Is this ability OP?

[oneofmanynameless]

I'm trying to make a character who, like the great craftsmen of fairy tales, fables, and myths, can craft functional items out of almost anything: chains out of moonlight, a cloak made of shadows, a suite of armor made from leaves, etc. The character is for an urban fantasy game that started as Monster Hunters and still focus' primarily on that. Enchanted items are rare but definitely exist (several PCs have some). I built the ability using snatcher, but wanted to get some second opinions on the balance of this build (and whether I did it right.)

Snatcher (Creation +100%; Large Items +50%; More Weight 30 lbs +25%; Requires Artisan! Roll +0%; Immediate Preperation Required 10 minutes -45%, Nuisance Effect: Items are usually Obviously Fake and Supernatural -10%; Nuisance Effect: Items are vulnerable to anti-psi effects -10%; Power Modifier -10%; Specialized: no high or ultra tech gear -20%; Specialized: no magical items except items made from magical reagents you have access to -5%; Takes Equipment Modifiers -5%.) [136 cp]

Psychic Construction
Given a little bit of time and the right tools you can construct most items out of almost anything! To construct an item you must pay 2 fatigue, concentrate for 10 minutes with a clear vision of the item you are trying to make, have free hands with which to work (-3 if your hands are tied), and have continuous access to a reagent you would like to make the item out of. The item you are trying to create can be of any size but must weigh 30 lbs or less. Others can see you working the reagent as though crafting something.
Next make a check against Artisan! Or a skill appropriate to the item you are trying to craft (thus you would roll armoury [melee weapons] to make a sword, or jeweler to make a crown, etc). This check is at -5 if you do not have appropriate equipment, -2 for improvised equipment, no penalty for appropriate equipment, +1 for fine quality equipment, +2 for very fine equipment, and +4 for the highest quality equipment money can buy. If you are trying to craft an item an item that will contain information the GM makes this roll for you (see below). Regardless of your skill roll, a roll of 14 or more always fails. On a success you acquire the desired item, on a failure you make nothing, and on a critical failure you successfully create something but not what you wanted! (This is not immediately dangerous unless you were trying for something dangerous.)
The items you make are psychic constructs forged from the nature of the reagent and your mental energy. While you can create a wide array of items there are limits. You are limited to simple mechanical technologies which makes electronics, chemical technologies (including chemically powered machines like cars), and all ultra-tech devices impossible although just about anything from TL4 or earlier, as well as clockwork, is possible. Furthermore, the items are psychic constructs and vulnerable to the full range of anti-psi, and are clearly fake and usually obviously supernatural rendering them prone to causing masquerade violations and not useful for selling or using as fake currency. Finally, items that contain information can only contain information the creator knows.
Unless you have another ability that would let you make an item supernatural, the item cannot have supernatural properties unless those properties stem directly from using the reagent as the base material for the item: thus you could make an arrowhead from moonlight but it’s only special effect would be to make werewolves transform when they were shot with it, but you could not make a magic amulet of waterbreathing or a wand of fireball!
Items disappear when you attempt to create a new item. However, they can be stabilized by paying their market value (often at the +19 CF for being made of supernatural materials) but their price must be fully paid by converting unused character points into money at a rate of 1 cp = $2,000. Any character may pay that price at any point before the item disappears, as long as they have the item in their possession, but the price cannot be paid for in in-game cash, only character points!

[whswhs]

I think you're going entirely the wrong way with this for what you want. If I were designed the ability you discuss, I would make it Gadgeteer with Cosmic, Can use any substance, +50%. Or maybe even Quick Gadgeteer. And then I would buy some crafting skills up to crazy levels, or look for suitable Talents. Take a look and see what you think.

[naloth]

I've used a modular gadget pool to do what you're trying to do. Rev P Kitty has write up in more detail on his website.

[ericthered]

There are characters for whom the gadgeteer route is more appropriate, and others for whom the snatcher ability models things better.

Its worth pointing out that this build lacks duration. As soon as you build something else, the creation will stop working. Permanence is +300%, or 240 points. If you think this is too powerful, that might be the thing you are missing.

The nuisance effects and specializations may be a bit generous. If you used multiplicative multipliers I'd be a bit more worried about them.

