High lvl "true name" spell!

[Dakkareth]

Mmhhh, nice ... a seer with both metafaculty and naked psyche can do scary things.

Why is it a [compulsion], though?

 

[WizarDru]

That being said, I'm wondering if Steveroo is overstating the spell's effectiveness. This causes an enemy to suffer -4 to his will save only (not all saves), and only against the psion who manifested the power. The other party members are out of luck.

I think he is. That was the general tack I was taking with it. It weakens the target in certain situations, but by itself, it doesn't do that much...it merely opens the door. It feels like a typical 9th level spell, to me. Like you state, Wish is the big 'catch-all' spell. In an emergency, it can be ANYTHING the caster needs, even a limited magic item or the like. This is a relatively limited power...and more importantly, it's a gauntlet.

When you throw this one down, the target knows he's been skunked and now has to do something. And I'm sure there are several clever ways to stymie it, as PC will probably find out the hard way.

 

[Piratecat]

Why is it a [compulsion], though?

El typo del diablo!

Now fixed; I had used another spell as my template, and that "compulsion" somehow stuck around.

 

[Sabriel]

WizarDru:

Remember though, the even if Mind Blank was 9th level, it can be trumped by a 3rd level spell with a good roll, and much more likely can be stopped by it's 6th level big brother.

I'm guessing that spell is (Greater) Dispel Magic - if so, most assuredly I agree. Dispelling pulls the rug out from under Mind Blank (and most other spells) while divining attacks Mind Blank head-on using the very weapon it's designed to stop. Admittedly, using a 9th level spell does mean you have a Bigger Gun.

Piratecat:

In my opinion there's no design flaw with letting focused 9th level powers be more effective than a wish. Remember, wish's big advantage is flexibility*; it's the Swiss Army Knife of spells, because it can literally do anything. The balance for that is the big honking xp cost.

Okay, that's the rest of my arguments tripped (and it makes me wonder what else you could do with spells that focus solely on specific aspects of what Wish can do - e.g. in the areas of item creation, undoing past events, etc).

 

[BSF]

Piratecat, I think rather than giving the target a save/SR penalty, I would rather give the caster an insight bonus to DC's and Power/Spell Penetration. Flavor-wise, I like a bonus based on insight to the target. It also puts the bonuses into the stackable camp. There aren't many insight bonuses in the game, but it does give the caster one more thing to plan around.

 

[Piratecat]

It's effectively the same thing, right? If so, in this case I prefer the flavor of it being a penalty for the bad guy. There's a subtle difference between "I have a bonus to affect him" and "he has a penalty to my power," but if you want a power that makes the bad guy really hate and fear the PC, I'll take the latter every time unless there's a compelling mechanical reason to do otherwise.

 

[Dancer]

The only other thing I'd do is make the spell a little more difficult to cast without first hand knowledge of the subject. The longer time to cast is great but top that with a slightly higher DC to cast and it's perfect.

 

[Saeviomagy]

My suggestion? Make the power easy to use compared to other 9th level powers - no save, no SR and then make the conduit a two-way street. You can only find someones real name by giving them YOUR real name.

Another aspect could be that the target doesn't KNOW that he knows your real name, but if he ever actually thinks about it (ie - damn, I wish I knew HIS true name), he'll find out that he does...

It makes it easy to get the real name of someone, and then scry on them to divine their plans for a while, and usually that won't let them notice that they can do the same to you.

However if you abuse it, you're likely to find that they'll go researching HOW it is that you keep scrying through their divinations, and then you're in trouble...

 

[Corran]

Too me the power still doesn't feel right.

I would suggest the following changes.

Instead of making it give a penalty to every type of power/spell, make it give only a penalty to compulsion, mind-affecting and divination type powers/spells. This to me reinforces the flavor of the power much more. Also makes it more of a niche power, instead of one that a psion (telepath?) would manifest repeatedly on an off day on those enemies where he can get away with it (why not do the known flunkies as well if you do the bbeg and tip him off anyway? ;-)).

This also brings me to the +2 pp for no save /PR, I would scrap this and also up the XP cost for making it standard action. 100 xp is chump change for characters of level 17+; 1000 xp would sound more like it to me. All this makes it more like a power manifested during 'down-time' with failures being repeated (PP's to burn on those days anyway).

Anyway that's the feel this power has to me, not one that would be used 'in the field' so much. Cause that -5 PR part of it makes it mighty appealing to use as written. Used against all the high SR/PR monsters out there it's certainly worth it to start of a combat with that one as it is written now.

So in summary, my suggestion would be:

Make it more of a niche mind-f*ck power and make it harder to use.

But then I'm just very stingy with spells/powers. ;-)

 

[Piratecat]

Thank you for the comments, Corran. I don't personally agree - having considered it, I think the limitations you suggest would make this an 8th lvl power instead of 9th - but what isn't a problem in my game may be an issue for someone else.

For instance, I've found that my spellcasters have been very reluctant to use any spell with an xp cost, even a small one. They really add up, especially because we have a relatively slow advancement (and thus less xp awarded.)

I can always change things later if the spell ends up being abused, of course, but I'll be surprised if this ends up happening.