Variable Enhancement and Range/Area

Ratix · Post by **Ratix** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 9:00 am

In addition to paying for the Variable Enhancement on a power, can you also spend points on the Range or Area enhancements to arrange? For instance, instead of just having Special Attack 5 [Variable] 6pts, can you have Special Attack 5 [Range +1, Variable] 7pts, and have an extra point to assign to range with any attack variation? So the shortest-range attack might be +5DMG, Close Range. Alternately, you could spend the point on Area, which could be used to add to Burst, Line, Arc, or Ricochet.

AslanC · Post by **AslanC** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 9:18 am

I get very confused by the Variable power enhancer as it just confuses me as to how many points are in the pool for the power. That said it seems that with special attack it is straight forward. You pay for a pool and the enhancement "Variable" and then use the pool to fill out the "to hit", "to damage", "range" and "area" descriptors.

To have it as a permanent range bonus doesn't seem outside the rules to me.

BASHMAN?

Ratix · Post by **Ratix** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 9:22 am

AslanC wrote:I get very confused by the Variable power enhancer as it just confuses me as to how many points are in the pool for the power. That said it seems that with special attack it is straight forward. You pay for a pool and the enhancement "Variable" and then use the pool to fill out the "to hit", "to damage", "range" and "area" descriptors.

To have it as a permanent range bonus doesn't seem outside the rules to me.

BASHMAN?

Yeah; the idea is that a blaster would benefit from having a permanent range bonus on a Variable attack, so that even their "Dodge this" point-blank shots are still ranged, albeit up to 5 squares, but still ranged attacks and so benefit from Mind.

btw AslanC, still working on Grendizer. I found some Arabic episodes on Youtube and a great Wikipedia plot summary. Filling out Duke Fleed and Grendizer's sheet now. Cool show so far. ^_^

AslanC · Post by **AslanC** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 9:24 am

I grew up on it in French as Goldorak, which was very cool. Unfortunately the English translation is really cheesy

As for the range issue, for me having it just as a variable works for concept as the further it goes, or the more area it covers leaves less power for damage or accuracy, but that's just me.

jhilahd · Post by **jhilahd** » Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:00 am

Sorry to necro this, but...
Was it ever answered.

I'm still struggling with variable.

Is there a limit to how many attacks you can setup for your ranged/h2h attacks?

AngryGhost · Post by **AngryGhost** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:46 am

I'm going to necro it too - just because my head gets fuzzy when I'm over thinking such things as range/aria/variable with special attack.

However, saying that, I've always run it that you are limited to the maximum in special attack (5) with the variable enhancement to split between damage/hit/range

-otherwise your average 2 stat hero using say a blaster template with boost can get silly amounts of damage and then add a range enhancement on top of that for small build points.

Edit: also, this way it makes special attack (variable) "special", but not "stupendous attack".

Post by **BASHMAN** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:11 pm

As a Narrator, I'd allow it. I'd let someone take Special Attack 5 (Close Range) + Variable Enhancement.

In a way this is a bit of a restriction as well. While they can make the power have a longer range than Close, i would not let them remove the range entirely. So they could not use the power in a Line for instance, since that is incompatible with range.

However this is me talking about how I would act as a Narrator at my table for a player who made this request. This is not me speaking as a game designer making a new official "rule" for the game. There is some leeway in the rules by design for the individual Narrator to decide for themselves how they want to handle things.

WaylanderPK · Post by **WaylanderPK** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:50 pm

What if you link boost mind 3 to the power
Say Special attack 4, variable, boost mind 3(damage) linked. This way you guarantee your damage, and can mess around with range/area and accuracy.

Post by **BASHMAN** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:56 pm

WaylanderPK wrote:What if you link boost mind 3 to the power
Say Special attack 4, variable, boost mind 3(damage) linked. This way you guarantee your damage, and can mess around with range/area and accuracy.

That works pretty good.