[GURPS] Psionic Power builds

[Stelknecht]

Hello! Hoping to start a low point zombie apocalypse with the wife and a friend. I'm going to start them as regular joe 75 points and then after the EVENT, add 50 points in psionic powers. I'm not feeling restrained by traditional Psi, and just had a conversation with players about powers.

One want to be able to apply to another person, a leech ability; harming enemies either in contact or in a small radius, and healing the player.
I thought maybe linking regeneration and a small innate area attack would do, but would it be an affliction to apply it to others? Alternately, leech itself seems useful, but I can't figure out how to give it to someone else. She can also use it on herself.

Any ideas?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Stelknecht

Hello! Hoping to start a low point zombie apocalypse with the wife and a friend. I'm going to start them as regular joe 75 points and then after the EVENT, add 50 points in psionic powers. I'm not feeling restrained by traditional Psi, and just had a conversation with players about powers.

That might be a bit hard. Even GURPS Psis calls a "every day person with psi" 100 points.

Originally Posted by Stelknecht

One want to be able to apply to another person, a leech ability; harming enemies either in contact or in a small radius, and healing the player.
I thought maybe linking regeneration and a small innate area attack would do, but would it be an affliction to apply it to others?

You'd probably need something like: Leech (Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Cosmic, Multiple victims, +50%; Malediction 1, +100%) [75 points + 12 points/level]. Add "Accelerated Healing, +25%" if you want to heal quicker. Add "Based on HT, +20%" if you want a Will roll vs. HT roll (which is pretty common in fiction). You'll need "Selective Area, +20%" if you want to avoid hitting your allies. Add "Selectivity, +10%" if you want to switch between area Leech and touch range Leech (or buy two different types of Leech and make them Alternate Abilities of one another).

Basically, make a roll of Will vs. Will with a -1 penalty to your roll for every target in the area -1. Success means you drain them and gain the total number of HP drained. Add "Independent, +70%" if you want to avoid the penalty.

Originally Posted by Stelknecht

Alternately, leech itself seems useful, but I can't figure out how to give it to someone else. She can also use it on herself.

To give the energy to someone else you'd also need Healing - just make sure your Leech can also absorb FP.

[Stelknecht]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

That might be a bit hard. Even GURPS Psis calls a "every day person with psi" 100 points.





You'd probably need something like: Leech (Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Cosmic, Multiple victims, +50%; Malediction 1, +100%) [75 points + 12 points/level]. Add "Accelerated Healing, +25%" if you want to heal quicker. Add "Based on HT, +20%" if you want a Will roll vs. HT roll (which is pretty common in fiction). You'll need "Selective Area, +20%" if you want to avoid hitting your allies. Add "Selectivity, +10%" if you want to switch between area Leech and touch range Leech (or buy two different types of Leech and make them Alternate Abilities of one another).

Basically, make a roll of Will vs. Will with a -1 penalty to your roll for every target in the area -1. Success means you drain them and gain the total number of HP drained. Add "Independent, +70%" if you want to avoid the penalty.




To give the energy to someone else you'd also need Healing - just make sure your Leech can also absorb FP.

Squeee! Christopher rice answered my post!
That's pretty high for a 50 point build. Maybe I can build it just as single target. I do plan on being generous with Exp, so they'll grow fast, but since the zombie plan is 'slow shufflers at first, building up to sprinters' they'll have some time. Maybe a better build is the second; she can heal others, but only with FP leeched from a critter she's grappling. I think my wife would be fine with just a straight heal, but this is something she remembers from WOW that was cool.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Stelknecht

Squeee! Christopher rice answered my post!

Hey, I try. :-)

Originally Posted by Stelknecht

That's pretty high for a 50 point build. Maybe I can build it just as single target. I do plan on being generous with Exp, so they'll grow fast, but since the zombie plan is 'slow shufflers at first, building up to sprinters' they'll have some time. Maybe a better build is the second; she can heal others, but only with FP leeched from a critter she's grappling. I think my wife would be fine with just a straight heal, but this is something she remembers from WOW that was cool.

