From: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: how to imprison a psionicist ?
Date: 15 Dec 92 03:31:03 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: seawasp@unixd3.cis.pitt.edu

In article <Yf=BBZq00YUoAJrcUc@andrew.cmu.edu> jb8n+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joseph E. Beck) writes:
>seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
>>         Why try the incredibly clumsy "make him read it" ploy? Just 
>> SHOOT him with it. (Range may be pretty short (1/2" or slightly over 
>> 7 feet) but if you've managed to catch him, you must be holding him
>> anyway.) 
>Ok, I'll try again.  HOW DO YOU CAPTURE HIM AND HOLD HIM?  Please
>answer this.

	Hey, don't ask ME. *I* wasn't the one asking the question. The
question CLEARLY stated that the Psi HAD ALREADY BEEN CAUGHT. The question
was how do you then hold him.

	I presume that one way he could be caught would be to nail him
after he's exhausted his points. Another way would be to use the SSSigil
on him right away. I could think of a few more, I'm sure, but all of them,
like any "conditional", require that I know the situation. For example,

  Here is a character who (at low level) can teleport
>without chance of being interrupted, yet you casually capture him.
>Neat trick.  

	... here you assume Psis can all teleport. Neat trick, that. Most
psis I've encountered don't do that. 

	Any solution I come up with can, of course, be negated by the
proper approach by the Psi... just as anything the psi can do can be 
negated by proper actions on the part of the opposition. In other words,
in order to say how I would (a) capture and (b) hold a psi, I would
need to know what character or characters I had to work with, their 
resources, and the same about the Psi.

>The description states that when read the sigil create a force that
>will imprison the nearest person (except the mage).  So you have to
>put your mage at point and have him cast the spell (if not prepared
>already, but it should be), then read the text (instead of casting a
>spell that round).  So your mage is at point.  Gotcha.

	He doesn't have to READ it (I use First Ed) -- he draws the sigil in
the air and points it.

>>         Psionicists are no more powerful than any other class, as long as
>> you keep your wits about you and play out ALL the ramifications of the
>> class...
>You are mad.  That's all I'm going to say at this time (I'm over modem
>and my housemates are getting that look of blood in their eyes...).

	Of course I'm mad. All great men have been called mad.

	So get Call Waiting. Then the housemates don't miss calls, and
you can use the line uninterrupted most of the time (that's what I'm
doing...)

>Usually, when a whole bunch of people believe one thing (almost
>everyone who's posted abuot psionicists being too powerful) and I
>believe something else, I reevaluate my logic (like a good Bayesian).
>Perhaps you should consider...
	
	What other people think is not a good guide. I go by what I see.
Remember, an overwhelming number of people believe in lots of silly things
(choose your own example, I'm not touching precise political, religious,
or moral issues today)... does that make silly things any more true?
	Instead, I believe in what's been demonstrated to me in play,
which is that in ANY serious game I've played, any time someone griped
about X character being too powerful (or their character being too weak),
I have ALWAYS made the same offer: I'll take your character and play it,
you take the most powerful one. See what happens.

	Results: Mages can kill off entire parties. So can Psis, theives,
monks, ninja, fighters, druids, etc., ad nauseam. EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON
CONDITIONS. In the right conditions, a fighter can eat psionicists for
lunch. In other conditions, his brain might get fried.

	Sure, you can set up situations in which the Psi can kill  anyone.
I can just as easily set up things to kill the psi.

	Especially if you are foolish enough to go by The Rules...


                                 Sea Wasp
                                   /^\
                                   ;;;