Mega intelligent... Psions?

[NewK]

So a question. Megaintelligence is the nova thing. It's why we get the beeping gadgets that can bring back the dead and/or blow up the planet, making your average hero in the trinity era feel like an R&D troubleshooter.

But biokenetics have the ability to improve their stats--albeit not to mega-intelligent levels. but could there be a high level mode that might let them do that? Not to the "oh Good Lord" and "A god am I" levels you get with high-quantum Novas, but maybe 1 or 2 dots? It seems like something that woudln't be beyond the range of a highly experienced biokenetic, especially if you keep to the lower levels of mega attributes.

[Mateus Luz]

It’s a bit controversial, but maybe when you use any power that can increase an attribute to 7 dots, you can use 8 successes to gain 1 dot of Mega Attribute, but lose the 7 dot capacity in the process.

Or, using the 6dot power you can add 1 dot of Mega Attribute by spending 1 psi, also losing the 7dot capacity. Maybe it would stack, so the maximum dot in mega attribute would be 2, but it would cost a lot of successes.

I have a problem with that, to be honest, but I don’t know exactly what it is...

[Dataweaver]

Talents and psiads do have ways of adding Scale to their feats, and they have ways of adding dots to their attributes; and when those things align, you get results that are comparable to low-level Mega-Attributes. It's just that when non-Novas do it, the result is both less powerful and more specialized than when Novas do it.

[Bunyip]

“When using a power from a Mode for which the psion has Fleshcrafter, he may spend an additional Psi point to increase the Scale of one aspect of the power ... by one ...”

Intellect is a factor, as is Might, or Stamina, or Presence.

[Shalmaneser]

Would that make the final Scale 2 for purposes of competing with Mega-Whatever novas? I can't recall what base Scale psi effects are for purposes of power clashes, etc.

[Mateus Luz]

That is the idea. In general all powers from Psions have power scale 1, but you can rise by 1 with the 6th dot power of the mode.

well, they can deal with larger size and speed scales according to the power.

[Shalmaneser]

Guess that establishes the point where Novas can laugh off psions, then. (Except the ones with Quantakinesis)

[pcontop]

What would stop bioks incorporating higher scale weapons?

I will leave by saying Psions in Aeon could have a better definition of scale. Having proxies only getting to scale 2 (in terms of being no-sold by aberrant powers) is a bit low-ball.

[Florin]

There's a reason the Aberrants in the antagonist section aren't given large amounts of Scale. Terats get around 5-7 to spread across all the options, IIRC. Porting a Nova from Aberrant into Aeon is not going to work well.

[thedonnie]

The Scale point makes me imagine a giant VARG and then a biok growing up to the same size and punching it out a la Ant-Man knocking out that space leviathan from the end of Endgame.

[Dataweaver]

Also, Scale isn't as overwhelming as its 1e equivalent was. Sure, you get to a point where the rules say “the guy on the lower end of the conflict just loses”; but that's, what, four levels? (Going off memory here; it might be three, but I don't think so.) And if you haven't hit the “I win” threshold, you're still at a disadvantage; but it's a disadvantage that can be overcome with a reasonably large dice pool. Conversely, if you have hit it (and often even if you haven't), that just means that it's time to get creative and come up with some other way to take down the Aberrant. They're not likely to have a massive Scale advantage over you in everything; so find something where they don't, and go after them that way.

And don't forget biotech. A properly equipped psion can use her gear to apply Scale to her powers, and in that way can go toe to toe with higher-Scale Aberrants. She probably can't build the gear herself, and needs the backing of other psions to get it; but that's part of the psions vs aberrant dynamic: individual psions get clobbered; it takes a team of them to take on an Aberrant.

[Florin]

100% agree it takes a team of psions to take down an Aberrant, and fighting smart is the way to go. However, dice pools are a bad way to try to overcome scale. If you're psi 5 or lower, each level of scale difference is equivalent to 6.67 dice. Enhancements are probably a better way, and since TC doesn't put a cap on enhancement like Scion does, you can get some pretty crazy enhancement bonuses. All that does, then is require you to ignore the 3+ scale = I win rule to give psions more even footing without scale.

[Dataweaver]

3+ Scale means that if I'm Scale 1, you need to be Scale 4 to get the “I win”; if I can push myself up to Scale 2, you need to be Scale 5. And like I said, you're not likely to be Scale 4 or 5 at everything.

And in keeping with the theme of TC:Æon, I could also see implementing some sort of “swarm Scale” rule: one fire ant is nothing; a million of them will devour everything in sight. In a similar way, a team of psions might be able to operate on a higher Scale than they can manage individually.

I don't think the “I win” rule needs to be ignored; just worked around with proper gear, teamwork, and/or some lateral thinking.

[Florin]

3+ Scale means that if I'm Scale 1, you need to be Scale 4 to get the “I win”; if I can push myself up to Scale 2, you need to be Scale 5. And like I said, you're not likely to be Scale 4 or 5 at everything.

I'm familiar with what a difference in scale means. Maybe we're talking past each other there, but here's the point I was trying to make. A scale difference of 3 would effectively be 6 enhancement if not for the 3+ rule. It is not terrible difficult to get 6 enhancement in Aeon. Therefore, if you didn't want to force the characters to come up with scale improvements, you can drop the 3+ rule and let them go toe to toe with an antagonist with just the enhancements they have access to. That's probably not for everyone, but it's worked fine in my game.

[Bunyip]

Guess that establishes the point where Novas can laugh off psions, then. (Except the ones with Quantakinesis)

Not really, no.