Can Immortality Affect Others?

Question

Okay, I've got an odd one here.

So, a player in my group has gotten an... Interesting ability. I'm extremely happy, with his innovativeness, but it seems sort of... Like it might not be meant to happen, from a rules perspective.

The effect is Immortality rank 20, with Sustained, Affects others, and Limited to Only Others.

He uses this as a sort of extreme Raise Dead spell. By touching someone, they gain the effects of Immortality, and because it is rank 20, they do so within a single round.

I am not averse to it happening, and I love that he was willing to spend 20 PP simply for the sake of raising the the dead, but is this even able to be done, RAW? It seems kind of iffy from a RAI perspective for sure, considering that Healing actually has a Resurrection extra.

Can anyone share some insight into this? Are there any rules against it?

Answer 1

Yes, Immortality can Affect Others

There is nothing in the definition of the power that prevents applying Affects Others.

However, this player's power doesn't work

The text of Immortality starts with this:

You can recover from death! If your condition becomes dead, you return to life after a time.

The people your player is targeting aren't becoming dead. They are dead. For the same reason, you can't set an array slot to Immortality and after dying, saying that your array defaults to that slot and he comes back to life.

He could, I suppose, apply this to someone who is dying, and then either wait for them to die, or kill them, to have them recover completely.

Ultimately, there's an easier way to do this

As you note, Healing has a Resurrection Extra. It's cheaper unless you have someone who wants to run around trying to revive long-dead people.

Also, don't forget Rule 0

While you seem alright with the power, don't forget that as the GM, you are the ultimate authority. It doesn't matter if a power is "rules legal". You can decide not to allow it. It doesn't matter if a particular Extra or Flaw isn't in the book. If you like the sound of it, you can let the player use it. And having approved or disapproved it doesn't mean you can't change your mind.

Answer 2

Healing (Resurrection)

You could use Healing with Resurrection Extra, but this would only work if the subject has been dead for fewer minutes than your Healing rank. Maybe the GM could allow multiple ranks for Resurrection to extend the time range to use the power.

Summon (Limited [only with dead bodies available])

I believe Summon could be used to create a version where your player can "restore dead bodies to life", like a necromancer summoning skeletons and zombies to fight for them. The limitation would require dead bodies available for the power to work (maybe using Area Extra to increase the range of the power), but the player would be able to use the power in any dead body, regardless of the time that they are dead. Probably the GM would require the Minions to be built as Constructs (no value for Stamina, etc). The player could add Continuous duration to let the Minions "alive" with no need to sustain the power effect.