Alternate/Advanced Psionics

[JackValhalla]

In the new campaign I'm writing up (5th edition but easily transferred to other editions), there's a large numbers of supers whose powers are psionic in nature, mostly telepathy and telekinesis, but with a huge amount of variation and distinction. We're looking at Armor Piercing EGO Blasts, Autofire Telepathy, Cumulative Area Effect Mind Control, stuff like that. But it's rapidly becoming apparent that the bottleneck in this concept is in the defenses: Mental Defense is cheap and easy, and even with Hardened x2 and Inherent, it's easily possible for any character to all-but-guarantee that no mental powers will affect them. This immediately turns into an arms race, for any of these psionic characters to be even mildly effective against each other they need to have methods to bypass Mental Defense. And once they've bypassed the Mental Defense, there's no other countermeasures. It's a bottleneck that hampers the entire dynamic of exciting psychic-on-psychic combat. 

 

Now, non-psionic combat in Champions does not suffer this bottleneck because there are plenty of different angles of defense. And I'm looking at adapting some of those for my purposes. But the rules on BOECV are kind of vague, if applied to anything but a handful of attack powers. I'm looking at Damage Reduction BOECV to reduce the effective successes of Mind Control or Telepathy. I'm considering Missile Deflection (or even Reflection) BOECV. Combat Skill Levels for mental combat. A custom advantage for mental Force Wall so it can be transparent to both energy and physical attacks and movement. Persistent Invisibility, only vs Mind Scan.

 

Or should I just stick with Mental Defense as written, let the arms race develop, and accept that this is the way the game is played? I want to collect opinions from the forum before I commit to any course of action right now. 

[Hyper-Man]

I recommend watching the movie Push starring Chris Evans. 

 

There is a certain rock-paper-scissors balance to the various psychic abilities presented.

 

The real question is whether you want 'generalists' with the pre-Phoenix Marvel Girl power set (TK + Telepathic sfx).

 

HM

[Scott Baker]

Mental Damage Reduction is covered on 5ER 144.

 

Power builds aside, your post screams "CAMPAIGN GUIDELINES" to me. Set limits on how many damage classes attacks can do. Set limits on how much defense can be bought. Don't let the defenses go so high that no one can affect the character.

 

You could also allow characters to by mental defense with limitations to only affect certain types of mental powers (since you seem to have a multitude of types). Then a single character won't be "immune" to every attack.

 

Finally, check out the Ultimate Mentalist for lots more information on running a campaign like this.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Just make sure you have an upper limit for Mental Defense so people cannot become invulnerable. You might also want to include Mental Defense as a secondary chararacteristic for EGO.

 

As mentioned before, Mental Damage Reduction is an excellent alternate defense. When it comes to AVLD and NND mental attacks, Power defense makes a good alternate.

 

Some BOECV powers should still target physical and energy defense even if the attack is targeted via OECV. Pyrokinesis Cryokinesis and Psycho/Telekinesis are examples of such a power.

 

And lets not forget Drains, Suppress, Transfers and Damage Shield. Those are always good for giving an opponent a surprise. Also an absolutely excellent defense from all mental powers except Ego Blast is Aid to Ego. Make the Ego higher and more powerful mental effects are taken off the table almost completely

[Christopher]

Mental Damage Reduction is covered on 5ER 144.

 

Power builds aside, your post screams "CAMPAIGN GUIDELINES" to me. Set limits on how many damage classes attacks can do. Set limits on how much defense can be bought. Don't let the defenses go so high that no one can affect the character.

 

You could also allow characters to by mental defense with limitations to only affect certain types of mental powers (since you seem to have a multitude of types). Then a single character won't be "immune" to every attack.

That. Just do the same thing you already do with physical attacks and physical defenses.

 

Only thing I can add is:

Consider increasing the cost for Mental Defenses too.

 

All pricing asumes a sort of "default Hero Campaign". Your campaign deviates from the default, by placing more focus on mental powers then the pricing could ever account for.

There are explicit provisions in the rules for adapting pricing if it fits your campaign better. The best example I can think of is a underwater campaign:

Effectively Flight and Swimming switch places (and should switch pricing). Underwater swimming is like flying. While flying is useless until you enter the "rare" element air. It could go as far as everyone having "breath underwater" as natural as "breath in air" - at the cost of needing LS: Surface Breathing.

[eepjr24]

I think a combination of things can help you here. Campaign limits on MD would be one. DR is another. Damage Negation from 6e (-1 DC per 5 points spent) is another alternative. Triggered Dispel (or held actions with Dispel) versus incoming mental attacks are another angle.

 

Ego aid was mentioned, but you can also buy EGO only versus a particular attack or effect. High DECV is another defense against being hit. So is Invisibility versus Mental senses. 

 

- E