Injury Tolerance: Blur

[Varyon]

I've mentioned it several times in the past, but an idea I had some time ago for building something like a Missile Shield with Powers is to repurpose Injury Tolerance: Damage Reduction so that instead of dividing Injury by a given value, it instead gives a flat percentage chance of an attack outright missing.

I had this as a +0% Enhancement, but have opted instead to simply make it a new form of Injury Tolerance. It works against grapples and the like, but once you've been successfully grappled it no longer works against that foe until you break free (it makes you hard to grab, but once grabbed they can hit you, throw you around, etc freely; optionally, you can build it so that it gives no protection against grappling, but any attempt to injure you while grappled suffers the miss chance). It doesn't work against Afflictions - although there could be an Enhancement to allow it to do just that.

Pricing assumes you're using a d20 or d% to determine if it comes into play. A 30% miss chance has a base cost of [25], 50% is [50], 65% is [75], 80% is [100], 85% is [125], 90% is [150], and 95% is [200]. If you lack variant dice, 1 on 1d is [10], 1-2 on 1d is [25], 1-3 on 1d is [50], 1-4 on 1d is [75], 1-5 on 1d is [110]. 100% or 1-6 on 1d is technically [Infinite], although humorously the prices of Insubstantial (Can Affect Substantial +100%, Can Carry Objects +100%, Partial Change +100%), Walk On Air, Obscure 10 (Sound, Self Only -5%, Defensive +50%, Stealthy +100%), and Permeation (Everything) together imply a cost of roughly [225] (assuming Limited: Physical -20% is applied to that cost).
(EDIT: From Nereidalbel's post, I've opted for an addendum: the above progressions are not open-ended - if using d20 or d%, you cannot do better than a 95% miss chance, while if using 1d you cannot do better than a 5/6 miss chance)

Why you are hard to hit is typically a special effect. It could be a Displacer Beast style illusion, a blurring of the form that makes you difficult to target, a magical (or superscience) shield deflecting projectiles, partial insubstantiality, or incredible fortune.

Ideally, I'd like it to be possible for an attacker to take a sizable penalty (possibly able to be offset with a Technique) in order to reduce or even eliminate the worth of the Advantage. Something like -5 to hit for -1 to level might work. As this isn't something IT:DR normally suffers from, it might be appropriate to require a Limitation for this to apply - or we could say that it applies against Afflictions and similar, with the two modifiers canceling out to +0%.


So... Thoughts? Ideas?

[Nereidalbel]

The only problem with this is that IT:DR is open-ended, and allows for greater than 100% miss chance. As being untouchable is worth infinite points, this kind of falls apart. Cosmic Dodge is fairly priced, though, as it always fails if you roll a 17 or 18, no matter how much you buy.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

The only problem with this is that IT:DR is open-ended, and allows for greater than 100% miss chance. As being untouchable is worth infinite points, this kind of falls apart. Cosmic Dodge is fairly priced, though, as it always fails if you roll a 17 or 18, no matter how much you buy.

I didn't explicitly state how the percentages were calculated above, so I can see where this might come from.

First off, what I suggested wasn't meant to be open ended - the best miss chance you can get is 95% for [200] (or 5/6 for [110] if using 1d). Secondly, the way I calculated it was essentially to divide 100% by the divisor seen with IT:DR, then subtract this from 100%. IT:DR 1,000,000 [900], turned into IT:Blur, would mean you have a 1 in a million chance of hitting, not 0%. If I allowed IT:Blur to go that high, anyway.

[Edges]

It's a great idea.

I'd have to give it more thought to provide any useful feedback on pricing (my initial thought was also to base it off of Cosmic Dodge).

But if I were to use something like this, I would certainly calibrate it to the 3d6 system. Maybe use the 6, 9, 12, 15 breakpoints that are most common for advantages/disadvantages.

