The title pretty much describes what I'm looking for here. I would like to expand the options available to adept characters - which have always been my second favorite character type (I like hermetic mages the best...). Since adepts are pretty much shafted in terms of canon sourcebook attention, I set my sights on the sorts of things my fellow DS'ers have come up with.

I already use the Knack adept power (though not the mystic blade one). I have also come up with the following powers:

Gecko Crawl - 1 or 2 ppts.

This power allows the adept to stick to surfaces if he or she so desires. This allows the adept to climb sheer walls and cling to ceilings. At least two limbs must remain in contact with the surface at all times. As an added benefit, the adept can not be disarmed and never need fear losing his or her grip. Forcibly removing the adept from a surface to which he or she is adhering requires a strength test with a target number equal to the sum of the adept's strength and magic scores, +2 for each adhered limb past the first two. The 1 ppt version allows a maximum movement rate when using the power equal to the character's walking speed. The 2ppt version allows the adept to run while using the power.

Enhanced Run - 1 ppt/level.

Each level of this power increases the running multiplier of the adept by 1, the athletics score of the adept by 1 for the purpose of running, and the body of the adept by 1 for the purpose of determining fatigue.

So... what powers have you come up with? Has anyone generated any adept-specific metamagic techniques?

Metamagical Technique (Adept-only): Attunement

This metamagical technique attunes an aspect of an Adept's body to his powers. Each time this technique is taken, select a physical attribute; the adept power Improved Physical Attribute may now be bought to the Racial Max at the same price of .5 PP/point as under the Racial Modified Limit. This power does not, however, allow the Adept's body to withstand the stresses of pushing a physical attribute beyond the Racial Maximum without cyberware.

Not thought out at all, just tossed together based on some discussions I'd remembered and a quick idea. Opinions?

~J

I made some one night after smoking myself halfway to pluto. When I woke up I found that they were pretty damn appropriate for my extremely outlandish current campaign. After my players helped out some super kung-fu monks, they were allowed to learn either 1 point worth of these powers, or 1 single power at any level.


Enhanced Aim .75 Level 1
1.5 Level 2
Adepts with Enhanced Aim are exceptional shots, able to shoot and throw with lethal accuracy.

Each level of this power reduces the target number for ranged combat tests by 1.


Aura of Flame .5
This fearsome power bathes the users body in flames.

Anyone striking the adept with a part of their body must resist (Essense) M damage from the flames. This power also extends to the users weapon, increasing the power of thier melee attacks by 2.


Wallwalk .5 Level 1
1 Level 2
This power allows the adept to walk on walls and ceilings to scale otherwise unclimbable surfaces and to perform incredible feats of acrobatics.

While using this power, the adept moves at his normal movement rate. Level 1 allows walking on walls, Level 2 allows ceilings.


Bullet Deflection 3
An adept with Bullet Deflection may use his weapon to deflect bullets and other projectiles. This power requires a high level of skill to be effective; usually only true masters have this ability.

An adept with this power may use his armed combat skill in a special dodge test, TN 6, modified by wounds and conditions as appropriate. Full auto and burst fire attacks raise the target number by 1 for each round fired beyond the first. Each success reduces the attackers successes normally. Flechette and shot ammunition cannot be deflected. The adept must be aware of the attack and have his weapon drawn at the time the attack is made.


Waterwalk .5
-with traceless walk .25
The adept may walk on water or other liquid surfaces that would not otherwise support his weight.

Waterwalking adepts may walk atop any liquid surface without sinking. The power will only support Magic x 5 in kilograms of additional weight. Adepts with Traceless Walk need only pay .25 power points to acquire this ability.


Steel Cloth .5
With this power, the character need never be without a weapon. Taking a piece of cloth, the character whirls and snaps it tight, keeping it in constant motion.

