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A VP and a Gadgets Questions


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Question the First: pertinent to most any VP

Can a VP be used to add Extras or Power Feats to an existing power?

Ex: Can Doktor Archeville use his new & improved Electromagnetic Screwdriver (Gadgets 3, 15 points to play with) to add the Portal Extra (a +2 Extra) to 7 ranks of the Teleport power in his Gravimetric Belt? Or some extra to an Energy Rifle (Blast 8) he picks up off a baddie, such as Alt Save/Fortitude or Autofire or Penetrating?

Question the Second: the Gadget-specific one

Can an Easy-to-Lose Gadget be turned into a Hard to Lose thing, by sacrificing 1p per rank to make up the cost difference?

Ex: Doktor Archeville borrow a tactic from THE MATRIX (or DC's Prometheus) and turns his new & improved Electromagnetic Screwdriver (easy to lose Gadgets 3, 15 points) into a "Kinesthetic-Synaptogenetic Enhancer" (i.e., it lets him know kung-fu). "Easy to Lose" is a -2pp/rank flaw, "Hard to Lose" is a -1pp/rank flaw, so could I sacrifice 3 of the 15 gadget points to turn the Easy-to-lose screwdriver into a hard-to-lose headband (that grants 12pp worth of combat-oriented skills & feats)?

I would think Yes to both, but I'd like feedback from others before actually doing either of those. (I see no balance issues, but I'm not exactly wholly objective on this matter ;) )

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On the first I'm not sure. Standardly when you have two arrays with the same power in them you can stack the power (Within caps, IE a blast 5 and a blast 5 in two arrays both active at once could be a blast 10) On the other hand this seems more like a boost effect where you boost the power of the other device using your gadget. Balance wise I don't really see an issue with it and I think a shape-shifter should be able to add impervious to their non VP protection if they want so it seems balance to me.

As for the second I think the question also needs be made if the inverse is true. Right now Ace has gadgets 1 hard to lose as its stuff he hides on his person. Many of the objects are hand held when actually manifested and I took a complication to represent them being disarmable. Should I instead be able to switch it to being Easy to lose and have 6pp in the VP instead of 5? Not out and out saying it's imbalanced but it makes me a little nervous to be able to switch from easy to hard to lose and back.

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Because it hurts my brain?

I admit, you're not actually coming out ahead, because you go from spending 9PP for 15PP of traits to spending 12PP for 12PP worth.

But this kind of recursiveness on the structural level has no precedent in the rules I've been able to find, and seems like a Pandora's box that I just don't think we should open.

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Well the same basic principle could be applied to any power can you down rank it to remove a flaw on the fly?

Well Easy/hard to lose is basically a limited flaw. If you can remove or reduce the severity of a flaw when its most likely to effect you it seems that could be a problem. This is particularly true in the case of VPs which can be very useful even when not used at full power.

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