TK w/Based on Attribute

[oneofmanynameless]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

I like the idea of still requiring the base skill or suffering defaults even with an all-encompassing skill as your example with Sex Appeal. As for a wildcard skill, I'm not even sure I'd use Based On since bang skills already can be floated to different attributes.

Actually any skill can float to a different attribute when appropriate. Wildcard skills just have more appropriate circumstances than the average skill. =)

As for having an all encompassing skill but still dealing with defaults: that will be a big campaign flavor thing. It'll make finesse with TK cheaper CP wise then finesse outside of it, considering that skills is 4 cp per level past the first 4 cp, which is still a huge discount compared to buying up DX or IQ. You would expect most TK users to have notable finesse.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by oneofmanynameless

I think it would replace your DX

This. TK doesn't grant you all skills at IQ level. It changes the base attribute for using those normally DX-based skills. (TK makes things float, right? Har har.)

I take it one step further, and treat physical skills "TK Broadsword" (etc) as a different skill than regular "Broadsword". Physical skills involve a lot of muscle memory and often pretty specific conditioning. (Not necessarily for general strength or fitness, but just task-specific stuff -- ask a guitar player, for instance, about what they had to do to learn to grip chords or bend strings.) In fairness, TK-based physical skills should require the same sort of mental training and conditioning. You don't have the knowledge of a master swordsman even about tactics and theory just because you're really smart; you have to study your Agrippa. You could learn how to fight with your TK, certainly, but it's not an automatic property of the ability. Otherwise, TK just becomes universal magic just because the player says "I do it with my TK" and threw all his points into superhuman IQ.

Once you've learned your TK fighting skill, that doesn't mean you can do it physically (if for some reason you had to -- and if fiction teaches us anything, it's that powered characters always lose their powers as a plot point somewhere along the line). In a generous mood, I might allow a default because some of the theory would carry over, but you're still missing all that physical training and conditioning, and it would take a significant skill investment in the physical version to get just as good.

[AlexanderHowl]

Broadsword is Broadsword, whether used by TK or not, as TK allows you to take one standard maneuver per turn as if you possessed a pair of disembodied hands. When it comes to Grappling or Striking, you can use DX to grapple or strike, meaning that Reliable and Talent would be really useful (I would not let either benefit any skill use though). For example, a character with IQ 12 [40], Will 20 [40], PK Talent 4 [20], TK 10 (Based on Will, +20%; Reliable, +10, +50%) [85] would have an effective DX for striking and grappling equal to 34 (and their enemy defend as if against an invisible foe).