Statting up a Dullahan
 

How would you represent having a head permanently detached from the body? I originally thought modified Independent Body Parts, but upon re-reading the description, that seems like a poor fit. The way the head modifier for that advantage is described, maybe having either the head as an Ally for the body or the body as an Ally for the head would work, but generally body parts as Allies are considered ill-advised, and an Ally as part of a racial template seems clunky, anyways. Also wouldn't mind advice for how to handle some other characteristics of the dullahan, such as stuff unlocking in their presence or being impossible to run away from.

By the way, I know Pyramid 3/99 has a dullahan, but that one has no head whatsoever, and I want one where the head is just separate.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

I would suggest looking at Duradara!! It has a quite powerful dullahan.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

I'm not looking for sources about dullahan, though. I'm looking for advice on how to stat up the abilities of one in gurps. Suggesting an anime featuring a dullahan is less than useless for my present situation.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Dullahan: Unkillable 3 (Achilles Heel Detached Head), Pararadar. Clairvoyance and Clairaudience, location always at head -80% (blind and deaf if out of range)

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Clairaudience and Clarvoyance could work, but I'm not sure where you're coming from on the Pararadar and the detached head as an Achilles heel. Could you explain?

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Perhaps Puppet (B78) and Possession (B75).

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

The Pararadar is so it can navigate. After all, it's eyes and ears are always with the head. The Dullahan is a kind of half-ghost half-fairie. I visualize as it disappearing before it can be finally slain. But find and destroy the head and it can be slain. Someone could also threaten the Dullahan into serving them by holding the head hostage.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

The reason I suggest it is because of her abilities, notably her manipulation of shadows, her mount's ability to transform into any vehicle, her supernatural senses, etc.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Since I don't think any players are likely to be a Dullahan, I'd be really tempted to hand wave it... as the GM I think I'd just say: its head is separate. The body can sense where the head is. One of its arms and hands is usually taken up by holding the head.

If I was in need of making the stats for a player and not using David Johnston's suggestion? I was looking at Duplication to see if maybe you could have exactly one permanent duplicate. The main one is the head, and the body is the duplicate. That looks like it might take a lot of modification though. Up to you if you want to explore that possibility.

The more I think about this, the more I think: hand wave it for NPCs, and just disallow it for PCs.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Here's another starting point:

Injury Tolerance (No Head; actually has a head, just not attached, -?%), possibly along with Blindness and Deafness with Mitigator (head)

Beats me what the limitation value should be, though.

2-body characters are hard in GURPS. I think I've also seen it suggested that an Ally with an appropriate Cosmic modifier might work? In that case, give the head Telepathy (with Sensie, etc.,), possibly Mind Reading with similar, and Mindlink, and give the body Blindness and Deafness. Pay full points for the more expensive body/character, and maybe give Telepathy a Cosmic modifier of it's own to allow skill use through it?

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

I would actually model the head with Injury Tolerance (Independent Body Parts; Detachable Head, +15%; No Reattachment, -60%) [17]. In the case of the Duradara!! dullahan, I would also add Ally (Mount, Constant, 150%; Special Powers, +50%; Summonable, +100%; Sympathy, Death, -50%) [80], Appearance (Transcendent) [20], Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Injury Tolerance (Diffuse; Infiltration, +40%; Switchable, +5%) [145], and Unaging [15]. Her shadow manipulation powers come from her mount, as well as a few other abilities.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Ah, that makes sense now. While the dullahan template will definitely have Unkillable 3 with Achilles Heel, I'm still not sure the head will be the Achilles Heel. I originally planned for that to be gold, which the template also has a Vulnerability to, and maybe a Weakness, Revulsion or Dread. I'd prefer Revulsion, but it doesn't allow for Rare categories, and I find it hard to justify gold as Occasional.

To be honest, I'm not sure this will actually ever come up in a game. I'm mostly doing this for fun.

