Minor League Supers [Powers/Supers]

[AlexanderHowl]

A summonable one hex swarm of bees is not terribly useful because you only get one swarm at a time and only if you succeed on the appearance roll. I guess you could give her constant, but she cannot summon replacements if the swarm is killed until the next day. Unlimited streams of bees would require Ally Group (100,000 for ×30 would be appropriate for unlimited per day), which would make the cost around 300 CP with Minion and Summonable. An Innate Attack is cheaper.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

... Ally Group (100,000 for ×30 would be appropriate for unlimited per day), which would make the cost around 300 CP

I realize that technically she can vomit 86400 swarms per day, but a much smaller group (50 would be more than enough, and 25 would probably work) would suffice for any situation you would actually play out - if somehow you go over the oldest swarm can simply disperse without loss of verisimilitude.

Also, the poor GM is already dealing with 25 swarms of bees. That's probably enough.

with Minion and Summonable.

And they are explicitly not minions - hordes of angry bees lightly influenced by expert bee-twerking are much more fun!

An Innate Attack is cheaper.

Probably? But I'm not proposing a point optimized bee-themed killing machine, I'm proposing terrible quasi-controlled-at-best bee-based chaos at the slightest provocation. An innate attack might be made to act like a swarm of bees wandering around the battlefield causing bee-mayhem and getting into bee-trouble with a lot of honing, but allied bee swarms will do it by default.

Go ahead and build the innate attack if you want though. Having a point-efficient build for sending chaotic bee-mayhem around the battle mat floating around on the board can only lead to good things.

[AlexanderHowl]

Fifty? That is only a minute of vomiting into garbage disposal to deal with the problem, so it would hardly be Always On. Minion just means that the character does not need to make a reaction roll to avoid having their summoned swarms turn on them (implicit in the claims of immunity). As for the Innate Attack, it is the following:

Toxic Attack 1d (Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Contact Agent, +150%; Erosive, +10%; Extended Duration, Permanent, Until bees are killed, +150%; Homing, +50%; Mobile, 10 yards/turn, +400%; Overhead, +30%; Persistent, +40%; Selective Area, +20%) [40].

By comparison, 50 summonable bees swarms every day without Always On or Minion would probably cost 80 CP if Constant (meaning no chance of failure in the summoning). Since the supply of bees could easily be exhausted within a minute, Always On does not qualify. Conversely, the innate attack could create bees all day long for half the price.

[Aldric]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Fifty? That is only a minute of vomiting into garbage disposal to deal with the problem, so it would hardly be Always On. Minion just means that the character does not need to make a reaction roll to avoid having their summoned swarms turn on them (implicit in the claims of immunity). As for the Innate Attack, it is the following:

Toxic Attack 1d (Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Contact Agent, +150%; Erosive, +10%; Extended Duration, Permanent, Until bees are killed, +150%; Homing, +50%; Mobile, 10 yards/turn, +400%; Overhead, +30%; Persistent, +40%; Selective Area, +20%) [40].

By comparison, 50 summonable bees swarms every day without Always On or Minion would probably cost 80 CP if Constant (meaning no chance of failure in the summoning). Since the supply of bees could easily be exhausted within a minute, Always On does not qualify. Conversely, the innate attack could create bees all day long for half the price.

While that's a lot of modifiers, I think this is one of the cases where it's much better to buy a cloud of toxic gas and call it a swarm of bees instead of actually giving stats to all the bees that can come out of a person's mouth over one day.
Btw... I think you could add Nuisance Effect there

[AlexanderHowl]

Since Toxic Attack is 4 CP/level, and you only have one level, a nuisance effect would probably not reduce the price any, so there would be no benefit to the character. As for the number of modifiers, nine is not that extraordinary, as I have made Afflictions with fifty or so modifiers (with Selectivity, it is usually cheaper to pay full price for an enhancement rather than purchase an alternate attack).

[martinl]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Fifty? That is only a minute of vomiting into garbage disposal to deal with the problem, so it would hardly be Always On.

It works fine if the oldest swarm is always dispersing to make room for the new one. It does prevent Bees! from, say, filling Madison Square Garden completely full of bees, which is regrettable, but at 1 hex worth of diffuse swarm per second it isn't feasible anyway.

Minion just means that the character does not need to make a reaction roll to avoid having their summoned swarms turn on them (implicit in the claims of immunity).

I was just going with DR 6 (vs bees only). Minion makes them do whatever you tell them to, which is not desired.

As for the Innate Attack, it is the following:

Toxic Attack 1d (Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Contact Agent, +150%; Erosive, +10%; Extended Duration, Permanent, Until bees are killed, +150%; Homing, +50%; Mobile, 10 yards/turn, +400%; Overhead, +30%; Persistent, +40%; Selective Area, +20%) [40].

Writing as an admirer of the mayhem that can be done with innate attacks, homing poison cloud missiles are neat. Not exactly what I was going for, but neat. Maybe for a related character?

What is the best way to make it less a fire and forget missile and more an angry roving swarm of bees?

By comparison, 50 summonable bees swarms every day without Always On or Minion would probably cost 80 CP if Constant (meaning no chance of failure in the summoning). Since the supply of bees could easily be exhausted within a minute, Always On does not qualify. Conversely, the innate attack could create bees all day long for half the price.

50 rounds is plenty for most GURPS situations and I don't need the always on discount because I am building to concept not point range. (Other than doable in less than 250, which seems safe here.)

[martinl]

Bear Naked can transform into a grizzly bear. Unfortunately, this shreds his clothes if he's wearing any. Worse, Bear is very shy, and won't do anything until he covers his unspeakables. He carries a pair of Kevlar bear board shorts when he's expecting trouble, but needs ten successful putting on my big bear pants maneuvers at DX - 5 to put them on himself, with a crit fail shredding the pants.

[Flyndaran]

"Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature's recipes
That brings the bare necessities of life"

Great now I have that song stuck in my head.

[martinl]

(Sorry in advance for this one - tasteless but still PG 13 at worst.)

Trouser Snake can summon a single SM-6 albino constrictor snake ally inside of his pants. Once it has exited said pants, it can grow up to 1 SM per round until it reaches it's full potential - a terrifying SM +6.

As the ally grows, it's summoner loses IQ on a 1 to 1 basis, becoming increasingly animalistic and eventually comatose.

Many super villains who could easily defeat Trouser Snake in combat still refuse to engage with him for some reason.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by martinl

(Sorry in advance for this one - tasteless but still PG 13 at worst.)

If I got away with Mr. Johnson, I think you're in the clear bro. ;)

~~~~~~~

Bear With Me: A large grizzly bear with IQ 9. He is completely undetectable to any normal sense with the exception of one person. This one person is chosen by BWM, and that link may be transferred as easily as a handshake or phone conversation as long as both can perceive the other at the time, but BWM becomes pathologically obsessed with that person, with an SC of 6- to think about anything else or voluntarily leave their side. Unless he is involuntarily separated from his current favorite person, he must also roll SC to initiate a transfer. He doesn't necessarily have to be linked to anybody, but he's also got Congenial [-1] and just prefers to. He can't talk, but has learned ASL fluently and can Gesture and pee his name in the snow proficiently.