[Powers] Neutralize & Energy Reserves

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Azulan47

I think it would make sense if the Energy Reserves returns to its original state (however full or depleted it was) and if it would restore more ER than it currently has capacity for due to the negated levels the excess would be lost.

Yeah, definitely agree here. That's why I've been putting qualifiers like "if it was full in the first place" in - if your ER is down a few points when someone takes it away, you don't get those points back when the removal wears off. In fact, I'd probably say that any sort of removal of ER (Neutralize, Affliction (Negated Advantage: ER, etc.) hits your "full" points first. That is, if you have a 5-level ER, of which you've spent 2 points, and someone hits you with Affliction (Negated Advantage: Energy Reserve 2), you're going to lose two "full" levels, leaving you with only 1 ER point to spend. If you treat the "top" levels as being the empty ones, then I think there's too much temptation for characters to always burn off the top one or two points of their ER, and just have those empty levels as a buffer if they get hit with something that takes away ER.

[Azulan47]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

In fact, I'd probably say that any sort of removal of ER (Neutralize, Affliction (Negated Advantage: ER, etc.) hits your "full" points first. That is, if you have a 5-level ER, of which you've spent 2 points, and someone hits you with Affliction (Negated Advantage: Energy Reserve 2), you're going to lose two "full" levels, leaving you with only 1 ER point to spend. If you treat the "top" levels as being the empty ones, then I think there's too much temptation for characters to always burn off the top one or two points of their ER, and just have those empty levels as a buffer if they get hit with something that takes away ER.

Agreed, though it is strange to visualize a cup of water with the liquid floating near the brim and the empty part being underneath it. I think it does make some sense to preserve the "used" levels of Energy Reserve because I think that's the same treatment used for HP and instances where they increase. I believe the DF Barbarian runs into situations like that and it explicitly states they can die if the damage taken exceeds -HP after their HP is reduced.