jyang298

3 minutes ago, Funk Thompson said:

Eh, careful on assuming malice when simple ignorance - or difference of opinion - is more likely the case.

HERO is an incredibly detailed and complicated system, and I have yet to find any two tables that play it exactly alike so far as adherence to RAW vs. house-rules vs. common misunderstandings.

 

It's a 700 or so page volume of rules for 6E, not that much less for 5E.  We're gonna get some things wrong, and not everyone has the same dramatic sense. 

Nah, no malice between the two of us, it was all very cordial. Being the GM, he's just more concerned with a more liberal interpretation of rules wreaking havoc on game balance during combat encounters. So I guess he just went the other extreme and took to the rule as they're written with no room for flexibility. This led to a weird situation during our first session where my telekinetic mentalist character can't use his powers to unbend the metal bars that's holding his team-mates captive. We still managed to resolve the in-game situation but decided to get some outside opinion on the matter - hence why I posted here.

On a related note, is balance a big concern in this game? I got into RPGs quite recently and was taken with the impression that players should be encouraged to create whatever kind of character they feel like and should be allowed to feel great about their characters being awesome at what they do. The GM on the other hand should be more concerned about creating dramatic moments and finding ways to challenge characters. For example, a PC may be great at combat, then as a challenge, maybe separate him from the rest of the party and throw a really strong villain (or a whole bunch of them) at him. Or maybe throw him into social situations where he isn't very good at. The balance part of the game are already built into the system and, in this game especially, items that could potentially be too powerful are highlighted for review. What are your thoughts?

47 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

It's a construction which relies on you using your brain, common sense, and dramatic sense...not unlike many things in the system.

Sounds like almost the exact words I've said to my GM regarding this issue. Anyways, thanks to everyone who replied to this post. You've all been very helpful!

37 minutes ago, Funk Thompson said:

Basically, whatever CV it uses doesn't affect whether it can do BODY.

 

Only the defense the attack applies to matters for that.

Is this explicitly stated anywhere in the books?

1 hour ago, Cantriped said:

See Hero System Fifth Edition Revised, page 231; under "Based On Ego Combat Value". The page number will be different for the original 5th ed, but the relevent rule should still be in the same general area under Telekinesis.

Anyway, there you will find the definition of "Psychokinesis" in Hero, and an outline of its differences from standard Telekinesis in that edition.

 

The good news is that Psychokinesis still does Normal Damage just fine with BOECV.

Sure, that’s how I described it in my initial post. The Ultimate Mentalist supplement has severa pages dedicated to this power and reading it through the lens pointed out by @Sveta it does talk specifically about using psychokinesis to pick up physical objects with no EGO. Given that it explicitly ignores one of the limitations of BOECV, does that mean it ignores the other limitation (does no BODY) as well? Given that psychokinetic holds are broken out of using STR and direct psychokinetic attacks are blocked by Physical Defense, it seems to suggest that psychokinesis works the same way as telekinesis - aka a physical force. Does this imply that direct psychokinetic attacks (punches) is able to do BODY damage just like regular telekinesis?

Related question: does an RKA with BOECV lose its ability to deal BODY damage? How would it calculate damage in this case?

This is based on 5th Edition Revised as stated in the title and also the supplement "Ultimate Mentalist" - which list it specifically as a power. It does not mention the whether it does BODY damage or anything but it does talk in-depth about how to target "objects" with psychokinesis. The confusing part of it all is that it uses "Telekinesis" and "Psychokinesis" interchangeably but given that "Telekinesis" does not have the BOECV advantage (and hence the limitations associated with it), it's not clear if this is the case for Psychokinesis as well. 

Hi, I'm unclear about the rules for Psychokinesis. The way I'm understanding it, Psychokinesis (or Telekinesis + BOECV) is basically Telekinesis but with:

1. Uses ECV to target

2. Works on Light of Sight

3. Limited Indirect

4. Is Visible and sensed by Mental Awareness

Does the other limitations of BOECV also apply? AKA:

1. Does no BODY

2. Cannot affect objects with no EGO such as inanimate objects and robots

Does this mean that a character with basic Psychokinesis can't do the classic spoon bending trick? Would a character with Psychokinesis be able to lift rubble that's collapsed on someone or unbend metal bars that are holding someone captive?