[MH] A couple of questions

[Derago]

1. When a Lycanthrope takes on his animal form, how big is it? One of my players has a Were-eagle character, and I don't see anything that refers to any change in size for the shapechange leading me to guess he turns into a six-foot tall eagle! This can't be right, or is it?

2. Psionics. How does this even work? On of my players made a Psi and has mind wipe, mind reading, and telekinesis. I don't see anything that a player needs to roll to activate his ability (beside mind reading), so where do the talents come into play? Also, is there a way for a characters ability to reduce the resistance of a target in a way like you can take hits to your melee skill to reduce active defense?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Derago

1. When a Lycanthrope takes on his animal form, how big is it? One of my players has a Were-eagle character, and I don't see anything that refers to any change in size for the shapechange leading me to guess he turns into a six-foot tall eagle! This can't be right, or is it?

Mechanically, it clearly is. None of the templates list an SM change. Which means very big eagles (considering how high their ST is, that kind of figures), and also rather small bears and tigers!

I'd guess the big weres not getting bigger is for simplicity, since the were-form would get then get its ST discounted. The eagle and wolf may have been left a bit on the big side because those are some crazy strong eagles and wolves and probably should be about man-sized.

Originally Posted by Derago

2. Psionics. How does this even work? On of my players made a Psi and has mind wipe, mind reading, and telekinesis. I don't see anything that a player needs to roll to activate his ability (beside mind reading), so where do the talents come into play? Also, is there a way for a characters ability to reduce the resistance of a target in a way like you can take hits to your melee skill to reduce active defense?

Mindwipe requires a quick contest of will to use. That's a roll. You say mind reading requires a roll. Telekinesis doesn't require a roll to activate, but I think you'd be able to claim your psychokinesis talent to rolls to do things using the telekinesis.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by Derago

1. When a Lycanthrope takes on his animal form, how big is it? One of my players has a Were-eagle character, and I don't see anything that refers to any change in size for the shapechange leading me to guess he turns into a six-foot tall eagle! This can't be right, or is it?

They can be whatever size you want, just set it at character creation. I assume from the information given that there is no change in SM for the examples.

Note, an SM 1 eagle has a 6 foot wingspan (which is not really that big for a fully grown eagle), it is not 6 feet from tail to beak!

Originally Posted by Derago

2. Psionics. How does this even work? On of my players made a Psi and has mind wipe, mind reading, and telekinesis. I don't see anything that a player needs to roll to activate his ability (beside mind reading), so where do the talents come into play?

Any ability who's basic set entry requires an attribute or skill roll, it still does and is aided by talent unless is is listed as enhanced with (Cosmic: No Die Roll Required).

Originally Posted by Derago

Also, is there a way for a characters ability to reduce the resistance of a target in a way like you can take hits to your melee skill to reduce active defense?

If the ability requires a "to hit" roll, you might be able to make a deceptive attack...it depends.

If you have multiple attackers, you can coordinate your attacks. Each attacker after the first who hits gives the victim -2 to active defenses or -1 to resistance rolls against all of the attacks. (See Powers page 165)

And if it's a contested roll, the attacker can trade fatigue for skill to improve his odds (See Powers Page 161).

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

They can be whatever size you want, just set it at character creation. I assume from the information given that there is no change in SM for the examples.

Note, an SM 1 eagle has a 6 foot wingspan (which is not really that big for a fully grown eagle), it is not 6 feet from tail to beak!

...

But would still need to eat as much as a full grown tiger unless given reduced consumption. As well as needing equivalently heavy gear. SMs include a whole host of features that aren't necessarily obvious.

[Anaraxes]

And of course, if you want the shapechangers to take on different sizes, put the SM modifier in the template for those Alternate Forms.

As for talent/skill rolls, see the "Skills for Everyone" section in Powers. It's a fairly common requirement for settings to specify that all abilities have an associated skill. Other settings have abilities that are innate and "just work" -- often needing rolls against basic stats. (See the individual descriptions.) Talent helps with those.

