Recovery Version of Phys Immunity: Help Me Price It

[DFJunkie]

The wizards of the Black Company series are very different from the ones in Dresden.

I'm well aware of that, but I like the narrative device of the Dominator as a looming threat that may be temporarily contained but never truly ended.  The mechanics are immaterial, the point is to make an enemy for whom death is merely a momentary inconvenience.

Sanctaphrax and Tedronai are right, it is overpriced at 8 refresh.  Living Dead had occurred to me, and maybe is a better starting point, to whit: what is the appropriate price increase to remove the "you can't recover from consequences" trapping as well as the "dead is scary" trapping?  Maybe a total cost of +3, +4 if the process for destroying the critter is really annoying, and +5 it it's essentially impossible?

[Richard_Chilton]

It's just that I'm not sure if living dead fits them...
Spoiler for later in the Black Company series - say book 5 or 6.

(click to show/hide)

I just can't see anyone labeled as 'living dead' being able to procreate.

Richard

[computerking]

I think someone was working on or proposed a custom power a lot like Living Dead called Undying. You might want to search for it.

[polkaneverdies]

Iirc the superghouls just have mythic recovery and are barely slowed down by being chopped into bits. As long as you aren't attaching massive trauma to the catch mythic recovery would probably handle it.
My apologies if this was already said, I have somehow never managed to read "the black company series" so I was skimming to avoid spoilers.

[Sanctaphrax]

There have been many attempts at immortality powers. Give me a moment, I'll find some.

For what it's worth, I'd probably charge 1 refresh for the "can't die without special circumstances" thing alone. It's not like GMs are usually keen to kill off players anyway.

[Richard_Chilton]

Iirc the superghouls just have mythic recovery and are barely slowed down by being chopped into bits. As long as you aren't attaching massive trauma to the catch mythic recovery would probably handle it.
My apologies if this was already said, I have somehow never managed to read "the black company series" so I was skimming to avoid spoilers.

The difference between the superghouls and the Taken is that the Taken weren't getting up to continue the fight - they (and other powerful wizards) were just staying alive when something should have killed them.  Often they needed allies or other supporters to carry them from the field - and even when someone knew that they had these "stay alive" powers it was hard for normal people to kill them.

And when one of them went down, it would be months (or years) before that wizard recovered enough to be a factor again.  Often they needed help to recover - their powers could keep them alive and limping along but they needed additional powers to actually recover.  And yes, since we are talking about selfish, mostly evil, beings their "allies" would sometimes nurse them just enough to keep them around but not enough to heal them - at least not until they were needed.  Or the "allies" would let (or help) one of them die.  No, there's not a lot of love among powerful wizards in that series.

And if you haven't read the series then you might want to.  Harry Dresden read it and enjoyed it - the proof's in the short story "Day Off".

Richard

[Sanctaphrax]

[-0] Lesser Immortality: You do not need to eat or drink and do not excrete wastes. If you possess ‘Hunger Dependency’ you must still satisfy it as normal.

[-3] Immortality: As lesser Immortality in addition you cease to age and remain permanently at the age of acquiring this ability (EX: A man in his mid-twenties will always look like he‘s in his mid-twenties even two thousands years later), and cannot be aged magically. You are also immune to all poisons and diseases, both magical and mundane,  and do not need to breath.

http://vinlandsolutions.site11.com/Products/DFRPG/SamplePowers/Deathless.html
http://vinlandsolutions.site11.com/Products/DFRPG/SamplePowers/ImmortalNature.html

[-3] Living Nightmare: an infernal is immune to most permanent effects. This provides no defense against actual attacks but no result can be permanent except banishment or imprisonment. Unless banished or imprisoned, an infernal will eventually revert to their true form and full health (though for extreme results, it might take a long time).

[DFJunkie]

I was just using the Taken/Dominator as an example, the being in question isn't going to be a mortal wizard. 

I think Living Nightmare suits my purposes and the price looks about right.

[polkaneverdies]

In that case belial666's  character Elena in Enduring the Apocalypse has a custom power called undying that might be appropriate. I can post a link later unless somebody beats me too it.

[computerking]

Just re-read the description of Uber-Ghouls in Our World.

Unkillable by almost any means. or more accurately, you can kill them, but it tends not to stick with these guys.