I don't like the Independent Body Parts build for a couple of reasons. One, it effectively gives a free ally, and another, it also allows other body parts to remain animate if severed. The latter issue could be solved with a limitation, but the first one still remains. As for the other stuff, you have to realize, I'm not depicting the dullahan from some anime I'd never heard of until yesterday. For my dullahan race, mounts are usually allies, but they're bought on an individual rather than racial basis, not shapeshifting, and don't grant any extra abilities. (At least not usually. There may be execptions that do grant abilities, but for those I'd look to mythology rather than anime.)
Appearance is at least as variable as humans, with no racial appearance; they're never Transcendent, though appearance can potentially be lower than typically allowed for humans. They're more fae than undead, so metabolic hazards do affect them. They don't pass through tiny spaces, they genuinely open locks. They certainly don't manipulate shadows. The only trait you listed that actually applies to my concept of dullahan is Unaging, and I already had that.

On the note of them unlocking stuff, I'm currently representing that by converting the Lockmaster spell into an advantage as per Pyramid #3/44, and applying some heavy modifiers. Admittedly, those modifiers include a couple that should be used with caution according to the article, and two that are normally forbidden due to being attack modifiers, but since Area Effect is often applied to other non-attacks, and Emanation just means the area is centered on the dullahan, I don't think it's too game-breaking.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

I lean heavily toward Ally (constantly x4; Cosmic, built and played by PC, +300%), particularly if your objection to the independent body parts build is that it feels like it gives a free ally. Don't allow the based on 150% of points level of ally, of course.

However, to get the two parts to fully act as one, they should have (almost) all the same skills. Modular Abilities with Reduced Time feels like cheating to me, but I haven't statted it out. Maybe build them both as far as what differs (putting Ally on one of them), buy the based on 100% version of Ally as modified above, and buy what is the same for both of them together, kind of like how Alternate Form works.
The Mindlink and Telepathy abilities I mentioned before will enable them to know what each other knows. Limit the telepathy with an advanced version of racial so it only works for that purpose.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Based on a somewhat similar situation I found on the forums, if going the Ally route, what about statting up the body as a "vehicle" with a single level of Compartmentalized Mind (Controls), and possibly IQ 0? Do you think that would be viable?

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Maybe, but then I think the head would need to be near the body to "drive" it (maybe check how Transhuman Space handles tele-operating a shell?). Where's the similar situation? I'd like to take a look.

Off the top of my head, Possession might work better here. I'd have to think it over and consult my books, though.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

I found this when doing a google search of the forums for 'headless': http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=137168

I'll look into what TS says on the matter. And, you may be right. Possession with Telecontrol and either Mindlink Required or Puppet Only might work for this.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Independent Body Parts with Detachable Head allows the head to act as an ally if you also have No Brain (Horror, p. 15). Since it would be a 17 CP trait with No Reattachment, it is hardly a 'free' ally.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

I'm in the process of statting up the head and body as two different characters. Currently, the head is worth nearly 150% of the body. I would absolutely give the ally for this set-up a Constant frequency. It may not be completely free, but it's a sizable discount. Besides, if you have a permanent ally, you should have to pay for the ally, not the reason you have it. Just let it go, Independent Body Parts works poorly for a dullahan.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Away from my books for the near future, but with something like this, I’d suggest eating the elephant one bite at a time - define the benefits and drawbacks of a permanently detached head and see if there are any GURPS traits that come close to such effects and work from there. You’ll also want to consider what actions the character can take to reduce/eliminate the drawbacks (and/or other Advantage he/she might have that would have a mitigating effect). Don’t be afraid to invent new Advantages based roughly on the cost of existing ones rather than trying to contort existing ones with a paragraph of Modifiers.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

The Kaldane build you link to assumes the proximity of head and body for driving, which it sounds like you don't want.

