Detect Question

[largosama]

I have a player who wants to gain the ability: Detect Water and I'm a bit confused on where you can detect:

 

Question:

 

Assuming he doesn't add any advantages, does this power mean that he'll only be able to detect water when touching it or when he's fairly close to it? So, maybe he'll be able to see that there's water in a pipe 5 feet in front of him?

 

How about being able to detect water, say 20 feet below him?

[ghost-angel]

Re: Detect Question

 

With a simple Detect Water he'll know vaguely what direction the water is in and with a Perception roll vaguely how much.

 

Attaching it to a Sense or adding on Sense Modifiers will greatly expand his capabilities.

[Nevenall]

Re: Detect Question

 

If it's a Detect without any sense modifiers then, yes. He will only be able to detect water that he is close to or touching, AND he will have to be actively using his Detect as a 1/2 phase action for it to work.

 

As ghost-angel mentioned if you want the character to be able to See water then you can use the simulated sense group and put the Detect in the Sight Sense Group. Then you get all the Sense Modifiers that sight does.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Detect Question

 

Interesting one this: had a character could detct water in a game I ran: she basically bought it like you'd buy normal sight, but 'to detect water' - it was effectively N-Ray vision which allowed you to see people through walls and obstacles, as they are large sacks of water in the main. Worked pretty well.

 

In answer to your question (and as has already been said), basic detect has no range.

[Blue]

Re: Detect Question

 

"No Range" still typically entails an adjacent hex. So mechanically they wouldn't have to necessarily be IN the water, but they'd have to be in the hex next to it, and technically, due to arch of perception, they'd have to be mostly facing it.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Detect Question

 

Basically, if there was a body of water in the hexes in front of them they would know it's there, even if hidden behind a wall or such.

 

This is a good example of a Divining Rod ... you walk around until it tweaks letting you know water is nearby.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Detect Question

 

"No Range" still typically entails an adjacent hex. So mechanically they wouldn't have to necessarily be IN the water' date=' but they'd have to be in the hex next to it, and technically, due to arch of perception, they'd have to be mostly facing it.[/quote']

 

Absolutely: no range is, in effect, 'melee range', or at least that is the way I'd interpret it for most purposes, although it might depend on the exact senses, especially if you were using simulated sense groups: touch, for instance, doesn't work in the next hex unless you actually grope about there. Hearing, sight, smell might well work in the next adjacent hex to you. To be honest, most senses are not a huge amount of use without range, although i'd probably allow you to spend fewer than the 5 points adder to get a reduced range: maybe 5 points gives you normal range modifiers, 4 points gets you -1/4", 3 points gets you -1/3", 2 points gives you -1/2" and 1 gives you -1/1" (or set ranges: maybe 2" per point?)

[Zeropoint]

Re: Detect Question

 

*waves hands around*

 

SPLASH!

 

"Hey, there's water here!"

[Dust Raven]

Re: Detect Question

 

I have a player who wants to gain the ability: Detect Water and I'm a bit confused on where you can detect:

 

Question:

 

Assuming he doesn't add any advantages, does this power mean that he'll only be able to detect water when touching it or when he's fairly close to it? So, maybe he'll be able to see that there's water in a pipe 5 feet in front of him?

 

How about being able to detect water, say 20 feet below him?

 

There's a lot more to Detects that just the adders. Most of your question can be asked by knowing what Sense Group the Detect is in, or if it is in a unique group (Unusual Senses). If it's in a Sense Group, it acts like other senses in that group (for Sight, it would have a range of LOS, could be used for targeting and could be blocked by opaque barriers, and for Hearing, it would still have range, but would not be blocked by most barriers, though it won't be targeting). If it's in a unique group, then the default is no range and pretty much acts as described already.