Paralysis disadvantage

Saabre · 01-11-2010, 04:52 PM

I thought I'd seen a disadvantage for this before, but for the life of me I can't find it anywhere. I want to take a disadvantage that when a certain condition is met my character becomes paralyzed. In this case it is wood through the heart as he is a vampire. I've seen the hindrance on Unkillable and he will have unkillable, but that doesn't do what I want because as that is stated, if he is still in positive HP it wouldn't have any effect. I am looking for a disad so that if he takes any HP to the heart from wood he is paralyzed till it is removed even if he has most of his HP.

Desthro · 01-11-2010, 05:10 PM

Essentially its a weakness that incapacitates your character. Look up weakness and see if there is an option for it. I'm not sure tho. Cause I'm at work on my phone. :)

David Johnston2 · 01-11-2010, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saabre

I thought I'd seen a disadvantage for this before, but for the life of me I can't find it anywhere. I want to take a disadvantage that when a certain condition is met my character becomes paralyzed. In this case it is wood through the heart as he is a vampire. I've seen the hindrance on Unkillable and he will have unkillable, but that doesn't do what I want because as that is stated, if he is still in positive HP it wouldn't have any effect. I am looking for a disad so that if he takes any HP to the heart from wood he is paralyzed till it is removed even if he has most of his HP.

How can he have most of his hit points with a stake through his heart? Just how many hit points does he have?

lachimba · 01-11-2010, 06:53 PM

This is as per the Vampires in Vampir the Masquerade.

IMHO I believe it is a new limitation of supernatural durability.

Not sure of the point cost. Not much I would think. 10 or 20%.

Kelly Pedersen · 01-11-2010, 07:10 PM

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a RAW disadvantage that covers this.
However, we can fix that. :-) What I'd suggest is a new set of modifiers for the Weakness disadvantage - it's clearly the disadvantage that comes closest to modelling the "takes a negative effect that wouldn't normally apply to anyone" effect here.
I'm assuming that you don't want the stake through the heart to also be doing damage, so we have to remove the "causes HP" element of Weakness. Since that's pretty much the sum total of the disadvantage as it is, that's worth -100%. Then we have to add in the paralysis. I'd take a page from Affliction, and start with the enhancement values for the various incapacitating conditions there (Paralysis is worth +150%, just for reference).
By default, Weakness is irresistible, but that doesn't work very well for incapacitating conditions, since it makes the intervals meaningless - if you're instantly incapacitated as soon as the condition occurs, and can't roll to recover, it doesn't matter whether your "interval" is one minute or one hour. Therefore, we should give a resistance roll against the incapacitation. The enhancement prices from Affliction are all based on the assumption that the conditions are already resistible, so we'll have to reduce their value here. I'd say cutting them in half sounds about right, for allowing a HT roll to resist. A bonus to the HT roll to resist the incapacitating effect would be a limitation, while a penalty would be an enhancement. I'd suggest +/-5% per +1/-1 to the HT roll.
Normally, Afflicted incapacitating conditions last for a number of minutes equal to the target's margin of failure on the HT roll, which sounds about right for this as well.
The interval, then, becomes the time period before you have to make a new check while the condition still applies, after making a successful HT roll to overcome the incapacitation.

Putting this altogether, then. We'll assume that we want a classic staking scenario, where the vampire is pretty much automatically paralysed if you can get the stake into his heart. Paralysis is a +150% enhancement for Affliction, so it'll be a +75% enhancement for Weakness. We want the vampire to be extremely unlikely to resist, so we'll make the HT roll -10, for +50%. The interval should be short, too, so that even if the vampire make their roll, they're not running around with the stake sticking out of them for very long before having to roll again. That suggests a 1 minute interval, for a base cost of -20 points, and "having a stake in the heart" sounds like a Rare category, reducing the value to 1/2.
So we have Weakness (Stake through the heart, Doesn't Inflict HP -100%; Inflicts Paralysis +75%; HT-10 to Resist +50%, interval 1 minute) [-12].

SuedodeuS · 01-11-2010, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

How can he have most of his hit points with a stake through his heart? Just how many hit points does he have?

A single point of penetrating damage might be enough for "has a stake through heart" and would only deal 3 HP of injury to a human - less than 1/3rd the HP total of an average man. Additionally, it's possible the vampire has Injury Tolerance: No Vitals. This would mean bullets and swords to the heart/lungs/kidneys have no effect beyond those to the torso in general. A wooden stake to the heart could therefore easily deal low damage.

For mechanics, some sort of "paralyzed" disadvantage as a baseline might work. Quadriplegic is very close, with the exception that this makes you unconscious as well. As Quadriplegic is worth [-80], we'll mark the "paralyzed" disadvantage at [-100]. This Disadvantage only appears if you are struck in the Vitals (-3 to hit) with a weapon made of Wood (a Common category). I think there are guidelines somewhere on the forums for a Disadvantage that requires a hit with a penalty (specifically, a robot's "off" switch), but for the life of me I can't find them. We'll eyeball it using DR guidelines. -3 to hit corresponds to -30%, while a Common category is -40%. This is a total of -70%, so a "paralyzed if a wooden stake is through the heart" Disadvantage is worth [-30].

