GURPS Wiki
Don't have an account?
Register
Advertisement
Register
GURPS Wiki
GURPS Wiki
7,635
pages
in: Advantages, Physical Traits, Exotic Traits, Special Modifiers

Affliction (advantage)

Sign in to edit

Cost: 10 points/level

Affliction is a physical, exotic advantage that covers any attack that causes an effect other than injury (see Innate Attack) or physical restraint (see Binding)[1] [2]

Social traits[]

Advantage (enhancement) says "mental or physical advantage" so a social advantage cannot be afflicted by it directly, however by giving someone Modular Abilities that might be used to get them.

Disadvantage (enhancement) similar says "mental or physical disadvantage" so you can't afflict that. The closest way to approximate this might be to afflict a mental or physical advantage which has a social disadvantage as a Temporary Disadvantages limitation.

Negated Advantage does not specify any categories so in theory it could negate a social advantage.

Negated Disadvantage similar at P41 only says "specific disadvantage" so in theory it could negate a social disadvantage.

Fundamentals[]

In its base form Affliction is a ranged attack with 1/2D 10, Max 100, Acc 3, RoF 1, Shots N/A, and Recoil 1 with resist (HT+1)-level.

Affliction is subject to a wide range of enhancements and limitations and is often used to build superpowers or other unnatural effects, and is the base advantage used to build 'buff' style powers that benefit your allies.

GURPS Power-Ups 4: Enhancements page 21 introduced Density Increase and Itching and Slower Move enhancements.

Fractional traits[]

Ejidoth proposed 16 August 2020 at http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=2339009#post2339009 the idea of afflicting fractions of traits. The idea being to make Margin-Based cheaper but require a higher MoS to add up to a single level of the advantage.

This same approach could probably also be used to make traits afflicted via Cumulative +400% cheaper, like for example a level 0.5 ability which require 2 hits to cumulate to a level 1 ability.

Even without either of these, another possibility might be something like a 0.5 ability which needs to take a +100% increase via "Extra Effort with Powers" to double and function as a level 1 ability.

Or, for example, a passive defensive trait at 0.5 which needs to use a "Power Block" to double and function at level 1.

For those willing to use fractional damage and fractional DR instead of 5/level for DR, 1/level (perk) for 0.2 DR increments could also work. That way instead of it being +50% to afflict a 1cp ability it could be +10% to afflict such DR like other perks.

Going all the way down to 0.1 character point increments (for example, pricing 0.1 DR at 0.5 CP and taking -80% in limitations) could be useful since it would be +1% enhancement increments for Affliction to endow such advantages.

Special Enhancements[]

  • Advantage (+10% per point of advantage)
  • Attribute Penalty (+5% per -1 to ST or HT; +10% per -1 to DX or IQ): a temporary attribute loss
  • Cumulative (+400%): Repeated attacks are cumulative
  • Disadvantage (+1% per point of disadvantage) a temporary Disadvantage addition
  • Irritating Conditions
  • Incapacitation (varies)
    • Agony (+100%), Choking (+100%), Daze, (+50%), Ecstasy (+100%), Hallucinating, (+50%), Paralysis (+150%), Retching (+50%), Seizure (+100%), Sleep (+150%), Unconsciousness (+200%)
  • Irritant (varies)
    • Coughing (+20%), Drunk (+20%), Euphoria (+30%), Moderate Pain (+20%), Nauseated (+30%), Severe Pain (+40%), Terrible Pain (+60%), Tipsy (+10%)
  • Mortal Conditions (varies)
    • Coma (+250%)
    • Heart Attack (300%)
  • Negated Advantage (+1% per point of advantage): Lose a specific advantage for one minute per point of failed HT roll
    • this requires specifying EXACTLY the form of the advantage negated, it cannot target a version of the same-named advantage with the same modifiers
  • Stunning (+10%): "May only accompany Advantage, Attribute Penalty, Disadvantage, or Negated Advantage."

