Psychokinetic Shield - GM needs help

[Quanlin 0]

Alright I need help with my campaign. One of my players is a mentalists who uses the power psychokinetic shield to amazing effects and I can't seem to find a balancing point or determine if he is using it correctly. He bolsters it up and rolls high very often (he's pretty dedicated to this power) and even uses it in bizzare situations that as a former D&D player I can't see as legal play. Ok so my first problem is:

A) The shield becomes so high that the monsters I have to provide to be a threat to him can one hit the party very easily. (I'm still not a hundred precent sure if this is how the anima game system opperates though honestly)

B) I completly surprised the party once (everyone failing notice checks) and had a wolf attack the player. Before damage was dealt to him though he passivly put the shield up preventing any actual damage to himself. Is this legal?

C) It seems as if he can simply put this shield up for a base 300 lp every turn in reaction to being his? Is this legal?

D) He does not have enough PP (though he did purchase the slot) to maintain a shield at 300 but claims it automatically defaults to the lowest value since he doesn't meet any of the specific ranks.

Please be patient with me, my plays party consists of a Wizard, Paladin, Master of Arms, Mentalits and Technician and I am new to the game and simply cannot stay on top of all the rules for such a diverse party. I basicaly asked my players to make sure everything they are doing is legal but I tend not to trust the Mentalist. Thank you guys.

 

[Quanlin 0]

I thought I should clarify on B. I did not allow the players to make an initiative roll on the encounter with the wolves. They were all arguing stranded in the middle of no where and the wolves were sneaking up on them so I assumed a failed notice check by the entire party would deny them their right to an initiative. Once again, new GM to Anima here. Thanks for the patience.

[Blackburn2 0]

A) You don't need to make uber strong monsters in order to threaten him.  A wizard or mentalist will have no problem doing the same thing, even at a very basic level.

Psychokinetic Shield only helps against physical attacks. It's useless against even the most basic spells.  So while your wolf is going to have difficulty getting through, a Sphere of Destruction or Electrify or similar spell ignores it completely.

B) As a passive action he can use it at any time.  But he should be required to say he is doing it when you say he is under attack, not before the attack is resolved and damage is about to be applied.  After all, at that point the wolf has already gotten inside his shield.

C) Yes, he can do that.  But he has to roll high enough to activate the shield, and the Psychic Potential he used in that action cannot be used towards any other psychic powers he wants to activate that round. So if he spends all of his psychic potential raising the shield, he isn't able to use any other powers that round. Also, he can only have use one shield at a time.  The shield's don't stack on one another.  So if he uses three 300 LP shields, he doesn't get 900 LP worth in one.

D) It does automatically default to the lowest level of maintenance possible, BUT he has to successfully activate it first.  So if he rolls below 80, then the power didn't activate.  Since it didn't activate there is nothing to maintain.  Since there is nothing to maintain, he doesn't get any benefit.  And he loses Fatigue for the failure.   Since he doesn't have a base potential of 80, he can't afford to spend that ever round, otherwise everyone is going to get annoyed that he isn't helping them.

 

There are a few ways of dealing with Shields.  First of all, they don't automatically protect him.  Shields allow Wizards and Mentalists to use their Projection ability to defend themselves.  It is not an automatic "I take no damage" power.

When someone attacks him, he can raise his shield whenever he likes.  He rolls his Psychic Potential to activate the power.  Once that is resolved, he then rolls his Psychic Projection to use the shield to protect him from the attack.  If the result on the chart indicates he takes damage, he takes damage.  If the result indicates that he didn't take damage, the shield loses a number of Life Points equal to the base damage of the Attack.

The point of this is to let Wizards and Mentalists save DP by not having to buy Dodge or Block to defend themselves.

And since his shield is only against physical attacks, he doesn't get to roll Psychic Projection to ward of spells and energy attacks.  He has to use Dodge or Block.

Check out page 92, under Magic or Psychic Shields.  The second paragraph begins with "It is important to remember that most such shields are not simple spheres completely surrounding their creator".

[Gidras05 0]

I don't mean to bring up an old topic, but we ran into this problem too.

The biggest issue we had was in regards to physical fighting, like the OP suggested. Now  before I begin, there are several things to note:

1) One of the focuses of our campaign is that the players are indeed exceptional to most people. As such, supernatural enemies and mobs with supernatural powers are rarer than in other RPGs. In fact, the DM guide explicitly states that over abundance of supernatural enemies will leave the characters feeling less "exceptional" than usual. The guide talks about balancing it well.

2) So let's assume that in a session I introduce some physical fighters, perhaps with some enhanced abilities but nothing magical/psychic related. The first problem is that for a typical Mentalist (putting all of his supernatural DP into Projection and such, just like the character template in the toolkit), it is EXTREMELY EASY for the mentalist to put up a shield every turn  (considering he spent a decent amount of PP on increasing his potential). And with how well he rolls, chances are that the shield will be up for SEVERAL turns, giving them ample opportunity for other things (so yes, they can indeed put in all their potential into raising a shield.

