MIND READING (SENSORY)
| Name | Type | Action | Range | Duration | Resistance | Base Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mind Reading | Sensory | Standard | Court | Sustained | Will | 2 per rank |
You can read another character’s mind using your mental sense. To use Mind Reading, make an opposed effect check against the result of the target’s Will check. The degree of success determines the degree of contact.
1st Degree
Surface thoughts: You can read what the target is presently thinking. Mind Reading transcends language; you comprehend the target’s thoughts whether or not you share a common language.
2nd Degree
Personal thoughts: You can probe deeper into the target’s mind for information. You can essentially ask any one question and receive the answer from the target’s mind. If the target doesn’t know the answer, then you know that as well.
3rd Degree
Memory: You can read the subject’s memories and recollections. This allows you to perceive them exactly as the target recalls them, one memory per round.
4th Degree
Subconscious: You can read memories from the target’s subconscious, things even the target does not consciously know. This might mean repressed or hidden memories, deep-seated psychological traumas, or even other personalities.
5th Degree
Total Access: You can read completely accurate memories from the target’s past, as they actually happened as if you were there, and potentially notice things the target didn’t notice originally. This allows you to perceive them exactly as they happened instead of how the target recalls them, one memory per round.
If you lose the opposed check, you cannot read the target’s mind. With two or more degrees of failure, any renewed attempt in that scene requires use of a Surge (see Surge). If you desire a greater degree of contact, you must take another standard action and make a new opposed check.
The target gets a new opposed Will check at the end of each turn to shut you out, success ends the effect.
MIND READING AND INTERACTION SKILLS
If you can interact with your subject, a successful opposed Interaction skill check causes the subject to consciously think about a particular piece of information you’re looking for, such as a password or name, allowing you to pluck it from the subject’s mind with surface thoughts contact.
EXTRA
Cumulative: Your Mind Reading adds any further degrees of success to the existing degree on the target, rather than using just the result of the new opposed check. For example, if you have one degree of contact and make another Mind Reading check, getting one degree, you now have two degrees of contact. +1 cost per rank
Effortless: Trying again after two or more degrees of failure does not require Surge for you. You can retry a Mind Reading attempt an unlimited number of times. +1 cost per rank
Sensory Link: You can “tap into” the senses of your subjects, perceiving what they perceive like a Remote Sensing effect (see Remote Sensing) so long as you have at least one degree of contact. Your own senses are inactive while you are using your sensory link and you can only perceive through the senses of one subject at a time. +1 cost per rank
Subtle: As a mental sensory effect, Mind Reading has a degree of subtlety, only noticeable to the subject or to characters with an appropriate mental sense, such as Mental Awareness (see Senses effect). Subtle Mind Reading is less detectable, requiring a DC 20 Perception or Insight check for either type of character to sense it, while two ranks of the Subtle modifier makes your Mind Reading completely undetectable. Flat +1 or 2 points
FLAWS
Close: Applied to Ranged Mind Reading, Close Mind Reading requires a close attack check to touch an unwilling target and physical contact throughout the effect’s duration; breaking contact ends the effect. –1 cost per rank
Feedback: You suffer Feedback if a subject you are reading is harmed, using your Mind Reading rank as the resistance check bonus against the damage. Additionally, you may suffer Feedback at the GM’s discretion from reading or experiencing particularly traumatic or emotionally-charged thoughts of memories from the subject. –1 cost per rank
Limited by Language: You can only understand the subject’s thoughts or memories if you share a common language. –1 cost per rank
Limited to Emotions: You can only read or probe for emotions and emotional associations, not coherent thoughts or memories. –1 cost per rank
Limited to Sensory Link: If you have the Sensory Link extra and this flaw, you can only tap into a subject’s senses, you cannot read their thoughts or memories. –1 cost per rank
Limited to Surface Thoughts: You can only read surface thoughts and cannot achieve higher degrees of contact. –1 cost per rank
Ranged: Ranged Mind Reading requires a ranged attack check in addition to the effect’s normal resistance check. –1 cost per rank
Sense-Dependent: Your Mind Reading is dependent on a sense other than just having to accurately sense the target, such as needing to see his expressions (Sight-Dependent), hear him speak (Hearing-Dependent), smell his changes in biochemistry (Scent-Dependent), and so forth. Alternately, it may be dependent on first being in Mental Communication with the target. –1 cost per rank