[oneofmanynameless]

Originally Posted by ericthered

There are characters for whom the gadgeteer route is more appropriate, and others for whom the snatcher ability models things better.

Its worth pointing out that this build lacks duration. As soon as you build something else, the creation will stop working. Permanence is +300%, or 240 points. If you think this is too powerful, that might be the thing you are missing.

The nuisance effects and specializations may be a bit generous. If you used multiplicative multipliers I'd be a bit more worried about them.

Yeah, I discussed gadgeteer with my GM and he was uncomfortable about it and wanted more clearly laid lines and less rules complexity. He's okayed this ability on those fronts.

The lack of duration is partially do to lack of the ability to afford it and the other part of it is on purpose for balance. I like that the items, being supernaturally constructed, can't hold together without the will of the creator sustaining them (or an investiture of character points.)

As for the nuisance effects and specializations. my reasoning was:
"Nuisance Effect: Items are obviously fake" is listed as -5% in powers and supers for force construct effects, I raised it to -10% because items also being obviously supernatural is additionally problematic in a game in which the players have to help maintain "the masquerade" of the supernatural not being real.
"Nuisance effect: items are vulnerable to anti-psi effects" is one I'm not sure about because the whole ability has the psi power mod in the first place and I wasn't sure whether knocking out the users powers would also make an item they conjured go away. But it's basically just the psi power modifier on the items themselves in case it matters.
"Specialized: no high or ultra tech gear" seemed fairly restrictive in a tl 8 world in which some instances of tl 9+ gear have come up occasionally. Accessibilities that make things not available half the time, or cut off half of what you could do, are priced at -20% and I thought that this seemed like about half of the options out there so I priced it that way.
"Specialized: no magical items except items made from magical reagents you have access to" was clearly a limiter when magical items that have abilities beyond those provided by their base materials exist in the world, but it wasn't a substantial one so I listed it at just -5%.

I'm totally willing to raise or lower them if people disagree.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by oneofmanynameless

Yeah, I discussed gadgeteer with my GM and he was uncomfortable about it and wanted more clearly laid lines and less rules complexity. He's okayed this ability on those fronts.

To clarify I was suggesting using the Modular Abilities rules. That way you still use points to decide what abilities (or power of) that you can build into your items.

I never actually use the gadgeteering rules. You would take a Modular Ability pool (slots or cosmic) with suitable limitations (Immediate Preparation, Skill Rolls Requires, Nuisance effects) to represent the time and difficulty in swapping from one set of items to another.

[oneofmanynameless]

Originally Posted by naloth

To clarify I was suggesting using the Modular Abilities rules. That way you still use points to decide what abilities (or power of) that you can build into your items.

I never actually use the gadgeteering rules. You would take a Modular Ability pool (slots or cosmic) with suitable limitations (Immediate Preparation, Skill Rolls Requires, Nuisance effects) to represent the time and difficulty in swapping from one set of items to another.

You were clear. I was responding to the gadgeteering suggestions. =)

I've given this character that ability too but it felt awkward for items that were mostly just mundane items but occasionally made of weird things. For example: a broadsword made of sunlight is mostly the same thing as a broadsword made of green force fields or an ordinary broadsword... the fact that it's made of sunlight is just a feature that vampires care about (although you could certainly use that feature to justify buying blinding attacks or burning attacks using gadget limited points.)

[Mark Skarr]

I don't see anything wrong with it, myself. You can create a single item, up to 30 lbs out of something. It lasts until you need to make another item.

I would, however, charge a nominal CP fee to allow things to be made permanent, which, it seems your GM is. But, they're charging the person who chooses to keep it, which, in this situation, makes sense to me.

Having a character (Jasmine) who can simply draw things into existence (and we do use multiplicative modifiers), this is similar to that build and it hasn't been OP in any of those games (she can draw upto a five-ton object, which has let her create vehicles). Those ten minutes spent drawing can easily be interrupted, and she can't speed it up. However . . . the GM did forbid me from drawing a SLAM-ER, in flight, pointed toward the building we needed to get rid of. I can't say that I disagre with that ruling, but it was disappointing (because it would have been awesome!).

[AlexanderHowl]

Quick Gadgeteer [50] would probably be better. If you want to modify it, I would suggest grabbing Transmutation (+100%) from Create, representing you transmutating raw materials during the gadgeterring process.