The adept may use a loose piece of cloth (a shirt, scarf, tablecloth, etc.) in the manner of a club, edged weapon, or whip. The cloth functions as a normal weapon; no penalty is applied to attacks or counterattacks. It inflicts Str-1(M) stun and confers no reach bonus.


Enlightened Leap 2
Adepts trained in Enlightened Leap may execute graceful leaps through the air of incredible height.

Adepts using this power may leap up to (Magic Attribute) x 2 in meters in the air, and up to (Magic Attribute) x 3 meters horizontally. Because the leap is slow and graceful, ranged attacks aimed at the character suffer only +1 to hit (usually +2 for a moving target). Use of this power requires a Willpower (2) roll and is a complex action.


Spatial Awareness 2
Advanced meditation techniques allow the adept to sense the very fabric of space around him, obviating the need for him to use his eyes to see.

Spatial Awareness lets the adept function as if he could see even in total darkness, obscured by smoke, when blinded, etc. Only the spatial dimensions of objects are visible to this power. Colors, text, and other non-spatial information cannot be detected.

Inner light. .5 per level, max level 3 Like all adept powers, can be turned off and on at will.

Lvl 1 The adept's eyes glow with an eerie white light. Functions identically to eye light cyberware. -1 TN to intimidation tests or +1 die on an open ended roll.

lvl 2 The adept's eyes now flash wildly and randomly with a single color of choice (one turn to change). In addition to previous bonuses, anyone who can see the light with normal vision and does not have flare compensation rolls as normal to resist sorcery. Failure results in epileptic siezure.

lvl 3 The adept's eyes now flash in blinding patterns and wildly differing colors Effects now visible for much longer distances (GM discretion) Flare compensation gives you a -2 tn to resist but does not automatically prevent siezure.

For maximum effect, have your adept get -6 and +6 worth of SURGE effects and give them the chanting geas with phrases somewhere along the lines of PIKAPIKA.

Got my Mojo Rising .5

You secrete an alluring array of pheremones. Gives effects equal to edge Good looking and knows it, although other person must be in physical proximity to adept. (If someone wanted to combine the edge and the power, I'd let 'em, but throw in factors such as getting crazed stalkers, horny trolls humping your leg, etc.)

Kagetenshi:

I have no idea what I think about your proposed technique, other than that it doesnt really "feel" like metamagic to me.

Zazen:

some of these I really like.

I think for waterwalk I would actually require that the adept purchase traceless walk first, and still charge .5 for the power. Spatial awareness would likewise be a tiered effect of blind fighting, costing 1.5 points. I would probably rule that it functioned to a range of 3x(Magic Rating) in meters. Bullet Deflection should either only cost 2 power points, or have a base TN of 4 -- otherwise its just too expensive to be worthwhile. Aura of Flame should either cost more or just not exist (the Knack power can duplicate it after a fashion) I like the flavor of steel cloth, but the actual effect bothers me. Perhaps it should do (Str-1)L Physical damage, or perhaps it should confer a reach bonus... otherwise it seems to not really be worthwhile.

Just some thoughts.

Yeah, it's nothing particularly interesting, just allowing the extension of another power. Dunno. Maybe in the morning I'll give the topic another thought and try to come up with something else.

~J

Like I said, they were made after some excellent pot and with little forethought. After seeing a few of them in action I can tell you a little about how they turned out, though.

The flame aura thing sucks because you light up real bright and end up getting shot. Occasionally you set stuff on fire and trip the sprinkler system. It hasn't really shined.

Bullet Deflection is supposed to be really hard and expensive because I want almost nobody to be able to do it. The guy who took it has 21 dice with his blades and it's really cool and frightening when he manages to deflect a shot.

Spatial Awareness kicks too much ass, but limiting it to Magic x 3 meters might make it more reasonable.

Enlightened Leap hasn't been hugely impressive or useful, but then again the guy who tried it isn't all that creative in general. I guess the Crouching Tiger wirework stuff is a lot cooler in the movies than it is in SR.


