Question about Damage Aura

[Nestor]

I hang my head in shame. Here I was thinking I had this system down, but I start creating a character and on the first power I hit a roadblock. Hubris is a harsh mistress.

I'm working on a pyrokinetic, a character with the ability to generate and control fire. So the first thing I look at is Damage Aura ("My God! He's covered in flames!").

Oh, and as a clarification, I'm using the BASH template on Metacreator to do this.

Okay, so Damage Aura 2 costs 2 points and causes x2 damage to anyone touching or grabbing him. Check. I read about the Damage Field alternate power. Ooh, that looks nice. I notice the sentence that says it's one point more expensive than plain Damage Aura. I assume that's because of adding Range to it. I add Mid Range (2 points according to the table in pg. 40) to the power, and Metacreator says it now costs 5 points.

Insert Tim Allen sound effect ("Whahhh?")

So, is the extra 1 point separate from Range? What am I missing?

[BASHMAN]

Yes, it is 1 point more expensive because you can have MULTIPLE damage fields set up at once.

[Nestor]

Ah, okay, I guess.

So, Damage Field 2, with Mid Range and Medium Burst would be a total of 7 points? Phew! That's a lot for what I perceived as a flavor power.

Maybe I could take back the extra point by defining a Limitation of being able to create only one Damage Field.

Next up, Force Field/Damage Field. To confirm, buying a Force Field 2 with Mid Range and Small Arc Area that also does x2 DM when touched woudl cost 7 points, right?

I could lower the cost of that one by defining the shield taking double damage from water-based attacks.

[BASHMAN]

Next up, Force Field/Damage Field. To confirm, buying a Force Field 2 with Mid Range and Small Arc Area that also does x2 DM when touched woudl cost 7 points, right?

I could lower the cost of that one by defining the shield taking double damage from water-based attacks.

Yes, that sounds right to me.

[Nestor]

Allrighty, then.

Thanks for giving this old dog a chance to learn new tricks.

[Nestor]

Reanimating this thread to ask a new question.

The attack descriptions on page 18 indicate that hand-to-hand attacks use Brawn contests and ranged attacks use Agility to determine whether they hit. The description for area attacks say nothing to modify this.

So explain to me the logic of requiring a Mind contest to trap someone in a Force Field (pg. 44). You're targeting an area as opposed to a single person, but it's still a ranged attack.

[Dustland]

Maybe I am misunderstanding your statement here:

hand-to-hand attacks use Brawn contests and ranged attacks use Agility to determine whether they hit

but you use Agility to see if you hit with either of these attacks. Brawn only determines damage for hand-to-hand attacks.

As to your question regarding using Mind to trap someone in a Force Field, if you check out the Mental section on p18, it says that most attacks that don't result in damage usually use Mind to hit.

[Nestor]

The rules you're referring to on pg. 18 pertain to Mental powers, which Force Field is not.

And the fact that Agility is used for both attack types seems to reinforce my point that targeting with a Combat power should use Agility, not Mind.