Rage provides psychic shielding

[SableWyvern]

Just skimming through The Kingdoms of Terror, and I noticed that the berserker pirates are immune to Mindblast (but not Psi-Surge), due to their battle frenzy.

Ergo, I'm thinking that I might add to the Telchoi's rage ability that it provides an instinctive shield and immunity to Mind Blast, up to Tier V. To balance this, I mighy also rule that a successful stun end the rage.

Thoughts?

 

[Eternalknight]

Sounds feasible enough

 

[redlaco]

Quite fitting from my point of view.
I will add this ruling in my campaign.
Thanks for the idea SableWyvern.

 

[August]

This is an excellent idea. In truth, it was something I wanted to do with the Telchoi after the fact, but we were in the midst of redoing the Psychic Combat section (for which Ian gets full credit for making a far better system than I had originally designed) and it simply slipped my mind.

Good one!

-A

 

[SableWyvern]

Thanking you all for you kind words.

 

[Nyxator]

While I liked your Knights of the White Mountain, I have to disagree on this one. Giving a temporary +4 to Strength and Constitution, +2 to Will save AND an instictive shield for an ability they can learn at level 2 is just too much, unless there's a major drawback, like being unable to perform any action but melee fighting untill the rage ends. And how would the stun effect work with the "I will not fail" primal scream?.

 

[SableWyvern]

Well, the +4 Con is largely irrelevant, as it merely covers the cost of the Scream for the purposes of Endurance.

I would rule that if stunned while under the effects of "I Will Not Fail", a second Will save be allowed to maintain the effect.

If you consider the addition of the shield too powerful, the obvious solution is to add in the -2 AC penalty that accompanies regular d20 rage (and which I suspect was omitted due to the End cost associated with this particular version). Personally, I don't see it as a problem.

 

[Nyxator]

I would rule that if stunned while under the effects of "I Will Not Fail", a second Will save be allowed to maintain the effect.

With their extremely high Will save, I doubt this would balance the
huge advantage.

Telchos Warriors are already strong as they are with the standard rules, just think of 15/- damage reduction. Giving them a psychic shield would unbalance them.
Of course, this is all in my opinion.

 

[SableWyvern]

Well, actually, regarding "I Will Not Fail", my ruling helps rather than hinders ... I hadn't thought about it from a too powerful perspective (I haven't really looked at the consequences of I Will Not Fail combined with a shield).

Whether or not that's too powerful ... well, it is a very high level ability, and other classes can be pretty potent by then as well (eg, Gunners getting 5 attacks dealing 2d8+3d6 damage on the first three and 5d6 on the last two; Dessi doing 5d6 damage with a 18-20/x3 crits, Kai with their plethora of Tier V Magnakai disciplines etc). I'll have a closer look though, as you may have a point. Other opinions on this one would be helpful.

Regarding your earlier "only melee" comment, my group tends to play this way pretty much by default anyway. I've never needed to make any sort of ruling on what can or cannot be done while under the effects of rage, because my players treat it as "battle frenzy" anyway. If it did come up, I would dissallow missile fire (but not thrown weapons) and a range of other activities -- with or without psychic shielding.

 

[Nyxator]

[...cut...]
Whether or not that's too powerful ... well, it is a very high level ability, and other classes can be pretty potent by then as well (eg, Gunners getting 5 attacks dealing 2d8+3d6 damage on the first three and 5d6 on the last two;

They can't use Marksmanship and Two Gun Mastery at the same time (nor Marksmanship and Rapid Reload), so it would be 2d8 on the first three and 2d6 on the last two. In addition, such an attack will drain 6 EP (and they can't recover their Endurance as fast as a Telchos Warrior) and it will take two move actions to reload his handguns in the following round.

Dessi doing 5d6 damage with a 18-20/x3 crits

Yes, but it will cost 5 willpower points per attack. Still very powerful, but on the other hand they are the people who defeated Agarash.

Kai with their plethora of Tier V Magnakai disciplines etc).

Well, High level Kai Masters are supposed to be unbalanced.
At level 19, Lone Wolf travels through the Darklands to Gnaag's throne room and kills three Darklords in the process.

I'll have a closer look though, as you may have a point. Other opinions on this one would be helpful.

I agree it's reasonable to add an instinctive shield when raging, as it's basically what happens in the gamebooks. My concern is about giving a psychic ability to a class that is already far superior on the physical level (especially when I consider that, according to Joe Dever, the Telcharim are a community that lives in peace and complete isolation thanks to the natural defence offered by the desert. I wouldn't expect such a strong class to come out from there).

Speaking of psychic defense, I was browsing through the gamebooks and noticed that in "The Dungeons of Torgar" Lone Wolf fights a Death Knight who is immune to Mindblast (but not Psi-surge). So, my question is: shouldn't the Death Knight class have access to some sort of mind protection?