Psionic Prosthetics

[Shark_Force]

so, as noted in a previous thread, i'm pretty much just getting started as far as the AtB setting is concerned. just recently got the 2nd edition core book, etc, etc.

one thing i'm wondering is that having looked through the past several forum pages of discussion for interesting stuff, i haven't seen anyone talk about the psionic prosthetic abilities at all., which feels odd to me.

the regular ectoplasmic hands aren't *too* surprising (although they are a 50% discount for any winged creature that wants full wings and a pair of arms, and isn't planning on making extensive use of other psionic abilities, and would also be great for snakes, and are useful for biped:none purebreds, particularly since it will create full arms for many of those creatures as i read it). with a free "advanced touch" thrown in for good measure - not exactly the most amazing advanced sense in existence, but hey, it's free. and also, they heal much faster than normal (if they aren't destroyed), and can even be replaced if they are lost. on the other hand (no pun previously intended, but since i left it in obviously intended now), i totally get that lots of people don't want glowing vaporous hands.

what really surprises me is that there hasn't been discussion on the extended ectoplasmic hands, or the psychic "walk".

so, first, extended hands. they do a lot of things. first off, they do all the stuff the basic ectoplasmic hands do, which is pretty nice. for bats, they're amazing; combine the ability to sense objects through walls (with advanced sonar) with the ability to *reach* through said walls and manipulate objects? yes, please. combine that with even larger bonuses to otherwise difficult skills (+25% to pick locks, for example, between advanced touch and the ability to feel inside the lock). next up is the real kicker: the ability to reach through armour. as i read it, this should allow you to ignore non-natural AR for sure, and possibly natural AR as well. and as yet another advantage, you deal damage direct to hit points, and they are a 1d6 (+PS bonus) natural weapon for all intents and purposes. they probably also can't be parried (though they can still be sacrificed to parry if needed; obviously, losing your arm for several days isn't great, but there are worse things than losing arms that will regenerate). i'm envisioning elephants that just reach through the shell of a type 1 robot, grab the pilot, and rip them in half from outside of the robot without breaking a sweat (1d6 + 25 or even 1d6 + 30 damage should be fairly easy to achieve between +10 to PS for being an elephant, strength bonus from size level, and physical skills; not very many humans are going to have enough HP to survive that hit).

have i just missed some major discussion on this, or has this actually escaped the attention of everyone else somehow?

next up, psychic "walk". by which i mean, at-will, unlimited flight, including the ability to hover, for as long as you're conscious (and don't want to use any other psychic abilities). the only flight ability that costs less which i can find anywhere is glide, which can't be used most of the time. for the typical price of full biped, you can fly at your regular speed. unlimited height, and basically perfect maneuverability. now, granted it doesn't give the overland travel speed of the actual flight abilities, or the combat bonuses once you're at high speed that flight grants. but this is so far beyond being a "prosthetic" it isn't even funny.

are these abilities just completely escaping everyone's attention because so many people seem to dislike animal psionics and never read them or something?

[Nightmask]

They probably just don't see much use, with people most often preferring to actually have legs or hands rather than psychic powers to fill in for them.

[Rali]

Your Extended Ecto Hands example is a bit extreme and not all that easy to create.

The first character I rolled up to make the Elephant you spoke of with the Extended Ecto Hands and huge damage bonuses wound up with a Spd of 5, but a PS of 33 (Dmg Bonus +18). I dropped the character to Size 15, and took all of the Vestigial Drawbacks to give me a total of 65 Bio-E with which I was able to afford Extended Ecto Hands, Partial Biped, Partial Speech, Prehensile Trunk, Crushing Strength, and Natural Armor without having to take Big & Dumb or Big & Slow. Still this character will have a lot of drawbacks, or at least has to give up a lot in order to get this one trick. Not sure if it's worth it, unless you're going to max stat it.

