Harmful Touch

Harmful Touch AN+0 CL
Super strength and razor-sharp claws aren't the only ways to be dangerous in toe-to-toe combat. Some of the most deadly combatants can defeat you with the merest touch.

Harmful Touch is a catch-all Action that covers just about any dangerous effect that can be inflicted just by touching an opponent. Touching can be accomplished with the Close Combat action (see rules for Touching). Maintaining a grapple can be a great way to keep touching an opponent in subsequent pages. If your touch is unsuccessful, your stones of Harmful Touch are refunded to you at the end of your panel.

By default, Harmful Touch does not have an effect: you must purchase at least one type of effect listed below. You may purchase more than one effect, but without the Multiple Effects option, you may only inflict one type of effect at a time, per touch.

You can purchase range for the usual +1 Cost Level per step on the Range row of the Difficulty & Resistance chart. If you do so, you may use Ranged Combat instead of Close Combat to make your touch attacks.

Effects include:
 * +1 CL = Corrosive Touch. Your touch is corrosive to inanimate objects. Compare your stones of attack to the object's Hardness; any stones in excess are treated as damage. Small objects will likely dissolve instantly, whereas any excess stones of attack are subtracted from the resistance of a larger object.
 * +1 CL or +3 CL = Drain Energy. Remove one stone of energy from the target's Energy Pool per stone of effect, and place it in your pool instead. If you drain more stones than an opponent has left in their Energy Pool, any excess drain results in damage. For +3, also return your stones of effect to your pool; stones in excess of your maximum pool bleed off at a rate of one per Page.
 * +1 CL = Fear. Your target is flooded with intense fear, limiting their ability to act. Compare stones of effect against your opponent's Intelligence; for each stone of "damage", remove one stone of energy from each of their actions, starting with stones of effect (if any), followed by stones shifted to defense (if any) should they run out of stones of effect.
 * +2 CL = Lethal Touch. Your touch can be outright deadly. Compare your stones of attack against your opponent's Durability; any stones in excess are treated as damage.
 * +1 CL = Paralyzing Touch. Your target goes numb, is wracked with pain, or is otherwise debilitated. This works as Fear (see above), but compare stones of effect against your opponent's Durability instead of their Intelligence.

Other options include:
 * +1 CL = Multiple Effects. By paying one extra stone of energy, you rtouch can inflict two effects at once, using your stones of effect for each one. You can purchase this option multiple times, allowing for even more effects inflicted per touch.
 * -1 CL = Requires Inhalation. You produce toxins that must be inhaled to be effective.  Your attack ignores armor and toughness as usual, but opponent are rendered immune to your Harmful Touch if they announce at the beginning of a Page that they are holding their breath (see Durability).
 * -1 CL = Requires Skin-to-Skin Contact. Your initial touch attack does not ignore armor, and even heavy clothing may pose a problem.
 * -1 CL = Must Pierce Skin. For an additional cost level discount your initial touch attack does not ignore Toughness or armor. The touch attack does not neessarily have to deal damage to break the skin - even a simple scratch will do.

Example: ''Thanks to genetic engineering, Scorpion (Carmilla Black) has a unique physiology that not only makes her immune to ordinarily poisonous chemicals and toxic radiation, but allows her to store them up and unleash them with a deadly touch. She bought Harmful Touch with an AN of 6, and bought the Paralyzing Touch and Lethal Touch options, as well as one Multiple Effects option. When she touches an opponent with Close Combat, she can choose to incapacitate them with sickness, or go for the kill. Against truly dangerous opponents she can pay an extra stone and inflict both paralysis AND damage at once, though this lowers her maximum stones of effect to 5.''