Using Magic/Psionics to Increase mental attributes

[Achalon1]

Hello All,

Can a character use Flesh-sculpting Magic or Psionics to increase an NPC's IQ? How about ME or MA?

Technically, I'd say the answer is yes. A psychic should technically be able to rebuild a mind with specific attributes using Insert Memory, Mind Wipe, Mind Bond, Hypnotic Suggestion and such, but what limits should there be? I was thinking a skill roll of some type makes sense.

Maybe something like a Principle of Magic (but psychic based) skill check where a success lets the psychic choose an attribute up to his own. Maybe with a bonus attached if the margin of success on the skill check is over 20+.

EXAMPLE: John (IQ 22, ME 25, MA 15) is rebuilding the mind of an NPC. His Principles of Psionics (or whatever) skill percentage is 80%. He rolls a 52%. Having succeeded, he can increase the NPC's IQ, ME & MA as high as his own (IQ 22, ME 25, MA 15). Since his skill check succeeded by more than 20 points (80-52=28) the NPC gets a +1 or 1D4 bonus to each attribute. The Bonus feels like too much, but what does everyone think?

While Fleshsculpting is a little ambiguous in some ways, the Mindsculpt Spell does say you can't increase IQ, so I'm unsure if there's anything there to help in this.

This all came about after a player wanted to help rebuild the mind of Kessie Danaight, an npc from The Fayfield Inn Adventure in Rifter #13. The girl ends up with an IQ of 4 after being controlled by a rogue spell. I want to say yes, but I want something that makes sense.

What's everyone think?

[eliakon]

My, personal, ruling would be that you can 'repair' damage to a psyche (bringing the girl up to her previous IQ for example) fairly easy (for a certain value of the word 'easy' ).
Adding to their psyche though is complex and difficult. Or put another way, I would not allow a person to use magic to simply add skills to a person, and skills can be used to raise stats...
The risk is that you run into a huge munch-bait factor here. if one person can load up on mental abilities and then just go around creating mental geniuses... why isn't it done regularly?
The fact that the spell in question explicitly calls out that you can't do this suggests that it should be very hard to raise peoples mental statistics.

[Achalon1]

I totally agree about the munch factor. And I like the idea of repairing the damage, but if you don't know the original value, it's a mute point.

I think the way I'm going to go is like I noted above, but the success value is equal to 1/2 the max attributes of the psychic. I'm still working on some specifics, but here's where I'm at:

EXAMPLE: John (IQ 22, ME 25, MA 15) is rebuilding the mind of an NPC. His Principles of Psionics (or whatever) skill percentage is 80%. He rolls a 32%. Having succeeded, he can increase the NPC's IQ, ME & MA as high as his 1/2 own (IQ 11, ME 12-13, MA 7-8). Since his skill check succeeded by more than 40 points (80-32=48) the NPC gets 2 +1D4 bonus to a single attribute of choice (IQ, ME or MA).

While this might allow for potentially higher attributes, even a perfect roll (rolling a 01% on a skill of 98%) would only grant 4, +1D4 bonuses across three attributes on a possible max attribute base of IQ 15, ME 15 & MA 15 if the originating psychic had perfect attributes (IQ 30, ME 30 & MA 30).

Skills, specifically, can not be directly implanted. However, while building a mind the Psychic in charge can orient and accelerate training for a specific OCC/RCC. This means skills are always based on basic character creation setups with no extras.

[eliakon]

If you don't know what the original score was...
...well that is why you have a GM right?
Humans have a 3d6 range. So just roll 3d6. Or just pick a nice round number.
Again, just my thoughts on the subject. Its what I do when I have a NPC with out a stat that suddenly needs the stat.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Even repairing a person's mine with magic risks creating other mental instabilities. I would guess that multiple personalities would be the most common if the mage uses a 'tissue donor'.
If the person is not already psychic, it is my opinion that magic cannot even repair existing psi powers unless the magic is using the high level magic of restoration, or similar spells that fully restore the target without a guiding Intel. And to get new psi powers via fleshsculpting magic would require a 'tissue donor'.