Area Effect Ongoing Aging Attack?

[Pursuivant]

How would you model an "Angel of Death" type character with the ability to inflict ongoing aging on anyone who gets near it, even after victims leave the area of effect?

Obviously, the base is the Leech advantage from GURPS Powers with the Steal Youth enhancement, Emanation, Area Effect, Always On, and possibly, a -50% "user doesn't benefit from stolen age" limitation.

Add Lifebane to model the lethal effects on plants, small creatures, etc.

The part that's got me stuck is the "still affects you even if you leave the area of effect" bit. I'd use the "Cyclic" enhancement with enough cycles to kill even the longest-lived living thing, but per RAW it only applies to attack powers.

"Persistent" is the other choice, but that creates an effect which lingers in the area even after you leave rather than traveling with you.

Since this is an NPC I'm not so worried about point costs/effectiveness vs. other killing attacks, I'm just trying to get the mechanics right.

[Toptomcat]

The usual catchall for something that breaks the rules in a fashion not adequately accounted for by other Enhancements is Cosmic.

[Juca]

Well, since it WILL eventually kill everyone that came into the area, it can be modelled as an Affliction with the +300% hearth attack enhancement. The fact that it takes some time to actually kill the target is Just fluff. Or you can model it as an Affliction inflicting "Terminally Ill" on the target.

[Not another shrubbery]

Huh. A few years, I was working on an Aging modifier to IA, like a Hazard, that you might get some ideas from. I never ironed out the details, but it was close to presentable. Proposal for an Aging Innate Attack.

One of these days I ought to try and polish that off.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Juca

Well, since it WILL eventually kill everyone that came into the area, it can be modelled as an Affliction with the +300% hearth attack enhancement. The fact that it takes some time to actually kill the target is Just fluff. Or you can model it as an Affliction inflicting "Terminally Ill" on the target.

I considered Heart Attack and Terminally Ill, but Heart Attack works too fast (victims die over a period of about a week) and Terminally Ill works too slowly. Additionally, it "seems" wrong since Affliction (Bestows Disadvantage: Terminally Ill) makes the power even more expensive than it should be.

While I'm not sweating point costs too much, as others have pointed out, Aging attacks seem to be overpriced for what you get, since a straight-out attack power can kill victims far faster and cheaper.

[Juca]

Well, the "official" way seems to be something like this. Also, how is the proccess of aging this way? It is a set numbers of years per day, week, hour? It affects everyone equally, or is a percentage of the max age, where an elf ages 10 years per hour, while a human ages 1 year per hour?
Maybe still model it like a Heart Attack, but with the "Delay" enhancement?

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Juca

Well, the "official" way seems to be something like this. Also, how is the proccess of aging this way? It is a set numbers of years per day, week, hour? It affects everyone equally, or is a percentage of the max age, where an elf ages 10 years per hour, while a human ages 1 year per hour?
Maybe still model it like a Heart Attack, but with the "Delay" enhancement?

Heart Attack with Delay is a good potential option, especially since it saves a lot of dice rolling as the victim ages.

I assumed that the power would kill most humans within a week or so, to give victims a sporting chance of getting some sort of supernatural cure. So, I figured 1 month of aging per ~10 minutes (100 years of aging - 35 years (Average PC Age) = ~65 years required to kill someone, 12 years of aging per day = ~5 days until death).

The problem is that Aging is technically an attack which requires you to roll vs. HT periodically to avoid losing points of ST, DX, IQ, and HT. Taken as a pure Affliction or Innate Attack, Aging is expensive because you're potentially draining up to 80 character points per strike and those character points don't come back without serious supernatural or ultratech healing.

OTOH, because attack powers are relatively cheap, a lethal attack which slowly leeches away attributes is grossly overpriced if you can't convert those attributes into FP.

Here's my first pass at the power.

Aging Aura (190 or 228 points)
Leech 1 (Enhancements: Area Effect (4 yards), +100%; Contact Agent, +150%; Cosmic (Begins to Affect Target Instantly), +50%; Extended Duration (Permanent), +150%; No Signature, +20%; Steal (Youth) +300% if victims can regain youth, +450% if permanent. = +770% or +920%. Limitations: Always On, -20%; Doesn't restore attacker's HP, -50%; Emanation, -20%; Onset (10 minutes), -10%; Power Limitation (Biological, Psionic, Magic, or Temporal), -10% = -110%).

Anyone exposed to your aura irrevocably begins to age, aging 1 month per 10 minutes until they die or receive some heroic supernatural or ultratech medical treatment to stop or reverse the aging. The exact treatment required depends on the nature of your power. Anyone in sealed armor or a sealed full-body environmental suit (or equivalent - such as an anti-magic force field for a magical power) is immune to aging effects, but only as long as they are protected.

FWIW, an equivalent power which drains 1 level of ST, DX, IQ, and HT per 10 minutes (equivalent to aging ~2 years per 10 minutes or ~2.4 months per minute) gives a total modifier of 1170% and costs 318 points. An equivalent power which drains ST, DX, IQ, and HT at the rate of 1 level per second, would cost 320 points.

The benefits of this power are its subtlety, area effect, automatic damage effects, and difficulty of treating the injury. The drawbacks are the point cost and the very slow lethal effects, particularly for long-lived creatures.

By comparison:

Affliction 1 (Enhancements: Area Effect (4 yards), +100%; Contact Agent, +150%; Cosmic, Irresistable, +300%; Cosmic, Lingering Special Effect (Heroic Supernatural or Ultratech treatment required to reverse effects), +100%; Extended Duration (Permanent), +150%; No Signature, +20%. Limitations: Always On, -20%; Emanation, -20%; Power Limitation (Biological, Psionic, Magic, or Temporal), -10% = 1060% total) = 116 points.

So, a which inflicts an irresistible Heart Attack every second, which can't be aided by conventional medical treatment, costs about half or 1/3 of what Leech (Aging) would cost! Removing Extended Duration, which is redundant, cost drops to 101 points!

That makes me think that ability to Leech age should be a much cheaper enhancement, perhaps as low as +0%. Making Leech (Aging - Permanent) a +0% enhancement reduces the cost of the Aging Aura power to 115, which is about right in that it kills but it kills a bit more subtly, if slowly, than straight out heart attack aura. Making Leech (Aging - restored if attacker dies) a -20% limitation reduces the power cost to 110.

For straight Leech (aging) which allows you to age your victim by 1 month per hit and convert it to 1 HP per 3 months stolen (but, lost age is restored if your are killed) the cost would be 20 for the first level or 3 per level thereafter. OTOH, there are a lot more months of life in a typical humanoid victim than there are HP, but the aging damage never heals as long as you live and the victim typically doesn't suffer any immediate damage and is free to retaliate.

Likewise, the ability to leech attributes could be reduced if you can't use them yourself, +50% if you can leech ST or HT, +100% if you can leech DX or IQ. That would make a "drain all attributes" attack worth
+310% (including the cost of Link). That makes Leech 1 (Attribute Drain) worth 102 points.

Leave the costs for attribute drain as is if you can convert attributes into HP because each attack is going to net you approximately 1 HP while the victim loses levels from some or all of his attributes.

[GodBeastX]

"Extended Duration" is built for this I'm pretty sure.

[Taneli]

Would unaging characters be invulnerable to this attack, and those with long lifespans less vulnerable?

[Strabo]

There is an interesting write-up for aging attack on one of the blogs.
http://saltygrognard.blogspot.com/20...ype-aging.html