Lord Torath (Private thread) Labyrinth of Madness

[TristenC]

Wording for the wish seems good
wish reaction Friendly table [2d10]=9, -5 =4: Friendly

The wish is granted, Steve now has the power of echolocation (as described in the bat sense spell) without the need to close his eyes.
He is also Blind!
Just kidding

True identity:
The brevity and wording of the ability seems to me to imply subjects that don't look like they normally do (Polymorph, illusion, disguise); I would further add shapeshifters not in their natural form like werewolves, dopplegangers, etc. I would say it allows the user to see the subject's natural form. It would not give a proper name or a species name, only a visual image of the figure in his mind.

-A Person polymorphed into a creature would look like the person
-A Person's soul trapped in a flesh golem would look like the person trapped.
-A Lycanthrope (like werewolves) in human form would look human
-A Therianthrope (like wolf-weres) in human form would look like the animal (wolf)
-Dopplegangers would look like their native doppleganger form
etc

[Lord Torath]

Wording for the wish seems good
wish reaction Friendly table [2d10]=9, -5 =4: Friendly

The wish is granted, Steve now has the power of echolocation (as described in the bat sense spell) without the need to close his eyes.

He is also Blind!

(dark glasses)

Just kidding

Cool! I’ll update my character sheet.

True identity:
The brevity and wording of the ability seems to me to imply subjects that don't look like they normally do (Polymorph, illusion, disguise); I would further add shapeshifters not in their natural form like werewolves, dopplegangers, etc. I would say it allows the user to see the subject's natural form. It would not give a proper name or a species name, only a visual image of the figure in his mind.

-A Person polymorphed into a creature would look like the person
-A Person's soul trapped in a flesh golem would look like the person trapped.
-A Lycanthrope (like werewolves) in human form would look human
-A Therianthrope (like wolf-weres) in human form would look like the animal (wolf)
-Dopplegangers would look like their native doppleganger form
etc

I can probably work with that.

I posted this question on Dragonsfoot and got all kinds of responses, ranging from just a name with no other context, to an image of how the person normally looks, all the way up to a True Name. One person even said the identity doesn't come from the target's mind, despite the power requiring Contact first.

In my mind, it's who the target thinks they are, and how they see themselves. I'd say that their True Name (if they have one) would be part of their true identity, but that's probably a bit much for a mere devotion to dig up. Might need Probe to get that out of them. Identity Penetration might reveal that they have a True Name, though, just not what it is.

So yeah, I'd agree with the examples you listed.

With that criteria, how about a person "Polymorph Other"d into a different form who has forgotten his previous form? Would Identity Penetration dig up his previous (and presumably inaccessible) memories of his former life? I'm not sure how I'd rule here.

[TristenC]

If it showed who they think they are it could make some confusing situations like a person polymorphed whose mind is gone, or a person who was brainwashed magically into believing they are someone else. I'd say somewhere locked away deep in the subconscious the knowledge of who they were is still lingering, even if they can't access it. So the power would show their original being/identity.

[Lord Torath]

Stephen uses his Artistic Ability – Jeweler to make a setting on Landro’s sword to set a gem.

