Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I'm looking at the Exoteleport ability in GURPS Psionic Powers. It bases the Affliction on the advantage Warp (Blind Only, -50%; Exoteleport,
-50%; Modified Capacity, 1 lb., -30%; Reliable 10, +50%) [20].

Why is Blind Only there? The RAW definition of Blind is that you teleport to a set of coordinates without seeing or having visited the destination, at -5 to the IQ roll (which the first 5 levels of Reliable buy off). But why can't you use Exoteleport, for example, to teleport a weapon from an adversary's hand to the floor in front of you, which you can see perfectly well?

Is the idea that the object you're teleporting can't see where it's going, and therefore is teleporting blind (to it)? But the object also doesn't know the coordinates where you're sending it, and therefore can't be making an IQ roll, even at -5. In fact, the object may have IQ 0 and not be able to make IQ rolls in the first place. So the IQ is that of the teleporter, and the knowledge of the destination is that of the teleporter—and the teleporter may well be able to see the destination.

This seems kind of confusing. What's the logic I'm missing?

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I think it is to distinguish Psionic teleportation from the magic kind. Basically psionics is supposed to give the science feel and having to specify distances+vectors or coordinates instead of "home" or similar feeling based thing is supposed to be part of that.

Only the blink is without blind and that seems to be supposed to model a reflex uncontrolled use of the ability where the subconcious does that figuring of coordinates for you to find any safe spot..

Edit: So for the teleport sword question: you would need to be able to fix the coordinates clearly enough for that teleporting to be possible and that seems perfectly fine if the actual though is "teleporation is the ability to move things from known coorninates X1,Y1,Z1 to known coordinates X2,Y2,Z2 and not a spell of "Moving object X to location named Y or seen by you".

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

That sounds like a possible interpretation, since I see that Autoteleport indeed also has Blind Only, -50%. On the other hand, it doesn't seem to be spelled out. In fact, Exoteleport says, "You must be able to see the subject or know exactly where it is," even though the build has Blind Only. Is that an inconsistency?

And on the other other hand, the Warp is applied as an Affliction. Don't Afflictions require you to be able to see the target? I didn't think you could say, "I want to afflict whatever is at 30 yards from me, 30° tp the right from directly in front of me, and at ground level." So that would seem to imply "you must be able to see the target" and full stop. What Blind gives you is not the ability to affect a target you can't see, but the ability to send it to a place you can't see.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

True, my bad, as the thing giving the ability is affliction. So in effect you must see the source(and get range penalties according to affliction to it), but then must know the coordinates of the target to teleport it there.

So to teleport the sword you need to see it(affliction), Roll a success at the range penalty to target(malediction 2),it needs to fail it's HT save vs your success by, (malediction 2) so it gets the warp. Then you need to estimate closely enough the distance from it to you and the height needed so it does not drop from too high and roll the IQ roll to warp it.

Edit missed malediction in first version, changed above.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Hmmm. But the text says "You must be able to see the subject or know exactly where it is." Can you do Affliction on something you can't see or feel, going purely by geometric coordinates?

The Blind in the writeup, which lets you use coordinates, applies to the Warp, but that refers to knowing the destination, not to knowing the subject's location, which is what you need for the Affliction. And in any case, it's Blind Only, so if it did apply to the Affliction, seeing the subject wouldn't help (though I suppose you could see the subject and do range finding!).

A lesser point is that by the strict letter of the law, it would seem that you have to define the destination by coordinates relative to the subject, not relative to yourself.

I'm having trouble saving the appearances between the descriptive writeup and the build. . . .

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I think the intention of applying both of
reliable and blind only
and reducing typical time spent down to a single turn in combat
is to create a new ability.

Pointwise, they might compensate each other on the IQ-roll, but the actual target seems different:
Warp may require you to see the target, or give you a bonus/malus for bad visual connection to the hex just behind you for example.
blind only causes the ability to disregard line of sight, visual hinderances or the user's facing.

Et voilá, simpler rules for a more elagant, less situational teleport.


