It's dangerous to go alone. Take that. And that! AND THAT...!!!: Providing the COMMON DEFENSE Powerset

[AspieAnarchy]

COMMON DEFENSE (Ranged)

Available to: Defenders

Set Color: Pea Green-on-Concrete Grey

 

Not every brilliant surgeon carries heavy weaponry, not every crafty witch throws fireballs, not every psychic mutant can produce deadly telekinetic blasts, and not even every laboratory accident gives one the power to fire radiation from one’s eyes – for those whose powers are limited to those of a subtler variety but want in on the often-violent life of a costumed adventurer, the Common Defense offers a wide array of simple but effective weapons. True to their nature and your relatively limited skill with them, they are not particularly accurate or strong and have below-average range, but they are very easy on endurance cost, tend to be quick to recharge, and offer an exceptionally diverse array of both damage-types and useful debilitating side effects.

 

1) Taser – Your electrocute a foe with your trusty taser, slightly reducing its endurance recovery and having a chance to for a weak, brief stunning effect.

Damage: Minor Energy Recharge: Very Fast

2) Saturday-Night Special – Your firearm is a cut or two above the cheap “pop-guns” one finds in the hands of so many lower-level street thugs, but only just; as guns tend to do, it is likely to reduce the defense of any target who survives being shot.

Damage: Moderate Lethal Recharge: Very Fast

3) Pepper-Spray – you spray your your target in the eyes with a nasty chemical compound, dealing only a minute amount of Toxic damage, but massively reducing its chance to hit and possibly stunning it as well.

Damage: Minor Toxic Recharge: Moderate

4) Mini-Grenade – These small, simple, cheap explosives have only meager damage and area, but they can be thrown fairly quickly.

Damage: Minor Fire/Lethal Recharge: Fast

5) Fire-Extinguisher – Weaponizing this high-end model of common safety-equipment results in a short, intense cone of gelid gas that damages and slows foes in range. Some may even be frozen in place, but will break out if attacked.

Damage: Moderate Cold/Smashing Recharge: Fast

6) Power Boost - similar to Dominator Assault power

7) Bottle-Rocket – These nasty knickknacks land and explode in a targeted area, dealing relatively decent damage and blinding enemies in the area, and even those who are not blinded still suffer a hefty handicap to their accuracy.

Damage: Moderate Fire/Lethal Recharge: Moderate

😎 Isotope-Dart – You’ve procured access to some nasty radioactive material, shaped into darts and fit for firing from any otherwise-typical firearm. Aerodynamic and nearly silent, these can be delivered as a sniper-attack, and one that, while not quite as accurate, takes less time than others to aim. Its insidious radiation will cause those struck by it to suffer reduced damage resistance.

Damage: Superior Energy/Toxic Recharge: Medium

9) IED – These versatile homemade explosives can be placed on the ground as long-lasting traps, or tossed directly at an enemy; either way, the result is a fiery concussive explosion that will knock enemies back and burn them for some additional damage over time.

Damage: High Fire/Smashing + Minor Fire (DoT) Recharge: Medium

 

Example Character Concept: The Humble Dr. Stefan Fiat! (Heroic Empathy/Common Defense Natural Defender)

Edited May 28 by AspieAnarchy
adjusted font of description, minor clerical edit

[Saiyajinzoningen]

your signature quotes are amazing! 🙂 

[AspieAnarchy]

So, uh...any thoughts on this powerset idea?

[Vic Raiden]

Sounds interesting. Kinda like Devices, but primary-- hold on, if this is a ranged powerset, which I doubt will be a Defender exclusive forever, wouldn't that allow one to have a double Taser attack?

[AspieAnarchy]

2 hours ago, Vic Raiden said:

Sounds interesting. Kinda like Devices, but primary-- hold on, if this is a ranged powerset, which I doubt will be a Defender exclusive forever, wouldn't that allow one to have a double Taser attack?

 

It is fully intended to be Defender-exclusive, though (hence by definition not Primary). It's meant for a particular character concept, as described,

and not for anyone who actually wants to hit hard.

 

RE Taser specifically, this would not be the same as Devices's Taser, which for one thing is way more potent; think of it more like the

Defender/Corrupter "death-by-flashlight" version of Radiation Blast's Neutrino Bolt.

[CrusaderDroid]

On 5/29/2024 at 3:17 PM, AspieAnarchy said:

So, uh...any thoughts on this powerset idea?

I wonder if it's better as a pool power set, personally.

 

The theme is fun! Use low-level gadgetry to fight crime! Double points for giving us the single pistol.

 

Mechanically it's weird. Fast recharge times are worse for damage for Defenders because you can't trigger procs as reliably, and your scalars as a Defender are pretty bad all around for damage. There's a grab bag of effects, but the high value picks are either very late (-Res) or absent (no -regen), and while it has four mez powers, two of them are only a chance for that mez, one is a sleep, and one is the much-maligned knockback that demands Overwhelming Force or Force Feedback to convert to knockdown.

 

It wouldn't be bottom tier, since you could stack the -to-hit from Pepper Spray and Bottle Rocket to bottom out enemies' to-hit chances. That isn't particularly exciting though - it's harder to notice enemies missing you than you plowing through enemies. The rest of the powers besides Isotope Dart are tricky since they don't have a really powerful effect to go with them, and as a Defender-locked set there's no hope of getting good base damage out of them.

 

I think the grab bag nature is working against you here - too many powers have only one trick they're doing, so if that trick isn't good, it's dead in the water. Taser, for instance, you skip every time - a chance for (presumably) low-mag, low duration stun isn't worth it when Saturday Night Special can carry Achilles' Heel. Mini-Grenade isn't going to have the damage you want by itself, but it doesn't have any other effects to fit any procs to bring it up, and fast recharge times combined with the penalty to AoE proc rates based on their area of effect means that even if it could proc, it wouldn't do so reliably. IED may not even be worth it at this stage compared to taking Sorcery and running with its offensive powers.

 

My personal recommendation is to be more bold with what effects you're assigning. If this is Defender-locked, you can get away with more utility power than if Blasters could use it. Capitalize on that and add more effects together.

 

As one thing I'd do myself: I'd swap the position of Saturday Night Special and Pepper Spray, then bump up the recharge of Saturday Night Special and give it -DMG as well. -defense by itself isn't super exciting, but this would let SNS proc better and feel better since it's also hitting their damage. Bigger recharge also gives room for higher base damage.

 

(It's -DMG because being shot in the arm really hurts.)

 

I do wish we'd get more power set concepts like this though. They're really fun to read and review. Please keep up the good work.

[Shin Magmus]

Saturday Night Special is a great name for a power but it's a bit too long in terms of feasibility on all of the windows.  I mean it'll work most of the time, but it's just too wordy.  The concept behind this set is awesome though.  I think "Common Defense" will confuse players into thinking it's an armorset or buff set though, so you might want to give it a more eloquent name like "Street Smarts" or the trope "Combat Pragmaticism".

[AspieAnarchy]

9 hours ago, Shin Magmus said:

I think "Common Defense" will confuse players into thinking it's an armorset or buff set though, so you might want to give it a more eloquent name like "Street Smarts" or the trope "Combat Pragmaticism".

Well, when they see it in the same lineup as all the other Defender RANGED sets, their confusion won't last very long, will it?

 

"Common Defense" is a nod to The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States - perhaps not as en vogue as it was in 2004,

but I think that's pretty eloquent. Also, it ties in with the Defender Archetype to which it is exclusive, and drives home the point

that this is what you brought along when Freaks, Lost, and Skulls inevitably come after you with their bananas and loganberries.