Psionic Powers Clairvoyance and Smell?

[Christopher R. Rice]

I found a odd interrelation with one of the ESP powers from Psionic Powers: If you purchase Clairaudience and Clairvoyance you also get Clairosmia for free...this a mistake or a design choice? This is acheived when you buy Clairaudience for the flat 5 points, which removes the Clairvoyance limitation but also frees up the Clairosmia as well.

Am I missing something?

Ghostdancer

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

I found a odd interrelation with one of the ESP powers from Psionic Powers: If you purchase Clairaudience and Clairvoyance you also get Clairosmia for free...this a mistake or a design choice? This is acheived when you buy Clairaudience for the flat 5 points, which removes the Clairvoyance limitation but also frees up the Clairosmia as well.

Am I missing something?

Ghostdancer

Design choice. The ability to see and hear at a distance are so much more important than the the ability to smell at a distance that whether you can or not is just a feature.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Design choice. The ability to see and hear at a distance are so much more important than the the ability to smell at a distance that whether you can or not is just a feature.

Interestingly, imagine a sapient evolved from canid stock, for whom scent was the primary sense, or just as important as sight, anyway. For him, ESP would probaby tend to focus on his favorite sense...

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Design choice. The ability to see and hear at a distance are so much more important than the the ability to smell at a distance that whether you can or not is just a feature.

Huh. A *feature*, no I don't think that's correct, Clairvoyance in Basic says pretty clearly that if you can only project your sense of smell its a -60% limitation. So it's worth something. At most a -5% limitation. I was just curious if anyone else had noted it.

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

Interestingly, imagine a sapient evolved from canid stock, for whom scent was the primary sense, or just as important as sight, anyway. For him, ESP would probably tend to focus on his favorite sense...

Yeah, that is fairly on the interesting side, shows how human-centric we make things. Which is great till you get into races that are not human-size or human in their capabilities.

Ghostdancer

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Huh. A *feature*, no I don't think that's correct, Clairvoyance in Basic says pretty clearly that if you can only project your sense of smell its a -60% limitation. So it's worth something.
r

Doesn't necessarily follow. Look you could project your sense of smell into an unseen area and get a clue as to whether it was occupied. That's worth something, it is. How much is it worth if you can actually already see AND hear that something is there? Rarely, very rarely, you'd be able to find out that the area was filled with an invisible odiferous gas, or you'll be able to look into some pitch dark area, where a silent smelly thing is waiting for you. How often are either of those situations going to come up?