[PsiHB] True Telekinesis - 400d6 damage?

[Malin Genie]

Even without the cheeseweaseling attempts to use telekinesis to hurl multiple daggers/shuriken/flasks of alchemists' fire that pop up every now and again on the board, true telekinesis seems problematic to me...

You can violent thrust up to 500lb/level. Objects deal damage as per telekinesis which is listed as from 1 to 1d6 per 25 lbs.

So a 10,000 lb boulder (at manifester level 20) deals 400d6 damage? No save, no SR? Greater deity go splat?

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

I'm not sure, but doesn't telekinesis have a cap of 15d6? And is True Telekinesis, as telekinesis, except:? I don't have my books with me so you probably want to check.

 

[Malin Genie]

I'm not sure, but doesn't telekinesis have a cap of 15d6? And is True Telekinesis, as telekinesis, except:? I don't have my books with me so you probably want to check.

While this may be 'fixed' in 3.5E, there is no damage cap listed for telekinesis in the PsiHB.

 

[magnas_veritas]

I'm not sure, but doesn't telekinesis have a cap of 15d6? And is True Telekinesis, as telekinesis, except:? I don't have my books with me so you probably want to check.

Given that it would otherwise massively blow past the damage caps, I'd cap the damage from a Psion's TK at (power point cost)d6. So, True Telekinesis would do 17d6 max from direct physical throwing things.

Using it to trigger avalanches, pull roofs down, etc. would have no damage cap, because it's an indirect effect.

I don't know of any specific errata/Sage Advice about it. Anybody else?

Brad

 

[Malin Genie]

Slight aside - can a manifester/caster use telekinesis or its variants to open doors/collapse walls/break support pillars etc (in order to create these indirect effects?)

What effective Strength would the power/spell have, if so?

 

[magnas_veritas]

Slight aside - can a manifester/caster use telekinesis or its variants to open doors/collapse walls/break support pillars etc (in order to create these indirect effects?)

What effective Strength would the power/spell have, if so?

That's a good question, and one well worth asking. I dunno. We could break out the physics book, but physics has no place in D&D.

Oh! I had an idea. Let's pull out the PHB, shall we? On Table 9-1, a heavy load for a Str 10 person is up to 100 pounds. That's the same as CL:4 Telekinesis (as the 5th-level Sor/Wiz spell). A CL:20 Telekinesis can lift up to 500 pounds, which is roughly Str 22's max load.

A 20th-level savant using True Telekinesis (500 lbs/level), though, would have an effective Str somewhere around 58 or thereabouts.

Most of those indirect effects that I mentioned would be darned hard to pull off, too. Most of the time you'd have to set them up. I'm not sure if TK can pull a solidly rooted pillar out of the ground or not...but it should be able to do anything that a Str check could do.

Brad

* - Oh, and an interesting thing...True Telekinesis states in PsiHB that it caps at 16d6 for a violent thrust. Funny, neh?

 

[Malin Genie]

* - Oh, and an interesting thing...True Telekinesis states in PsiHB that it caps at 16d6 for a violent thrust. Funny, neh?

Actually, it states that if you use it to violent thrust a subject or group of subjects into a wall or similar they each take 16d6 damage. It says nothing about capping the damage inflicted by hurling an object at a creature.

I do like your idea of equating the ST required to carry load X with the effective ST of a telekinesis able to carry load X; there's a nice symmetry to it. And 58 ST for a 9th level power at 20th manifester level is not too unreasonable IMHO (+24 bonus, able to break non-reinforced walls or snap pillars up to a certan thickness, but not unbeatable as thick, special material or magically reinforced walls/doors/pillars can easily have break DCs of 50+)