08-15-2016, 10:17 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: UK
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[Supers] Living Lie Detector
Salutations!
Which build do you think is more suitable for a character who is a living lie detector? Detect (Deceit, +30; Precise, +100%, Reflexive, +40%; Cosmic, No Die Roll Required, +100%) [102] - OR - Mind Reading (Lie Detection Only, -20%; Reflexive, +40%; Cosmic, No Die Roll Required, +100%; Sense-Based, Reversed (Hearing), -20%) [60] Or something else entirely? To clarify, I'd define a lie as a willful attempt to deceive. Honest mistakes (information not known to be false) or stage acting (information known to be false, but not meant to make the listener act on this falsehood as if it was true) would not trigger this sense. Lies by omission would not raise an alert either - although they are certainly deception, this is accomplished by not saying something. Carefully chosen, misleading phrasing would also pass the test. |
08-15-2016, 10:36 AM | #2 | |
Join Date: Nov 2009
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Re: [Supers] Living Lie Detector
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Why not just take that skill at absurd levels? For 60 points you would have the skill at Per+14. Also, I get that the goal of the abilities is to avoid a die roll, but Detect Lies is one of those "GM rolls..." skills anyway, so why bother? And if you are the GM and feel lazy, either just wing it based on skill level or use a list of prerolled results. |
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08-15-2016, 10:47 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Supers] Living Lie Detector
Technically, if the super needs to see or touch their target as with Mind Control, it's more akin to Body Language.
But more pertinently, I don't feel there's a need to set an impassable line between skills and advantages. Super Jump looks a lot like a high level of Flying Leap, no? And Cosmic: No Roll Required is in the game for a reason, and this seems like a perfect application for it. I'd go with the Mind Reading route personally, and not just because it's cheaper: I have issues with Detect, and I think anything more specific should be used when possible. Although I'd note that lie detection is significantly less than half the purpose of Mind Reading, so increasing the value of that limitation to -30% would work for me: after all, even when detecting lies, full Mind Reading will be very helpful in digging out the truth from the subject's surface thoughts, where this power (that merely goes "ping" when a lie is detect, afaik) will be less so. And it's interesting that changing the Mind Reading from seeing/touching the target to hearing them is worth -20%, but that's neither here nor there, and certainly correct per RAW. |
08-15-2016, 10:48 AM | #4 | ||
Banned
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: [Supers] Living Lie Detector
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You can automatically tell if someone is lying to you, if you can see or hear them, even if they aren't in your presence (like someone on TV). You get +1 to your Detect Lies and Fortune-Telling skills, and to Psychology rolls to analyze a subject. The GM should also tell you what you "feel" about people. |
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08-15-2016, 10:51 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Supers] Living Lie Detector
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08-15-2016, 10:52 AM | #6 |
Banned
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: [Supers] Living Lie Detector
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08-15-2016, 10:53 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Nov 2009
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Re: [Supers] Living Lie Detector
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08-15-2016, 10:57 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Supers] Living Lie Detector
Hold your horses. Empathy doesn't appear to be contested or resisted in any way: as written, it's simply an IQ roll. Does that mean anyone with IQ 16 and full 15-point Empathy is impossible to lie to, outside an automatic failure? And that's 100% mundane-accessible? Because that's what RAW says, but yikes, I'm not sure that reality checks with me.
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08-15-2016, 11:11 AM | #9 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [Supers] Living Lie Detector
I'd go with detect, not empathy.
deceit is not a 30 point base. Motives might be a 30 point base. or it might be a 20. Deceit is a subset of them, and I'd go with a base of 10, not 20. That drops the cost down to [34], which feels a lot better.
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08-15-2016, 11:11 AM | #10 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Supers] Living Lie Detector
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I'm not quite comfortable with the Sensitive trick, though: I think Sensitive should either lack the truth-detection ability, or should cost at least twice as much as it currently does. I'm slightly less nervous about the Empath Talent because at least Talents don't normally take Reliable/NDRR modifiers. |
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