Empowering a gem-setting for Jack’s sword
Intensify roll (Wis-3=17):[1d20]=11 – 25 PSPs + 1/round – Wis to 25, Int to 14, Con to 11
Step 1: Daily Preparation
Empower Preparation roll (Wis-12+1=14):[1d20]=6 – 50 PSPs
Step 2: Psychoportation access
Empower Discipline Access roll (Wis-12+1=14): [1d20]=20 Failure, 3 “20s” ruins item –50 PSPs
Empower Discipline Access roll (Wis-12+1=14): [1d20]=4 – 100 PSPs
End Intensify – 3 rounds maintenance = 3 PSPs
Adrenalin Control (from item) roll (Power Score: 16):[1d20]=18 Failure – 4 PSPs
Adrenalin Control (from item) roll (Power Score: 16):[1d20]=2 – 8 PSPs + 4/round
Adrenalin Control Bonus points to Con: [1d6] = 4 Con to 20
Step 3: Dimension Blade
Dimensional Blade roll (Con-1=19):[1d20]=13
Empower Dimensional Blade roll (Wis-12+1=9):[1d20]=19 – Failure: 50 PSPs
Empower Dimensional Blade roll (Wis-12+1=9):[1d20]=6 – 100 PSPs
Step 4: repeat Step 3 as desired n/a
Step 5: Sealing
Intensify roll (Wis-3=17):[1d20]=18 – Failure 13 PSPs
Intensify roll (Wis-3=17):[1d20]=19 – Failure 13 PSPs
Intensify roll (Wis-3=17):[1d20]=12 – 25 PSPs + 1/round – Wis to 25, Int to 14, Con to 15
Empower Sealing roll (Wis-12+1=14):[1d20]=6 – 50 PSPs
End Intensify and Adrenalin Control (system shock or take 1d6 damage if con 19+) 1 PSP + 7 rounds x 4 = 29 PSPs
System Shock Roll (95%): [1d100]=66
Total cost: 520 PSPs, 12 rounds – Recover time 21 hours, 40 minutes
Intelligence Roll Int(17) – [1d6]=>17-5=12

Summary:
Name: (Jack’s choice)
Item: Blue Jasper (50 gp) with silver and gold wire mount and setting.
PSPs: 48 Avail: 48 (regain 1/turn)
Alignment: Neutral Good, Int: 12, Ego: 2
Semi-Empathy
Dimension Blade (power score:17, Cost:6/5, +2 hit/dam, ignore armor, PS: double damage, 20: weapon shatters)
Note that this gem and setting can be transferred to other weapons if desired.

[TristenC]

How many psps does he have left for today?

[Lord Torath]

He can recover 576 PSPs per day (assuming he spends all day sleeping/meditating). Assuming he spent about an hour doing light exertion (eating, going to the bathroom, etc. regain 6 PSPs per hour) and 20 minutes doing Heavy Exertion (using his psionic powers - can't regain any PSPs) he can regain 550 PSPs, which is 30 more than he spent empowering the gem.

So he can be at his full potential of 260.

[TristenC]

The recepticle has to be refilled if he uses psps from that, right? It doesnt just refill itself?

[Lord Torath]

Right, he has to fill it, at 1 PSP per round - 4 hours 20 minutes to fill the whole thing.

However, he can take breaks between the the steps of empowering. It doesn't need to be done all in one go. So he can do the first couple steps, then wait for his PSPs to refresh before doing the last couple steps without actually touching his receptacle.

Assuming he performed psychic surgery on Ke'Sha just before midnight of the 3rd of Reaping, he'll be ready to perform the surgery on Jack about 20:00 or so (10 pm) on the 4th. By the morning of the 5th he can be back up to full PSPs.

Contact Roll on Jack (power score: 19): [1d20]=7 - 18 PSPs + 10 to maintain for 10 rounds.
Psychic Surgery Roll – Contact (power score: 15): [1d20]=14 - 10 PSPs
Mindlink Roll (power score: 16): [1d20]=10 - 8 PSPs/round for eleven rounds => 88 PSPs
Psychic Surgery Roll - Mindlink (power score: 15): [1d20]=6 - 10 PSPs
Total of 28+88+20 = 136 PSPs => 5 hours 40 minutes to recover

[TristenC]

Sorry i havent had a chance to look over all of this closely yet.

Since the power is going onto a gem to be attached to the weapon, not a weapon itself, i'm not sure it would apply.

The next point would be that if it were allowed, and Steve tells landro that there is a chance the dimension blade usage could fail and break his weapon, there is no way Landro would use it. He isn't going to risk a +4 sword having a 5% chance to break each usage of the ability.

