Psionic Mind Clouding

[Lameth]

In the Psionic powers book is the ability of Mind Clouding, but it does not fit what I am looking for and I see a flaw in the ability as well.

The mind clouding ability simply gives you a boost to stealth, what I am looking for is the professor x ability of "we are simply not here. You will not see us, you will not hear us, smell us, etc, and if we bump into you, you will rationalize it away and forget it happened. If we attack you, or cause you harm, it will break this ability though. "

So I thought about invisibility instead, with Psi on it, with area. But the flaw is hijacking someones senses as well if they are bumped into, and making them forget it happened or push the thought away. Also, the overall flaw is they will show up on recorded tech, but I cant see away around this that makes sense since I want it effected the mind, not the tech, so it is what it is. But if the person is watching it live, they will still be effected by the ability and will not see the person, its only late that they may be seen on recordings.

So any help in building this would be helpful thank you!

[adam1234]

I think the usual way of building such powers is to build them as multiple components that are potentially alternate-abilities of the most expensive.

Mind-Clouding is already "Chameleon" for not being seen, "Silence" for not being heard, and you might add some level of "Mind Control (contact agent)" for not being touched. You might also replace Chameleon with Invisibility too.

Since these are all active simultaneously, the use of AA is not appropriate as evidenced by how the Mind Clouding ability is built.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by adam1234

I think the usual way of building such powers is to build them as multiple components that are potentially alternate-abilities of the most expensive.

Mind-Clouding is already "Chameleon" for not being seen, "Silence" for not being heard, and you might add some level of "Mind Control (contact agent)" for not being touched. You might also replace Chameleon with Invisibility too.

Since these are all active simultaneously, the use of AA is not appropriate as evidenced by how the Mind Clouding ability is built.

I've approached this in two different ways:

Chameleon 5 (Active +40%; Link +10%) + Silence 5 (Active +40%; Link +10%). I'd also add Encumbrance for both, Selective Effect if you can exclude your friends from being affected, and Glamour since you're projecting this into local minds. I'd throw on a range limit so that people over X yards aren't affected with the value based on X. The use of Active is good because what you're actually doing doesn't matter.

Illusion with Area Effect, Cosmic x2, Emanation, Independent, Mental, and a limitation if you can only "hide" things. Area with Emanation determines who's in your area of affect. Cosmic the first time is to break the "touch or see" limitation in favor of affecting anyone in your area. Cosmic the second time is to ignore the -1 penalty in favor of projecting the same illusion to everyone in the area. Independent means you don't need to keep of the effect (which works as long as the illusion doesn't interact with anyone). Mental makes it a contest, though I'd allow a "take 10" approach for affecting mass groups.

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by naloth

Illusion with Area Effect, Cosmic x2, Emanation, Independent, Mental, and a limitation if you can only "hide" things. Area with Emanation determines who's in your area of affect. Cosmic the first time is to break the "touch or see" limitation in favor of affecting anyone in your area. Cosmic the second time is to ignore the -1 penalty in favor of projecting the same illusion to everyone in the area. Independent means you don't need to keep of the effect (which works as long as the illusion doesn't interact with anyone). Mental makes it a contest, though I'd allow a "take 10" approach for affecting mass groups.

I do not believe that is a legal build. Mental replaces the Area Effect of Illusion, so they are mutually incompatible, and Illusion's area is already an Emanation. Cosmic also usually does not allow you to circumvent the standard operations of an advantage. So, you can use Cosmic on Healing to bypass Cosmic (Lingering Effects), but you could not use Cosmic (X) to ignore the multiple heals per day penalty or Cosmic (Y) to allow healing to do damage instead of healing.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I do not believe that is a legal build. Mental replaces the Area Effect of Illusion, so they are mutually incompatible, and Illusion's area is already an Emanation.

Mental changes it from Area/Emanation to to Ranged single target. It works exactly the same way that Innate Attack is a Ranged on target ability that you can apply Area and Emanation to change it to an ability that affects and area radius around you.

Cosmic also usually does not allow you to circumvent the standard operations of an advantage. So, you can use Cosmic on Healing to bypass Cosmic (Lingering Effects), but you could not use Cosmic (X) to ignore the multiple heals per day penalty or Cosmic (Y) to allow healing to do damage instead of healing.

