Special Attack

Mercer · Post by **Mercer** » Wed May 18, 2011 11:57 am

I find mentalist are pretty limited in damage, Mind Spike being the only attack that forces Mind to be used for soak, and it can only go to x5, if the other person has Mind Shield (which I house rule to only increase Mental Defense by 1 per level) then it becomes impossible for two opposing Mentalist to affect each other. Mind Shield negates the strongest of Mind Spikes, Daze, or Confusion.

Is it reasonable to add an enhancement to Special Attack that it has to be soaked by your Mental Defense? It's the only way I see to break the x5 Mental damage barrier.

Post by **BASHMAN** » Wed May 18, 2011 1:04 pm

That x5 barrier is a balance issue. You can get rid of it if you want- but it will change the nature of the game.

Saker · Post by **Saker** » Wed May 18, 2011 2:32 pm

Well you could always buy your Mind Spike with the enhancement Extra Effect vs. Mind Shield...

just saying.

Post by **BASHMAN** » Wed May 18, 2011 5:42 pm

that works too.

urbwar · Post by **urbwar** » Wed May 18, 2011 8:26 pm

I've actually been thinking about this myself. I also feel Special Attack could be modified to represent a mental attack. I just don't feel Mind Spikes works to represent such attacks I've seen in the comics.

Anyway, my initial thought was to increase the cost per level, instead of making an enhancement. My reasoning for this is that except for other mentalists, you won't find many people with Mind Shield. I'm still tinkering with the idea, so once I get something formalized, I'll post it over on The Laboratory

Mercer · Post by **Mercer** » Wed May 18, 2011 8:31 pm

BASHMAN wrote:That x5 barrier is a balance issue. You can get rid of it if you want- but it will change the nature of the game.

I just feel it nerfs the mentalist a little too much. Like I said a mentalist against a mentalist (even with my house rule of weakening Mind Shield) would be x5 damage vs a x8 defense (without the house rule that would be a x11 defense). How would I get rid of it with just mind spikes? Let more levels be taken in mind spike? or add some sort of bonus for having a high mind?

Well you could always buy your Mind Spike with the enhancement Extra Effect vs. Mind Shield...

just saying.

That's an interesting approach. I'll have to look into how well that works out.

Dragonfly · Post by **Dragonfly** » Fri May 20, 2011 9:38 pm

Hey guys,

I totally agree with the fact that the rules as written nerf mentalists. It's VERY, VERY easy for mentalists to become virtually immune to each other's attacks, and it's actually not that hard for non-mentalists to become very resistant to attacks from even the most poweful mentalists. Your average SUPER-scientist seems to have a MIND 4.

I personally like the idea of an enhancement that makes a special attack into a mental attack.

It's in genre for most heroes (even groups of them) to go down before the might of powerful mentalists.

Best,

Dragonfly

Post by **BASHMAN** » Fri May 20, 2011 11:19 pm

The way I prefer to deal with this situation is not to use a "Mind Blast" that does damage, but to simply represent this as pain- in which case Daze works fine.

However, I did include in the next printing an "alternate power" to Mind Shield that is specifically a damaging Mind Blast.

Mercer · Post by **Mercer** » Sat May 21, 2011 3:14 am

However, I did include in the next printing an "alternate power" to Mind Shield that is specifically a damaging Mind Blast.

I'll have to wait to see that, it may solve my problems

Dragonfly · Post by **Dragonfly** » Sat May 21, 2011 7:51 am

Mercer wrote:
However, I did include in the next printing an "alternate power" to Mind Shield that is specifically a damaging Mind Blast.
I'll have to wait to see that, it may solve my problems

Likewise!

I can't wait to see that next printing! I'm low on cash, so I have to wait for the PDF to be updated on rpgnow.

Best,

Dragonfly

Post by **BASHMAN** » Sat May 21, 2011 1:22 pm

Edit: Mind Spikes is the one with the alternate power.