Your Version of the Touch of Death

[AlexanderHowl]

I was just wondering if people would share their version of the Touch of Death. I will go ahead and post mine.

Touch of Death (+300%): Toxic Attack 1d (Contact Agent, -30%; Cyclic, 1 hour, 12 cycles, Stopped by a successful Esoteric Medicine roll, +240%; Delay, Unlimited, +20%; Melee Attack, C, No Parry, -35%; No Signature, +20%; Selectivity, +10%; Symptoms, Fragile (Brittle), -2/3 HP, +15%; Symptoms, Fragile (Unnatural), -2/3 HP, +60%) [16]

This touch of death disruptions the flow of chi in the victim in such a way that their body becomes incapable of maintaining its physical integrity, meaning the crippling damage causes their body parts to fall off and shatter. If the victim reaches -(HP) before they heal the damage from the attack, they automatically die and their body falls to dust. A successful Esoteric Medicine roll, taking one hour, will stop the progress of the Touch of Death, but modern medicine will be completely mystified by the nature of the illness. The attacker chooses when damage will start and may vary the number of cycles and symptoms according to his or her whim.

[Phantasm]

The one I came up with is this:

Affliction 7 (HT-6; Heart Attack; Armor Divisor (100); Melee Attack: Reach C; Side Effect: Agony; Elemental: Vibration; Super)

This is based on how Thawne and Zoom kill a few folks in The Flash, vibrating their hands and plunging them into a chest to disrupt the heart. (Sorry I don't have percentage numbers, but I designed this for an NPC, not a PC.)

[AlexanderHowl]

It's fine, I think it is +650%, if anyone is interested, so the final cost is 525 CP.

[ericthered]

From my blog post on Death Magic:

Acolytes' Kill: Affliction (Melee C -30%, Contact Agent-30%, Heart Attack +300%, death magic -10%, corrupting -20%) [8]

Not nearly as potent as killing with a thought, killing with a touch to the skin is a basic skill for any who wishes to call himself a master of death.

Kill: Affliction( Malediction 2 +150%, Heart Attack +300%, death magic-10%, corrupting -20% ) [39]

The most direct attack possible, Kill attempts to simply end a life. Recovery relies on mystical help, not mundane: esoteric medicine or the healing advantage are good candidates -- though occultism at a nasty penalty (-6?) might suffice if you have a generous GM. Death mages aspire to this act as the pinnacle of their art. How common they succeed varies by setting, but the ability is frightening in every case.

Handle Death 3d tox ( melee 1-4 -15%, not parried by physical weapons +25%, multi-attack +10%, death magic -10%, corrupting -20%) [11]

This is the death mages ability to work with manifested death. It is most notable for its ability to stop incoming magical attacks. Handle Death can even interfere with attacks on the mage's grimy soul. While the attack doesn't provide the mage with an active defense, the extreme range means he can attack while constantly retreating, and the situation cuts both ways: melee fighters can't block the incoming attacks. This ability is usually only changed by adjusting damage up or down. If adjusted to 2d or less, blocking attacks based on 15 points or more fails on a 2 in 6 chance, unless blocking only part of the attack.


All of the above use multiplicative multipliers, which is standard for the magic as powers builds on the site, so that first one is probably the cheapest possible build.

With the corrupting modifier, these abilities are mostly meant for quickly building NPC's at a given power level, or for enticing PC's to perform them as stunts: These are better at killing than most damaging powers.

Yes, basically killing with a touch to the skin is pretty underwhelming. That's why its only worth 8 points.

[AlexanderHowl]

With standard modifiers, the cost for the three powers would 31 CP, 52 CP, and 11 CP respectively.