Long-Range Clairsentience

[dataweaver]

I want a version of Clairsentience that lets me project my senses to a location using something akin to the Sympathy rules from Thaumatology. To do this, I intend to use the “Affecting Others” Ritual Modifier rules from Powers p.178 that lets you substitute Sympathy-like penalties (for having things like blood samples, hair, etc.) for the usual Long-Distance penalties; but to do this, I need to apply Long-Range to Clairsentience; and I’m not sure what level is appropriate to use. I’m looking for as RAW-compatible of an answer as I can get. Advice, please?

[Anaraxes]

Psionic Powers tries to normalize the ranges of several of the oddball base Advantages, including Clairsentience. It also has its own Psi Powers Range Table (which works sort of like the Speed/Range table, but has different values.) So, there PK starts with Reduced Range 1/10 to get Clairsentience down to a 1-yard range, and then builds up from that point.

Option 1: Reduced Range 1/10 (-30%) to turn Clairsentience in a 1-yard range, which is to say like a melee attack. To make it ranged, apply Ranged to it (+40%), which puts it at level 2 of the Long-Range modifiers. So 1 level of Long-Range gets you to Long-Range Modifiers (total +60%). Yes, it's a little weird putting both reduced and increased range modifiers on the same trait. But that's the Psi Powers method.

Option 2: Just take Clairsentience as belonging to the "regular spell" category. It doesn't have a -1/yard penalty, but is capped at 10 yards -- and the usual skill penalty for "impossible" is taken to be -10. You could view that as "doesn't work beyond 10 yards" because a notional -1/yard penalty is too high. So it's kind of the same ballpark as "regular spell". So, two levels of Long-Range (+100%) gets you to Long-Range modifiers.

[dataweaver]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Psionic Powers tries to normalize the ranges of several of the oddball base Advantages, including Clairsentience. It also has its own Psi Powers Range Table (which works sort of like the Speed/Range table, but has different values.) So, there PK starts with Reduced Range 1/10 to get Clairsentience down to a 1-yard range, and then builds up from that point.

Thanks; that was what I was looking for.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Option 1: Reduced Range 1/10 (-30%) to turn Clairsentience in a 1-yard range, which is to say like a melee attack. To make it ranged, apply Ranged to it (+40%), which puts it at level 2 of the Long-Range modifiers. So 1 level of Long-Range gets you to Long-Range Modifiers (total +60%). Yes, it's a little weird putting both reduced and increased range modifiers on the same trait. But that's the Psi Powers method.

It’s the method most compatible with RAW.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Option 2: Just take Clairsentience as belonging to the "regular spell" category. It doesn't have a -1/yard penalty, but is capped at 10 yards -- and the usual skill penalty for "impossible" is taken to be -10. You could view that as "doesn't work beyond 10 yards" because a notional -1/yard penalty is too high. So it's kind of the same ballpark as "regular spell". So, two levels of Long-Range (+100%) gets you to Long-Range modifiers.

In effect, add a +0% Modifier (“Short-Range”?) that converts Clairsentience from a hard 10-yard range to a “regular spell” range. I’d also have it remove the “spend FP to double the range” capability and the -5 penalty for not being able to see your target.