As for giving autoteleport to a sword, let's hope it's sentient.
Exoteleport or other transmogrification-spells sound like nice Psi Powers, though.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Giving any advantage via an Affliction normally causes the subject to experience the effects of the advantage whether or not it wishes to. So, for example, Affliction (Shrinking 6, +300%) would reduce a person's height to ~7", will they or nill they. It could even shrink a corpse!

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Not according to Malediction as it says: "It can target any victim you can see or otherwise clearly perceive." So it would need a perceived target.


It does not apply to the afflict as clerarly indicated by the statistics.

Or just estimate if that is close enough. But yes the effect is relative to the original location.

The only miss-match I can see is the lack of need to see or perceive the target if you know the coordinates.

Text description simplified: You must be able to see the subject or know exactly where it is...
Statistic block based thing(from malediction description): You must see or perceive the target...

The rest of the statistics block is in agreement with the descriptive text. The descriptive text does not however explain the feature of blind only where you must specify the target with a vector relative to the origin.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

In the last couple of sessions the PCs of my fantasy campaign have been killing giants from ambush and the shrinking the corpses 6 SMs so that they can be moved away easier as part of an attempt at hiding the fact that the giants were attacked in the first place instead of just walking away...

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

A base Affliction is a ranged attack, so no.

Or presumably "no". Curiously, I didn't see anything in the Ranged Attack section on B372 saying you had to be able to see your target. Just that it had to be in range. One of those points that seemed too obvious to think to write down, I suppose. The Aim Maneuver does explicitly state that you have to be able to "see or otherwise detect" your target, but Attack does not. Though the existence of Targeting senses implies that you can't target targets without one.

A Malediction, on the other hand, is explicitly noted not to be a ranged attack, and by its description "works more like a Regular spell". Per B239, those spells allow coordinate-based targeting (ex: "one yard on the other side of this door"), much like we're talking about as a possibility for Exoteleport, as well as by subject ("the closest person in the next room"; "George, who I know is around here somewhere"), without any need for direct perception.

The parallel between Malediction and spells is undermined by that "more like" instead of just "like", though the "more like" could be read as including the coordinate targetingm but not the by-subject form. More like Regular spells, but not completely like them. But that claim is further undermined later on B106 where it says a Malediction "can target any victim you can see or otherwise clearly perceive." It would take a pretty broad interpretation of "perceive" to include all of the Regular spell targeting methods, instead of just an extended set of senses. The word is probably meant to include any sort of Targeting sense.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

It's starting to sound to me as if the writeup is conflating two distinct conditions:

You must be able to perceive the Subject, either by touch or by a Precise ranged sense (it need not be a Targeting ranged sense, but Targeting gives a bonus).

You must be able to define the coordinates of the Destination relative to the Subject.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I have always assumed that ranged attacks on subjects you can't see worked the same as melee attacks on subjects you can't see.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I think you're right they are distinct, but I don't think it's around Blind Only that the conflation occurs. That happens in the description where the Afflicting part of the mechanic is tangled up with Teleportation Modifiers and the distance of the teleport. This is, I suppose, part of the Feature in the notation that combines two rolls into one modified by two distances. I'm not sure how canonical that would be if it were not published there under PK's by-line.

As for Blind Only, when coupled with the layers of Reliable it can buy, I think the point is to remove a unimportant version (the unmodified ability) of how it could work in favour of a better way (coordinates).

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

In melee, if the target is behind you, and thus unseen, you attack at -6, or -4 if you know his position to within 1 yard, and your attack is a wild swing. It seems to be the same in ranged combat. But Malediction says you must be able to "see, or otherwise clearly perceive," which seems to say attack is impossible. That would presumably be a special case.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Yes, so it seems.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I think I'm going to say that the thing that looks unnecessary to me is Blind Only, -50%. The volition in this case is not that of the Subject, but of the Teleporter. And the Teleporter can see or otherwise perceive the Subject, and for most uses of this power, they can perceive the Destination as well. It wouldn't make a big change in this power to assume that a visible Destination was required; it would probably make it simpler, as there wouldn't be an issue of figuring out the coordinates of the Destination relative to the Subject.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

There is no reason you can't change it.

But just to note:

-figuring out the coordinates involves no special steps, it is subsumed in the roll.

