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One of the characters in my current game group has a Splugorth Talisman of Armor. Won in a previous battle many games ago. So I was thinking in a possible future encounter a foe with telekinesis might try and pull it off during battle, sort of a surprise tactic. Legal or not?

My thoughts are, I'm thinking legal, if the armor is not up. It should be as easy as slipping it on and off.

Now when the armor is activated, presumably the talisman is under the armor so would the armor keep it from being removed?

How would you rule?

Carl

Some GMs require a save vs psi to be able TK stuff with in a person's aura, a.k.a what they are wearing close to their skin.
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If I'm feeling mean I would require the above save vs psi, if feeling liberal no save except perception to make a "hay that's mine" grab roll to strike.

After armor activation: if it blocks Telepathy the it blocks TK.

I'd take it as a Disarm check, nothing in it feels like metal will stops TK, but the person could snatch it back or apply counter force via Disarm.

For the former question, Yes, totally fair game. Psionics and casters are dangerous not for their raw damage, but dirty tricks and tools they have access to.

I'd think most people would wear the talisman under clothing/ armour/ whatever, so the NPC in question would need a certain amount of omniscience to even know it was there.
Then would have to figure out how to TK it from whatever it was under.

I never liked the idea of telekinesis being used like this. in my mind it makes the psionic too powerful. To grab items and hurl at people fine but to throw people around or rip armor off their bodies i just have a personal problem with it. That being said, if you decide to use it, i strongly suggest you use the time period that it is required to use the psionic ability. Off the top of my head i don't think telekinesis is instant and requires some kind of duration of concentration like 10 seconds or something.

That would at least give the player a chance to possibly defend against the attack.

GA wrote:I never liked the idea of telekinesis being used like this. in my mind it makes the psionic too powerful. To grab items and hurl at people fine but to throw people around or rip armor off their bodies i just have a personal problem with it. That being said, if you decide to use it, i strongly suggest you use the time period that it is required to use the psionic ability. Off the top of my head i don't think telekinesis is instant and requires some kind of duration of concentration like 10 seconds or something.

That would at least give the player a chance to possibly defend against the attack.

Yeah but limiting the things you don't like would be artificial. A dude with TK can pick up anything within range without having to make a roll for it (assuming that it's not too heavy for his abilities), so why should an amulet around someone's neck or the quick-release catches on a suit of body armor be any different from the keys of a piano, or a pin resting on a table on the far side of the room?

Meanwhile in this particular case, Vry's got the winning answer on how to limit the inherent twinkery of TK. It's easy enough for someone with telekinesis to yank an amulet from someone's neck. But if the amulet's underneath clothes and armour, who even knows it's there?

I like Cinos's idea of the disarm check. That way the character gets a parry to hold on to the talisman. Seems fair as far as rulings go.

I'd only use this tactic under certain circumstances.

1. The attacker needs to be able to recognize what the talisman is and obviously see it or know its there.

2. The talisman needs to be on top, not under clothes or armor.

3. The attacker needs to be a powerful enough psychic to pull this off.

While I can see people wanting to wear this particular talisman under there armor/clothes, it looks like a big honking talisman. I'm looking at the various pictures of it.

Well thanks for the input everyone. If and when I use this I'll let you know how it goes. At this point the characters are involved in the Siege on Tolkeen and their main foe is the Coalition at this point.

Carl

Carl Gleba wrote:1. The attacker needs to be able to recognize what the talisman is and obviously see it or know its there.

2. The talisman needs to be on top, not under clothes or armor.

3. The attacker needs to be a powerful enough psychic to pull this off.

If you want to add an extra layer of difficulty and encourage rounded characters, force a perception check to notice the location of the talisman (10ish if it's just in plain sight, not always a snap judgment to go, 'Oh he's got a shield, it MUST be a talisman!', higher if it's covered by clothing / easily moved or removed items that -could- be TKed through, cloth, robes, etc, not metal plating). In addition, I add disarm bonus to TK based on level (something to the tune of +1 per 3 Levels (per 2 for Super TK).

