Special Attack: Tesla Blitz

Tesla Coil

On a thread from a message board I regularly read from, someone asked how they might implement an attack like the image to the right if it were to project from their hand. And I think I came up with something somewhat interesting, so I'll repost it here.

Introduction

So, the interesting properties of this ability look like

1. It's electrical
2. It covers a wide but short range
3. It's very random
4. It's incredibly fast and can strike multiple times

So, with all that defined, we can combine it together into something coherent.

Calculation

First off, looking in the basic set, it seems like typical lightning is burning damage, has a stun effect, and has a surge effect, so that part is easy.

For the range part, we will probably convert the typical long distance missile effect of innate attack to a cone. We will also be greatly reducing the range for the standard 100 yards.

For the random effect, we will use the bombardment limitation. Instead of using the character's skill to determine accuracy, we leave it up to the whim of nature.

Finally, we can increase the rate of fire to represent the possibility of being stricken many times.

Ability Defined

I hate coming up with names, but it deserves a name, so let's call it "Tesla Blitz".

Tesla Blitz (+200%): Burning Attack 1d (Side Effect, Stunning +50%, Surge +20%; Cone, 5 yards, +100%; Increased 1/2D +15%; Reduced Range, 1/20, -40%; Bombardment, Effective Skill 10, -15%; Rapid Fire, RoF 7, +70%) [15]

In a cone 5 yards long and 5 yards wide at its maximum, random strikes of lightning will strike from the user's hand. For each target inside of this range, roll against 11 (This includes a bonus for having a high rate of fire). Margin of success indicates the potential strikes against the given target to a maximum of 7. In turn, the target may make a dodge attempt, and margin of success indicates how many bolts were dodged. For each bolt that successfully strikes, the target takes 1d of damage to a random hit location. Additionally, because of the surge enhancement, all electronics within the cone become disabled.

Conclusion

This is an attack that has a pretty nice random feel to it. It could do tons of damage; it could also do none. It could hit everyone; it could also hit no one. The ability has no power modifier on it, so if it would belong to a power set, it would typically receive an additional 10-20% discount. An attack like this might normally require recharging, have a certain limited number of uses per day, and/or require FP expenditure for further discounts. Each 1d is happening independently, meaning that someone with very good armor could shrug off the attack completely, so armor divisor is another enhancement that might be worth looking into, or just doubling the cost of the power up to 30 points so each strike is 2d instead. Overall a pretty unique attack.