Affecting Multiple Targets - Without Area Effect

[Arix]

Hi there, I feel like I may have missed something simple in the rules but I cannot seem to find a way to easily throw an enhancement on a power that lets me affect additional targets. For example, I want to build a Healing power that, with one use, lets me heal two(or more) targets.

Am I missing something? It would be great if I could apply this to many advantages - for other powers I've found hacky ways to get it to work, mainly using Affect Others and then removing the advantage from the character using it with a Negated Advantage modifier, but that doesn't work for most things I'm trying to do.

If the modifier doesn't officially exist, any pointers in terms of house ruling it in would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Refplace]

Area Affect with Selective Effect for Afflictions and attack powers.
Another option is Affects Others, though you have to touch them unless it has Ranged

[AlexanderHowl]

Healing with Ranged (40%), Selective Area (+20%), and either Area Effect or Cone. Just remember though, the FP cost is based on total HP healed during a turn, so things will get expensive very quickly.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Arix

I want to build a Healing power that, with one use, lets me heal two(or more) targets.

Healing is touch by default and operates pretty similarly to an Innate Attack limited with "melee", so if you wanted to touch two targets simultaneously and heal them with a single "Dual Weapon Attack" (-4 to hit each one) I would wager that P103's +10% Melee Attack (Dual) enhancement would be a fair thing.

Otherwise, if you enhance it with Ranged (B107) it starts with RoF 1 and Recoil 1 which you can boost via the Rapid-Fire enhancement (B108) then you can apply B409's Spraying Fire rules to it to heal multiple people in a single burst.

Only thing I'm not 100% clear on is if we ever got a book quote or kromm post for how "costs fatigue" innate attacks work when using rapid fire or extra attacks or "dual" melee attacks.

[Arix]

Thanks for the replies.

My main problem with Area Effect is that if I want to apply it to powers that work regardless of distance (a power that works with teammates you're linked to, no matter where in the world they are, for example) it becomes prohibitively expensive, especially given that I believe I have to have Detect with the same amount of Area Effect to target people that can't be seen. Though perhaps that's fairly priced - I am pretty new to building powers, so I'm not too sure.

heal them with a single "Dual Weapon Attack" (-4 to hit each one) I would wager that P103's +10% Melee Attack (Dual) enhancement would be a fair thing.

Otherwise, if you enhance it with Ranged (B107) it starts with RoF 1 and Recoil 1 which you can boost via the Rapid-Fire enhancement (B108) then you can apply B409's Spraying Fire rules to it to heal multiple people in a single burst.

That's ingenious - that sounds like it could work well for some of the powers I'm converting. Thanks!

[AlexanderHowl]

Healing is not an attack though, so it would not technically be a legal build. To make it legal, you would have to make Healing an attack by taking Ranged (+40%) and then take Melee Attack, Reach C, Dual Weapon (-20%), for a net +20% modifier. If you wanted though, you would instead make Healing Whips by taking Ranged (+40%) with Melee Attack, Reach 1-4, Dual Weapon, for a net +40% modifier. Strangely enough, you could parry weapons with either version, which would actually make Healing a defensive ability as well as a utility ability.

[zoncxs]

Another way to do this would be compartmentalized mind limited to one ability if it is a mental ability or Extra attack limited to one ability if physical. To target people you can't see take detect with precise or Lock-on and vague if you can't tell where they are but can still target them, slap on Cosmic, do die roll required and long range so that as long as they are within range you automatically sense them.

This way you can have the following:

Ability + detect = target 1 person at a time
Ability + detect + C.M. or E.A. = 2 people at a time.

etc.

This is how I would build this ability. Put it all together.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Healing is not an attack though, so it would not technically be a legal build.

How would you handle a situation where the character wants to use Healing on an unwilling subject (or a willing one the GM rules is moving around too much to "hit" automatically)? The obvious solution is to require an unarmed attack roll to touch the target, not to require the person to build it as "a ranged attack, no wait, not actually a ranged attack." Of course, the 1 second of concentration implies you'd probably need to grapple them to maintain contact for that long, so an "instant" healing ability (that just needs a touch) would probably require Reduced Time +20%.

Originally Posted by Arix

My main problem with Area Effect is that if I want to apply it to powers that work regardless of distance (a power that works with teammates you're linked to, no matter where in the world they are, for example) it becomes prohibitively expensive, especially given that I believe I have to have Detect with the same amount of Area Effect to target people that can't be seen. Though perhaps that's fairly priced - I am pretty new to building powers, so I'm not too sure.

Being able to largely ignore distance and the like is powerful, and priced as such. Note probably the best way to build something like that is with Malediction (B106), although for a beneficial effect feel free to rename this Benediction. "Only teammates I've linked up with" is a sizable Limitation, arguably between -70% and -80% (going off of the Accessibility tables in Power Ups 8: Limitations, -70% is for working on 1 in 100 million people, -80% is for working on only one person in the world). Of course, Malediction doesn't have RoF, but I'd allow a character to add Rapid Fire on anyway; this doesn't grant a bonus for high RoF, allow for multiple hits on one person, etc, but rather allows the character to use Rapid Strike to hit targets up to the maximum RoF (at -6 to the Will roll per additional target).

[Plane]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Healing is not an attack though, so it would not technically be a legal build. To make it legal, you would have to make Healing an attack by taking Ranged (+40%) and then take Melee Attack, Reach C, Dual Weapon (-20%), for a net +20% modifier.

Aren't there examples of other limitations normally designated for attacks (such as "Contact Agent") being applied to Healing without needing to go through a Ranged>Melee transformation?

Also my guess is you'd probably take "Cannot Parry" for -5%, unless you wanted to be able to heal allies rapidly by having them attack you.

Do you figure you could also take "Aura" after doing Ranged > Healing Attack and then just automatically roll to heal people who touch you without needing to parry?

Or... if you kept it a ranged attack (ways to save points: reduced range, inaccurate) then (this goes outside OP scope) if you made it AE you could take "persistent" and making a "healing circle" that pulsed and healed each second...

AE sounds like it would be complicated to deal with (I understand why OP would want to avoid) since you could have variable FP needed based on how much damage people incurred, plus dealing with repeated healing's cumulative penalties could be weird rolling.

[AlexanderHowl]

The Healing Attack would be able to parry attacks normally (you would need 'Destructive Parry' to be able to heal when parrying an attack). Healing Aura would be (Aura, +80%; Melee Attack, C, No Parry, -30%; Ranged, +40%) to heal anyone who touches you, ally or enemy when the aura is on. Add Selective Effect (+20%) to selectively heal people who touch you when the aura is on.