3) So they have a really big shield, and a ton of projection, much much more than a fighter's attack ability (since a Mentalist/Wizard puts all atk/def DP into one stat- Magic/Psychic Projection, instead of two). Now, all fighters that try to hit the psychic get blocked extremely easily, and witha  really good LP value, he can take a good number of hits. So basically, he's buffing up his life point stat by like 5 times.

What we did to solve this is introduce a slight penalty to several blocks. In the book, they state that blocking with supernatural/psychic shields does not incur any penalties for multiple blocks. What we did was make them actually have penalties, so while a psychic can prevent one attack really well, his focus on blocking with his psychic abilities becomes harder and harder with each successive hit in a turn (which makes COMPLETE sense roleplay-wise). So the penalties were like -10, then -20, etc (still smaller than normal blocking).

Even in the book, they state that a shield doesn't necessarily mean a sphere around the character, and that a magician (and in this case psychic) is thought to concentrate the shield on points of attack, WHICH implies that they have to actively focus the shield, whether magical or psychic, which means they should have a certain limit to focusing it, right?

What do you guys think?

[Arcaia 0]

As has been said before, there's always a way around the problem.

One could be by simply flinging enough mobs at him to solve the problem, especially with heavy weapons (even if he blocks it, the shield will be taking 100 damage + strength bonus from a 2-handed axe, which means he'll be taking hits from the 3rd attack every round, since it punches through the shield. And if he fails to get a counterattack that round, which may very well be possible with 2-3 attacks coming his way every round, then he'll lose the ability to attack that round as well.

A better one would be to do as has been said, and bypass the shield entirely. It wouldn't be strange if a group of enemies decided to rely on a supernatural user to counter a supernatural user. Also, keep in mind that using supernatural abilities is meant to be dangerous at best, as society doesn't look that kindly upon them. You could let one of the NPCs to get away, meaning that the PCs then have to be careful with how they go about problems.

Concerning the automatic failure for a notice check, that is rather harsh. I would ALWAYS give them a check, but apply heavy penalties in thos kind of situations. After that, it's up to you, but it is only fair to give them a chance at avoiding a problem, no matter how small the chance is.

 

 

[cdcace 3]

 Yes it is true that Psychics and Wizards can just pump up their Projection abilities, but in truth its pretty equal to all other classes, due to it being projection they can only put a maximum of 50% of their dp in it.  Yes physical fighters have to share it between Dodge/Block and Attack but the final result is that when using a defense ability it will change the damage done by the enemies.  But if a Shield fails to block that character will take the full force of the attack, they can't dodge and they can't block due to them already trying to with the shield.  Also shield do have a huge LP, but no matter the roll that attack does 100%.  I haven't had much trouble dealing with it and in my party I have a Psychic and a Wizard.  Keep in mind some shields don't protect against magical/energy attacks. 

Also keep in mind if characters with supernatural abilities begin to stand out, the inquisition is going to take notice, and sooner or later a High Inquisitor may get involved.  1 high inquisitor almost killed my party of 5 single hand, but a series of unfortunate rolls on my part resulted in my High Inquisitor a Mentalist sending himself into a coma.

 

[Hrathen 1,463]

Don't forget that psychic shields are more like the a shield on the arm a a warrior than a bubble of protection around the character.  In other words if he successfully raises the shield he still needs to block using his psychic projection roll vs the wolfs attack roll.  Also I think any time you block against an opponant that surprises you you get a penalty to your block.

Now, your psychic may have a great psychic projection, which makes it hard to hit him, but the same thing happens when an acrobatic warrior has a high dodge.  (And their is no max amount of damage that you can dodge.)

[Cultadium 12]

I thought (and the way we play locally) that if you failed to protect yourself with your shield you had to roll for dodge, as in with a psychic shield there is no taking 10% damage.. If you fail to block with your shield it has NO effect and you have to roll dodge. (Or block if you use block)

For example the weaponmaster attacks me at 230 and I block with a final block of 229 using my psychic shield... My shield just did nothing and now I have to dodge. Because the Weaponmaster got through the shield.

I've asked about this before though.

The book does not explicitly state anywhere (it only seems to suggest the above) what's supposed to happen when you protect yourself with a shield and fail to block an attack. Oddly though it does state what happens when you protect an ally with a shield and fail. The attack get's through.

[Cultadium 12]

http://www.edgeent.com/v2/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=137&efcid=5&efidt=251507

 

Ausias_Roig_Romani: No, if you exceed your defensive projection, are you the one who receives damage, the shield only takes damage when your defensive projection is higher than the attack.

Lars: Conversely, if the projection exceeds the attack, damage eats the shield, but if the attack is higher, the damage is received by the defender.

 

In a nutshell this conversation cemented how I see shields working.

[Hrathen 1,463]

Cultadium said:

I thought (and the way we play locally) that if you failed to protect yourself with your shield you had to roll for dodge, as in with a psychic shield there is no taking 10% damage.. If you fail to block with your shield it has NO effect and you have to roll dodge. (Or block if you use block)

When you are attacked you get to defend yourself, you can block, dodge, or use a psychic (or magic shield) if you don't roll high enough you take are hit.  You don't get second chance.

