Absorption - please explain QQ

[Glacius]

(Pointless blabbering and some exposition)

 

Hi. Our GM wants to go from M&M to HERO, so im trying to understand the powers, which turns out to be quite difficult.

English isnt my native language, but i would wager it should still be sufficient to understand a rulebook (which it apparently is not).

My Magician Superhero (we keep the characters from the prior system, but rebuild them) sacrificed himself in the last adventure to save everyone and more or less brought himself back through the Hunter's Dream (Bloodborne reference. He also brought the doll with him^^).

 
Now as for Absorption - i wanted that my Superhero has a Beast-Mode. Similar to the Claymore-Protagonists, Deadman Wonderland (anime) or basically everyone in Bloodborne. You know, he gets hit, he bleeds, he gets bonus speed and new, devastating attacks.

 

My problems are though:

 

1. So i buy BODY with absorption - does it mean i actually increase my BODY stat with it, or just that i add a sort of special effect to my BODY, so that it give me CP when it gets reduced by certain attacks? So lets say i get the power to Lv10 - do i get 10 extra BODY for all checks?

2. It states that i can only buy the ability up to 2x the BODY i already bought - does it mean i can't have the power by default with the 10 starting body, since it would be 0 Extra BODY x2 = 0 MaxLv for the power?

3. Does it actually reduce the damage i would get to my BODY? Since, you know, it is named "absorption", which kind of implies, that you ABSORB the damage rather than taking it.

4. The CP you get out of it seem to be awfully small. By the time i absorb enough to fuel a proper power, the stun damage got me ten times over. Is there some trick to it? It says, that i dont have to take damage to absorb it, does it mean that i can push my resistances up / mitigation and still benefit from the damage i would have received normally?

5. What would be the best way to link a power to it, so it becomes unleashed, once i take damage? Let's say i have a dormant power that only becomes active when Absorption kicks in and gets additionally boosted by it.

 

Anyways, the system seems to be extremely confusing. Glad for all the help i can get^^

 

[Scott Baker]

No time for details, so I'll just answer the easy one right now:

 

3. Defensive Absorption (CC 51)

 

More later if no one else responds.

[Hyper-Man]

I think an easier route for you to take would be to build the combat bonuses you want the character to get when he's injured and then create a Custom Limitation that states how much he actually has access to based on the severity of the injures.  No need to use Absorption or Aid at all. 

[Narf the Mouse]

I think I can answer most of your questions with an example:

 

Bob the Absorbing Blob has 10 BODY, and 10 Physical Absorption to BODY, and 5 PD. He gets hit with a superpunch for 10 BODY. He subtracts 5 PD, applies the remaining 5 BODY damage, and absorbs 10 CP (the total BODY damage) to his BODY.

 

So: 10 BODY - (10 BODY damage - 5 PD) =

10 BODY - 5 BODY damage = 5 BODY remaining after the damage is dealt.

5 BODY + 10 CP absorbed = 15 BODY after the absorption.

 

He's absorbed 10 BODY worth of CP.

 

He gets hit with another superpunch for 5 BODY. His PD reduces that to 0 BODY, so he takes no damage. However, he still absorbs the full 5 damage as CP, and applies that to his BODY.

 

So: 15 BODY - (5 BODY damage - 5 PD) =

15 BODY - 0 BODY damage = no change.

15 BODY + 5 CP absorbed = 20 BODY after the absorption.

 

He can absorb 5 more CP from his absorption. If his next absorption is 6 BODY, he'll hit his ceiling of 20 CP of absorption, and only absorb 5 of those 6 CP.

 

But then the post-segment 12 hits, the turn is over, and his Absorption drops from 20 CP to BODY to 15 CP to BODY, and his BODY goes down from 24 to 19. He has 4 actual BODY, and 15 extra from Absorption.

 

For extra fun, there's an advantage that turns Absorpton into a defence, so it can reduce damage, and absorb if it has capacity left.

 

...Anyway, if that didn't confuse you, it's probably not my fault.