That's not the description of Cosmic in my book. I have " "Your ability is not subject to
the usual built-in restrictions. " That would change how the "standard operation" works and there are plenty of examples in various supplements of it removing an internal restriction.

As for your first example, that may or may not be a valid use as heals/day is an internal limitation (GM option). The second would be allowing the ability to function in a way it never had before. Adding functionality (rather than removing restrictions) isn't something Cosmic can do.

As for these uses, it would be GM option but both are internal restrictions. "See or touch" could be bypassed by buying 360-degree vision for a similar cost, so Cosmic isn't unbalanced for that. Allowing area to supplant the one target is along the same lines as "Cosmic: May purchase Reduced Fatigue Cost" for Super-Effort, especially since the same effect is being pushed to everyone in the area. It's how area TK works, which is a canon example.

[AlexanderHowl]

All of the restrictions listed for the Cosmic (+50%) version (Basic, p. 101) are external restrictions, not internal restrictions, and I would suggest that circumventing internal restrictions are a +300% version of Cosmic (Super-Effort is its own special brand of cheese, as it is only allowing you to purchase a restricted modifier). You are then probably talking about the following:

Illusion (Accessibility, Only Hide Things, -30%; Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Cosmic (X), +300%; Cosmic (Y), +300%; Emanation, -20%; Independence, +40%; Mental, +100%) [210].

So you end up with an Illusion ability that can only hide things from people who are within two yards of its user. I would suggest an alternative:

Illusion (Affects Insubstantial, +20%; Area Effect, 1024 yards, +450%; Extended, Universal, +100%; Initiative, +100%; Reliable, +10, +50%; Selective Area, +20%) [210]

With the above ability, you are capable of creating a full sensory experience that includes everyone within 1024 yards of your position except for those you deliberately exclude. In effect, you are grabbing control of the perceptions of everyone within your area. If you are just feeling mean, you could put everyone in the area in complete and utter senselessness. If you are feeling subtle, you could create an illusion that includes everything real except that it hides specific objects.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

A senseless field can be resisted though, so there is no guarantee unless you have a lot of levels of Affliction.

Telepathic attacks like Prof X's probably SHOULD be resistible though, and he's obviously going to point-max by taking Malediction instead of multiple levels of Affliction.

He probably just has something like Cosmic: No Roll Required where he can casually just take "success by 0" to avoid fail-on-18 oddities, and in cases where someone passes their Will roll (floated from HT) Chuck DOES get to roll, and whatever pathetic MoS they manage (let's say someone with Will 13 rolls a 3 for MoS 10) he probably has something like Will 30 so even an 18 has a MoS of 12 and he still wins the Quick Contest.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I think that Invisibility (with Glamour) is really the easiest choice.

The problem with P111's Glamour is it's a one-sided resistance roll, so you can't bring your incredible Will to bear against them, as attractive as the -5 penalty is. There's always going to be a chance of critical success for any target.

If someone resisted an Affliction you could in theory just attack with it again to brute-force until they fail... I'm a bit unclear how this works with Glamour though. Like if they fail, are you invisible to them for 1 minute and they roll again? If they succeed, are you unable to force them to make a Will roll for a full minute? Can you try again as a free action every second but subject to Repeated Attempts cumulative penalties? Glamour has unknowns for me.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Illusion's area is already an Emanation

This makes me wonder if maybe Ranged enhancement for illusion should be +20% instead of +40% since converting a standard ranged ability into an emanation is usually only -20%

Then again, Melee at most gives -35% so a similar protest might be made for giving Ranged to touch abilities too.

BTW do you know if there is any legal way to reduce the 2 yard radius of Illuson? Reduced Range doesn't seem the right way, since you would buy more AE to increase it...

It uses +50%/level progressions like B102, seemingly with the first level baked in, so the first +50% would probably take it from 2y to 4y

-50% to reduce AE radius to 0 doesn't really seem workable because your illusions need to take up space.

Based on "Area Effect, 1 yard, +25%" from DF5:Allies (insect swarm) I'm thinking it could be a -25% limitation to reduce the radius to 1 yard.

