Previous Next Index Thread

Re: Empower, restrictions?

 In a previous article, an634699@anon.penet.fi (Dr. Monty/Mr. Haul) says:
 >I was looking at the psi handbook the other day.....and wondered what 
 >kind of restricions should you put on a psionist being able to use the 
 >empower power?
 >Acording to what's written in the spell desc your level 6 psi could 
 First, Empower requires that the Psionicist be level 11 as a prerequisite
 for its use.
 >just buy a really nice high-quality dagger and empower it with tons and 
 >tons of powers, seal it, then he'd have a weapon more powerful than a 
 >number really munchkin magic swords....What can I do to prevent him 
 >from just knocking off daggers of 
 >dominiation/disintigration/telekenesis/detonate/whateverthehell and 
 >giveing 2 out to every party memeber??? I know makeing the daggers hard 
 >to get, but its' not very realistic to not let someone with a good deal 
 >of gold buy a high quality dagger?
 >The ONLY bad thing I can think of is mabey if the weapon gets pissed 
 >off and has dominate....:)
 >
 >
 I am wrestling with this same problem, and also the problem that every
 empowered item is by definition intelligent, self aware - almost a
 self actor.
 I am inclined toward requiring that the item not be of exceptional
 quality but that the psionicist must spend some time meditating with it,
 learning the channels that power must flow through the item before he
 can begin to empower it (say minimally a month of time where he cannot
 adventure or do anything particularly useful otherwise).
 You mentioned a dagger of domination/detonation... which would violate
 another restriction on empowered items which is that ALL of the
 psionic powers placed into the item MUST BE from the same discipline.
 My current psionicist in my campaign has just made it to level 11, and
 so I am fairly familiar with how much/little an 11th lvl psi could
 be expected to have in one discipline, and quite frankly if they have
 empower, and their primary discipline is not telepathy, then they
 most likely do not have more that 3 sciences and 6 devotions in their
 primary discipline.
 So even at the max number, it won't be utterly out of control.  I am
 still with this a bit concerned though, because my psionicist could
 essentially make items with more psp's than she has.
 To fix this I think I am leaning toward this rule:  The psionicist must
 first decide what powers he wants to put into the item, and then meditate
 successfully (power check each week like in meditation) for 1 week per
 power to be imbued.  If the psionicist fails 2 checks in a row he must
 begin again from the start (with a new item of appropriate value and
 rarity to begin construction on).
 If this does not properly restrict stuff, I may force the psionicist
 to make all of the items he is to empower by his own hand with no
 outside interferance, empowering them every day of the creation process
 so they are fit for psionic powers to be implanted in them.  This would
 require the guy to learn the physical skill as well as just dumping
 powers into the thing, and could lead to some significant role playing
 or character development decisions for the player in question.
 Hope it helps,
 Branden Pelok