I'm building an NPC for an ongoing game. One of the things I want this fellow to be doing is assesncing (physical adept with assesncing), basically constantly. He is however not naturally dual natured and as such will be taking a -2 penalty to all actions while assencing. I was thinking about pricing a specialisation on all his skills "While assencing" when I got to thinking of just giving the poor man an edge "Is used to acting while assencing" - terrible name but you get the idea.

I figured 10 points? Negates a -2 penalty incured under a specific situation. This would cost about 20 karma in play. Thoughts?
Real reason: Condition Geas: Assencing (sleep excepted for kindness) - The NPC is a Spirit Warrior build, killing hands and a cross section of powers and skills for locating and combatting Threats.
Yes I can as the GM ignore the rules but it never hurts to have this sort of thing on hand for when a PC wants it.

I wouldn't give any non dual natured critter the ability do do mundane stuff while assensing without penalty. Dual natured critters are at a disadvantage as they cannot turn their dualnaturedness off. At least they should have the advantage of performing in both planes just as well (or badly).

How about surging the character and taking dual natured? Being plagued by astral entities may also be a reason why this character chose the path of the spirit warrior.

Just to make things clear, if a threat is not dual natured but astral it cannot affect the physical plane. If it is in some way present on the physical plane the adept can just as well attack it with or without astral perception. An adept with Astral Perception can turn that power off any time.

Without making any changes to the rules, you could give him the Heightened Concentration adept power from Digital Grimoire. That would allow him to overcome the -2 penalty as long as his Magic Attribute is 2 or higher.

Forgot about that. So it's fine.

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As a part of the character idea I like that he has chosen this path, and chooses it again each morning, regardless of the pains. A dual natured being is "stuck" dealing with the spirit world. This character can just walk away, but doesn't. I think I'll be going with focued concentration to keep him "rules savy" but I am also interested in what people think such a edge would cost or if it would be broken.

Focused Concentration is a Quality available to Magicians and Mystic Adepts, but not Physical Adepts, and has to do with reducing Drain. I assume you mean the Heightened Concentration adept Power?

In terms of creating a new Quality as you suggest, I would think that it's broad nature should make it at least 10 BP worth. In fact, as the Focused Concentration Quality is 10 BP per +1 effect on Drain dice, I would go so far as to charge 20 BP for the effect you want, to be in line with Focused Concentration. Then the new Quality would become more expensive than the Heightened Concentration adept Power.

Of course, what would prevent the PC from taking both of these advantages?

Does not make sense as a Quality.

@pbangarth - Focused Concentration cannot be used in comparison to this because it has an entirely different effect. Basing the cost off it is absurd. Even if it was reasonable to do so, Focused Concentration is incredibly overpriced for what it does.


My suggestion:

I discuss it because the OP brought it up. It can be used as a comparison because of the issues you point out. It is a more focused effect, for too much BP. A broader effect for the same BP may very well be priced correctly. which then prompts me to ask:
How much would you charge for this?

Uh...


quote name = House Metamagic

This metamagic allows an initiate to view <..> While Astrally Perceiving, the initiate

I actaully ment Heightened Concentration when I mentioned focused, sorry...

I'd be more likly do do a cost comparison with a conditional effect like "Home Turf" or "Simsence Vertigo" - I'm increasingly leaning into the 15 BP edge range, though I like the metamagic idea, I'd be inclined to make it Adept only.

Yeah, yeah... what's your point? I can't read. So what?

Screaming Eagle, remember that, even if you negate the penalty for perceiving astrally, unless the character is dual natured or, as Muspellsheimr suggested, a dual perceiver, there are some things the character just won't be able to do, such as read text, street signs, spedometers, maps, menus, and ANYthing in AR. Choosing between a tube of toothpaste and a tube of acne medicine at the local stuffer shack may have some unexpected consequences : )

Our group has been floating around the idea of making a metamagic ability to offset the penalties to perceiving astral. Each time it is taken it would reduce the penalties by 1. Basically the idea is as an advanced mage (magically active individual) your training allows you to ignore the penalties.

Actually, I played a character that did the same thing. always using astral perception. As you stated, if you use it all the time, it shouldn't give you a penalty. It's pretty much the same as a human getting cybereyes with thermographic vision. Seriously, that would be weirs and hard to get used to... at first. That said, what we did was reverse the effect entirely, instead of making it an Edge. When NOT using astral perception, he was subject to +2 target numbers to all actions. This is basically to reflect a type of blindness, or being off balance. It never came up, but I think it should be assumed that going between the two should be possible as well. If you stop using Astral perception for a few months, you would get used to not using it and the rule would revert to its original. (Obviously, or not, this +2 should apply only to physical and magical actions while not perceiving, thinking about things, reading a sign and things like that should not be included).

We played using these rules for probably 40 sessions or so, maybe more, and they worked out just fine. And yes, while using Astral Perception you are susceptible to attack from astral space, which is even more dangerous for a PhysAd than for a mage since they have no shielding or anything. So that coupled with the +2 while not using it really does balance out.

Sounds like an elegant suggestion