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Old 02-13-2021, 09:10 AM   #1
JulianLW
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Default Compartmentalized Mind with Psychokinesis: Damage Resistance, Injury Tolerance

If a character has Telekinesis 1000 (Psychokinesis -10%) [4500] and Compartmentalized Mind 2 [100], she gets to use TK 1000 three times in the same turn to effectively lift an object with TK BL tripled: 600,000 pounds. That's settled in Psionic Powers 13. Compartmentalized Mind is a multiplier for the TK Basic Lift.

Similarly, if the same Psychokinetic character had a mental Innate Attack worth, say, [5000], she'd get to use that attack three times each turn. Munchkiny? But totally legit, according to the rules.

So here's my question: If the same character has PK Shield 500 [2000] (Psionic Powers 56), does she get to roll vs PK Shield (IQ/Hard) three times and reduce the damage by up to 1500? This is a passive ability, but it is mental and requires a skill roll, and the entry for CM says "Each 'compartment' wields psi independent of the others." There is also a clear precedent for actively using passive abilities like this: the Power Block, which could double that PK Shield of 500 to 1000.


And what about this: What if the same character has Injury Tolerance: Damage Reduction 4 (Psychokinesis -10%) [90], does she get to divide damage by 12?

My own thinking is that, since a level of CM doubles the capacity of Psychokinetic TK - no matter how many CP have been spent on that power, even if it's 5,000 CP - or 100 times the cost of a level of CM - then it ought to double the defensive capabilities also, just as described in the entry for CM in Psionic Powers.

What do y'all think? (Also, does it make a difference if the ability is limited by a skill roll?)
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Old 02-13-2021, 09:47 AM   #2
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Compartmentalized Mind with Psychokinesis: Damage Resistance, Injury Tolerance

Compartmentalized Mind allows you to make additional mental maneuvers, but PK Shield does not require a mental maneuver, so I would rule no. I would rule the same way for any power that does not require a maneuver. It does not multiply, it only allows additive effects under very limited circumstances.

Last edited by AlexanderHowl; 02-13-2021 at 09:51 AM.
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Old 02-13-2021, 10:05 AM   #3
JulianLW
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Default Re: Compartmentalized Mind with Psychokinesis: Damage Resistance, Injury Tolerance

Ah. Maneuver. Good point.

But what about Power Blocks? Shouldn't each Compartment get its own attempt to Power Block?
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Old 02-13-2021, 10:35 AM   #4
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Compartmentalized Mind with Psychokinesis: Damage Resistance, Injury Tolerance

Compartmentalized Mind lets you use multiple Concentrate Manuevers (albeit without a Step for each) in a turn; it's essentially a limited version of Altered Time Rate (with mental separation as an add-on effect, although an appropriate Limitation will remove that). TK essentially functions as creating another character to lift an object, so doing it three times in a round would function just like having three characters lifting something - you combine their BL's.

I could maybe see being able to use a mental Active Defense multiple times with CM, although with the fact ATR doesn't let you do the same, I'd lean against it. Suddenly making any ability flavored as "mental" having increased effect is a step too far, however. Part of this is that things generally don't stack - if you were using your psychokinesis to grant an ally some DR via Affliction, you could attempt it three times on one ally, or even use it on three different allies, but the uses certainly wouldn't stack unless specifically built to do so.

That said, I could certainly see a character who can boost their own DR via concentration, and could use multiple compartments to boost said DR further. Honestly, I feel the appropriate way to do that if you have Compartmentalized Mind is an Alternate Abilities build. This is easiest if your CM has No Mental Separation (NMS) -20%. Things are a bit hairier if you lack that Limitation, however, as maintaining a forcefield (or whatever) might use up one "mind's worth" of Concentration, but you should still have a degree of resistance against hypnotism and the like. I'd say figure out what your CM would be worth if it did have NMS, and base AA pricing on that. So, if you have CM (Psionic -10%) [45], you can have DR worth up to [35] as an Alternate Ability to it without giving up having an extra mind to resist hypnosis etc; if the DR is worth more than that, it is the basis of the Alternate Ability, and so you can apply a discount of [-28] to your Compartmentalized Mind (the NMS aspect of it is 1/5th cost, or [7] instead of [35]). If you don't have CM, of course, you can just apply Requires Concentrate -15% (technically you could do that anyway, but it gives too small of a discount for low-priced abilities and too much of one - potentially to the point of essentially making your CM free - for high-priced abilities).
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Old 02-13-2021, 10:56 AM   #5
JulianLW
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Default Re: Compartmentalized Mind with Psychokinesis: Damage Resistance, Injury Tolerance

A Mage with CM would be able to cast multiple Blocking spells at full skill. Without having any available maneuver. Or am I wrong about that?
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Old 02-13-2021, 11:01 AM   #6
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Compartmentalized Mind with Psychokinesis: Damage Resistance, Injury Tolerance

Quote:
Originally Posted by JulianLW View Post
Ah. Maneuver. Good point.

But what about Power Blocks? Shouldn't each Compartment get its own attempt to Power Block?
Well, a Power Block is a power defense, not a maneuver, so I would rule that CM would not give you multiple uses of a power defense during the same turn. Powers, p. 167 is also fairly clear that no one may use more than one power defense per turn (even ATR would not allow multiple power defenses during a turn under a strict reading of the rules).
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Old 02-13-2021, 11:07 AM   #7
ravenfish
 
Join Date: May 2007
Default Re: Compartmentalized Mind with Psychokinesis: Damage Resistance, Injury Tolerance

Quote:
Originally Posted by JulianLW View Post
A Mage with CM would be able to cast multiple Blocking spells at full skill. Without having any available maneuver. Or am I wrong about that?
Compartmentalized mind gives one extra mental maneuver, so he can do two concentrate maneuvers to cast two spells, but blocking spells don't take a maneuver at all- they're an active defense- so, by the rules as written, I don't think there's anything that allows them to be used twice.


---

As mentioned above, Altered Time Rate (which lets you take two maneuvers per turn without restriction as to type) doesn't give you extra chances to defend against a given attack, so Compartmentalized Mind (which lets you take two maneuvers per turn so long as at least one of them is a Concentrate) probably shouldn't.
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