accessibility limitation "Only for beneficial elixirs, drugs, etc." is extremely huge; I'd set it at the maximum -80%, as it nerfs just about all the really cool effects of ATR. So that would make cost 20 points per level: ×2 duration for 20 points, ×3 duration for 40 points, ×4 duration for 60 points, and so on. I'd hesitate to go for a faster progression similar to that of Extended Duration, as that would rapidly become a nearly permanent duration in many cases.
I'm not sure I like using ATR as it's so expensive (is it really worth 20 points to double a potion's duration over just buying a second potion?).

However the only other way I can think of doing this is by bending Signature Gear/Gizmos into a pretzel (highest cost potion as Sig Gear, times 5 for "always has at least one", times 10 for "every type of potion")... and it ends up being way more expensive... or going Modular and that's waaaaay to fiddly... so... c'est la vie.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
Hmm, I'd treat those as two different traits, as I could see the disadvantageous one making sense all on its own as an almost mundane flaw, whereas the advantage is pretty much a magical power.
Or just treat it as a Feature of the Advantage (ATR, Time Effecting +0%). I agree, overall the benes outweigh the negs.


Quote:
The negative version shouldn't be worth as many points, because someone who has both traits will almost always enjoy a net benefit (mostly because adventurers can engineer things so that they are using beneficial stuff far more often than they are exposed to detrimental stuff). I think looking at Affliction and noting that the advantage-to-disadvantage cost ratio is 10:1 would be fairest: ×2 duration for -2 points, ×3 duration for -4 points, ×4 duration for -6 points, and so on.
But what if they only had the Flaw, not the Advantage (call it a Curse or some such)?
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