"Ultimate" Psychic Powers? Not so ultimate

[Giant2005]

I agree with almost everything you said.
Mental/Telemechanic Possession are both junk in my books - you might get some use out of them but the downside is far too great. It is like using Bio Manip: Paralysis on yourself. It isn't smart. I also agree with the sentiment that the one melee prep time for Psi-Sword nagtes any possible use it has. Its only real use is when you are about to ambush someone and your party is willing to wait for you to get it out.

There are a couple of statements you have made that I do not agree with however, one is your list of useful powers. It contains one glaring omission: Telemechanic Mental Operation. That power is pure gold, it has the same effect as Telemechanic Possession but at less than a quarter of the ISP cost and without any of the drawbacks.

The second thing I disagree with is this:

Change it up, use TK to throw things at them, light them on fire, smack them around with a skeletabot. Do something, but don't spam your powers. If you do your game master will start lowering your experience earnings and when you ask them why they will reply. "But all you do is one thing. You're not roll playing at all." And they will be right.

I disagree with that statement about as much as anyone can disagree about anything. Your character is supposed to be a genuine being - not a character from a B grade movie. Movie characters change things up to keep us visually stimulated. A living being with it's survival on the line isn't suddenly going to change from a tried and true tactic to something else just for the sake of change. A lion will never try beating something to death with its tail because it knows its teeth and claws are its most powerful weapons. A human under threat of death uses whatever their best tool for surviving that situation would be. If the best tool for that situation is Bio-Manipulation and your character is aware of that fact; Using any of the other tools at your disposal is poor role-playing.

[nilgravity]

I always assumed psi sword was for when you're taken captive and all your weapons were taken away. Also every character should take boxing for the extra melee (though I did make a scientist who didn't take it but that's because I'm not a total munchkin).

[DhAkael]

-sigh-
Why must people automatically assume that all powers be for combat?
Psychometry makes a psyker invaluable as a tracker / investigator.
Exorcism (in rifts: Madhaven especially) is key to making sure if one of the party is taken over by the ruinous powers, that they have fighting chance of getting their bodies back.
Machine-ghost though leaving the psionic a boneless heap, is one of the most efficient ways to access data in a digital medium outside of having a cyberjacker (oh BTW; they go all limp when jacked in as well).
Stop thinking "LEEEEEEEROYYYYYY JENkins!" & start thinking thinking tactical.
Sure, it ain't glamorous, but it keeps the story moving.
Further, if the GM is a battle-a-holic, WTH were they doing making a person play a non-combat useful PC? Medics & such should be kept to NPC status in games / campaigns like that.
OR the GM should just bow out & hang up their GM hat for sticking a player into an untenable situation.

[Killer Cyborg]

Mentally Possess Others:
This ability allows you to possess another person's body, at the cost of leaving yours a mindless vegetable vulnerable to attack from all sorts of enemies and the ever present possessing entity which always seems to be around whenever a psychic leaves their body. To use it requires you to touch your victim on the bare skin. Not very easy in a world where practically everyone is wearing armor.
But i am sure you are thinking to yourself "But there is no counter to that power! Once you are inside another body you are undetectable and unstoppable!"
No, not even close. Look up the psychic power Read Aura. You will find it in the Sensitive section of the psychic powers list. Using Read Aura a psychic can instantly spot what is called a "Posessing Entity" Well my friend, a disembodied psychic possessing someone is a possessing entity. In other words a minor psychic with this power can instantly spot you. Instantly! There is no save, no way to avoid it. They look at you with the power, they see you in there. It's that simple.

Entities are a specific breed of creature.
Possessing somebody doesn't make you a "Possessing Entity" any more than sticking a horn on your head makes you a "Unicorn."

Ah, but you reply, "But a mind block will prevent a read aura!"

Yes, yes it will. But even that gives you away.
Imagine the scene. Bob is an officer at a CS base, you managed to possess his body while he partied in a bar somewhere and now you make your way to the base confident you can walk right through the guards and get what you need, no problem.

