A couple questions

[ashuramarsh]

Hello all,

 

I have a couple questions/idea gatherings.

 

1). Anyone have a good way of balancing mental powers?

They seem pretty overpowered, they get several built in advantages such as NND (mental defense), invisible and so forth by default and cost no more than say an energy blast. Looking for a good way to balance without giving every villain they face mental defense.

 

2). Is there a good way to balance inverted barrier to not be a 'super entangle'?

In this case one-way opaque that englobes a villain so he can't fire out, but has to attack the globe to free himself while the players sut bash on him endlessly while the bubbler just constantly renews the barrier or layers it.

[Scott Baker]

2) Just say, "No." Just because you can build something, doesn't mean that you should. And it certainly does not mean that the GM has to allow it.

[Hyper-Man]

I think the better question to ask is "what are you attempting to balance?". 

 

I think PC Heroes need to have heroic abilities first.  That is, if by themselves and faced with a non-character threat to public safety (fire, various natural disasters, etc...) how would their abilities help them deal with the threat? Characters like the big 7 of the Justice League Animated were always concerned about public safety first and beating the bad guy second.  It's OK to have a little bit of rock-paper-scissors going on.  Letting a character dominate a particular domain is alright as long as they are not also allowed to have a broad set of secondary abilities to cover their primary domain's weaknesses. If a player wants a Martian Manhunter level Telepath make sure they understand that a matching villain counterpart will show up at some point (ex: Gorilla Grodd).

[ashuramarsh]

Yeah I understand this. However, I prefer RP first and at least one character usually has a mass of issues, they like tragic characters. Mostly I look at psi powers and see the mass of advantages everyone else has to pay for. In the last battle, or rather our first, they were attacvked by villains of roughly the same CPs. Psi turned one of the more powerful ones on the most powerful one (though they didn't know which was which when they chose to do so), but the psi roel was high enough to turn the villain into an ally and effectively remove him form combat completely. As psi powers are automatically Constant (in effect) they can just keep shutting down the villain group. IT certainly ends comabt faster.

 

However, it also leaves little for the rest o fthe players to do, except sit around and twidle their thumbs.

[Hugh Neilson]

Knowing a bit more about your mechanics in game might help. At a 60 AP attack, 12d6 Mind Control averages a roll of 42. That's EGO +20 (at a minimum, "turn on your allies and help us defeat you" seems to be something one would normally be against doing - +30 may be more appropriate in many situations), so a 10 - 12 EGO character has -2 to their breakout roll. He needs a 9-, so he has a 37.5% chance of immediate breakout, before acting on his next phase. He gets a second roll after a turn has passed, and now needs a 10- (50% chance).

 

This assumes he just keeps following the same orders. If he was ordered to attack a specific target, he just keeps doing so until a new command, with a new attack and new effect roll, is made (so another breakout chance).

 

Let's assume this guy is a little less weak-willed. A 15 Ego means Ego +20 is at -1 to the roll (and Ego +30 fails on an average roll), so he now needs an 11- (62.5% chance to break out before taking any action).

 

It's also pretty clear who's controlling him - the Controller must make verbal commands (absent advantages). So the opponents cam work to break him out "Hey, why are you listening to that pipsqueak - we're getting a major payday when we take these bums down!", attack the controller, etc. As well, the target of the Mind Control always knows who controlled him - I wonder what action he will take when he does break out.

 

Often, the complaint I hear on mental powers is that it's too hard to succeed, not that it's too easy.

[Hugh Neilson]

The inverted barrier...first off, "one way" is noted as potentially unbalanced. One approach I consider in addressing such a build is the reaction of the layers if a villain has a similar ability. Well, guys, either anyone can use that construct, or no one can. What's our campaign rule going to be?

 

It's also a +1 advantage, so the AP are rising fast (and I would cap this power at AP's similar to attack DC's, at a minimum, if it is being used mainly as an attack).

 

Opaque does not fall under "one way". The barrier is transparent to attacks, but those outside cannot see through the Opaque barrier any more than those inside can.

 

So, assuming 60 AP, we have a +1 Advantage plus a 10 point Opaque adder. It needs a 4 meter dimension (really? 4m long x 1m tall englobes a 2 meter tall target?), so that's 6 points, +10 for Opaque to one sense group. We're adding a +1 advantage, so we have 14 points left to play with. If we had 15, we could buy 5 PD, 5 ED. That costs us 3 for the barrier, +3 for an extra 3 meters of dimensions, +15 for +5/+5 defenses, +10 or Sight Opaque, and it's one way transparent for +1 = 62 AP. Breaking a 5 DEF, 0 BOD barrier seems pretty easy.

[Christopher]

The biggest issue with Telepahty is the ability to gather information fast.

The simple counter is: Seperation of information. Every decent criminal/terorist/resistance organisation operates based on cells, with each cell knowing little about the next.

At tops Telepathy is a shortcut to get information you could have gotten via skill checks/roleplay/investigation.

 

Mind Control and Mental Illusions are powers that stand a or fall based on Complications.

Note that not everything hindering a MC use has to be written as complication. You can asume that everyone has about a EGO+20 hesistance to kill (even without a CvK Complication on thier sheet) and that any higher up has at least a EGO+20 resistance against giving up [important piece of information].

 

One use of MC I have been thinking about was the use as a "taunt" for tank character. "Attack me".

This can be EGO+10 if nobody else is a more important target.

It can be EGO+20 if you know you can't hurt the guy and the plan is to go for somebody else/there are better targets for you/an ally needs help.

It can be EGO+30 when your loved one is under attack by another villain and it is looking bad for him/her.

The treshhold can quickly change as combat develops, while the result stays the same. Also note that if the Treshold changes characters get another breakout roll on the spot (with the new penalty).

 

Of course whatever rule you apply to PC's, the same rules should apply to NPC's.

[bluesguy]

Having GMed a few players with Mentalist characters I tend to be pretty careful about what mental powers they have and how they can be used.  Mental Illusion & Mind Control require the player to wisely choose the illusion or mind control command.  Over time my players have learned that being subtle is the name of the game.

[TheQuestionMan]

Mental Powers are useful again Normals, but not so good against Superhumans. 

 

Cheers 

 

QM

[GhostDancer]

I play a mentalist, and to his teammates, it often looks like he is not contributing to fights, since he likes to use Ego Attacks and Illusions.