-I don't think where the volition lies was ever anywhere but the user in the build.

-The FP pricing in the build uses that supplied for Blind/Blind Only. Removing them will reduce your FP costs

-The -5 to skill for Blind/Blind Only will also be removed; you may want to adjust the Reliable level accordingly for pricing.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

If you remove the blind only then two things should be noted:
1) It gets more expensive
2) At low power without blind only you can too easily transport things to any location in the world if you have enough skill/take enough time.
3) If you have enough of it to affect yourself then exoteleport will be very different from teleport in that without blind only you can teleport to things like "home" or "the grocery store" even if you do not know where you are as long as you know the destination and you can succeed in the range penalty based roll of unknown difficulty. Thus it becomes a magic spell.

Further as personal note: I would likely not allow an afflicted warp without "blind only" in my games unless the range is really limited as it would allow short circuiting too many things.

Things like:
"GM: The bad guy is doing a TV ransom demand from unknown location. Player:I will warp a tracking device to his pocket"
"GM: You all wake up after being abducted. You are tied up but can see and hear that you are in the freight compartment of an airplane. Player: I will look around so I can visualize this place later, warp all of us home, ask my servant to untie us, grab guns and warp us back to the plane"
and so many of others.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Well, your second example seems to be Autoteleport, as otherwise your friends will go to your home, but you'll still be in the plane. And if it's Autoteleport you don't need to afflict them; you just need to pick them all up before you warp!

If you want to avoid that sort of thing, Warp also offers Range Limit, which incidentally makes it cheaper again—-40% for 100 yards, which is a plausible combat range.

The other question that occurs to me: How does preparation time figure into this?

Do you still need the preparation time to avoid the penalties? If so, do you do the preparation, and then afflict, and then do the warp? Or do you afflict, and then take however long a preparation you choose, and then do the warp?

Or do you not need the preparation? I note that Afflict says, "The victim immediately exxperiences the effects of a specific physical or mental advantage." And a little lower it adds, "e.g., Warp immediately teleports the subject." That could be read as saying that you get an immediate Warp, and you disregard the whole business about penalties for instantaneous use, and spending FP, and buying Reliable, and make an unmodified roll, as if you'd taken 30 seconds to prep for Autoteleport.

Though another way to read this is to say that you must apply the Warp instantaneously after doing the Affliction, AND you still suffer the -10 modifer, unless you bought it off with Reliable or by spending massive FP.

What do you think?

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

The standard Autoteleport would not allow it as it also has Blind Only.

Also there is nothing stopping you from afflicting yourself. So Friend 1, Friend 2, Yourself->3 operations as long as you have enough exoteleport capability to move the heaviest person. But that requires the "blind only" to be removed. The default powers that have blind, you could not teleport home if you did not know how far and in what direction it is and teleporting out of a flying aircraft without knowing where you are and how high you are is kind of dangerous if you have to specify relative location.

The default exoteleport is without range limit so you are really limited by your skill and the mass limit.

The default autoteleport is range limited and has the blind only.

But overall there is a real reason why blind only is -50% and not only the -5 penalty, but also the lower breakage potential as depriving the exact coordinates for the start or end location tends to be easier than enough info to teleport there by the basic warp methods.

But overall the basic abilities as given in psionic powers are not overly broken and big part of that is the blind only.

The way I see the warp penalty is that the extra time allows you to refine your travel plans, thus I would allow it before the affliction in this case as you roll only one roll due to the feature.
So "Concentrate for as long as you want on warp-afflict-object warps" and you get the bonus for the concentrate time. If you just fire off the warp then you would indeed get the -10 fir time+10 for the reliable, -5 for blind-range penalties=roll skill at -5-range penalties. A "one second concentrate-afflict-warp" would allow a skill roll at +0-range penalties.

But if your view of how the warp concentrate works is different then it might work differently for you.

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.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

(a) I'm asking for views on what is assumed in the RAW.

(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.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

It does not specially say one way or other, but several supplements talk about that, places like thaumatology sorcerya and psionic powers including the exoteleport description itself.

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."

