Supress & Dispel: How effective?

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Supress & Dispel: How effective?

 

Another one is Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter; I'd have to double check the design to make sure I'm running it right' date=' but it's another Suppress style power with the SFX of making the target collapse in laughter. There are a bunch of other powers that run off similar principles. Big doorway open here for a different type of build than people are used too.[/quote']

 

I'll beg if I must, but I've just gotta see the write-up fer that one!

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Supress & Dispel: How effective?

 

Sure. The spell is tricky, mostly because settling on the mechanic to get to the SFX is a problem. But the d20 description looks like this:

 

This spell afflicts the subject with uncontrollable laughter. It collapses into gales of manic laughter, falling prone. The subject can take no actions while laughing, but is not considered helpless. After the spell ends, it can act normally.

 

 

A creature with an Intelligence score of 2 or lower is not affected. A creature whose type is different from the caster’s receives a +4 bonus on its saving throw, because humor doesn’t “translate” well.

 

Saving throws aside, the big question is "is the best way to model this still Mind Control?" I'm going out a limb here and saying "Er, probably." I'll post two versions of this, actually -- the first is the basic Mind Control version, the second is the Suppress EGO version.

 

19 Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter I: Mind Control 7d6, Telepathic (+1/4); Set Effect (Target Collapses in place, laughing hysterically, unable to take action, -1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Requires a Skill Roll (Enchantment/Charm Magic, -1/2) Does Not Affect Targets with INT of 2 or less (-0) (Total Cost: 43 points)

 

19 Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter II: Suppress EGO 7d6, Uncontrolled (+1/2); Set Duration (Maximum of 30 END, -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Set Effect (Target May Not Be Forced to Take Any Other Actions, -1/2), Incantations (-1/4), Requires a Skill Roll (Enchantment/Charm Magic, -1/2) (Total cost: 52 points)

 

 

SFX: Target collapses in gales of laughter, and falls prone, unable to take action. In the event of TUHL I, the target gets a Breakout Rule per the Mind Control rules. Using TUHL II, the target may attempt an EGO roll to take action; the addition limitation on II of Set Effect is there to limit the effect of the spell, since normally reducing someone to 0 EGO or less leaves them open to suggestion.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Supress & Dispel: How effective?

 

Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter I: Mind Control 7d6, Telepathic (+1/4); Set Effect (Target Collapses in place, laughing hysterically, unable to take action, -1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Requires a Skill Roll (Enchantment/Charm Magic, -1/2) Does Not Affect Targets with INT of 2 or less (-0) (Total Cost: 43 points)

 

19 Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter II: Suppress EGO 7d6, Uncontrolled (+1/2); Set Duration (Maximum of 30 END, -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Set Effect (Target May Not Be Forced to Take Any Other Actions, -1/2), Incantations (-1/4), Requires a Skill Roll (Enchantment/Charm Magic, -1/2) (Total cost: 52 points)

 

That reminds me of several different fictional weapons:

 

1. The

Blame Thrower from Mystery Men.
 
The Tasp from Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's Known Space series.
 
The Joke Warfare skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus.

 

I was so impressed by the Joke Warfare skit that over the years I've created several different versions of a lesser, nonlethal joke. Most times it's been a NND with the defense being that the victim must be able to perceive and understand the joke. You can tell the joke to your dog all day and he'l just sit there and wag his tail. People who are simply too literal-minded to understand humor without having it explained to them are immune. If you're deaf and can't read lips, it might still work if told in AMESLAN*, etc.

 

*AMErican Sign LANguage.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Supress & Dispel: How effective?

 

That reminds me of several different fictional weapons:

 

1. The

Blame Thrower from Mystery Men.
 
The Tasp from Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's Known Space series.
 
The Joke Warfare skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus.

 

I was so impressed by the Joke Warfare skit that over the years I've created several different versions of a lesser, nonlethal joke. Most times it's been a NND with the defense being that the victim must be able to perceive and understand the joke. You can tell the joke to your dog all day and he'l just sit there and wag his tail. People who are simply too literal-minded to understand humor without having it explained to them are immune. If you're deaf and can't read lips, it might still work if told in AMESLAN*, etc.

 

*AMErican Sign LANguage.

 

 

I'm not sure you can tell the joke to your dog all day: it would get you. You need to handle these jokes carefully, you know: learn tehm phonetically in a language you do not understand or work in a team where you only know a bit of it, and have some sort of sense block for when the others do their bit.

 

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Supress & Dispel: How effective?

 

You can buff these spells up by making them NND (Defense is inability to get the joke) -- whether this is not being able to hear it, being too daft to get it, etc. So there are plenty of variations on this theme. Did these convey the concept?

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Supress & Dispel: How effective?

 

Hmm. Does the first one need to be Telepathic? Eh, I guess, since that's closest to the original build (the d20 version doesn't allow for the SFX mechanic of not hearing it, despite it having a verbal component).

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Supress & Dispel: How effective?

 

I'm not sure you can tell the joke to your dog all day: it would get you. You need to handle these jokes carefully, you know: learn tehm phonetically in a language you do not understand or work in a team where you only know a bit of it, and have some sort of sense block for when the others do their bit.

 

 

Actually, most versions of that attack lost effectiveness with each retelling. Remember, a joke stops being as funny when you've heard it before (and survived).

[incrdbil]

Re: Supress & Dispel: How effective?

 

Suppress I'm fairly cool, with, though I watch it carefully. Especially when someone buys it as a 1 charge, continuing use item, which can make it very cheap, but very painful. Suppressing resistant defenses, suppressing EN for example. Supressing recovery on phase 12, then turning it off later is mean--its also a handy way of keeping a prisoner down and out.

 

Dispel, in a traditional dispel magic format, I'm ok with.

 

I am very..cautious in allowing dispels to take out foci as easily as they do in a traditional superher game,or especialyl one featuring tech based heroes heavily. Too much bang for the buck taking a 60 point multipower slot with 20d6 of dispel armor.