[Lameth]

Mind Clouding from PP
You can send out a sensory block that convinces others
that you aren’t there. This requires constant concentration;
you can do nothing else. Roll a Quick Contest of skill vs. the
Will of anyone within hearing distance or line of sight. If you
win, his ability to see and hear you is impaired; add twice
your Mind Clouding level to your Stealth skill against that
person. If you are standing perfectly still, double this bonus!
At level 9+, you are effectively invisible and completely silent
to anyone affected.
Should the subject fail to resist, yet he manages to sense you
despite the Stealth bonus, the Mind Clouding effect is not broken
for good. If you are seen, you must leave the subject’s line
of sight to you (e.g., hiding behind something or turning a corner)
to reestablish the Stealth bonus. If you are heard, you
need only remain silent for a second to do the same.
This means that you can speak to someone, unseen, without
a situational penalty to your Mind Clouding or Stealth skills.
This ability is difficult to use with a lot of bulky equipment.
Halve the bonus if you are at Light Encumbrance or higher.

Statistics: Chameleon (Can Carry Objects, No Encumbrance,
+10%; Must break line of sight if spotted, -5%; Requires
Concentrate, -15%; Requires IQ vs. Will Roll, -20%; Telepathy,
-10%) [3/level] + Silence (Can speak freely without jeopardizing
bonus, +5%; Nuisance Effect, Requires Concentrate, -15%;
Requires IQ vs. Will Roll, -20%; Telepathy, -10%) [3/level].


So take that and then maybe link it with Mind Control, with the Suggestion only Limitation of -40% of a pre set "you saw, felt, heard, and smelled nothing".

Or build it with Invisibility, area to effect others the PC is with, and then just add the No Memory enhancement from Mind Control to Mind Clouding for +10% and be done with it. Therefore you are invisible to all that try to see you, and IF they bump into them, smells them, etc, the No Memory part of it kicks in. Or maybe add obscure for the other senses as well.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Lameth

what I am looking for is the professor x ability of "[B]we are simply not here. You will not see us, you will not hear us, smell us, etc, and if we bump into you, you will rationalize it away and forget it happened. If we attack you, or cause you harm, it will break this ability though.

First let's design a metatrait:

B124 Blindness -50
B129 Deafness -20
B146 No Sense of Smell/Taste -5
B146 Numb -20

Sum -95 or Disadvantage +95% enhancement on an Affliction

P105 "Selective Effect" options got expanded in PU4p16
"if it would make sense to restrict the effect to a single part of the subject." includes Detect as an example... to "narrow the range of what he’s looking for"

If you can do that, then it seems reasonable that you could also specify "these senses only malfunction in respect to the X-Men" or other stuff like "you are unable to taste blueberries" or "you can't hear me singing" or "you can't see stop signs".

Originally Posted by Lameth

the flaw is hijacking someones senses as well if they are bumped into, and making them forget it happened or push the thought away.

PU8p18 "Terminal Condition" covers a "simple act" ending abilities prematurely, the value is set by how well known this act is (arcane to common)

If you don't want it to be an instant off switch but rather "if this happens, I need to apply some finesse to reinstate it" then you'd probably want to define that as an Either-Or limitation to something like "Reduced Duration". I believe that would mean that if the condition happens, the duration would dramatically shorten (wear off quickly) requiring you to re-apply the power to reset the duration.

Originally Posted by Lameth

Also, the overall flaw is they will show up on recorded tech, but I cant see away around this that makes sense since I want it effected the mind, not the tech, so it is what it is. But if the person is watching it live, they will still be effected by the ability and will not see the person, its only late that they may be seen on recordings.

So any help in building this would be helpful thank you!

You can instruct minds both "you're blind in respect to me AND photos of me AND videos of me" using Selective Effect, I would imagine.

You're going to need a big area effect to be in range of people who might be watching the video from miles away, but that's the type of psi Prof X was.

I don't know if there's a way to extend range/area ONLY when there is a connection via a view screen though.

[AlexanderHowl]

A senseless field can be resisted though, so there is no guarantee unless you have a lot of levels of Affliction. I think that Invisibility (with Glamour) is really the easiest choice.