Mental Booby Trap

[Matt the Bruins]

I was thinking the other day about how to build a compound power that would simulate someone knowing such terrible cosmic secrets and such that a telepath reading their mind could be shocked into a catatonic state and possibly emerge from it permanently unhinged. I figure it would need to be either a triggered Ego Attack or BOECV RKA with the STUN multiplier increased out the wazoo (for that instant drop 'em out cold effect) with a linked Mental Transform that works against EGO. But I'm not sure how much of a limitation it should be that both effects can only be used against a target who's reading the character's mind.

Any feedback on what sort of value should be assigned for that limitation?

[Lord Liaden]

Personally, I'd buy them to 0 END with a Resettable Trigger (when telepathically contacted), or as a Damage Shield if you want the "feedback" effect to hit infallibly. With the Damage Shield the effect will continue as long as the telepath attempts to read the target's mind, which could eventually render him unconscious.

BTW a lot of mentalists have enough Mental Defense that an Ego Attack or a Transform BOECV would need a lot of Base Points to significantly affect them; and with Advantages the Active Points in the Power would be very high, if that's a consideration. However, by the rules a BOECV RKA is only stopped by Resistant Mental Defense. Many mentalists don't have this unless they buy MD as part of a Force Field or Force Wall, so in most cases you won't need as many Base Points for a significant effect. Add "Does BODY" to the Power construct for a mind so terrible, prolonged contact with it could actually kill a telepath.

That's how I rewrote the mental Damage Shield for The Monster from CKC, which is just that sort of "terribly evil thoughts" SFX. First time I used him in a game the team mentalist was shocked by the pain of attacking the Monster mentally. She tried to soldier on anyway, until I mentioned that she was bleeding from her eyes. :eg:

You could bring the price of the construct down even further by Limiting it to work against "Telepathy Only" (I'd call that -1).

[Matt the Bruins]

I definitely didn't want the Damage Shield approach since this is supposed to be the effect of the character consciously pulling horrible knowledge to the forefront in response to a mind probe rather than a consequence of her normal mental state; it would require enough concentration to take up a combat action, and probably cost END to reflect the fact that it's not fun stuff for her to dwell on either.

Do Mental Transforms have to be bought as BOECV? It would definitely need to work against EGO, but that additional +1 might make the effect I'm looking to build prohibitively expensive.

[Lord Liaden]

Do Mental Transforms have to be bought as BOECV? It would definitely need to work against EGO, but that additional +1 might make the effect I'm looking to build prohibitively expensive.

By the rules, yes it does. And if it's supposed to feed back to the telepath regardless of how far away he is, it would probably have to be anyway.

[Lord Liaden]

I definitely didn't want the Damage Shield approach since this is supposed to be the effect of the character consciously pulling horrible knowledge to the forefront in response to a mind probe rather than a consequence of her normal mental state; it would require enough concentration to take up a combat action, and probably cost END to reflect the fact that it's not fun stuff for her to dwell on either.

This isn't book-legal, but I've allowed "instant Damage Shields" in my game, i.e. just the Damage Shield Advantage bought without the Continuous Advantage. They require an Action to turn on each Phase, though not necessarily an Attack Action. I've found the construct to be a good way to model automatic counterpunches, entangle breakers, or retaliations against being Grabbed, and much less expensive than the full official DS construct.

[Blackberry]

What about RKA BOECV linked to a Mental Block maneuver? The Block represents actively pushing the Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know to the forefront.