Help with Binding build?

[Ejidoth]

I keep trying to build stuff with the Binding advantage, but it always ends up feeling very videogamey and not-GURPSy.

No matter what you do with Binding, if you don't take Engulfing, you can't pin someone's arms. Even if you hit them on the arm, it roots their feet to the ground? If you do take Engulfing, it *always* binds their arms, even if you hit them on the foot.

Similarly, if you hit someone on the face they can still talk and breathe fine unless you take both Engulfing and Suffocating, respectively. Conversely, if you hit someone's hand with a Suffocating Binding, they can't breathe.

Selectivity lets you choose what effect you want, but it's still completely unrelated to hit location.

In general, it gives me the sense of an attack that, upon hitting the target, disappears and then causes a video game status effect, rather than doing what I expect/imagine most kinds of binding attack to do.

How do I build a power that just lets me throw, like, slime or glue or webs or something, or encase just the area I hit in ice, or whatever, and have it do appropriate things depending on where it hits?

[Refplace]

hmmm how about something like this.
Bind (choose one of the below based on hit location, +144%, Requires specified hit location for effect, -20%; Power Modifier, -10%) 4.28/level

Blindness, +50%
Constricting, +75%
Coughing, +20%
Deafness, +20%
Engulfing, +60%
No Manipulators, +50%
No Legs, Sessile, +50%
Sticky, +20%
Suffocating, +75%

The modifiers are based on Affliction and the build is an example of alternative Enhancements which is a Free Action to switch between them.

[AlexanderHowl]

Selectivity and Selective Area would best representing hiting specific target locations or specific targets in an area. For example, you could have Blinding (Constricting, +75%; Engulfing, +60%; Selectivity, +10%; Suffocating, +75%) [6.4 CP/level]. Selecting specific enhancements to use with each binding represents a focused attack.

Alternatively, you could link it with an Innate Attack that possesses either Side Effect or Symptoms. For example, Binding 20 (Link, +20%; Melee, C, Dual, -20%) [40] and Burning Attack 2d (Cyclic, Extinguised by Water, 10 second cycles, 7 cycles, +300%; Link, +20%; Melee, C, Dual, -20%; Side Effect, Agony, +150%) [55] would allow you to bind someone with burning chains that causing agonizing pain to their victims until they cooled.

[kirbwarrior]

As far as I can tell, Binding can't normally target hit locations, only the entire target. I think you need Selective Effect (PU4: Enhancements p16) to be able to target hit locations. If you can only hit specific locations, I could see that being -10% or -20% instead (I'm not certain). You'd then want to layer on all the plausible types of effects your Binding can do. The first one gives you more options, the second one gives you the 'hand-sized ball of slime'.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Refplace

hmmm how about something like this.

Compare with having an AA group of Afflictions for each of those conditions. +144% is not a bad deal compared to 9 abilities in an AA group (equivalent to +200% on the base ability).

Binding is an attack, so the hit location penalty presumably applies to the activation roll -- hence the -20%?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Compare with having an AA group of Afflictions for each of those conditions. +144% is not a bad deal compared to 9 abilities in an AA group (equivalent to +200% on the base ability).

Binding is an attack, so the hit location penalty presumably applies to the activation roll -- hence the -20%?

Yeah :) I eyeballed it, you could go random or try for specific effect at a penalty. The Symptoms not technically legal or RAW on a Binding but I think it works. Your trading a Resistance roll (Affliction) or damage (Innate Attack) vs. having to bind the part and it can be broken out of to cancel the effect.
Alternative Enhancements are more limited than alternative abilities but you can always take both if you want a non Binding ability. And its clean, new modifiers can be easily added, often cheaply.
For example, you could replace the entire set of symptoms/afflictions with an area effect.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

As far as I can tell, Binding can't normally target hit locations, only the entire target. I think you need Selective Effect (PU4: Enhancements p16) to be able to target hit locations. If you can only hit specific locations, I could see that being -10% or -20% instead (I'm not certain). You'd then want to layer on all the plausible types of effects your Binding can do. The first one gives you more options, the second one gives you the 'hand-sized ball of slime'.

TG28 just says "In Technical Grappling, the ability to grapple at range
should be bought as Telekinesis" so maybe we should just find some way to modify TK to work like binding? Biggest problem seems to be you can't give TK some HP to represent being able to destroy bindings. My headcanon is to treat "TK Hands" as having HP equal whatever ST they have, but that the HP is brought back up to 100% any time you recreate them.

I think one hole in this approach is there is no distinction between "Concentrate maneuver used to create" and "Concentrate maneuver used to maintain".

Maybe that could be added via Takes Extra Time but at half value since you're only doubling the time it takes to create the hands, not the time it takes to buy a maneuver

[Ejidoth]

Originally Posted by Plane

TG28 just says "In Technical Grappling, the ability to grapple at range
should be bought as Telekinesis" so maybe we should just find some way to modify TK to work like binding? Biggest problem seems to be you can't give TK some HP to represent being able to destroy bindings. My headcanon is to treat "TK Hands" as having HP equal whatever ST they have, but that the HP is brought back up to 100% any time you recreate them.

I think one hole in this approach is there is no distinction between "Concentrate maneuver used to create" and "Concentrate maneuver used to maintain".

Maybe that could be added via Takes Extra Time but at half value since you're only doubling the time it takes to create the hands, not the time it takes to buy a maneuver

Technical grappling does also give rules for Binding on that page, it just discourages using them. It treats Binding as grappling the legs.

It might be reasonable to extrapolate from that back to normal GURPS and do, say, Cosmic, +50%, Can bind other hit locations. That'd cover binding whatever was hit, instead of always binding the target's legs/torso regardless of where it hit.

I have the sense that this will open all kinds of rules havoc, but I'm not sure what exactly would go wrong.

[AlexanderHowl]

Binding is not a proper grappling ability though like TK, it is fire and forget, and the target is bound until they escape or are freed. Now, you can probably model Binding as dosappearimg after a set time by taking a variation of Maximum Duration (weakening over time could be modeled with Maximum Duration as well). For example, a character could have Binding 20 (Enguling, +60%; Maximum Duration, 20 seconds, -75%; No Signature, Mundane, +25%) [44] to represent a rapidly evaporating glue.

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Plane

My headcanon is to treat "TK Hands" as having HP equal whatever ST they have, but that the HP is brought back up to 100% any time you recreate them.

That sounds like a fine limitation but definitely makes TK worse.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Binding is not a proper grappling ability though like TK, it is fire and forget, and the target is bound until they escape or are freed.

I think that is a big thing some people forget (I forget it!). A silly way to have a 'binding' attack that actually fully grapples someone in a specific place is to make an Ally with Conjurable, Minion, and maybe Ranged so you can throw an invisible set of hands at someone who will bind them for you.