Only you can see me

[Tech]

I've been thinking of a power where the character is not noticed by anyone except whom she wants to be seen by. I haven't decided if a videocamera, picture taken, etc would see the character or not. Off-hand, I'm interested in both ways: 1) she can only affect people with minds (which excludes invisibility then)  2) only who/what she wants to see her, will notice her (includes cameras, robots, etc).  How to build this?

[JohnnyAppleseed098]

I would say that, if your GM allows it, that this is the way I would do it. 

 

Invisibility to Sight, Mental, Radio, Hearing, and Smell/Taste Groups with No Fringe.  Reduced to 0 END (+1/2) Persistent (+1/4), Inherent (+1/4). 100 APs Minor Side Effects (Loses No Fringe and Gains Bright Fringe when character designates an onlooker. Only affects the onlooker  (-0; Was Originally -1/4 but  +1/4 for specific act) 100 RPs

 

 

Reasoning: The Rules Have Always Said That You Can Remove Adders As You See Fit. So, you can remove the No Fringe and add Bright Fringe to achieve the effect desired on the onlooker. 

[Tech]

Interesting. That's one way of doing it, but the side effect seems questionable.

[DasBroot]

1 - Doesn't necessarily remove invisibility.  It just becomes invisibility with a limitation (Only Affects People With Minds).  Probably worth a -1/2 if you're in a 'modern' game where cameras and such are everywhere.  Might even be a -1 if you're in a superhero game where cameras and robotic minions are commonplace (ie if the invisibility will fail 'half the time').

 

2 - Same thing but without the limitation on it.

 

Now the tricky part how to become visible to those you want to interact with.

 

1 - If you decide to go for a 'mental' approach then Mental Illusions (Fixed effect limitation) will cover this.  Little heavy handed an approach, though.

 

What you're really looking for would be some sort of Selective.  As a GM I'd let you buy Area of Effect on your invisibility with the Selective advantage on it.  It's not Usable on Others (Nearby), strictly speaking, so I'd be fine with it not turning everything around you invisible - that it just lets you decide who you're invisible to as they enter the area of effect.  

 

Definitely a bit hand wavy but I think fairly balanced and costed.  Otherwise you can get crazy and take a "Detect (All Sense Groups) Me" usable on others and blast someone with it when you want to interact.  Expensive and silly but probably rules legit.

[Tasha]

1 - Doesn't necessarily remove invisibility.  It just becomes invisibility with a limitation (Only Affects People With Minds).  Probably worth a -1/2 if you're in a 'modern' game where cameras and such are everywhere.  Might even be a -1 if you're in a superhero game where cameras and robotic minions are commonplace (ie if the invisibility will fail 'half the time').

 

2 - Same thing but without the limitation on it.

 

Now the tricky part how to become visible to those you want to interact with.

 

1 - If you decide to go for a 'mental' approach then Mental Illusions (Fixed effect limitation) will cover this.  Little heavy handed an approach, though.

 

What you're really looking for would be some sort of Selective.  As a GM I'd let you buy Area of Effect on your invisibility with the Selective advantage on it.  It's not Usable on Others (Nearby), strictly speaking, so I'd be fine with it not turning everything around you invisible - that it just lets you decide who you're invisible to as they enter the area of effect.  

 

Definitely a bit hand wavy but I think fairly balanced and costed.  Otherwise you can get crazy and take a "Detect (All Sense Groups) Me" usable on others and blast someone with it when you want to interact.  Expensive and silly but probably rules legit.

 

AOE isn't the right way to go about that. AOE implies that the whole area is made invisible.

 

Probably the easiest way would be to have a +0 Limitation "Doesn't work on Designated people" It's not much of a limitation, but it allows the power to be selectively turned off. I am leaning toward simple ways of doing things and not sweating the little things. 

 

If it's ego based perhaps adding Not vs those with 15pts Mental Defenses or 25Ego. -1/4

[DasBroot]

I think selective invisibility is an advantage of some sort in most situations, especially if it affects multiple senses  - your team mates know where you are, you can talk to someone without being overheard, etc.  Not an incredibly large one, though, in the grand scheme of things - my hand waving was meant to price out to about a +1/2 advantage.  I could see +1/4, though (the price of selective if I recall correctly). Not sure I'd ever price it at zero (but I do have a few players that when given an inch will take a light year - every table's mileage may vary).