I like your idea about waterwalk, and steel cloth does seem kind of weak (it's actually just a ripoff of a D&D ninja power).

I don't see any reason to require traceless walk for waterwalk, but I think 0.5 points is a good cost. Just think you can either walk on water with some splashing, or with traceless walk you can cross a stagnant pool without disturbing the pirahnas.

Gecko cllimb is something sorely lacking from the rules, but I would probably just have a simple 1 power point for the ability to climb stable surfaces without handholds but only when toutching them with bare skin.

You can always check out the Physical Adepts Handybook for some more ideas, too. I think most of them are SR2 era powers, so some of them aren't applicable and some are just plain wild, but a lot are useful, or can be modified to become so.

Also, there was a huge thread on adept powers on the old forums. Is there anyway to find it?

Lastly, one of my favorites. It's a steal from a D&D psionic power, but it's still really excellent:

Kinetic Absorbsion (2 Power Points)
With this power, the Adept can absorb the kinetic, harmful energy of an incoming melee attack. If the Adept has Missle Mastery, then they can use this skill in conjunction with that one to absorb the energy from ranged impact weapons assuming they successfully parry them.

When an Adept absorbes the kinetic energy from an attack, this energy is added to an attack that the Adept makes. It need not be the next attack; that is, the Adept can choose when to release the pent up energy. However, for every action that the energy is stored, the Adept must make a Willpower (Power Rating of Stored Energy) roll. If no successes are achieved, then energy is immediately and violently released into the Adept's body as if they had never absorbed it in the first place. The adept must then resist the damage as normal and looses the action they were about to take. See following paragraph for a description of how to calculate the power rating and damage level of the stored energy.

An adept must declare that they are going to attempt to absorb the kinetic energy of an attack prior to the resolution of the attack. When an attack is absorbed, the kinetic energy stored by the adept has the same power rating and damage code as the attack. If more than one quanta of energy is abosrbed by the Adept, then add 1/2 half of all subsequent power ratings to the stored one and use the highest damage rating. To attempt to absorb the attack, the Adept rolls their Willpower or Magic, which ever is higher, instead of their melee skill. If they "win" the melee attack, then the energy is absorb and they suffer no damage, but they also do no damage to the other combatant.

When an Adept wishes to release the energy, she/he may do so either through a melee attack or some ranged attack that relies only on their strength to propell the projectile. Bows do not benefit from this power, therefore, but knives, shuriken, etc. do. The damage rating of the energy releasing attack is equal to either the damage rating of the attack or of the store energy which ever is higher. The power rating is equal to the power rating of the stored energy plus 1/2 the power rating of the attack. The energy is release whether the attack is successful or not. The energy is released by the attack, and therefore, will do stun or physical damage based on the type of attack used (a club will deal stun damage, a knife -- physical).

Silence is an elven adept with the kinetic absorbsion power. He's in melee with an ork weilding a club. Silence declares that he's going to try and absorb the next attack. The Ork attacks him rolling a 8, 5, 5, 2, 3 yielding three successes. Silence has a willpower of 5 and a Magic of 6, so he rolls his Magic rating and gets 6, 6, 5, 4, 2, 1 resulting in 4 successes. Silence wins and absorbs energy worth 7M into his body. On his next action, Silence decides not to release the energy with his attack and try, instead, to build up a stronger amount with which to bash the Ork. So, he rolls his Willpower with a TN of 7 getting a 7, 5, 5, 3, 1. With one success, he holds onto the energy and attacks the Ork as normal, using his fists. The Ork's next attack is also absorbed by Silence so now his has 10M stored up (7 + .5x7 = 10.5 round down). The next time around, Silence decides that 10 is too high a TN to risk trying to hold onto the energy any longer and unleashes the energy into his fists trying to beat the Ork into submission. Scoring 3 net successes on his melee roll, the base damage of his fists is staged from M to S. His normal attack would be have a power rating of 6 so 1/2 of it is added to the 10 stored resulting in a final attack of 13S stun damage. The Ork takes a fist to the face and staggers back in shock that a spindly little daisy eater could hit him so hard.

