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Hello, We had a darkness that also affected sight, mental senses and sonar tossed on our hero group and the GM also suppressed our Team Mindlink that was previously established prior to entering the darkness. Since darkness just suppresses the senses I would have thought I could not initiate a mindscan or mindlink while in the darkness, but that a mindlink previously established would still be in effect since mental AOE blast powers centered on me still worked. Or maybe iit does suppress the mindlink while we are in teh darkness sincce it acts like a sense? Any thoughts from the Champions community on whether the GM went overboard or would that be considered a standard affect for darkness to mental senses? Our GM is very experienced and runs a great game.

I've been working on some house rules, and one in particular has led me down a path, to wonder why we need both a Darkness and a Flash Power. For starters, both of those Powers have the same base cost for the initial Sense Group (5 for targeting, 3 for nontargeting), and the same additional cost to add one Sense or Sense Group (targeting: +10 per group / +5 per sense; nontargeting +5 per group / +3 per sense). If you were to take No Area (-1/4) and Usable As Attack on Darkness, you would effectively have something like a Flash that lasts as long as it is maintained for. In fact, Usable As Attack specifically calls out Darkness as its use case. So... why not combine them into a single Power? My tentative name for it is Obscure. Ranged, Single Target, Constant. Senses and sense groups are as per the current common cost for Darkness and Flash. The character can buy up the power level -- duration? Intensity? I'm not sure what. Maybe both? 5 points per +1 to either. Costs END to maintain; when the user stops spending END (which could be immediately), Obscure stops affecting the target at the end of that Segment, +1 Segment per +1 to power level. An Obscure bought to 0 END Cost would require some way for the target to stop being affected, as per normal for these kinds of Powers. Flash Defense would be renamed to Sensory Protection, and would protect against Obscure. If a character has enough Sensory Protection to reduce the Intensity to 0, then instead of being completely blinded (or whatever), they instead take a PER penalty equal to half the Intensity (the penalty reduced by 1 per additional point of SP), and those penalties go away completely when the Obscure drops. If the target has some Sensory Protection, but not enough to reduce it to 0, then each point reduces the number of Segments they're affected. Example: a target with 10 points of Sight Group Sensory Protection is hit with an intensity 12 Sight Group Obscure; when the attacker stops maintaining it, they're still blinded for an additional 2 Segments. Another target with 15 points of Sight Group SP would instead take a (Intensity 12 / 2 = 6; SP 15 - Intensity 12 = 3; 6 - 3 = 3) -3 penalty to Sight PER while the Obscure is maintained, and none at all when it drops. Comments? Thoughts?

I want to build a 'suit' that suppresses the sound of a character's punches and his running. Would it be appropriate to use a Darkness Damage Shield (AoE Surface) build, or should it be done with two instances of Naked Advantage: Invisible Power Effects for each power (Running and STR)? I would also like the 'suit' to stop the wearer from being located by sonar as well, if that changes the build method.

So do powers with Gestures work while the PC is invisible vs sight or in a Darkness vs sight field? sorry to bother you Steve, Found the right rule Gestures: Even though Gestures are normally supposed to be “clearly visible at a distance,” a character who’s Invisible to Sight Group can make Gestures without other characters seeing them or having them spoil his Invisibility. Incantations: If a character speaks while Invisible to the Hearing Group, whether it’s Incantations or normal speech, other people can hear him speaking. I should have read the WHOLE section on Invis

If a target is within the area of Darkness to Mental Group, but is still visible to sight, would that stop a mentalist's ability to target him with non-sensory Mental attacks? (I'm assuming the Darkness would inhibit any Telepathy or Mind Link to the target, but I'm wondering about Mental Blast or Mind Control.)

Looking for some RAW clarification on what Darkness vs. Mental Group does/doesn't block. In general, Darkness blocks Senses, not Powers. Darkness vs Sight will stop me from seeing you, but if I can target you with another sense it won't stop my laser gun, even tho that's light-based. So by that analogy, Darkness vs Mental would stop me from using Mental Awareness or Mind Scan to target you, but it wouldn't block Mind Control or Mind Blast if I can target you visually. But OTOH, Darkness does block some powers. Darkness vs. Sight blocks Sight Group Images or Flash vs Sight (6e1 p187); presumably, Darkness vs Mental Powers would work the same way. Similarly, radio links are often built as Mind Link, and jamming fields are usually built as Darkness vs Radio Group, right? So why would it work differently if the SFX was mental? Looked at from another angle, Darkness frequently blocks communication: if one of us is affected by Darkness vs. Hearing we can't communicate verbally even if we can see one another. (We could of course talk via sign language or lip reading, but that's using a different sense.) We don't typically think of Communicate Verbally as a Power because it's assumed to be the baseline, but why should Communicate Telepathically be any different? And by extension, if Darkness vs Hearing would block me from giving you Mind Control commands verbally, so why wouldn't Darkness vs Mental Group stop me from giving you Mind Control commands telepathically? I know a lot will depend on sfx, GM's discretion, etc. But I'd love to hear some general principles. Thanks,