Ambiguous Powers

[Marve]

I have recently watched Superhero Origins: Ghost Rider on youtube by Watchmojo (great series btw i recommend). In a particular segment of that episode they mentioned Ghost Riders powers in particular his Penance Stare.

The Penance Stare causes the target to feel all the pain of all the people he/she have ever harmed. In the show they gave an example of Galactus as a target. Galactus killed billions of souls and so the Stare gave him the pain of billions. This shows that this power doesn't have an upper threshold as it can harm even cosmic beings.

So how would you model such a power in BASH?
Remember that:
1) The stregnth of the attack is determined by an ambiguous parameter out of the control of the hero

2) The power scales with the target

[Sunslinger]

If you see it as a damage power, I would give it a VERY high damage multiplier and a special limitation "dependent on the target's sins" or something like that. This limitation scaling the damage down depending on the evils the target commited. Most likely it is a Continual Damage power with the capacity to do more than x5 damage/round on truly evil targets; perhaps LINKED with dazed with the enhancement that the Daze lasts as long as the target takes damage.
I am not sure how to translate into the game that the power cannot miss a target though. Once Ghostrider looks into the eyes of a target it just works. A defense could represent that a target tries to avoids eyecontact.

[urbwar]

If it can affect even Galactus, then I'd say it's rating is Beyond, meaning it can do whatever the GM decides it does. That way, it can affect a lowly crook one way, and Galactus another.

Of course, Beyond has no point cost, so that would effectively make it out of pc range.

Another option isn't to make it a damaging attack. Maybe it's a form of mental ability instead?

[BASHMAN]

The key is to recognize there is a difference between damage and pain. Feeling pain can be represented by the Daze or Confuse power. If your heart is set on it doing damage though I would use Mind Blast with the Anihilation enhancement and a very high damage rating and a limitation that the DM is relative to the sins of the victim. So some petty crook who broke a mans leg once might take x1 damage from the sheer memory, but a serial killer who killed dozens would take a lot, like x5 (thats the same as a machinegun). Beyond that you may have someone who caused the deaths of thousands take x10. Beyond that, you move int cosmic territory.

[Marve]

BASHMAN

Seems like a great idea but maybe i should replace the Mind Blast with Continual Damage and also add the limitation only works while keeping eye contact with target?

Also even if i used the power with Daze or Confuse it won't bring Galactus to his knees as dexcribed in the old Fantastic Four cartoons....

[MrJupiter]

BASHMAN

Seems like a great idea but maybe i should replace the Mind Blast with Continual Damage and also add the limitation only works while keeping eye contact with target?

Also even if i used the power with Daze or Confuse it won't bring Galactus to his knees as dexcribed in the old Fantastic Four cartoons....

Maybe Galactus just didn't realize that he had a Devastating Weakness to a Penance Stare? Besides, even Galactus must submit to the incredible power weilded by... THE NARRATOR! (Just kidding.)