Help please.

[The Comet]

Hello again folks. I'm designing a character for a campaign in Hero Central. It's a Fantasy setting and I would like my character, who is a warrior of extaordinary abilities to be able to tell what an opponent is going to do next. I'm trying to figure out what would be the best way to simulate this. Now I know that analyze style, or being able to read body languge might be able to simulate this in a mundane way, but i was looking for a more mystical solution. Something like a very limited mind control, only versus opponent, and only to read thier next action. Any ideas? Or have I answered my own question?!!!??! :stupid:


Ta much!

[GamePhil]

Assuming you meant Telepathy, that would certainly work. Only problem is you have to spend a comat action attacking the opponent, which may or may not fit into what you have in mine.

Some other things to think about:

Extra Combat Levels with the Requires Analyze Style Roll Limitation.

Precognition, Only To See What Opponent Will Do On His Next Phase (many GM's will balk at something like this).

Martial Art Maneuvers or Superskills with the special effect of "knowing where my opponent will be". For instance, buy Armor Piercing as a Naked Advantage for your favorite weapon because you know where the weak point in the armor will be when you strike (or just buy Find Weakness for the same reason).

[Eosin]

I think the easiest solution is the one Gp presented - levels based on Analyse Style.

To "know" what an opponent is going to do next - clairsentience with precognition - only to know opponents next action. This creates a whole wealth of problems in game.....

Player: I think I will haymaker
DM: Your opponent aborts to a dive for cover.
Player: Well, I shoud know that --- if he dives for cover then I change my action to a half move and strike.
DM: In that case, the NPC will block.
Player: If he is blocking then I will change my action to a fast strike with levels in OCV.
DM: Well, then he will dodge.
Player: well......ad nauseum.

It is just easiest to simulate combat presentence with the following package.

Combat Luck --- Not versus non-sentient opponents.
+2 Overall Levels --- not versus non-sentient opponents.
Naked Advantage: Armor Piercing (either 30,45, or 60 AP) --- Not versus non-sentient opponents.
KS: Combat Styles

It would certianly be possible eck out another -1/4 disadvantage depending on special effect. i.e. not versus enraged opponents, not versus opponents with force field powers based on magic, etc....

Check out Dark Champions non-powered powers or Super Skills.

[The Comet]

Assuming you meant Telepathy, that would certainly work.

Telepathy! Thats the fella! Mind control? Duh! Appologies, I'm on the night shift and my brain isn't in gear. :stupid:

I got the idea from a David Gemell book. Waylander I think. Any way, there is this fellowship of templar/monks who spend their entire existence preparing for a battle that, with the exception of one monk, will all die in. The chosen one founds a new temple in preparation for the next battle.

There is an evil version of the templars and their leader could read the minds of his opponents when dueling with them. Well the leader of the bad guys has a duel with Decado the leader of the good guys. The monks on either side have bound over their lives to the leader, meaning that if they loose, they all die. So the bad templar has the ability to read Decados' mind, but the only problem is that Decado is so fast (greatest swordsman this world has ever seen) that he can't counter Decados' attacks quickly enough. In the end he sees his own death and is powerless to stop it. Neat trick if you can do it eh!?

I think the precog option best suits this idea, but i think you might be right about the gm opposing it.

[Killer Shrike]

Telepathy! Thats the fella! Mind control? Duh! Appologies, I'm on the night shift and my brain isn't in gear. :stupid:

I got the idea from a David Gemell book. Waylander I think. Any way, there is this fellowship of templar/monks who spend their entire existence preparing for a battle that, with the exception of one monk, will all die in. The chosen one founds a new temple in preparation for the next battle.

There is an evil version of the templars and their leader could read the minds of his opponents when dueling with them. Well the leader of the bad guys has a duel with Decado the leader of the good guys. The monks on either side have bound over their lives to the leader, meaning that if they loose, they all die. So the bad templar has the ability to read Decados' mind, but the only problem is that Decado is so fast (greatest swordsman this world has ever seen) that he can't counter Decados' attacks quickly enough. In the end he sees his own death and is powerless to stop it. Neat trick if you can do it eh!?

I think the precog option best suits this idea, but i think you might be right about the gm opposing it.

That is Gemmel, it is not Waylander (although The Thirty (the monks you mention) do appear in many of the Dreanai books)). Decado is a relative of Skillgannon, and their entire line is prone to turning out remarkable warriors.

And actually, what happened with Decado is that the dark knight he was fighting was used to reading the minds of his opponents and thus knew what move they were going to try next. However Decado was so fast, and operated on muscle memory and reflex to such an extent, that he didnt think about what he was going to do next before doing it -- he just did it instantaneously as soon has he thought of it. He was a zen fighter, effectively.


As far as building this particular ability, reason from effect. The dark knight didnt need to use actions to predict the moves, and that rules out Telepathy and any other power or ability that requires an action to use, or repeated actions at least.

