Stealing fatigue from elementals.

[johnnyschad]

I have player who *really* wanted to play a fire-infused human in a Fantasy campaign. As a trade-off for his extra powers, I wanted to burden him with a disadvantage that I cannot find a way to define:

Any wizard in the presence of an elemental race can take fatigue from the elemental when casting a spell associated with that particular element. This "fatigue stealing" is possible *even if the elemental is unwilling*. It's possible that the stealing *might* even happen without intention... such that a wizard might cast a fireball and realize that they're not tired, but this guy next to them with the bright red hair just passed out.

It's not Vulnerability. It's not an affliction--or is it?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

[Celjabba]

Perhaps a modified Weakness(Fire Magic, rare; Reduced Time 6, +120% (=1d/second) ; fatigue only, -50%; variable, -?? %) [17]

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...88&postcount=7 for 1d/second cost.

Instead of *1/2 or *2, variable here mean the cost of the spell being cast.
Since it can go well over 1d, I am unsure of the pricing.

Likewise not sure how to price the "giving" magic part.

[Imbicatus]

Maybe have it function as Leech in reverse, triggered by fire magic.

[ravenfish]

Note that this "disadvantage" also comes with some considerable advantageous uses, if there are any mage PCs in the party- particularly if the elemental PC is a non-mage, and can afford to lose some Fatigue Points (up until the point where he starts taking penalties).

EDIT: If we ignore that, I'd agree with the above poster who suggested pricing it as "Weakness: Hostile Mages who want to cast Fire Spells (Fatigue; Reduced Time)", with a cost varying depending on how common you think those will be in the campaign. I would say that "however many points the mage can drain, depending on the spells he knows" works out closely enough to "1d/second" to not bother worrying about the price of the modifier. Strictly speaking, the fact that it boosts the abilities of the opponents should be a further enhancement but, in my experience, hostile mages fighting PCs tend to find HP at least as limiting a factor as FP, so I wouldn't sweat it.

[Anaraxes]

I doubt FP stealing is going to come out as a net disadvantage. As described, the GM would have to expect that the mage would have more elemental friends around that he didn't want to harm when casting spells than he'd run into enemy elementals, along with the GM controlling the power as maliciously as possible. I don't know anything about the setting, but both cases seem pretty rare for the usual fantasy game.

When it does come up, getting free spells is a good thing when it comes at an enemy's expense, and it's close to neutral even if it only affects friends. Someone in the party pays for the spell, just not the mage. That might annoy players, as they're losing FP they might want to use for their own characters' abilities, but it's not a net loss. Party resources are still going to something a party member thought was a party goal. Seems likely to be a social disaster, as it deprives other players of their own agency and ability to be in the spotlight, as this character gets to be a spotlight thief along with the FP thievery. But real-world social minefields aren't something the GURPS rules give you Disad points for (and probably shouldn't be encouraged in the first place).

If I just go stat it up, I get something like:

Leech 3 [46] (Ranged +40%, Malediction 1 +100%, Steal FP -25%, Only Heals FP, -20%, Accelerated Healing +25%, Link (magic use) +10%, Accessibility: Only on fire elementals & descendants, -40%, Unconscious -20%, Uncontrollable +30%) Base cost 33 CP, net +40%.

I picked level 3 to match an assumed Magery limit of 3, and so sort of like the rate at which mages can pump energy into a Fireball. It'll cover many but not all spells. (+5.6 CP per level if you want to run it up.) Link is in there so that it activates whenever a spell is cast. The +10% means it always activates (no conscious choice). Accelerated Healing gives the ability a 1:1 rate instead of 1:3, so the mage can actually draw a reasonable amount of power without necessarily flattening the target with every spell. Unconscious+Uncontrollable lets the GM choose the target (randomly or maliciously) -- technically even whether or not the ability works at all.

Even with a -40% limitation for "Only on Fire Elementals" (the 1-6% of the time line on the Accessibilty chart), it's a pretty expensive ability.

Presumably the pyromancer is planning to summon fire elementals to drain on a whim. If it's Basic magic, just take the Summon Fire Elemental spell, Steal FP, and try to deal with the annoyed fire elementals (perhaps with Control). For a Disad, you could give the pyromancer negative Reputation with fire elementals, if his depredations are that well known and he's recognizable to elementals.

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

Note that this "disadvantage" also comes with some considerable advantageous uses, if there are any mage PCs in the party- particularly if the elemental PC is a non-mage, and can afford to lose some Fatigue Points (up until the point where he starts taking penalties).

EDIT: If we ignore that, I'd agree with the above poster who suggested pricing it as "Weakness: Hostile Mages who want to cast Fire Spells (Fatigue; Reduced Time)", with a cost varying depending on how common you think those will be in the campaign. I would say that "however many points the mage can drain, depending on the spells he knows" works out closely enough to "1d/second" to not bother worrying about the price of the modifier. Strictly speaking, the fact that it boosts the abilities of the opponents should be a further enhancement but, in my experience, hostile mages fighting PCs tend to find HP at least as limiting a factor as FP, so I wouldn't sweat it.

The "fp damage" is easily covered by weakness, but the mana-battery aspect is more difficult.

The "correct but insane" would be an affliction (or an aura, I guess) that grant an Energy Reserve (fire-aspected -20%; granted by fire-infused guy, +40% ) on everyone in range.

To make it simpler, maybe call it +50% cosmic, -20% unconscious only or +30% on the cost of fatigue.
Cost : [1] per fatigue point.

Too cheap ? i don't know.
Plenty of way to (ab)use this in a party, but deadly if an ennemy mage get close ... or if you walk in the street next to the coven that refresh the city-wide fire-alert..

[Refplace]

Another option is Dedicated Controls, in this case with Ranged added.

[Plane]

if you were talking about using a Fire Elemental to cast Fire College magic or maybe use Fire-ish sorcery...

M76 doesn't define their 'Burning Attack' as any kind of 'power' per GURPS Powers, but maybe the templaet could be tweaked somehow so that's true? Elemental-20% or something?

If it's a power then they'd be free to use "stunts" with it, which opens up a lot of potential rules for teaming up with others.

[johnnyschad]

Thank you for the suggested directions. I’ve been wrestling with this for a while now.

[isf]

I think that you are going to have to estimate how often this is an advantage or disadvantage before deciding on a price. I would be inclined to either price it as a quirk or as a weakness.