Penelope Yin: The ultimate psychic badass?

[Cancrusher]

Today I was chasing passive accolades with my Stj/Shld scrapper.  I'm doing that Maria Jenkins mission where you go to Praetorian Earth to fight Malaise and Mother Mayhem.

 

On the first level of the asylum we meet the initial group of scryers and such.  Shield has somewhat poor defense/resist to Psi, so I'm really being challenged (set to +4/8).  We defeat all the enemies handily, though I'm quite beat up in the process.  I cursor-hover over Penny and notice (after destroying about 8 enemy psychics) she is completely uninjured.

 

Out of morbid curiosity, I lead her through the rest of the mission, let her draw aggro, then disengage and hide once the battle is joined.  Occasionally I'll get a bit of aggro spillover (a Ranger, or something, which I put down with a single crushing uppercut to the chin).

 

Long story short:  Penny solos the rest of the mission.  She crushes Malaise.  She crushes Mother Mayhem.  She sends their mind slaves fleeing in terror like whipped dogs.  When the battle ceases, she is unscathed.

 

Friends, do not #$*! with this kid.  Ever.  And pray she never decides to work for the other side.  😬

[Techwright]

Need her on the front line of the next Mothership raid.  If it happens, I recommend bringing popcorn...and a lawn chair.  Rikti are going to wish they'd kept magic by the time she's finished her 30 minutes.

[Uun]

On red side, do Mr. G's third arc. You have to fight her several times. (Do all of his arcs - they're really good.)

[InvaderStych]

20 hours ago, Cancrusher said:

And pray she never decides to work for the other side.

 

Penelope Mayhem has entered the chat.

[GM Crumpet]

Penny is probably the closest thing the game has to a Phoenix level entity. Her telepathy is off the charts and her telekinesis is limited only by her imagination. Imagine what she would be like if she became an Incarnate. I think even the Battalion would find her a handful. And she's barely an adult. I dread to think what she will be like as a fully grown woman experienced in her abilities.

 

And it's nice to see Signature heroes actually showing why they are signature. Occasionally you'll see them in action like Ms. Liberty and Manticore and Penny, but most times they are being held prisoner by an enemy they should realistically swat like bugs. At least someone like Lady Jane has a realistic chance of dying once you rescue her. 

[ZeeHero]

I dunno I think thats overdoing it by quite a bit. the signature non incarnate heroes should be on par with non incarnate level 50 heroes for sure, but a +3 player character should be out of their league.

 

Otherwise it's no better than DCUO in the end. Penny yin is certainly one of the top psychics. but as far as I will ever be concerned it ends at "one of" her NPC stats being broken nonwithstanding.

 

and in the end it doesn't even matter what the writers have to say here, becuase no matter how they try and excuse it, that's just doing it wrong.

 

Also the psi sets are incomplete until whatever unique moves she has are avaliable to players.

Edited May 16, 2022 by ZeeHero

[Marshal_General]

Even players need to be reminded that their are people/beings out that with far greater power.

[ZeeHero]

5 hours ago, Marshal_General said:

Even players need to be reminded that their are people/beings out that with far greater power.

Yeah like Rularuu, Battallion, Ascended gods, not a non incarnate teenager. Sure she's powerful probably able to match some incarnates without being one eventually. but as I said, you can't have a normal character like that be out of the PCs league, ESPECIALLY not a signature one.

 

I've respected how COH treats max level player characters as the strongest (earthly) players, but its clear not everyone has the sense to see how that's a good thing.

 

If Statesman was guaranteed to be the most powerful person in his lifetime, and the player character ends up being seen as stepping up as a replacement for him after who will die, I think the writers were on my side here. (not to mention beating up darrin wade after he gained statesman's powers)

Edited May 16, 2022 by ZeeHero

[Hedgefund]

Here's the downside to Penny's bad-assery: if Malaise or MM (or any mob) defeats you and your corpse is still on the ground when Penny defeats either of the 2 Dimensional Warder targets, you don't get defeat credit.  I had this happen with Malaise, he put me down, I stayed on the floor and she finished him off.  When I had finished what I thought would get me the Dim Warder badge I checked Null to see who I was missing - it was Malaise.

 

But yeah, if I'm soloing that arc with one of my characters that's normally not someone I'd want to solo Prae AVs with, I still crank it up to AVs when she tags along.