Note that the Psionic powers version uses the psionic powes time methods and thus has the Reliable 10, so that one second is total +0 base. (-5 blind, -5 for 1 second +10 reliable with time over 1 second giving bonus).

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?

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I'm trying to understand the current ability, as a means to building a different ability. But it's not my goal to change the RaW. How things are doing in PsP seems like a possible guide to how the RaW actually work.

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?

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

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

The time penalties have nothing to do with different books. It is based on the basic set. The warp description says that you can use from instant to 8 hours to use it. Thus when affliction says it affect instantly you are left with the two options I specified(instant at penalty or concentrate before). If you want to ignore a part of the rules for an ability you need to add a specific cosmic or another modifier that specifically says it overrides some part. Neither of those two are present in the described advantage so instant either means the normal penalty for instant or that you can prepare before. PK has apparently decided on the prepare first option.

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.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I think that all abilities and skills that use strange timings today(create, warp, alternate abilities, Zen archery and more) should be based on 1 second use as base as a simplification. But currently we do not have such a system so you need things like several levels of faster activation to stuff.

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.

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.

The thought that you'd likely use the usual -10 penalty for "can't see" did occur to me. And given that the rules don't actually say you have to be able to sense a ranged target, perhaps that's even intended.

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.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Well, yes. That's on my "5th edition" list. "Harmonize ALL THE THINGS!"

But lacking 5th edition, make sure all your crap works the same before making it part of an Affliction.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I don't think those are the only options. It's also perfectly possible to read it as "the instantaneous effect specified under Affliction overrides the variable time specified for Warp, and thus sets aside all the bonuses and penalties for taking different times."

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.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

"Target" is ambiguous here; I think you are using it to mean Destination, but it could mean Subject.

I don't have a problem with your comments about the Destination. I'm assuming that (a) you usually will be teleporting the Subject to a Destination you can see, since you are defining it in relation to the Subject and you can see the Subject but that (b) you still define the Destination as "so many yards from the Subject in such and such direction," not as "above the middle of that swimming pool over there." Blind Only isn't about where you can see the Destination; it's about how you identify the Destination, by coordinates rather than visually.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Since Affliction says that the effect takes place *immediately*, shouldn't that be zero second abilities? I mean, "as soon as he is hit" and "immediately teleports the subject" seem unambiguous.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Most of such things (except warp and shapeshift) require actions to activate, but they're one second actions, so I decided to settle on that as the bench-mark. Moving to "Everything needs to be Reflexive" doesn't actually bother me either, it just means more abilities need to be modified before being put on Affliction and that's just a wee bit more fiddly.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Okay. Let me give you all the actual builds I'm comparing. The first assumes that the preparation time modifier is wiped out by making Warp the effect of an Affliction; the second assumes you have to buy it down to "none" before it can be the effect of an affliction.

Assuming the teleporter has IQ 11, Will 11, and Teleportation Talent 1,

he can teleport an object weighing up to 24 pounds up to 100 yards away from himself;
he has to win a Quick Contest of Will+Talent 12 vs. the object's HT to make the attempt;
he has to roll IQ (12) to send it up to 10 yards, IQ-1 (11) for up to 20 yards, or IQ-2 (10) for up to 100 yards, which is his limit;
he can send it to a place he sees over CCTV, or to one he's visited but can't see, at a -2 penalty to IQ, but only within his range limit.

Here are the two builds:

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage: Warp (Exoteleport, -50%; Mental Carrying Capacity, +20%; Range Limit, 100 Yards, -40%), +300%; Malediction, -1/yard, +100%; Melee Attack, Reach C, -30%; Psionic, -10%) [46].

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage: Warp (Exoteleport, -50%; Mental Carrying Capacity, +20%; Range Limit, 100 Yards, -40%; Reliable, +10, +50%), +800%; Malediction, -1/yard, +100%; Melee Attack, Reach C, -30%; Psionic, -10%) [86].

The only difference is that the first one assumes the instantaneous effect is automatic; the second assumes you have to buy it. (If he didn't buy it, he would be rolling at IQ-10 or worse, which would make the power useless. . . .)

