Help with building a summonable "slime chimera"

[Aldric]

Wouldn't it be easier to give a slime some modular abilities it can use to replicate the powers of something it consumes?

There just one issue with Allies that I can think of. The large slime is already a summonable ally, as such it's an NPC that can't have any allies. Besides, the Ally advantage can already have problems with its fixed cost and scaling power, having sub allies would make this even worse.

I think someone somwhere built a super with duplication as an AA to growth, I didn't follow that thread much, and it seems complicated, but maybe it's worth looking for it

[whswhs]

That seems solvable. Being able to summon the large slime is the Allies advantage, bought as an ability of a power. So it can take power modifiers. So you let it have the Cosmic modifier, +50%, and that lets it violate one of the standard rules. Now you let it violate the rule that an Ally can't have Allies. Now you can give it the swarm as its own Ally. This doesn't give you the ability to command the swarm yourself; you have to work through the primary slime.

Or maybe you could define it as the "half-Cosmic" version of Weird, for +25%, though I think you would still have to pay +50% for the ability to violate a standard rule.

[Aldric]

Sure, if the GM says "The only way you can have this is by using the Cosmic modifier"
But if I were that GM I would try really hard to find a solution that didn't require it, or nested allies in general, or allies at all.

Yep, my main problem is with the Ally advantage, and it's cost, especially for summoning stuff with a very specific purpose

[whswhs]

I don't think it's the GM saying that. I think it's the rules saying that.

[Aldric]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't think it's the GM saying that. I think it's the rules saying that.

What I mean is that anything with the Cosmic modifier is only allowed if the GM wants it.
You don't have players walking in saying I'm making a character that can summon an ally with the Cosmic modifier, so the ally can have allies itself.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Aldric

What I mean is that anything with the Cosmic modifier is only allowed if the GM wants it.
You don't have players walking in saying I'm making a character that can summon an ally with the Cosmic modifier, so the ally can have allies itself.

I don't see that as a special problem, because my stance on campaigns is that no character is allowed unless I as the GM approve it. Players don't get to go through the rules looking for some arcane combination that will force me to allow a character concepts or design I find unsuitable.

[Biscuri]

I think I won't go with that sub allies thing because he can use the lesser slimes directly as his summons, so I think it would be very odd that the lesser slimes are allies from the PC and the PC's ally.

The idea is that he can build these slimes with alchemy, so he can replace them or increase their numbers spending enough CP and time, or perhaps just time, I'm trying to find a way to make the allies "spendable" so they won't cost CP if used as a tool for an ambush or something like that. The lesser slimes would be used to defeat enemies and learn their abilities, and the chimera would use the lesser ones to empower itself.

[Aldric]

What about building the chimera with enough payload to carry other slimes, and then use them much like chip slots for modular abilities?

[Hide]

GURPS has some literature on building multi-part creatures or automata; I think this can be summed up under the concept of the power rangers’ megazord.

You could start looking for that idea within GURPS. It’s the same, you have a bunch of zords that can work independently that can also build a megazord controlled by the “command center”.

[Biscuri]

Originally Posted by Aldric

What about building the chimera with enough payload to carry other slimes, and then use them much like chip slots for modular abilities?

And what about the access limitation? As we discussed before, provided by ally has some complications, do you have other sugestions?

Originally Posted by Hide

GURPS has some literature on building multi-part creatures or automata; I think this can be summed up under the concept of the power rangers’ megazord.

You could start looking for that idea within GURPS. It’s the same, you have a bunch of zords that can work independently that can also build a megazord controlled by the “command center”.

That's exactly what I'm looking for, but I didn't find anything like that. Which books should I search?