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Aberrant RPG - Psychic Shield v Mental Blast


BlueNinja

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OK, I was skimming around the boards and read through a bit of the powers argument thread in the Stepping from Eden game forum. Now, against your normal mental powers (Telepathy, Dominate, Mirage, etc), Psychic Shield gives +2 autosuccesses to the Willpower resistance roll. This is fairly decent, as it allows a character with 2-3 dots to usually resist any nova who hasn't maxed out the power and accompanying Mega-att.

Against Mental Blast, however, Psychic Shield provides +2 auto-successes and 2 soak. Since damage is based on the attacker's successes, it is essentially +4 successes to defence, per dot. Why did the developers hate Mental Blast so much? I don't know. It doesn't get Q-successes, which IIRC Telepathy and Mirage do, and just three dots is enough to protect against an average roll from a nova with maxed stats for Mental Blast. (Int 5 + M-Int 5 + Mental Blast 5 = 2+4.5+2=8.5 successes v 12 autosuccesses).

In Trans-D I am treating Psychic Shield as though it provides only +2 auto-successes to all resisted powers.

Also, I am considering this extra for it (which has possibly been put out on the forums elsewhere, but this is my version):

Emotional Shield: This extra subtracts 2 successes from the effects of Emotional Manipulation and Social Mega-Attribute rolls and enhancements used against the nova. The successes lost can only be from auto-successes granted by Enhancements, or from successes gained from rolling Mega-Attribute dice. Successes rolled on regular Attribute and Ability dice cannot by lost because of this enhancement.

(Example: Nova Dick has Willpower 5 and Psychic Shield 3 with this extra. Nova Jane has Manipulation 4, Seduction 2, Mega Manipulation 1, and the Seductive Looks enhancement. Jane tries to seduce Dick, and comes up with 8 successes - 3 auto-successes from the enhancement, 2 successes from her Mega-Manipulation die, and 3 successes from her regular dice. She then loses 5 successes from Dick's shield, and applies three successes against the single success he rolled on his Willpower dice.)

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Basically, yes. It certainly can be done either way, I just think its important to realize the consequences either way. If Psychic Shield provides defense sux ( ie, there is no source of mental soak ), then mental agg is only useful insofar as it cannot be easily healed. If it provides soak versus mental blast, than an Agg Mental Blast also provides the benefit of punching through normal psychic defenses. Helps differentiate psychic shield from invulnerability ( mental ).

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Not that it effects me, but seems fine. However, you might want to consider specifying that it provides only +2 soak versus damaging mental attacks, unless you want it to work equally well against aggravated mental blasts as against normal.
If Psychic Shield provides defense sux ( ie, there is no source of mental soak ), then mental agg is only useful insofar as it cannot be easily healed. If it provides soak versus mental blast, than an Agg Mental Blast also provides the benefit of punching through normal psychic defenses. Helps differentiate psychic shield from invulnerability ( mental ).
Hmm. Canon though it may be, and even though I've had it with a PC, I don't think Aggravated Mental Blast is all that great an idea. (From a killing people standpoint, it's freaking awesome! ::devil ) TBH, if you use it as written, Agg MB is already more powerful not because of damage type but because it suddenly gains [Q] levels of damage (ie, successes). I think the fix to this would be better put in specifying (or banning) the extra for Mental Blast than continuing to tinker with Psychic Shield.
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Actually, in regard to mental blast, my general inclination is to have it to sux + quantum levels bashing damage, and have the non-damaging mental powers just have sux effect. That way, its easier to blast someone into unconsciousness, than it is to mind control them, all else being equal.

Thats just my preference, however.

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I always did hate psy shield for double -dipping. Also I recommend that we create a new enhancment...a Mega Intelligence version of Hardbody called "Hardened Mind." It makes no sense that being physically tough via mega stamina would apply to agg mental attacks. In this case the defense would be as rare as the attack and one still has the option of buying Invulnerability: Mental.

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The defense *shouldn't* be as rare as the attack. The attacker can use his attack on anyone in the world, the defender can only use it again that one person. It should especially not require a house created defense.

And BTW, I can't think of *anyone* in cannon other than Divis who has both P-Shield and Hardbody. Those are both fairly rare defenses, there's no need to make it rarer yet.

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