Is Energy Projection Overpriced?

[silent_bob]

1D6 of energy projection cost 10 budget points while an assault rifle does 2D6+2 per bullet in the 3 round burst. This seems unabalanced.

Why is energy projection so expensive? Is this a typo?

[rust]

1D6 of energy projection cost 10 budget points while an assault rifle does 2D6+2 per bullet in the 3 round burst. This seems unabalanced.

An assault rifle is almost impossible to hide, is terribly loud and requires ammuni-

tion. Energy Projection is an "invisible weapon" which can be transported any-

where the character can go (no trouble with metal detectors and thelike ...), it

is silent, and it requires only a minimum of "power", 1 point per level. Therefore I

do not see this as unbalanced, in fact in my view Energy Projection is a rather

inexpensive power.

[pulpcitizen]

Not only is it pretty cheap, but a comprehensive suite of defenses is comparitively very expensive. To take 3 points of defense in all categories (since an energy blast could conceivably be one of any of those) costs what, 27 points (off the top of my head without the BGB to hand)? Therefore the edge goes to attackers in settings where all 9 attack types are roughly equally as common.

[silent_bob]

Not only is it pretty cheap, but a comprehensive suite of defenses is comparitively very expensive. To take 3 points of defense in all categories (since an energy blast could conceivably be one of any of those) costs what, 27 points (off the top of my head without the BGB to hand)? Therefore the edge goes to attackers in settings where all 9 attack types are roughly equally as common.

I don't follow your logic. Armor only costs 1 point per energy type while energy projection costs 10 points per energy type. Furthermore, armor is permanent or lasts 10 rounds. So how are defenses more expensive?

If you wanted to buy armor for all energy types, since an energy projection attack could use any type of energy, you would pay 1/10th of the cost of buying energy projection for all energy types.

This has lead my players to buy armor and forgo super attacks, like energy projection, in favor of guns.

So again I ask, what is the game logic behind making energy projection so expensive and defenses and guns cheap?

Why not make energy projection cost the same as armor? Forget the 1d6 damage per level and buy the damage point just like armor. This way 10 points of energy projection damage for radiation, for example, would cost 10 budget points and would use 10 pow points per use.

[pulpcitizen]

Why more expensive? Against a single individual attack of course it isn't; against the full array of potential EP's it is more costly. Against any EP, absolute protection costs 54 points against all energy types. As suggested, since defenses will be established before threats are faced, the advantage remains with EP.

[rust]

This way 10 points of energy projection damage for radiation, for example, would cost 10 budget points and would use 10 pow points per use.

This would turn Energy Projection into an "instant kill" power. The 10 points of

damage would be sufficient to kill the average human with 10 hit points outright,

while 1d6, 2d6 and even 3d6 still include a good chance to survive the attack.

Player characters tend to have more than 10 hit points, but few players would

like to see non-player characters with a power sufficient to instantly kill their

characters once they are wounded and down to 10 hit points.

[silent_bob]

Why more expensive? Against a single individual attack of course it isn't; against the full array of potential EP's it is more costly. Against any EP, absolute protection costs 54 points against all energy types. As suggested, since defenses will be established before threats are faced, the advantage remains with EP.

No disrespect, but I don't think you are comparing apples to apples here. EP costs 10 times more than armor per energy type. To make sure your EP is effective you would have to buy all energy types which is absurdly expensive. If you only bough one EP energy type you know your GM is going to put some opponents in the scenario that will have protections from that energy type for game balance.

[silent_bob]

This would turn Energy Projection into an "instant kill" power. The 10 points of

damage would be sufficient to kill the average human with 10 hit points outright,

while 1d6, 2d6 and even 3d6 still include a good chance to survive the attack.

Player characters tend to have more than 10 hit points, but few players would

like to see non-player characters with a power sufficient to instantly kill their

characters once they are wounded and down to 10 hit points.

The attacker would still have to succeed at his energy projection skill to hit the target and I would allow the target to dodge at 1/2 his dodge skill. Furthermore, this would make EP better balanced against guns. For example, an assault rifle does 2D6+2 (average 9) HP of damage per bullet and the target would be hit by an average of 2 bullets in a 3 round burst and suffer an average of 18 HP damage which is far more than 10 points of EP described above, at essentially no cost.

Granted EP does have some advantages over guns as you pointed out: it is concealed and can get through metal detectors and is always with the character and so on. However, these meager advantages don't explain the high cost.

I would love to hear from the authors of BRP as to why they made EP so expensive. The only reason that makes sense to me is that they consider EP a "flashy" power that is only appropriate for superhuman campaigns.

[rust]

The attacker would still have to succeed at his energy projection skill to hit the target and I would allow the target to dodge at 1/2 his dodge skill.

I find it difficult to imagine a chance to dodge when the energy projected is not

visible, as for example with radiation.

iFor example, an assault rifle does 2D6+2 (average 9) HP of damage per bullet and the target would be hit by an average of 2 bullets in a 3 round burst and suffer an average of 18 HP damage which s far more than 10 points of EP described above, at essentially no cost.

The difference is that 2d6+2 can just as well result in only 4 points of damage,

while a power that always does 10 points of damage leaves the target no chan-

ce to be lucky.

Edited January 31, 2011 by rust

[pulpcitizen]

No disrespect, but I don't think you are comparing apples to apples here. EP costs 10 times more than armor per energy type. To make sure your EP is effective you would have to buy all energy types which is absurdly expensive. If you only bough one EP energy type you know your GM is going to put some opponents in the scenario that will have protections from that energy type for game balance.

Well not quite x10 cost; either x3.3 for 3 armour (will stop up to 50% of the damage) or x1.67 vs absolute protection.

From a Player Character perspective, yes EP attacks can be cheaply nullified (since they will be locked in at character creation by and large), but by extension, Armor is more cheaply cicrumvented in relative terms since the outlay to protect against all types is very expensive when compared to an individual attack; basically to have a comprehensive Armour suite means 8 areas of redundancy. Yes that argument can be reversed, however since the armor can be ignored with a sufficient EP skill roll (Special or Critical success) there remains an imbalance in a number of ways, since a suite of 9 different energy types is less effective than simply putting skill points into the relevent skill alongside 1 flavour of EP.

[silent_bob]

I find it difficult to imagine a chance to dodge when the energy projected is not

visible, as for example with radiation.

The rules on page 198 allow dodging of bullets at 1/2 the target's dodge skill and they are invisible when fired. Of course the target would have to know the attack is coming. No one would expect an unarmed man to have a radiation EP attack and I would not allow a dodge for a target that was unaware of the power.

The difference is that 2d6+2 can just as well result in only 4 points of damage,

while a power that always does 10 points of damage leaves the target no chan-

ce to be lucky.

True. Perhaps lowering the cost of EP to 5 points per 1D6 would work.