Imbuements as Psionic Powers

[PK]

Originally Posted by Edges

I'd be willing to require the Imbuements to take a second of concentration before the attack.

A fair way to do this is to add Takes Extra Time 1 to the Imbue advantage. Technically, you're not doing this to affect the Imbuement Skills themselves -- what you're doing is requiring someone to take a second to activate the Imbue advantage, after which you can use an Imbuement Skill.

But it seems like there should be a way to do it otherwise. A Reduced FP Cost +20% would probably be too much of a point crock. But how about giving it a Cosmic +50% (to account for not needing FP every time) and Psi -10% (to account for needing FP if you try after failing, penalties for multiple uses, countermeasures, etc.) for a net +40% on the Imbuement advantage. I'm not saying this is the way. But there has to be a way.

No, reducing the FP cost via enhancement is a crock, just like it would be for spells. Like for spells, if you want to reduce the FP cost, you need to soak the -5 penalty. Try:

Imbuement Talent 5 (Only to reduce FP cost, -40%) [15]

That oughta do it. IMO, reducing the FP cost is a large part of why you buy high levels of Imbuement skill, so -40% is fair. Note that this assumes (A) that you're allowing this particular build as the GM, since it obviously breaks the normal Talent limits and (B) that it's only 5 points/level because, unlike the Imbuement Talent at the back of PU1, it only applies to Imbuements -- not to the various Afflictions and Innate Attacks that Imbuement Power allows you to buy.

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Near as I can tell this is just the effect of adding Psionic, -10%. That's just how psi works. This seems to be the article's position.

No, this is definitely not the case. Nowhere does the article say that the way Imbuement Skills work changes. The only effect of adding Psionic is that you get a point break because your Imbuement Skills can be Neutralized, affected by Psi Static, etc. Nothing else changes.