|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
05-10-2021, 11:41 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2018
|
Body of Fire and the Fast Fire spell giving Great Haste (Altered Time Rate) as trait?
M73 mentions how the FF spell functions as Great Haste on people with either the BOF metatrait or who are fire elementals, whose racial metatrait is relatively similar.
GH on M146 mentions this functions like having the Altered Time Rate advantage (B38) This seems like sort of a "free benefit", I'm wondering if perhaps there should be some kind of "Fast Fire functions as Great Haste" perk that should be purchased for fire beings able to benefit from this? Otherwise I'm not sure which part of the metatraits actually signify the ability to benefit. If it's considered a 0pt feature then is there some kind of balancing drawback? I noticed M73's "Slow Fire" has a similar relationship: it functions like "Slow" on fire elementals and those with the BOF metatrait... M145 mentions Slow gives a level of Decreased Time Rate, so it's kind of a similar relationship... So would this be a 0pt notation for any being you want to designate as "made of fire" who gets "Slow Fire is Slow" and "Fast Fire is Haste" ? Given it would be weird for anyone to get this, since it's probably a net advantage if undetectable (nobody would think to cast Slow Fire on you if you weren't obviously made of flames, but you could tell your mage friends your secret and they could haste you) perhaps an additional drawback should be "you look like you're made of fire" so you can't appear to be made of water and get this? Other prereqs which might be reasonable for such a feature would be whatever traits Small Fire Elemental and Body of Fire have in common which seem related to fire, such as: 1) at least one die of Always-On Burning Attack aura (perhaps less?)Extra stuff present in only one of them (Charisma, No Manipulators, fixed 0 ST) could probably be ignored as non-essential to get the feature? "You look like you're made of fire" sounds like a bad thing if it tells people your strengths/weaknesses but I wonder if it might be a good thing if you WEREN'T made of fire since it could lead to people making pointless attacks on you like shooting you with a squirtgun or casting Slow Fire on you pointlessly. Would that be some kind of perk for non-fire creatures? |
05-10-2021, 12:39 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Mar 2013
|
Re: Body of Fire and the Fast Fire spell giving Great Haste (Altered Time Rate) as tr
Maybe I'm not as detail-minded in my old age, but I'd just say if the target is made of fire and can be effected by the Fast Fire spell, that it gains haste (Altered Time Rate 1) for the duration of the spell.
Many of the traits you mentioned, like Immunity to Metabolic Hazards really don't matter for the spell.
__________________
A little learning is a dangerous thing. Warning: Invertebrate Punnster - Spinelessly Unable to Resist a Pun Dangerous Thoughts, my blog about GURPS and life. |
05-10-2021, 02:35 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Aug 2018
|
Re: Body of Fire and the Fast Fire spell giving Great Haste (Altered Time Rate) as tr
Quote:
In a world full of illusion spells where anyone can look like a fire elemental you could have a lot of Slow Fire spells wasted on them, so other indicators like "I have a burning aura I can't turn off" as a requirement (and thus indicator) also seems like a good companion. |
|
05-10-2021, 02:43 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Sep 2007
|
Re: Body of Fire and the Fast Fire spell giving Great Haste (Altered Time Rate) as tr
Quote:
Tactics matter; knowledge informs choice of tactics. That's one thing that makes research and (military) intelligence valuable, instead of just HP, DR, and damage dice. |
|
05-10-2021, 05:06 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2018
|
Re: Body of Fire and the Fast Fire spell giving Great Haste (Altered Time Rate) as tr
Quote:
So how would you modify a fire elemental who didn't obviously look like you could cast fire spells like Slow Fire to cripple it? |
|
05-10-2021, 09:47 PM | #6 | |||
Join Date: Apr 2005
|
Re: Body of Fire and the Fast Fire spell giving Great Haste (Altered Time Rate) as tr
Quote:
If creatures with BoF can benefit from Fast Fire = Great Haste it is also logical to assume that spells like Create Fire = Enlarge or Healing, Extinguish Fire = Deathtouch, Shrink, or Stun, and Shape Fire = Hinder, Paralyze Limb, or Total Paralysis. In that case, having Fire spells double as Body Control or Healing spells is definitely a Feature rather than a Perk. Quote:
Quote:
Otherwise, there might be a place for a "Deceptive Appearance" perk where your appearance, weapon choices, armor, of sensor signature suggests that you "should" be susceptible to certain types of attacks but you actually aren't. If your seeming appearance also causes you social problems, it is balanced by the Distinctive Features Quirk to make your overall appearance a 0-point Feature. Remember, Body of Fire is deliberately generic and isn't intended to be a complete analysis of the physiology of hot energy-based entities, which can range from superheroes to realistic science fiction aliens. These traits are all logical "optional traits" which could be added to the generic Body of Fire metatrait (add Insubstantiality and Injury Tolerance (Diffuse) for entities made of hot energy rather than a hot core of substantial material). |