Categories[]

  • Beam: "Roll against Innate Attack (Beam) to hit"; Examples:
    • Lasers: Armor Divisor (2) (+50%)
    • Blasters: Armor Divisor (5) (+150%)
    • Disintegrator: Armor Divisor (10) (+200%) or Cosmic (+300%).
  • Curse: best way to emulated spells via Malediction 1 (+100%) with Costs Fatigue (-5%/level) and Takes Extra Time (-10%/level) possible. "Most mental effects are Based on Will (+20%)."
  • Field: Area Effect (+50%/level) and Emanation (-20%)
  • Gas: Area Effect (+50%/level) and one of Respiratory Agent (+50%), Blood Agent (+100%), or Contact Agent (+150%)
  • Gaze: Any target the attacker can see: (Vision-Based enhancement +150%); short-ranged and curse-like: Malediction 1. +100%) and Vision-Based limitation, -20%)
  • Mental Blast: generally Malediction 2 (+150%) and Based on Will (+20%). Can also have No Signature (+20%).
  • Sensory Attack: Area Effect (+50%/level) and Emanation (-20%). "Bright flashes are Vision-Based (+150%), with a Disadvantage enhancement that inflicts Blindness (+50%); howls, thunderclaps, etc., are Hearing-Based (+150%), and cause Deafness (+20%)"
  • Touch: Melee Attack (-30%). can also include Contact Agent (-30%) or Blood Agent (-40%), respectively, Attacks that bypass DR get Malediction 1 (+100%).
  • Venom: Follow-Up (+0%), while poisonous spray or spit has Contact Agent (-30%) or Blood Agent (-40%).

Alternatives[]

  • Innate Attack (Side Effect or Symptoms enhancement)
  • Healing cheaper then Affliction (Advantage, Regeneration).
  • Malediction, for spell like effects that are damaging

Building with Affliction[]

Affliction arguably is one of the most diverse and flexible advantages in GURPS. GURPS Horror and GURPS Powers together give a large range of examples

Advantage activation time[]

from http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=2180039&postcount=13

  • Diminuation (p. P143), a Shrinking affliction, causes the subject to shrink over a period of 6 seconds.
  • Frog (p. P143), an Alternate Form affliction, doesn't mention a transformation time.
  • Matter Transmission (p. P147), a Warp affliction, includes a penalty for no preparation time.
  • Body of Wood (Sorcery, p. 23), an Alternate Form affliction, doesn't mention a transformation time when cast as a spell, but does when used as the basis for a magic item.

Matter Transmission is the most instructive:

If the wielder wins a Quick Contest of Will vs. his target’s HT, he may try an immediate IQ roll to teleport the subject
The +10 for Reliable cancels the -10 for no preparation.
The user can send the subject to any place he can see or has visited, subject to his range limit, and can cancel range modifiers by spending his own FP.

This shows it is the user of Affliction who rolls to use the ability, rather than the afflicted person, but they can benefit from buying reliable on the advantage, even though you can't buy reliable for Affliction itself (you buy levels, or Talent).

Talent Benefit[]

P41 "Powering Up" mentions that Talent will either:

  • give a bonus to hit (similar to Accurate but without needing to Aim)
  • give a bonus to Will rolls (if enhanced w/ Malediction) which would also make it harder to resist

The latter is possibly a cheaper route than buying additional levels of Affliction to penalize a resistance roll, depending on modifiers.

Although "Reliable" can usually stand in for Talent, it's explicitly disallowed on ranged abilities on P109, so this would only be possible on Touch-based Maledictions (even though Maledictions in general can't take Accurate despite being ranged)

Powers[]

as naloth pointed out in 2006 http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=274012&postcount=19

"the former is resisted and doesn't let the user teleport"

However that may simply refer to a single warp!


Alternatives[]

FAQ[]

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-3.html#SS3.2.8

mentions inverting the HT roll. Penalty becomes bonus, and the HT roll must succeed to get the power instead of failing to get the power. Happens with the willing.

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-3.html#SS3.2.12 mentions potential Size Modifier restrictions

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-5.html#SS5.2.7

5.2.7. Can I Afflict myself?

Sure. But you lose all the niceties of having a personal Advantage and get all the effects of being Afflicted (HT roll, uncontrollability after activation, variable duration etc.).

Modifiers[]

order of enhancement resolution matters[]

If you had the ability to do both, it seems like order of application matters:

Affliction (DR1+50%; Negated DR1-5%) :

  • you add DR 1 to everyone and then remove it: no effect ever

Affliction (Negated DR1-5%; DR1+50%) :

  • if target already has DR, you remove it, and then add it back: no net effect
  • if a foe does not have DR, you remove nothing, and then impart them with 1 DR

1 or more HT rolls matters[]

This is assuming a single HT roll which determines "all or nothing" for all enhancement effects. That's one of options you can do with Linked attacks which have same stats.