[lemming]

She's very powerful against chars her level.   So while everything was +4 for you.  It was +0 for her.   (She's still pretty bad ass though)

[ZeeHero]

3 hours ago, lemming said:

She's very powerful against chars her level.   So while everything was +4 for you.  It was +0 for her.   (She's still pretty bad ass though)

Yeah she's got a headstart on the average level 50 lorewise. but once you're a +3, you're the more powerful one for sure. Penny is definitely one of the strongest psychics. but, it has to stop there. that's all.

[El D]

2 hours ago, ZeeHero said:

Yeah she's got a headstart on the average level 50 lorewise. but once you're a +3, you're the more powerful one for sure. Penny is definitely one of the strongest psychics. but, it has to stop there. that's all.

 

She's not 'one of the most' - Penny is the most powerful psychic on Earth. Full stop. That's how she was written ever since she was introduced in the Faultline arcs, where the game explicitly said she was stronger than Sister Psyche (and with only the Clockwork King as being on-par with her). Lore-wise this would put her, at minimum, on an even playing field with Incarnate-level characters if not higher and the game mechanics reflect that. Disliking it is fine, as is privately roleplaying out whatever personal headcanon you like (seriously, plenty of people do and that's a-okay), but that's the official nature of the setting and the entire point of her character - contrasting overwhelming power with youthful inexperience.

 

Penny Yin has always been stronger than the player character. A fact that is really only highlighted further in a mission where Earth's Strongest Psychic fights... a bunch of much weaker Seers and two Praetorian versions of Primal psychics she was already stated to be more powerful than. That should never not be a stomp for Penny. Besides, it's fun to watch her obliterate Malaise. Dude's a jerk.

Edited May 17, 2022 by El D

[ZeeHero]

As fun as it is to watch jerks be beat up, you're welcome to see things however you want. but she isn't stronger than at least some of my player characters, nor most player characters at +3.

 

you are welcome to believe whatever you want. but I choose to see the game as having writing that doesn't make it into the first version of DCUO. No she isn't "the automatic strongest on earth" When someone is written as being "the strongest" in this kind of game, its always excluding a maxed player character. that should be mega obvious.

 

The player characters are the biggest players at 50+3 in the COH hero world. this should not be in question, Penny is good but by neccesity and common sense, not that overpowered.

YOUR Personal headcanon she can be always automatically stronger than YOUR heroes sure, if you want that's anyones right. that's you.

"The nature of the setting" isn't on your side here. have fun.

 

also the battalion would crush penelope yin without even noticing what they stepped on. they have already been established to be a threat for well above +3 incarnate level heroes, she wouldn't even be a bug to them even if she WAS more powerful than the player characters. which is stupid, but if thats what you want YOUR headcanon to be be my guest. 

 

This isn't DCUO. you enjoy that so much go play it.

Edited May 17, 2022 by ZeeHero

[dtjunkie]

No matter how many times I have tried to destroy the PsychoChronoMetron, at the end of the day, there was only one hero able to get the job done.

 

Penny freaking Yin.

 

And she was just a kid. Imagine what she'll be as an adult! She'll have absolute power! But wait... absolute power corrupts ABSOLUTELY. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?!?!? Oh yea.... here we go... the Page 5 big baddie:

 

Evil Penny Yin!!!

 

I can see it now. We are going to have to team up with our worst enemy to defeat Bad Penny (no not that one).

 

BEHOLD! The only chance we have of defeated Bad Penny! The resurrected steam powered Sister Nemesis. Thanks Lord Nemesis. I'm sure cloning Sister Psyche and grafting her into a Nemesis automaton will end just fine!

 

 

 

[ZeeHero]

Headcanon all you want its your right. but don't you DARE pretend you are the arbiter of the "lore" it was never written that way. Imagine if it was, how pathetic would that be? Literally one of the best aspects of COH writing would not exist. pathetic.

 

Not to mention penny yin is a paper thin character with zero real personality behind her. NO ONE likes her, and even less people like those who try and push the idiotic idea of her automatically being more powerful than everyone on others. Get a life.

Edited May 17, 2022 by ZeeHero

[GM Crumpet]

Locking this thread. What started as a fun discussion got unpleasant really fast.