A Very Slow Leech Aura

[awesomenessofme1]

Originally Posted by DoctorJerk

Ooh! Where is this? Is it named something other than "One for One" in the book? I haven't found this yet.

Accelerated Healing. It costs +25%.

[DoctorJerk]

Originally Posted by naloth

Takes Extra Time also has two other often overlooked restrictions. You have to take a series of maneuvers (Ready or Concentrate) that reset if interrupted. Also, it's only valid for abilities that work fast enough to be used in combat.

Recharge makes sense if your ability readies itself after a while. Takes Preparation makes sense if there's something you have to do to get it ready to be used again.

Valid points, but they miss the mark on what I'm trying to do with this ability.

In essence, it needs to be completely passive and out of Xh's control. He can't be standing around for hours out of the day concentrating or dancing when there's chaos to be had in town and children to trick into tripping old women for his amusement. Likewise, it wouldn't do to require this ability to 'ready' itself. It's just always on. Players A enter the field and their timer to lose 3 FP starts, 15 minutes later, Player B enters and their timer starts. 40 Minutes later, Player C enters the field for 20 seconds to call Player B out on some separate adventure and those two leave. 5 minutes later Player A loses 3 FP because they've been in the field for 1 hour while Player B & C will have nothing happen to them unless they enter the field again and don't leave for another full hour.

[awesomenessofme1]

It technically isn't RAW, since it says in the Basic Set that it can only be used on an attack with Aura or Persistent, but I think the Exposure Time variant of Onset would fit perfectly here. In this case, it would be Exposure Time (1 hr), -40%.

[DoctorJerk]

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

It technically isn't RAW, since it says in the Basic Set that it can only be used on an attack with Aura or Persistent, but I think the Exposure Time variant of Onset would fit perfectly here. In this case, it would be Exposure Time (1 hr), -40%.

Looking into this with a more focused eye, I see that the Onset - Exposure Time both answers this question and dashes my hopes for this version.

A variant limitation is Exposure
Time, which is only available for
attacks with Aura or Persistent. Use it
to represent radioactivity, mildly toxic
gases, etc. It works just like Onset,
except that the victim must be
exposed for the entire period to suffer
the effect (or repeat it, if you continue
exposure).

That's pretty specific. This would make it only tick once per hour, as desired.

I suppose I could go with a comparably affordable and much more dangerous version:

Leech (1HP/sec) (Accelerated Healing; Always On (effects are horribly inconvenient and/or very dangerous); Granted by Familiar; Magical; Malediction (Receives -1/yd range); No Signature; Only Heals Energy Reserve; Onset (Exposure Time) (Delay 1 minute); Ranged; Steal FP (only drains FP)) [28]

Going with the highest tier of Always On here since you can actually kill someone just by sitting next to them for a short while.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

Succubi in GURPS Horror have Leech with a very high level of Takes Extra Time (level 10/-100% iirc). I see no reason why this version couldn't use an even higher amount, RAW at least. Level 11 or 12 would fit in fine for one hour, depending on how you want to round.

Succubi didn't incorporate the different pricing schemes we received in "Requires Immediate Preparation" which are probably what we're meant to use once TET starts providing bigger discounts than the first tier of RIP.

That build in Horror also raises a lot of questions about how TET works in terms of range. The implication seems to be that succubi spend minutes of bumping-and-grinding (requiring keeping not just Melee contact, not just Contact Agent contact, but also requiring constant "Accessibility" contact) during all their consecutive Ready maneuvers.

Perhaps that might be one area where alternate use of TET levels and RIP tiers could differ: with TET requiring your preceding Readies to fulfill all your range/accessibility requirements (thus why it is more valuable) while RIP tiers would only require the immediate prep but make range/accessibility irrelevant until the final moment of delivery.

It could be the difference between "I need to meditate for 2 minutes then walk up to you and use Death Touch" vs "I need to be touching you while meditating for 2 minutes before Death Touch activates".

Originally Posted by naloth

Leech is already a touch ranged ability that requires contact with your target. It's one of the few abilities that requires Ranged to be usable at a range even before you add Malediction.

Given that Malediction was designed to be added onto things like Affliction/Innate Attack which are ranged by default, it seems like anything wanting to become a Malediction should first be modified to have a 100 yard reach. Allowing it to work on 10-yard / 1-yard abilities is basically unbalanced, unless it's possible to take "Reduced Range" to get discounts on Afflictions/Innate Attacks prior to buying Malediction.

Originally Posted by naloth

It may seem odd but rather than having Melee, you actually need Ranged instead before you can take Malediction. I'd take Emanation after that to center the effect on you without affecting you.

Emanation requiring AE, of course?

Originally Posted by naloth

Once per hour sounds like "Recharge: Hourly" instead of a .2 multiplier.

The closeness of your target doesn't matter for hourly recharging, which is why Onset (Exposure Time) sounds appropriate.

Originally Posted by naloth

Leech normally wouldn't allow you to drain multiple targets at once, but since the interval is so slow I'd probably just hand waive the rest especially if you consider it a trade off that targets must be in the area for a full hour for each FP drained.

Since you're defining an area anyway (the prereq for Emanation) you would be able to target several at once, I think with cumulative penalties unless you took Independent?

Originally Posted by naloth

Upon further consideration, I'd probably forgo the whole Leech aspect. Most targets will recover fatigue faster than they are losing it from this attack. Just call it a special recharge on the ER pool that it recharges based on hanging out with groups of people.

They're only going to recover FP if they're resting, usually, so hanging out with groups of people who are on a hiking quest would negatively offset them.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I do not believe that you can take Area Effect with Malediction, only Cone. Since Aura requires Melee Attack and Leech is not technically a Melee Attack, I believe that would likewise be illegal (honestly, Leech does not really need Aura, since it requires ongoing contact rather than touch).

It seems to me that Leech effectively functions like something with Melee Attack (perhaps w/ Cannot Parry?) built into it, along with "Requires Grapple" (later introduced in Powers: The Weird) also built into it?

Since requires grapple is -10%, it might be +10% to remove that, but if you could make it ranged w/o being a malediction then you should need to make rolls to hit with it.

Originally Posted by DoctorJerk

That particular limitation is balanced toward the ability going off after the extra time, but also continuing to to tick each second afterward. It's used on succubi to represent the idea of them using fun activities as the 'grapple' maneuver, then the ability going off at 1 tick per second as long as you're still 'grappled' after the elapsed delay, not a single tick once an hour.

Each time you activate Leech to steal HP or FP, I think it takes an attack maneuver, so I think TET would apply each time you activated it.

I'm just not sure how often you need to spend an Attack maneuver to activate it, either once per second or once per 10 seconds.