[DF] Help design a dungeon room for a Mentalist PC (A psionic PC)

[b-dog]

I would like to get some ideas for a dungeon room where a Mentalist would shine. Maybe themonsters therein could be psionic or there is some sort of mystical field or whatever. Any ideas welcome. Thanks.

[lexington]

Originally Posted by b-dog

I would like to get some ideas for a dungeon room where a Mentalist would shine. Maybe themonsters therein could be psionic or there is some sort of mystical field or whatever. Any ideas welcome. Thanks.

The traditional D&D way to make a Psi shine is a field that suppresses magic, suddenly revealing the difference between a Wizard/Sorcerer and a Psion. I don't have DF: Psis, though, so I'm not sure exactly how DF treats Psis.

[Nereidalbel]

Which power(s) did your Mentalist take? Knowing the power set helps a lot for designing a room.

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Which power(s) did your Mentalist take? Knowing the power set helps a lot for designing a room.

I am just looking for ideas to challenge a Mentalist or at least a room where they can be useful. Any of the psi powers could be available and maybe having ideas for each power could be useful. Thanks.

[Nereidalbel]

Dispel Psi has nigh-unlimited utility in the right rooms. It'll even let your party use mundane weaponry to smite down an Astral Thing!

Ergokinetic Shield can safely get the party through the 2d burn/second flamethrower room. Seriously, it can do that.

Levitation gets you past pressure plates with no dex roll required.

Mind Stab can effectively kill that guy with unbelievable high DR.

Telekinesis is a "duh" power.

Do note that these are all ways to make your psi shine *without* making your mage useless.

[b-dog]

Are there any ideas for astral plane encounters in a dungeon or maybe astral gates that would be fun for a Mentalist? Thanks.

[Nereidalbel]

Unless the rest of the party can piggyback for an astral visit, try to avoid rooms where one player gets to do something and everybody else just gets to go watch tv. Of course, you *could* have a Big Bad who needs to be fought simultaneously on the Astral Plane AND in the physical realm.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Unless the rest of the party can piggyback for an astral visit, try to avoid rooms where one player gets to do something and everybody else just gets to go watch tv.

This advice is crucial. Otherwise, you get into the "netrunner problem" of cyberpunk gaming.

My advice is to keep things the way they usually are in the dungeon, but to add in the occasional psi-tech menace or psionic monster. There's nothing wrong with using a variant of the triggers found on firestarters and telekinetic toggles (DF 14, p. 23) to have the mere presence of an intelligent mind set off traps . . . and then to specify that psis can detect these traps with Psychic Sensitivity 3, penalize the traps' activation rolls by using Mind Shield or Resistant to Psionics, and disarm them with Dispel Psi. Or with tossing in a monster that can be defeated using swords and spells, but that has abilities that make psi extra-useful during the fight; e.g., anybody can battle a horrid skull (DFM 1, p. 19), but a psi can sense it almost at once with Psychic Sensitivity, and then block its attack with even one level of Psychic Armor. These sorts of things don't eliminate other options; they just give the mentalist more options.

See also Dungeon Design (DF 14, pp. 35-36).

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by b-dog

Are there any ideas for astral plane encounters in a dungeon or maybe astral gates that would be fun for a Mentalist? Thanks.

I recently used Astral Spiders that attack by pulling targets into the Astral Plane.

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I recently used Astral Spiders that attack by pulling targets into the Astral Plane.

That is an interesting encounter.

Does anyone have any others? Maybe a being of pure thought or some sort of creature of abstraction? Thanks.