How To Do... Another Mouth

[Black Rose]

The latest in my never-ending quest to over-complicate things!

 

How would HEROdom Assembled simulate a character having a second mouth. This mouth doesn't necessarily have a special bite or anything, but you can buy that if you want. It can do all the things your regular mouth can do -- breathe, eat, speak, lick things I guess... and that's it. It does make it a little harder to gag or suffocate someone.

 

My thought was just use Extra Limb and call it a mouth. Does that seem reasonable?

[Lucius]

Dependent NPC:  Another mouth to feed! Infrequently (Incompetent) 15 pts

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Just ask the palindromedary

[Greywind]

Distinctive Feature

Unusual Looks

[ghost-angel]

So... pretty much this is just a Special Effect... but, the last bit of making the character harder to gag or suffocate;

 

I'd actually buy "Extra Limb: Mouth" as a reason why you can't easily restrain or prevent them from talking/breathing.

[clnicholsusa]

If, having two mouths, they can participate in two conversations at one time, would that need a write-up or would you (as a GM) hand wave that?

Personally, I would ask that the player try to build it with points, then laugh at their feeble attempt and hand wave the effect into play.

[Ninja-Bear]

Isn’t there an advantage to change origin point for powers? Just buy naked advantage with that and base cost would be 5pt. same as LS: breathe unusual Enviroment.

[dmjalund]

+ SPD only for talking?

[Pattern Ghost]

How about +1" Running, only for running their mouth?

[IndianaJoe3]

I agree that Extra Limb is probably the best way of handling this if there is a mechanical benefit. Otherwise it's just a Distinctive Feature (or not, if that's not unusual for your campaign).

[Cantriped]

"Mouth" isn't a defined concept in HERO, it is just an undefined part of the Head limb. So if the extra mouth doesn't do anything beneficial, it is only a Distinctive Feature. It may not even be distinctive in a D&D-like world.

 

If the mouth can Beathe, Speak or Bite while the Head is Grabbed, it is an Extra Limb (and perhaps HKA for the Bite). If the mouth can Incant, it might be the Alternate Origin Point for those powers.

If the mouth can speak, bite, or incant seperately from the Character, it might be Computer controlled (note the Computer has to buy its own Voice because they don't start with any Senses and I wouldn't let it use your Voice).

[Ninja-Bear]

face palm. How about just a minor Transform? And I would only charge based off of 10 Body only.

[Funk Thompson]

On 6/1/2018 at 2:48 PM, Ninja-Bear said:

face palm. How about just a minor Transform? And I would only charge based off of 10 Body only.

 

That results in all the associated problems of using a Transform to do "that thing I just can't figure out any other way to do." 

[Greywind]

[Sveta]

Transform is a good method of excusing a modifier or option that you have an idea for and how it would impact the world, but not how it would be mechanically done. 
IE: Transform helps when you know what it does and how, just not why it's there.

[Cantriped]

Transform is an umbrella for Attacks that impose unusual conditions (like having an extra mouth)... not for possessing an unusual feature yourself. For that we have Distinctive Features, Striking Appearance, or Extra Limbs (depending upon how the feature affects the character)

[Ockham's Spoon]

Just out of curiosity, where is this second mouth?  Or do I even want to know?

 

For most campaigns I don't see this having serious impact on game play, so I would just call it Distinctive Features.  Yes, it might be slightly harder to gag or suffocate the person, but I think this falls within the realm of special effects.  Consider the various martial arts maneuvers that do NND; some are pressure point strikes that don't hurt those in rigid armor, some are choke holds that only affect those that breathe through their neck.  I don't have to pay any extra to define my armor as rigid, it is just conceptual and so a special effect.  Similarly, if I made a MODOK knockoff, he has no neck and can't be strangled, but I didn't pay points to move his face into his torso - it is just a Distinctive Feature.

 

If there is a major benefit for having a second mouth due to the nature of your campaign (strangle holds are very common to prevent spell casters from using magic for instance), then Extra Limb would be a reasonable way to go, but I think that is probably the exception rather than the rule.