And they only have Mythic Recovery and Inhuman Toughness. Maybe a good High Concept that establishes you as nearly unkillable (Undying Scion of Hermes, Eternal Guardian of Atlantis, etc) can be all you need to negotiate a Killer Takeout as a temporary setback.

[Sanctaphrax]

True. But Recovery has a catch, and it doesn't really provide plot armour. Then again, PCs rarely lack for plot armour.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Then again, PCs rarely lack for plot armour.

See what you did, now I'm going to have to kill off a PC in the next session or two.

[Silverblaze]

See what you did, now I'm going to have to kill off a PC in the next session or two.

I'm pretty sure, you're my hero.  I was thinking almost the same thing.

"You can't possibly kill this."

...

"Watch me!"

[Tsunami]

In that case belial666's  character Elena in Enduring the Apocalypse has a custom power called undying that might be appropriate. I can post a link later unless somebody beats me too it.

Yep, he took Living Dead and chopped off all the effects other than No "death" result is ever permanent

So lets take a look at the Trappings of Living Dead

Living Dead [–1]
Description: You’re dead, but you keep walking around. It’s kind of gross.
Musts: You’ve got to be dead.
Effects:
Corpse Body.
_{Your body is a corpse. is means that you cannot recover from consequences with time, because your body does not regenerate. Any physical consequences you suffer are  permanent  until  you  take  some  kind  of effort to remove them (know any good taxidermists?) or seek supernatural assistance to reconstruct your body.}
Ok, this is a disadvantage that is probably worth a +1 bonus. Chop this off the Power and the cost rises to -2

Death is a Nuisance.
_{Unless wholly destroyed or  killed  by  special  means,  you’re  already dead,  and  that  doesn’t  seem  to  have  fazed you  much.  No “death”  result  is  ever  permanent unless special means are used (usually as determined by your creature type).}
This is the Major advantage of the Power, we wan't to keep that.

Dude!  You’re  Dead!
_{And  that’s  pretty  scary to a lot of people. When dealing with folks unaccustomed  to  the  walking  dead  (and that’s  most “regular”  people),  gain  a  +1  on Intimidation.  The  downside?  Take  a  –1 penalty  on  nearly  every  other  social  skill (except  Deceit).  For  every  level  of  physical consequence  you’ve  sustained,  increase  the penalty/bonus  by  –1/+1.  That  said,  the effect is short-lived with any one target—as they  become  accustomed  to  a  reality  where the dead walk, they eventually become inured to it as an additional reason to be terrified.}
This trapping has some Positive as well as Negative effects. Negative effects dominate it somewhat however. Let's count this as another +1 Bonus. We're going to chop this one off as well, increasing the power cost to -3.


That Leaves us with a Power that provides the following Trapping

Death is a Nuisance.
_{Unless wholly destroyed or  killed  by  special  means,  you’re  already dead,  and  that  doesn’t  seem  to  have  fazed you  much.  No “death”  result  is  ever  permanent unless special means are used (usually as determined by your creature type).}

for a cost of -3

To Create a Trans-Mythic Recovery Power I'd probably just add a trapping like that to Mythic recovery, and make it vulnerable to the catch. It simply call it:

Recover from Death
_{Unless wholly destroyed, killed by special means, or taken out by an attack that meets your catch, you’re never going to die.  No “death”  result  is  ever  permanent unless the catch is satisfied when it is created, or the special means are used. (Choose the special means when taking this power)}

In conjunction with Mythic recovery i'd probably charge only -2 for it. That would bring it in line with Physical Immunity.

Recovery from extreme consequences would be unaffected, those are plot consequences more that anything and should still be there.

So to sum up.

Trans-Mythic Recovery -8
Like Mythic Recovery
Additional Trapping
Recover from Death
_{Unless wholly destroyed, killed by special means, or taken out by an attack that meets your catch, you’re never going to die.  No “death”  result  is  ever  permanent unless the catch is satisfied when it is created, or the special means are used. (Choose the special means when taking this power)}

[Sanctaphrax]

Disagree with that breakdown.

Dude, You're Dead! is at least as good as it is bad in my opinion.

And the healing drawback isn't really worth a whole refresh, I think.

But Belial removed the "wholly destroyed or killed by special means" part. That should probably cost a little extra.