Automatons and mindlessness

[Christopher R Taylor]

Reading the rules on Automaton powers, I can find no indication that these powers make a creature mindless and immune to mental attacks.

 

There is a mention that "Takes No Stun" is useful for building a mindless creature - zombie, skeleton, robot - but not that it actually makes the target have no will or mind to be attacked.

 

Now, is this because its assumed or did I miss something?

Because it seems to me that there's nothing about feeling no pain that necessarily requires being mindless.  Several examples in fiction spring to mind (such as the villain in the Bond movie The World is Not Enough).  Being able to buy this without losing intellect would make constructs of this sort (or ones like an intelligent earth elemental made of rock that feels no pain or the Terminator) using Takes no Stun.

But if that's true, then it would seem that a different power would be useful to represent "mindless" since it would be an advantage to some degree at least.

[Steve Long]

That information's not listed under Automaton Powers, but under the text describing Automatons in general on 6E2 182:  "First, since an Automaton isn’t really a sentient, living being, it automatically has a 0 EGO and is immune to all Mental Powers. An Automaton cannot make EGO Rolls and doesn’t have the ability to make its own decisions."

 

Also remember that there are lots of ways to represent "feels no pain" in HERO System terms. (For example, personally I probably wouldn't use Automaton Powers for most, if not all, of the monsters/villains you mention.) That would be a great topic for the Discussion board, if you haven't started one there already.