Switchable enhancement for physical advantages

[awesomenessofme1]

There are several physical advantages where the only tangible benefit of Switchable is the ability to hide that you have the advantage. Apart from that, Switchable seems like a net negative for them, since in an emergency situation, you need to take an action to turn it on. Am I missing something?

And on a related note, what would be a reasonable price for an enhancement that lets you have the advantage of all times, but not noticeably? Unlike Switchable, you can't actually turn it on or off, but you still get the best of both worlds. (If it matters, the two advantages I'm talking about here are Amphibious and Doesn't Breathe (Gills).)

[Refplace]

Low or No Signature is what you use to hide an ability so No Signature on claws would make them invisible. No defense penalty, people could see your going to strike them but the damage type would be a surprise.
Use it on a Vitality Reserve or Extra HP and you dont look injured even if you take damage.On DR people would tend to assume they rolled very badly.

Switchable on a power though lets you conceal it when not in use and negate possible side effects of having it. Switchable DR lets a medic operate on you for example.

[Plane]

Given that Innate Attack (melee) has you holding a visible weapon (or maybe one is attached to you), I think "Switchable" should be necessary to be able to hide that weapon. If you need to take the Visible -10% limitation to get that effect, then Switchable would let you avoid it.

If that working out to 0% isn't attractive: change Switchable into a limited enhancement: +10% will only be +9% if you put "Takes Extra Time 1" on it, but that means you're going to take 2 seconds to turn it on or off instead of 1. That's not likely to save you points unless it's already a very expensive power, or if you're combining it with other stuff like Temporary Disadvantage: Quirk -1% to add up to enough to save 1 point.

It would make sense to do that for the normal ranged innate attacks too... unless you have them switched off, you should have some kind of visible gun attached to you, or raised spikes, or glowing energy fists, something that shows you are armed, which switchable could then hide.

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

There are several physical advantages where the only tangible benefit of Switchable is the ability to hide that you have the advantage. Apart from that, Switchable seems like a net negative for them, since in an emergency situation, you need to take an action to turn it on. Am I missing something?

You can always leave it on 100% of the time if you want to, that's not a negative.

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

And on a related note, what would be a reasonable price for an enhancement that lets you have the advantage of all times, but not noticeably?

B106 "Low or No Signature" is for ATTACKS moreso than implements... minimizing the light/sound assumed for ranged attacks.

Powers 144 has "Telekinetic Squeeze" that doesn't have an obvious weapon, however... so maybe if I'm wanting "I have to aim a visible switchable gun to shoot an invisible projectile" the combination would be stacking Visible -10% on top of No Sig +20% for a net +10%?

Switchable+10% / Visible -10% works out to be a 0% feature. I guess the drawback of "my weapon must be seen to attack" has the benefit "my power can't be crippled when it's off" ?

If we do need to take "Visible -10%" to contradict "my body has no obvious weapon prepped" then any Innate Attack (Melee Attack) should probably have the visible limitation on it, unless it's meant to be an invisible spear or similar. You'd think there'd be some penalty to defend against those, but maybe also to hit with them, since the attacker can't actually watch his weapon hit or see how much he missed by.

P113 "Cosmetic Effects"

Most other advantages lack obvious effects except when given the Visible limitation

P163 "Obvious Effects"

If the ability isn’t based on a mental-influence advantage or another trait with explicitly invisible effects, isn’t totally passive, and isn’t enhanced with No Signature, then the buyer must describe a set of effects

I hope together these clarify?

[Varyon]

An improved version of Switchable, Hidden (-20% IIRC), can be found in “Natural Weapons” (Pyramid #3/65), and gets rid of the Ready action to turn it on/off. That said, for cases where Switchable would have a purely cosmetic effect, making the trait invisible would probably cost less. There can also be cases where you could make the cosmetic effect a net +0% - a character with invisible Gills might be able to literally breathe water (using their lungs), which avoids having external gills but also means you can be suffocated underwater by something covering you mouth and nose (normally, the gills would also have to be covered).

[Plane]

Page 24 says +20%.

I would've thought 30 since it's usually +20% to reduce time to use something from 1 second to free.

It seems to have a third modifier built in preventing it from being switchable when the weapon is grappled / stuck / locked. Normally you could just switch off a striker / innate attack weapon in those situations without needing to break free first, I think, so that's probably why it costs 10% less. Would like to know what to call that!

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Plane

Page 24 says +20%.

I would've thought 30 since it's usually +20% to reduce time to use something from 1 second to free.

It seems to have a third modifier built in preventing it from being switchable when the weapon is grappled / stuck / locked. Normally you could just switch off a striker / innate attack weapon in those situations without needing to break free first, I think, so that's probably why it costs 10% less. Would like to know what to call that!

Yeah, accidentally switched the sign there. I assume the author was basically just like “Better version of Switchable? Just double the cost.” Honestly, as the Ready is only needed for Switchable, applying Reduced Time to Switchable could be justified, making Hidden only +12%. Being unable to freely disengage is probably more just a logical consequence of a retractable weapon than some sort of game-balance effect (although it could be thought of as the latter, as getting stuck is often considered as a limiter on the incredible Injury potential of sw imp).