We've typically used the power in combat, to possess powerful enemies.
The rest of the enemies usually catch on once their friend starts shooting or eating them.
Against a solo enemy, it usually catches on when it wakes up covered in MDC duct tape and fusion blocks.

Trying to use the power to sneak into guarded CS territory is foolish; the dog boys would sniff you out in short order.

Telemechanic Possession:
Everybody loves this one. "I could totally possess that enemy giant robot and turn it on them, and if the crew is in it so much the better!
Well... not exactly. If you read the description of the power the people at Palladium went to great lengths to explain that in order for the power to work the machine has to have EVERYTHING that was needed for it to normally function. Fuel, batteries, power, whatever. and under no circumstance is capable of doing anything that it ordinarily couldn't do.
Like for instance, run without the keys in it...

So imagine this. Here i am, high level mind melter, i run up to a Skull Smasher who is busy trying to turn my party into vapor and doesn't see me until it is too late. I touch the robot's leg to make sure and trigger my ability. Suddenly i fall lifeless to the ground, in a mindless coma, my mind now occupying the robot. I am now in control, the crew is at my mercy as i go on a bloody rampage among the attacking CS troops!

Or do I? In reality what happens is this. The CS pilot watches as his machine goes out of control! The systems are all working themselves. The crew shouts in a panic that nothing is responding! The robot is moving all by itself!

So what does he do? He does what any one of us would do in that situation. He cuts the power by pulling the keys out of the ignition, or pulls out his command card or whatever it is that they use in a robot. The robot can't run without the keys in it. An obvious safety feature and the same reason why we do it in vehicles today.

So... you think that giant robots use keys to turn them on and off?

Guess what? The robot needs keys to run. No keys, no possession. It's that simple. I get kicked out and back into my body. The Pilot puts the keys back into the robot and finds that things have returned to normal. he takes one action to activate the robot while i take two to get to my feet.

Wait a second... You use one action to possess the robot.
You should get another attack as the robot before the crew even notices that you're there, unless you decide to cease all their actions the moment you're in the bot, giving yourself away.
When they do notice, the crew spends 1 attack to turn off the bot with the ( ) keys.
Then the pilot, not knowing that you're no longer possessing the machine, puts the keys back in and turns the thing back on again, for some reason.
Then you take two actions to get back to your feet, for some reason.

So you've used 3-4 actions, and the crew has used 2-3, by your reckoning.
But I'm not sure why you're taking 2 actions to get back to your feet.
And I'm not sure why you're getting back to your feet at all, instead of just possessing the machine again immediately, since you should still be within 10' (per level) of the thing- it's had no time to move away from you.

So from where I'm sitting, in your scenario a lone psychic has effectively neutralized a giant robotic war machine. He can keep playing back-and-forth with his possession until he runs out of ISP, giving his allies plenty of time to take out the robot entirely.

In short, the power is fine for possessing toasters. Yay...

Or for possessing unoccupied robots. Or for possessing weapons.
Or for possessing giant robots that don't happen to require keys.

Really, there's a LOT that can be done with the power, if you think things through and use it correctly.

The Psi-Sword.
I never use this one. I know, you're shocked. "But it does so much damage, it's so cool! Why won't you use it?"

Let me show you.

The psi-sword takes an entire melee round to summon. One entire melee and during that time it takes up all your attacks. You can't dodge, run, move, fight or do anything else. You have to stand there and concentrate on summoning it. This means if you were to suddenly come under attack and decided to summon the thing you would be stuck standing there and basically be automatically hit by anyone who decided to attack you! Even with average mega damage weapons you will be killed long before you ever even get to use the stupid thing.

So, the only real way you can use it is by summoning it out of combat and then carrying it around with you. it lasts for a bit at 5 minutes per level so why not carry it around all the time? Because it's a bit glowly sword that's why! It tells everyone that sees you that you're some kind of dangerous psychic that should be the first one targeted in any attack! Secondly it glows! It gives off light! It draws attention to it and to your party. At night in the wilderness it can be seen for hundreds of yards warning everything that you are coming and exactly where you are. It's like trying to sneak around while carrying a neon sign that says "Shoot me in the face!" Just plain dumb.

