Corruption, Radiation, Reality Stress Level, & Avatars

[Coinage]

That would be mechanically easier, I admit.

For the Reality Stress Level stuff.

Limitation:
Nuisance Effect: -1 to Reality Stress Level (B112; P103; IW 78; H:TMD58) [Cost: -5% per level of -1]

Nuisance Effect: Triggers a Reality Stress Level check (B112; P103; IW 78; H:TMD58) [Cost: -10%]

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Coinage

Here’s what I have for the corruption idea.

Affliction, Corruption, (10 character points per +1 Corruption) (B35; P39; H146) [lvl 1 = 10]
Enhancements:
-Always On (B100; P100) [-40% = -4]
-Emanation (B112; P112) [-20% = -2]
TOTAL: 4 points.

There's a few issues here. First, are you going with 1 Corruption is worth -10 points? That's quite high, given that the original ratio presented in Horror is 10 Corruption is worth -1 point. Two orders of magnitude difference is a lot.

If you are going to set the ratio there, you still need to apply it to Affliction as an enhancement. Using your numbers above, and assuming you're going for only 1 level of Corruption, you'll need a +10% enhancement for that.

For the Emanation, remember that it always needs at least one level of the Area Effect enhancement as well, otherwise it won't actually cover any area.

For Always On, I wouldn't price it at -40%. That's for things that are physically dangerous to the character who has them - things like fire auras that burn your equipment, and such. This ability doesn't qualify, unless you rule that Corruption applies to objects, and has actual consequences when it does. Otherwise, this is the -20% version of Always On, I think.

Finally, there's a couple other modifiers you should probably apply, which I forgot to mention before (apologies!). First, you should probably put some level of Extended Duration on it, probably all the way up to Extended Duration (Permanent), for +150%, since otherwise the Corruption will just vanish when the normal duration ends. Second, you'll probably want Cumulative on this, otherwise people near you will just get a single level of Corruption, but no more.

Here's a build I'd consider:

Aura of Corruption
79 points/level.

You exude moral corruption like a sewer exudes foul odours, eroding the conscience and good nature of anyone who gets close to you. Anyone who comes within 2 yards of you, or starts their turn within this range, must make a Quick Contest of Will with you (they get +1 at 2 yards). If they fail, they gain 1 point of Corruption, which remains until they remove it in the normal manner for Corruption, or are blessed or otherwise cleansed by a higher power.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (Always On, -20%; Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Based on Will (target's roll), +20%; Cumulative, +400%; Disadvantage, 1 level of Corruption, +10%; Emanation, -20%; Extended Duration, Permanent until dispelled, +150%; Malediction, -1/yard, +100%). 79 points/level.

[Coinage]

Wow, that is a great write up. Thanks.

I was thinking, could a similar thing could be done with the "Spiritual Distortion", as discussed in Thaumatology p. 92. Would it be some sort of Modular Ability linked with Affliction?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Coinage

Even if the character in question is an Astral Spirit? Or some other immaterial entity?

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

I think Alternate Form with Projection is still fine in those cases, yeah. I don't think it changes the balance much to say that a material being gets an immaterial form with Projection, while an immaterial being gets a material one.

Yeah, the AF buys the form by either having or not having Insubstantial.
A spirit with Projection may seem less vulnerable than a physical body but A) it paid for Insubstantial after all. and B) Other spirits can attack it, plus those with special abilities.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Coinage

I was thinking, could a similar thing could be done with the "Spiritual Distortion", as discussed in Thaumatology p. 92. Would it be some sort of Modular Ability linked with Affliction?

If it's just levels of Spiritual Distortion you're inflicting, rather than the disadvantages that come with the full 10 levels, then you'd put those levels into the same Affliction build I already presented. Thaumatology gives a value for each level of spiritual distortion you start with: -3/level. So each level you can afflict at once is a +3% enhancement to Affliction. Of course, just like Corruption, that might be too cheap. I'd probably bump it up so that each level of Spiritual Distortion was +30% to add to an Affliction instead. Also, I think I'd say that, even if you got someone up to the full level 10 of Spiritual Distortion, the effects wouldn't kick in instantly. Instead, they'd be held in abeyance until the target voluntarily took some action that aligned with the sort of distortion you were afflicting, at which point the full effects would take hold. But until that point, they should still have a chance to avoid the effects.

If you're wanting to just hit someone with the full set of disadvantages from a full 10 levels of Spiritual Distortion, you'd have to use Affliction, and pay the enhancements on it for the disadvantages you wanted to hit people with. If you were going to just Afflict a random set of appropriate disadvantages (i.e., the GM gets to choose which disads apply, not the player), I'd be okay with just buying enough enhancement value to equal what you were going to apply. So, if you always hit someone with -50 points in disadvantages, but it was up to the GM which ones applied, you could just take the Disadvantage (random appropriate selection), +50% enhancement.

If you wanted to customize the disadvantages for each target, however, the best approach is probably to use the Variable Enhancement rules (Power-Ups 4: Enhancements, p. 5). The way that works is, you choose the largest value of enhancements you can apply, then multiply that by 5. That stands as a placeholder that you can swap any applicable enhancement into. You can modify that further if you want to limit it to a narrow selection of enhancements. For Affliction, I'd say that "only appropriate disadvantages for Spiritual Distortion" is probably a -50% limitation. So if you wanted to be able to apply up to -50 points in disadvantages, chosen whenever you targeted someone, that would be +50% * 5, for +250%, then reduced by -50%, for a final enhancement value of +125%.

[Coinage]

Wow. You've given me a lot to work with. Thx for all your help.