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I think there is a deeper can of worms implied in assessing these builds. When you're building the Advantage (whatever it is) to be Afflicted, do you build it as if you are using it, or the subject is using it? Can you impose a fatigue cost along with an Advantage?

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Since the Subject is not choosing to use it, I don't think they should be treated as using it. In this particular case, the Subject will often be an inanimate object that neither has nor uses fatigue. If I teleport a hand grenade with the pin pulled into the middle of a group of enemies, for example, the grenade has no FP to spend, and for that matter, no IQ to roll against.

But I don't think that I should be paying a fatigue cost, either, unless that's explicitly paid for in the build of the ability. The ability I'm using is Affliction, not (in this case) Warp. Though perhaps there could be an enhancement to Affliction: Can Spend FP on Advantage Granted, +10%. What do you think?

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Both to simplify the ability and to keep the cost down.

Using Blind Only means that the user doesn't have to deal with two different modifiers based on whether he can see the destination or not; everything is a simple, flat roll. And it is also the cheapest way to build a teleportation power that has the capability of teleporting to an unseen location.

Removing Blind Only (and compensating commensurately by removing 5 levels of Reliable) would make the power more expensive by 25 points and require the user to be able to see the destination. The only real improvement is that the FP cost to buy off penalties becomes 1 FP per -1 instead of 2 FP per -1.

You can. "Blind Only" doesn't mean that you cannot use the ability if you can see the destination! It means that all destinations, seen or unseen, are treated as a blind teleport.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I wonder if you can provide some insights into how/why you joined the affliction and the warp thru a Feature.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

You know, when I take those two together, it seems that Blind Only applies a -5 penalty, and Reliable 5 applies a +5 bonus, for a net 0 modifier. That much would be a lot like a zero cost feature. And you aren't hindered in any way from using the Mark One Eyeball to designate the Destination; you're just thinking "that far from him that way" instead of thinking "there!" So that's a lot like a zero cost feature. The only substantial difference seems to be that instead of only being able to hit only targets you can see (directly or indirectly) or remember well, you can also hit targets defined by mathematical coordinates, such as you might get from a Forward Observer. That's a gain. But you have -50% for Blind Only and +25% for Reliable 5, which is a net -25%. That is, something that improves your capabilities (modestly) relative to the baseline RaW ability is treated as a limitation!

I don't know about you, but when I see that, I think, "Something's not right here." In fact I'd almost take it as a reductio ad absurdum: If you make those assumptions, and you get the result that an improvement in capabilities is a -25% change in cost, which amounts to 25 points, well, that proves that one of your assumptions must be wrong.

In this case, I'd say that the assumption that's wrong is that "Blind Only" still allows you to eyeball a Destination. I'll stipulate that that's one way you can take "only." But another way to take "only" is as "you have to have knowledge of a set of coordinates that specify the exact distance and direction," meaning a set of actual numbers. And it's not clear that you can get those numbers just by eyeballing. Another way to take it is that you have to spend some amount of time both measuring the distance and doing the math—maybe making an IQ roll, since it's fairly simple vector subtraction, but people can mess that up, especially under battlefield conditions.

I mean, turn things around. Suppose that it's standard for Warp to be Blind Only. Now, you get the offer to buy an added trait: "Can't warp to a place you've never seen." And you're told that this will be a +33% enhancement. I think you'd say, "What the ***** are you talking about? That's not an enhancement, it's a limitation!" Well, it seems just as obviously wrong to me if you read it the other way. Even if you ignore the ability to port to a set of coordinates, as something that hardly anyone will actually use, what you've got is a "modifier" that makes no difference and saves you 25 points. . . .

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

I think you're seriously underestimating what you lose with Blind Only. How many meters away from your bedroom are you right now? Do you know the direction and distance to the scene on that tv screen? Blind is okay for getting to the other side of a wall, or straight up into the sky, but even judging the distance to a balcony across the theater might warrant some kind of roll.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. If you have Blind Only, you should be required to make some kind of roll to define the exact position of a target location. If you can still do "I can see it, so I can hit it," that's not Blind Only.

Re: Psionic Powers: Question about a build
 

That's already rolled into the penalized teleport roll.