Topic: psionics Q

[markc]

Is thier a valid way to just buy 1 skill in a Psi discipline as a talent? For example I want to have the healing skill but not all of the other bio-skills, could you just buy a 5 or 10 point talent to provide you access to that skill? I know this might cause a problem with players cherry picking skills but I am playing in a HARP game and healing is very important so it would be nice if my character had some.

Thanks
MDC 

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

Is thier a valid way to just buy 1 skill in a Psi discipline as a talent? For example I want to have the healing skill but not all of the other bio-skills, could you just buy a 5 or 10 point talent to provide you access to that skill? I know this might cause a problem with players cherry picking skills but I am playing in a HARP game and healing is very important so it would be nice if my character had some.

Thanks
MDC 

If the GM permits, Field access could be purchased at half-listed cost (round down) for access to only one discipline.

Particularly since you are after Psi Healing, not say Precognitive Attack or Precognitive Maneuvering.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

[markc]

Thanks again
MDC

[markc]

Can a psi have two skills activated at once? Such as pre cog att and pre cog deff? What is the limit to the number of skills he can have active if he casts on others? Does he have to concentrate on which ones will get the benifits or can he pick and chose each round whos skill is active and whos is off?
Thanks
MDC

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

Can a psi have two skills activated at once? Such as pre cog att and pre cog deff? What is the limit to the number of skills he can have active if he casts on others? Does he have to concentrate on which ones will get the benifits or can he pick and chose each round whos skill is active and whos is off?
Thanks
MDC

An Adept or Fusion can have multiple effects active simultaneously as long as their durations aren't Concentration. The character cannot be Concentrating on one effect and simultaneously be cranking up another discipline.

Note as an aside that Precog Attack, Precog Defense, and Precog maneuvering are Self-only.

If the character has multiple effects active simultaneously, and some of those require the character to concentrate to do something (say lower an object's temperature using Cryokinesis), then the character can only concentrate on one thing at a time.

Does that answer your questions?

Best wishes,
Nicholas

[markc]

 Yes thank you. On Fri I got a chance to create an fusion [adept in his HARP game] and look at some of the numbers. We are playing 2 sets of characters so I did not do much with him but in the future I will. 
 The numbers in general look good compaired to the others 8th vs 8th with a slight edge going to the fusion since I bumped up the Psi tier to 5. In 2 weeks I will have a better idea on the power vs power idea. But right now the pre-cog powers look powerful compaired to HARP combat. I did not max out an ranks vs levels and spread out my skills so I am not a pure combat monster but more of a past-reading psi-warrior-historian.

Thanks,
MDC

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

Yes thank you. On Fri I got a chance to create an fusion [adept in his HARP game] and look at some of the numbers. We are playing 2 sets of characters so I did not do much with him but in the future I will. 
 The numbers in general look good compaired to the others 8th vs 8th with a slight edge going to the fusion since I bumped up the Psi tier to 5. In 2 weeks I will have a better idea on the power vs power idea. But right now the pre-cog powers look powerful compaired to HARP combat. I did not max out an ranks vs levels and spread out my skills so I am not a pure combat monster but more of a past-reading psi-warrior-historian.

Thanks,
MDC

Please do keep an eye on the precog powers. I've got two characters in my campaign with access to the ESP Field, one as a precognitive telepathic Adept, the other as a Fusion Scout. Neither have the Field to 5th and we've not had a fight yet using the new powers.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

I've preemptively moved against all Disciplines that had +x per skill rank bonuses as an effect. These have now been converted into fixed rank-independent bonuses, e.g. +1 per skill rank becomes +10, +2 per skill rank becomes +20, up to +5 per skill rank becomes +50. This ties in with the maximum equipment bonus for Advanced being +50 (from 2 +25 components).

best wishes,
Nicholas

[markc]

 I was thinking of proposing limiting the bonus by doing one or more of the following to my GM;
1) max bonus of 1/2 skill being modified
2) reduce bonus to 1/2, 1, 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2 or 1/2, 1, 1 1/2, 2, 3 or 1/2, 1, 2, 3, 4
3) define skills at generation and they cannnot be changed
4) reduce duration
5) increase Psi point cost

MDC

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

I was thinking of proposing limiting the bonus by doing one or more of the following to my GM;
1) max bonus of 1/2 skill being modified
2) reduce bonus to 1/2, 1, 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2 or 1/2, 1, 1 1/2, 2, 3 or 1/2, 1, 2, 3, 4
3) define skills at generation and they cannnot be changed
4) reduce duration
5) increase Psi point cost