So basically, the power is worthless to you because it's not a good idea on stealth missions at night.
Gotcha.

Of course, during the day, or any time that you don't care if you're seen, it's fine.
Though I agree that the summoning time cripples the power's usefulness, that wasn't as much of an issue before 6th Sense was nerfed. Before then, you could usually sense danger up to a minute before it happened, and have plenty of time to summon your sword and otherwise buff up.

Psi-sword combat. Ok, let's say that somehow you managed to summon your psi-sword without getting killed, and somehow managed to get close enough to an opponent to use it. You hid in the closet and jumped out when they went to take a leak, you cleverly disguised yourself as an oddly glowing shrubbery. The enemy was all stoned.

You seriously have that much trouble getting into melee range when you play?
It's really that big of a deal to you, that it seems like an unlikely, nigh-impossible task?

Whatever the reason you are in range and you got your psi-sword ready so you let em have it! Well, this is when you find out that psychic are lousy fighters. You get tiny amounts of skills, you don't have much in the way of bonuses and you certainly don't have high end millitary training. So when you start slashing away at your oponents they dodge, and they parry, and they dodge and they parry and parry and dodge and eventually leap far enough back to start shooting you full of holes. Watching a mind melter try to use their psi-sword on a trained fighter like a CS commando or heaven help you, a juicer is truly pathetic to watch. I have seen a mind melter get sliced to pieces by a soldier with a set of vibro-claws. There was simply no way the mind melter could hit him with that thing. if he rolled high enough the guy parried, if not, he dodged. It was a sad sorry sight. it was just too bad he hadn't taken a useful power instead of that stupid psi-sword.

Of course, if you're NOT fighting CS Commandos, or Juicers, or other top-tier melee combatants, you generally do just fine.
Again, the problem you describe isn't the power, it's a foolish use of the power.

[The Galactus Kid]

OH SNAP

[Armorlord]

Take what DhAkael and Killer Cyborg said, add them together, and pretend I said it.

[Faceless Dude]

Mentally Possess Others:
This ability allows you to possess another person's body, at the cost of leaving yours a mindless vegetable vulnerable to attack from all sorts of enemies and the ever present possessing entity which always seems to be around whenever a psychic leaves their body. To use it requires you to touch your victim on the bare skin. Not very easy in a world where practically everyone is wearing armor.
But i am sure you are thinking to yourself "But there is no counter to that power! Once you are inside another body you are undetectable and unstoppable!"
No, not even close. Look up the psychic power Read Aura. You will find it in the Sensitive section of the psychic powers list. Using Read Aura a psychic can instantly spot what is called a "Posessing Entity" Well my friend, a disembodied psychic possessing someone is a possessing entity. In other words a minor psychic with this power can instantly spot you. Instantly! There is no save, no way to avoid it. They look at you with the power, they see you in there. It's that simple.

Ah, but you reply, "But a mind block will prevent a read aura!"

Yes, yes it will. But even that gives you away.

Well, I suppose a better option than blocking your mind (and if i recall correctly, see aura isn't stopped by a mind block anyway) would be to, before you posess Bob the CS dude, read HIS arua, and then when you're proceeding through the checkpoint, Alter your Aura to mimic his.

Also, if you have access to it, use Bleed Aura on someone else trying to pass through whatever checkpoint you're trying to get through. Your target's aura will show up as "funky" and trip focus the attention of anyone guarding that entrance. Then you get to "help" them "bring in" the "dangerous terrorist", putting yourself above suspicion and gaining access without further trouble.

[The Beast]

...Telemechanic Possession:
Everybody loves this one. "I could totally possess that enemy giant robot and turn it on them, and if the crew is in it so much the better!
Well... not exactly. If you read the description of the power the people at Palladium went to great lengths to explain that in order for the power to work the machine has to have EVERYTHING that was needed for it to normally function. Fuel, batteries, power, whatever. and under no circumstance is capable of doing anything that it ordinarily couldn't do.
Like for instance, run without the keys in it...