If you allowed separate HT rolls against each aspect of an Affliction, then order would work different:

Advantage then Negated Advantage:

  • if they fail HT and gain DR, they're +1 to resist the followup HT roll to negate that DR, and might have a smaller MoF so the negation doesn't last very long, meaning the DR might pop up later when Negated MoF minutes duration expires prior to Advantage MoF minutes duration.

Negated Advantage then Duration:

  • failing HT and losing their DR makes them more likely to succumb to 2nd HT roll and perhaps have a larger MoF enjoying the benefit of your new DR for a longer period of time.

Link required or maybe not[]

Probably the more traditional way to get these effects is to just buy separate Afflictions w/ Link rather than lump the modifiers together under a single affliction.

It does seem like "consecutive effects" is allowed for Incapacitation though:

  • "those effects occur after the Incapacitation wears off;"

Fixed Delay being +0% maybe that would let you specify Fixed Delays for the effects of your enhancement separately? EG:

Affliction (DR1+50%; Fixed Delay: 2nd Advantage begins when 1st ends +0%; DR1+50%; Fixed Delay: 3rd Advantage begins when 2nd ends +0%; DR1+50%)

  • effect: MoF1: 3 minutes of DR
    • paid 100% when could've just bought Extended Duration +30%
      • doesn't really seem to break duration, just to allow more interesting tailoring.

Enhancements[]

Enhancement (enhancement) is suggested in 2010 by PK in http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=1084159&postcount=10

You couldn't have "an Affliction that adds Reliable 4 to whatever advantage the subject is using," but it would be reasonable (if a bit complicated) to have "an Affliction that adds Reliable 4 to Danger Sense." In this case, you'd calculate the value of Reliable 4 (+20% on a 15 point advantage = +3 points) and then build an Affliction with "Advantage, Adds Reliable 4 to Danger Sense, +30%."

Limitation (enhancement) could be done through the same pattern, treating it as a disadvantage and making it specific to an ability.

Going further with the Modifier (enhancement) approach to Affliction (in all these cases to avoid confusion you would substitute the name) it opens up more possibilities:

  • Negated enhancement
  • Negated limitation

Limitations[]

PK mentions in 2006 http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=19311

The Resistable limitation prices each +1 to resist as a -5% limitation, so that's what I'd use.

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=23480 has an example of Armor Divisor limitation being applied with stun guns

Resistant and Immunity[]

GURPS Powers 169 "adds to rolls to resist any Affliction, Fatigue Attack, or Toxic Attack defined as poison"

The Weird page 23 "Immunity to Pain lets you ignore knockdown, physical stun, physical torture, and painful or stunning afflictions."

Divine Favor Resistant to Pain +8 [15] (or Very High Pain Threshold) acts as High Pain Threshold, with an additional +5 on knockdown and stunning rolls, rolls to resist painful or stunning afflictions

Quotes[]

Kromm Quotes[]

Sean Punch has commented on Affliction in the following posts to the SJG GURPS Forums:

  • On HT rolls for beneficial Afflictions [1], [2], [3]
  • On Afflictions causing multiple effects [4]
  • On getting Affliction past armor [5]
  • On affecting inanimate objects [6]
  • On combat techniques not causing Afflictions unless so noted [7]
  • On Affliction affecting defenses and reaction rolls if it causes an attribute penalty [8]
  • On SM penalties and cutoffs [9]
  • On the Choking Affliction versus the Choke spell [10]
  • On designing spells with Affliction-like effects [11]
  • On his ambivalence about the cost structure [12]
    • To be honest, it bugs me some, too.* Were I doing it over again, I'd probably set up Affliction more like Leech or Terror and say that it's x points to be able to do it at all and then y points/level to do it more effectively, where x > y. Modifiers would apply to the final cost. It's hard to say what fair values of x and y would be in this model (Leech uses x = 25, y = 4, while Terror uses x = 30, y = 10), but I'd start at x = 10, y = 2 and see how balanced it was.
  • On two possible ways to change the cost [13]
    • Part of me likes 10 + 3/level and simply taking the penalty off recovery rolls.
    • Part of me thinks that maybe we should just define a per-die cost, as with Innate Attack, and require the Affliction roll to exceed DR and cause a HT roll at -1 per 2 points penetrating, as with Side Effect. That way, Affliction 1d would work against unarmored normals, Affliction 10d would be enough to zap most humans with HT 1-20, and you could go nuts with Affliction 10d(10) or 100d or whatever to stun guys in battlesuits. And of course the countless places where the rules get all complicated and have to approximate Affliction levels with damage dice would go away. And Absorption could work vs. Affliction.

