Inproved Aim Sense, Smartlinks for adepts? Options

[Wraithe]

A friend an I were discussing Physical Adepts and their powers the other day and we came up with a question.

Could an Adept use the Improved Sense ability to simulate the Smartlink's -2 TN modifier, a kind of Improved Aim Sense? He would not get any of the other benefits of a smartlink of course (the quick clip eject, etc..) just the TN modifier.

So, would this be a valid use or would we have to create a who new, non-canon power to simulate it?

[Arethusa]

Absolutely not. Smartlink is far more than just improving your vision. And, uh, creating a new power is just crazy talk. Just take a look at everything the physical adept has access to that a wired sam does not. You'd just break the game more.

[Smiley]

Just throw in a smartlink and geas the essence loss.

[kevyn668]

Or just eat the point. You can still get Improved Reflexes (2) and Improved Skill: Pistols (4)

I don't trust geasa... :)

[broho_pcp]

I agree, (note: I have nothing against gaesa) I made a stun weapon oriented adept orc with 1.00 of essence used with sl2, eye mods, stun hands, and improved relfexes adept power level 3 (cost 5 pts.) and just ate the loss of 1 pt.

[Capt. Dave]

Smartlink power? Hell no. Adepts have plenty of options as is. They don't need a power just because they don't want to spend .5 essence.

[Wraithe]

Those were pretty much my arguments against doing it and the GM agreed with me. Unfortunately the friend in question is the GM's boyfriend who we finally got to play, so we didn't want to completely alienate him to the game.

The GM and I finally got him to go with Steve Kenson's Knack ability with the Enhance Aim spell. It seemed to satisfy him and actually worked fairly well for what he wanted to do in the first place. Though it did take a bit more essence then he originally wanted to spend.

[A Clockwork Lime]

:eek: Using Knack, he'd basically have to take it at Force 8 and hope those 8 dice all come up as successes in order for him to gain the same net benefit of a smartlink. Force 6 if he took Focused Concentration, or Force 4 if he bought a sustaining focus for it.

But if it worked for him, groovy.

[Domino]

Only if the Adept is also forced to get Uranium depleted bone lacing.

[The Jopp]

It can be done. We use it at 1 point per -1 TN and a maximum at lvl 2. Each power must be coded to a specific skill so no smartlink to ALL guns, only Enhanced Aim: Pistols and Enhanced Rifles for example. If you have 2 skills maxed it will cost you 4PP so it WILL eat your points.

[Zazen]

I had an all-combat game with this power. It was .75 per level, max 2, and provided its bonus to all ranged attacks. Reasonably badass.

Of course, you also had to save the monk village from Han the evil warlord and choose this as the one power off the list that they teach you as payment.

[Moon-Hawk]

side note: When adepts lose magic, it is the GM's call whether they get a geas and what it is, not the player's choice as it is for full magicians and other aspected magicians. For some reason I have yet to understand. Perhaps because the physical adept's magic is more innate and less deliberate? I don't know.

[tjn]

Geasa work inheirantly different for the two Moon-Hawk, personally I wouldn't care, but I can see how some GMs would want to control it for an adept.

The Adept's other abilities aren't affected in the least by a geasa on a different power point, thus they can go on using the non-geasa'ed powers normally. The mage on the other hand, the loss of that one point means that all of their force 6 spells are now physical drain.

Then there's the slight problem that Mages are required to take different geasa, yet Adepts can apply the same geasa to a different power point. As long as the Adept fufills that one geasa, they become badasses; whereas mages slowly become caricatures from the built up geasa.

The other side of the coin is that Mages don't necessarily need a high magic, after about 8 the chances of learning any spells at a force that would utilize the higher magic rating are just astronomically bad; whereas the Adept will always look to get more power points.

[Raptor1033]

yeah i doubt i'll ever learn a spell above force 6 and i use those extra magic points for something far more useful... getting badass cyber and bioware, nothing like platelet factories, trauma dampeners, mnemonic enhancers, and cerebral boosters to give your power a kick