Perk manipulation

[Donny Brook]

I have an idea for a TL2 NCO who can buff his squad with various combat perks. The method I'd like to use is Area Effect (Selective) with Affects Others. Is there any relief from or way around the rule about no mods on perks?

How legit would it be to package sets of them into meta-traits for this purpose?

[Nereidalbel]

The RAW way to do this would be with Affliction, counting a Perk as an advantage worth 1 point, or +10% to the Affliction cost. Using Malediction and Fixed Duration simplifies the effect to "did you succeed on your roll or not?"

[GodBeastX]

Affliction based buffs tend to be more expensive than they should be do to the nature of modifiers.

While each 10% is worth 1 point per level of the buff, the inverse limitations are always worth only 1 point per 10%.

Afflictions tend to be a good use case for the optional rule of multiplicative modifiers found in the Powers book.

Example:

An Affliction with these modifiers to buff Strength of a target 1 point.

Affliction 1 (Strength +1, +100%; Magical, -10%; Costs Fatigue, -5%; Malediction, 100%) [28]

Not exactly worth it.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by GodBeastX

An Affliction with these modifiers to buff Strength of a target 1 point.

Affliction 1 (Strength +1, +100%; Magical, -10%; Costs Fatigue, -5%; Malediction, 100%) [28]

If you are talking about boosting someone's ST by 1 point you're not talking about any mere perk. So of course it's expensive.

[Celti]

One of the party members in my current game has exactly this. Note that I use Multiplicative Modifiers in my game.

Aura of Camaraderie: Affliction 1 (Advantage, Team Member, +360%; Area Effect, 16 yards, +200%; Aura, +50%; Extended Duration, ×60, +70%; Malediction 1, +100%; Selective Area, +20%; Requires Leadership Roll, -10%; Takes Extra Time 1, -10%; Keeper, +0%) [72].

Team Member: Coordinated Action 2 [21]; Drills! [5]; Espirit de Corps 3 [3]; Harmonious Action [1]; Karma Pool 5 [5]; Teamwork [1] .

You take a second and make a Leadership roll to activate the aura. As a free action, whenever someone enters the area you may make a WL-based Leadership roll to afflict them with the aura. On a failure, you may continue to attempt to bless them once per second. If they leave the area after being afflicted, it lingers for hours equal to margin of victory.

--

Note that even using RAW afflictions, this is cheaper than an Affects Others build for more than just a few people because Affects Others is +50% per person, even with Area Effect.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Celti

One of the party members in my current game has exactly this. Note that I use Multiplicative Modifiers in my game.

Aura of Camaraderie: Affliction 1 (Advantage, Team Member, +360%; Area Effect, 16 yards, +200%; Aura, +50%; Extended Duration, ×60, +70%; Malediction 1, +100%; Selective Area, +20%; Requires Leadership Roll, -10%; Takes Extra Time 1, -10%; Keeper, +0%) [72].

Team Member: Coordinated Action 2 [21]; Drills! [5]; Espirit de Corps 3 [3]; Harmonious Action [1]; Karma Pool 5 [5]; Teamwork [1] .

You take a second and make a Leadership roll to activate the aura. As a free action, whenever someone enters the area you may make a WL-based Leadership roll to afflict them with the aura. On a failure, you may continue to attempt to bless them once per second. If they leave the area after being afflicted, it lingers for hours equal to margin of victory.

--

Note that even using RAW afflictions, this is cheaper than an Affects Others build for more than just a few people because Affects Others is +50% per person, even with Area Effect.

This looks very useful. May I ask some questions about the build? They are:

-Why are you using Aura instead of Emanation?
-What is the function of Malediction here? Presumably the targets will not resist the Affliction anyway, right?
-How is the base duration found for the extended duration to apply to?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by whswhs

If you are talking about boosting someone's ST by 1 point you're not talking about any mere perk. So of course it's expensive.

And if he does it with a perk it comes out:

Affliction 1 (Perk, 10%; Magical, -10%; Costs Fatigue, -5%; Malediction, 100%) [20]

Incredibly expensive. This is because affliction is built with the payload and the delivery method bought almost completely seperately. It costs 20 points for a maladiction, wether it merely stuns people it hits or turns them into statues.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Celti

Note that even using RAW afflictions, this is cheaper than an Affects Others build for more than just a few people because Affects Others is +50% per person, even with Area Effect.

Actually, you only need to buy Affects Others once if you also combine it with Area Effect - at that point increase your level of Area Effect to affect more people.

Originally Posted by GURPS Powers p. 108

If you apply Force Field to one of the defenses listed for that enhancement (below), you may add Affects Others for a flat +50%, provided you also take at least one level of Area Effect.

[Donny Brook]

I have the answers to my Malediction and duration questions, but I am still confused about Aura vs Emanation.


Also,

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

The RAW way to do this would be with Affliction, counting a Perk as an advantage worth 1 point, or +10% to the Affliction cost. Using Malediction and Fixed Duration simplifies the effect to "did you succeed on your roll or not?"

How do I use Fixed Duration?

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

This looks very useful. May I ask some questions about the build? They are:

-Why are you using Aura instead of Emanation?
-What is the function of Malediction here? Presumably the targets will not resist the Affliction anyway, right?
-How is the base duration found for the extended duration to apply to?

1. Emanation would be the better choice in the build.

2. Malediction is required for targets to be able to waive their resistance roll.

3. The base duration is your Margin of Success minutes.