^-- This is from a player who had a non-violent Mind Mage, disarming his opponent was a big part of his meta.

Yeah I figured that's what number 1 would entail. A perception roll would definitely be called for.

Carl Gleba wrote:I like Cinos's idea of the disarm check. That way the character gets a parry to hold on to the talisman. Seems fair as far as rulings go.

I'd only use this tactic under certain circumstances.

1. The attacker needs to be able to recognize what the talisman is and obviously see it or know its there.

2. The talisman needs to be on top, not under clothes or armor.

3. The attacker needs to be a powerful enough psychic to pull this off.

While I can see people wanting to wear this particular talisman under there armor/clothes, it looks like a big honking talisman. I'm looking at the various pictures of it.

Well thanks for the input everyone. If and when I use this I'll let you know how it goes. At this point the characters are involved in the Siege on Tolkeen and their main foe is the Coalition at this point.

Carl

It also looks like a belt buckle in the Coalition Navy book, and I'd say it's a big honking talisman for those persons who want it to be; for those who wish to be more subtle, I'd think it could be smaller.
But that's just my view.

Carl Gleba wrote:Legal or not?

How do you mean legal? Legal like a bishop can move diagonally in chess, legal?

In that sense no, not legal.

Carl Gleba wrote:One of the characters in my current game group has a Splugorth Talisman of Armor. Won in a previous battle many games ago. So I was thinking in a possible future encounter a foe with telekinesis might try and pull it off during battle, sort of a surprise tactic. Legal or not?

My thoughts are, I'm thinking legal, if the armor is not up. It should be as easy as slipping it on and off.

Now when the armor is activated, presumably the talisman is under the armor so would the armor keep it from being removed?

How would you rule?

Carl

I would rationalize the situation.

Could you grab and pull the shirt off a guy wearing EBA?
What makes a field of force mechanically different than the EBA?

So going with your assertion (assuming the amulet is under the field), would it be possible to remove anything?

My own ruling would be "no", unless the object in-question were teleported off or something similar. It's a good thought, but it's a case of "your eyes can be decieving".

With an iron fist.

The Beast wrote:With an iron fist.

Some joker had to say it eventually.

I allow TK to be used to disarm people holding guns by using the same rules as disarm only at a range. In this case I also rule the weapon *can* go into the character's hand as Darth Vader showed us in Empire Strikes back.

If the armor was up then I'd say no way. If it's down or depleted (only 3 charges per day, remember) then I'd say it's fair game. In the case of the former it would have to be either a surprise attack or the one trying it would need the initiative.

Or maybe a caster and a psionic could double team him, one casting dispel magic barriers and the other removing it with TK as a follow up.

dirtyg wrote:Your the G.M do it if you want to and explain the person doing it has the greatest power they have seen in telekinesis. You dont have to include a mass of rules for doing it.

Oh, I know and I doubt the player would question it. They know if the bad guys can do it they can do it and vice versa.

Having a good time and telling a good story are first and foremost, but I like to be fair with the rules as well.

Carl

Anthar wrote:

The Beast wrote:With an iron fist.

Some joker had to say it eventually.

I just do










what I can do




















when I can do it.

Carl Gleba wrote:One of the characters in my current game group has a Splugorth Talisman of Armor. Won in a previous battle many games ago. So I was thinking in a possible future encounter a foe with telekinesis might try and pull it off during battle, sort of a surprise tactic. Legal or not?

My thoughts are, I'm thinking legal, if the armor is not up. It should be as easy as slipping it on and off.

Now when the armor is activated, presumably the talisman is under the armor so would the armor keep it from being removed?

How would you rule?

Carl

1) I agree, if the magic armor is up, the Talisman of Armor can not be removed.

2) If the talisman is not activated, than this tactic could work.
2a) The foe has to see the talisman, otherwise a telekinesis would be "felt" by the owner of the talisman
b) If the talisman can be seen, than it could work (e.g. open the cain) or if the foe tries to pull the talisman over the characters had, the character has a chance to feel something is wrong and cn try to fetch the talisman.