[Basic] Advantage of the Week: Blessed, Heroic Feats, Very Blessed

[fifiste]

The advantage seems to me like a weird mish-mash of existing advantages and fiat.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Otaku

Weird question but besides the fact that it doesn't lend itself to more "action" style game play (and thus "Heroic Feats" doesn't sound apt to describe it), and the fact that DX already costs twice as much as ST or HT, is there a reason why you can't get an IQ boost?

No. There is no good reason. The whole Heroic Feats thing is painfully un-generalized legacy material.

I really wish there'd be a published official general-purpose Buff Self advantage, modifiable either with standard Enhancements and Limitations, or else with its own special-purpose set of modifiers.

And yes, it should be CP cost based. It makes no sense that Blessed (Buff DX +1d6) and Blessed (Buff ST +1d6) costs the same.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

I'm not getting what you mean. If the attacker is wholly mundane, how can it have supernatural abilities?

Because the attacker is a living ordinary mortal being like a human or something who happens to be a priest or wizard or whatever.

True Faith only works on beings with the Feature "Affected by True Faith" and usually includes only demons and undead. It very expressly doesn't work on mortal priests and wizards.

Resistant to Evil Supernatural Powers does work against resistible abilities and spells of otherwise mundane attackers.

[arnej]

Originally Posted by Otaku

So... anyone use these? Have they proven above, below or well priced? What kind of Advantages have you (or someone you've gamed with) allowed as part of Blessed? Any interesting accounts involving Blessed that you wish to share?

I have a Wolfen character in a GURPS Palladium game with Blessed (Heroic DX). The Wolfen are an up-and-coming race, and just recently acquired their own god, Wolvenar! My char idolizes his god, and so, when he got a chance to recieve a blessing from an honest-to-gosh Priestess of Wolvenar on his coming-of-age day, I pitched this to the GM and he thought it sounded great.

Since Wolfen are huge killing machines anyways, bumping his DX up by 1d6 has the potential to turn him into a giant furry Quisinart.

Probably some of the best 10 pts I ever spent.

arnej

[simply Nathan]

What if I want to bump Heroic Feats (ST) to give +2d ST, and invent a Heroic Feats (Will) that gives +4d Will, and so on to match the equivalent CP values of the bonus from Heroic Feats (DX)?

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

What if I want to bump Heroic Feats (ST) to give +2d ST, and invent a Heroic Feats (Will) that gives +4d Will, and so on to match the equivalent CP values of the bonus from Heroic Feats (DX)?

Perhaps we should dial it back a bit and make sure Heroic Feats are properly priced as is?

It is something I have been mulling over. Let us start with Heroic Feats (ST). 10 points can buy you +1 ST all the time. As we are told that the Pact Limitation is not actually implied in Blessed Advantages, said +1 to ST isn't getting a Limitation like Pact and unless the campaign setting changes things up, it probably isn't getting anything beyond Divine (+0%), if that.

Powers p. 108 has the Game Time Modifier; as its value is "0%" it won't change costs, but it allows a trait that normally references real world time frames (like Luck) to function based on game world time references. According to the RAW for this Modifier, traits that work at least once per hour of game time get their maximum allotted uses per hour as their Daily Uses. So for example, Ridiculous Luck can be used six times times per-in-game-day because in real time, its usable once every 10 minutes. Traits you use per session translate to once every in game week.

Extrapolating from this, someone far more skilled and knowledgeable in this game arrived at the following:

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

If Game Time is a +0% modifier, then Real Time reasonably is too.

Real Time +0%
If it usually has a certain number of uses per day, then it instead gets that number of uses per real hour. If it usually has a certain number of uses per week, it instead gets that many uses per session.

Once per scene is like Takes Recharge defined in meta-terms rather than in-game terms. A scene is probably equivalent to one hour of game-time at -20%.

Once per adventure is like Limited Use 1 per 1-4 sessions. So that's like an ability that's usable 1/month in game time but with the Real Time modifier.

So assuming an ability with unlimited uses:

• Once Per Scene is -20% [Takes Recharge -20% and Real Time +0%]
• Once Per Session is -75% [Accessibility (1 day a week) -35%, Limited Use (1/day) -40% and Real Time +0%.]
• Once per Adventure is -80% [Accessibility (1 day a month) -40%, Limited Use (1/day) -40% and Real Time +0%]

and just to make me even more comfortable with the numbers, a response to that post was this:

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

I am Ghostdancer and I approve this message.