Chameleon Skin:
.25 per level
The adept has the power to change the color of her skin with an act of will. The adept must be naked to use this power as the skin doesn't show through clothing.

For each combat turn the Adept holds still add a +1 modifier to perception tests against the adept, up to the rating of the power. This modifier cannot exceed 8. This modifier stacks with visibility modifiers. Chameleon skin is effective against low-light and natural vision but not thermographic, unless it is combined with the hibernation power.

If the adept moves the color adaptation modifier is halved and acts like camoflague clothing.

Heres a link to the Old Forums, and heres a link to the old adept power thread.

A much larger portion of that old thread is dedicated to discussing the enhanced aim power than to proposing new powers, though. I didn't count, but I think Zazen already posted more powers than the entirety of that old thread.

[Edit] Hmm... perhaps you were actually referencing this thread about adept powers. This one is certainly more interesting than the other one I linked... but curse them for their lack of associated point costs![/Edit]

YEah, that third link was the one I was thinking about.

I would absolutely loath having any physad with a power requiring more than two sentences of description in a game I was running.

Im not liking the Knack power at all but the mystical blade im liking

I just thought of something *totally crazy* but that, for some inexplicable reason, I find oddly appealing. I'm not sure whether it should be an adept-only metamagic technique or a power... or, for that matter, how much the power should cost... but tell me what you think, and if you like the idea at all, but dislike the exact implementation, please provide your thoughts on how to improve it.

Steal Power

If an adept with the steal power ability consumes the heart of an awakened critter within one hour of that critter's death, the adept gains one of that critter's magical powers for a period of 24 hours. The power gained is determined randomly from the list of powers available to the critter. Any weaknesses or vulnerabilities possessed by the critter are transferred to the adept for the entire duration. Taking this power multiple times either increases the number of powers the adept can steal or increases the duration of its affects by 1 day, as the adept wishes.

Note: This power can be used on other adepts to steal their powers, but doing so places the character using steal power on the twisted path. Each level of the power allows the character to steal 1 power point of abilities.

Zazen...

Those *so* rock. SO HARD.

Can I steal those for my current game, as it's set in China with a bunch of Kung-Fu triad adepts?

The game needs more Crouching Tiger style shit.

It does when you're running one in China, and the rules of the game are this:
(No, really... I laid out these rules at the beginning...)

1) The only law is Kung-Fu. The cops only pretend to have the law on their side - unless they know Kung-Fu.
2) Make it stylish. I won't raise target numbers for jumping sideways with two guns (above the two-gun penalties that already exist). Bonus points for smoking while doing it.
3) Women are trouble. They'll either kill you, or save your ass several times in a row. Be careful who you sleep with.
4) China is a mysterious place. Many locales are haunted. Watch out for vengeful ancestors.

and lastly...

5) If it can be done, try it. Over-the-top is better than middle of the road.

you should check out feng shui.

I'm glad you guys like my powers. I hope you all keep in mind that they're for more cinematic-type stuff, though. I wouldn't let most of them near my normal games.

