How to make a character who can control fire and is immune to damage from it?

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by backstabby

So how would I price controlling and shaping fire?

You need Control for that, on Powers, p. 90; note that Fire is considered "Common" for this meta-advantage, so Control Fire is 20 points/level.

If they can create fire too, then they also need Create, , on Powers, p. 92; note that Fire is considered "Small Category" for this meta-advantage, so Create Fire is 10 points/level.

Both advantages have modifiers you can apply that you should check out to customize them to fit the desired abilities you had in mind. For instance, if you can create fire, you may also want to destroy it, which wil add +100% to the cost (or if you can just put it out, +0%).

For doing fire attacks, there's Burning Attack (under Innate Attack). If they can't create fire, then I'd suggest some Accessibility limitation (I'd think it'd be hefty) so that you need to be around a fire source big enough.

If they can use heat-based attacks, that's a Fatigue Attack with the appropriate Hazard.

Don't forget about Alternative Abilities when you're building this all out... as long as you're okay with them not being able to have any two or more abilities active at once, make them Alternative Abilities and get the cheaper one(s) for 1/5 the price. Probably wouldn't want to do this with defenses though, unless the goal is to make a character that is vulnerable to fire whilst controlling / shaping it, which is unusual but I could see it depending on the explanation of how this power works.

Powers, p. 129 has an extensive section on potential abilities of a Heat/Fire power. You might want to check it out too. It has a lot of good ideas.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

(GURPS Powers, pg 90) for "Control Fire". It is its' own advantage.

(GURPS Powers, pg 92) for "Create Fire". It is its' own advantage.

(GURPS Supers, pg 104) for "Immune to Heat".
Resistant (Heat) (Occasional) (Immune, *1) is the RAW method.

(GURPS Powers, pg 118 - 119) for how to calculate "Invulnerable to Fire".
DR 30 (Limited (Heat/Fire), -40%), usually. You can do the Insubstantiality build it suggests, and add Cosmic (Rules Exemption; Can Shield Others w/ Body), +50%, so that you can shield others behind you while not suffering the effects yourself if you want that functionality.

You will find quite a bit of, ah, conversation happens about invulnerability and related issues on these forums. There are a number of ways of attaining it, some people don't like those ways, some people are fine with it, some people don't like any form of invulnerability, some people just like complaining. We've a number of posters who aren't happy with the game's default balance and so take issue to nearly anything/everything that comes up.

Take it all with a grain of salt and, simply, do it the way your GM finds acceptable.

Do pay attention to the Benchmarking Attack and Defense textbox on (GURPS Powers, pg 117).

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

(GURPS Supers, pg 104) for "Immune to Heat".
Resistant (Heat) (Occasional) (Immune, *1) is the RAW method.

Careful though, this one may not do what you may think it does. It means you to not need to make *HT rolls* when exposed to heat, it doesn't protect you from burning damage at all. It's a subset of Immunity to Metabolic Hazards.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Most immune to fire types I imagine would exist in worlds without any other type of burning damage.

I've seen frost effects modeled with Burning Attack (No Incendiary Effect).

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Careful though, this one may not do what you may think it does. It means you to not need to make *HT rolls* when exposed to heat, it doesn't protect you from burning damage at all. It's a subset of Immunity to Metabolic Hazards.

The referenced text in Supers makes that perfectly clear. It means you do not suffer from the environmental effects of Heat, as defined on (GURPS Basic Set, pg 434).

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Careful though, this one may not do what you may think it does. It means you to not need to make *HT rolls* when exposed to heat, it doesn't protect you from burning damage at all. It's a subset of Immunity to Metabolic Hazards.

I believe it would protect you against Fatigue Attacks and Leech FP with the Heat hazard (Psionic Powers, p. 19) though. Might be wrong but I think that's right.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

I believe it would protect you against Fatigue Attacks and Leech FP with the Heat hazard (Psionic Powers, p. 19) though. Might be wrong but I think that's right.

It does, yes.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

I believe it would protect you against Fatigue Attacks and Leech FP with the Heat hazard (Psionic Powers, p. 19) though. Might be wrong but I think that's right.

What's more unclear is how it interacts with ambient temperature, and effects that don't involve HT checks. There's a point where you start taking HP damage from sheer ambient heat, but we don't know where that is AFAIK; that point would be adjusted by Temperature Tolerance... not by Resistant/Immune.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Bruno

What's more unclear is how it interacts with ambient temperature, and effects that don't involve HT checks.

Erm. The books are perfectly clear on the subject?

Originally Posted by GURPS Supers, pg 104

Being Resistant or even Immune to Thermal Stress doesn't protect against actual physical injury from sources of heat or cold.

If the temperature is high enough (or low enough) to cause damage, Resistant does nothing about the damage. You need another trait to handle the damage component of the ambient environment.

Originally Posted by Bruno

There's a point where you start taking HP damage from sheer ambient heat, but we don't know where that is AFAIK; that point would be adjusted by Temperature Tolerance... not by Resistant/Immune.

I'd suggest referring to:

Originally Posted by GURPS Basic Set, pg 434

Intense Heat: Human skin starts to burn at 160; see Flame (p. 433) for damage

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by Bruno

What's more unclear is how it interacts with ambient temperature, and effects that don't involve HT checks. There's a point where you start taking HP damage from sheer ambient heat, but we don't know where that is AFAIK;

Um... huh. Yeah, that is a point. At what point does just being in the heat cause HP loss?

Maybe treat it like FP loss from heat, that with Resistant or Immunity to Heat, except instead of the character actually losing FP, you just tick off "virtual" FP, treating the FP score as a sort of ablative DR vs the HP loss from the ambient heat. So you don't get fatigued, but you eventually suffer the HP losses as though you did lose all your FP to heat exposure.

Or maybe that weakens the advantage too much, and just treat it as:

Originally Posted by p. B434

Intense Heat: Human skin starts to burn at 160°; see Flame (p. 433) for damage.

Originally Posted by Bruno

that point would be adjusted by Temperature Tolerance... not by Resistant/Immune.

I'm not entirely sure that's true. Resistant would add a bonus to your HT rolls to avoid FP (and later HP) loss based on being exposed to heat above what is healthy given by your comfort zone; Immunity would have these rolls succeed automatically. Temperature Tolerance extends the comfort zone itself, which could prevent the need to make those HT rolls in the first place. Both advantages tackle two sides of when heat hurts you. I do think that Temperature Tolerance protects against the damage from Intense Heat (where you effectively start to burn as per Flame) whereas Resistant / Immunity to Heat would not.

It's like radiation: you can't actually be immune to radiation, because rads are a type of damage. You take Radiation Tolerance to reduce the rads you accumulate, sort of like IT:DR. But it seems reasonable (and I believe Kromm suggested it once) to have Resistant or even Immunity for the HT rolls you make as a result of having accumulated those rads (Resistant / Immunity to the Effects of Radiation). Then again, I'm not sure exactly why accumulating rads is bad at all if you're immune to the effects of it (unless it's a lesser Resistant, or the Immunity has limitations like a power modifier or something attached to it). Still.

Both kinds of Resistant (and especially the Immunity level) kind of nerf their respective Tolerance advantages, IMO. But then again, they're not always appropriate and they're very dubious as far as realism goes, whereas the Tolerance advantages are realistic for many organisms (even, maybe, at low levels for some humans).