Here's the way I would build it myself (tweak levels to taste):

13 Analyze: Style 16-

21 +4 with All Combat (32 Active Points); Requires An Analyze Style Skill Roll (RSR Skill is subject to Skill vs. Skill contests (Opposed By DEX Roll), No Active Point penalty to Skill Roll; -1/4), Visible (Mental Sense; -1/4)


In Decado's case you could posit that he had Lack Of Weakness; each point of LoW imposes a -1 to an opposing Analyze Style Roll (UMA pg 112). A combination of that and Decado's likely very high DEX would be enough to evade the effect. Alternately perhaps he just had a high DEX and a few Skill Levels with DEX Rolls. Or was just so good that the extra levels gained from the ability werent enough to matter against him.

Either way, this models the effect closely enough.

[Trencher]

You are thinking about this in a wrong way. Instead of thinking about what kind of power you have you must figure out what and EVERYTHING you can do with it.
Do you know what your opponent is going to do next? Precog. Does this make you a better fighter? Skill levels by the bucketload. Does it make you impossible to surprise? Danger sense. And so on.
The whole read opponents mind is just a special effect.

[AlHazred]

21 +4 with All Combat (32 Active Points); Requires An Analyze Style Skill Roll (RSR Skill is subject to Skill vs. Skill contests (Opposed By DEX Roll), No Active Point penalty to Skill Roll; -1/4), Visible (Mental Sense; -1/4)
Nice construct. And based on the Simulated Sense Rule, the GM should ensure that Mental Sense Group Flashes affected that Power. Should you add something to the effect that Mental Defense is an adequate "defense" against this power?

[Nevenall]

Hello again folks. I'm designing a character for a campaign in Hero Central. It's a Fantasy setting and I would like my character, who is a warrior of extaordinary abilities to be able to tell what an opponent is going to do next. I'm trying to figure out what would be the best way to simulate this. Now I know that analyze style, or being able to read body languge might be able to simulate this in a mundane way, but i was looking for a more mystical solution. Something like a very limited mind control, only versus opponent, and only to read thier next action. Any ideas? Or have I answered my own question?!!!??! :stupid:


Ta much!

Here's is my version. As you can see, it comes from my Star Wars campaign.
I suggest you make it part of the Sight group.

Guide My Actions: Detect (Actions of Opponents; 5 pts); Sense +2. [Passive]. EP 7, AP 7, CP 7.

A potent Force power, Guide My Actions allows the Jedi to know what actions his opponents will take before they take them.

At the basic level, the Jedi will know if the his opponent intends to take an action.

With Discriminatory, the Jedi also learns what his target’s general action will be and if that action will be directed against him. Examples of information gained would be the target is going to attack me, the target is going to run, the target is going to attack my friend.

At the Analyze level the Jedi learns what his target’s specific action will be. (Martial Strike with a vibroknife), and how his target will allocate his combat skill levels.To administer this power: When more then one character has an action on the same phase, regardless of Dexterities, the character with the lowest roll for Guide My Actions must first declare what his action will be and how he will assign his CSLs. Then the character with the next highest Guide My Action roll decided his action, and so on. This way the Jedi with the highest roll gets to hear what each other character in the combat will do, before deciding what his own action will be. Then the actions resolve in normal initiative order.

[Killer Shrike]

Nice construct. And based on the Simulated Sense Rule, the GM should ensure that Mental Sense Group Flashes affected that Power. Should you add something to the effect that Mental Defense is an adequate "defense" against this power?
No; it's not a mental power, it's simply visible to those with Mental Awareness, and those affected know the opponent is "in their head".

If MD was a sufficient block for it, the monks of the 30, who other than Decado were all skilled psionicists, would not have been concerned by it.

[Killer Shrike]

Here's is my version. As you can see, it comes from my Star Wars campaign.
I suggest you make it part of the Sight group.

Guide My Actions: Detect (Actions of Opponents; 5 pts); Sense +2. [Passive]. EP 7, AP 7, CP 7.

A potent Force power, Guide My Actions allows the Jedi to know what actions his opponents will take before they take them.

At the basic level, the Jedi will know if the his opponent intends to take an action.

With Discriminatory, the Jedi also learns what his target’s general action will be and if that action will be directed against him. Examples of information gained would be the target is going to attack me, the target is going to run, the target is going to attack my friend.

At the Analyze level the Jedi learns what his target’s specific action will be. (Martial Strike with a vibroknife), and how his target will allocate his combat skill levels.To administer this power: When more then one character has an action on the same phase, regardless of Dexterities, the character with the lowest roll for Guide My Actions must first declare what his action will be and how he will assign his CSLs. Then the character with the next highest Guide My Action roll decided his action, and so on. This way the Jedi with the highest roll gets to hear what each other character in the combat will do, before deciding what his own action will be. Then the actions resolve in normal initiative order.


Can a character take an Invisibility vs this Detect in your campaign, because I know that I certainly would.

[Nevenall]

I suppose you could take invisibility. I might even house rule Lack of Weakness to affect it if it came to that, but it's a non issue so far. No one has shown any interest in this power.