New Action: Mastery of Darkforce

[gloom]

Finally got around to creating a darkforce mastery. Used mostly standard options from the book and the rest I tried to keep Cloak (of Cloak & Dagger fame) in mind.


Mastery of Darkforce

Effects:
Enhanced Vision: see in darkness
Create areas of darkness which can be overcome only by abilities that can defeat the stones spent (i.e. light based attacks, appropriate enhanced senses). Actions/modifiers that don’t rely on sight (i.e. sonar or radar sense) are immune to the effect and the darkness bleeds off at one stone/panel unless maintained for 1 stone/panel. Base area is 2 (10ft) but more stones can be spent for greater areas. Can also be combined with stealth skills.

Options:
+1 cost – Immunity to the effects of darkforce/shadow attacks
+1 cost – Can transform into element
+1 cost – Create/Manipulate Darkforce to number of stones spent. Wall of solid Darkforce that blocks 1 stone/stone spent. Duration of 1 stone/panel. May spend extra stones for subtlety, effects, accuracy, ect.
+1 cost – Force blast of Darkforce, Normal Damage, but may also attack vs. durability to stun. If damage occurs duration = 1 panel/stone of damage.
+3 cost – Regenerate when in shadows/darkforce

Action/Modifier Discounts:
-1 cost – Teleportation or other movement that fits with this mastery. (-1 additional cost to teleportation if you can only teleport through existing shadows, not one created with darkforce)
-1 to Drain Energy

Special Rule: Option for Energy Absorption/Reflection
If above option of "can transform into element" is taken and Energy Absorption/Reflection is linked to it this action also comes with the ability to reflect “solid” ranged attacks. Must be able to absorb the whole object itself (like in the case of a mortar shell or bullet), will not absorb an external explosion. This create a "sling shot" effect using the darkforce to teleport the weapon toward a target of the character's choice. This is an all or nothing attempt, you must be able to reflect the entire attack. If the attack exceeds your AN*2 you take full damage (minus normal defences).

[candyman]

not bad, my only question lies in the -1 to cost for the energy absorb/reflect. what if the character takes the "appear only as element" option from avengers book, this would make not only the mastery cheaper but then provide the energy absorbtion cheaper as well, i just see it being a little inexpensive for my taste, but thats just me. otherwise nice job

[gloom]

The reason I priced it the way I did was because Cloak was able to take in things through is body, using it as a portal of sorts. Since you can only take the discount if your body is in that form it just made sense. Besides there are also limitation when you have to remain in the form that the GM should take into acount. At the very lease the GM can of course disallow that option. Remeber, GMs always have final say. In any case I appreciate your input and I'm glad you liked the rest of it.

[sphynx]

Well, Scarlet Spider, as the primary DarkForce player on these forums, I'll have to comment some.

Man, I LOVE DarkForce, it's the coolest power in the world of Marvel, and I have 2 online characters here that have Mastery in it (Read Level One in the Labrynth thread if you want my favorite character on the game).

Anyhows, wanted to suggest some things... First off I don't think any of the Discounts should apply. All teleportation from a DarkForce Master is "through other realm", and that -1 is more than enough. You're basically making it -2 to travel through other realm instead of one. There may not be a brimstone smell, but all marvel characters from Ecstasy to the polar opposite in Cloak to DarkStar who can teleport, have very visual effects of imploding, etc when teleporting.

Invisibility, while interesting, isn't really the realm of DarkForce. I'd simply allow a person to stack the action (Manipulate DarkForce) with Thieving (or other stealth related skill) for a more effective hiding. They never go invis...

Energy Absorbtion/Reflection is actually something I never thought about before. I always take Toughness (linked to Transform Self) and Energy Drain (linked to Mastery of DarkForce). People didn't have to attack Cloak in order to feed the hunger he use to have, he could just drain them.

Possible ideas:

PsiBlade (DarkForce Blades), there is no other Mastery in existance that has as much fitness to that Action as DarkForce, a semi-solid substance that can drain you? Hell, that 'stun' effect of PsiBlades makes twice as much sense with DarkForce than with "Psi" IMHO.

Stretching, how many times has Cloak 'expanded' to carry a little crowd out of danger with Dagger keeping them from the shadows while within his Cloak? The boy can get large too when he wants to, at LEAST a Stretching of 1.

+2 for fine manipulation. Just like Magnetism, a DarkForce master can really do some fine manipulation of a telekinetic nature with his 'tendrils'.

Then of course you've got the 'other' users with possible ideas...

Black Mantra made serpents that acted similar to PsiBlade (but without the Stun effect)

BlackOut couldn't teleport, but could make portals to walk through with others which he had to close afterwards... Maybe Astral Travel (renamed) with Can Take Others and With Body?

Flight: BlackOut, DarkStar and Ecstasy could all fly by laying (or standing) on a platform of DarkForce that they mentally moved.

Phase Shift: Ecstasy and Cloak could Phase through objects with effort.

And don't forget about the option to use Mastery in place of Strength. I clearly recall (forget who it was) the Thing being held by DarkForce bonds.

Anyhows, not dogging on ideas, just trying to comment. I love the Mastery and am glad someone else had enough obsession to write something up on it.

Sphynx

[gloom]

Based on comments from both Candyman and Sphynx I've made a few changes. I hope it's to everyone's likeing!

Thanks for the input!

[dagreatjl]

Don't forget Black Mamba, Vanisher, Shroud, Sillouette, or Quagmire when it comes to Darkforce users!

As a side note, I think Tendril Whip would be a really good fit for a Darkforce user.

[sphynx]

Scarlet said:

+1 cost – Create/Manipulate Darkforce to number of stones spent. Wall of solid Darkforce that blocks 1 stone/stone spent. Duration of 1 stone/panel. May spend extra stones for subtlety, effects, accuracy, ect.

My only comments is on this one. I see it a bit differently due to the fact that DarkForce is used so widely by the few that have it. Here's my take on it (and why I always take the Mastery to at LEAST 3)

Stones spent into Create determine the density of the force. At 1 stone it's just thick shadows, no substance but can fill up an area of 1. 2 stones makes it thicker, like liquid and a person could almost swim through it. 3 stones allows a solid object with a hardness equal to the stones put into it (so there's never really a hardness of 1 or 2), and can only be simple shapes. Additional stones can be used to increase the area beyond 1 or to make a solid shape more versatile.

Kinda complicated, I know. But it seems to fit better, specially since alot of the DarkForce users only make shadows that aren't "solid" at all.

Sphynx

[gloom]

I understand what you're saying but I was taking it as an extension of the example in the book. I see that sonic, water, and vibration (none of which are "solid" in real life) treat it the same way. I did the same with my mastery of light, based on what the Green Lantern can do. I see darkforce as the antithesis of that. Based on those two assumptions that's why I chose to do it that way. I also feel that since the other elements get some kind of effective "wall" abilities it would be unbalanced to exclude it from darkforce.

Also that the ability to create darkness in general is included in the mastery, the degree of which is determined by the stones spent.

But thanks for the comments none the less.