How can I nullify limitations on an advantage?

[HelloD]

Hello.

I'm trying to emulate a character named Springman from a video game called ARMS. He can wear technological weapons shaped like boxing gloves (which im modeling as gadget-based innate attacks) that he can charge up for an enhanced punch. He has two versions of his punching attack: one that he can use right off the bat (the normal version basically), and a stronger version that i've added Preparation Required (1 sec; -5%) to so he has to take a Concentrate maneuver to "charge it up" before he can use it.

But the character in question has permanently "charged up" weapons when he's at low health in the game. I planned to model this with a self Affliction (Negated Disadvantage) with Trigger (When at 25% HP or less; -10%). But then I realized Negated Disadvantage wouldn't work for this situation, because I only want to negate the Preparation Required limitation on the "charged" version of his punch.

Is there a legal way to negate a limitation on an advantage? Should I just houserule an enhancement for Affliction that suits my needs? Or should I give Springman an Alternate Form (Reduced Time 4 +80%, Accessibility (Only when at 25% or less) -20%) where the only difference is that the Preparation Required limitation is removed from his "charged up" attack? The Alternate Form solution is kinda clunky imo so I'd like to avoid it if possible.

[whswhs]

I'd build it both ways, figuring the point costs, and buy the cheaper version as an Alternate Ability at 1/5 cost. The one that he can only use when he's at low HP would take an Accessibility, as you suggest.

[Anaraxes]

My first thought was Alternate Abilities as well. Keep in mind the turn required to switch among abilities in the AA group. (That probably replaces the Prep Required for the "charged" form, so you could just drop that Limitation. It's not obvious that there's a good conceptual reason to suffer that 1-turn delay when you cross the boundary to low health to swap the normal attacks for the desperation ones. But it's pretty close.)

Ignoring the low health attack, there's only one attack. It's an IA for the normal ability, plus some extra levels with just those levels Limited by the Prep Required. (It's perfectly legal to limit only some levels of a levelled ability like IA. You don't have to make two separate abilities.)

So, yet another way: use the Either/Or Limitation rule. The charged levels have (Prep Required orAccessibility (<25% HP)) to become usable. Per RAW, the value of the combined Limitation is obtained by multiplying the values of the two individual Limitations. (Mathematically impeccable; in practice, for small Limitations it usually results with such tiny net Limitation values it's not worth the bother. In this case, 0.05 * 0.10 = 0.005, or a -0.5% Limitation. But to me, it seems more of a Limitation than that. Removal of the Prep Required can happen at most 1/4 of every fight, so it seems like you ought to retain at least 3/4ths of the benefit of the Prep Required -- or -3.75%, not -0.5%. Small numbers either way. But at -0.5%, it's hard to justify not just taking the charged levels all the time, from a purely cost-effectiveness gamist perspective.) One key point here is that there's still only one single attack ability, which means there's no 1/5 cost for a second ability as with an AA.

A wacky fourth way: Buy Compartmentalized Mind, One Trait Only, to automatically (and continuously) do the Concentrate Maneuver to charge your attack. Then limit the CM to operate only at low health. One Trait Only alone takes it to the -80% floor, so it's 10 points. The main value of this build is just as a sanity check on pricing the low-health attack from other build strategies. (And the main reason not to use it is the likely cheese factor. Given that the Low Health Only Limitation is just for flavor, the munchkin hindbrain says "why have it all?". That means for 10 points, you could just have the ability charged all the time. Which means there's there's no reason to have the normal version, which probably saves more than 10 points. Which means you could just build a single, more powerful attack -- and if the unlimited extra levels of that attack cost more than 10 points more than the limited version, the CM build is even cheaper. Thus cheese.)

[Varyon]

Either/Or Limitations work mathematically, but in general give too low of a discount to really be fair. For example, consider an ability that only works on males (-20%) generally, but at night (-20%) expands to work against all targets. That's canonically an Either/Or Limitation worth -4%. It's also something that's useful about 75% of the time (just as each of the above are considered to be useful 50% of the time), which as an Accessibility Limitation would be worth -10% - over twice what it's worth as Either/Or. Personally, my own inclination is to base the value of Either/Or on how close the Limitations are to each other in worth. Up to 1.5x, use 80% of the value of the lower-value Limitation. Up to 2x, 85%; up to 3x, 90%; any larger difference, 95%. Here, assuming having less than 1/4 HP is a -10% Limitation (personally I think it's worth a larger Limitation, but we'll go with that), that's a 2x difference, so we use 85% of the lesser Limitation; in this case, that's 0.05*0.85=0.0425, or -4.25%.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Ignoring the low health attack, there's only one attack. It's an IA for the normal ability, plus some extra levels with just those levels Limited by the Prep Required. (It's perfectly legal to limit only some levels of a levelled ability like IA. You don't have to make two separate abilities.)