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=2179969&postcount=10 had Nereidalbel claim:

Kromm has endorsed a 0-point switch to give the target control of the Afflicted advantage. Note that this must be specified when you buy the power, and cannot be changed.

Unclear if a post can be located to support that.

PK Quotes[]

2006 http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=305635&postcount=6

I've talked with Sean about it over email, and he agreed that the rules don't prevent anyone from afflicting themselves with their own Affliction -- it's no different than shooting yourself in the foot with your own Crushing Attack.

The downsides are threefold. First, while the attack roll can be assumed to succeed, you still have to make/fail your HT roll. (If a Malediction, you don't have to resist, but still must make your Will roll.) Second, you then have a limited version of the advantage -- limited in that you have no control over its duration and cannot end it early, and that you can't change the details on how it's being used midway (e.g., you could use Affliction (Shrinking 5) to only give yourself two levels of Shrinking, but once shrunk, you could not shrink or grow any more). Third, you have no access to any of the cool tricks from Powers -- e.g., you can't add Temporary Enhancements to the afflicted ability, because you don't have the ability, you have an Affliction that provides it. So you could only add Temporary Enhancements, Extra Effort, etc., to the Affliction. You also lose out on Power Dodges, etc.

Instantaneous abilities (e.g., Affliction (Warp)) don't suffer from the second set of downfalls, but usually suffer worse from the third set -- losing the ability to Warp instantly at -10 is a huge loss to the Warp ability, and you can't do that with Affliction (Warp). Afflictions can only Power Parry, and only if the GM agrees that it's appropriate -- so at best, you might be able to warp away 1d (assuming a level 1 Affliction) of an incoming projectile attack. No blink-dodging.

2009 http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=871982&postcount=7

If you want to buy Affliction (Warp) explicitly to give the subject the ability to consciously, controllably Warp for minutes equal to his margin of success (I say MoS since, presumably, this'd be a "benefliction"), you can. You just have to make this explicit when you're building the ability, and once done, you can not use it as an exoteleport attack. If you want that, you have to buy it separately. You can buy it as an AA if the GM allows. (Note that you can't just take the "Advantage, Warp" enhancement twice and add Selectivity, because this is an issue of how the Affliction itself is set up.)

2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150110211406/http://www.mygurps.com/a_selfafflict.html

I disguised myself as a potted plant and hid in Sean Punch's house until he came home, at which point I administered the truth serum and interrogated him .. he agreed that the GURPS rules don't prevent anyone from afflicting themselves with their own Affliction -- the confusing blurb on p. 116 of Powers notwithstanding -- it's no different than shooting yourself in the foot with your own Crushing Attack

Racial Templates[]

Affliction appears on the follow racial templates

  • Djinn Ascended Ones in Banestorm p. 189
  • Medusas in Banestorm p. 195
  • Lilith in Fantasy p. 54
  • Imp in Fantasy p. 109
  • Larva in Fantasy p. 213
  • Skunk lens of Wolverine in Dungeon Fantasy 5 - Allies p. 11
  • Shoulder Dragon in Dungeon Fantasy 5 - Allies p. 28

Bestaries[]

Affliction appears in the following bestiary entries

  • Giant Spiders in Banestorm p. 221
  • Wyverns in Banestorm p. 226
  • Miser Troll in Creatures of the Night Vol. 2 p. 5
  • Urimander in Creatures of the Night Vol. 2 p. 17
  • Chronochaotic Spider in Creatures of the Night Vol. 3 p. 4
  • Flutter Devil in Creatures of the Night Vol. 4 p. 9
  • Trantid in Creatures of the Night Vol. 4 p. 11
  • Watchtower Spirit in Creatures of the Night Vol. 19
  • Herecine in Fantasy p. 47
  • Panther in Fantasy p. 49
  • Hellkittens in Banestorm - Abydos p. 58

See Also[]

Additonal Information[]

References[]

  1. ↑ GURPS Powers pg 39
  2. ↑ Basic Set pg 35-36
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
Advertisement

Fan Feed

More GURPS Wiki