a long time ago I created this New Adept power for players in my game that requested the ability to use Jedi like powers. I refused, then came up with a valid plan so as not discourage my PCs. In all honesty I kind of liked the idea but was reluctant to allow my PCs more powers, anyway this is what I came up with:
ADept Tool: The Adept Tool is a object a adept must crate that allows him/her the ability to focus and generate a weapon of raw energy, made from the essence of the adept. The Tool is a catalyst object, the adept the weapon.
In order to create the Tool the Adept must first learn Killing Hands, the Material cost is 10,ooo$y in Orichalcum ( an additional 5,000$y to increase the reach of the weapon +1, max +3). It takes 30 days to construct the Tool & 30 days of Centering (Centering Test 12(for D wpn dmg), 11(for S wpn dmg), 10(for M wpn dmg), 9(for L wpn dmg). Every Two success' reduces the time buy 1 day.ADept may use Spell Pool/ or Karma Pool. Target # is also increased +1 for every level of reach added (max of 3). If the Adept fails the Centering test all Material components are lost. Adepts must pay 2 pp for a weapon that does L dmg, 4 pp for M, 6 pp for S, 8 pp for D. The cost in pp is increased +1 for each additional increase in Reach (max 3).
It worked well. not too powerful considering that it took a considerable amount of time to pay for the M wpn dmg (which my PC chose) and come up with the funds and materials to create the Tool.
the wpn worked especially well against Spirits. I never allowed the weapon to bypass armor, only other advantage to this vs. a Foci is that the weapon cannot be broken in the physical sense. However, when the Adept takes Damage the TN for dmg drops appropriatley. So Str. of PC is 8 wpn does M, Pc has sustained M wounds, wpn becomes 5M. Pc has sustained Serious wnds, weapon becomes 2M ect.
Their are others but I'll start with this one.

The Tool stats are: Str+3(Dmg dependent on pp paid during creation) treat all armor as being struck by dikoted wpn, with exception to Mystic Armor, barriers and Wards. None of which suffers any change vs. the Tool. The Material component is a crystal which designates the color of the wpn, this crystal is one of the primary components in the creation of this weapon. To find this crystal on the streets is impossible. Street Index is 18, lowered to 12 when dealing with Magical Contacts or magically orientated Fixers. a TN of 10 is applied when trying to seek out info on these crystals and where they can be found ( such places like Chicago, Hawaii, Northern Canada, tropical rainforests oversees, Aztec and any other Mystical places that are hard to get to u can think of).
Most of all the use of this weapon causes some serious attention gathering. Shortly, after waving this glowing sword around in public a lot of people are going to get curious, Corps are gonna start snopping around and eventually their will be a confrontation. Furthermore, others who carry these weapons are very secretive and would probably take action upon those who flaunt these devices willy nilly.
thats it. Hope u enjoy.
oh yah! the weapon can be of any shape the adept chooses ( Axe, Knife, Sword, Spear ect. any melee weapon the GM will allow).

Bullet Deflection: Cinematic or not, you should keep in mind that most melee weapons will, err, not stand up to such punishment very well. The probabilities of succeeding in it a lot aren't too high, but a single deflected Barrett shot will be enough to do in most melee weapons...

Also with Abtruse on the Enhanced Aim. Limit it some way and make it cost more. Or just make it cost a LOT, like 3 PPs, and only one level available.

Maybe only one level at 1.5 or something like that. I mean a laser sight and the Enhanced Aim power would be the same as a Smartlink pretty much, but I don't like the idea of being able to drop the target number by 3 or more. With the power as written, you could theoretically roll 12 dice + pool against a TN with a base modifier of -4 (-2 Smartlink, -2 Enhanced Aim). That means the TN to hit a stationary target at 100m or a person running at full speed at 20m with a handgun is 4. I don't know statistics that well, but rolling 20 dice (assuming Q6 I6 W6 for combat pool of 8, Pistols: 6, and Improved Ability: Pistols (6)), that just ain't right. Anyone figure the average number of successes on that? Got to be enough for a deadly wound with a pistol before staging...

The Abstruse One

You don't get more than 18 dice that way, because ImpAb doesn't increase skill, just adds dice. With a TN of 4, that averages 9 successes. With a Moderate damage weapon, that requires 6 or more dodge or soaking successes not to take a critical.

But it's rather rare that the additional -1/-2 TN would matter that much.

You also can't hit anyone at 100m with a handgun.

But yeah, it's powerful, although IMO the spatial awareness one is worse.

