LOS Bouncing Clairsentience

[JDRook]

Here's one for you guys.

 

I've got a character whose power is based on her ability to alter the refractive index of any area, allowing her to manipulate but not generate light. (My tendency with character creation is to make a near-normal character with a twist and see what happens.)

 

One of her more passive powers is the ability to bend light so that she can see around corners. She can combine this with power-based "lenses" so that she can see easily over great distances.

 

I thought the best way to define this would be with Clairsentience with a LOS advantage, so she could place an ob point at a corner within view, say, and look around it. I'd like her to be able to do that continuously, though, so that from that ob point she could spot a new point and then observe from there. Theoretically, she could visually bend her way through a maze, but it would take time, since each "corner" would take one Phase.

 

Would LOS be sufficient for this, though? Effectively the power is creating a bendable line-of-sight. Should I throw in a -1 PER per corner, similar to a bounce attack? Is there another advantage that would be appropriate?

[Dr.Device]

Re: LOS Bouncing Clairsentience

 

Stop Reading My Mind!

 

No, really, just this afternoon I was wondering if LOS would be a legitimate Advantage for Clairsentience. I had never thought of it before. I was just considering a single "bounce," though.

 

Weird coincidence.

 

As to your question, my understanding is that officially Clairsentience can not be used to establish line of sight, so bounces after the first wouldn't work. I might well allow it in my campaign, though.

 

On the other hand, to achieve the same effect, you could just by a lot of inches of Clairsentience, and take a limitation that the distance is calculated along the path, instead of straight line, and another one for the fact that the view point must be within LOS of the character, or the previously established viewpoint.

[Sean]

Re: LOS Bouncing Clairsentience

 

Line of Sight seems mostly an issue for mental powers. I'm assuming the designers wanted Mind Scan to be used to get a lock on targets for mental attacks rather than allow a back door for Clairsentience to get such a LOS lock. If your character isn't using mental powers LOS shouldn't be an issue.

 

Hero Designer gives Clairsentience an option for Mobile Perception Point. Extra points seem to add to the speed you can move around with your "Clairsentience eye". There's also the Targeting Sense Modifier you can add into Clairsentience. I'm not sure if that's absolutely necessary, but it makes sense to me that if you had that you should be able to target another spot ahead to look at with another use of Clairsentience (assuming that your range permits.) I'm also a bit confused by the sensory power stuff. I assume some of the Sense Modifiers showing for Clairsentience in Hero Designer are documented in one of the expansions... the Mentalist one perhaps?

 

This may be of interest to you -- it's a half done character I've been fiddling with on hero designer (assuming I can get this file to attach ).

 

The concept is a man bonded to a mirror in the magical equivalent of The Fly, Codename: Flex. Some of the wackier power ideas I tried to implement were:

 

Awareness of Mirrors - Idea here is that Flex is mystically aware of the various mirrors/reflective surfaces all around him. A form of sympathetic magic to his own condition. Hence the 360 deg modifier and the rapid mod. This power ties in for some other abilities.

 

Commune with Reflections - Tied into the previous power, here I wanted to give Flex the ability to scan through lots of different reflective surfaces and see what was reflected in them. A woman's face in a compact's mirror, Driver in car mirror, Pedestrians reflected in dark glass on side of building, etc. The multiple perception points and rapid were meant to give this ability some zip in scanning through all these images quickly.

 

Mirror Refuge - This power was meant to model Flex being able to hide out within a mirrored surface -- become a reflection himself in a discorporated state. Someone who realizes this can punch the mirror and hit Flex. Awareness of Mirrors helps Flex to spot such a hiding spot. The teleport ability also needs a mirrored surface around for the destination.

 

Several of the powers have the Requires Light to Use disadvantage. The concept behind that is Flex can create tiny mirrorred flecks or bits to manipulate existing light, but cannot create light to fuel those effects.

 

Any comments on implementing these concepts more accurately'd be appreciated.

[Dust Raven]

Re: LOS Bouncing Clairsentience

 

That's a cool concept JDRook!

 

I'm not sure what the Limitation value would be for LOS, but a -1/2 sounds good (opposite of the Advantage, though it isn't exactly opposite in effect).

 

Range Modifiers Figured Character's Location Along Path sounds like another -1/2.

 

Ultimately, the combination severely limits the range and effectiveness.

 

If anyone can see the mirrors, buy it Visible as well. If I was GM, I'd also handwave in a UBE (usable by everyody) at -0, to reflect (no pun intented) that anyone can make use of the mirrors, though it will depend upon it's possition. If it's bought Targeting, I'd also allow it to establish LOS for Mental Powers, so long as it's understood that other character's can attack back.