Haitian style ability

[col_impact]

Just like anything else, the construct that I built is something that would require GM approval, especially since if you switch the terms around it can easily just become overwhelmingly lethal.

 

However, its is being used to simulate something that is a very narrow nullify ability. Probably only 10% of supers are heavy mentalist and some additional 10% dabble in it (mostly users of magic) so one should keep in mind that it does absolutely nothing for the character 80% of the time and really only proves to be a tactical hoser only a very small percentage of the time.

 

Nullify abilities are a mainstay of the X-men style comics so being able to feature this kind of ability without having to resort to astronomical pricing might be something that some campaigns would like. I think it is weighing in at approximately the right cost in terms of power and the fact that it often simply does nothing. Interestingly, because mentalists have recourse to line of sight and mind scan it's not as if decent mentalists can't find a way to circumvent relatively easily even a power that hoses them to the extent that this one does. That's part of the reason this power is put on a megascale and has IPE. Mentalists get megascale (in the form of line-of-sight) and IPE for free. If anything, this puts a giant target on the player's head.

 

Part of the reason this power exists is as a plot device in my campaign. The reason for that is that I play my mentalist bad guys to the full extent of their power. If you have criminal mentalists in your campaign and they have mind scan and mind control and they aren't insanely and unbalancingly powerful then you aren't playing them to the full extent of their power and tactical potential. How do you stop an evil mentalist from starting World War 3?

[Grailknight]

 

Part of the reason this power exists is as a plot device in my campaign. The reason for that is that I play my mentalist bad guys to the full extent of their power. If you have criminal mentalists in your campaign and they have mind scan and mind control and they aren't insanely and unbalancingly powerful then you aren't playing them to the full extent of their power and tactical potential. How do you stop an evil mentalist from starting World War 3?

 

You stop them with good mentalist PC's of course.

 

Also don't freak out about Mental powers. Barring GM permitted unbalanced power builds, they really don't have much long term effect out of combat. An 8 EGO normal will shake off a 12 DC power at the +20 EGO level in 1-5 minutes on average and 1-6 hours at the extreme. LOS can be broken by simple cover or movement. Mind Scan can be a problem but it needs to be purchased outside of any frameworks that hold the attack powers and has that little drawback of telling the targets exactly where YOU are.

 

Cumulative,Damage over Time and IPE Mental powers are one of the worst examples of advantage stacking abuse and should be limited to plot maguffins when used at all.

 

[col_impact]

 

Part of the reason this power exists is as a plot device in my campaign. The reason for that is that I play my mentalist bad guys to the full extent of their power. If you have criminal mentalists in your campaign and they have mind scan and mind control and they aren't insanely and unbalancingly powerful then you aren't playing them to the full extent of their power and tactical potential. How do you stop an evil mentalist from starting World War 3?

 

You stop them with good mentalist PC's of course.

 

Also don't freak out about Mental powers. Barring GM permitted unbalanced power builds, they really don't have much long term effect out of combat. An 8 EGO normal will shake off a 12 DC power at the +20 EGO level in 1-5 minutes on average and 1-6 hours at the extreme. LOS can be broken by simple cover or movement. Mind Scan can be a problem but it needs to be purchased outside of any frameworks that hold the attack powers and has that little drawback of telling the targets exactly where YOU are.

 

Cumulative,Damage over Time and IPE Mental powers are one of the worst examples of advantage stacking abuse and should be limited to plot maguffins when used at all.

Cumulative by itself is sufficient to wreck havoc against normals. The rules don't indicate this as stacking abuse at all. In fact, cumulative is tailored for Mental Powers. From the rules . . .

 

[6E1 328] Continuing-effect Mental Powers and some types of Adjustment Powers are the sort of abilities for which Cumulative is most suitable

[bigbywolfe]

Just like anything else, the construct that I built is something that would require GM approval, especially since if you switch the terms around it can easily just become overwhelmingly lethal.

