How to set a character on fire?

[Mendou]

(Longtime lurker; first-time poster, thanks to the Kickstarter.)

I have a character concept which involves the character turning into a fiery form. I want to build the character so that anyone who touches her in this form gets burned. I'm not sure if Barrier with Effective is appropriate, since that seems to be a more deliberate reaction; this is a condition that is constant (and dangerous to flammable objects if she so much as brushes against them).

Any suggestions?

[Atmo]

(Longtime lurker; first-time poster, thanks to the Kickstarter.)

I have a character concept which involves the character turning into a fiery form. I want to build the character so that anyone who touches her in this form gets burned. I'm not sure if Barrier with Effective is appropriate, since that seems to be a more deliberate reaction; this is a condition that is constant (and dangerous to flammable objects if she so much as brushes against them).

Any suggestions?

Welcome.

Transformation would be a good thing to your alternate form, and No Gesture + an Unique Perk to create a permanent fire wall looks like the right thing to do.

[Mendou]

(Longtime lurker; first-time poster, thanks to the Kickstarter.)

I have a character concept which involves the character turning into a fiery form. I want to build the character so that anyone who touches her in this form gets burned. I'm not sure if Barrier with Effective is appropriate, since that seems to be a more deliberate reaction; this is a condition that is constant (and dangerous to flammable objects if she so much as brushes against them).

Any suggestions?

Welcome.

Transformation would be a good thing to your alternate form, and No Gesture + an Unique Perk to create a permanent fire wall looks like the right thing to do.

Definitely using Transformation already. I suppose I could add yet another power to her Attack attribute, though I already have five ^_^;; I'll see what I can do with it......

[Mendou]

Here's the basic idea I came up with after playing with the rules a bit:

Fiery Skin (No Gesture, Unique Perk {Contact Triggered: +10}; Ineffective, Requirement {Fire Form: -10})

With her Attack of +4, that might be a bit more powerful than I'd initially wanted, even though it would be one of the major perks of her Transformation...

[Atmo]

Here's the basic idea I came up with after playing with the rules a bit:

Fiery Skin (No Gesture, Unique Perk {Contact Triggered: +10}; Ineffective, Requirement {Fire Form: -10})

With her Attack of +4, that might be a bit more powerful than I'd initially wanted, even though it would be one of the major perks of her Transformation...

Looks good. Now you have to test it on actual play.

[Mendou]

If you're interested, here is the full character (with possibly too much background included):

Piri

Concept: Teenager cursed with the ability to create fire, inflicted upon her by the evil Nebula in order to create a more perfect weapon.

Age: 16
Sex: Female
Association: None
Height: 5' 5"
Weight: 115 lbs.
Hair: Strawberry blonde
Eyes: On fire! (originally brown)
Occupation: Runaway, sometime cook
Hobbies: Eating, volleyball, track
Favorite food: ANYTHING!!
Allies: None
Rivals: None
Enemy: Nebula

Ground Zero (+5)

ABILITIES: (+23)
Agile +3
Attack +4 (Fire Attacks; Base DX: 5)
--Firebolt (Accurate, Ranged, Ineffective: Roll: 6, DX: 4)
--Fire Wave (Area Effect, Ranged: Roll: 5, DX: 5, End Cost 10)
--Flashfire (Area Effect, Blinding, Ranged, No Damage: Roll: 5, DX: 0, End Cost 10)
--Fire Fists (Effective : Roll: 5, DX: 6, End Cost 5)
--Fiery Skin (No Gesture, Unique Perk {Contact Triggered: +10}; Ineffective, Requirement {Fire form: -10}: Roll: 2, DX: 4)
--Nova Flare (Area Effect x3, Armor Piercing x2, Continued Effect, Effective x3, Open to Attack, Requirement {Fire form}: Roll: 5, DX 8, End Cost 35)
Beautiful +1
Intimidating +1
Knowledge (Cooking) +2 (Counts as +1 for Ground Zero calculation)
Life Support +3 (Extreme heat or cold, smoke)
Quick +3
Resistance (Fire) +4
Transformation (Fire form) +1
--Armored +2
--Flight +2
--Resistance (Fire) +1 additional
--Bizarre Appearance -1 additional (Fiery skin and hair)
--Vulnerability (Water) -2 (Double damage)
Vigorous +2 (+20 Endurance)

WEAKNESSES: (-18)
Ageism (Age 16) -1
Bizarre Appearance (Eyes on fire) -1
Hatred (Nebula) -2
Impulsive -1
Obsession (Find a cure for powers) -2
Poor -3
Short Temper -1
Soft Spot (Food) -2
Stubborn -1
Trigger (Transformation, when reduced to half Health) -2
Wanted (Nebula) -2

Defense: 5
Health: 40
Endurance: 60
TV: 24 (I think I calculated this correctly; please let me know if it's off)

APPEARANCE:
Piri is sixteen years old, athletic, and on the short side of average height. She has shoulder-length strawberry-blonde hair with bangs hanging in her eyes. Since being cursed with her powers she's avoided makeup and hairstyling products—they have an unfortunate tendency to evaporate, dry up, bake, or burst into flame upon contact with her skin. She is generally covered in soot and ashes (an unfortunate by-product of her powers).

Fire flickers in her eyes constantly, its strength depending on her emotions and fatigue. At her lowest moments, it's barely a reflection in her pupil; at her most excited the flames burst forth, hiding any glimpse of the flesh-and-blood eyes beneath.

