Insta-kills

[malice]

Got some questions.

1. If a mutant whose mutant power is a mastery, on which he/she took the disadvantage "exist only as" OR the advantage "transform into", has his powers suppressed while in elemental form, is he/she instantly killed?

If yes then how the hell do you break it to the player that he was just toasted by Leech?

If no why not?

My answer: Never take "exist only as" without also taking prescience and a fast transportation power. Obviously I'd like a better answer than this one or I wouldn't have posted anything. So far I've been just suppressing all of the character's OTHER powers and pretending they're not made out of their mutant power.

2. Does falling damage get staggerered (I know the answer is no technically)? 1 red stone per 10 feet kills almost everything that falls with a 300 foot fall, and a 500+ foot fall DOES kill everything that doesn't have physical invulnerability. This makes teleporters excellent murderers of all characters-who-don't-have-flight.

There are characters in the comic books who have fallen from orbit. It is COOL to fall from orbit and survive. I want to find a way to funnel out falling damage so that beyond certain distances it's still possible.

The closest I've seen that I can think of is the "Invincible" mod suggested by quixoteles a while ago. I liked that concept and had been trying to think of something like it for awhile myself, but was fruitless in my efforts.

[thedragonmaster]

1) For that one, I'd probably handle it the same way they did in X3 when Beast met up with that kid who suppressed mutations. Just have them turn up looking like a normal human (or whatever they would have looked like if they hadn't been mutants). That should cover most masteries (though I'm sure someone can think of one that doesn't quite work with).

[malice]

Beast was just furry and blue, somewhat different than being made entirely out of an element. However I suppose if your mastery is cancelled out then so are all of its disadvantages.

The problem I'm having is: If the person does just revert back to human form where did all that flesh and blood come from? A person made entirely out of water or ice or sound or whatever doesn't just have a spare body waiting to be used for whenever they need it. In many cases the character's flesh and blood body was destroyed or simply ceased to be.

It IS a disadvantage, but being autokilled and completely annihilated from existance every time you lose your powers (which is sometimes just a plot element) can be a little rough for a -1, but is too rare for more than a -1.

[thedragonmaster]

How does this one strike you, If they are made of water, they turn into a puddle; if flame, inanimate fire; if sound, a loud scream, then nothing till "leach' is out of the room. Basically, not killing them, but considering them effectively stunned until the powers are released.

[Brainstem]

Well, the person also had to exist, presumably, as a normal human beforehand. The body would probably just go through some kind of a change and, rather than extinguishing the element, it reforms into human flesh in the same way it reformed from human flesh.

[Kaimontfendo]

Hmm... Well, most characters I can think of who must exist as en element also have Reconstitute Self, which arguably could bring them back eventually, anyway. There are a few solutions I see to this, in addition to possibilities mentioned above. You could allow them to continue living, but negate all other powers they have. However, Sandman's inability to control sand while supressed should mean that he wouldn't be able to move (Just as an example). That suggests that allowing a character to exist as an inanimate version of their element until out of power supression range would be balanced.

However, I also feel that power supression turning them into flesh and blood again is also a valid solution. Of course, depending on how they got their powers, (say they were the product of sorcery) an elemental may be completely uneffected.

As for impact, I seem to recall a house rule based on terminal veolcity that capped out falling damage at 20 stones or so.

[Scriptus]

This is in response to the falling question. I have always thought that the 10 foot rule was terrible. It works if a character doesn't have any toughness but if a character does have toughness I think that the character should be invulnerable to falls equal to their modifier # on the Area row. Shoot the Range row might even work better. Take your pick. I would probably go with the area row with the exception of the first two levels.

Either way any stone of distance above the toughness mod of the character would then translate into a white stone of damage. What do you think? This would allow characters like Thing, Hulk, and Colossus to take a tumble from orbit and still survive. Although even those guys would have a head ache.

[thedragonmaster]

I like the way that sounds. lol Come to think of it, that is probably the way my GM has been handling it. We have in our group a "Spartan" (think the moving 300). His entrance was that he comes falling out of the sky, with his shield pointed at the ground to cushion his fall, and came out unscathed (though the shield has so far been treated like you might treat Captains shield, so who knows).

[malice]

thedragonmaster said:

How does this one strike you, If they are made of water, they turn into a puddle; if flame, inanimate fire; if sound, a loud scream, then nothing till "leach' is out of the room. Basically, not killing them, but considering them effectively stunned until the powers are released.

I like this, it seems to fit because it's "suppress" not "decimate" mutant powers. Thanks much. From now on my elemental PCs will find themselves a steamin' pile of plasma and humanish chunks of ice, from which they can reform after their powers are returned.

kaimontfendo said:

As for impact, I seem to recall a house rule based on terminal veolcity that capped out falling damage at 20 stones or so.

I'm gonna look into this, I'm so glad someone else did the math and figured it out. Thanks, I'll be utilizing this in my more realistic campaigns I think I'll adopt this for characters who don't have toughness or have low toughness. I'm thinking the presence of the "No AP" and "No 2x" options will make the difference between this rule and this one...

scriptus said:

This is in response to the falling question. I have always thought that the 10 foot rule was terrible. It works if a character doesn't have any toughness but if a character does have toughness I think that the character should be invulnerable to falls equal to their modifier # on the Area row. Shoot the Range row might even work better. Take your pick. I would probably go with the area row with the exception of the first two levels.

Either way any stone of distance above the toughness mod of the character would then translate into a white stone of damage. What do you think? This would allow characters like Thing, Hulk, and Colossus to take a tumble from orbit and still survive. Although even those guys would have a head ache.

I especially like this one. It keeps characters superheroic, and will keep PCs feeling like badasses, which is important. Thanks much Scriptus.

Thanks all, I find these answers more than adequately address my concerns.

[thedragonmaster]

Always glad to be of service.

[polimorph]

brainstem11588 said:

Well, the person also had to exist, presumably, as a normal human beforehand. The body would probably just go through some kind of a change and, rather than extinguishing the element, it reforms into human flesh in the same way it reformed from human flesh.

I agree