The Minimal Software Template, for our purposes, is essentially IQ-10 [-100]; Dead Broke [-25]; (It adds reprogrammable and a social stigma because it's software, but that doesn't apply here)

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Breaking it down in this method, and assuming that I won't use an Ally, I've got:

Permanently Detatched Head Pros:
Movable viewpoint - Clairsentience (Increased Range, x20, +40%; Location Always at Head, -80%) [30]
Ranged Bite Attack - Natural Weapon (Crushing; Bite, +0%; Limited Use, Thrown, -5%; Ranged, +100%; Single, -20%) [9] + Weak Bite (No Bite, +50%) [-3]
Doesn’t have to view and work from the same angle - Maybe Flexible only for close quarters penalties or an Unusual Posture perk?
Can’t be decapitated - Injury Tolerance (No Neck; Can Still be choked or strangled, -40%) [3]

Permanently Detatched Head Cons:
Head position unstable unless held, secured or resting on flat surface - Unstable Head (Mitigator, Ribbon or Scarf to Secure Head, -60%) [-2] (Refluffed Klutz, equally inconvenient, but more likely to cause minor injury than expensive property damage)
Head has no mobility of it’s own - ?
Head can be lost, in which case body must work by touch - Blindness (Accessibility, only for actions using body, -20%; Mitigator, Head can see or is touching body, -60%) [-10]

Thanks, though upon further reflection, I'll probably use the stuff I mentioned above instead of an ally. It seems simpler and/or less cluttered.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

In short not having a head is garbage. if it's just a matter of having a detached head. That's why I'm more generous.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

I might still add Pararadar, but I sort of like the disadvantages, seeing as this is supposed to be a bit fluffier than the dullahan of legend. And, like I said before, there will definitely be Unkillable 3, I'm just not sure the head will be a weak point.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Horror 80 mentions the Headless Horsemen as specialized ghosts but doesn't appear to actually stat them...

One problem I can see with using "Independent Body Parts" is that this also allows your arms/legs to detach and fight independently and I'm not sure how to prevent that.

Given that the "Detachable Head" modifier (horror 15) treats wherever your sentience isn't located as an ally, I think Cowrie's idea of designing them as allies to begin with (and just ignoring Detachable Body Parts altogether) makes sense.

Zombies 54 allows the "fatal flaw" for Supernatural Durability to be specified as a Headshot, so allowing that to be defined as an Achilles Heel for Unkillable seems to make sense if treating them as a collective unit.

If they're being defined as allies, then maybe the body could have a Dependence on the Head and die (or lose its Unkillability) if separated from it?

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

If you look more closely at my OP, I was initially against using an Ally, since body parts as allies are often unbalanced. I still have doubts about that write-up for that reason. And, like I said before, I'm not sure I want the head as an Achilles Heel.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

I'd use alternate form and duplication, where the head is necessary to survive (sequenced dupes) and each dupe is locked into one of the alternate forms. Alternate forms will have the limitation that each dupe can by only one of the two forms. Duplication will be "always on" since even if you put the head on the body, they are still functionally independent.

Depending on how the "body" can be replaced you can either use projection on duplication (fast replacement) or just build unkillable into the AF that the body has.

For an NPC it doesn't really matter how you build this. For a PC, "ally" means that the GM would control your body (not fun) or head (kind of interesting) while duplication gives you direct control of both.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

First of all, like I said before, I'm mostly statting up a dullahan racial template just for the heck of it.

Turning to the build you suggest, this does solve a number of the problems with the ally build. For this build, would you say that each form would require the Duplication advantage? For the Always On limitation on that, I tend to think it would be at the -20% level, "physically inconvenient". For the limitation on the Alternate Form, I'm not sure what the value would be, though.

Where did you find something that allows Projection to be applied to Duplication, though? I can't find any sign of that being a thing. There is the Projected Form limitation for Alternate Form, but that doesn't seem like it would apply here.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

There would be "one" shared character sheet with alternate form having "racial" meta-traits for the differences. Duplication would be part of the shared template. AF template 1 could be done via limitations on advantages, but it's cleaner to just build it as a meta-trait so you can add what you need to add.

