"You shall not pass!"

[Heritage]

So I'm planning to use some of Grim's earned Rewards to make some changes to her sheet, namely adding Gretchen as a Sidekick (her official title is 'personal crime-fighting assistant') and adding some defenses to the bookstore, mostly of a magical nature. My main thought is to make it harder to get into by magical means, possibly Selective Nullifys targeting Summon, Teleport, Dimensional Movement, etc.

The spells effects will be created by Det. Morena Colby, the FCPD detective/vodun priestess NPC I used before, but the 'keys' to the spells would be in Lynn's hands, so to speak. What's the best way to do this rules-wise? Should Lynn assist with the casting? Would Reena have to be given a 'guest list' of people not affected by the spells, or could Lynn control it herself? Should physical keys be created that Lynn could hand out, or could it merely be a mental choice to allow people to pass?

Also has anyone else done this sort of thing before, like for Parkhurst or another mystical HQ?

Edited March 9, 2015 by Heritage

[Raveled]

Parkhurst is an example of a current HQ with magical defenses, and if you can dig up Robin Cross's sheet she had another set of such defenses on her HQ.

The exact specs of how it all works is up to you, H, as well as how the magic is done. Some passkeys would make sense if people other than her are supposed to open the store up, but exactly how it all shakes out is down to you.

[Heritage]

On a related note, how does Sidekick approval work? Do you submit the character as an NPC in the Character Bank and then copy and paste into your character edit, or is it just part of the regular character edit approval?

[Thevshi]

A sidekick needs two approvals like a character. We can probably do it through a character edit request, just two Refs will have to look it over and okay it before the edit is made.

[N/A]

Here's how I'd do it:

Grim is PL15, so each rank in the "Power" HQ feature gives her (PLx2) 30PP worth of HQ powers. Power 4 (4EP) gives her HQ 120PP of powers.

Nullify is 1PP/rank for one power, 2PP/rank for all powers of one descriptor, or 3PP/rank for all powers. I think nullifying all Summon, Dimensional Movement, and Teleport effects, regardless of descriptor, would fit comfortably in the 2PP/rank tier.

Nullify 12 (Summon, Super-Movement [Dimensional Travel], and Teleport Effects of Any Descriptor, Extras: Action 3 [Reaction], Area [General, Burst], Duration 3 [Continuous], Selective, Flaws: Range [Touch], Feats: Progression [Area] 1 [10ft/rank = 120ft radius]) [109PP] (Magic Wards)

Anyone trying to poof in or out of the building needs to make an opposed power check against the HQ. If they fail, they can't try again in the same scene without using Extra Effort, unless they're in the HQ, in which case I believe they can try again if they get outside the area of effect.

And I'd throw in a scrying ward too:

Concealment 1 (ESP Effects, Extras: Area [General, Burst], Duration [Continuous], Feats: Progression [Area] 4 [100ft/rank = 100ft radius]) [8PP] (Magic Wards)

That's 117/120PP used.

If you're giving out tokens that let someone bypass the wards, I'd model then as 1PP Features on those characters individual sheets.

[Heritage]

Grim's been adjusted back down to PL 12, but otherwise those two effects look pretty solid!

I'll have to think about the key thing; it's one thing to add that to an NPC's sheet, and another to require it of any PCs who want to 'pop in', though right now that would probably just be Kit.

[N/A]

She's not a PL12 character. She's a PL15 character who voluntarily only bought her traits up to PL12 caps. She can buy 20 ranks in a Skill, have +20 in an Ability, and she gets 30PP to work with for every rank she buys of the "Power" or "Defense System" HQ features. That's why I only designed the Nullify to be rank 12 instead of rank 15. I'm aware of her voluntary under-capping.

[Heritage]

Thanks for explaining that, Shaen; I was actually unaware how that worked.

So if I'm reading your build right, the Selective in the Nullify already allows Grim to control access, right? She would just have to know who wanted in and then allow them access.

[N/A]

Yep.