Recovery powers are FP generators. Take a few consequences, get a few FPs, and clear out the consequences in a scene or two (depending on the level you buy).
Then when you get to that really tough fight, cash in your FPs to help avoid hits so you're not taken out as easily.
Eh? Toughness powers and Speed Powers could absorb way more stress per fight than Recovery powers. Here's a rather extreme example of three combatants;I have a problem with these scenarios, starting with their implausibility.
Combatant A has Mythic Recovery, superb athletics and OOOO stress.
Combatant B has Mythic Speed, superb athletics and OOOO stress.
Combatant C has Mythic Toughness, superb athletics and OOOO(OOOOOO) armor 3 stress.
Over the course of an average campaign against multiple enemies they are attacked by, in separate fights;
a) 20x weapon 2 attack +3 thugs using pistols.
b) 10x weapon 5 attack +5 inhumanly strong warrior using a sword.
c) 4x weapon 8 attack +8 wizard with a spell.
Combatant A takes 4 hits in fight a, enters fight b fully recovered and takes 5 hits he has to use all his consequences on to survive, enters fight c fully recovered and dies at the third or fourth wizard spell unless he takes an extreme.
Combatant B is never hit in fight a, is never hit in fight B if he uses a maneuver or two, and has 50% chance to survive in fight c.
Combatant C ignores all hits from fight a, tanks the hits from fight b easily, and tanks the hits from fight c easily.
As you can see, the ability of Recovery powers to enter each fight fully healed is pretty much shared between the three defensive abilities in the game. Given a fight where a guy with recovery won't die, another guy with the same level of speed won't be hit enough to take consequences and a guy with toughness will tank the hits without taking consequences better than either speed or recovery.
So, how exactly is Recovery better for multiple subsequent fights?
You only gain those FP's if you concede the conflict, though.
It's way more fun to concede several times over the course of a story arc, and save the smackdown for the finalé!
For once I'm in total agreement with Sanctaphrax.
I don't know if this has been considered, but as regards whether to pick Recovery powers or Toughness, etc, not every character concept suits Toughness, just like not every character concept suits Recovery. Sometimes the choice is more than mechanical benefit.
Low Discipline and high Conviction? Give yourself the aspect "Loose Cannon, Fully Loaded" and let rip.
Harry actually concedes ... a lot. He runs away, everytime he runs from a fight? It's a concession. When he passes out, and wakes up a prisoner? That's a concession. When he passes out, out of combat, it's a compel on his consequences.
But Harry has Listening and First Lawbreaker, both of which he basically never uses. He doesn't get to self-Compel a WASTED ONE REFRESH ON LISTENING Aspect, he just has one less Refresh.
And he'd get more out of Great Lore and Good Endurance than he does out of Good Lore and Great Endurance. But his skills are what they are.
You'd be better off doing this with high Discipline. After all, Discipline is important for doing damage. And it's not like self-controlled people can't be loose cannons.
Harry actually concedes ... a lot. He runs away, everytime he runs from a fight? It's a concession. When he passes out, and wakes up a prisoner? That's a concession. When he passes out, out of combat, it's a compel on his consequences.
But Harry has Listening and First Lawbreaker, both of which he basically never uses. He doesn't get to self-Compel a WASTED ONE REFRESH ON LISTENING Aspect, he just has one less Refresh.I wouldn't say he never uses them. He Listens all the time, especially in the early books. He uses it in Skin Game.
As for First Lawbreaker, I'd have to read it again, but is the +1 bonus specific to breaking the law again, or to attacking with intent to kill? Because Harry does the latter all the time, and a loose interpretation would let him use that bonus frequently.
I wouldn't say he never uses them. He Listens all the time, especially in the early books. He uses it in Skin Game.
As for First Lawbreaker, I'd have to read it again, but is the +1 bonus specific to breaking the law again, or to attacking with intent to kill? Because Harry does the latter all the time, and a loose interpretation would let him use that bonus frequently.
I can't speak for Skin Game (still trying to find a copy), but I once went through a list of all the times he actually used Listening throughout the entire series and got 4, maybe 5 occasions. Given the actual number of times he used it, he would have been much better off keeping one fate point in reserve to get it as a temporary power.
RAW, only specific to breaking the law again. Though IME this is frequently houseruled.
4 or 5 times in the books total?!? I haven't counted, but I get the impression of it occurring in something like two thirds of the books...
Cold Days has Listening when Harry was trying to track Fix on the island when the most was up, before he used intellectus.Ah! Forgot that one! Haven't gotten to a word search of the last three books yet.