For example:

ST 12 DX 11 IQ 12 HT 10
Alternate Form 2 (Dupes are locked into base form, and different for each)
- AF template 1: IT: No Head. Unkillable?
- AF template 2: No Manipulators, Sessile?, IT:DR less body.
Duplication (sequential - if the head dies both die, always on -20%)

That should have been "Construct" rather than Projection. Basically it's just an alternate way to have a disposable (headless) body.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Okay, this is just confusing me more. Why would there be two Alternate Forms? That would give three possible forms. The way it works is you have a base template, and then an alternate form that replaces that template. Also, I'm not sure you're entirely clear that the dullahan is supposed to be a template itself, not an individual character.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Upon reflection it's probably better to do it as AF1 where you calculate the difference in the base templates.

I put the various traits in packages since those are what will swap out.

Base Meta-trait
Alternate Form (Head is first dupe, body is any "second" dupe; Always On -20%) [13]
Duplication (Construct* +60%; Sequential -40%) [42]
Total Cost for "shared" traits is 55 points.

Package 1) Body without head:
IT:DR No Eyes, Head, or Neck [17]

Package 2) Head without body:
Lame (Legless) [-30]
No Manipulators [-50]

For the final costs you have to figure out which form will be the base cost. For example, if you had a character that was either a cat or an elf, you could cost it as a cat that turns into an elf or an elf that turns into cat. Same trick here, head being the cat and body being the elf.

Figuring it as head (base) -> body: Shared costs 55 points + pkg 2 traits of -80 points + 90% of 97 pts (17 - -80). Total 63 points.

Figuring it as body (base) -> head: Shared costs 55 points + pkg 2 traits of 17 points. Since the second form is negative, you don't pay anything to swap to it. Total 72 points.

I used construct on Duplication because a) it's tends to be more potent since anytime you have 10 fatigue you can pop out another body b) it also tends to be cheaper than unkillable 2.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Okay, that makes a lot more sense, though I'm not sure Construct is necessary, since regardless, the base package will include Unkillable 3 (Achilles Heel, Gold, Rare, -10%) [135]. The more I think about it, I want both head and body to die if either one is killed with gold, or for both to go into "ghost mode" if either is reduced to -10xHP in another way. Actually, that seems more like it's a more severe limitation on Duplication rather than Construct+Sequential. Maybe...

Sympathetic Death: If one of your Dupes dies, so do all of them and you. If you also have Unkillable 2 or 3, if one is brought to -10xHP, all of you drop into the same dormant state. However, any effect that brings back the dead also works on all your dupes and you, including a use of Extra Life. -70%.

On another note, I plan on making Telesend with the duplicate part of the base package. BS says that Telesend with just your Dupes should use the Racial limitation, but this is a race of creatures that always have a single Dupe, no more, no less, and can only communicate that way with their own Dupe. Would you say that qualifies Telesend for a more sizable limitation?

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Sympathetic Death would make more sense for an Ally though, as it is a limitation for Ally. For example, if the head is an allly of the body, it would make sense for the body to have Ally (Head; 100%; 15-; Special Abilities, +50%; Sympathetic Damage, Death, -50%) [15]. The head itself would have many disadvantages, such as No Legs (Portable) [-30], No Manipulators [-50], Social Stigma (Monster) [-15], and Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25], meaning that it would much cheaper Ally than otherwise suggested.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

It would be RAW for an Ally. That does not mean it would make more sense for an Ally.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

I'd peg it at -50%, but allow -60% since the math is kinder for a 35 point advantage. Otherwise it seems like a fair replacement for what normally happens when a dupe dies.

By RAW, you would take Mindlink [5] and Telesend (Racial, your dupe -20%) [24] for 29 points total as shared advantages (not in the head/body meta-traits). This gives you total two way communication between your dupes, and you don't need to ever roll for anything.

If you want to bump up "only your dupe" to -80%, I personally wouldn't object since normally Telesend w/racial would be your entire species (humans, for example).

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

The first problem is Ally is that it's either (a) under the GM's control or (b) a mindless automation that needs to be controlled to the exclusion of doing anything else.

The second problem is "Social Stigma" and "Dead Broke" would apply equally to both or neither.

