[MH] Psionics and other questions

[Derago]

A couple questions for you all!

1. If a guy wants to use telekinesis to choke a normal person, does that person have any possible defense? It seems unfair that a guy can just sit back and choke you out in a diner with no defense and no indicator of who's doing it. It's essentially a free attack with No Defense and No Signature!

2. Is there any penalty to constantly mind-wiping a person? In one case, a player was mind-wiping a guard when they were spotted, then mind-wiping him again as soon as he was seen again (only a couple seconds later), and then continued doing this so that the guard was never remembering what had just happenned. Keep in mind, there is no FP cost to this.

3. Can mind-reading be used on animals? I'm currently ruling it as working at a penalty and then requiring an animal handling roll to interpret. Is this even close to the intent?

4. Another player is a Weretiger with Karate at DX+1. Does the bonus from Karate apply to his claws in animal form? While this doesn't make a ton of sense (he's not a character from Kung-fu Panda), the template doesn't offer any other skill to actually use his claws and I can reason that since his character is not a normal tiger, he uses his claws in ways unique from normal tigers (I might let another person familiar with big cats percieve the difference).

[lexington]

Originally Posted by Derago

1. If a guy wants to use telekinesis to choke a normal person, does that person have any possible defense? It seems unfair that a guy can just sit back and choke you out in a diner with no defense and no indicator of who's doing it. It's essentially a free attack with No Defense and No Signature!

"I choke that guy at the other table to death with my TK."
"Roll Acting."
"Uh, 12."
"He smiles and starts walking over. You see fangs."

If you go around murdering random people you are, at best, squandering a significant amount of power and eventually people will start hunting you. Rogue psis are dangerous precisely because they do things like that.

A victim can also just move out of your range or have a friend shoot you.

Originally Posted by Derago

2. Is there any penalty to constantly mind-wiping a person? In one case, a player was mind-wiping a guard when they were spotted, then mind-wiping him again as soon as he was seen again (only a couple seconds later), and then continued doing this so that the guard was never remembering what had just happenned. Keep in mind, there is no FP cost to this.

Hunters are enormously powerful, normal humans have little to no defense against them. An Experiment could punch the guard so hard his head explodes.

Originally Posted by Derago

3. Can mind-reading be used on animals? I'm currently ruling it as working at a penalty and then requiring an animal handling roll to interpret. Is this even close to the intent?

You get animal thoughts, which are nothing like human thoughts.

"If you subject isn't sapient you only pick up feelings, images, and general intent." B69

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Derago

1. If a guy wants to use telekinesis to choke a normal person, does that person have any possible defense? It seems unfair that a guy can just sit back and choke you out in a diner with no defense and no indicator of who's doing it. It's essentially a free attack with No Defense and No Signature!

Yeah, pretty much. But if said guy keeps doing that other champions are going to declare him a rogue psi and hunt him.

Originally Posted by Derago

2. Is there any penalty to constantly mind-wiping a person? In one case, a player was mind-wiping a guard when they were spotted, then mind-wiping him again as soon as he was seen again (only a couple seconds later), and then continued doing this so that the guard was never remembering what had just happenned. Keep in mind, there is no FP cost to this.

By the basic rules? I don't think so, but I'd probably give a -1 penalty each time after the first if done within 24 hours. Memories get wibbly-woobly when screwed with too much.

Originally Posted by Derago

3. Can mind-reading be used on animals? I'm currently ruling it as working at a penalty and then requiring an animal handling roll to interpret. Is this even close to the intent?

Mind-reading would give you basic emotions and thoughts like "hunger" "shiny object", and so on. You could do it that way though, Mind-Reading might even give a bonus to Animal Handling allow Powers Enhancing Skills from Powers.

Originally Posted by Derago

4. Another player is a Weretiger with Karate at DX+1. Does the bonus from Karate apply to his claws in animal form? While this doesn't make a ton of sense (he's not a character from Kung-fu Panda), the template doesn't offer any other skill to actually use his claws and I can reason that since his character is not a normal tiger, he uses his claws in ways unique from normal tigers (I might let another person familiar with big cats percieve the difference).

Martial Arts says GMs should allow characters with racial claws to use Karate normally (i.e., they get the bonus from the skill and karate). This is however, a optional rule. I personally use it in all my games, doesn't make sense otherwise.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Derago

A couple questions for you all!

1. If a guy wants to use telekinesis to choke a normal person, does that person have any possible defense? .

A _normal_ person? No.

[Derago]

Okay, this all makes sense in that the Hunters are supposed to be very powerful. I guess I'm having problems adjusting to the stage my game has come to. So a Psi could do it, but he should make sure it is justified...

I've been letting him continuously wipe people for a while, but I told him that I think it's too powerful as we're using it and that it would get more difficult to wipe someone again in a short period (I didn't tell him specifics, but the vague warning has changed his use of it for the better).

Regarding the reading of animal minds, it makes sense that it would not be understandable to him, but is there a skill that represents coming to understand it through practice?

As for the claws and karate: My player hasn't discovered that he may be entitled to a damage bonus (since he's only 9) and I discovered it after updating his character. I think he'll be quite pleased when his 5d cut claws become 5d+10 cut claws...

Thank you all!

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Derago

I've been letting him continuously wipe people for a while, but I told him that I think it's too powerful as we're using it and that it would get more difficult to wipe someone again in a short period (I didn't tell him specifics, but the vague warning has changed his use of it for the better).

Keep in mind that keeping the secret is a good thing. So wiping mundane's memories is absolutely a "normal" thing to do in a MH game.

Originally Posted by Derago

Regarding the reading of animal minds, it makes sense that it would not be understandable to him, but is there a skill that represents coming to understand it through practice?

That's be Animal Handling I think. Or even let him buy Animal Empathy as a extension to Mind-Reading. He got so good at reading animal minds he developed a reactive use of his psi ability.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Derago

Regarding the reading of animal minds, it makes sense that it would not be understandable to him, but is there a skill that represents coming to understand it through practice?

I've always understood it that the issue isn't that you can't understand it, its that there's not that much useful information to read:

Vulture: "That looks... Alive. That looks... Alive. That looks... Alive. Oh, Birds are circling over there. Looks like food. That looks... tasty"

Cow: "Food.... Food.... Food.... Movement--Thats just a farmer. No threat. Food..."

If you search a squirrels mind for creatures passing by you may not get images or even types, just sizes and numbers. If you read a dog's mind you may be able to find out whether or not his master is home, and whether or not the master reads the paper, but not which paper he reads.

[RogerBacon]

I thought that any use of tk like a grapple allowed the target a chance to brake free . For example if you tried to lift him into the air he could take any of the actions in the "after being grappled" box. I'm pretty sure I read that in one of the rule books but I don't remember which one. I'd love to be wrong on this, by the way.

[Nosforontu]

Originally Posted by Derago

As for the claws and karate: My player hasn't discovered that he may be entitled to a damage bonus (since he's only 9) and I discovered it after updating his character. I think he'll be quite pleased when his 5d cut claws become 5d+10 cut claws...
Thank you all!

Just how strong is the tiger is his strength closer to 30 or 50? The reason I am asking is that I think his strength is probably close to 30 and you are allowing him to use his Swing damage for his claw attacks rather than his Thrust Damage. That unfortuantly is not how it works. Unarmed attacks are pretty much always based off your Thrust Damage rather than your Swing Damage.

Essentially to get Swing Damage you need to use a weapon which allows you better leverage on your swings beyond what you can do with your unarmed attacks.

[ericthered]

Of course, 3d+6 is awfully close to 5d...