Let's see. If you're just starting off here and want one target at ranged I'd do something like...

Leech (Malediction 1, +100%; Only Heals FP, -20%; Ranged, +40%) [55 points + 8.8 points/level].

If you want to have to grapple a target first - which could be very dangerous for low point builds - use something like...

Leech (Only Heals FP, -20%) [20 points + 3.6 points/level].

Also, my above build needs Ranged (+40%).


I suppose if you add "Affects Others, +50%" you could touch someone and have your Leech heal them instead of having Healing. But that's going to increase cost.

Really, if I were you I'd say "up to 75 points to build your base character on and another 75 points of psi powers" 150 points is about right if you want PCs to actually survive the zombie apocalypse. It's always the higher point characters (or those they help) that survive anyways. Moreover, it won't meaningfully change combat with zombies. Especially if you set the divide: "You are 25 to 75 point normal people with 125 to 75 points of psychic powers." I've done this in my current supers campaign, Aeon, and it feels like a comic book world even though I'm dealing with hundreds of points.

[Stelknecht]

Here's my best shot:
Leech (1HP/Second) (Accelerated healing +25% (1HP healed per second), costs fatigue (1 FP per ... not sure?) -5%, Malediction +100%, Melee attack (Reach 1) -25% (so the player with the power has to touch the person she wants to apply this to), Psionic): 47 pts

So she touches an ally, no rolls (although that's a good idea) and then they leech anything they grapple at 1HP/Second, at a cost of 1 FP per.. I'm not sure :(

Would that work the way I think it would?

I've been reading your write-ups, I wish I was playing in Aeon. My work schedule is the poops.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Stelknecht

Here's my best shot:
Leech (1HP/Second) (Accelerated healing +25% (1HP healed per second), costs fatigue (1 FP per ... not sure?) -5%, Malediction +100%, Melee attack (Reach 1) -25% (so the player with the power has to touch the person she wants to apply this to), Psionic): 47 pts

It would be 1 FP per use of Leech. It's kind of gray, but I'd totally say that as long as you've got your target grappled you do not have to pay another FP. Melee Attack doesn't work here - since Leech requires Ranged to add Malediction. Instead, you'd do something like this:

Leech (Accelerated healing +25%; Costs Fatigue, 1 FP, -5%, Requires Will vs. Will roll, -15%) [27].

Originally Posted by Stelknecht

So she touches an ally, no rolls (although that's a good idea) and then they leech anything they grapple at 1HP/Second, at a cost of 1 FP per.. I'm not sure :(

Really, the more I think about this, the more I think you might be able to make a new enhancement for Leech to heal others with your ability. Now normally you'd need Leech and Healing, but that's a bit clunky for me. Were it my game I'd do something like this:

Reverse Leech: You can store up the HP or FP you leech from your target in a special battery and then use it to heal another. You may store up to your level of Leech times your level of this enhancement in your battery at once. To heal a target you must first touch them, take a concentrate maneuver, and make an IQ roll. You may then spend as many points from your battery as you wish healing them 2 HP for every 1 point spent. If you can leech from someone and heal someone at the same time the base cost is +55%. If you must switch "modes" which takes 1 second then the base cost is +20%. Additional level of Reverse Leech cost +5%/level; the GM may decide that you cannot take more than 3 times your level of Leech with this enhancement (e.g., Leech 3 would let you have Reverse Leech 9 at most).

The cost was derived by figuring the cost of Healing (Contact Agent, -30%; Costs Fatigue, Only from Leeched FP, -5%; Injuries Only, -20%) against base Leech. Since the modified HEaling advantage is 13.5 points and Leech is 25 points that'd be a 55% increase to be able to do both. Doing only one of the other is a mere 20% increase. I priced the level increase as an Energy Reserve with Special Recharge (0.9 points/level) which I rounded up to +5%.

Originally Posted by Stelknecht

I've been reading your write-ups, I wish I was playing in Aeon. My work schedule is the poops.

Well, stay tuned. I may start running a C-Team in March sometime on a bi-monthly basis.