So imagine this. Here i am, high level mind melter, i run up to a Skull Smasher who is busy trying to turn my party into vapor and doesn't see me until it is too late. I touch the robot's leg to make sure and trigger my ability. Suddenly i fall lifeless to the ground, in a mindless coma, my mind now occupying the robot. I am now in control, the crew is at my mercy as i go on a bloody rampage among the attacking CS troops!

Or do I? In reality what happens is this. The CS pilot watches as his machine goes out of control! The systems are all working themselves. The crew shouts in a panic that nothing is responding! The robot is moving all by itself!

So what does he do? He does what any one of us would do in that situation. He cuts the power by pulling the keys out of the ignition, or pulls out his command card or whatever it is that they use in a robot. The robot can't run without the keys in it. An obvious safety feature and the same reason why we do it in vehicles today.

Guess what? The robot needs keys to run. No keys, no possession. It's that simple. I get kicked out and back into my body. The Pilot puts the keys back into the robot and finds that things have returned to normal...

I don't think military vehicles would even have keys. I know none of the ones I've driven needed a key to start it.

[GlitterKnight]

Mentally Possess Others:
This ability allows you to possess another person's body, at the cost of leaving yours a mindless vegetable vulnerable to attack from all sorts of enemies and the ever present possessing entity which always seems to be around whenever a psychic leaves their body. To use it requires you to touch your victim on the bare skin. Not very easy in a world where practically everyone is wearing armor.
But i am sure you are thinking to yourself "But there is no counter to that power! Once you are inside another body you are undetectable and unstoppable!"
No, not even close. Look up the psychic power Read Aura. You will find it in the Sensitive section of the psychic powers list. Using Read Aura a psychic can instantly spot what is called a "Posessing Entity" Well my friend, a disembodied psychic possessing someone is a possessing entity. In other words a minor psychic with this power can instantly spot you. Instantly! There is no save, no way to avoid it. They look at you with the power, they see you in there. It's that simple.

Ah, but you reply, "But a mind block will prevent a read aura!"

Yes, yes it will. But even that gives you away.

Well, I suppose a better option than blocking your mind (and if i recall correctly, see aura isn't stopped by a mind block anyway) would be to, before you posess Bob the CS dude, read HIS arua, and then when you're proceeding through the checkpoint, Alter your Aura to mimic his.

Also, if you have access to it, use Bleed Aura on someone else trying to pass through whatever checkpoint you're trying to get through. Your target's aura will show up as "funky" and trip focus the attention of anyone guarding that entrance. Then you get to "help" them "bring in" the "dangerous terrorist", putting yourself above suspicion and gaining access without further trouble.

Beat me to it. Yeah, basically, in that situation you used the wrong power, should've used Alter Aura. Alter Aura is a disguise skill, Mind Block is a shield; holding a shield implies you intend to defend yourself, thus causing alarm. Touch based keeps it from becoming crazy broken, as you have total control and there's scant defense against it, but psychics have to be crafty. You could use psionic invisibility to sneak in, knock him out, and kidnap him. Take him back to your hideout, mind rape Bob for awhile before you possess him, learn his soldiers' faces and names, the protocols, the layout, etc., so that you aren't blundering into a CS base, hoping to bluff your way through any security. Sadly, that is a good point about the psychic soldiers and Dog Boys and Psi Stalkers. The Dead Boys are not exactly used to magically transformed, possessed or mind controlled enemies slipping into their bases while looking like or being their friends, but it's definitely a thing the security regs have protocols for. They need some edge or somebody would have done this before and dropped a suitcase nuke in Chi-Town.

But the psychic sensitive Dead Boy grunt guarding the door? That's just a dick move on your GM's part. He can name the guy Prv. Richard Moove, just to rub it in. They happen to have a sensitive available for that job, and it's his shift? And he knows Bob personally, and knows he isn't psychic? Well ****, why even let me get that far if you're just gonna **** on me, Mr. Big Bad GM? Why not have him hit you with a lightning bolt from heaven on the way to the base that kills your mind inside of Bob's skull, sending your spirit screaming into psychic hell? If he's not going to let you employ your goddamn superpowers, the whole basis of the class you said he made you play, then **** it, quit. Everyone has to be allowed to do their special thing and have fun, not get stomped on when they use the talents the Megaverse gave them.

