Plant Growth via Powers

[nerdvana]

I'm trying to figure out how to convert the effect of the Plant Growth spell (p. 162 of GURPS Magic) via Powers ("Causes the equivalent of one month’s growth in one minute.") but am having trouble with it.

I was originally thinking Unaging with Affects Others (unsure how to apply that), Plants only (-40%), Age Control (+20%), always on and getting older (unsure how to apply that also)... Then I considered an Affliction, but again I was unsure how to approach it.

Advice would be appreciated.

[johndallman]

Try using Create? That is, after all, the overall effect. You might manage to get your GM to agree that points spent to stabilise the created matter come back after the time it would have taken to grow.

[nerdvana]

Right, forgot to mention the possibility of Create and/or Control for this. Also I am the GM, so nobody else to get to agree in this situation.

[vierasmarius]

There is only one canonical power I know of which will age the subject - Leech with the Steel Youth enhancement (Powers pg 96). To turn this into an attack that ages the target without restoring the user, this thread proposed a Toxic attack with a +25% enhancement, converting each point of damage into a month of age.

This is of course intended as harmful attack, shortening the victim's lifespan without giving them the normal benefits of growing older. Cast on plants it would presumably cause them to wither, as though subjected to months of drought and poor sunlight. So perhaps instead of basing it on an attack, it should be based on Healing. Each HP healed would be converted to a month's worth of healthy growth.

Though thinking on it further, this may just be a normal application of Create Plants with the Environmental limitation. You can cause plants to grow in an area, as long as it's not barren ground.

[Phantasm]

Affliction (Advantage: Growth; Accessibility: Only On Plants) seems to be a good fit if you want them to simply grow; you might be able to tack Area Effect on it for stuff like grass and vines.

Moving the plants is Telekinesis (Animation).

Just my five cents worth.

[nerdvana]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

Affliction (Advantage: Growth; Accessibility: Only On Plants) seems to be a good fit if you want them to simply grow; you might be able to tack Area Effect on it for stuff like grass and vines.

Not bad for a nickle honestly... but wouldn't it need to add ST to the plant as well at certain points?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by nerdvana

I'm trying to figure out how to convert the effect of the Plant Growth spell (p. 162 of GURPS Magic) via Powers ("Causes the equivalent of one month’s growth in one minute.") but am having trouble with it.

I still think Control is the way to go - it just needs a bit of modification. So all Control lets you affect the subject at a 10% increase or decrease at the GM's option if it's something you could logically control. In this instance "making plants bigger" seems like something that this would fall under. So each level of Control (Wood; Vital Manipulation, +0%) should let you make a plant grow 10% bigger/older as long as you concentrate and for 1 second afterward. So you'd need to add Extended Duration, Permanent (+150%) to make it last forever and a accessibility limitation: "Accessibility, only for making subject grow larger or older" (-60%). Toss in a limitation of some kind "Doesn't increase Subject Weight" (-50%) and go from there. So a special modifier just for Control might be...

Growth: The subject of your control gets bigger or older at a rate of 10% per level of control and is permanent. Additional uses of this enhancement are cumulative, but you must still be able to affect the subject (i.e., your Control level must be high enough to equal or exceed its new weight). This doesn't increase the subject's weight that you can affect, just how you affect them with your ability. If the subject has IQ 1 or more they get a roll to resist. This requires the Vital Manipulation enhancement. +10%. If the GM allows, higher levels of this enhancement may be possible, with each level increasing the rate at which the subject gets bigger or older. Twice your level of Control is a +60% enhancement, three times your level is a +110% enhancement, and so on - with the GM setting the level for his campaign.

Edit: If the growth cannot be ended by other powers then this increases the cost to +70%, +50%/level for enhanced growth. This i because Extended Duration, Permanent becomes +300% - not +150%.

Originally Posted by nerdvana

I was originally thinking Unaging with Affects Others (unsure how to apply that), Plants only (-40%), Age Control (+20%), always on and getting older (unsure how to apply that also)... Then I considered an Affliction, but again I was unsure how to approach it.

Well, if you check out GURPS Psionic Powers p. 18 there are some new enhancements to Unaging. One of them is Halt Aging - which you could reverse to create a "Accelerate Aging" limitation. Maybe something like +130% to age a subject by a year or something like that.

[the_matrix_walker]

I think I'd go with....

Affliction (Added Disadvantage, Reduced Lifespan 25, +250%; Accessibility, Plants only, -20%) [33]

Which would make the targeted plant age 1 year in one second. I'd probably use reduced duration, or another enhancement to cancel the duration early, so you don't over-age your target.


I actually wrote up a character with this ability before, he had some "Plants only" TK and link with the Affliction to control the pattern of growth. He carried around all kinds of seeds. Especially fun to play with Strangler Fig trees!

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

I still think Control is the way to go - it just needs a bit of modification.

Control does explicitly forbid Plants as possible material, but you could always do Control Time with the Limitation Plants Only....

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Well, if you check out GURPS Psionic Powers p. 18 there are some new enhancements to Unaging. One of them is Halt Aging - which you could reverse to create a "Accelerate Aging" limitation. Maybe something like +130% to age a subject by a year or something like that.

I like Unaging (Age Control, +20%; Halt Aging, +80%) which is RAW but slow.
I think another +20% for each *10 is reasonable.
+60% for *1000 gives you a years growth in 8 hours for [36]
+100% for *100,000 gives you a years growth in just over 5 minutes for [42]

Except on short lifespan critters like bugs and germs that is not much of an attack and no worse then Leach with Aging. I would say nutrition is produced by the effect to simplify things and to avoid munchkin starvation attacks.

[whswhs]

Canonically, neither Control nor Create works on living matter. I pushed the point a bit in Chinese Elemental Powers, where I built Commanding Wood on the Control advantage—but it could reshape wood but not make it grow. I had perks that allowed willing a seed to germinate or irrigating plants, but not a direct "growth of plants" effect.

Powers recommends Affliction with Advantage, Growth and Accessibility: Only on plants. But making it permanent is a +150% modifier, which is expensive.

Bill Stoddard