A view of stretching

So one of our players wants the Stretching Power in our post-apocalypse game. As we've been re-designing things, here's one of the potential builds that I'm considering:

Two Parts
Stretching is likely to have two basic "parts" to it: a base-cost for the stuff Elastic Body gives you (like the ability to flow under doors, reduce collision damage, and so on) and a level (4 or 8 AP levels as is standard for JAGS) that give you things like more Grapple, armor, and Damage Points--basically that make you more and more "stretchy."

The First Part
The "base-cost" for Stretching is stuff that you more or less get that doesn't "increase" as you buy more levels. For Stretching this is (a) movement powers (flowing under doors and so on) and (b) some Defenses and Offenses like Negative Damage Modifiers and Long Reach for your hand to hand attacks. Here's the breakdown I am currently looking at:

• Flow [ 2 AP ]: Character can go under doors, through any baseball sized hole (moving at about 20 BLD per Round so very large characters will be slower) and can move vertically so long as something can be grabbed on to at BLD yards range (about 10 yards for most characters). Flowing is always an 8 REA Action and moves at 2x Ground Move Speeds.
• Stride [ Part of Flow ]: The character can spend an 8 REA long Action to grow long legs and walk around. This moves at 4x Running Speed for Walking Endurance. While Striding the character has no AGI bonus. It takes an 8 REA Long action to shrink back down. The character will gain BLD/5 yards of height.
• Collision Defense [ 1 AP, +2 DP ]: The character takes -10 Damage Mods from Collisions or falling.
• Elastic Body [ 2 AP ]: The character can flatten out and fold up allowing them to hind in places a human could not (+4 to Stealth Attempts with a 5 REA Medium Action). The can stretch up for a look around (5 REA, add up to BLD yards in height) or stretch their head around corners (up to BLD yards in range). They can do things like flatten out as a parachute or otherwise spread to block a doorway (+5 to be hit, no AGI bonus, takes an 8 REA Long Action). They may modify limbs to act as tools or even lockpicks but they still require the skills to use them.
• Plastic Body [ TAP, See Chart ]: The character gets a -4 Damage Modifier from all attacks and NO pen Doubling. This is reduced to the cost of -4 DM alone.
• Stretching Attacks [ 1 AP per 8 A-Cost, Round Normally ]: The character can spend a 5 REA Action to grow a large "hammer hand" that gets a +2 Large Weapon Bonus. They can also use their STR or Grapple at Long Reach (note: this is not ranged--the target's block and full AGI modifiers apply).

A Level of Stretching

• 8 AP Full Level
• Stretching Grapple:  +11 Grapple Score L1, +9 Grapple L+
• 2 Armor
• +5 DP
• 4 AP Half-Level
• +6 Grapple L1, +5 L+
• +1 Armor
• +3 DP

So a character with 24 AP spent on Stretching with 12 AP spent on Levels would cost at:

Base-Cost: 5 (Base) + 5 (-4 DM Cost. No PEN Doubling is free) + 2 (Stretching Attacks) = 12 + 12 AP on Stretching (1 Full Level, 1 Half Level) = 24 AP.

The character gets:

• -4 DM, No PEN Doubling
• 3 Armor
• +10 DP
• +17 Grapple (stretching)
• Flow, Elastic Body, Collision Defense, Stride, Long Reach STR

-Marco