Sensing Powers

[Dr. Anomaly]

Help us, Obi-Steve Longobi, you're our only hope!

 

There's some discussion/debate going on just now about sensing powers and just what "sense groups" means in this context.

 

On page 98 of 5er, it's stated that most powers should be able to be sensed by 3 Sense Groups unless the player buys Invisible Power Effects for the power in question.

 

In a nutshell, the debate comes down to these two "camps":

 

#1: When it says "Sense Group", it automatically means every sense in that Sense Group; if a power takes the "Sight Group" as one of the three Sense Groups to which it's visible, then every Sense defined as being part of that Sense Group will be able to detect (see) the power being used, even if it's something like Magic Vision (being able to "see" magical energy) or Radar Vision (the Radar sense, but having the Simulated Sense Group rule applied so the character "sees" the radar images directly with their eyes).

 

#2: When it says "Sense Group", it doesn't automatically mean every sense in the Sense Group, just that there should be at least one sense in the chose Sense Group that can detect the power. For example if a mutant character's Sonic Blast EB choses the "Sight Group" as one of the groups to which it's visible, then normal sight would probably see the air being distorted a bit by the sonic energy, but something like IR Vision or Mage Sight wouldn't be able to detect the power, because it doesn't have a temperature different from the ambient, and it's not magic.

 

So...could you lay an official smack-down ruling on this, please?

 

When you choose the 3 Sense Groups to which a power is visible, does a "Sense Group" mean every sense in the chosen group?

 

 

Thanks much.

[Steve Long]

Re: Sensing Powers

 

The requirement that a power be perceivable by three Sense Groups means that it should, generally speaking, be perceivable by most, if not all, Senses assigned to that group. It’s up to the GM to interpret when a Sense — usually a highly-specialized one built with Detect — wouldn’t perceive a power, based on special effects, common sense, dramatic sense, game balance, and other factors. For example, if a power’s perceivable by the Sight Group, other characters should be able to see it with Normal Sight, Nightvision (i.e., they can see it in the dark when maybe other characters couldn’t because of darkness penalties), Infrared or Ultraviolet Perception assigned to the Sight Group (the power gives off heat or UV light), and so forth. However, if the character has Detect Magic that’s assigned to the Sight Group because he can “see magical essences,” he wouldn’t be able to perceive a power using it just because that power’s perceivable by the Sight Group — the power would have to involve magic somehow.

 

If the GM feels that a character is trying to abuse this rule by creating powers that get “free non-perceivability,” he should require the character to buy appropriate forms of Invisible Power Effects to compensate.