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So if a Nega Psychic or Psi Nullifier activate Mind Block for some reason, does that block their abilities to interfere with magic like it blocks their use of most psionics?

--flatline

Rifts Pg 118 Mind Block : "... the character can not sense anything, can not use psychic abilities..."

While powered by PPE, the Nega-Psychic's Disrupt Magic power is listed under "Special Nega-Psychic RCC Psionic Powers". So assuming that ability and power are synonyms, and psychic and psionic are synonyms, it would qualify as a psychic power which you would not be able to use while mind-blocked.

On the other hand: Nega-psychics do not have mind block by default, nor do they have mind-block auto-defense. They could select mind block as one of their physical abilities, but why would they? Their "Closed to the Supernatural" psionic power is way better.

On the other hand, that power does say "as if a Mind Block is constantly in force (no ISP cost)". I guess you could interpret that as saying it has the same 'can't use psionics' limitation that mind-blocks do, but I wouldn't. The 'as if' wording gives you a loophole.

To interpret otherwise would basically mean that a nega-psychic would have to 'deliberately concentrate to open himself' simply to use his basic disrupt magic ability. That just seems odd because I always pictured them remaining closed off while denying magic.

As for the Nullifier: they definitely do have Mind Block AND Auto-defense (not sure why you'd need basic Mind Block if you had Auto-defense... perhaps if a Bleeder used Block-Breaker or something?).

However: while Psi-Nullification is powered by ISP (leading us to think it is a psychic power) it doesn't actually say this. It is grouped under "Special Nullifier RCC Abilities". Unlike the Nega-Psychic it doesn't say 'psionic' there.

I'm reading the whole RCC to find an indication that Nullification is psionic, but I can't. It is referred to as "a barrier of mental energy", "a battery of negative energy", "living batter of negative psychic energy", "natural defense mechanism developed by the mutant", "wave of negative psychic energy", "negative energy", etc.

There are numerous examples of books where people expend PPE without the ability being a magic spell. Similarly, we probably should not assume that just because someone expends ISP on something that it must be a psychic ability. We just do that because as far as we recall, only psychics have ISP, and only psionics use them.

I think there are exceptions to this though. For example, the Acolyte in Nightbane TTGD has ISP, but doesn't necessarily have any psychic abilities unless they spend skills to buy them. South America 1's Anti-Monster has limited ISP that they can never spend on anything. South America 2's Achilles Neo-Human has a natural ability to turn MDC which uses ISP but isn't specified as being a psionic power as some of their other abilities (touch of life/death) are.

Another example is from the Clergy-categorized "Healer OCC" in the Palladium RPG Revised (not to be confused with the Psychic-categorized "Psi-Healer PCC" in the Palladium FANTASY RPG 2nd ed). They have an ISP based on PE (as opposed to ME as psychics do) and the OCC specifies that their abilities are not psionic, and that they probably tap into some kind of "anti-psionic" ability. Many of their first-level abilities operate identically to psychic powers, but they are specified as NOT being psychic powers.

I expect that the 'negative psychic energy' that Nullifiers tap into might be similar to this 'anti-psionic' power that Healers tap into. It is odd that the PPE-powered ability of the Nega-psychics WOULD be psionic but the ISP-powered ability of the Nullifiers would not be, but odder things have happened.

Phase Mystics, while having psionics as Nullifiers do, can also use ISP to nullify magic/psi, though like phase powers, they are not specified as being psionics. Inquisitors can do it without spending energy at all. Guardians and those with Talents in Nightbane can use PPE to negate magic as the Nega-Psychic does without it being psionic, so I guess that's just a uniquely Nega-Psi thing. Perhaps it works differently using Beyond the Supernatural stats though, haven't read that book yet.

So the reason I'm curious about this is that if their abilities count as psionics and another nearby psychic uses Group Mind Block (which has no save, by the way), then the Nega-psychic and Nullifier would be neutralized.

I'm trying to decide how I would rule in that case. I have mixed feelings about ruling either way.

--flatline

One way to work with this: people using mind block can voluntarily lower an undesired mind block. Psychics with mind block auto-defense can do that if they want to contact someone telepathically, for example. Even though it doesn't say it, Group Mind Block should also work the same way.

Or in the very least, I think psychics experienced with mind block abiltiies should get the equivalent of the 'Block Breaker' super psionic (Between the Shadows) but only in respect to breaking a mind block put on them against their wills by an outside party (breaking it would not break the entire group mind block, all others in radius would still be affected).

This is only a dilemma with the nega-psychic though. The Psi-nullifer would in all likelihood automatically dispel a Group Mind Block that targetted him. Not to mention that if it were some undesired offensive use, you'd figure it'd trigger their auto-defense or something. Plus I'm still thinking their Nullification powers are not psionic, but rather anti-psionic (think positive and negative chi).