I wouldn't compare Psychic Walk to flying, it's just walking on air, or as the book puts it, "a limited form of levitation." I don't think I've ever seen a character who actually took this power. However, a snake with this would be pretty interesting. This power's main benefit is that it would allow a character to climb/descend cliffs, walls and fences rather easily, but as for "unlimited heights", you'll need to take into account fatigue and oxygen; and the law that what goes up, must come down. So don't forget to pack a parachute.

[CyCo]

I ran a game years ago where I had the party run into a group of alien 'greys'. I think I had them as mutant hominids, but vastly de-evolved (for further bio-e), and they had the ectoplasmic hands (can't remember if they had the legs), which were a permanent enhancement (having no normal arms). At first the party thought that was weird, but didn't think much about it further. Until they got abducted. They killed most of the greys after the abduction, but luckily for them, not all. Because the greys UFO had all the instruments concealed under a seemingly solid piece of metal. Reachable if you have ectoplasmic hands, but not if they're flesh & bone. ;]

[Shark_Force]

Your Extended Ecto Hands example is a bit extreme and not all that easy to create.

The first character I rolled up to make the Elephant you spoke of with the Extended Ecto Hands and huge damage bonuses wound up with a Spd of 5, but a PS of 33 (Dmg Bonus +18). I dropped the character to Size 15, and took all of the Vestigial Drawbacks to give me a total of 65 Bio-E with which I was able to afford Extended Ecto Hands, Partial Biped, Partial Speech, Prehensile Trunk, Crushing Strength, and Natural Armor without having to take Big & Dumb or Big & Slow. Still this character will have a lot of drawbacks, or at least has to give up a lot in order to get this one trick. Not sure if it's worth it, unless you're going to max stat it.

I wouldn't compare Psychic Walk to flying, it's just walking on air, or as the book puts it, "a limited form of levitation." I don't think I've ever seen a character who actually took this power. However, a snake with this would be pretty interesting. This power's main benefit is that it would allow a character to climb/descend cliffs, walls and fences rather easily, but as for "unlimited heights", you'll need to take into account fatigue and oxygen; and the law that what goes up, must come down. So don't forget to pack a parachute.

- don't need partial hands (you're going to get ectoplasmic ones). don't need partial biped either, really (in fact the trick probably works better without it, because if you don't have arms that would be usable, it creates full arms for you; so instead of being able to reach in as far as your hands go, you'd be able to reach in as far as your full arm goes), or the prehensile trunk (though if you don't take that, you're probably not playing an elephant so much as some large generic blob of flesh that can hit things, it is kinda iconic).

like i said, i can understand why some people don't take it. lots of people don't want glowing vaporous arms. on the other hand, i'm surprised nobody seems to have discussed what you can do with it at all; it's a very interesting ability.

(and while i agree that psychic walk is not quite as amazing as full-blown flight can be, it's quite a bit less expensive to say the least, and you can do it indefinitely while most forms of flight are relatively limited in duration, and you will typically need to maintain a minimum forward speed. psychic walk will let you hover at a window, disable an alarm, cut out an opening, and go inside... unless you're a hummingbird, you probably can't do all that with flight, and even with a hummingbird it's probably going to be tricky because you won't have any "ground" to push against to hold you stable).

[eliakon]

I have found that these powers are perennial favorites of my group. The ability to play a normal looking animal that can air walk up to a third story window then reach through that window, open it from the inside, and let them selves in......well the first person to combine these was a feline thief (Yes, they had to go with cat burger).

[Shark_Force]

....


just checking, did that cat burglar have something to hold on to the wall with when they had to cancel the walk power to active the arms?

(you'd need two people to use them both at the same time... one with arms, one with the walk).

[eliakon]

....


just checking, did that cat burglar have something to hold on to the wall with when they had to cancel the walk power to active the arms?

(you'd need two people to use them both at the same time... one with arms, one with the walk).

They would air walk up, then use Acrobatics (tight rope walking FTW!) to stand on narrow window ledges and then switch powers. Once the window was open they would then go back to walking to enter the place. Wash, rinse, and repeat for safes, or putting loot in their bag or what ever.