If the character doesn't have a lot of abilities that require rolls, Talent may not be a great investment.

[Derago]

These were characters made using the templates in Monster Hunters 1.

1. Regarding the size of the eagle... I'm pretty sure I saw birds in a GURPS books somewhere that were the size of an eagle and had a negative SM. I thought DF:Allies had an eagle in there, but it only has a Giant Eagle, described as having a 12' wingspan and is SM:0. If my players' character becomes an eagle with a 6' wingspan, then it should probably be SM:-1 or -2. I just want to know if the intent of the authors is for them to be large birds or if this was an accidental ommission (or something else).

2. Regarding Psionics:In this instance, there's no need for my player to have Psychokinesis Talent since his only power in that category is Telekinesis.
I see the Quick Contest of Will under Mindwipe now - I was an idiot for missing it before.

[the_matrix_walker]

I meant SM 0 not 1, oops, but you are correct that the SM 0 Giant Eagle has a 12 foot wingspan. Seems a little weird to me...

[PK]

Originally Posted by Derago

1. Regarding the size of the eagle... I'm pretty sure I saw birds in a GURPS books somewhere that were the size of an eagle and had a negative SM.

This was a hard decision, but in the end I made all lycanthropes SM 0 (large birds and small tigers) solely for the sake of simplicity. We get many FAQs about the SM rules; they throw a lot of new gamers. And since the GURPS Monster Hunters series is designed as a ready-to-play setup for people who find GURPS a little bit too complex and intimidating, I didn't want to force the GM to deal with PCs with changing SMs.

So yes, the were-eagle is large, as hinted at by its impressive ST! But not 6' tall -- its SM comes from its wingspan, not height as with a human. If it's flying high, this shouldn't be an issue. If it's just hanging out on the ground, most people will think, "Wow, I've never seen a wild eagle up close. I didn't realize how huge they were!" Experts (e.g., anyone with Animal Handling for birds or Veterinary) should get a roll to realize something is weird, as with any lycanthrope.

2. Regarding Psionics:In this instance, there's no need for my player to have Psychokinesis Talent since his only power in that category is Telekinesis.

That's not true! PK Talent is awesome for TK, because it adds to every roll you make using the TK. If you want to grab someone using TK and Judo skill, your PK Talent adds to Judo for that roll!

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Derago

1. When a Lycanthrope takes on his animal form, how big is it? One of my players has a Were-eagle character, and I don't see anything that refers to any change in size for the shapechange leading me to guess he turns into a six-foot tall eagle! This can't be right, or is it?

This was a design decision that the author made to keep things as simple as possible. Basically you keep your mass when you shift over, thus the SM stays whatever your SM is (e.g., SM 0).

Originally Posted by Derago

2. Psionics. How does this even work? On of my players made a Psi and has mind wipe, mind reading, and telekinesis. I don't see anything that a player needs to roll to activate his ability (beside mind reading), so where do the talents come into play? Also, is there a way for a characters ability to reduce the resistance of a target in a way like you can take hits to your melee skill to reduce active defense?

Usually, you make attribute rolls or take maneuvers and then it does whatever the ability is supposed too. Talents add to attribute or skill rolls. Not usually no.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Derago

2. Psionics. How does this even work? On of my players made a Psi and has mind wipe, mind reading, and telekinesis. I don't see anything that a player needs to roll to activate his ability (beside mind reading), so where do the talents come into play? Also, is there a way for a characters ability to reduce the resistance of a target in a way like you can take hits to your melee skill to reduce active defense?

If you require Psychology rolls to do tricky things with telepathic powers, then the Talent bonus should apply to those.

There may be IQ rolls in difficult-communication situations, i.e. if language is involved and one of the participants has less than Fluent. Again, the Telepathy/Psi Talent should add to the IQ roll for such purposes.

It's the same as with the Shapechanging advantage. There's no roll to use it, so in order to make Talent still be useful, the RAW says to apply it to rolls such as Acting, during the use of the advantage.