Yes, there are lot of psychics among humanity on RIFTS Earth, and the CS army does try to recruit them, as they are useful. But the CS doesn't like psychics, and most are kind of oppressed, which must depress recruiting among them, I feel. I can't think they're everywhere, and that they're stuck guarding doors. Doesn't the CS have like a Psi-Battalion where his gifts would be much better utilized? Every important door cannot have a sensitive psychic guard on it, unless it's a Dog Boy or a Stalker. Even then, Alter Aura would help a bit. Possibly a Dog Pack could detect a psychic signature coming off of Bob, whose not supposed to be psychic, but I'd have to reread Mental Possession and the Dog Boy/Psi Stalker RCCs to figure out if they can smell a psychic inside another person, hiding under Alter Aura. I'd definitely require them to roll well for that. The power has to actually be helpful.

Now, on to other powers...

Psi-Sword: full round power up is lame, but for a 12th level Mind Melter, Psi-Sword is pretty beardy. Perhaps an alteration to that can be done, so for a full power Psi-Sword, you need the full round, but you can sacrifice fewer attacks in a round to summon a weaker one. So for a one attack summon, you can pop a 1d6 or 2d6 blade, and going on up. As damage dice for the sword and attacks per round scale up and depend on what your character is like, you'd have to work that out with your GM.

But Killer Cyborg is right, about everything, as per usual. Here's a solution to getting into melee...

Buy a ******* jetpack. Boom, probably solved. Now you're a flying psychic powerhouse. Or buy a TW one that works on TK, so it's silent and you can charge it with ISP. Or a TK Flight Belt or something.

Telemechanic Possession: again, there are drawbacks, but there's supposed to be. Now, you raise a decent point with the robot thing; yes, you might run into a crew who does the smart thing and yanks the plug, or pulls the keys out, or hits the manual override (I always assume there's a manual override, because there should be). But I doubt that would be most crews first response to the robot going crazy, and if they do figure that out, nothing says they'd turn the bot back on immediately. For all they know, whatever just happened will happen again when they turn it on. If they're under fire, they'll probably start it back up again, but either way, you're taking their bot out of the action for a time, either immobile or under your control. Also, what's the start up time for a giant robot? I assume you can't just turn it off and on every melee action.

Touch is another problem, but use the TK Flying Belt of awesomeness, and fly up, psionically or magically invisible, possess it, and make the belt fly your body out of the way (this might require more expensive jetpack/magic flying belt, but you could do it with a summon monster tattoo or just a trusted minion to haul your meatsack around). Rinse, repeat. For more fun, use it on a power armor instead. There's no key to pullout, no override they can access. The wearer can't even move, as you control the suit's servos, way more powerful than he is. He can't reach for an override or reach for the suit's seals, since he can't move independent of the armor. You got him good and ****** in there.

I prefer Telemechanic Paralysis myself. Hey SAMAS; stop flying and start falling like an unaerodynamic brick. Bam.

Biomanipulation Spam? Hogwash! You have seven different varieties of Biomanipulation, and they're all pretty great. Blind that guy, deafen that guy, make that guy fill his helmet with enough vomit to choke on, and make that guy break out into hives. You can take a whole squad of Deadboys with that **** and a Vibro Knife. So much fun. Just vary it up so you don't just blind and paralyze everyone. My personal favorite is Biomanipulate:paralyze, walk over, take his gun, then pull his helmet off, and then kill him with his own gun. Then loot his shiny, undamaged armor, and rejoice in your evolutionary superiority.

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings!

I have played Mind Melters for sooooooo long, thast I have made an art just out of refining my homemade Character Sheets (O/RCC specific) for Mind Melters. As of RUE, I find that Mind Melters are truely fearsome foes.

