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07-30-2017, 07:32 AM | #1 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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[Psionic Powers] Levitation's maintainance rolls
The Infinite Cabal party need to do some high-altitude flying. They don't know how high, or for how long (distance and time are difficult concepts on the Inner Astral plane, even if they knew where they were going).
The party's sole psionic has Levitation (Psionic Powers p55) and skill 16, but the requirement to roll every minute when there may well be nowhere around to land for miles in every direction has him worried. He's the party's utility flier, and wants to retain that position without getting killed. Levitation is built off Flight with Requires IQ Roll (-10%). The player reckons buying that off entirely is breaking the Psionic Powers framework, and as GM I agree. Walk on Air (Psionic Powers p57) says no skill is needed, which seems a bit inconsistent. Buying Extended Duration (B.105) to extend the time between rolls would be one way to solve the problem. Can anyone suggest others?
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07-30-2017, 07:44 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Denmark
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Re: [Psionic Powers]Levitation's maintainance rolls
I would buy Extended duration as well. I can't really think of other options either.
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07-30-2017, 07:48 AM | #3 |
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Ellicott City, MD
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Re: [Psionic Powers]Levitation's maintainance rolls
Does the Astral Plane in this setting even have a concept of gravity? If not, Levitation may just be useful for propelling yourself in the direction of your choice, with a failed roll resulting in just travelling in whatever direction you were going until a successful roll. Or, you could end up stopping dead in your tracks. GM's choice.
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07-30-2017, 07:54 AM | #4 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Psionic Powers]Levitation's maintainance rolls
It has something that at least behaves like gravity.
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
07-30-2017, 08:09 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Denmark
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Re: [Psionic Powers]Levitation's maintainance rolls
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07-30-2017, 09:19 AM | #6 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Psionic Powers]Levitation's maintainance rolls
This would take several hundred words to describe. But there's either hard ground, or falling into a random and unknown material plane.
Quote:
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
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07-30-2017, 10:05 AM | #7 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: [Psionic Powers] Levitation's maintainance rolls
Why not make a technique based on Extended Duration?
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07-30-2017, 10:15 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: [Psionic Powers] Levitation's maintainance rolls
That's what I'd do. I wouldn't allow this on just any psionic power, of course, but on something like Levitation, based on a movement power, it seems like it wouldn't be unbalanced. Here's how I'd write it up:
Long-Distance Flight Hard Default: Levitation-2; Cannot exceed Levitation. You learn how to mentally maintain your flight with less effort, allowing considerably longer-duration travel. You must only make a roll to sustain your Levitation ability once every 3 minutes, rather than once per minute. Unlike most psi techniques, you only need to pay the FP to maintain this one at the same time you roll to maintain Levitation, rather than every minute. For an extra penalty (which can be bought off), you can sustain your Levitation for even longer: -2 for 10 minutes, -4 for 30 minutes, -6 for 100 minutes, and -8 for 300 minutes. |
07-30-2017, 10:24 AM | #9 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Psionic Powers] Levitation's maintainance rolls
Now, that makes some sense. x30 is +60%, so the Extended Duration technique penalty for it would be -6. Buying that back up to skill level costs 7 points. If you'd bought that, you could use x3, x10, or x30 at full skill, x100 at -2 to skill, x300 at -4, and so on. The 2FP cost still applies, since that's unchangeable.
It conflicts with the description on p8 of Psionic Powers, but that's explanation of how normal techniques work, rather than rules as such, AFAICS.
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
07-30-2017, 10:30 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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Re: [Psionic Powers] Levitation's maintainance rolls
I would go with No Nuisance Roll perk too. How much rolls the perk negates will be up to the GM. For example, the GM could decide that whenever you change course, or you find something new and stop to observe, or one of the member tries to use some physical skill, you need a maintenance roll. But, if you just continue to levitate in one direction, or a along a mostly straight and/or simple route, no roll is required to keep levitating.
If that seems too cheap, how about buying off part of the limitation "Requires IQ Roll, -10%", to something like "Requires IQ Roll to activate, but not to maintain, -5%" or "Requires IQ Roll to activate, and once ever hours to maintain, -5%", or something along the line? Since Psionic Powers allows Walk on Air to be taken without a skill roll, I don't think that allowing levitation to be maintained without a skill roll every minute will break the Psionic Powers framework. Last edited by finn; 07-30-2017 at 10:31 AM. Reason: typo |
Tags |
flight, powers, psionic powers |
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