Aberrant RPG - The Bodymorph stack

[Matthew]

Are powers that are taken as dots of Bodymorph stack with existing powers. Example, Joe has Armor 3. Joe picks up one level of the Bodymorph (metal) power and takes a level of Armor. Do those two instances of Armor stack with each other?

[Snackula]

I'd be inclined to say no, but I guess it would depend on the nature of the nova's Armor power. Since Bodymorph changes his physical nature, it seems like any armor that comes with it would replace what he has otherwise.

[metaphysician]

I'd say "Yes, but not in excess of the normal dot limit for his quantum rating." If the guy has Armor 2, and a Bodymorph that contains Armor 1, he gets net Armor 3 when its turned on. However, no combination could exceed Armor 5 ( until he hits Q6 ).

[Alex Green]

Ditto.

[metaphysician]

As an aside, let me say that I'd be flexible in terms of development of Bodymorphs. Say someone has Armor 2 and Bodymorph 3 ( Armor 1, Claws 1, Invulnerability [ Electricity ] 1 ). However, they wanted to make their soak constant, rather than an aspect of the Bodymorph.

What I would let them do is:

-Buy up their Armor from 2 to 3

-Cash in the one dot of Armor in the Bodymorph for some other effect

That way, they aren't locked in to a sucky power construct, but also don't have "VPP only between missions", since they have to maintain the same level of effect via some means.

[Alex Green]

If they want constant soak, why did they put a dot of armor in their bodymorph?

[metaphysician]

Because it seemed like a good idea at the time?

Put another way, I wouldn't ever tell my player "too bad, if you want to change how your Bodymorph works, you have to buy an entire new one from scratch."