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Old 10-29-2020, 02:19 PM   #1
Plane
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Warping while stunned

Until you succeed in a roll to break out of a stun (HT for physical stun, IQ for mental stun) you are forced to take Do Nothing maneuvers.

This would prevent taking the usual maneuver that you would require to spend time reducing penalties (or getting a bonus) to Warp: that used to be a Ready in the FAQ but Powers made it a Concentrate.

Assuming it were possible to use a 0-time Warp (at a -10 penalty) should there be any penalty to that activaton?

If you got stunned, a lot of the time you might've also suffered shock (like injury that caused a major wound) but that's not a guarantee (HPT can result in stun without shock, afflictions do physical stun without damage, failed fear checks do mental stun without damage) and the IQ penalty for shock goes away after a second while you might spend a DOZEN seconds being forced to Do Nothing from failed attribute checks to break out of the stun.

If you were normally in a Do Nothing situation (resting) I would think just the usual -10 penalty, but when you're stunned you suffer an active defense penalty of -4.

Usually if defenses are penalized, other stuff is penalized more. It used to be that your attacks could be penalized without penalizing defenses AT ALL (the -4 to DX when grappled in Basic Set) and even when that was changed (Martial Arts: penalties to defend while grappled) the penalty was less (-2 parry or -1 dodge derived from -4 DX)

Where something is so massive that it gives a -4 to parry, one would expect a -8 to attack if it was allowed (like for example, if you actually did allow someone to attack while stunned, which is not RAW)

Do Nothing normally does not allow movement (it's move 0 like a Change Posture) but I don't know if Warp should be an exception since it doesn't use the "step" or "basic move" attribute.

It seems like POSSIBLY if you have a defense option which creates movement (like a 1 yard retreat) this is an exception to the usual policy of Do Nothing giving no movement at all. Meaning you can move, but only by harnessing your instinctive reaction to a threat, not voluntarily when not threatened?

That's the situation where I would wonder about whether a Warp is allowed, and if so, if penalties beyond the usual -10 (like a -8) should apply when someone is stunned.

-18 to IQ is a lot, but if you had +10 Reliable then the net -8 to IQ is not impossible, that would still give you the minimum skill 3 required to make the attempt if you had a base IQ of 11.

Since this activation roll also seems to be lumped in with an active defense roll too (distinctly non-separate unlike how 'power dodge' normally works) I could see maybe only applying a -4 for being stunned?
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Old 10-29-2020, 02:23 PM   #2
Crystalline_Entity
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: England
Default Re: Warping while stunned

This isn't an actual answer to your question, but it did remind me of the Teleport Trigger perk in the "Infinite Teleportation" article in Pyramid #3/20 Infinite Worlds which allows you set to automatic triggers for Autoteleport (e.g. in this case "if I'm stunned, teleport me to my secret hideout").
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Old 10-30-2020, 12:07 AM   #3
Plane
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Re: Warping while stunned

Quote:
Originally Posted by Crystalline_Entity View Post
This isn't an actual answer to your question, but it did remind me of the Teleport Trigger perk in the "Infinite Teleportation" article in Pyramid #3/20 Infinite Worlds which allows you set to automatic triggers for Autoteleport (e.g. in this case "if I'm stunned, teleport me to my secret hideout").
Took a look at that, seems related to P89's Anchored -50% except needing "a full day of meditation" (I never know if that's 24 hours or an 8 hour work day) instead of merely 1 minute to reassign where it is.

The baseline for this must be Reliable+10 (+50%) which is worth 50 character points for Warp, so even as a Limited Enhancement the smallest that should get is +10% (5 character points) but the crazy amount of prep time involved and limiting your options for when you use it both sound like good "Below the Minimum" requirements.

"Requires Immediate Preparaiton" being applied to the time it takes to reassign your place isn't something I can figure out, nor applying "Takes Extra Time" to JUST that reassignment time but not the actual followup use of the warp ability.
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do nothing, mental stun, physical stun, power dodge, warp

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