Clairsentience - Fixed point and range

[eepjr24]

I just got through reading the 6e section on Clairsentience after a discussion in the Hero Discussion on how to model a power that would let someone know when someone touched their car. Can you tell me if I modeled it correctly? 

 

 

 

Someone touched my car!:  Clairsentience (Touch Group), Persistent (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (35 Active Points); Fixed Perception Point (-1) One Sense only: Normal Touch (-1/4) (15 RC)

Would this allow you to set a fixed point on your car (assuming you are within the targeting range of 200m) and then sense from wherever you were if someone touched it? I understand that you would not be able to reset it from long distances if someone broke the "connection" via dispel or drain or other methods, but if it was set and then I drove 10 miles away, would it still work?

 

- E

[Steve Long]

Before I can answer your question properly, there’s a more fundamental issue to explore:  what is the effect of Clairsentience (Touch Group)?

 

Per 6E1 179, “A character with Clairsentience can use one or more of his Senses (usually the Sight Group) at Range[.]” That parenthetical is important here — I’m sure everyone reading this can think of numerous fictional and real-world powers and gadgets that are most appropriately built with Clairsentience (Sight Group). It takes very little effort to conceive of appropriate uses of Clairsentience (Hearing Group). With some effort I can think of at least one good use for Clairsentience (Smell Group), but I think it’s best for all our sanities not to contemplate Clairsentience (Taste Group).

 

But Clairsentience (Touch Group) is kind of an odd duck, since Touch itself is a bit of a weird mallard. Obviously we can come up with some ideas (or else this question wouldn’t exist), but let’s face it — it’s not exactly a common concept. And there’s already one Power — Stretching — that allows a character to use Touch “at Range.” Clairsentience (Touch Group) in theory has a similar effect, but bypasses intervening barriers and only allows perception, not manipulation. 

 

So, when a character uses Clairsentience (Touch Group), he can both actively feel anything at the perception point, and passively feel anything done to/at the perception point that Normal Touch would ordinarily allow him to feel. For example, he could feel an object placed on or at the perception point, could feel the pressure of someone stepping or lying on the perception point, and so on. If there’s any doubt about what the character would experience, the GM should resolve it using common sense, dramatic sense, and game balance sense.

 

So in theory, yes, you could build Someone Touched My Car! with Clairsentience (Touch Group), but the build you posted isn’t entirely correct:

 

—One Sense Only isn’t a valid Limitation since the Touch Group only has one Sense (see 6E2 9). If a character had several Senses assigned to the Touch Group, it would be valid (assuming the GM approved, as usual).

 

—Fixed Perception Point isn’t a comfortable choice either, since the car can move. Replace it with Can Only Perceive If Things/People Touch My Car (-1). (Arguably that Limitation value’s too high, but I don’t feel like going into yet another detailed analysis.)

 

However, all that being said... I think you’re going around your elbow to get at your hand. This is a complex (and now time-wasting) way to build something that you’d do better to build as Detect If Things/People Touch My Car, with a whole bunch of Telescopic. “But Steve!” you protest, anguished. “All that Telescopic would end up costing a huge amount of points that I don’t want to spend for such a trivial little power!” And your concern would be a just one. So you go to your GM and say, “Hey, I know this in theory costs X points, but that’s way too much for a trivial little power, so how about we just say it costs 5 points?” And your GM, being a cool guy, says “Sure.”