Making bad guys explode

[Joe_Mello]

So I'm going to be running a game that has heavy influences in tokusatsu (think Power Rangers, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, Japanese Spider-Man, et al) and I'm trying to figure out a custom perk. This perk's design goal is to simulate the moment when the hero lands his finishing move and the monster flails about in pain before he blows up, because that's what tokusatsu villains do. Here's my initial draft:

Explosive (+10): If this attack deals more than half of your opponent's remaining health, he explodes. Boom.

I don't want to make it an insta-kill, but I don't want to just make it GM Fiat that the dude goes boom.

[Clay]

As a random question, does this explosion affect anything in any perceivable way? Are the heroes injured or inconvenienced by the baddy going boom?

If not, it seems to me that the PCs should beat up on the badguy as normal, and when he/she/it is defeated, you just describe him exploding. If you want your bad guy's to last less time, just give them less Health. I can't think of a reason for a "Die when knocked back" mechanic unless you specifically want to encourage Players using big moves to end battles more quickly. But then that seems like a FLAW for the bad guy, not a perk.

Forgive me if I'm missing the point. Only passingly familiar with the genre.

[Joe_Mello]

As a random question, does this explosion affect anything in any perceivable way? Are the heroes injured or inconvenienced by the baddy going boom?

Nope, not really.

In D&D Essentials, there's an Assassin class feature where if he drops an enemy to below X hit points, the enemy is KO'd. I'm trying to replicate this with the Perk. The attacks I'm building with this perk are meant to be high-cost (each one currently sits at 30 EP), but low-risk finishers. High cost in that these aren't meant to be abused (they're once per episode, after all) but when they're used, they're effective.

To switch genres, remember whatever finishing move Sailor Moon did after Tuxedo Mask saved her sorry ass? This is what these attacks are going to do.

[Clay]

Ah, I see now. I misunderstood it as a Perk for the bad guys. This is a Perk for the heroes!

Makes more sense to me now. Sure, I don't see the harm in that. Since you word it as "Damage greater than half of remaining health" you cover a lot of ground. It can't be used against well-armored opponents as a cheap way to finish them off since your damage output will be poor. Likewise the "damage" part prevents you from auto-killing opponent's with lots of HP just by getting them down 3/4 and the like.

A fairly elegant solution. Just tinker to make sure the cost seems fair. (+10 seems good for a relatively powerful perk.)

[Joe_Mello]

Does 15 work for you or is 10 fine?

Sadly, there's not really a "bloodied" term here (especially since I tend not to distinguish HP/EP in baddies) so any wording changes would be inelegant.

[Clay]

Well, the main problem here is the Ability is more useful as the Damage Multiplier goes up. If your attack only has 1 DM, it's going to be a borderline useless perk. On the other hand, if you load a bunch of damage into the attack, say a DM of 10), its power is going to be multiplied in an obscene fashion.

I'm not one for creating rules that break the precedent of other rules, but I think it might be appropriate to apply a +5 Endurance per X DM of the attack. Don't include Strength and other bonuses, just the DM of that particular attack move.

Clay

[Joe_Mello]

Well, the main problem here is the Ability is more useful as the Damage Multiplier goes up.

You could say the same of Extra Knockback

[Clay]

True, but the boon granted by Extra Knockback is relatively minor compared to the "Explode!" perk. Knockback stuns you for a round. Explode...well...kills you.

Perhaps +15 or +20 is more reasonable, considering Extra Knockback is 10.