Mental Powers based on Grief, Solace, or Sorrow

[Egyptoid]

What powers would a psychic have, if their driving energy were sorrow?

 

Like their mind had somehow expanded in grief, rather than by drugs, mutation, or psychic surgery.

 

I'm thinking empathy, of course, but what else?

any interesting twists or approaches?

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Mental Powers based on Grief, Solace, or Sorrow

 

A Mental Transform that makes the target extremely depressed, giving them a depression-related psychological complication, like Apathy (Very Common, Total): the character must make an ego roll (at -5) to find the motivation to do anything useful or important.

 

(or Suicidal Tendencies, or Severe Depression, or an overpowering urge to visit Hot Topic....)

[Christopher]

Re: Mental Powers based on Grief, Solace, or Sorrow

 

Basically Marvin from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" with a build-in "Point-of-View" Gun

Perhaps powers that affect multiple targets would be fitting ("I want to let as many as possible feel my pain/sorrow/griev").

 

In D&D there are some spells using fear and other psychological effects to lower saving throws, skill throws, attack throws (MCV? Ego?; normal CVs?). You could even target endurance or active powers ("With the weight or despair on your shoulders, the task seems three times as taxing").

Hold is possible: entrapping an enemy in a dream/nightmare scenario (like in JLU Episode 3).

 

Also a power to find the psychological weaknesse of enemys might be helpfull:

According to the "great W" (Wikipedia), the Manhunters Weakness against fire was fear/trauma-based in some interpretations.

 

Is this going to be a villian or psyker hunter sort of pc/npc? Kind of sound like that.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: Mental Powers based on Grief, Solace, or Sorrow

 

Grief tends to impair people's judgment, so if it's a mental sensation the character in question can share with others I'd say a Drain vs. INT (or EGO if we're talking about resisting suggestions and the like) would be appropriate.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Mental Powers based on Grief, Solace, or Sorrow

 

Many things could be done using this particular theme.

 

Telepathy: The character could read the targets mind to find the single most depressing/sorrowful moment of their life. This could possibly reveal or give big hints to related psychological disadvantages

 

Mental Illusions: The character could produce illusions on the targets mind and make them re-live their greatest sorrows and failures. If this power plays off of a Psychological disadvantage, the effects could be devastating.

 

Mind Control: As a specific form of Empathic Control, the character could force a target to feel extreme grief, making any decision or action extremely difficult to work through. Combining this with the Mental Illusion power mentioned above would be incredibly effective. High enough levels of success could make a character catatonic or possibly even suicidal.

 

Mind Scan: The character should be able to sense grief/sorrow and track it across great distances. This could be linked to a Detect Sorrow power.

 

Detect/Sense: See above. Discriminatory and Analyze could determine the nature of the grief (because of a death, or a major failure etc) though should be vague as to not step on the toes of full blown Telapathy.

 

Transfer: The character could feed off of sorrow, draining the psychic energy from his target and feeding his sorrow-powered psionics. The transfer should be able to increase any one of his/her abilities one at a time at least (if not more). If its based on a Multipower, it should increase the pool itself. Maybe also possible to restore/increase Endurance this way as well.

 

Ego Attack: The character should be able to pour all his own grief as well as tap into all the grief of the target themselves and force it upon them....a lifetime (or several lifetimes worth) of grief, all in one instant. Most people would have little defense against such an attack. Characters who have managed to completely block out their emotions may have enhanced defenses against this sort of assault. This should be a pretty big Ego Attack and should have a pretty good chance of stunning the target. A continuous version could continue to pour grief on the target for a minute or longer, until the target is rendered unconscious.

 

Mental Defense/Mental Damage Reduction: The character always feels their own grief strongly. They have learned to live with it and can work through it, but when under mental assault, the character can give in to their own grief and utilize it to armor their mind from other intrusions. At an extreme level, this can work as a Mental Damage Shield (built with Ego Attack or Mental Illusions?) but under normal circumstances, just makes it VERY difficult for enemy mentalists to sense or send anything into the characters mind (enemy Telepaths will simply read extreme grief and naught else. Mind Control will fail to penetrate the "wall of grief" the character erects around their mental self etc.)

 

I might be able to think of more later.

[Folded]

Re: Mental Powers based on Grief, Solace, or Sorrow

 

I experimented with an NPC once with no particular name. He wore an amulet which generated an AOE Always On EGO Drain (something like a 64 hex radius). Only a d6, but the overall effect on his environment was eventually a total apathy in everyone. He knows what's going on, he just doesn't care enough to do anything about it (I handwaved that the amulet left him just enough willpower to eat, get out of the rain, and so on). That could also simulate a Fear or Depression effect, where the target ends up having to make EGO rolls to take any action, if affected strongly enough or for enough time. And, unlike Mental powers, Drains don't automatically identify their use to their targets.