10-11-2015, 12:48 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: L.I., NY
|
Detect: instantaneous or continuing?
When putting the Costs Fatigue limitation on Detect, would you treat Detect as having an instantaneous effect or continuing effect? More broadly, is Detect something that can continue over time, to allow someone using it to track something's movement or aim a ranged attack, or does it just give a 'snapshot'?
The description of Detect in Characters says it requires a second of concentration and a sense roll, and does not give a time period for how long it works after that. That seems to imply to me that it should be treated as instantaneous. Otherwise, it could be 'left on', to avoid the need for that second of concentration. Psionic Powers says that Precise turns Detect into a sense that can be used for targeting, like vision. In that case, how should it interact with an Aim maneuver? If you have spend a turn Concentrating to Detect, does that mean you you can't Aim using Detect? You Concentrate for one turn, then Attack the next? Using Reflexive seems like a way around it, to avoid the need for a turn of concentration. However, Reflexive includes a -4 to success rolls to activate, I assume this would apply to the sense roll on Detect, but would that be necessary to make each turn of Aim? How would you handle it? |
10-11-2015, 12:59 PM | #2 | |||||
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
|
Re: Detect: instantaneous or continuing?
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
|
|||||
10-11-2015, 03:44 PM | #3 | |||
Banned
Join Date: Aug 2004
|
Re: Detect: instantaneous or continuing?
Quote:
Quote:
|
|||
10-11-2015, 04:09 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: L.I., NY
|
Re: Detect: instantaneous or continuing?
Quote:
I suppose Costs Fatigue and Reflexive are a dangerous combination. Part of me kind of likes the idea of a character that has an Achilles' heel like that. I could see giving a powerful NPC that combination, and seeing if the PC figure it out and plan a way to take him down with repeated surprise attacks. Thanks for the Kromm-quote on that. It makes Reflexive more useful on Detect. |
|
10-11-2015, 04:32 PM | #5 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
|
Re: Detect: instantaneous or continuing?
Quote:
|
|
10-11-2015, 04:34 PM | #6 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
|
Re: Detect: instantaneous or continuing?
|
10-11-2015, 04:50 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: L.I., NY
|
Re: Detect: instantaneous or continuing?
Quote:
|
|
10-12-2015, 11:43 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Vermont, USA
|
Re: Detect: instantaneous or continuing?
Powers mentions Detect being a transient ability: "A few transient abilities also require Concentrate maneuvers … Detect …" (p. P154)
That makes sense to me -- you activate it, it gives you information, done. Costs Fatigue would then cost 1 FP per use, where a use is the Concentrate maneuver to get information. Without Precise, you know the direction but not the distance which in combat is equivalent to not knowing what hex the target is in which makes targeting difficult. With Precise, you do know the hex so you can attack, or Aim then attack, or whatever. You could use Reflexive, but Reduced Time would be sufficient -- then you can simply take a free action to detect each turn. Reflexive is for when you want the ability to work when you don't know you need it to. If you want something you can activate for a minute, try Scanning Sense or Vibration Sense. |
Tags |
detect |
|
|