So if these are good numbers... then what? Heroic Feats grants +1d that lasts 3d seconds. Normally you'd get one minute of use with a Limited Use ability that wasn't an attack, so working with these a +4 to ST you could use once per session that lasted a minute would be worth 10 points. So is it worth getting less than half that +4 on the one in three chance of getting more back? The mean value of a 1d6 roll is 3.5, so I think it is close but not quite fair... ignoring that you'd get a full minute of being buffed versus a mean time of 10 seconds (potentially as few as three and upwards of 18).

Someone want to let me know if I've got the math wrong, missed some sort of "Reduced Duration" or "Decreased Duration" Limitation, or a conversion for effects that use a die roll versus a flat bonus?

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

What if I want to bump Heroic Feats (ST) to give +2d ST, and invent a Heroic Feats (Will) that gives +4d Will, and so on to match the equivalent CP values of the bonus from Heroic Feats (DX)?

Then you're screwed. Blessed (Heroic Feats) is legacy trash. It was not updated to 4th Edition standards of flexibility.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Otaku

Someone want to let me know if I've got the math wrong, missed some sort of "Reduced Duration" or "Decreased Duration" Limitation, or a conversion for effects that use a die roll versus a flat bonus?

Reduced Duration is in GURPS Psionic Powers, -30% for minutes to seconds (off the top of my head, might be -35%).

Die roll vs flat bonus is simply use the average from the die roll result as the flat equivalency - in my game I say do NOT round the number of levels, and instead buy fractional levels and round the final point value as normal. This saves me from having to remember if it's round-up or round-down.

See also Innate Attack, which has rules for fixed points of damage vs random points of damage vs a combination of the two.

[sir_pudding]

Does it increase Secondary Characteristics or not? I find the wording a bit confusing.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Does it increase Secondary Characteristics or not? I find the wording a bit confusing.

I was wondering about that as well. I have a copy of Compendium I handy. Blessed (for 3e) is listed on page 34 and according to the Appendix 2 originated from GURPS Religions p. 93. I think Secondary Characteristics are included, and I'll explain why. Though being me, it is a lengthy explanation, probably includes unneeded detail and of course is hardly authoritative.

Using the original 3e rules, Attributes were priced identically with lower levels being less expensive: 10 points/level for the first three levels (11-13 for a base human), then 15 points for the next two (14-15 for a base human), 20 points/level for the two after that (16-17 for a base human) and then at 18+ it became a flat 25 points per level. Strength received a later revision (presented in other supplements as "Enhanced Strength", "Heroic Strength" or "Super Strength" and not to be confused with any 4e trait with the same name) that were meant to replace the usual ST buying rules for ST 16+. ST 16-23 was now just 10 points per level, ST 24-30 5 points per level while ST 31+ was just a half point per level! Of course, at this point having ST determine HP was still an alternative rule (FP was the norm).

Relevant to the discussion, Increased Basic Speed was 25 points/level in 3e: so it was more expensive or as expensive as an Attribute when the Advantage was originally developed. Alertness, Extra FP, Extra HP and Strong Will were all much less expensive than any of those, even with Extra HP costing 5 points/level back then. While the 4e RAW mentioned improved HP, it doesn't list that separately from ST. It might seem selective, but I attribute (pardon the pun) the identical costs for Heroic Feats (ST), Heroic Feats (DX) and Heroic Feats (HT) to those three originally being priced the same in 3e, Basic Speed isn't mentioned in the Compendium write up. The example about the dangers of your hit points being raised by using Heroic Feats but then dropping back to normal after is mentioned... but in 3e HP was based on HT and they were both referred to as HT (yes, it was confusing). So the example just talks about "five times your normal HT".

Thus I assume that Heroic Feats (ST) includes a boost to HP in addition to damage, Heroic Feats (DX) will up Basic Speed in accordance to your new DX, etc.

Also in the Compendium I write up: suggested Blessed Advantages:

• Immunity (the 3e Invulnerability Adavntage is recommended as a guide, though I would of course use Resistance now)
• Aptitude (text says to use Racial Skill Bonus, but I am guessing that would be Talent based now)
• Magical Knack (does 4e have Knack Magic? I'd just use Powers myself)

I think at least some of those have been mentioned already, but I wanted to be thorough since I was staring at the text in real life. ;)