ghostwolf Posted July 31, 2009 Report Share Posted July 31, 2009 It's my week for copious weird questions, I guess. The race I'm building is basically a psionic plant species. It has sensory organs, relying on telepathy and mental awareness for sense and targeting. Questions: Do I need to purchase some kind of sight/hearing flash defense? Is there any other way to model being totally uneffected by visual and aural flashes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted July 31, 2009 Report Share Posted July 31, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs Since they probably aren't Limited by not having eyes/ears... just state they can't be affected by Sight/Hearing Flashes and purchase all the pertinent Senses as a replacement. There's no real way to "sell back" Site and Hearing so they go away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted July 31, 2009 Report Share Posted July 31, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs Tangental note: this would be a bitch of a thing for any GM to actually have to deal with. Too easy to slip up and assume normal sight. Good luck with that one. Back to the discussion. Spatial Awareness based on mental perceiving other mental signals? Some sort of Detect/Sense with Targeting and Discriminatory etc? Is the species mobile? How do they keep from running into walls? No ability to sense pressure change? Temperature change? I will say that I had this neat idea, just now, of a predatory plant that primarily sees through the eyes of a symbiotic species that lives in the environs nearby. Thanks for the inspiration! Another reason for one of the characters to hate planets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted July 31, 2009 Report Share Posted July 31, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs Aw crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Kor Posted July 31, 2009 Report Share Posted July 31, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs Telekinesis would allow for full on spatial awareness - sensing objects and environment, obstacles, etc. Normally you would build something like this with concentration or some such, but a race who only uses telepathy / telekinesis would likely have instinctual usage of this sensory power. There would be lots of limits - they wouldn't be able to tell color, only shape and size and such. Incredibly powerful / sensitive TK could replace taste / smell or even be built as a "Detect: Chemical Composition" but that is bordering on too powerful (especially if their TK can manipulate with similar detail; "I use my TK to remove all the oxygen atoms from his body.") Mental Awareness gives them the ability to detect others with mental powers, but not just other minds - that is mind scan. But you could buy Spatial Awareness with an adder that combines sensing other minds into their telekinetic spatial awareness. I don't think this is practical, mind you, for various reasons but it is buildable. And as stated prone to GM or players forgetting their limits. You can't sell back senses but rather you give them disadvantages - blind, no sense of smell, etc. The main issue would be that any body with a nervous system of some sort is at least going to have a sense of touch. This could then give a limited form of "hearing" - if they have incredibly sensitve TK-sense and Telepathy, and no eyes or ears, I'd bet their skin would be sensitive enough to detect sound as vibrations - maybe not enough to hear but enough to sense loud noises using touch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghostwolf Posted July 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs Tangental note: this would be a bitch of a thing for any GM to actually have to deal with. Too easy to slip up and assume normal sight. Good luck with that one. Back to the discussion. Spatial Awareness based on mental perceiving other mental signals? Some sort of Detect/Sense with Targeting and Discriminatory etc? Is the species mobile? How do they keep from running into walls? No ability to sense pressure change? Temperature change? I will say that I had this neat idea, just now, of a predatory plant that primarily sees through the eyes of a symbiotic species that lives in the environs nearby. Thanks for the inspiration! Another reason for one of the characters to hate planets. Good points... all of them. This is a mobile plant species designed to be a playable race, so I'm going to have to do a little hand-waving to keep it in the "affordable" category and avoid having no one want to play one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghostwolf Posted July 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs Telekinesis would allow for full on spatial awareness - sensing objects and environment' date=' obstacles, etc. Normally you would build something like this with concentration or some such, but a race who [i']only[/i] uses telepathy / telekinesis would likely have instinctual usage of this sensory power. There would be lots of limits - they wouldn't be able to tell color, only shape and size and such. Incredibly powerful / sensitive TK could replace taste / smell or even be built as a "Detect: Chemical Composition" but that is bordering on too powerful (especially if their TK can manipulate with similar detail; "I use my TK to remove all the oxygen atoms from his body.") Mental Awareness gives them the ability to detect others with mental powers, but not just other minds - that is mind scan. But you could buy Spatial Awareness with an adder that combines sensing other minds into their telekinetic spatial awareness. I don't think this is practical, mind you, for various reasons but it is buildable. And as stated prone to GM or players forgetting their limits. You can't sell back senses but rather you give them disadvantages - blind, no sense of smell, etc. The main issue would be that any body with a nervous system of some sort is at least going to have a sense of touch. This could then give a limited form of "hearing" - if they have incredibly sensitve TK-sense and Telepathy, and no eyes or ears, I'd bet their skin would be sensitive enough to detect sound as vibrations - maybe not enough to hear but enough to sense loud noises using touch. Oh, I like that last bit. Good idea, Kraven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
director13 Posted July 31, 2009 Report Share Posted July 31, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs 20Physical Limitation: Blind, Mute, and Deaf (All the Time, Greatly Impairing) ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajackson Posted July 31, 2009 Report Share Posted July 31, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs Questions: Do I need to purchase some kind of sight/hearing flash defense? Is there any other way to model being totally uneffected by visual and aural flashes? A visual flash causes you to be blind. If you are already blind, it has no effect. Ditto for aural flash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Kor Posted July 31, 2009 Report Share Posted July 31, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs If you do go with the sound-sensing touch, a hearing group flash defined as a loud noise might cause them physical pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted August 1, 2009 Report Share Posted August 1, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs Can they be telepathically flashed, say by a mental scream? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted August 1, 2009 Report Share Posted August 1, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs It's my week for copious weird questions, I guess. The race I'm building is basically a psionic plant species. It has sensory organs, relying on telepathy and mental awareness for sense and targeting. Questions: Do I need to purchase some kind of sight/hearing flash defense? Is there any other way to model being totally uneffected by visual and aural flashes? Being blind is all the flash defense you need. Of course that means you'll have to feel your way along since you have no means except touch to perceive things that don't think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Posted August 1, 2009 Report Share Posted August 1, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs They could that the disadvantages of blind and deaf(25+25 pts) so no need to buy flash def so long as the plant buys it's telepathic sense targeting if it to attack or defend itself it will still need to make a perception roll to sense targets that are using stealth it will need n-ray to see through objects targets using stealth should need to be aware of the plants capability but then if the stealthing character is trying to sneak up on or away from a telepathic plant most likely knows already Since they probably aren't Limited by not having eyes/ears... just state they can't be affected by Sight/Hearing Flashes and purchase all the pertinent Senses as a replacement. There's no real way to "sell back" Site and Hearing so they go away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phookz Posted August 1, 2009 Report Share Posted August 1, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs Tangental note: this would be a bitch of a thing for any GM to actually have to deal with. Too easy to slip up and assume normal sight. Good luck with that one. Back to the discussion. Spatial Awareness based on mental perceiving other mental signals? Some sort of Detect/Sense with Targeting and Discriminatory etc? Is the species mobile? How do they keep from running into walls? No ability to sense pressure change? Temperature change? I will say that I had this neat idea, just now, of a predatory plant that primarily sees through the eyes of a symbiotic species that lives in the environs nearby. Thanks for the inspiration! Another reason for one of the characters to hate planets. That is both wicked cool and quite believable given the number of symbiotic relationships that occur in the natural world. I would rep you but gotta spread it around first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted August 1, 2009 Report Share Posted August 1, 2009 Re: Telepathic race with no other sensory organs That is both wicked cool and quite believable given the number of symbiotic relationships that occur in the natural world. I would rep you but gotta spread it around first. Thanks. I have not done any detail work yet. But it did get a nice big "you son of a b-" type of reaction from the player. I love those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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