She wears a singed, ill-used fire-resistant bodysuit given her by the evil Nebula. Its sleeves have been torn off, revealing the thickly-layered nature of the suit. Over this she sometimes wears scavenged clothing, usually ill-fitting, threadbare, or both.

BACKGROUND:
Piri was a fairly normal teenager—though one with a widowed father who still wore his wedding ring four years after her mother's death, and an all-girl boarding school where she led both the volleyball and track teams despite her relative youth. One day during her summer holiday she went for an early-morning jog, as she was wont to do. Awaiting her in the park where she usually ran, however, was an ambush. The first clue she had that something was wrong was the dart which embedded itself in her shoulder. The last thing she remembered was the large ski-masked man carrying her into a nondescript white cargo van, throwing away her phone as he went.

She awoke strapped to a table, numerous needles poised over her limbs. A goggled man in a control gallery separated from her by a large window spoke: “Welcome to my laboratory, the lair of Nebula! Welcome to my army!”

With that the needles entered her skin. The liquid they injected burned; for who knows how long, she screamed in pain. Then her skin burst into flame. Much to her surprise, however, she was not burning. The same could not be said of the straps which held her in place, and soon she struggled to her feet.

Nebula's laughter at her struggles ceased when her fire-sheathed fist smashed through the window and she climbed into the control room. “Go ahead and run,” he told her. “You will return to me; you'll never gain control of your powers until you submit to my training, to my orders!” He turned to make his escape, but paused. “One more thing; if you make any attempt to contact the authorities or your family or friends, I will kill them. Their blood will be on your head!”

Piri froze with shock long enough to let the mad scientist make his escape, then proceeded to incinerate the lab in frustration. She staggered out into daylight, her energy nearly spent, hungrier than she'd ever been in her life.

PERSONALITY:
Piri has two modes: ahead full steam and asleep. She is impulsive, impatient, and argumentative. She hates what she has become, and is desperate to be free of her curse. She will blindly follow any lead which may lead her to a cure for her condition. Her powers use up an incredible amount of energy, though, so she has to eat much more than she'd like. People can easily get her to do things for them through the promise of food, both because of her furnace-like metabolism and her complete lack of resources.

FIRE FORM:
In times of extreme physical duress Piri's skin bursts into flame. At these times she is literally too hot to touch,; the merest graze will cause severe burns. She can absorb more damage in this form, and can direct this fire to propel her through the air. She also gains access to her Nova Flare ability; this releases a huge amount of energy which incinerates everything nearby, but leaves her completely defenseless afterward. She is extremely vulnerable to water in this form.

NEBULA:
Nebula is a middle-aged mad scientist who has dreams of remaking the world into a twisted technocracy. He is determined to raise an army of powered individuals like Piri with which to conquer the world, despite his inability to find candidates who are both gifted enough to qualify for his forced empowerment and weak-willed enough to obey him after he's given them their abilities. He keeps a reasonably-sized army of ordinary mercenaries, and has good relations with a number of assassins. He's carved a significant power base into the underworld, with many criminals swearing allegiance to his cause.

[Clay]

Sounds good! I think it covers what you're trying to do, and by taking Ineffective, makes it a little less searing than your other attacks.

That said, I worry it might be a little too powerful. As written, you pretty much deal a pretty powerful attack to anyone who tries to hit your character. And considering the vast proliferation of martial arts in anime, you sort of force your GM into making a bunch of gun-toting bad guy to go toe-to-toe with you at all.

You may want to make "automatic trigger, contact" a +25 Endurance Perk, and take Ineffective a few more times. That should reduce the DX to 1, which is a lot more manageable. Even powerful baddies would have a hard time shaking off a DX 4 attack versus zero!

Fun character, by the way! Lots of great hooks to work with.

[Mendou]

Sounds good! I think it covers what you're trying to do, and by taking Ineffective, makes it a little less searing than your other attacks.

That said, I worry it might be a little too powerful. As written, you pretty much deal a pretty powerful attack to anyone who tries to hit your character. And considering the vast proliferation of martial arts in anime, you sort of force your GM into making a bunch of gun-toting bad guy to go toe-to-toe with you at all.

You may want to make "automatic trigger, contact" a +25 Endurance Perk, and take Ineffective a few more times. That should reduce the DX to 1, which is a lot more manageable. Even powerful baddies would have a hard time shaking off a DX 4 attack versus zero!

Fun character, by the way! Lots of great hooks to work with.

Thank you! I've made the change to its power level, and it does fit a lot better--it sets newspapers on fire, but doesn't automatically flame-broil anyone who comes into contact with her. One question, though--Would Agile affect the Attack Roll for this, or would it just be the base two dice? I'm perfectly fine with it just being the base two, but I want to clarify in case a similar situation should come up in any game I run/play in.

The character herself has been around for a number of years: my first sketch of her dates back to very late 2005 or early 2006, and has been through any number of revisions since, including no fewer than three NaNoWriMo attempts (with a fourth ready to begin as soon as the calendar changes). A lot of details have varied since then (the original setting was four-color comic book superheroes, and the Mafia was involved for reasons which made sense at the time), as happens with the passage of time. (The Gameboyesque image in my avatar actually features her in a slightly more superheroic/old-school video game mode.) So she's moving more in line with the old Bill Bixby Incredible Hulk TV show or James Patterson's Maximum Ride series.

[Clay]

Haha, some of OVA's characters have quite a history, too. Karis actually began as my avatar for Phantasy Star Online back on the Dreamcast.

I hadn't considered what the attack roll would be. You could add Agile if you wanted to, but to keep in theme with what you wanted to do, probably sticking to two dice is best.