 

However, its is being used to simulate something that is a very narrow nullify ability. Probably only 10% of supers are heavy mentalist and some additional 10% dabble in it (mostly users of magic) so one should keep in mind that it does absolutely nothing for the character 80% of the time and really only proves to be a tactical hoser only a very small percentage of the time.

 

Nullify abilities are a mainstay of the X-men style comics so being able to feature this kind of ability without having to resort to astronomical pricing might be something that some campaigns would like. I think it is weighing in at approximately the right cost in terms of power and the fact that it often simply does nothing. Interestingly, because mentalists have recourse to line of sight and mind scan it's not as if decent mentalists can't find a way to circumvent relatively easily even a power that hoses them to the extent that this one does. That's part of the reason this power is put on a megascale and has IPE. Mentalists get megascale (in the form of line-of-sight) and IPE for free. If anything, this puts a giant target on the player's head.

 

Part of the reason this power exists is as a plot device in my campaign. The reason for that is that I play my mentalist bad guys to the full extent of their power. If you have criminal mentalists in your campaign and they have mind scan and mind control and they aren't insanely and unbalancingly powerful then you aren't playing them to the full extent of their power and tactical potential. How do you stop an evil mentalist from starting World War 3?

Why would a well played mentalist WANT to start World War 3?

[Hyper-Man]

Sometimes "Advantage stacking" is the only way to achieve a desirable result. It's not rules abuse in those situations.

[col_impact]

 

Part of the reason this power exists is as a plot device in my campaign. The reason for that is that I play my mentalist bad guys to the full extent of their power. If you have criminal mentalists in your campaign and they have mind scan and mind control and they aren't insanely and unbalancingly powerful then you aren't playing them to the full extent of their power and tactical potential. How do you stop an evil mentalist from starting World War 3?

 

You stop them with good mentalist PC's of course.

 

Also don't freak out about Mental powers. Barring GM permitted unbalanced power builds, they really don't have much long term effect out of combat. An 8 EGO normal will shake off a 12 DC power at the +20 EGO level in 1-5 minutes on average and 1-6 hours at the extreme. LOS can be broken by simple cover or movement. Mind Scan can be a problem but it needs to be purchased outside of any frameworks that hold the attack powers and has that little drawback of telling the targets exactly where YOU are.

 

Cumulative,Damage over Time and IPE Mental powers are one of the worst examples of advantage stacking abuse and should be limited to plot maguffins when used at all.

Also, it could be pointed out that IPE (at a mere +1/2) makes mental powers fully invisible to target and is a fully legal one advantage combo that wreaks havoc amongst normals. You simply keep taking mental attacks until you get what you want with mind scan or telepathy or mind control. It's just a matter of time.

[col_impact]

Just like anything else, the construct that I built is something that would require GM approval, especially since if you switch the terms around it can easily just become overwhelmingly lethal.

 

However, its is being used to simulate something that is a very narrow nullify ability. Probably only 10% of supers are heavy mentalist and some additional 10% dabble in it (mostly users of magic) so one should keep in mind that it does absolutely nothing for the character 80% of the time and really only proves to be a tactical hoser only a very small percentage of the time.

 

Nullify abilities are a mainstay of the X-men style comics so being able to feature this kind of ability without having to resort to astronomical pricing might be something that some campaigns would like. I think it is weighing in at approximately the right cost in terms of power and the fact that it often simply does nothing. Interestingly, because mentalists have recourse to line of sight and mind scan it's not as if decent mentalists can't find a way to circumvent relatively easily even a power that hoses them to the extent that this one does. That's part of the reason this power is put on a megascale and has IPE. Mentalists get megascale (in the form of line-of-sight) and IPE for free. If anything, this puts a giant target on the player's head.

 

Part of the reason this power exists is as a plot device in my campaign. The reason for that is that I play my mentalist bad guys to the full extent of their power. If you have criminal mentalists in your campaign and they have mind scan and mind control and they aren't insanely and unbalancingly powerful then you aren't playing them to the full extent of their power and tactical potential. How do you stop an evil mentalist from starting World War 3?

