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Old 08-31-2020, 05:59 PM   #5
Plane
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Re: Healing + Triggered Delay

One big advantage to Delay is the long duration IE "you are my slave for a lifetime because I can instantly kill you" so GMs might want some way to limit that.

One proposal I've seen is to use "Maximum Duration".

I don't like applying that to the base ability because I think that can actually give bigger than 50% discount, meaning it'd be cheaper to take instant attacks and set them off right away than to just shoot someone. Compare that to "takes extra time" for example.

Probably more fare would be to apply that as a limited enhancement to Timed Delay itself, so it will always cost more.

Another might be to assume Triggered Delay loses triggerability after 10 seconds (default duration for advantages with time periods not specified) and required Extended Duration to buy things which are triggerable for longer periods of time.

"Reduced Duration" could then be a limitation (on the enhancement, not base ability) to decrease the default 10 (similar to how you can apply it to Persistent) which eventually has you approach the +10% that "Variable Delay" is worth over "Fixed Delay" if you are able to set it up to 10 seconds.

VD however requires you to choose the fixed duration before firing. "Triggered Delay with max duration" would not.

Variable Delay +20 apparently has unlimited time too (example is given "days") which seems like a problem too.

IMO one way it could work would be to ditch that, instead use base 10 for the +10% then buy Extended Duration to get more freedom for Variable Delay's maximum.

Another interesting thing would be to allow BOTH: if you take Variable Delay and Triggered Delay, then it will go off if EITHER the countdown expires OR you trigger it.

If you want to be able to switch between one or the other before firing that is cheaper, use "Alternative Enhancements".

Fixed Delay being +0% also doesn't make sense because how do limit it? "always buy duration" might fix

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
The trigger would be the same for all stacks so they'd all go off whatever the trigger is.
I think that would depend on the trigger, though? B105 gives "metal object passing within a yard" as one possible example, so I think if that happened just whichever attack's target was approached by metal would go off rather than all of them.

For simplicity I'm just going to use "bomb" as an example, as placing bombs is one alternative (just target a hex) to plant attacks for enemies without needing to hit the enemy ahead of time.

Something like Samus' bombs she uses in Morph Ball mode would probably be a good example of "Fixed Delay". I think by default that's how an attack would manifest, like a ball of energy just sits there waiting to go boom.

If it was a literal physical bomb, that would probably need more complications to reflect how someone might disarm or relocate your bomb before it goes off. I don't think you can disarm or relocate energy bombs like Samus uses, for comparison.

To have others go off when that happens, you might have to set a different condition like "or if a metal object triggers one of the other bombs" which might require buying +50% again (buy multiple levels of enhancement per different trigger option?)

If you did have a condition where none can detonate unless ALL could detonate, that could probably be worth -10% for "All or Nothing" I would guess.

The weakness in a trigger like "radio signal" is that if multiple bombs are in range (and they all rely on the same signal) it would be difficult to have the signal only reach the bomb you intend, since normally I think radios (like sound) just emanate out in all directions...

Any trigger that you could control (for example "if I shine a red laser pointer on it") would require aiming and potentially missing what you're trying to trigger. You could even design another of your innate attacks to function as the trigger.

It's actually super scary if you have something like "trigger: explode when I sent a telepathic command to explode" but that would obviosuly require additional abilities.

You might not be inclined to miss if you had an AE effect to trigger, but the bigger your AE the less control you would have over tightly-placed bombs. So for total control you would need selectivity (to alter how many levels of AE apply) or Selective Area.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
Delay seems to allow basically anything to trigger it (notice how just coming within a yard of metal can).
It would need to be fixed though, like you couldn't alter it from "bomb explodes if metal is 1 yard off" to "bomb explodes if metal is 2 yards off"...

I could see wanting a char who could customize that though.

I guess the closest thing short of Modular Abilities would be "Variable Enhancement". Then you could change one kind of +50% into a different kind of +50% and choose any reasonable trigger until the sun, but that would cost +500%.

It's strange how they're all worth the same. B106 Homing actually has a variable price depending on the cost of the sensing mechanism your attack uses... might actually make sense to do that for Triggered Delay too?

Like for example if you wante to be triggered by metal then Detect (Metal) cost.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
And it makes sense for non-healing things, too; An attack that waits for the next attack to actually hit them can be useful for stacking shock penalties, pushing past certain HP thresholds all at once, etc.
I think to pass an HP threshold for crippling (or blunt trauma, or knockback, or major wounds knockdown HT roll) you'd actually need to use teamwork technique from powers? Shock would definitely stack up though.

Last edited by Plane; 08-31-2020 at 06:13 PM.
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