[Lord Torath]

Whether Landro wants to use it is, of course, up to him. But there's no problem with the gem being mounted to the weapon:

Powers with a range of 0 or of touch must be originated by the touch of the item to its target or subject.

The empowered gem setting is definitely touching the weapon, and so should be able to initiate dimension blade (range of 0).

If I could boost the power score up to 20, then there'd be no risk of shattering the weapon (TWatW p65). A nat 20 would still fail, but wouldn't get the '20' result. Steve could conceivably do that by getting a better Adrenalin Control roll and using Intensify to boost Con instead of Wis, but that would make actually empowering it very difficult. Still feasible, but it would probably need several days to a week to make all the empower power checks. That Wis-12 is nasty.

Anyway, if Landro doesn't want it, Steve will offer the gem to Ke'Sha or Jack.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Note to self:
Crystal Focus to gain +1 to Empower
Intensify to increase Wisdom to 25
Empower - daily preparation
Empower - Access to Psychoportation

rest/recuperate

Intensify to increase Wisdom to 25
Empower - daily preparation 25 /50 PSPs
Drop Intensify

rest/recuperate if needed

Adrenalin Control - Boost Constitution - need 23 minimum, which is 7 points between this and Intensify.
Intensify - Con to 23 (Power score is Con-1, psionic item's score is creator's score-2)
Dimension Blade
Drop Intensify and Adrenalin Control
Intensify to increase Wisdom to 25
Empower

Intensify to increase Wisdom to 25
Empower - daily preparation
Empower - Final Sealing
Drop Intensify

[Lord Torath]

In The Will and the Way it mentions that psionic items can activate their powers on their own (p62 under Intelligence - 2nd paragraph). Do you have anything in place for determining just when psionic items will do this?

I put together some rules a while back and posted them on Dragonsfoot. You can take a look and decide if you like them or not.

[BishGada]

Hi, what is the "Intensify to increase Wisdom to 25" is it temporary or permanent? I never got into psionics... But Ke'Sha would love having permanent 25 wis

[Lord Torath]

It lasts until I stop paying the PSP cost. The score is only improved for psionic purposes (no bonus spells for priests, no immunity to illusions, no improved System Shock rolls) and for each point I increase one score by, the other two (of Con, Int, and Wis) drop by one for all purposes (except PSP totals, which are unaffected). So boosting my wisdom to 25 drops my Int and Con by 5 points each while I'm maintaining the power. As soon as I stop, all the scores return to normal. It costs 5 PSPs per point of change in my target score, and costs 1 PSP per round to maintain.

Also, it only affects the psionicist. With time, I could research a version that affects others, but it would take about 80 days of doing nothing but eat, sleep, and meditate. And with the increase only affecting psionic abilities, it's not really that useful to use on a non-psionicist. Sorry.

[BishGada]

Got it. Thanks.

[TristenC]

In The Will and the Way it mentions that psionic items can activate their powers on their own (p62 under Intelligence - 2nd paragraph). Do you have anything in place for determining just when psionic items will do this?

I put together some rules a while back and posted them on Dragonsfoot. You can take a look and decide if you like them or not.

Yeah, using the reaction tables for whether or not the item is willing to use the power for the person currently possessing it (friendly for the creator, otherwise adjusted for alignment). As for -when- it does or doesn't, I feel like that's a little more nuanced. The items are supposed to be intelligent, so they might not just blow their use at the first opportunity just because they can. For example, a fighter with an item that has the ability to heal; it probably wouldn't use the healing ability if he gets a small wound (like 10% of his health or less) unless it seems likely he will be attacked a lot soon. Aiming for 'practicality', and with the context that the item itself can sense. For instance, it can probably sense minds, and knows which is it's current 'owner'. Mindless things wishing to do the owner harm, however, I'm not sure how well it could detect that. It will basically come down to the
-relationship/reaction table
-awareness of the item
-practicality of the situation