03-28-2023, 08:40 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Feb 2023
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Re: How to price/buy abilities within Powers?
Great advice, thanks! So if I would want to use multiple abilities at the same time would I have to make multiple ability/skill rolls on my turn or still have to successively activate them on multiplefollowing turns?
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03-28-2023, 08:42 AM | #12 | |
Join Date: Feb 2023
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Re: How to price/buy abilities within Powers?
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03-28-2023, 12:14 PM | #13 | ||
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: How to price/buy abilities within Powers?
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You can only make one attack but can activate many abilities at the same time, as long as they do not require a Ready or Concentrate. However if something is an alternate ability of another you can only use one of that set (the primary and its alternates) per turn. What the prior poster was suggesting is that you can buy two abilities at full cost. That lets you use two abilities at the same time and it can be done so as to have two out of a larger set or group of abilities available but you can select what two you want. Quote:
They are based on rules in GURPS Powers but like GURPS Psionics are good examples of worked powers that make understanding the rules a bit easier.
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
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03-28-2023, 07:42 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: How to price/buy abilities within Powers?
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One answer is that you can have any number of groups of Alternative Abilities. Which ability goes in which group is up to you. Each AA has one currently-selected ability, which is the only one from that group you can use. But since you have several groups, you'd have one spell from each group available. You switch the active spell in a group using an action (Maneuver) on your turn. There's also a later rule that lets you have N abilities active from a single AA group. You pay the full price for the N most expensive abilities, and 1/5 price for all the others. That gets you the ability to have N abilities in that group active at the same time. You swap out the active abilities as usual. This is probably preferable to having multiple AA groups as you don't run into the problem of which ability is in which group. It's simpler to keep track of and you don't run into problems stemming from which ability you put into which group. See GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery ("Sorcery"), page 8, in the "Simultaneous Spells" box to see this rule in action. (I think this book might even have been the first time the rule made it into print to become official.) Note that if an ability has an ongoing effect, like a buff instead of an attack, then you need to keep it active in an AA group slot for it to keep going. If you want to maintain the same single-target buff on four party members, you'll need four slots to slot that buff four times, and cast it four times. (So better yet, learn a multiple target version with Affects Others or Area Effect.) Actually activating any ability generally takes an action on your turn, after the action it took to swap that ability to active in the AA group. If you build an ability with Reduced Time (B108), you can activate it more quickly. Add enough levels of Reduced Time to reduce the activation time below one second (that is, one level if the ability normally takes one second to activate), and that ability becomes a free action. Most characters can't take more than one action (Maneuver) on a single turn. The Advantage "Altered Time Rate" (ATR) gives you an extra action on each turn. (This is a classic speedster ability. It would also be the Advantage that you could Afflict on your friends for the classic "Haste" buff.) There's also a mental-only version called "Compartmentalized Mind" (CM). (Note that spells that need gestures or words to cast aren't mental-only.) Those Advantages would let you activate multiple abilities on a single turn, as well as do many other things at double speed. (Or faster, if you have multiple levels of those Advantages. There's a reason they're so expensive.) |
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03-28-2023, 08:48 PM | #15 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: How to price/buy abilities within Powers?
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But even abilities that don't normally call for rolls can benefit from a Power Talent! First off, there may be some uses of the ability that do require a roll - Flight normally doesn't require a roll, but things like turning quickly, slowing down by more than your base Air Move in a single second (say, because you're falling faster than your Air Move and realize the ground is a lot closer than you'd like), etc do call for a roll against DX or Aerobatics (see "Pushing the Envelope," B395, although you'll probably want to read all of "High Speed Movement," starting on B394, to make sense of it if you're not already familiar with those rules) - and as GM, if your Flight has the Telekinesis Power Modifier on it, I'd absolutely let your Telekinesis Talent apply to such rolls. Additionally, all Advantages are eligible for Extra Effort (P160), and some are also eligible for a Power Defense (starting on P167) of some flavor. For example, the force field (DR) in my example is something you could use Extra Effort to boost how much DR it provides if you think something is about to hit you (maybe there's a sniper watching your location, so you boost your shield and walk out into the open in hopes of the sniper revealing themselves by shooting at you). You can also use the force field for a Power Block, automatically doubling the DR if successful (say there's a gunman closer to you, such that you get a defense against their attack; you could try to Dodge their aimpoint, but then someone behind you could get hit, so instead you use Power Block to briefly focus your force field down to a smaller area - or whatever fluff you prefer - to intercept the bullet). In both cases, the bonus from your Power Talent applies, making it easier to pull off such stunts. Quote:
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04-01-2023, 02:34 AM | #16 |
Join Date: Feb 2023
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Re: How to price/buy abilities within Powers?
I got Sorcery and am very enthused how the building of magic as powers is explained there. This is exactly what I was looking for. Variable, Area (+5%) and other options to model spells are of great help.
Are there other supplements like Thaumatology: Sorcery I might look at? |
04-01-2023, 04:54 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: How to price/buy abilities within Powers?
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GURPS Powers: Divine Favor explores the use of powers to represent specifically granted supernatural abilities and also one-off miracles.
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04-01-2023, 10:39 AM | #18 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: How to price/buy abilities within Powers?
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Multiple slots would only be needed if the character didn't happen to have any buffs built to do AE (in whatever form). I'd expect that if they're built to be a support/buffing type by an experienced player, they wouldn't make that mistake. (Hence my "better yet" comment on building a party buff instead of an individual one.) But you never know; sometimes characters have to press some ability into a use they didn't really foresee (and so hadn't paid the extra points for something they envisioned as mostly being used only on themselves). And of course that point might not jump out at someone first acquainting themselves with the rules and community "best practices". Just trying to highlight a limitation of an AA group. But I didn't intend to suggest that "one slot per effect up" is always a rule; it's certainly not inherent to AAs the way "one ability slotted" is. (Yes, until you apply the rule to have N slots available... :)) Last edited by Anaraxes; 04-01-2023 at 11:01 AM. |
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04-01-2023, 03:03 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: How to price/buy abilities within Powers?
IN addition to the first book there are a couple of other Sorcery supplements.
This search "GURPS Sorcery" brings them up plus a few otheritems that just happened to use the same key word. https://warehouse23.com/search?q=GUR...prefix%5D=last "GURPS Spells" also brings them up but that is a less effective search, grabbing more extra items.
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
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