[DF] Pet Elder Thing Issues

[PseudoFenton]

Due to some musing recently I decided to make myself an Eldritch Priest of the Drowned Gods, and in ensuing madness I decided they needed a befitting familiar. However due to my recent mental instability I'm having trouble buildings some parts of it... the basic idea is that the "pet" is heavily based around the Nautilus but is an Elder Thing version of it (thought I'd mix it up a bit from the standard squid).

The first issue I've encountered is simply the point cost of Bonded Creature in the Mentalist power ups, the cost is x to y and the break down is z. Can someone enlighten me to what the cost of this should be?

My second issue is this, "do Elder Things use Power Modifier (Psionics)?" Now the obvious answer is yes, but that would mean that they are constantly burning FP and causing other Elder Things to pop up.
I know Elder Things cheat so could easily have Psi abilities with no FP burning etc. But I need my little Nautilus to levitate as its form of locomotion and can't afford to have it to bleed FP to do so (nor have Elder Things show up whenever it moves about), so it seems reasonable to have it use a different Psi PM for that.
Although this then raises the question of if all of its innate cheaty Eldritch powers should come without the clauses, which seems a little too cheaty really. But would an Elder Thing really care about another Elder Thing doing their stuff elsewhere?

My third issue is the shell of the Nautilus, I'm a tad stumped on how to address this. It should be hardened DR everywhere except the head, coupled with a IT:No Head (Switchable; Temp Disadvantages: Blind etc) so it can hide away in its shell... although then I'm not sure if the DR should get a discount for except the head as there is none anymore...

And my forth and final issue is the tentacles, I've given it No Manipulators as it has no limbs, but it can grab hold of food whilst it eats it with very powerful tentacles (the real creature this is) which is a grapple... it's not a striker as it doesn't just hit things, nor is it a limb as it doesn't manipulate things... so what is it?

Thanks ahead of time for any light you can shed on these issues!

[Refplace]

Tentacles are limbs. Give it no Fine Manipulators rather then No Manipulators.
Also buy Extra Flexible for the tentacles and possibly Long.
Go ahead and give it levitation/Flight without a modifier.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Go ahead and give it levitation/Flight without a modifier.

Agreed. The limitations on Psi in DF aren't necessarily because of the inherent difficulty of the powers, but the inherent foreignness of them. A minor Elder Thing would be able to levitate as easily as breathing or eating the brains of foolish mortals. In fact, I'd expect the greater Elder Things to have one or more levels of Cosmic on most of their powers.

[PseudoFenton]

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

My third issue is the shell of the Nautilus

I think I've solved this, just switchable DR for the head location with Temp disadvantage Blind etc, as the head can still actually be targeted its just more armoured now. Although targeting vitals and eyes etc whilst concealed might still be impossible due to concealment, there are things which could overcome that so it makes sense to keep them in.

[PseudoFenton]

Okay, I've sorted some of the issues, but encountered more! Here's where I stand on solutions:

* The point cost of Bonded Creature issue I have interpreted as a maximum limit on ER and GBF powers, as well as a minimum assumed powershare from your familiar. This means the ER(drains familiar) islimited to under half the familiars FP should it have excessively high FP and the ER pool cost exceed the max cost for Bonding Creature. Afterall, mentalists aint meant to have easy access to FP to power their abilities!

* "Do Elder Things use Power Modifier (Psionics)?" has been answered already, but I've added a few fast and loose rulings. The current PM is basically Costs 1 FP -5% and Nuisance (sometimes attracts Elder Things) -5% from what I can tell, as counter-measures are meant to be very rare. As such I'm ruling that passive abilities that are hard to directly benefit the familiars master have PM: Psi -0%, thus not burning up FP or attracting attention, this applies to things like Levitation and Psight. However offensive abilities or ones that can easily be used to aid its master have the usual PM -10% and cost FP and attract problems, this stops the master just relying on their familiar to do things safe in the knowledge it wont have a downside.

* The shell of the Nautilus is still causing issues, mostly because of the need to have switchable partial DR. Is there any way of doing partial as "everywhere except x" rather than "just x"? its needed because DR(Torso only) + DR(Skull only) + DR(Neck only) + DR(Face only; Switchable; Temp dis: Blindness) + DR('Arms' only, Switchable; Temp dis: No Arms) costs way more than just plain old DR.
I need to have DR(Everywhere but Face and Arms) + DR(Face and Arms only; Switchable; Temp dis: Blindness; Temp dis: No Arms) but have no idea of how to price the partial limitation on that.

* The tentacle issues is solved, I realised that the short tenacles that grab food whilst eating is the mouth and it just worries its food after biting. It's the most logical and simplistic way of handling it, especially as it has lots of tentacles there for that task and it doesn't do anything else with them (so limbs are a poor fit).

Okay, so basically its just the shell DR which is giving me SAN loss now, although any further comments on my rulings or alternative solutions to those problems are welcome!

[gjc8]

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

* The shell of the Nautilus is still causing issues, mostly because of the need to have switchable partial DR. Is there any way of doing partial as "everywhere except x" rather than "just x"? its needed because DR(Torso only) + DR(Skull only) + DR(Neck only) + DR(Face only; Switchable; Temp dis: Blindness) + DR('Arms' only, Switchable; Temp dis: No Arms) costs way more than just plain old DR.
I need to have DR(Everywhere but Face and Arms) + DR(Face and Arms only; Switchable; Temp dis: Blindness; Temp dis: No Arms) but have no idea of how to price the partial limitation on that.

There's no official way that I know of to do "everywhere except x" limitations, except to make up your own value (noting that it's less limiting that "Torso only" at -10%).

For either/or limitations, multiply the magnitudes of the limitations to get the new magnitude, so something like -5% * -80% = -4%

Equivalently:
1) Add a limitation for "not face and arms"
2) Add an enhancement equal in value (but opposite in sign) for "also head and arms"
3) Apply the Temporary Disadvantage limitation to the enhancement from step 2.

[PseudoFenton]

Originally Posted by gjc8

There's no official way...

No, but there does appear to be a sensible ruling from Kromm on these forums here which does seem to do what I need it to!

I guess I've solved yet another issue myself, hopefully this'll help someone else in future though! I'll post up the familiar once I'm done just incase anyone wants to see the final result too, although I can't promise it'll be of much use to anyone but me.