How passive is Leech?

[Bruno]

I'd like to set aside discussion about how Leech "should" work for a moment or how much it should cost or etc. What I'm interested in is a few questions about how it does work, as written.

Does Leech work over the entire body or do you have a specific location to Leech from?
Innate Attacks require you to specify where you shoot them from as a 0% feature at purchase time. They come from a fairly specific part of the body - hands, eyebeams, breath weapons, butt lasers. Is that also the case for Leech (it makes sense - a vampiric bite, nasty life sucking tentacles)? If so, is there an existing enhancement for "all surfaces" for a horrible life-draining monster?

Does Leech only work when the leecher is the one maintaining contact?
Assume an all-surfaces Leecher, or an attacker stupid enough to grab the life-sucking-tentacles. If the leecher is grappled by someone else, can they still Leech (as long as the attacker is stupid enough to keep hanging on)? Or is it only if the leecher is doing the hanging on?

I realized my mental model of Leech was more like Spines or a flaming Aura than a (complex) Innate Attack, and I want to double-check my assumptions.

[chandley]

Per my reading of Powers, I would answer:

Without a limitation, Leech works via any ongoing contact. If you grapple with your arms or legs, maintain intimate contact, kiss, swallow whole, whatever. By default, it has no specific body part it works from. I base this off the "Out of combat, options include a long handshake, hug, or more intimate embrace" line, which pretty clearly shows any contact will do.

For your second question, I would say no, any contact will do, even if it is a grapple from your leech target. Even setting aside TG's "all grapples are mutual", I think the out of combat options line gives plenty of leeway for being kissed and turning on leech, getting a massage, whatever way you can think of it.

The key is 1 second of continuous contact, however you manage it.

Note that Vampiric Bite, as defined in _Powers_ requires a bite only because it requires blood contact. Touching an open wound of any sort would work just as well, to satisfy the Blood Agent limitation. If you can only use a specific body part or other attack, my recommendation would be to slap Follow-Up on Leech.

[Bruno]

I'm glad to see someone else read it that way!

I've been thinking idly about a character who has the Aura-type "auto-pilot" no-real-action-required Leech. I'll presume it's a free action to turn Leech on or off; it's a prime candidate for Always On at the high value due to being an attack... but PU8: Limitations is out, I should go buy that in case there's a discussion in there! :D

I second-guessed my assumption about Leech being aura-like at all, and started worrying about needing to cook up a "crappy full-turn contact" version of Aura, and thus this thread. :)


And, on a second train of thought, I'm one of the folks noodling around with trying to rewrite Leech. I really like to know how the rule I'm replacing works so I'm sure I really want to replace it.

Critically, I'd want my version to be able to build something that works like the RAW Leech works, so I can note down something like "Characters with existing Leech should take Blah and Blah and also Blah as their starting point when rebuilding with my houseruled version."

[the_matrix_walker]

So is this accurate? Leech requires no concentration or attention to maintain other than the contact itself and the desire to do so?

I ask because If this is true, I don't need a Link to activate another ability at the same time, correct?

Also, is Leech a possible carrier attack for a Follow Up?

Universal Follow-up is a no brainier, I'm wondering about the price based on other modifiers version in the basic set.

[the_matrix_walker]

I had an exchange with Kromm that is partially pertinent to this thread....

Originally Posted by Kromm

Neither is required, though the designer of the Style! might opt to include such prerequisites if the wildcard seems weak without them. If a style includes Invisibility Art but somehow omits Hypnotism and Stealth, then that's what it includes and thus what its Style! includes. A wildcard skill simply ignores prerequisites and cuts right to the skills that are central to its mission; it is its own skill, not the skills bundled into it, so its prerequisites are its own (if any). In particular, remember that cinematic skills don't work without Trained by a Master or Weapon Master, so the character is already buying an expensive advantage and an expensive (wildcard) skill.

Hand Catch is very clear: "On later turns, you can use any combat option that requires a grab or grapple to set up." Thus, you can use Leech as soon as your turn comes up, before your enemy can break free.

Leech is meant to be a result of contact, not action (beyond whatever is necessary to maintain contact, like not using a hand being used to maintain the grapple). If you grapple someone, you can use Leech while you punch him, fly away with him, or otherwise take your turn, subject to the limitations of keeping your victim grappled or pinned.

[Bruno]

Excellent! Good to have confirmation, thanks much for asking and thanks for sharing the results :D