[IndianaJoe3]

I think selective invisibility is an advantage of some sort in most situations, especially if it affects multiple senses  - your team mates know where you are, you can talk to someone without being overheard, etc.  Not an incredibly large one, though, in the grand scheme of things - my hand waving was meant to price out to about a +1/2 advantage.  I could see +1/4, though (the price of selective if I recall correctly). Not sure I'd ever price it at zero (but I do have a few players that when given an inch will take a light year - every table's mileage may vary).

 

I think that this sounds like a variant of Hole In the Middle.

[Hyper-Man]

Another option for a mental sfx version would be to build a separate custom ability to selectively share visibility based on the price of Mind Link.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I'd just buy it as invisibility, with a few limitations.  Probably a -0 to be visible only to targets you want to see you.  -1/4 or -1/2 to be visible to recording equipment and robots.

[SirViss]

I was thinking about Mental Illusion (only to make image of self where self is), maybe area effect, selective so more than one person could be affected at once. Then buy enough dice so the GM would permit the effect to be an absolute effect, and I finally realized that I was thinking about something WAY too expensive and complex at the same time.

 

I think this should be a Custom Advantage to be place on the power, to permit that it be turned off only for certain people (and maybe things), with a value to be discussed between the player and the GM.

 

The thought occurred to me that you may want to have a Stealth Skill roll involved, basically so that the character can remain hidden to everyone else than the people (and things) to whom he would want to reveal himself to.

[Tech]

What about Stealth of 28 or less (maybe add on Variable Special Effect)? It gives a an 18 or less roll, with an additional 10 for the "impossible roll at -10".

[Lucius]

Naked Advantage: Personal Immunity to Invisibility. Then an Advantage of Usable by Others on the Naked Advantage.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

I'm not invisible, I'm just hiding behind the palindromedary

[JohnnyAppleseed098]

Naked Advantage: Personal Immunity to Invisibility. Then an Advantage of Usable by Others on the Naked Advantage.

Thats a great idea!!!!

[bigdamnhero]

Mental Illusions gets prohibitively expensive when you try to make it apply automatically to everyone within LOS.

 

Stealth generally only works if you're not under direct observation and trying to be sneaky - the rules even say "It's not invisibility." So even with a really high roll, I don't think that gets you where you want to go without excessive handwaving.

 

I agree the easiest way seems to be Invisibility, with

• Selective: +1/4 feels about right to me; I could argue +1/2, but the other players always seem to know where their invisible teammate's mini is anyway
• Only Affects Targets With A Mind, Doesn't Work Through Cameras: maybe -1/2 depending on the campaign

To make it feel more like a mental power, what about saying MD adds to the PER Roll to perceive the character's Fringe? Maybe +1 for every 3 or 5 MD, depending on how common MD is in your game? Or better yet: MD extends the range at which someone gets a PER Roll to perceive the Fringe, maybe +1m per 1 MD? That could be worth -1/4 or even -1/2 if MD is fairly common in your game.

[Sean Waters]

Hmm.

 

Sense affecting powers are always a bit of a bugbear in Hero, well, in any game, really, but they are usually managed by specific rules; for example most DnD invisibility drops if you attack someone, and we do something similar.

 

It is almost impossible to build 'invisible to everything' because someone can always come up with a sense you have not thought of.  You can (if you like) do a mental version with Mind Control (AoE, penetrating, cumulative, single command: ignore me) which makes you fade away from people's notice.  As a GM I'd make you include a limitation "Unless you do something that specifically draws attention to yourself".  This would cover attacking someone - they would then clearly see you, but equally it covers tapping your mate on the shoulder.  I don't like using limitations as advantages, but on balance it is a limitation, I'd say.

 

Part of the issue with invisibility is synergy.  An invisible opponent with an invisible attack is getting a lot more utility from their invisibility than an invisible opponent with a visible attack.  Perhaps we should re-write the invisibility power so that it is directly related to the combat and skill penalties it imposes.  Probably outside the scope of this post...

 

What was the question?  Oh, right.  Invisibility (only v targets with minds) and a custom adder or advantage to allow you to selectively drop your invisibility.  That's probably most straightforward.

 

Actually what I might do instead is this: Invisibility (only v targets with minds, not v mental sense*) and the ability to grant mental sense UBO.  That makes more logical sense to me, even if it is a bit more complicated to build.  it also quantifies better who and how you can grant the ability to see you to.

 

 

 

*It makes 'sense' that if you can not see a target because you are being subtly affected by a mental power, if you can see the mental power, the jig is up.