If it's a leveled advantage, this would be my solution.

[Kallatari]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

My first thought was Alternate Abilities as well. Keep in mind the turn required to switch among abilities in the AA group.

The 1 turn to switch between AA does not apply when switching between two attack abilities. So with this example of two different Innate Attacks, switching between them is a free action.

In GURPS Basic (p.61) you see it as Alternative Attacks (the pre-cursor to Alternative Abilities), where there is no indication of taking a turn to switch between them. GURPS Powers (p.11) expands upon it to make it Alternative Abilities that can be used for any trait, where it now takes a Ready maneuver to switch except when switching from one attack ability to another attack ability, which is free.

[Refplace]

Alternative limitations is another option.

[HelloD]

Thank you for your replies. The Either/Or Limitation rule was exactly what I needed. And I also bought the normal punch as an alternative ability to the charged punch. This is what I have so far.

Toaster (his glove weapon)
Charged Punch: Crushing Attack 2d+thr (ST-Based +100%, Double Knockback +20%, Melee C -30%, Either Preparation Required (1 second) or Accessibility: <25% HP -5%) + Burning Attack 1 (Follow-Up -35%, Cyclic, 1 second, 3 cycles, Unresistable +200%) [33] + Normal Punch: Crushing Attack 1d+thr (ST-Based +100%, Melee C -30%, Alternate Ability x1/5) [2]


I think it looks good, but I'd like to know if something's out of place.

[AlexanderHowl]

Follow-Up would be +65% because ST-Based is part of the Melee Attack modifier and Cyclic defaults to no resistance, though they must be able to prevent the damage (otherwise, you need Cosmic, +100%). Honestly, you would be better off without ST-Based and with Variable. For example:

Charged Punch: Crushing Attack 4d (Double Knockback, +20%; Melee Attack, C, Dual Weapon, -20%; Variable, +5%) [21] plus Burning Attack 1d (Cyclic, 3 1-second cycles, Prevented by submerging in water, +200%; Follow-Up, Crushing Attack, -20%; Variable, +5%) [15]. 36 points.

For only 1 CP more than the previous build, you get two charged fists with a follow-up burning attack. As long as the character possesses a ST below 22, they would deal more damage with the new build. With variable, they can scale down the damage to any degree that they wish on both the initial attack and the follow-up.

[HelloD]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Follow-Up would be +65% because ST-Based is part of the Melee Attack modifier and Cyclic defaults to no resistance, though they must be able to prevent the damage (otherwise, you need Cosmic, +100%). Honestly, you would be better off without ST-Based and with Variable. For example:

Charged Punch: Crushing Attack 4d (Double Knockback, +20%; Melee Attack, C, Dual Weapon, -20%; Variable, +5%) [21] plus Burning Attack 1d (Cyclic, 3 1-second cycles, Prevented by submerging in water, +200%; Follow-Up, Crushing Attack, -20%; Variable, +5%) [15]. 36 points.

For only 1 CP more than the previous build, you get two charged fists with a follow-up burning attack. As long as the character possesses a ST below 22, they would deal more damage with the new build. With variable, they can scale down the damage to any degree that they wish on both the initial attack and the follow-up.

Thank you. I'm not really interested in maximizing damage but you made me realize I should've added Dual to the attacks. Otherwise he would've have to buy the weapon twice, once for each glove haha. I also fixed up my mistake with Melee Attack.

Toaster 42 points.
Charged Punch: Crushing Attack 2d+thr (Melee Attack, C, Dual Weapon, ST-Based, +80%, Double Knockback +20%, Selectivity +10%, Either Preparation Required (1 second) or Accessibility: <25% HP -5%) + Burning Attack 1 (Follow-Up, Crushing Attack +75%, Cyclic, 1 second, 3 cycles, Prevented by submerging in water +200%) [40] + Normal Punch: Crushing Attack 1d+thr (Melee Attack, C, Dual Weapon, ST-Based, +80%, Selectivity +10%, Alternate Ability x1/5) [2]

I added Selectivity for the purpose of removing the Dual enhancement, since Springman can mix-and-match other glove weapons in the game (i haven't gotten to building those yet). He could choose to use the Toaster on only one hand, and wear a different glove on the other hand.