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Old 10-24-2019, 11:43 AM   #19
Plane
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Re: [Basic] Duration of Advantages with Preparation Required limitation

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
I'm not sure I understand the question. We were just talking about the duration of an ability with Prep Required once it's activated, assuming that the base Advantage is Always On (thus infinite duration, if you want to look at it that way).
Ah, you introduced that in response to Sorenant saying in first post...
As I understand, if you have an advantage continual effect like Flight, Talent and Damage Resistance, it will last indefinitely after being activated

I see Damage Resistance and DR as always-on by default but I'm not entirely sure about Flight...

I guess if it was Flight (Winged) I would see the point (buying switchable to make the wings vanish?) but I'm wondering, for basic Flight is there actually any passive effect of having that advantage which applies when not actively choosing to fly?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
The various times are most often specified in the specific rules for the Advantages and modifiers. There's not a global rule (as far as I know) or a formal list of a range of times (10s / 60s / 10m) -- though there's Extended Duration and Reduced Duration to construct whatever time you want.
Modifying with Extended/Reduced would still require knowing the baseline time of a "use" which seems to be set at different starting amounts depending on which limitation is taken though.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
For instance, Afflictions of a switchable Advantage specify that they're on for one minute per point of failure of the HT roll to resist. Limited Use specifies that abilities with that Limitation activate for one minute per use.
In that case, wouldn't it be "I can shoot Afflictions for one minute" for the Limited-Use attacker, with no change in duration for how long the effects of the attack last?

That gets blurry where you interpret the attacker as getting to control how the advantage works though, but I think generally that's supposed to be an instantaneous choice ("I choose where you Warp to ONCE, but then I can't keep warping you around for the next minute") rather than a prolonged one... but if it was prolonged then control should perhaps expire after 1 minute rather than MoF minutes?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
Possible choices include:

- Prep Required doesn't affect the duration of an ability. If it's Always On, once you prep it and activate it, it might stay on forever if you choose never to prep another ability. If nothing says otherwise, why assume there's a limit?
One place I'm drawn to think of is how Enchanted Items work...

In the case of having a "Power" enchantment, if it covers maintenance cost then you pay to switch it on, and it will remain on indefinitely as long as you are conscious, but turns off once you're no longer conscious....

To actually have it remain active while unconscious is a whole other requirement, where "Power" also has to be able to afford the activation cost too.

In the sense of advantages, maybe a "use" of the power could be tied into requiring its user to be conscious?

I can't remember if that's a 0-point feature. DR that shuts off automatically when unconscious would be great if someone is trying to kill you after knocking you out, but less great if someone needed to inject you with a life-saving drug and the needle can't penetrate your iron skin.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
- Prep Required does affect duration of activation, like so many similar Limitations. It doesn't have its own rule (like all those other relatives do), and so the base Advantage duration in the ability is covered by the B112 text, for lack of any more specific value.
This probably makes more sense, even though we have different lengths of time given for "use" under certain limitations, it isn't clear we're intended to use either of those outside the context of those limitations.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
- Prep Required includes a duration limit, like Limited Use -- say, one minute, as that's what Limited Use says. This assumption is more harmonious with existing similar modifiers, but it's not official (AFAIK).
Isn't limited use instantaneous (not a minute) for stuff like Innate Attack though? I can't say I like that, because "I can shoot fireballs for 1 full minute every 24 hours" is still pretty limited compared to "I can shoot fireballs whenever I want" and should be worth something... whereas "I can shoot 1 fireball per day" is super rough...

My brain keeps telling me there's a rule for a default of one minute for activations, but I didn't see that in Powers when I was looking while writing my previous post.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
Attacks are a little different. They're "Transient", which means that their effect is instantaneous. They go bang or whoosh or poof or whatever, without a relevant duration during the turn.
We can perceive a "duration in which I can use my transient abilities" though. Would the only way to legally do that be to take Shapeshifting (w/ Limited Use + Maximum Duration) and your Alternate Form has Innate Attack?

That weirdly, might actually turn out to be cheaper+better than taking Limited Use on Innate Attack directly.
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