Machine Class of mind

[Wolven]

Does it cost any points to take a different class of mind? or is that just SFX? I want to make a character thats an android, but I want it to have machine class of mind.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: Machine Class of mind

 

It doesn't cost anything. You just define which class of minds it works against when you buy the power.

[Jhamin]

Re: Machine Class of mind

 

Yep.

 

Under 5th edition you can pick what class of mind you want, it just has to match the SFX of your character. If you are affected as if you had several kinds of mind you qualify for a disadvantage.

 

By the same logic, when you buy telepathy or mind control you pick what class of minds you can affect. An advantage will let you affect more than one class.

[assault]

Re: Machine Class of mind

 

Of course, some players might try to munchkinise by going for an obscure class of minds, in the theory that it would effectively make them immune to mental powers.

 

If I was GMing, it might actually work once, and then I'd pull out the cyberkinetic or other character with the ability to hose them. This would be perfectly justified, since such a character would naturally be involved with people with related backgrounds.

 

This villain would then be one of the recurring villains in the campaign. But, of course, a mentalist with the "wrong" SFX would be a regular too, just to prove that I'm not a total scumbag.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Machine Class of mind

 

Well, while the above is true, Steve Long has advised against allowing a character to take a non-Human class of mind as a default in most campaigns, and I think his point his worth considering. Since the majority of Mental Powers take the Human class as the default, that can lead to the character with a Machine mind being effectively immune to most of the mentalists it's likely to encounter, without having paid for that immunity. This is the reason for Mechanon taking a specific Disadvantage that it's affected by MP against both the Human and Machine class minds (under the pretext that its brain is so sophisticated it functions much like an organic one).

 

The Machine class of mind is, according to Steve, meant primarily to be used for Computers and Artificial Intelligences (as defined by the rules), which typically fulfill a different role in a campaign than do "standard" characters. OTOH if artificially intelligent entities, and powers affecting them, were common in a given campaign (e.g. futuristic sci-fi based), IMO it would be reasonable to allow a PC to have a Machine mind.

[assault]

Re: Machine Class of mind

 

Since the majority of Mental Powers take the Human class as the default' date=' that can lead to the character with a Machine mind being effectively immune to most of the mentalists it's likely to encounter, without having paid for that immunity. [/quote']

 

The question is: how many mentalists is the character likely to encounter?

 

In most of my games, it would be unusual for me to have more than one mentalist amongst the recurring villains, and they would be pretty rare amongst the one-offs. Given that I would, as I described above, add a cyberkinetic to the recurring villains if a PC took machine mind, the advantage would be marginal at best.

 

Of course, if there was a mentalist PC, mentalist opponents would be more common, but they wouldn't usually be bothering the robot as their first priority.

 

The situation is really one of matching opponents to the PCs, which is something which has to be done in any campaign.

 

Come to think of it, matching opponents to the PCs is one of the biggest pains in campaign design. The characters the players are going to want to play are one of the few elements of the campaign that aren't under the GM's full control, and are difficult to factor in when doing a design. It's easy to design a fascinating campaign that the PCs turn out to be entirely inappropriate for. And then you have to deal with things like what Hunteds they are going to take and all of that, and suddenly you aren't playing the game you wanted to play... Or else it turns out that the players aren't playing what they want to play.

[Chimpira]

Re: Machine Class of mind

 

Come to think of it, matching opponents to the PCs is one of the biggest pains in campaign design. The characters the players are going to want to play are one of the few elements of the campaign that aren't under the GM's full control, and are difficult to factor in when doing a design. It's easy to design a fascinating campaign that the PCs turn out to be entirely inappropriate for. And then you have to deal with things like what Hunteds they are going to take and all of that, and suddenly you aren't playing the game you wanted to play... Or else it turns out that the players aren't playing what they want to play.

 

That is why I generally wait until after everyone has made their characters before I start really fleshing out my campaign. I have a general idea of what I want and share that with the players before they make their characters. That way I can put together something that I will like as well as the players.