[Supers] Create Light, Affliction: Blindness, or Obscure?

[CeeDub]

Salutations!

Suppose a character has the power to emit a bright light that "hurts to look at". Naturally, this could also be used (possibly at lower power) to illuminate an area. The light emanates from the character and can be turned on and off at will. The only example I can think of right now is Purity from Worm.

According to Kromm, illumination of an area, even a large area, is just a Perk. No problem. My question is more the "hurts to look at" part. Create: Visible Light 1 (Super, -10%; Reflexive, +40%; Cosmic: No die roll required, +100%) [23] would also double as Affliction: Blindness, if I read the description correctly. I also tried modeling it as Obscure 8 (Defensive, +50%; Super, -10%) [23]. I see no reason why Obscure should be limited to darkness, particulate matter like smoke, or cloaking fields.

Which would you say is a better fit?

[dcarson]

Definite Alternate Abilities candidate since you can't use both at once. Obscure by flash blindness seems like a reasonable approach to me. Might even have a Limitation that Protected Senses keep it from working on someone. I'd figure 5% since that isn't a common thing.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Might even have a Limitation that Protected Senses keep it from working on someone.

Sense-Based. This is normally an advantageous penetration modifer, since it lets your attack bypass DR. It's a limitation if your attack already has the ability to bypass DR (because it's a Malediction, for example). A bright flash afflicting blindness is one of the book examples.

Protected Sense would provide its usual benefit. There'd be no extra Limitation on the attack; the possible existence of such protection is rolled into Sense-Based.

I'd build the illumination and blindness abilities as AAs. (This method also avoids the argument about how many levels of Create are necessary to create a blinding flash. The Create is just the illumination ability.)

The description in the OP sounds more like an ongoing effect, which I'd just build as Obscure. Anthony's light rules include penalties for looking at bright things, so you might just build it as a really bright light, and let those rules determine the penalty.