Nymdok · 01-11-2010, 07:18 PM

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=814983

This mightbe close to what your looking for.

Nymdok

SuedodeuS · 01-11-2010, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nymdok

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=814983

This mightbe close to what your looking for.

Nymdok

Ah, yes, there it is. Using Rev. Pee Kitty's Killswitch Disadvantage, the vampire would be built thusly:

Killswitch (-3 to hit -30%; Wood only -40%; must deal at least 1 point of damage -5%*) [-10].

*I'd eyeball DR 1-2 as -10%, and halve the reduction if the character actually takes damage from the attack.

Saabre · 01-11-2010, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

How can he have most of his hit points with a stake through his heart? Just how many hit points does he have?

A normal vampire with its ST +6 and HP +4 has 20 HP and I plan on having a higher than normal ST so I will have better than 20 HP. An attack to the heart (vitals) is a x3 damage modifier. So, if the attacker does 6 damage that is multiplied to 18 damage. A vampire with base level ST would still have 2 HP, and the vampire could have a lot more HP if the attack did less damage.

Saabre · 01-11-2010, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nymdok

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=814983

This mightbe close to what your looking for.

Nymdok

Yes, Rev PeeKitty's write up looks good, Now I just have to get my DM to approve it :)

Thanks for everyone's help.

01-11-2010, 04:52 PM	#1
Saabre Join Date: Sep 2007	Paralysis disadvantage I thought I'd seen a disadvantage for this before, but for the life of me I can't find it anywhere. I want to take a disadvantage that when a certain condition is met my character becomes paralyzed. In this case it is wood through the heart as he is a vampire. I've seen the hindrance on Unkillable and he will have unkillable, but that doesn't do what I want because as that is stated, if he is still in positive HP it wouldn't have any effect. I am looking for a disad so that if he takes any HP to the heart from wood he is paralyzed till it is removed even if he has most of his HP.

01-11-2010, 05:10 PM	#2
Desthro Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Albuquerque	Re: Paralysis disadvantage Essentially its a weakness that incapacitates your character. Look up weakness and see if there is an option for it. I'm not sure tho. Cause I'm at work on my phone. :)

01-11-2010, 06:53 PM	#4
lachimba MIB Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Sydney	Re: Paralysis disadvantage This is as per the Vampires in Vampir the Masquerade. IMHO I believe it is a new limitation of supernatural durability. Not sure of the point cost. Not much I would think. 10 or 20%.

01-11-2010, 07:10 PM	#5
Kelly Pedersen Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada	Re: Paralysis disadvantage Unfortunately, I don't think there is a RAW disadvantage that covers this. However, we can fix that. :-) What I'd suggest is a new set of modifiers for the Weakness disadvantage - it's clearly the disadvantage that comes closest to modelling the "takes a negative effect that wouldn't normally apply to anyone" effect here. I'm assuming that you don't want the stake through the heart to also be doing damage, so we have to remove the "causes HP" element of Weakness. Since that's pretty much the sum total of the disadvantage as it is, that's worth -100%. Then we have to add in the paralysis. I'd take a page from Affliction, and start with the enhancement values for the various incapacitating conditions there (Paralysis is worth +150%, just for reference). By default, Weakness is irresistible, but that doesn't work very well for incapacitating conditions, since it makes the intervals meaningless - if you're instantly incapacitated as soon as the condition occurs, and can't roll to recover, it doesn't matter whether your "interval" is one minute or one hour. Therefore, we should give a resistance roll against the incapacitation. The enhancement prices from Affliction are all based on the assumption that the conditions are already resistible, so we'll have to reduce their value here. I'd say cutting them in half sounds about right, for allowing a HT roll to resist. A bonus to the HT roll to resist the incapacitating effect would be a limitation, while a penalty would be an enhancement. I'd suggest +/-5% per +1/-1 to the HT roll. Normally, Afflicted incapacitating conditions last for a number of minutes equal to the target's margin of failure on the HT roll, which sounds about right for this as well. The interval, then, becomes the time period before you have to make a new check while the condition still applies, after making a successful HT roll to overcome the incapacitation. Putting this altogether, then. We'll assume that we want a classic staking scenario, where the vampire is pretty much automatically paralysed if you can get the stake into his heart. Paralysis is a +150% enhancement for Affliction, so it'll be a +75% enhancement for Weakness. We want the vampire to be extremely unlikely to resist, so we'll make the HT roll -10, for +50%. The interval should be short, too, so that even if the vampire make their roll, they're not running around with the stake sticking out of them for very long before having to roll again. That suggests a 1 minute interval, for a base cost of -20 points, and "having a stake in the heart" sounds like a Rare category, reducing the value to 1/2. So we have Weakness (Stake through the heart, Doesn't Inflict HP -100%; Inflicts Paralysis +75%; HT-10 to Resist +50%, interval 1 minute) [-12].

01-11-2010, 07:18 PM	#7
Nymdok Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Houston	Re: Paralysis disadvantage http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=814983 This mightbe close to what your looking for. Nymdok