|||
05-11-2021, 10:55 AM | #7 | |||
Join Date: Aug 2018
|
Re: Body of Fire and the Fast Fire spell giving Great Haste (Altered Time Rate) as tr
Quote:
Quote:
Powers 27 says as much: "This modifier is identical to the Mana Sensitive limitation on p. B34." Despite that though, it actually goes into further detail about it. The two aspects from B34 (influence by No Mana and Low Mana) are actually only defined as half (-5%) of the value. The other -5% is from new aspects I don't think were mentioned in Basic Set. Well, the first part I think is implied: the anti-power of Mana Damper affecting the environment, but the other ones are new: 1) Magic Resistance shielding others from your attacksNot mentioned on P27 but present elsewhere are Static/Neutralize against Magic (P79 alternative mentioned under Mana Damper, P97 also mentions Neutralize for Magic, and P122 mentions both) P176 also has notes under source-specific options for (beneficial and limiting) which I don't think apply to just taking Mana-Sensitive in -10% There's also new benefits to Magical -10% not mentioned on P34 but instead squirreled away in an odd section, "FP Cost and Source" on P178 where you get refunded FP spent on Magical powers in High Mana. So if I was going to give a breakdown of Magical I think it'd be a bit more multi-faceted. Mana-Sensitive in Basic Set can remain two things: -5% affected by terrain-locked circumstances (penalties for No or Low)although, given that Mana Enhancer can temporarily counteract terrain, maybe that part should work out to 0% sum? then the expanded "Magical" rules in powers could be extra features which happen to work out to 0% so it also is a total of -10... -5% because Neutralize/Static for Magic existThe 176-177 rules could probably be further broken down, even though they tend to be lumped together into 0% "hey it's a power!" features. Something like... +1% can use Combining Powers on P1701% is chosen for convenience, you could probably fiddle with values so long as it works out to 0%. Quote:
I can see doing that for individual advantages (like "No Signature" on Damage Resistance, though there's been huge arguments about that) though it could get trickier for stuff like Vulnerability... If we assume "Vulnerable to Water makes it obvious water puts you out" then if you're the Wicked Witch of the West who is just a green-skinned lady you wouldn't obviously throw water at to harm unless you knew her secret, I wonder how you'd price a mitigator... I can get -20 points for taking x4 damage from something Rare like (B46) "dragon's fire". If a foe knew about this he'd probably emphasize sending dragons after me, but if he didn't and I otherwise seemed to shrug off fire attacks, it wouldn't seem like a smart choice. So basically it's not just the rarity of dragon's fire that's important, but whether or not you know to use it. This sort of "know your vulnerability" emphasis plays a big role in mind games of the final battle of season 1 of the Overlord anime (last 2 eps) where misrepresenting/bluffing one's vulnerabilities emphasizes the choice of attack and how much damage is taken. A simple "do they seem hurt" question is one way to assess this, since damage is usually obvious unless you take that perk for Unkillable where they show zero harm when suffering HP loss. But in terms of a fire elemental it's more than "I can see water reduces their HP" because even before hitting them it's just pretty obvious "hey, they're a fire, I should throw water at them" which would not exist for chars like Wicked Witch of the West where you'd need to know "for some reason in this world water hurts those with green skin" (or else get lucky like Dorothy and the witch is silly enough to use Fire as her primary means of torturing enemies whilst allowing castle servants to bring in water for cleaning your parapets... even though this will inevitably have a rebel throwing water around as a countermeasure to your flames)I know in some cases GURPS also defines things by something like ~how well known is the countermeasure to your ability~ like for example Terminal Condition (PU8p17) where it's 5/10/20 for research/skill/common knowledge for simple acts Simple/Hard is similar to the "rarity" of damage types for Vulnerability, so if we assume the baseline for rarity assumes common knowledge then maybe a vulnerability should be half-value if it requires a skill roll to know what the vulnerability is, and 1/4 value if it requires research to know it? It seems like that stuff could fluctuate though. IE something which once required research, once advertised by someone who does the research, could later become common knowledge. In terms of advantages that could be like starting with a -5% limitation (barely anyone knows that a kiss will cancel your sleep spells) to a -20% one (it's hard to find anyone who doesn't know this, you're a famous witch with vocal enemies) which is almost like losing points in play... In terms of a vulnerability it could be the same thing, starting off with a low-value disadvantage (a damage multiplier few know about to exploit intentionally) to a high-value one (everyone knows to exploit it) When would appropriate situations be to create these disads though? Like maybe if the character is in Point Debt and the GM decides "your vulnerability has gained a reputation" will be how he chooses to pay it off? |
|||
Tags |
body of fire, fast fire, haste, slow, slow fire |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|