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Old 08-26-2020, 07:53 PM   #51
kirbwarrior
 
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Default Re: Useful Low-Powered Abilities [Powers/Supers]

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Always On and Transient are mutually exclusive categories by definition. You cannot have an ability that applies to both categories.
Yes, but specific beats general. Modular Abilities is a weird ability. It might honestly have been better to build as a base trait and an attached leveled trait. Or maybe the trait as a whole is Always On that has the ability to change? For instance, IA with Aura, Always On, and Variable would be Always On but have the ability to change its intensity.
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While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
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Old 08-26-2020, 07:57 PM   #52
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Useful Low-Powered Abilities [Powers/Supers]

I do not think that you can have Always On and Variable on an Innate Attack. Variable can reduce damage to 0d, so Always On would be a meaningless limitation.
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Old 08-26-2020, 08:10 PM   #53
naloth
 
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Default Re: Useful Low-Powered Abilities [Powers/Supers]

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
I do not think that you can have Always On and Variable on an Innate Attack. Variable can reduce damage to 0d, so Always On would be a meaningless limitation.
Nah, 0d means it's off. You would need to do at least 1 point of damage per second if it's not leveled and 1d if you have multiple levels. It's not a crock since you're paying for levels you aren't usually using.

That being said, I'd suggest you go with a variable intensity Aura instead (always on or not) since you probably want the melee properties of Aura.
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Old 08-26-2020, 08:50 PM   #54
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Useful Low-Powered Abilities [Powers/Supers]

No, Variable allows for 0d of damage, Powers (p. 170) gives an example with Laser Lad. Always On limits the character because it is always at maximum power. If you want an attack with a base 1d burning aura that is always on and a variable aura on top of that that is scalable to 10d, you would have to buy Burning Attack 1d (Always On, -40%; Aura, +80%; Melee, C, -30%) [6] plus Burning Attack 9d (Aura, +80%; Melee, C, -30%; Variable, +5%) [70]. You always deal 1d with your aira, but you can increase the intensity at will.
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Old 08-26-2020, 09:03 PM   #55
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Default Re: Useful Low-Powered Abilities [Powers/Supers]

Of course, the more I look at Powers, the more clear that the super abuse-able builds are RAW. I'll keep that in mind when I use MA on future characters. For things like Maximum Duration and for limitations that would affect the whole advantage instead of only when changing points around, doubling the value would make sense; Costs 1FP -5% would normally means it costs FP when changing it but Costs 1FP/min would be -10% and 1FP/sec would be -20%.

So on that note;

Super-Memorization 15 (Costs 1 FP -5%, Immediate Preparation Required 1 Hour -75%) [10]

You can have any 15pts in any given skill or mental advantage that you can find suitable reference material for. And for only 10pts!

Super Charm [10]
Cosmic Power 2 (Costs 1 FP -5%, Immediate Preparation Required 1 Hour -75%) [4] + Magery 0 [5] + Extra Option: Can buy Charms [1]
For the mages out there, you can add Charm and any given spell into the two slots, given that you focus for an hour and spend FP. May further require higher levels of Magery and IQ to be of most use.
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While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
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Old 08-26-2020, 09:13 PM   #56
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Useful Low-Powered Abilities [Powers/Supers]

The balancing method for cheap MAs is the cost of the required materials. For example, I would require textbooks with a value equal to the (Starting Wealth/10) × (square of the MA level). So, if someone wanted to gain Physician [8] at TL8, they would need $128,000 worth of medical textbooks.
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Old 08-26-2020, 09:53 PM   #57
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Default Re: Useful Low-Powered Abilities [Powers/Supers]

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The balancing method for cheap MAs is the cost of the required materials. For example, I would require textbooks with a value equal to the (Starting Wealth/10) × (square of the MA level). So, if someone wanted to gain Physician [8] at TL8, they would need $128,000 worth of medical textbooks.
I feel like that suddenly goes the opposite direction. That's an insane cost to have the skill 'temporarily' with. It doesn't seem worth the difference from 3/lvl to 5/lvl of Cosmic Slots.
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While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
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Old 08-26-2020, 10:17 PM   #58
awesomenessofme1
 
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Default Re: Useful Low-Powered Abilities [Powers/Supers]

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
The balancing method for cheap MAs is the cost of the required materials. For example, I would require textbooks with a value equal to the (Starting Wealth/10) × (square of the MA level). So, if someone wanted to gain Physician [8] at TL8, they would need $128,000 worth of medical textbooks.
Super-Memorization has the same per-point cost as Computer Brain, which suggests a cost of $100 per point. I see no reason there would be such a ludicrous disparity.

(Also, where on Earth would you get $128,000 worth of unique medical textbooks?)
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Old 08-26-2020, 10:55 PM   #59
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Useful Low-Powered Abilities [Powers/Supers]

Very easily, if you have the money. A student getting their medical degree can spend $1,000 in textbooks per course, and they might take 20 courses. Since there are probably 40 different courses per medical program and there are hundreds of possible textbooks available in the USA for every course subject, you could easily spend $4 million in textbooks if you wanted a comprehensive take on the textbooks for medical programs in just the USA. Globally, you could probably spend ten times that much to cover the major programs for English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hindi, Turkish, Korean, etc. (some will be translations from other languages, but each language will have their own academics writing their own books so they can cash in). You would therefore probably need $40 million to cover all of the textbooks for all of the medical programs on Earth (though some of them will overlap with other disciplines).
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Old 08-27-2020, 12:00 AM   #60
awesomenessofme1
 
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Default Re: Useful Low-Powered Abilities [Powers/Supers]

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Very easily, if you have the money. A student getting their medical degree can spend $1,000 in textbooks per course, and they might take 20 courses. Since there are probably 40 different courses per medical program and there are hundreds of possible textbooks available in the USA for every course subject, you could easily spend $4 million in textbooks if you wanted a comprehensive take on the textbooks for medical programs in just the USA. Globally, you could probably spend ten times that much to cover the major programs for English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hindi, Turkish, Korean, etc. (some will be translations from other languages, but each language will have their own academics writing their own books so they can cash in). You would therefore probably need $40 million to cover all of the textbooks for all of the medical programs on Earth (though some of them will overlap with other disciplines).
Even ignoring the fact that I'm very doubtful that what you're saying is at all plausible, why did you address the aside I put in parentheses and not my main, more substantive point?
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