Aww... no one even has any comments at all about the steal power deallie? (*sniff*)

It's psycho. But in a good way.

I'd make it a restricted metamagic (like sacrificing), and base duration off of grade. That's a pretty fucked up thing to go around doing all the time, y'know?

And being a ghoul isn't similarly psycho?

I'd rather restrict duration to the number of times the technique is taken than simply to grade, for the sole reason of making it more difficult to increase the duration. Do you think 24 hours is too long? I do like the idea of it being metamagic though, upon consideration.

And yeah, I agree that it would be a little, well, more than a little odd. But some Native American cultures might not feel the same way.

I was thinking about introducing a villain into my game (if I ever get around to running it again... damn players with real life responsibilities...) who was a crazy ex-NAN (not sure which) special forces adept who possesses this power. He would start off raiding parazoos and move on to more murderous/psycho things over time until the PC's caught up with him. Of course, the PC's would have the opportunity along the way to try to learn the technique for themselves...

I know this is old hat to most of you, but for anyone that hasn't thought of it...


Before you go around looking for more powers for your games - for cinematic effect at any rate - think about modifying the ones you already have.

Killing Hands. It's a very damaging melee attack, right? Just throw in an elemental effect to the power - even if it's only the appearance of one - for added glitz. Like the adept whose fists light the night with the fire of his holy retribution.

Mystic Armour. Erm... it's just magical impact armour right? So give it some oomph! My idea was for a Druidic Physad, so go with the "Barkskin" idea and have your Oak adept get really hard.


Anything can be modified in your head - clear it with the GM and you're away. It's just the same as the Shaman who brings down the will of Wolf - when he's actually casting powerbolt.

rather than simply decreasing the TN for a shot, why not mimic the called shot capabilities of SL2?

about the flaming fists thing--i'm reasonably certain this idea came from the Hong Kong scene in Brainscan. as i recall, if you reverse-engineer the monk-adepts in that run, you'll find that the cost of their power is indeed .5pp. it's an interesting idea, if expanded--adding the primary and/or secondary elemental effects to killing hands; lightinging, blast, acid, etc.

Well quoted there mfb. That is excatly where you find it and how much it costs. But you do have to spend a simple action to "light" your hands before hand.

i'm trying to decide how you'd apply the Blast secondary effect. maybe halve barrier ratings, or something?

Can't help on that. I artisic/ Gm liesence things like that in my games

...

I've always figured that if Area Effect Elemental Manipulations frag the caster, then so should all other Elemental spells as well. Needless to say, no one has tried casting the Flame Aura spell yet in my games. And that goes for burning or exploding hands as well.

Wire: I give Elementals an Immunity for whatever Elemental type they are. And if a Dragon really wants to be "cool" and breathe that Innate Flamethrower, s/he'll have to take the neccessary precautions (a spell that renders the caster/target immune/highly resistant to heat, for example). And any Spirit that has Corrosive Secretations is also resistant to the corrosive substances it secretes. Ditto for any spirit or critter with Noxious Breath.

One of my major failures in life is that I like logic.

austere, that's seriously one of the silliest things i've ever seen posted on these boards. logic tells me that a spell whose intent is to inflict elemental effects on a single target would necessarily include precautions against the caster accidentally being that target. area effect spells are designed to be indiscriminate, so of course the caster can catch himself in their effects--but single-target spells are single target. if magic can draw energy from the astral plane and transmute it to flame, lightning, acid, or whatever, magic can certainly direct that energy so that it affects only the target of the spell. same goes for flame aura--magic can draw fire across dimensional barriers, but it can't redirect the flame and heat so that it doesn't affect the caster? gimme a break, man. that's nothing close to logical.

the razor here is that if such spells harmed their caster as much as they harm the target, they wouldn't exist.

Regardless, I can't find my copy of Brainscan at the moment but I'm pretty certain that such a restriction in no way, shape, or form existed on the power given therein.

~J