Controllable Horizontal is the concept of taking the -10 Horizontal disadvantage as a Controllable Disadvantage in accordance with the PU13p3 perk.
Anyone can voluntarily adopt a Crawling posture, which is what Horizontal counts as. MA115's notes on upright foes (±1 SM) penalties (-1 neck/face/eye/skull) and bonuses (+1 feet/legs/groin)
One of the disadvantages it gives (-1 to kicking damage) was diminished in MA. Aside from claws (not hooves) ignoring the penalty, it could be ignored using Back Kick: MA also allows the new Stamp Kick technique to ignore it, which is more accurate but has more limited target selection.
But it gives advantages beyond what that provides.
Benefits of Horizontal over normal standing folks include:
- ability to travel at 1/2 Move while carrying an object in one hand (B139)
- this presumably applies to the usual 1/3 move rate for crawling on B367, so 1/6 move.
- +1 damage with Head Butt (MA115)
- this is useful for attacking with the upper body since arms/forelegs are usually occupied with walking
- brawling skill also makes this very effective compared to default
- this is useful for attacking with the upper body since arms/forelegs are usually occupied with walking
- moving between crawling/sitting is as easy as going standing>crouching (TG10)
Alternative[]
If taking Not Horizontal [10] as a Reciprocal Advantage, enhancing it with Switchable +10% would also cost merely 1 point.
Taking "Switchable" on reciprocal advantages for disadvantages worth 10 or fewer points seems like the better approach.
For more expensive ones, taking "requires HT roll -10%" to lessen costs would make sense.
On it's own R(A)R creates a transient effect (forced to stay on 1 minute when you make the roll) but 'switchable' would allow premature deactivaiton at will.
- RAR normally requires a minimum of 3 FP and spends 1 FP per attempt after a failure. CD does not do this, instead it uses -1 per additional attempt per hour, something which requires HT roll does NOT do (the HT rolls do not incur repeated use penalties)
- repeated use penalties can be introduced for certain powers that use this limitation though, such as Psionic Powers does for requires IQ roll
- the function here is somewhat similar to Autotrance
- repeated use penalties can be introduced for certain powers that use this limitation though, such as Psionic Powers does for requires IQ roll
The usual approach to "Controllable" disadvantage is likely something akin to "I am taking a placeholder 1-point perk with "requires HT roll" and "temporary disadvantage". This should require a ready maneuver. ConDisad does not actually specify that, but a 'free action' switchable ability cannot legally have Temporary Disadvantage!