[Glacius]

Alright guys, thx for the answers, i think i got it now^^

The book seems to be a little over-complicated tbh. Absorption basically just allows the would-be-received BODY-damage to be allocated somewhere else in form of CP, unless you block/deflect it somehow and is ignorant to resistance or mitigation. The power could have been written in like 3 sentences.

[Greywind]

There's a reason for how the books are written. 35 years of history and Steve Long clarifying things.

[Scott Baker]

The book seems to be a little over-complicated tbh. Absorption basically just allows the would-be-received BODY-damage to be allocated somewhere else in form of CP, unless you block/deflect it somehow and is ignorant to resistance or mitigation.

Again, refer to Defensive Absorption if you want Absorption to also act as a defense. (CC 51; 6E1 166)

[Altair]

@ Glacius: Yeah, I agree. The text isn't terribly user-friendly, there's a lot of time spent on clarifying and dealing with edge cases. It can feel like every other word is "please do not try to abuse this mechanic in manners x, y or z, as they have been attempted and rectified."

 

Hero System isn't great at teaching itself to new players. Communities are pretty great at teaching Hero System, though, and this community's pretty great. I've only been poking at Hero for a month or two, and they've been super-welcoming. Is there somebody in your group who's got experience? The GM, who's initiating the switch, perhaps?

 

Related: have you seen any of the "Hero in Two Pages" .pdfs? They're pretty rad.

[NuSoardGraphite]

A way to reduce taking damage while absorbing is Damage reduction. The damage the character takes is reduced while the body absorbed is not. Thus you will always absorb more damage than you take unless the attack is significantly stronger than the character can absorb.

[Zephrosyne]

So: 10 BODY - (10 BODY damage - 5 PD) =

10 BODY - 5 BODY damage = 5 BODY remaining after the damage is dealt.

5 BODY + 10 CP absorbed = 15 BODY after the absorption.

 

Wouldn't the 10 CP Absorbed only convert to 5 BODY,  giving the character a total of 10 BODY (instead of 15) after the absorption since BODY counts as a Defense Power (6E1 pg. 141) or am I missing something?

[Doc Democracy]

Glacius

 

I think that the biggest hurdle for anyone moving to HERO is the design philosophy.  The powers and rules are a means to an end, not intended to be the final product that you use.

 

For everyone - when designing a power - you need to divorce the 'powers' in the book from the game effects you want to achieve.

 

Rather than looking through the book and thinking, I need Absorption, you think I want my character to access powers or become more powerful when hurt.

 

There are a number of ways to go about that.  One is using a 'power' that provides a direct link between damage taken and gaining power.  Absorption gives you some of that but as you found out, it is not quite the power that you see in your mind.  You might decide that this is satisfying because it gives the direct route and you tinker (advantage, limit etc) to make it play more like your vision.  You might decide to do something else.

 

It would be possible to have, for example, 20 STR that you can use any time - around the maximum of human normal range.

 

In addition you buy +20 STR (only when BODY below maximum).  The value of that limitation would depend on how often you would expect the character to take BODY damage - if he has no defences and takes BODY with almost every attack then this would cost you the full cost of 20 STR and the limitation would be as much for colour as anything else.  If he had 20 resistant defences in a campaign where average attacks did 18 or less BODY then it could be worth as much as a +2 limitation and only cost a third of normal.

 

Like that, you might decide that she gains the ability to throw hellfire when she has taken three attacks that do BODY.  There is a little bit of bureaucracy in this and the limitation would apply - this time I think I would definitely give at least a +1/4 limitation to the power and increase that depending on how unlikely taking BODY is.

 

However, this approach has nothing to do with the 'power' absorption.

 

You might also have a small power framework that is powered through an Endurance Battery.  The battery might only recover when the character takes damage.  So when the character takes damage he becomes able to use those powers as the battery gains from the attacks.

 

 

Doc

[Mister E]

Wouldn't the 10 CP Absorbed only convert to 5 BODY, giving the character a total of 10 BODY (instead of 15) after the absorption since BODY counts as a Defense Power (6E1 pg. 141) or am I missing something?

Yes.

 

The effect of Adjustment Powers on "defensive abilities" is halved.

 

This counts for any Defensive Powers, CON, DCV, DMCV, PD, ED, REC, END, STUN & BODY.