Dismissible Headquarters

[prufock]

Just curious how you would go about building this concept. I'm playing a "solid light" controller, similar to a Green Lantern, and I want him to be able to create a headquarters anywhere and dismiss it at will. Would you do this as a Create effect, the Equipment feat with an effect feature to make it dismissible, or some other way?

[Beleriphon]

Just curious how you would go about building this concept. I'm playing a "solid light" controller, similar to a Green Lantern, and I want him to be able to create a headquarters anywhere and dismiss it at will. Would you do this as a Create effect, the Equipment feat with an effect feature to make it dismissible, or some other way?

Build the headquarters as normal with dimensional travel as a power. something like this:

Dimensional Headquarters

Toughness 6, Size Small

Features:
Concealed 2, Isolated, Sealed, Secret 2

Powers
Movement 1 (Dimensional: HQ Storage Dimension 1: one dimension, 50 lbs.)

[JDRook]

The Summoning Power Profile had a Summon Vehicle power with the vehicle bought as per equipment but with 15 point per rank of Summon. It wouldn't be a huge conceptual leap to do the same thing with an HQ. You'd want the Controlled Extra, since I assume it's all controlled by you and not independently sentient. You would also want to Increase Duration to Continuous or it'll all vanish when you take a nap. That's 4 points per rank, and all of the sample HQs are between 5-30ep, so you could easily make any of them with a rank 2 Summon costing 8p total, which is easily small enough to fit into any standard Force Manipulation Array. Actually, you could just power stunt it every time and rest inside.

Of course, you'll want to impose some limits on the design so that it fits the setting and doesn't unbalance the game. The size of the HQ shouldn't be too much larger than what you can make with your Create power, and it definitely shouldn't exceed Toughness. The Features should also make sense based on the descriptor of your Create: simple things like Living Quarters or a Gym would be relatively easy, while advanced electronics or a fully stocked lab might be trickier. Since it's a solid-light construct, maybe you can make really good hardware or even personnel, but you probably couldn't make food.

As a GM, I'd be very careful about things like using the HQ's Defense Systems or other effects for combat. It might be reasonable to put the Slow Flaw on the HQ so it takes a while to create and can't be done in combat.

[prufock]

Thanks for the replies. I think the Summoning option would work the best. Buying it as equipment would mean I can't jiggle my points around - I'd like the option to have the HQ with different size, shape, toughness, and features each time I create it. With Summoning I could do that with Variable Type, as I understand it.

Summoning (Continuous, Controlled, Variable type, Slow) 2 = 8 power points = 30 equipment points with which to build my stronghold. That's plenty. Is the Slow flaw in print somewhere? I don't see it in the SRD, but it's a good idea. What exactly does it do? Tiring might be another possible flaw to apply to keep the cost down.

I guess I could power stunt it to gain it as an alternate, but then I would need to dismiss it in order to use anything else my Create array. It's an option for now, at least until I get the points necessary for Summon.

[JDRook]

Slow Flaw is usually used for Variable effect. The full description is on p134 in the HH under Variable or here in the SRD, but basically it just limits you from using the effect in combat because it takes considerable time.

[prufock]

Thanks, Rook. Might discuss with my GM if I can instead take Variable 1 (headquarters only, slow, tiring, continuous) for 5 points to get 25 equipment points for the HQ (effectively taking Equipment 5 from my Variable). He might not go for it, because it does seem a little cheap.