[roguebfl]

Would not Blur, one of the thematic description of Obscure? giving a penilty to hit hence increasing the chance they will miss you.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Edges

But if I were to use something like this, I would certainly calibrate it to the 3d6 system. Maybe use the 6, 9, 12, 15 breakpoints that are most common for advantages/disadvantages.

That ends up being a bit hairier, but doable. 6 is 9.5%, 9 is 37.5%, 12 is 74%, 15 is 95.37%. Those would be roughly [5], [25], [75], and [200], respectively. There's a lot of space between those, so you could break it down as follows:

Target	Price
3	[1]
4	[2]
5	[4]
6	[5]
7	[10]
8	[15]
9	[30]
10	[50]
11	[60]
12	[70]
13	[110]
14	[150]
15	[200]
16	[250]

The prices for target numbers below 6 were done more-or-less arbitrarily; the price for 16- is consistent with IT:DR 50.
The problem with this is that it's yet another 3d6 roll, while with the other schemes you can just roll a non-standard dice or two (d20 or d%) or a single off-color d6 along with the attack roll for quick resolution.

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Would not Blur, one of the thematic description of Obscure? giving a penilty to hit hence increasing the chance they will miss you.

"Blur" was actually chosen because it's the name of a spell in DnD that does much the same thing, giving a % chance of an outright miss. As explained in the original post, what makes you hard to hit is considered a special effect.

Also, I believe Obscure gives a penalty to detect you - once you've been seen, you're targeted at no penalty. An attack penalty would be an appropriate Enhancement for Obscure, however, but that's not what this thread is about.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Would not Blur, one of the thematic description of Obscure? giving a penilty to hit hence increasing the chance they will miss you.

This and a Targeting only limitation on Invisibility seem the best way to go for most effects. Other effects could be handled with Insubstantial on a limitation.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Also, I believe Obscure gives a penalty to detect you - once you've been seen, you're targeted at no penalty. An attack penalty would be an appropriate Enhancement for Obscure, however, but that's not what this thread is about.

See Anti-Targeting, -20% from GURPS Psionic Powers p. 16

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Would not Blur, one of the thematic description of Obscure? giving a penilty to hit hence increasing the chance they will miss you.

This is where my mind went as well. Obscure gives a penalty to targeting senses. "Obscure Visual Targeting" should cost the same as "Obscure Vision" since the first would give penalties to hit against any visual targeting sense, but not rolls to spot you and the second would give you penalties to hit and spot you - but only for Vision.

Adding Cosmic (+300%) to fully extend Obscure for all mundane targeting senses would mean others have a penalty to hit you period. Add another +300% Cosmic for machines as well (and another +300% if it affects all supernatural senses).

So to get the kind of effect the OP wants you need something like this...

Obscure Visual Targeting (Defensive, +50%; Cosmic, All Machine Senses, +300%; Cosmic: All Mundane Senses, +300%; Force Field, +20%; No Area Effect, -50%; Reflexive +40%; Stealthy, +100%) [17.2/level]

So Defensive makes it so it doesn't affect you. The various cosmics are explained above. Force Field means it also protects your gear. No Area Effect means it doesn't extend beyond you. Reflexive means you can cut it on or off with a free action (I debated on using Aura - but I think that works better). Stealthy means it can't be detected by others.

Each level gives others a -1 to hit you and is comparable to Enhanced Dodge.

Edit: Playing with the build a bit - you don't need Force Field on this. This would reduce the cost to 16.8/level.

[Wavefunction]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

So to get the kind of effect the OP wants you need something like this...

This kinda seems to be missing the point, to get the kind of effect the OP wants you need something like what the OP suggested. It's a really cool concept, and perfect for a lot of different powers, and I don't believe Varyon was specifically proposing it for a literal blur effect, just a general advantage that gives things a chance to miss, which is great for falling boulders, etc. and makes this the no. 1 contender I've seen so far to represent the defensive powers of defensive powers of a probability manipulator that I've been working on.