Mentally Possess others is a problem for you? Heres how we do it at our table (This is NOT criticism, but an offer of experiences shared); Liberal use of Clairvoyance to get glimses of what I/the Target will be doing (including screw ups to avoid), next once you have the target in captivity (Biomanipulation is PERFECT for taking live prisoners),the use of See Aura (Automatically part of every Melter's list of starting powers) to be able to duplicate it later is a must. Next is the serious use of a friend with a simple voice recorder to record your spouting every importent detail (codes, personel you'll likely meet with, location layout, and other goodies) as soon as you use Mind Bond on the bastard. The Friend may even be using Telepathy on you (this is part of the plan so choose to not Save VS the 'Pathing) to concentrate on "minor" details that you'll find fading later, and he/she will be recording thier own notes for you. Follow this with Mind Wipe to erase whatever that HE learned of YOU. Next as you approach the target area, activate Alter Aura (Automatically part of every Melter's list of starting powers) to duplicate the Target's original Aura. After that, it's up to role Playing and the demands of the Quest/Mission/Adventure.

Psi-Sword is a problem? Why? I have no problem using Clairvoyance and Sixth Sense liberally! So before it gets nasty, I put up TK-Force Field (25 MDC x Level [3rd minimum for Psi-Sword] = 75 INVISIBLE MDC before the enemy even attacks) ! Then I use Super TK to disarm enemy gunners and with up to Level number of targets PER ACTION, I can attempt to disarm up to three [minimum for Psi-Sword] foes each action! Then I can race into melee combat with my favorite move of travel: The Bicyle or Motorcycle (depends on Character), so with one hand free to attack with as the other hand steers, I can get into melee range REAL fast. If stealthing is an issue, then just use the Mind Melters choice of appearance to make it as small as possible and keep it "sheathed" in a small SDC log, ready to cut though the SDC object as part of the attack.
Also, I have the OLD edition of Night"bane", and on that world, Psi-Sword may not do MD (nothing does), but it also does NOT list a start-up time for it either! Therefore, the Psionics Default of 1 Action to Activate + my Psychic in the current Game where my PC "Victor" is an Ex-Olympic (Fencing) hopeful (failed with only a 17 PP) but has spent his skills to get HTH: Martial Arts, Boxing Acrobatics and Gymnastics! Victor's typical Psi-Sword Attacks are currently +4 Strike and cause 7D6 SDC (6D6 Power + 1D6 Fencing Skill), and he's only 3rd Level.

Telemechanic Possession? Sorry. I cannot help you there, as I have NEVER taken it. I have other ways of fighting, and simply have neither taken nor used this Power.

[Giant2005]

there is no start up time for psi sword, that is only for low level mind melters .. after level 6 it's instant just like every other psi sword wielding character.

That isn't true but it would be great if it was.
Think I might use that as a house-rule, I have been making it instant anyway. Making it instant from 6th level seems a bit more deserving than having it instant from 1st.

[drewkitty ~..~]

If you are disapoined at the nerfed powers and spells in the current generations of the PB games then you should take a look at the 1st ed powers and spells in PF1.

[Slight001]

If you are disapoined at the nerfed powers and spells in the current generations of the PB games then you should take a look at the 1st ed powers and spells in PF1.

And this fabled 1st edition can be found where?

[The Beast]

If you are disapoined at the nerfed powers and spells in the current generations of the PB games then you should take a look at the 1st ed powers and spells in PF1.

And this fabled 1st edition can be found where?

Ebay?

[Faceless Dude]

I am amazingly dissapointed in your lack of creativity regarding telemechanic possession.

What are two common features of robot vehicles?

a.) Ejector seats for the pilots and crew. Hard for them to turn off the Skull Smasher when they're floating down to the ground in parachutes.

b.) Self. Destruct.

this

[drewkitty ~..~]

If you are disappointed at the nerfed powers and spells in the current generations of the PB games then you should take a look at the 1st ed powers and spells in PF1.

And this fabled 1st edition can be found where?

Ebay?

I got mine in a Game Store. Just yesterday I saw a 1st ed Villeins Unlimited in a local game store.

Ebay might have one for sale every so often, yes.

