Fire Elementals and Weakness to Water

[KingStrongbeard]

I'm sure this question must have been asked before, but I was unable to find a thread about it, despite several searches. So, if it has been asked before. I apologize.

I am running a fairly high powered game soon and one of the players took an alternate form that would basically turn him into a fire elemental. He started with, and significantly modified, the Body of Fire meta-trait from the Basic Set, to build the form.

Our problem is with the Weakness (Water) disadvantage. Both me and the player find it silly that he only takes 1d6 damage a minute from (by my readings of the disadvantage) any amount of water including total submersion. Even when in his fire form he could swim underwater with no real risk of death for several minutes. And the Weakness disadvantage doesn't seem to have any values listed for intervals less than one minute.

Even the Variable limitation which I considered it seems to max out at damage every 30 seconds, for total submersion.

Basically, we would like to build it so that he would be taking about 1d6 a second from intense amounts of water and possibly less from less concentrated sources such as rain. But I'm not sure what the value for any that would be.

Any help here would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Walrus]

Canonical versions for increased Weakness are Reduced Time on it or Vulnerability (damage from Weakness).

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Walrus

Canonical versions for increased Weakness are Reduced Time on it or Vulnerability (damage from Weakness).

I've heard of the first one (don't recall which book it's in) but I hadn't heard the second one. Do you have a page reference for it?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

I've heard of the first one (don't recall which book it's in) but I hadn't heard the second one. Do you have a page reference for it?

Vulnerability is a disadvantage in the basic set, under V, very near Weakness.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Vulnerability is a disadvantage in the basic set, under V, very near Weakness.

I meant pairing it with Weakness to increase the rate of damage. Not that I'm disputing that it may be a valid build, I'd just never seen it done that way.

Heh, I wouldn't be much of a GURPS-ite (GURPSophile?) if I wasn't familiar with the disadvantages and enhancements in the Basic Set.

[Refplace]

Dang, jutst spent 30 minutes searching for this post and by the time I get back he has tons of answers, including the same one I was digging for.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

I meant pairing it with Weakness to increase the rate of damage. Not that I'm disputing that it may be a valid build, I'd just never seen it done that way.

It's one of the suggestions that perennially comes up in the forums. If you have it ONLY for increasing the severity of the Weakness result, and not from direct damage that might be caused by the source, that's VERY narrow application and I'd call it reducing the frequency, and halve the cost if you go off the "bottom" of frequencies.

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Heh, I wouldn't be much of a GURPS-ite (GURPSophile?) if I wasn't familiar with the disadvantages and enhancements in the Basic Set.

I DID have a bit of a "... ?" moment. :D

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Heh, I wouldn't be much of a GURPS-ite (GURPSophile?)...

<pushes aside the uncomfortable horror associations> They're both kinda ungainly, eh? Maybe something more direct, like GURPS fan?

[KingStrongbeard]

Thank you Walrus for the quick reply.

To answer your question vierasmarius. Both those things are in the Basic Set. Reduced Time on page 108 and Vulnerability in the disadvantage chapter.

For the record I will talk to the player about using Reduced Time for his build. Thanks for the help.

[Gurps Fan]

Originally Posted by KingStrongbeard

To answer your question vierasmarius. Both those things are in the Basic Set. Reduced Time on page 108 and Vulnerability in the disadvantage chapter.

Just for information, Reduced Time is an enhancement, and enhancements are (unless otherwise noted) only allowed to be added on advantages, attributes and secondary characteristics (p. B102). Weakness is a disadvantage, so normally adding enhancements on it are off-limits. However, adding Reduced Time enhancement on Weakness is one of the few exceptions that the designer has allowed.