How would you model Samael, the Hound of Resurrection from hellboy?

[Ciaran]

Specifically, his ability to reincarnate as 2 more of himself after being killed?

[Mehmet]

I don't recall the specifics of its powers but Unkillable 2 + Extreme regeneration (only when dead) + Summonable ally with the same CP total (trigger; death) may do the trick. Of course there is a problem with this; if the Samael A dies, they become Samael A and Samael B. Samael B shall have identical statistics so it will reincarnate two of itself but Samael A will never sprout another Samael again. I can't think of a way to sidestep that.

Cheers...

[Fnord-Fnairlane]

Originally Posted by Ciaran

Specifically, his ability to reincarnate as 2 more of himself after being killed?

Given that the ability to turn into an infinite number of copies of yourself is:

• Infinitely useful
• Open to rediculous PC abuse (kill youself a few dozen times)
• Thus: infinite points

It isn't a PC accessable ability, and has no required points value. I suppose you could work out a number if you want using Dupes and enough levels of Cosmic, but really, why bother?

Advantage: Unkillable 3:
Enhancements:

• Duplication: Every time you're killed, two more come back
• Reduced time: one day to about five minutes

Limitation: There must be some eggs stashed somewhere
Point Cost: X

[Mehmet]

Originally Posted by Fnord-Fnairlane

Given that the ability to turn into an infinite number of copies of yourself is:

• Infinitely useful
• Open to rediculous PC abuse (kill youself a few dozen times)
• Thus: infinite points

<snip>

Ooooh... Good point. Another absolute and GURPS does not deal with absolutes.

However, it may be good exercise trying to model it with some limitation ("only if dies a warrior" or something) to prevent abuse.

Cheers...

[Fnord-Fnairlane]

Originally Posted by Mehmet

Ooooh... Good point. Another absolute and GURPS does not deal with absolutes.

GURPS deals just fine with absolutes, it's just that they don't always have a finite points total :)

See the endless discussions on Invulnerable. It's extraordinarily easy to write "Invulnerable: Fire" on a character sheet, it's just very hard to come up with a fixed points cost for it. Powers makes several suggestions. The game mechanics of Samuel are dead easy. He's real hard to kill, but if you manage it, 2 more turn up back at the egg pile. The only way to "kill" him is to destroy all Samuels and all eggs at the same time.

If a PC had a power like this, I'd use Unkillable 3 plus enough levels of "Ally Group" or "Duplication" to cover the largest number of clones they would ever have up at once. Same as "Invulnerable: Fire" is a special effect of enough DR to resist the biggest fire attack in a genre: pay for the biggest number of clones you'll ever use, add some flavour based enhancement for "unlimited" - or use "power stunt" house rules for when the PC exceeds his usual limit to save/destroy the world.

[Mehmet]

Well, I did say I don't remember the specifics of Samael :) Also, (I get what you say, just making conversation :)) I don't think GURPS or any other system can deal with absolutes (read, absolute power in some manner or other) in any way and claim being fair about it ;) It is easy to rename zillions of DR against fire as "Invulnerable: Fire" but that still wouldn't be an absolute for you would write (Zillion DR against fire) in brackets somewhere :)

Cheers...

[The Benj]

Probably best to handle it the same way that they handle Hydra-like regrowth in Powers: Pick a fairly modest enhancement value (+20% seems pretty reasonable to me) for Unkillable, which serves as justification for being able to spend unspent character points on Allies. If you have the points available, you can buy an extra copy of yourself. If not, you can't. No free benefit, but a cool power.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Mehmet

Well, I did say I don't remember the specifics of Samael :) Also, (I get what you say, just making conversation :)) I don't think GURPS or any other system can deal with absolutes (read, absolute power in some manner or other) in any way and claim being fair about it ;) It is easy to rename zillions of DR against fire as "Invulnerable: Fire" but that still wouldn't be an absolute for you would write (Zillion DR against fire) in brackets somewhere :)

Cheers...

Or one could take Force/Utter Dome, cast it and maintain it. Isn't that an absolute defense available to a GURPS character?

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by Molokh

Or one could take Force/Utter Dome, cast it and maintain it. Isn't that an absolute defense available to a GURPS character?

It is, but that's to do with Magic not having really been properly revised.

One could also talk about the fact that you can only do this while immobile and that permanently maintaining it would require a Skill of something like 50, but really what it comes down to is that Magic should probably have seen many more changes than it did.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by The Benj

It is, but that's to do with Magic not having really been properly revised.

One could also talk about the fact that you can only do this while immobile and that permanently maintaining it would require a Skill of something like 50, but really what it comes down to is that Magic should probably have seen many more changes than it did.

That doesn't mean that GURPS doesn't deal with absolutes. Look up Resistant (Immunity) and the Machine Meta-Trait. They give absolutes too.