That was just one extreme example. To the evil mentalist, the world is full of normal ego human assets that can be leveraged without leaving any traces. Why go for a bank robbery when you can simply use telepathy/mind control to have a CFO happily wire money to some random person's account and then use telepathy/mind control to have that person happily wire the money to an account under your control. Mental powers with IPE at +1/2 are brutal.

[Grailknight]

 

Part of the reason this power exists is as a plot device in my campaign. The reason for that is that I play my mentalist bad guys to the full extent of their power. If you have criminal mentalists in your campaign and they have mind scan and mind control and they aren't insanely and unbalancingly powerful then you aren't playing them to the full extent of their power and tactical potential. How do you stop an evil mentalist from starting World War 3?

 

You stop them with good mentalist PC's of course.

 

Also don't freak out about Mental powers. Barring GM permitted unbalanced power builds, they really don't have much long term effect out of combat. An 8 EGO normal will shake off a 12 DC power at the +20 EGO level in 1-5 minutes on average and 1-6 hours at the extreme. LOS can be broken by simple cover or movement. Mind Scan can be a problem but it needs to be purchased outside of any frameworks that hold the attack powers and has that little drawback of telling the targets exactly where YOU are.

 

Cumulative,Damage over Time and IPE Mental powers are one of the worst examples of advantage stacking abuse and should be limited to plot maguffins when used at all.

Any power wreaks havoc vs normals. Mental powers are actually less effective vs normals than any other powers in the system besides Flash attacks.

 

IPE by itself is only marginally effective. You are trading penalties to the breakout roll for stealth and remember by RAW, you must pay FULL END COST to maintain a continuing effect power even if bought at 0 END.

[Grailknight]

Sometimes "Advantage stacking" is the only way to achieve a desirable result. It's not rules abuse in those situations.

Advantage stacking is not rules abuse but it must be closely monitored. Cumulative Mental Powers just become abusive at a lower break point than most.

[Grailknight]

Darkness vs all sense groups. IPE. Only to prevent LOS for Mental Powers.

[Christopher]

Anti-Metnalist abilities:

Flash to Sight and Mental group

Entangle, Opaque to Sight and Mental (remember that Mentalist don't tend to ahve a lot of Strenght and Mental Blast do 0 BODY)

a bunch of 2 point Skill Level (vs EGO breakout roll), Area of Effect (3 point skill leve could affect EGO breakout roll, CON breakout roll and even the EGO roll to resist Interaction skills.)

 

About the Mentalist starting WW3:

1. His plot will slip up in time for the Characters to stop him. They always do.

2. One person has only so much power. And if the President decides tomorrow to "Nuke Moscow" without rhime or reason, most people would asume he has gone mad and ignore the order or contain him. We have a vice president for a reason.

3. There is only so much information one being has. Most criminals and freedom fighters keep each part of thier organsiation in the dark about one another. Same goes for anything "very secret".

4. Psychological Complications. They are the greatest Force Multipliers and the greatest Roadblocks for Mental Powers. Asume that anyone in a role of power has at least some resluctance (EGO+20 at least) against doing what the evil mentalist wants. This can be love for thier cause (would a patriot start WW3 that would destroy his own land?), love for themself or loved ones (he or familiy are not in nuke proof bunker so would be likely to die) or even something personal against the mentalist or being commanded by anyone.

And even without a Code vs Killing, most people aren't EGO+0 about killing people.

Finding out the complications to work with and wich ones are insurmountable is one of the biggest things about being a Mentalist. Trying to get defender to attack Witchcraft or Innocent bystanders is one surefire way to break him out of your control.

5. Propably the President has a coutner telepath on payroll. Or the White Houses walls and his Vehicles are shielded against Telepathy (Mental Defense) the same way they are shielded against bullets.