Remember to protect yourself with your shield you need to successfully raise your shield, and succesfully block with your shield.

I imagine that if you fail to get the shield up you might be able to still dodge, but I don't you do.  (you probably bring your shield up a before you get attacked and keep it up until it breaks or the fight is over.)

[zeru2 0]

There seems to be some misunderstanding with how Magical/Psychic Shields work going on here.

Supernatural Shields have an LP amount, they take the base damage of an attack they successfully defend against, so Shield that Blocks a 100 damage attack will lose 100 LP.

If they fail their defense roll, they are hit as normal, taking the same damage as if they had failed a dodge/block roll. So if the enemy attack succeeded enough to do 20% damage with a 100 base damage attack, the defender would take 20 damage, provided they aren't wearing any armor.

Psychokinetic Shields is certainly strong, and yes, they can be recast so long as the Psychic has the Psychic Potential to do so (if they spent it all on an attack earlier in the round, too bad for them), but Shields are far from invincible. If the Shield breaks (blocks too many attacks and runs out of LP) the Mentalist better have a good dodge roll, or he is going to be losing a lot of LP very quickly. Not to mention Energy based Attacks completely bypass the Psychokinetic Shield.

Also, keep in mind there is a cap on projection, just like there is one for Attack/Defense, it is 1/2 the Psychic Primary, so a Mentalist can only spend 30% of their total DP on Projection. This is still a pretty solid amount, but Fighter archetype classes generally have bonuses to Attack/Defense per level as well.

P.S. I don't know where the whole "elemental damage will go through it" came from, but Elemental Damage does not = Energy Damage, so it would not bypass the Psychokinetic Shield.

[hnakkabuff 0]

 As I understand it...

A mentalist has to be aware of the attack in order to block it with his shield...
Each time he is attacked he rolls his projection to block with the shield... a failed roll means he is hit with the full force of the blow...
A shield only takes the base weapon damage as damage if it is blocked...
A shield, if depleted, will let the remaining damage pass on through to the mentalist without the strength modifier...
A mentalist can put a shield on a friend as an active action and maintain it in a slot...
* When his friend is attacked, he can use a passive action with a -40 penalty to his projection to try and block for his friend...
* If the block succeeds then the shields functions normally; if the block fails, his friend can then defend normally...
* The mentalist HAS to SEE the attack coming... many attack spells can't be seen unless the mentalist has some way to do so...
A mentalist who has a potential of 120, activates a shield and manages to get 140 on the roll... which equals 700 LP for Psychokinetic Shield
* The shield stays at the 700 LP count and decreases by 5 every round until it sits on the 120 seat...

It is not adviseable to throw up a new shield everytime you get hit by an attack, since that increases your chances of getting 01-03 which is painful...

Only half of what the mentalist gets in DP to use for the mentalist section can be used for Projection...

In my opinion Energy Shield is the best shield out there with Psychic Shield as a close runner up... 
* which brings me to my question: Can a mentalist maintain two different shields on himself at the same time...
* like for instance, Energy Shield + Psychic Shield ?

[Pneumonica 1]

Two points.   First one:  The quick way to get around a defensive bunny is to attack him multiple times.  There are lots of ways of doing this, but every subsequent attack eats away at his defense roll.  In addition, even if the attacks fail to hit, the shield takes the damage, and that shield won't endure eternally.

Second point:  It's quite possible for a single caster to maintain multiple shields (it's expensive as Hell, though...).  However, you can only raise a single shield against a single attack.  However, the situation has come up where, for instance, a single caster maintained two Perfect Shields in order to keep them from getting destroyed in combat - once one took enough damage to be in jeopardy, he switched to the other one.  However, generally speaking you can only raise one defense against a given attack - you choose: block, dodge, or shield.

[Hrathen 1,463]

Pneumonica said:

Two points.   First one:  The quick way to get around a defensive bunny is to attack him multiple times.  There are lots of ways of doing this, but every subsequent attack eats away at his defense roll.  In addition, even if the attacks fail to hit, the shield takes the damage, and that shield won't endure eternally.

 

The shield takes damage if the block is successful, but it doesn't if the attack hits.  If the attack hits the damage is taken by the characters life points.

Don't forget that in order to use a shield you need to make your psychic potential roll to get the shields up and then a psychic projection roll to oppose the attacker attack roll.

[Pneumonica 1]

I think we're arguing the same point.  If the attack fails to hit, the shield takes it.  If the attack hits, the shield doesn't take it.  Thus, attacking multiple times works really brilliantly, because you will either chew through the LP on the shield or you will pull the foe's defense rolls down so far that it doesn't matter how many LP it's got.

[ilovecheese1 0]

Pneumonica said:

I think we're arguing the same point.  If the attack fails to hit, the shield takes it.  If the attack hits, the shield doesn't take it.  Thus, attacking multiple times works really brilliantly, because you will either chew through the LP on the shield or you will pull the foe's defense rolls down so far that it doesn't matter how many LP it's got.

 

remember that magical and psychic shields do not apply penalties for multiple defenses.

Specifically they only apply penalties for surprise, put at weapons point, blinded, vision partially obscured.