05-08-2017, 06:19 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
I think that has to be wrong. Yes, Afflict usually confers undesirable traits; but it can just as well confer desirable ones, as discussed under Beneficial Afflictions (GURPS Powers, p. 40). That basically gives you the ability to confer the power in question on yourself. But nothing in the discussion of Affliction in either the Basic Set or Powers even hints at this.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
05-08-2017, 06:24 PM | #22 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
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(b) That said, applying the penalty makes Affliction: Warp either useless or insanely expensive. For the former, per the RAW, you need 30 seconds of concentration to have no penalty for time spent; that's really slow in combat. For the latter, buying the penalty off with Reliable +10 is a +50% enhancement, which adds 50 points to the cost of Warp, which is +500% to Advantage: Warp, which makes the Affliction cost 50 extra points.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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05-09-2017, 03:04 AM | #23 | ||
Join Date: Oct 2008
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Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
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RAW seems to say pretty clearly that you need the time or get the penalty regardless of how or what you use. But it is not clear on this case on the two possibilities: 1)no preparation possible, roll at the penalty 2)prepare before the affliction in used In this specific case I would go with number 2 as it uses a single roll for both parts of the process. In other cases without that feature and thus with two separate rolls I might be inclined to see that it is number 1 as normally you cannot concentrate on one thing do a second thing and get the time bonus for the first thing. But what of those two options applies is not spelled out by RAW. But PK has clearly ruled that in Psionic powers at least you can concentrate as per option 1. From exoteleport description "The preparation modifier is based on how long you concentrate first." Quote:
As for expensive: Yes affliction warp is expensive if you want to use it in combat, after all you are talking about a 100 point advantage with a built in additional use time limitation. A base combat warp should not be thought of as 100 points, that is the non combat warp(30 seconds or more). A basic combat warp would be the reliable 5 version where you can do the thing in one second at base skill. Blind only effectively reduces both by 25 points as you mostly want the 5 more reliable to balance the -5 from blind. Overall I am no longer sure what you are trying to get done, is it understand the current ability or to build some non psionic powers ability that is somewhat similar without the reliable and blind or what? |
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05-09-2017, 07:45 AM | #24 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
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Your citation of Psionic Powers as supporting the view that you take time penalties when you afflict isn't helpful; I find the Exoteleport build in PsP hard to make sense of, which is why I'm asking all these questions. Your citation of other books is less so, as I don't know what pages you're looking at, and searching through an entire chapter is time consuming. Can you give specific references?
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. Last edited by whswhs; 05-09-2017 at 07:55 AM. |
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05-09-2017, 08:11 AM | #25 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
The entire Sorcery system from Thaumatology: Sorcery is based on Afflicting yourself (and a big Alternate Ability off a Modular Ability) so I would say yes, you can Afflict yourself, even with beneficial "malediction" afflictions.
FWIW I'm in the camp that things like Alternate Form and Warp should be set up so they are one-second abilities (and only one second abilities) before being part of an affliction, to avoid just this kind of argument :P
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05-09-2017, 08:13 AM | #26 | |
Join Date: Oct 2008
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Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
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The reference to thaumatology sorcery is about afflicting yourself. That part is under buff spells on page 9, the first paragraph. In Psionic powers the afflict yourself is used also for example in p48 disease shield last paragraph. |
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05-09-2017, 08:19 AM | #27 | |
Join Date: Oct 2008
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Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
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Also things like some movement abilities being carry weight limited and others not by default drives me batty. They should all be balanced as no encubrance only or no limit as long as you are able to move, with the other levels as a generic modifier. |
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05-09-2017, 08:21 AM | #28 | |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
Re-reading Blind Only, I can see interpreting it strictly mechanically. It doesn't require you _not_ to be able to see the target. It's just that being able to directly perceive the destination doesn't make things any easier for you. Mechanically, "Blind Only" just moves the default state for Warp rolls by -5 success and doubles FP (2 FP instead of 1, that is).
Imagine if the Limitation were named "Difficult Warps (-50%)". The word "blind" and the bit about coordinates can be seen as fluff text. Perhaps the Limitation is there just to make the Exoteleport ability harder to use, and also cheaper. Quote:
But it started to bug me in the WSOD / "realism" sense. Vision is a dominant sense for humans, but it's not the only one. You can sense someone nearby from sound, air pressure, heat, etc, even without going full Daredevil Scanning Sense or Blind Fighting ninja mastery. So it's at least somewhat plausible that you'd know the general location of a melee target near you, at least generally enough for a desperation attack, and most melee attacks cover a large space relative to the size of a hex and the target. That desperate swing might connect even if the target isn't exactly where you thought. But I can't easily imagine somehow knowing the location of a sniper 300 yards away with enough precision to return fire even at -10, and a tiny angular error makes for a huge miss distance at range. |
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05-09-2017, 08:23 AM | #29 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
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But lacking 5th edition, make sure all your crap works the same before making it part of an Affliction.
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05-09-2017, 10:20 AM | #30 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
Quote:
Note that it says, "The victim immediately experiences the effects of a specific physical or mental advantage" (p. B36). The *effect* of Warp is that you teleport from point A to point B. Taking 30 seconds to concentrate is not part of the effect; it's part of the process through which you obtain the effect. (a) You can't be required to concentrate after afflicting the Subject; the effect is *immediate.* (b) You aren't required to concentrate before afflicting the Subject; concentration for prolonged times isn't part of the mechanics of Affliction, and there's no provision for concentrating on Affliction to affect the workings of the thing you afflict. (PK has arguably altered that by changing the two rolls, Will to afflict and IQ to teleport, into a single roll; but that's an explicit modification, and "the exception establishes the rule for the things not excepted"—the very fact that he provided that features testifies that things work differently if you don't have the feature.) (c) So you afflict the Subject, the affliction takes place immediately, and the subject warps instantaneously, with no preparation time. That would normally be a -10 IQ modifier. But that means that even a max-IQ human would only have a 50/50 chance of teleporting a Subject 10 yards (20-10-0 = 10). (d) To avoid this, you need to change the preparation time to "none" and have no penalty. (e) One way to do this is to disregard the preparation time penalties and bonuses, saying they don't apply because Affliction overrides the standard rule for Warp. (f) Another way is to say that to take Warp as an effect of Affliction, you have to buy it with Reliable 10, to cancel the IQ modifier for preparation time. (g) When you do that, though, you have no Reliable left over to cancel the -5 for Blind.
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