Psi melee/energy aura character doesn't make sense

[nexusj13]

My friends brought up that it makes no sense that my characters is psionic but has a power a power (EA) that has no psionic defense. I hadn't been paying attention to that weakness and for my story I just say my character makes a psionic aura, but now it just bugs me, do you all have any ideas on how to make a story work when a character has two conflicting power sets? (sorry if this subject makes no sense)

[johua]

I'd just play psi melee as something else or I'd just ignore it because I don't think game powers and RP powers need to have a 1 to 1 equivalence.

[Zumberge]

Psionics is a multi-faceted discipline, so you can have people who can't read minds to save their lives yet can make the molecules of every person in a hundred yard radius vibrate so hard they all burst into flame.  Your character's mental powers most likely manifest as telekinesis, so Energy Aura is a mental repulsion field and the "knives" they wield with Psi Melee are simply force applied to opposite sides of a flat plane, creating a narrow cutting edge.

 

"But what about Boggle?"  You're on your own with that one.  I had a Dark Melee Brute who got his powers from doing a ton of cocaine and I never had a reason why Touch of Fear worked.  Sometimes you need to handwave things a little.

 

Edited July 24, 2019 by Zumberge
Proper paragraph spacing. We're not barbarians, here.

[chase]

Actually, I think it could work rather well to not have psi defense.

You're a psi-sensitive.   that doesn't mean you're a master at all things psionic.   It means that you're sensitive enough to perceive psi energies, and through that perception, mold it into focused attacks.   Your defense set ( Energy aura ) is largely a "defense" set, so this reflects the manifestation of your psi powers' reading of the mental landscape.   You detect the intent to pull a trigger before it's pulled and know whether a punch IS a feint or the real attack.   You may even be offensively defensive- using your psi influence to affect accuracy or combat decision making in your foes.   

Your T9 "Overload" power reflects the moment you really reach "combat zen" - fully cognizant of every hint of psi activity around you, and using it all to your fullest.  Every nuance, no matter how small is being registered.  You're so in-tune with the slightest variation in the psi environment around you that when something massive BLASTS into the psi-space, it can overwhem your psi senses.  It's like a firecracker set off under your seat during the scariest part of a movie.  No matter how prepared you are for the jumpscare, you're gonna go FLYING.

It could be a natural limitation of your powers or you could make it caused by your training- maybe you'd trained against non-psi's in combat your whole life.  Maybe your pursuit for the various powers/IO sets with Psi defenses reflect your continued training to plug this hole, however so slowly...

 

[Leogunner]

Option 1 - It's not Psychic Energy. I actually have an Psi/Ice Armor Stalker who doesn't have psionic attacks but rather cryokenisis attacks, that is, he uses mental powers to manifest and control cold air.  Colored white/light blue, it really does look like he's pulling and finely manipulating bursts of cold air.  Conceptually, he's got minor understanding of psychics but he himself has no actual prowess with mental powers. Boggle, for him, is kind of like Snow Blind where he's rapidly processing cold air in front of a target's eyes, making them panic and incapable of seeing what they're doing.  In the context of your character, it could simply be psycho-kinetic manipulation, using psionics to manifest and manipulate kinetic energy which extends to the energy aura around their body.

 

Option 2 - Create a lore reason.  This is easy and most effective.  Perhaps he got his powers from some sort of experiment that left him mentally scarred and just probing that trauma is easy and obvious for a psychic.  Or maybe he used to have strong psionic defenses but a run-in with an arch nemesis' plot to destroy him failed to kill him but left him psychiclly scarred or the plot succeeded in defeating you on the psychic plane, causing you to lose a portion of your former power.

 

Option 3 - Change your character build.  There are IOs and set bonuses that grant resistance and defense to psionic damage.

[Mercurias]

First post ever for me since joining! It's good to be back, baby.

 

If it were my own character, I'd just embrace the lack of Psionic resistance as a character weakness. Using psychic power requires you to open a door in your mind through which your awareness and concentration flow. Unfortunately, it's a door that someone with the right skill set can walk through. Or perhaps the clash of psychic energy against yours makes you recoil, like a massive feedfback loop in your brain? 

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

CoH has never been of the logic that because you wield it your immune to it. I mean look at blasters.

 

However as the subject of psi is near and dear to me Ill direct you to the concept of the Psion from D&D and the mindwalker from Alternaty PnP game systems. While both do give one paths to developing psi defenses they are not fully inherent in the classes either.

 

In D&D the Psion does get psi attack and defense modes, but honestly those are usually the iffy part most house rule out of existence, and that leaves it to active power choices to develop ones ability to resist another psion. Much like with wizards there isa  world of difference between the elemental themed pyromancer, and a war wizard who focuses in tactical applications of offensive magic and adaptable defensive magic to deal with a wide variety of threats.

 

Or the counter speller, a specialist that really only shines against other powerful casters but is less then handy against non casters.

 

In Alternaty the Psion again had to choose which broad and specialty skills one had and developed. while most psi players in it did usually take mind shield as everyone hates being mentally dominated. many did not bother with other psi only defenses. choosing instead abilities that effected non psi attacks far more.

 

IMO Energy Armor isa  great 2ndary fora  psi melee. and can easily be explained as having honed their telepathic ability to be offensive, and their telekinetic ability is more a defensive tool be reflex.

[Flashtoo]

My Shield/Psi tank runs into this as well, and I simply don't think it's an issue. Offense and defense types don't have to be matched to each other in this game, simple as that - your power doesn't have to have that kind of flexibility. Your character makes a psionic aura: Okay, great! EA fits nicely as a visual representation. Maybe the aura is a telekinetic effect. That would fit nicely with the ability to put out a lot of psionic energy but it doesn't say a damn thing about what happens in regards to incoming psionics.

 

If it really bothers you, invest in some IOs.

[biostem]

A super doesn't necessarily have innate protection from their own powers, it's just something we've become accustomed to.  In Agents of Shield, Daisy/Skye/Quake, got injured from her own vibration powers.  Wolverine injures himself every time he snikts his claws.  Prolonged or repeated teleportation jumps can fatigue or disorient Nightcrawler.  Perhaps your charcter's psionic abilities are so focused on affecting material/physical things that they basically ignore other psionic ones.  Maybe the exertion in manifesting your psionic power actually creates a "hole" in your mental defenses...

[Crashen]

A lot of the time, I think of psionic characters as broadcast equipment. What I mean is, you have transmitters and receivers.

 

A transmitter can project their thoughts outwards, but it is a one way thing. He could look at you, and force his thoughts into your head, bending you to his will through brute force or making your brain explode, but he can't listen in on your thoughts. Likewise, he can't really block his mind or what have you, all of his psionics are one-way directed outwards.

 

A receiver, on the other hand, can listen in on someone's thoughts. She couldn't force her mind into yours to make you do things, but she could say scan your mind as you talk to her, and tailor what she says to whatever would make you do what she wants. She could listen to your thoughts and find exactly what you need to hear, guiding the conversation (and your thoughts) in whatever direction she needs. It's extremely subtle and extremely tricky, but it's still impressive.

 

Most psionics are probably a little of both, two way transmitter-receivers that can project their minds outwards, but also take in other people's minds.

 

Your character could be a hardcore transmitter, so strong they can project their mind outwards defensively in a physical, tangible, telekinetic aura. But because they are so outwardly focused, they are sort of "psi-blind" and don't really have any way to protect against someone else's mind punching into theirs. Kind of a "best defense is offense" sort of thing.

[nexusj13]

Sorry it took me so long to reply, but thank you all for the RP info it made me go back to play my energy aura character, and I just love the set so much 😄