Cytorak Ruby Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 I've played Aberrant for a while now, but I finally flipped through the Trinity book the other day. I was really confused; aren't Trinity characters supposed to be more powerful than novas? It seemed like most of the Aptitudes were weaker than some enhancements in the Aberrant book.Am I missing something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Green Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 Psions are supposed to be more stable and much more numberous. Considering they also have access to baseline armies and as a last resort, nukes, and that the abbies are big time crazy, if they didn't have a reason to fear the abbies it'd be a walk over. As it is an argument can be made they're losing the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprocket Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 There are also 2 other factors to consider. First, most (high 90s percentage-wise, AFAICT) of the "aberrants" that psion characters will be facing in Trinity are actually baseline humans mutated by the Colony (or its offspring) into Taint-wracked cannon fodder, who are very weak compared to actual novas or aberrants. They've been designated as "sub-aberrants" in the later Trinity books for sake of clarity.Second, psions in Trinity also have access to psionic-based biotechnology devices, which have all sorts of nifty uses & can even the playing field quite a bit against their sub-aberrant foes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metaphysician Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 Also, the freeform Psi rules in the PG help. Being able to produce reduced potency psionic effects for no cost is nice; being able to dump your entire Psi pool into one big attack, possibly combined with large numbers of other psions at the same time, is even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Green Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 I think there's like, what?, 100K psions? One of the books (I think the army or the space group) gave stats on that kind of thing. Basically the pyros, by far, have the most members. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprocket Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 That's almost right; the psychokinetics (who use cryokinesis & telekinesis along with pyrokinesis) are the most numerous/common psions. The charts for psion populations according to Aptitude (including the number of dead psions) can be found in Trinity: Aurora Australis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astronomer Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 It's obvious from a cursory comparison of nova powers vs psionic powers that novas are generally more powerful than psions. Even a proxy doesn't compare to Divis Mal, although proxies can be damned scary in their own right. As previously mentioned, they are more stable, numerous, and have better tech. Few psions going one-on-one with a combat nova will do well. A team using practiced anti-nova tactics and a VARG or two is a different proposition. Using psi to disrupt a quantum power at the right moment can be decisive. That said, a combat nova that chooses his battleground wisely and isn't an insane moron can easily inflict lots o' death and destruction on psions, since a psion's defenses aren't geared for attacks that can flatten buildings, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Green Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Even a proxy doesn't compare to Divis Mal, although proxies can be damned scary in their own right.My off the cuff eval of the proxies is that they can be built as Q5 types with a huge amount of points.Using psi to disrupt a quantum power at the right moment can be decisive.Can psions actually do that? I know psiads can buy the disrupt power, but that's not the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprocket Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Using psi to disrupt a quantum power at the right moment can be decisive.>Can psions actually do that? I know psiads can buy the disrupt power, but that's not the same thing.According to the TPG (p. 146), the 4 & 5-dot Modes are potent enough to interfere with an Aberrant's powers, although it's listed as being an optional element instead of something mandatory. That's one reason an increased vulnerability to noetic energy was added to the Trog 2ndGen nova template in Aberrant: A Breed Apart (shameless plug ::laugh ).Thing is, that effect was presumed to be dependent on a Taint-ridden aberrant's extreme lack of noetic energy in its quantum/noetic makeup. Actually messing around with the quantum powers of a non-Taintmonkey nova could plausibly restricted to users of the quantakinesis Aptitude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astronomer Posted September 9, 2007 Share Posted September 9, 2007 True enough, but since the QK Purge, QKs are rather scarce and unlikely to aid their psion brethren in battle. Only the Qks working for the Norca might have the motivation, and they wouldn't (or wouldn't be allowed to) break cover like that. Most would rather not get involved at best, or might aid Abberants at worst. Also, even a non-Tainted nova (like Divis Mal, who's a poster child for Chrysalis?) would be bothered by noetic energy, which is antithetical to his (massive) quantum signature. Or, so I surmise from my reading of the various canon/non-canon sources. The canon sources were more general and optional, the non-canon (such as the Noetics Field Report, and the QK sourcebook) went into more detail. The vulnerability of the Doyen to novas' quantum influence demonstrates the reverse is also true: nova quantum energy can affect noetic powers as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Green Posted September 9, 2007 Share Posted September 9, 2007 ...nova quantum energy can affect noetic powers as well.That is the part we don't tend to hear about. Sometimes from some of the talk on the WW forum you'd think that all Psions have disrupt.All kiding aside, I don't think either side really *needs* to be able to disrupt the other to generate the effects and results that we've seen. I'll also say that the loss of the teleport guild really hurt a lot. Speed and mobility kill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueNinja Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 The impression I got from the Trinity books is that, by 2120, the psions outnumber all novas and aberrants about ten to one. At ten to one odds, most of the time, the psions will win, because they're up against the taint-fueled aberrants instead of full novas. Also, I think it's expected that any time a group of psions faces down against a full nova, at least one of them is going to die, since one-on-one almost any starting nova can wipe the floor with any starting psion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyLion Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 Hear that kids? Remember when battling full-Nova aberrants, always bring your red-shirt (-wearing-camrade) with you! ,, ::laugh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Green Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 Hear that kids? Remember when battling full-Nova aberrants, always bring your red-shirt (-wearing-camrade) with you! ,, ::laughActually... there's something to be said about that."I've got good news!!! He's limited to 10 uses of his Disin and there are 12 of you!!!" :jumping40: Of course that brings up Prof Potts notions of q savings so maybe we want to change those numbers to "20 uses" and "24".On a side note, many effects become much more survivable if you pull a random baseline in front of you. ::devil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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