Costs Fatigue and Affliction: Advantage

[The Wrathchild]

Hi all

Does the "pay half initial FP cost pr. minute of duration" apply to the Advantage version of an Affliction? To Afflictions in general?

On one hand it does seem so. It seems to conform to:

Originally Posted by Basic Set p. 111

For advantages that produce continuing
effects (e.g., Flight), you
must pay this FP cost to activate the
ability for one minute. However,
once you have paid this initial cost,
you need only pay half as many FP
(round up) per minute to keep the
ability active.

On the other ... Afflictions have their own variable duration based off targets HT or casters Will (depending on wether you use maledictions and/or the Beneficial Afflictions rule). This could be taken to mean that an Affliction delivers a package instantly and it then lives on happily and independently and outside the casters control, but also without taxing/influencing him further?

Eg. there is nothing I can see about an Affliction being terminateable - so a caster can't stop losing lifethreatening fatigue, should a roll for duration yield a high one? Or am I being overly imaginative here?

[Dinadon]

Affliction is an attack advantage, like Innate Attack. You pay 1 FP (or however many levels of Cost FP you brought) per attack you make with Afflicition.

The Advantage modifier simply changes the effect of your Afflicition. By default, you can't choose to end the effects of your affliction early, and you have no control over the effects aside from when you make the attack.

Though it does make sense to have a modifier of 'While I continue to expend FP', and then use Extended Duration to change the interval.

[The Wrathchild]

So you say: "No fatigue after the initial expenditure."

Other opinions? Same or otherwise ...

[pawsplay]

No fatigue after initial expenditure.

[robkelk]

My take:

The person bestowing the Affliction pays no Fatigue after the initial expenditure.

The person who received the Affliction pays normal Fatigue for that Advantage. (It's an Advantage - he shouldn't be getting it for free.)

[Dinadon]

Originally Posted by robkelk

The person who received the Affliction pays normal Fatigue for that Advantage. (It's an Advantage - he shouldn't be getting it for free.)

It's only for free if Afflicition is extended to permanent. The subject doesn't pay the FP to maintain spells, so neither should a subject pay FP to maintain an afflicition. That also implies more control than default affliction grants.


I'll also point out looking up the definition of switchable and transient in Powers. A switchable ability with Costs FP should get the maintanence cost, a transient ability wouldn't.

[transmetahuman]

First off, remember that you can apply Costs FP to either the Affliction as a whole, or to the advantage that it bestows. For example, afflicting Invisibility to Machines can be done as either:

• Affliction 1 (Advantage, Invisibility (Machines Only, -50%), +200%; Costs 2 FP, -10%) [29] or
• Affliction 1 (Advantage, Invisibility (Machines Only, -50%; Costs 2 FP, -10%), +160%) [26]

The first version costs the afflictor 2 FP, once, to make the subject invisible to machines for the duration of the Affliction; the subject pays no FP. Neither the subject nor the afflictor can turn it off until then.

The second version is a bit more speculative. The RAW gives full control to the afflictor, and it isn't fair to have a cheap Affliction of a minor advantage with Costs FP force the subject to pay FP every minute, so the most reasonable interpretation is: it costs the afflictor nothing to make the attack, and then as long as the Affliction's duration lasts the afflictor can choose whether to pay the fatigue cost to make the subject invisible to machines.

In both these cases, I wouldn't allow Affliction for Flight or any movement ability because the afflictor would have to determine all the details of the effect at the moment he afflicts it, and neither he nor the subject would be able to change the subject's course or speed after that. Use Telekinesis instead.

I champion an additional possible interpretation as an option based on something in Powers about gods granting abilities (no time to look up a page ref, sorry); I (and a few others) say you can have a version of beneficial Affliction that gives control of the advantage to the subject. In this version of the second build in the list, the afflictor pays no FP, and the subject can choose whether to spend his own FP per minute to make himself invisible to machines until the Affliction wears off.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by transmetahuman

I champion an additional possible interpretation as an option based on something in Powers about gods granting abilities (no time to look up a page ref, sorry)

That's p119, under the section Wishes, for those interested.

[tanniynim]

This thread just got me thinking: What happens if I want to afflict an advantage that costs 10 FP or some other obscene number? If it automatically causes the use of that FP, isn't this, in some ways, considered an Enhancement as opposed to a Limitation?

I need to sit down and run the numbers to see if afflicting something cheap like Perfect Balance with Costs Fatigue 10 is cheaper than building Innate Attack Fatigue at 3d6 (average 10.5).

[transmetahuman]

Originally Posted by tanniynim

This thread just got me thinking: What happens if I want to afflict an advantage that costs 10 FP or some other obscene number? If it automatically causes the use of that FP, isn't this, in some ways, considered an Enhancement as opposed to a Limitation?

I need to sit down and run the numbers to see if afflicting something cheap like Perfect Balance with Costs Fatigue 10 is cheaper than building Innate Attack Fatigue at 3d6 (average 10.5).

You make the afflictor pay, unless the advantage is fully under the control of the subject. See above. You can always make an unbalanced attack, otherwise - Affliction 1 (Advantage, Magic Resistance 1 (Costs 50 FP)) for [11], say. And for extra Munchkin points, let that afflicted Magic Resistance negate all the subject's spellcasting ability, since it's not Improved...