[Sureshot]

Agreed about the ejecting the pilots as being useful. Activating self destruct not sure you can just trip it so easily. Not to mention why toss away all that wonderful salvage and you have to make sure that none of your allies are in the effect of the explosion.

[Sureshot]

I don't think it's so much ire as those who responded just disagreeing with you.

[flatline]

Heh, not one agreement or even a acknowledgment that i had a single good point in my post as usual. Yeesh this is one savage board.
Let's face it, the system is rather vague and open to broad interpretation and every game master comes up with their own rulings. What i described was based on my game master's rules. That aside I can say with almost complete certainty that few if any of you have played a mind melter or any straight psychic class for that matter since not one of you had a single horror story of a psychic power attempt gone wrong. But then again, perhaps your game masters are simply generous while mine was not.
I don't think i will visit this topic again. No one seems to have anything constructive to say besides me being wrong.
You can all save your ire for my next post...

Read between the lines of everyone's posts and you'll find lots of good constructive advice, perhaps best summed up as "Sure, all these powers require tactical considerations in order to use them effectively, but they can be used effectively".

Psi-sword didn't used to take a full 15 seconds to create (it used to be instant). I hadn't noticed that change in RUE...I'm not sure what I think about that change.

Anyways, try not to be discouraged by the responses to your thread. I'm sure none of it was meant to be personal. I thought it was a great starting post for what turned out to be, I think, a pretty interesting discussion.

--flatline

[Faceless Dude]

Psi-sword didn't used to take a full 15 seconds to create (it used to be instant). I hadn't noticed that change in RUE...I'm not sure what I think about that change.

--flatline

According to my copy of the RMB, the Psi-sword super psionic power always took 1 round to activate. It was also reprinted that way in the Game Master Guide. The Cyber-Knight's version of the psi-sword was instant, but that was its selling point as it did far less damage than the power

[Giant2005]

Heh, not one agreement or even a acknowledgment that i had a single good point in my post as usual. Yeesh this is one savage board.

Hey that aint fair! Look at the very first reply!

I agree with almost everything you said.

[flatline]

Psi-sword didn't used to take a full 15 seconds to create (it used to be instant). I hadn't noticed that change in RUE...I'm not sure what I think about that change.

--flatline

According to my copy of the RMB, the Psi-sword super psionic power always took 1 round to activate. It was also reprinted that way in the Game Master Guide. The Cyber-Knight's version of the psi-sword was instant, but that was its selling point as it did far less damage than the power

RMB does indeed say it takes 15 seconds to create a psi-sword. My past master psychics never took psi-sword so I guess I never gave the power sufficient attention to notice that it took longer to activate than the Cyber-Knight's psi-sword.

My mistake. Sorry for any confusion.

--flatline

[Killer Cyborg]

Heh, not one agreement or even a acknowledgment that i had a single good point in my post as usual. Yeesh this is one savage board.

If you feel that you had a good point that remains unaddressed, feel free to restate it.

Let's face it, the system is rather vague and open to broad interpretation and every game master comes up with their own rulings. What i described was based on my game master's rules.

I address the official rules of the game.

That aside I can say with almost complete certainty that few if any of you have played a mind melter or any straight psychic class for that matter since not one of you had a single horror story of a psychic power attempt gone wrong. But then again, perhaps your game masters are simply generous while mine was not.

You didn't ask for horror stories of psychic power attempts gone wrong.

I don't think i will visit this topic again. No one seems to have anything constructive to say besides me being wrong.
You can all save your ire for my next post...

Just because people point out that you are wrong does not mean that they are angry.
Just like you complaining about your lack of success with psychic powers does not mean that you are necessarily angry about it.

[Sureshot]

According to the rules, you can make the possessed machine do whatever you desire as long as it's actually capable (no using a toaster to fire Boom Gun rounds). That, to me, says you can trigger the self-destruct sequence. Sure, ejecting the crew is probably better for you, but there are always situations....

True that.

[masslegion]

I have really enjoyed this thread and all points made in this post.


I enjoyed one physic post I saw where someone used TK to pull out the all the pins on all the grenades his opponent was wearing.

boom