Quote:Shepherd wrote:However, if you check Chapter 6 of Drunkard's Walk V, at one point Doug does sit down trying to find a song to do something specific.
Using Modular Abilities (cosmic power) to purchase the alternate Alternate Forms is an interesting idea, although it feels like cheating. As a general rule, if it feels like cheating, it probably is cheating. After all, every time Doug learns a new power song, he theoretically becomes more powerful because he now has new character options. Using your method, he simply adds his newest power song to his list of known songs without spending a single point. There is literally no difference in point cost between a Doug with a dozen power songs and a Doug with a thousand power songs.
By combining a primary Alternate Form (his most expensive one) with a variant of Ultra Power used to learn new songs (see my previous post) and a bunch of 3 point alternate Alternate Forms, each new power song costs character points which add to his point total in a way that demonstrates that he really is becoming stronger as a character. Perhaps his Ultra Power has a unique limitation requiring him to spend character points on any power song which he successfully learns with Ultra Power. This could explain why he doesn't simply sit around all day listening to music and trying to stockpile a never ending list of power sets, he wants to be able to use his xp for other purposes.
Drunkards Walk V; Ch6 Wrote:In fact, it took almost two hours, as best as Chris could determine. It also took nearly three dozen songs, seven light shows, two fireworks displays, a brief ankle-deep flood of faintly green fish-smelling seawater, one accidentally-summoned air elemental, and a rather substantial explosion that had startled Chris into manifesting his armor, sent Doug tumbling backwards into a wall, and left a short-lived soot on everything in sight.I'm sure that's not unique, just a specific example. Also, he has to check songs looking for his gate song; that may add hundreds of songs to his arsenal. And, I disagree, if it feels like cheating, it may not be. Playing a MasterMind in CoH feels like cheating, but, obviously, it isn't (You, minion, go, fetch me some XP). I just shot a PM off to Kromm to get his stand on the issue--both if it's legal and to see if he thinks it's cheating. We've used a similar build to that for my Summoners in the past (basically, they have a modular ability that only allows them to build Allies with Summonable and/or Patrons with Highly Accessible). However, the GM did make it where the summoner had to both find the summon and purchase them as a Perk, which prevented it from getting too out of hand. The The Modular Ability gets us around needing to use Ultra Power for the finding of songs, as, at that point, it would just be GM approval (and gleefully deciding on what else the song does).
In general, I do agree that, basically, Ultra Power, isn't the right way to go. And, I'm not sure about buying the individual alternate forms. I think, using alternate forms for something like that is square-pegging a round-hole; however, I'm more fond of it than just a single, mindnumbingly huge Cosmic Modular Ability. I mean, you think the universe is big, that's just peanuts compared to Doug's Cosmic Modular Ability.