Powers: Innate Attack (Prismatic)

Powers: Innate Attack (Prismatic)

From my earliest exposure to GURPS I've been thinking on how one can accomplish random effects. For example, an attack that has a random damage type. GURPS has alternative abilities that combine abilities into a single one, but you still have to choose which one you use and take a maneuver to switch. I believe that I've seen an RPM spell that had an array of effects taken as alternative abilities; that one said that the effect being random compensates for the lack of need to "switch". That sounds fair. However, attack normally do not have such a requirement - you don't have to take a Ready maneuver to switch. This is why I suggest introducing something new - alternative random abilities. If all the abilities are attacks, then you divide the cost by 6, not by 5. If there is even a single non-attack ability, then keep the divisor at 5 as per normal alternative abilities. But why don't we come up with a new "damage type" as something of a shorthand using this framework?

As an example, let's make a "prismatic" attack - a random attack that uses the traditional D&D damage types - acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sound. GURPS uses six-sided dice, so let's also add poison.

Acid will be represented by Corrosion Attack [10/level].

Cold will be represented by Burning Attack with No Incendiary Effect, -10% and Side Effect, DX-2 and Numb, +90% [9/level].

Electricity will be represented by Burning Attack with Surge, Arcing, +100% and Side Effect, Stunning, +50% [12.5/level].

Fire will be represented by Burning Attack [5/level].

Sound will be represented by Burning Attack with Environmental, Sound-transmitting mediums, -10%, No Incendiary Effect, -10%, and Side Effect, Stunning, +50% [6.5/level].

Poison will be represented by Toxic Attack [4/level].

The most expensive attack is the electrical one - it costs 12.5 points/level. So, let's divide the costs of other attacks by 6. Let's not round the costs yet.

We get 12.5 + 10/6 + 9/6 + 5/6 + 6.5/6 + 4/6 = 18.25 points/level. And now let's round it down to 18 points/level. You probably have noticed that not all attacks were made equal. This might be okay for you, but if it is not, then you could, for example, reduce electrical and corrosion attacks to -1 per die and recalculate the cost.

The end result is the following:

Innate Attack (Prismatic) - 18 points/level

Your attack unleashes an elemental blast that deals damage of a random type. If this is an attack that can affect multiple targets, decide whether all targets take damage of the same type or they all roll on the damage type table individually when purchasing this ability. The damage type is determined using the following table.

1d    Damage type

1      Acid. This attack deals corrosion damage.

2      Cold. This attack deals non-incendiary burning damage. Targets injured by this spell must make an HT roll, at -1 per 2 points of injury, or take a -2 penalty to DX and become Numb (p. B146) for (20-HT) minutes (minimum 1 minute).

3    Electricity. This attack deals burning surge damage. Metallic armor counts as DR 1 against this attack, but nonmetallic armor protects normally. Targets stuck by this attack must make an HT roll, at -1 per 2 points of injury, or be physically stunned. On subsequent turns, they can roll HT to recover.

4     Fire. This attack deals burning damage.

5     Poison. This attack deals toxic damage.

6     Sound. This attack deals non-incendiary burning damage.Targets stuck by this attack must make an HT roll, at -1 per 2 points of injury, or be physically stunned. On subsequent turns, they can roll HT to recover. This attack only works in sound-transmitting mediums and is negated by such effects as Silence or Wall of Silence.

Using the same framework, you can create attacks that use different combinations of damage types. Rainbow, chaos, wonder, nexus damage - whatever you want to call it.