Animal facilitated clairsentience and more…

[bigbywolfe]

I’m going to be running a Victorian mystery/supernatural campaign set in America. It’s a heroic level game (100/+100 points) with the PCs having little or no supernatural powers and having to deal with murders and mysteries which may or may not have supernatural elements on a case by case basis. Anyway, I wrote up a few abilities for an NPC and I was wondering if someone more experienced than me could check them out and see if there was anything wrong with them.

 

The first is for an Apache Medicine Man NPC who has limited Clairsentience by going into a trance and seeing through the eyes of animals. While in the trance he has limited control of the animal he is looking through (mostly for movement and direction, he can’t make the animals attack people or anything). He needs to have certain herbs and such and chant in a secluded place with a fire as he enters the trance. This is what I came up with using the Hero Designer program, does it look right? If not, any suggestions?

 

 

 

Eyes of the Beasts: Clairsentience (Sight And Hearing Groups), +2 to PER Roll, 2 Perception Points, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (55 Active Points); OAF Fragile Expendable (Extremely Difficult to obtain new Focus; -2 1/4), Arrangement (-1/4), Extra Time (5 Minutes, Only to Activate, Character May Take No Other Actions, -1 1/4), Only Through The Senses Of Others (Sees through the eyes of undomesticated canines, ursines, felines, and birds of prey; -1/2), Incantations (Meditating Chant; -1/4)

Real point cost was 9 or 10

 

Mind of the Beast: Mind Control 2d6 (Animal class of minds), Linked (Eyes of the Beasts; Lesser Instant Power can be used in any Phase in which greater Constant Power is in use; Lesser Power need not be used proportionally to Power with which it is Linked; +0), Telepathic (+1/4) (12 Active Points); Limited Class Of Minds [subset of a class] (Wolves/Coyote, Hawks/Eagles, Bears, Wild Cats; -1/2), Incantations (Meditating Chant; -1/4), Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (-1/4)

Real point cost was 6

 

 

The next is a healing Indian remedy for the same character. Just wondering if anyone sees any problems with it…

 

 

Herbal Indian Cure: Healing BODY 3 1/2d6 (35 Active Points); OAF Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; Healing Herb Powder; -1 1/4), Arrangement (-1/4), Extra Time (1 Minute, Only to Activate, -3/4), 12 Charges (-1/4)

Don’t remember the actual cost after Dis.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Animal facilitated clairsentience and more…

 

Interesting power. You might want to add the 'limitation' (for clairsentience) "Sees a lot of animal porn".

 

You might not.

 

Anyway, the mind control looks slightly problematical. Clairsentience is not a targeting sense as such but it is inherently indirect. That means that you would still need the critter in LOS to mind control it. Depending on how your GM wants to play it you could get round this by adding 'targeting' to the clairsentience as mental powers already have some level of indirect.

 

An easier way, perhaps, would just be to build the clairsentience with a mobile perception point and use the animal as a sfx of the power if all the mind control (with appropriate limtiations, like: must be an appropriate animal in range, and initial starting point determined by where animal is) is there for is to make it go where you want it to...providing it is not distracted by animal porn opportunities

 

The healing looks fine, if quite potent for a low magic environment, but I'm not familiar with the 'arrangement' limitation.

 

The charges thing limits the number of uses per day, but if the idea is that the limitation is due to scarce resources then it probably is not necessary.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Animal facilitated clairsentience and more…

 

Cool, thanks for the imput. If I don't use charges how would you suggest limiting the use of the healing ability? I mean, it's really hard to find the supplies needed, but how do I stop someone from, say, stockpiling the stuff? Or being stuck with only being able to use it once and then having to take a month to go find supplies?

I think I'll take your advice about changing the clairsentience, that sounds little better.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Animal facilitated clairsentience and more…

 

Cool, thanks for the imput. If I don't use charges how would you suggest limiting the use of the healing ability? I mean, it's really hard to find the supplies needed, but how do I stop someone from, say, stockpiling the stuff? Or being stuck with only being able to use it once and then having to take a month to go find supplies?

I think I'll take your advice about changing the clairsentience, that sounds little better.

 

As you are the GM the problem of supply of the healing powders shouldn't be too difficult

 

The thing about charges is that there has to be some logical reason for them, or at least some game-logical reason. If, for instance, using the power causes a build up of negative magical energies, that dissipate over time, then it makes sense that you have charges, but if it is JUST a problem of supply and demand then it makes more sense to just do that with the enhanced version of the focus limitation.

 

Sure the character can stockpile the powders if they find a decent supply (and that is up to you) but, for instance, you might decide that the powders have to remain dry to be effacatious. That should stop the character carrying their whole supply about - one dunking in the river and allt heir healing is gone.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Animal facilitated clairsentience and more…

 

So, maybe this is a little better for the clairsentience, (note, I’m not at home so I don’t have HD to check my math, but here it goes):

 

Eyes of the Beasts: Clairsentience (Sight Group and Normal Hearing), Mobile Perception Point (6” or speed of creature sensed through), 4xRange, Reduced Endurance (0END; + ½) (55 Active Points); OAF Fragile Expendable (Extremely Hard to Obtain New Focus; -2 ¼) Arrangement -¼, Only through sense of others (Undomesticated Felines, Canines, Ursine, and Raptors; - ½, Incantations (Throughout) - ½ (10 Real Point Cost).

 

The 4xRange allows him to use any animal within 900” which would give the power a 3.6kl diameter, 1.8kl radius in any direction.

While this setup does not allow the entranced character to control the movement of the animal he is using as a focal point, which was originally intended, in hindsight I think its better that way, as the ability is supposed to mimic a “vision-quest” type experience. It also allows the Mobile Perception Point to move faster than 6” if attached to an animal going faster than that (say, an Eagle in flight) but also limits it to less than that for an animal not on the move (say, a tired bear moseying around).

 

but I'm not familiar with the 'arrangement' limitation.

 

In 5ER “Arrangement” is an option for Focus, not sure why Hero Designer lists it separately in the longhand write-up.

I’m less concerned about fixing the healing since it’s for an NPC and will more likely be used as a saving element if the PC’s screw up to badly in an early campaign, he won’t pop up very often. I might still write it up just to see if it sounds more balanced later.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Animal facilitated clairsentience and more…

 

Eyes of the Beast looks good

 

Thanks for clarifying 'arrangement' - still learning

[tesuji]

Re: Animal facilitated clairsentience and more…

 

back in the day - i reflected the "sees thru animals" kind of clairsentience with an activation roll where the roll was determined in general by the commonality of animals in the area. so for a fantasy oriented game where beasts are common even indoors, it was a fairly high act roll like 14- but for a modern city game it might be as low as 11- as many stores and such rarely have pets allowed etc.

 

the roll in play was less a power work/fail as it was a "is there an animal in position to spot what you need" rationale. this made me not have to track specific animal population etc.