You Can't Do That

[Dust Raven]

A masochistic player of mine suggested the following idea for a villain:

 

A psychic able to affect the abilities of other characters by messing with their minds. The end effect is that the character can make someone weaker, or unable to use their Powers. In reality, they'd still have full use of them, it's just that their mind has been convinced otherwise.

 

I can see a number of ways to approach this:

 

1) Mental Illusion/Mind Control to directly confuse/convince the target.

 

2) Mental Transform to erase the knowledge/ability to use their Powers.

 

3) Adjustment Powers to directly affect the Powers, with the SFX that it's all in the head.

 

I'm not sure which way to go on this one, but I'm planning of developing this villain to go up against the group. Besides an idea of his (or her) powers, I haven't come up with any motivations or tactics. I figure I'll see what can tactically be done with the various options and pick what's best for my campaign from that and see where I can take it.

 

Any ideas?

[Sean]

My first impression reading through your description was an Anthony Robbins-like character ( refer to anthonyrobbins.com if anyone's managed to escape the hype ).

 

---

 

Ron Tobbins, a well known motivational speaker, struggles to cope with an increasingly common recurring migrane headache. Hidden from his conscious thoughts is that he has an alternate personality born of the stress of maintaining his life in the public eye. His repression of his latent psionic abilities as being unproductive daydreaming resulted in his mind creating an alter ego who acts out his desire to cut down to size those same overacheivers who remind him of himself. The "Demotivator" manifests during times of stress and delights in cutting down to size those who most epitomize the ideals of his public persona's seminars. His knowledge of motivation combined with his psionic powers allows him to instill a deep seated inadequacy in the powerful, causing them to doubt their ability to use their abilities and powers.

 

Ron Tobbins has experienced memory lapses in recent weeks, on the heels of blindingly painful migranes. He pushes himself to work all the harder. Just a few days ago he was able to use his skills to coach a local superhero out of a crippling panic attack. TV reports have started popping up about other heroes with similar problems. Ron picks up the phone, to offer his unique brand of help ...

 

---

 

As for the power implementation, I'd think that the Mental Transform would be easiest, with the Mind Control option coming in a fairly distant second. If a background as outlined above works for you, the cure for the transform could be the motivation lectures from Ron Tobbins. Ron's success at treating the victims of these problems boosts his fame, exposes him to more of the type of person he hates, and fuels the resentment of the Demotivator within him. Ron's accidental change into the Demotivator when placed under stress reverses when the Demotivator has been able to undermine the confidence of a target or two with his special transformative ability.

 

Feel free to use as much or little of that as you like.

[Snarf]

A BOECV drain would work for a temporary effect. If you do it as a BOECV transform, you should probably buy that advantage that allows you to do a partial transformation and still have some effect, or else you'll be doing nothing to some people for a long time.

 

I predict you'll get a different way to build this power from each person who posts..

[Blue Jogger]

In 5th edition, Mind Control can be used to tell convincing lies. Slap a telepathic advantage (if approiate) and possibly a Set Effect( your powers don't work).

 

Of course, I just like the idea of self-doubting. Hitting a powerful superhero with that effect would just be priceless. Every time he uses his power (until he breaks out), he hears a little voice tell him, "You almost screwed up that time. You're little stunt could of kill all these people."

 

I like it.

[TheEmerged]

The game mechanic in me says to use Adjustment Powers and give them an appropriate limitation (such as "Lost points restored immediately if subject succeeds in a breakout roll", which I'd peg at -1 for Drain and -1/4 for Suppress).

[Derek Hiemforth]

I think Mind Control with Telepathic, Single Command ("Your powers don't work") is definitely the way to go. If you make them believe they don't work, they won't try to use them. The difficulty level could vary depending on the target's level of confidence in their powers. For a veteran super with reliable powers, it would be EGO+30. But for a rookie with Activation Rolls, it might be as low as EGO+10.

 

You could use Mental Illusions to make it look like their powers didn't work when they tried them, but the powers would be working in "real life" (which might be inconvenient).

[GamePhil]

Re: You Can't Do That

 

Sounds like a Drain: "makes someone weaker, or unable to use their Powers." For better or worse, though, getting a Drain to work on every target you might need it to is really too complicated.

 

So, Mind Control is probably the way to go, with the possibility of using Transform or a Cumulative Mind Control if you need long term effects (which means the character should be Stronghold's new Warden).

 

You could have Mind Control at +30 to remove the powers altogether, lower levels merely weakening them.

[Intrope]

Hmmm, how about Mental Entangles, only to prevent usage of a specific power?

[GamePhil]

Originally posted by Intrope

Hmmm, how about Mental Entangles, only to prevent usage of a specific power?

 

That should also work, basically "grab" one Power with each use, like Entangling one limb.

[Kdansky]

I'd go for drain, as you state "The end effect is that the character can make someone weaker, or unable to use their Powers." with special effect: They only think so.

[Dust Raven]

Wow, I checked the Until Superpowers Database and found "Neural Blocking" listed in the Psychic Powers.

 

Basically, it suggests a VPP of Drains and Suppresses. I'm not sure if I like it being a VPP though, but it might be the way to go.

[GamePhil]

Originally posted by Dust Raven

Basically, it suggests a VPP of Drains and Suppresses. I'm not sure if I like it being a VPP though, but it might be the way to go.

 

I haven't read my books from cover to cover for a long time, and it's really starting to show...

 

Yes, that solves the problem nicely of not being able to make a single Drain do the job over all possible targets. Still, the other suggestions do work, so I'd go with one of them if VPP does not otherwise fit the character or the campaign well.