Finally, even under the ally approach doesn't it make more sense for the head to be the "brains" of the character and the body to be a means for getting stuff done? The relationship of command seems more logical as head controls body, even though it's not attached. Here the head would be some sort of adviser? Perhaps one that usurp control periodically?

If I was going to use the ally route, I'd build the head as the character with Telecontrol to manage a puppet body.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

It depends on if the body possesses No Brains. If it does, then the head is not the brains of the outfit, it is just a passenger that the body carries around for communication purposes (it would even be possible for the body to lock away the head if it gets too annoying, as the head depends on the body for mobility). The head is more vulnerable than the body, as it has no mobility or manipulators, so it is likely the junior partner in the relationship, though it could be useful as a spellcaster.

In this type of situation, the body of a dullahan would have two allies, a carried head and a summonable mount, each bound to the other's fate. The head would be worth 15 CP while the mount would be worth 40 CP, meaning that a dullahan should probably be a minimum of 300 CP as a template, as it will need points for other stuff.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

It's just as likely that the head is not only the brains of the outfit but also sight, smell, and hearing. Being blind, deaf, and mute would be about as serious as being "bodyless" in terms of disads.

If psi or magic is in play, the head could be much more capable than the body.


Allies (NPCs) don't pay to have the PC as an ally. Unless you're creating a true headless horseman with head, body and horse where 2 of those are allies?

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Yes, the body would be the primary while the mount and head would be the secondaries. The body should have its own senses though, similar to the headless horseman of legend.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

What the heck is a sessile head useful for?

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

Well, that would depend on its abilities (and it is not sessile, that is a different form of No Legs). For example, the head could possess supernatural abilities that allow it to summon the dead or open gateways to Hell. Or it could possess the ability to cause unspeakable terror with a glance and feed off the fear. It really depends on how you design the dullahan.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

I realize things have moved on to Duplication, but...

Not only is it always at the head, but this is the only place the character's senses (other than Touch) are located. This also requires placing a highly-vulnerable (it can't defend itself, and it's rather easy to target the Skull, for x4 injury) body part away from the reach of the body, which is problematic. I'd say the cost for this - even considering the boosted range - would be [10], making it functionally a net total -80% Limitation, and I wouldn't be too argumentative if someone placed it at [5].

It's a Ranged Headbutt, really (you'd have to hit with the least aerodynamic part of the head to deliver a bite). The fact you need to throw your most vulnerable bit calls for a significant discount. Considering all that - and the fact the character already has a headbutt attack, this is just putting Ranged on it - I'd eyeball it as a Perk, maybe [2].

This is covered by your Clairsentience, above.

Does the dullahan have a Neck hit location? If not, this is simply IT (No Neck) at full cost (being able to be suffocated by someone holding their hand over your mouth is a function of lacking Doesn't Breathe). If so, no trait is needed. If your dullahans have a Neck that can be choked, but is treated as a Torso hit for purposes of Injury, then your build would be correct. Decapitation is just a special effect of a Neck wound that kills you.

Seems fair.

Perhaps No Legs (Portable) [-30], but applied only to the Head. The Head is right around 10% of the character's surface area, so [-3] doesn't seem too inappropriate.

Included as part of my interpretation of Clairsentience.

Compare a character with normal Duplication (where death of the dupe means sympathetic Injury and loss of the Advantage) to one with this Limitation and Extra Life. At -60%, the character is saving [21] on Duplication and paying [25] for Extra Life. For a net cost of [4], the character gets a "get out of death free" card, which is a pretty serious discount.

What you're really looking at is something more akin to Vulnerability x7 (Sympathetic Injury), where Sympathetic Injury is really more rare than Rare. Vulnerability x7 (everything) would be [-125] (by symmetry with IT:DR), against a Rare threat it would be [-25], and against this Ultra-Rare threat it would probably be something like [-12.5], which I'd round down to [-10].

Agreed on the first. For the second, One Person Only is canonically -80% (PU8:5), so there's a good reason to take that instead of Racial.

