GURPS Powers: Enhanced Senses

[Arcanjo7Sagi]

I have a question about the Power Talent for Enhanced Senses in the PDF: do the bonus apply to all sense rolls covered by the power group? I mean, if I have a Power group that several or all senses, do this bonus apply to all sense rolls of all senses?

Anyway, sorry for any english mistakes.

[NineDaysDead]

Reality Testing
3 points
Included in: Hypercognition, Supersenses.
The sensory functions of your brain are exceptionally resistant to distortion. If subjected to telepathic illusions, deceptive “sensies,” hallucinations, hypnotic suggestions about perception, or the like, you reflexively test them against your senses of sight, touch, and balance, giving you +3 to resist; roll vs. Per rather than Will to do so. Each sense that is unable to function reduces the bonus by one – but the illusion itself doesn’t prevent its functioning.
When you use this ability for a Power Block, a roll vs. 3 + (Will + Talent)/2 allows you to double your bonus to resist.
Statistics: Resistant to Mental Illusion (+3) (Based on Per, +20%; Hypersensory, pp. 8-9, ‑50%; Savant or Super, ‑10%) [3].

Wait WHAT? By putting "Based on (Different Attribute)" on an advantage that modifies a roll (as opposed to giving you a whole new roll) I can change the underlying roll? To clarify, powers says:

The GM may permit this modifier on advantages that require the user to roll against his own DX, IQ, HT, Will, or Per, shifting the roll to another of these scores. This still costs +20%. He can take this enhancement twice to change his roll and his target’s roll, where logical.

So you can change Warp from an IQ roll to a HT roll, because Warp allows you to make a Warp roll. But someone without Warp can't make Warp Rolls.
Whereas everyone* rolls HT to survive, Hard to Kill doesn't give you a "not die" roll, it just makes your target number higher.
But now it seem you can have Hard to Kill (Based on IQ, +20%) 1 [3], and now an ytime the GM says: "roll HT or die!" you get to use your IQ instead?
*not those with Unkillable.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by whswhs

You may very well if you're a sanguinivore, or a creepy supervillain, or a vampire.

I think you've missed the point. The build I posted costs less, and is safer for most users, and does everything and more that the published ability does.

If you're a sanguinivore, or a creepy supervillain, or a vampire would you want to pay more points for a less effective ability?

Detect Blood (Analyzing, +100%; Analysis Only* -50%; Hypersensory* (Taste) -80%; Biological (Passive), ‑5%) [4].

You can Analyze blood if you can taste it. For less than half the points of "Blood Taste".


*I think there's too much crossover between Analysis Only and Hypersensory, I'd reprice like this

Hypersensory: 5 senses -30%
Hypersensory: 4 senses -40% (-10% on previous level)
Hypersensory: 3 senses -50% (-10% on previous level)
Hypersensory: 2 senses -65% (-15% on previous level)
Hypersensory: 1 senses -80% (-15% on previous level)

Analysis Only: 5 senses -50%
Analysis Only: 4 senses -60% (-10% on previous level)
Analysis Only: 3 senses -70% (-10% on previous level)
Analysis Only: 2 senses -85% (-15% on previous level)
Analysis Only: 1 senses -100% (-15% on previous level)

Why is Analysis Only worth more than Hypersensory? Because Analysis Only is only for Detect and actually detecting stuff is a huge part of Detect!

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

But now it seem you can have Hard to Kill (Based on IQ, +20%) 1 [3], and now an ytime the GM says: "roll HT or die!" you get to use your IQ instead?
*not those with Unkillable.

You can already do that. Kromm has used Attribute Substitution for "break Free based on DX" and the like. So if you GR wants to allow it, you can already do...

Attribute Substitution: Death checks on Will [1]

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Why is Analysis Only worth more than Hypersensory? Because Analysis Only is only for Detect and actually detecting stuff is a huge part of Detect!

Where is Analysis Only? I've never heard of it. I just checked Powers, and it's not there, and neither Kromm nor PK mentioned it during their reviews.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

You can already do that. Kromm has used Attribute Substitution for "break Free based on DX" and the like.

Please could I get the source for that? The only Kromm quotes I can find regarding "Attribute Substitution" are for skills.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Where is Analysis Only? I've never heard of it. I just checked Powers, and it's not there, and neither Kromm nor PK mentioned it during their reviews.

Psionic Powers page 14:

Analysis Only: You cannot use your Detect to detect the substance! However, once you’ve located it using your other senses, you can analyze it normally. -50%.

[Arcanjo7Sagi]

Speaking about senses...

I found this:

http://www.wolfcountry.net/informati...fObserved.html

Sense of smell

The sense of smell in the wolf is highly developed, as would be expected in an animal possessing numerous scent glands. The distance at which any scent can be detected is governed by atmospheric conditions but, even under the most favorable conditions , 1.75 miles denotes a particularly keen sense of smell. The wolves usually travel until they encounter the scent of some prey species ahead of them. They then move directly toward their prey in an effort to capture it.

This means that in a revised Wolf template would include the Long-Range Smell perk in page 26. But here is a problem:

1.75 miles is about -19 in range penalty table. The book says that we can use a second level of the perk for Long Rage modifers, but this would mean a much powerfull sense, beyond reality.

How would we simulate the wolf's sense of smell? We could just give several levels of Acute Taste/Smell, but for me it seems wrong to give levels enough to cover such penalty.

Anyway, sorry for any english mistakes.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Arcanjo7Sagi

This means that in a revised Wolf template would include the Long-Range Smell perk in page 26. But here is a problem:

1.75 miles is about -19 in range penalty table. The book says that we can use a second level of the perk for Long Rage modifers, but this would mean a much powerfull sense, beyond reality.

I don't know if it's a problem. That huge penalty is primarily for vision, where the issue is whether you can see something so far away that it occupies only an incredibly tiny arc. But with smell your concern is whether there's enough intensity for you to detect its presence; you can't use smell to narrow down arc very much anyway. For comparison your eye can detect stars that are thousands of light-years away, which is on the order of a -95 range penalty (of course stars are very bright!). So it's not physically absurd to detect things at incredible ranges.

I might allow a double perk in this case. I was thinking about the moths that can smell female moth pheromones at tens of miles, and even tell whether to turn left or right to fly toward them. That seems like it would fit the doubled perk, not for smell in general but for smelling that one thing, or detecting it.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Psionic Powers page 14:

Okay. I'm pretty sure that Hypersensory isn't a proper build, though. Hypersensory means that you're using subconscious integration of the data from your normal human senses to detect or identify something in a way that seems miraculous. But I don't think the human sense of taste CAN discriminate blood types in the first place, so that would be a bit problematic.

But, also, this build gives you the ability to pick up the presence of blood, even if it's in such small quantities that a normal human being wouldn't notice it. I'm not seeing that your build does. That makes it a somewhat different ability.

But, to tell the truth, the Hypersensory build didn't occur to me, or to anyone who reviewed the book. So none of us worked all that out in detail. I'm just thinking about it now.