MDC

4 and 5 would break the consistency of the standard progressions on parameters and general psi rules. Locking things down at 1st level requires characters (or more correctly their players) to lock themselves into particular development paths. The alpha testers went to and fro on similar versions to 1 and 2, indicating that reducing the values per skill rank made it too weak (in terms of value for DP gain) at the lower Tiers, while not necessarily reining in the higher Tiers that much. Eventually consistency and simplicity won out.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

[Mungo]

Hi,

We had a session yesterday and one character has the precognitive Psi Disciplines.

a) I like the simplicity of both the existing as well as the new proposed ruling. So no issues there
b) With Precognitive Defense and Attack I see no issues with the current ruling (character has Tier 3 and 7 ranks -> about +20DB, which is not so much compared to the DPs he had to spend overall on this and also more of a lifesaver than the step to invulnerability). Precognitive Maneuvering seems to be more powerful compared to those, but no playtest yet on this.

BR
Juergen

[markc]

Mungo,
 I agree with you that at lower tiers I think it will work well and if a GM constrains his players from min-maxing it shoudl be fine. In my case I created an 8th level character with 16 ranks in pre-att at teir 5 providing a bonus of +80 and pre-defense of 10 ranks bonus of +50, pre-maneuver of 8 ranks +40. IMO fairly powerful. This is far from the max ranks of 26 ranks at 8th level, which would give a bonus of +105 in each of the psi abilities.

Nicholas,
 If I read your statment right you have maxed out the bonus to +10/tier. If this is the case you lose some ability bonuses at higher ranks or you have limited the skills to 10 ranks.
 Did I read this wrong?

 I did do it all by hand and very quickly do to some stuff that got in the way so I am going to go back and look at all my numbers.

Thanks MDC

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

Mungo,
 I agree with you that at lower tiers I think it will work well and if a GM constrains his players from min-maxing it shoudl be fine. In my case I created an 8th level character with 16 ranks in pre-att at teir 5 providing a bonus of +80 and pre-defense of 10 ranks bonus of +50, pre-maneuver of 8 ranks +40. IMO fairly powerful. This is far from the max ranks of 26 ranks at 8th level, which would give a bonus of +105 in each of the psi abilities.

Nicholas,
 If I read your statment right you have maxed out the bonus to +10/tier. If this is the case you lose some ability bonuses at higher ranks or you have limited the skills to 10 ranks.
 Did I read this wrong?

The text now reads: Tier 1: +10 bonus to X (where X is OB, DB, RR, or a skill depending on the Discipline) etc., with Tier 5 being a flat +50 bonus. In other words, no dependency on skill ranks any longer - just like the Psi Insight, Psi Strength, etc.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

[sunwolf]

Any plans to add a Mental Suggestion power under Telepathy?  It seems to be the one major one missing.  Sure you can completely control someone's mind at Tier5 control but there is no way to influence them to do something and think it was their own idea.  Hard to do Star Wars if the Force can't give you power over weaker minds. 

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

Any plans to add a Mental Suggestion power under Telepathy?  It seems to be the one major one missing.  Sure you can completely control someone's mind at Tier5 control but there is no way to influence them to do something and think it was their own idea.  Hard to do Star Wars if the Force can't give you power over weaker minds. 

The original version of Control was more along the lines of Charm/Suggestion as in equivalent spells. Alpha testers wanted it to be a less spell-like and more distinct from Empathy

Tier 1     
Same species: Target will take no offensive action against the telepath     
Other species: Cannot affect members of other species

Tier 2    
Same species: Target will be friendly towards the telepath, but cannot be ordered to take actions    Other species: Target will take no offensive action against the telepath

Tier 3    
Same species: Target will obey the suggestions of the telepath (but these must not put the target in danger or be alien to him/them)    
Other species: Target will be friendly towards the telepath, but cannot be ordered to take actions

Tier 4    
Same species: Target will obey the suggestions of the telepath. These orders may put the target in danger but cannot involve obvious self-harm.    
Other species: Target will obey the suggestions of the telepath (but these must not put the target in danger or be alien to him/them)

Tier 5    
Same species: Target will obey all suggestions of the telepath.    
Other species: Target will obey the suggestions of the telepath. These orders may put the target in danger but cannot involve obvious self-harm.

Still wrestling with vehicle creation design
Best wishes,
Nicholas