As for the fact the dupes share senses, that's worth at least a Perk, being roughly comparable to Teamwork. Special Rapport wouldn't be entirely out of the question, however.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

My 2 cents: How it gets statted up probably depends a lot on how you envision "headless"... well, working. The basic portrayal I recall seeing, though I don't know if it was a Dullahan specifically, involves the head being visibly frustrated while the body fumbles around placing random vaguely right-shaped objects on its neck; usually, the head is 'tied down' by external means rather than a proper 'neck'. Most of the time I've seen it relevant, beings with detachable heads aren't immune to Decapitation - they often keep their head where it's 'supposed to' be and suffer from someone chopping it off. In fact, it's easier with them, because the neck effectively has no structural integrity outside of whatever armor is put around it - no HP and a crippling threshold of zero, in game terms.

Cases where you, say, hold your head under your arm seem thematic, and the rest of the time the body seems to run at the cleverness of a particularly dull human. If you're controlling your body remotely, that's another "level" of the "power".

For that setup, I'd probably stat it up as:

Headless (7/32/122 points): Injury Tolerance (Independent Body Parts; Detachable Head Only, -85%; Nuisance Effect, need to tie head down when in contact, -5%) [7] + Immunity to Neck Chokes [1] + Quirk (Neck crippling/decapitation threshold is zero) [-1]. Level two adds Possession (Own Body Only, -80%; While head is detached, -10%) + Puppet (While head is detached, -10%) [+25]. Level 3 adds Telecontrol 2 to Possession [+90].

Notes:

• Having a detachable set of limbs and having a detachable head are mostly independent; most Modifiers that let you remove the full 'original' Advantage have -100% on top of whatever Enhancement represents the new capabilities, hence why Detachable Head Only is -85% - exactly 100% less than the +15% adding a Detachable Head gives you.
• Immunity to Neck Chokes is the result of treating Injury Tolerance (No Neck) as a 5-point Immunity to neck-related things, then taking a more specific form vis-a-vis Immunity to a single poison/disease.
• Being able to detach your own head whenever you like is a special effect resulting from being able to not resist doing damage to yourself when you like.
• "While head is detached" is a rephrasing of "while using Injury Tolerance (Detachable Body Parts)".
• While your head and body are in the same place and physically touching, being able to control it as if you were 'in' the body is a special effect on Possession since you're controlling a single person's worth of body parts.
• The third level lets you control both when they're separated, by any distance.

The price seems possibly excessive given other builds at the third level, so it'd probably be better to ignore level 3 and model "you have two separate bodies with different capabilities and can share senses between them" some other way.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

One traditional characteristic of a dullahan that I'm including is a very wide mouth, stretching from ear to ear. In GURPS, that's Born Biter 1, or maybe even 2. I consider that justification for being able to hit with a bite this way. Also, it has a cinematic feel that I enjoy.

The dullahan's body has a neck stump vulnerable to choke holds and such in my conception of it.


If I do go this way instead of using a limitation, I'm not sure figuring the value of Vulnerability x7 by using IT:DR is right. Wouldn't it be better to extrapolate from the existing Vulnerability numbers, so that a Rare x7 would be worth [-35], and then halve that to [-17.5], rounded down to [-15]? Unless you got the idea from a book or word of Kromm somewhere? And why x7? If you assume 2d as the average 7 points of damage, multiplying that by x7 would usually cause death, but not always, at least if you assume full HP for a character with the human average. And my dullahan have a higher ST/HP.


I definitely intend to include Mindlink. As for shared senses, isn't that what the Sensie enhancement on Telesend is for? That's a full +80%, it seems unbalanced to consider a Teamwork perk comparable.

Re: Statting up a Dullahan
 

The template was paying full (not in the head/body templates) 150 point cost for Unkillable.

The -60% was for the other dupe suffering instant death (same -HP as dupe) instead of 2d injury and stun when either dupe was killed. You're saying it's worth more like -30%? That's the same as a separate -10 point disad. At -60% of 35% it would come to -21 points instead.