Restoring Ablative DR Fast - D2 Bone Armor

[McAllister]

In Diablo II, the Necromancer has an ability called Bone Armor, which acts as a pool of ablative hit points. It has no duration, and recasting the ability refills it: it cannot stack with itself. Is GURPS happy modelling this?

Let's say I buy Damage Resistance 20 (Ablative, -80%) for 20 points. I then take 20 points of damage, and my DR (from this advantage) is gone. It recovers DR at the same rate that I recover HP, whatever that rate is. How do I refill the DR? Or if I want to top it off between fights, say? I can't think of an Enhancement for DR that would give it the ability to be re-activated and refilled.

Oh goodness, it might be an Affliction. I'll look into how that'd work.

[CoyoteGestalt]

Could adding a modified form of Regeneration help here? IDHMBWM & I forget if Regeneration applies to Ablative DR, but if it does, Regen with Limited, DR only and one or both of Trigger and Costs FP might work.

[McAllister]

Alright, using Affliction 1 (Advantage {Damage Resistance 20 with Ablative} [+200%], Malediction (-1/yard) [+100%]) I should be able to reliably grant myself DR 20 for the low, low cost of 40 points, which, actually, seems like a reasonable price: it's twice the cost of ablative DR, but it refills so, so much faster. Actually, maybe too much faster. Maybe this is too cheap.

But that's a tangent. My questions now are, first, does the above work? And second, what's the value of Self Only as a limitation on this? Because as written, with Will 16, I can grant ~5 minutes of DR 20 to all my friends if we expect to get into a fight, or I can probably use my action to grant a nearby ally DR 20, say, if I'm standing next to the Prime Minister and someone shouts "gun," or I want to protect a fallen friend from coups-de-grace, or whatnot.

That version of Malediction uses the shortest range listed under the Short Range limitation in Powers, so that's out. Melee (C, cannot parry) is [-35%], but can I take Melee and Malediction? I don't see why not, it's reasonable for a Malediction to need to be transmitted via touch. So given that Melee (C, cannot parry) is -35%, what's the value on "cannot be used on others" as opposed to "can only be used on others at range C"?

However, we get back to the efficiency problem. Using multiplicative multipliers and the Melee (C, cannot parry) for -35%, the Affliction now costs 26 points. So for 20 points I could get DR 20 that's ablative and once it's gone I need to wait for it to recover, or for 26 points I could get the ability to touch myself or anyone else and grant them a few minutes of DR 20, and refresh the DR as needed. To me, the only advantage that buying DR has over buying the Affliction is that it's always on with no duration, and I feel like that's just not worth the difference in value.

So, does Affliction (Damage Resistance: Ablative) cost too little? And if so, what's there to do about it?

[McAllister]

Originally Posted by CoyoteGestalt

Could adding a modified form of Regeneration help here? IDHMBWM & I forget if Regeneration applies to Ablative DR, but if it does, Regen with Limited, DR only and one or both of Trigger and Costs FP might work.

I had the same thought, but Extreme Regeneration costs 150 points, and Limited + Costs FP can only defray that so much: and lesser forms of Regeneration don't capture the ability to refill the DR in the time it takes to cast one spell.

Good thought, though, thank you.

[starslayer]

Affliction seems to be the way to go here.

1. Useable on self only is a +0% mod and I believe it precludes any range or target accessibility limitations.
2. Useable on self and others is +50%
3. As an affliction, at based control stat level it will have about a 50% success rate. It is a significant cost in the control star to raise its success rate ; that this exploits synergy for what is presumably going to be a smart necromancer does not remove the high cost for say an IQ boost. An advantage, by comparison, just works.
4. An affliction has a targeting mechanic, which can be prevented or interrupted, and does not take place in 0 time. Advantages do not have those restrictions.

In short: while for this application affliction does seem to be exactly what you want and is cheaper than the raw advantages method. It is in my opinion not a 'point croc' as there are distinct benefits to the advantage method.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by starslayer

2. Useable on self and others is +50%

Afflictions, like all other attacks, can be used on yourself, and on others, with no modifiers. You can always shoot yourself in the foot, stab yourself in the face, set yourself on fire, or afflict yourself with super powers or with super problems.

[McAllister]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

Would it be possible to buy an 'unhealing' limitation for DR if you didn't want it to be possible to heal on its own and only through other means? The above-mentioned Bone Armor spell for the Necro never healed...

The Affliction-granted DR expires after minutes, so healing would never be relevant to it. Good point, though.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

Would it be possible to buy an 'unhealing' limitation for DR if you didn't want it to be possible to heal on its own and only through other means? The above-mentioned Bone Armor spell for the Necro never healed...

Although neither did the characters for that matter unless you equipped regen gear, but that could be hand-waived as you probably wouldn't play for an entire day and would probably visit the free healer during that time...

When you think of all the people who play D2 and visit the free healers in each act all the time... those must be some high CP dudes...

Although I guess you could view each 'game' as an alternate reality (what with the enemies/bosses respawning in each one) so you'd only have to account for the maximum of 8 people playing simultaneously.

Assuming d2 is a dungeon-fantasy game and clerics are using divine favour, magic magic, or rpm, casing at a set location, likely on a place of sanctity or power, with lots of time to prepare, not that impressive.