Special Recharge: Take a Penalty

[munin]

If you don't mind the regular recharge rate you can also just put Temporary Disadvantage on your Energy Reserve.

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by munin

Yep. Because it's completely under your control -- you could simply choose to leave it off all the time. A switchable disadvantage (or feature) is a perk because it does give you an option that others don't have (some disadvantages are occasionally useful), but it's not worth more than a perk no matter how good or bad the disadvantage is, so they all cost the same.

As to speed, the Special Recharge limitation is worth a lot because it means you can only recharge when you have an external source available (other people hitting you, giving you energy, etc.) but it does have the advantage that when that external source is available you can often charge up quickly. If you want that speed without requiring an external source (i.e., only dependent on yourself), you'll have to pay for Regeneration (ER).

To be clear, if you want your Special Recharge to be faster than normal, you still have to pay for an advantage that recharges it (Leech, DR with absorbtion, Regeneration with Limitations, etc...).

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by munin

If you don't mind the regular recharge rate you can also just put Temporary Disadvantage on your Energy Reserve.

This is an interesting idea.

My assumption would be that Temporary Disadvantage on an Energy Reserve would mean you have that Disadvantage while you're spending ER, but I can see how having it be while you're recharging would be worth just as much.

But if it's a choice, I'd require switchable on the ER as well, otherwise the temporary disadvantage kicks in automatically.

[munin]

Originally Posted by aesir23

... But if it's a choice, I'd require switchable on the ER as well, otherwise the temporary disadvantage kicks in automatically.

I think so too. There is a mechanism for "always on" advantages to take Temporary Disadvantage (see p. P106), but it only works with disadvantages that could reasonably be interpreted to shut down the ability for a time (like Electrical), not simple inconveniences like an attribute penalty.

There's an ability in GURPS Supers based on Regeneration which has Temporary Disadvantage without first requiring Switchable (Hyper-Metabolism, p. 53) but there's another ability based on Striker that does have Switchable (Hammerhand, p. 51), so I don't think Temporary Disadvantage automatically makes an ability switchable. Advantages like Regeneration and Energy Reserve are simply "always on" ... but only when they're recharging or being used? So, yes, the Temporary Disadvantage would kick in whenever you drew on the ER and stay on until the ER is fully recharged (unless you also took Switchable, which would allow you to turn off the recharging and thus the temporary disadvantage too -- in that case I'd say use would entail a minimum of 1 minute of the temporary disadvantage).