A little confused by the Foresee upgrades

By KungFuFerret, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

Posted at

Ok so, I'm not sure if I'm reading these upgrades right, and need to sound them out to others.

So, the first Control upgrade, immediately below the base power says:

"When making a skill check to determine initiative, the Force user may roll a Foresee power check as part of the pool.

He may spend pips to gain successes per point on the check." It even says you can spend multiple pips to active this multiple times, and get more successes. No problem there, makes sense.
Then, the next Control upgrade, immediately below the Control upgrade described above, is where I get confused:

"Affected targets increase their ranged and melee defense by 2 for the first round of combat."
....so who is the "affected target" in this case? Me? The above upgrade says nothing about changing targets, or giving it to another PC, so I would assume that I am the only "affected target" at this point? Right?
Then, we get to the first Magnitude upgrade down the left column:

"Spend pips to increase targets affected equal to Magnitude upgrades purchased. Engaged range."
...so, that means, that, lets say I have enough pips to give myself 2 bonus successes on the initiative check, with this upgrade, I could also give an ally (who is in range) +2 initiative as well right? And with more magnitude upgrades it would basically help to ensure that all the first several slots in any encounter are PC action slots?
So, assuming I get enough pips, this means, between the Magnitudes, Range, Control upgrades, I could theoretically slap several successes onto potentially every ally's initiative roll, from pretty much any conceivable range band, also provide them +2 Melee/Range Defense for the first round, and give them a free maneuver at the start as well? Meaning we are most likely all (or at least several of us) going to go first, get a free maneuver when we do, and also be really hard to hit if/when the badguys get a chance to act?
Am I reading it right?
Edited by KungFuFerret
Posted at

You are reading it right.

Without spending 1 pip to activate the magnitude upgrades you are the only target affected.

So 1 pip to add a success, 1 for magnitude, 1 for range and 1 for control for a total of 4 pips on the check. For this every ally in Long range to gains 1 success, +2 defence and a Maneuver before the combat begins... but you probably need FR3 to reliably pull it off. Extra pips on top of that can boost the Strength, but now your talking some Conflict and probably FR4.

Now to affect anyone you need to actually spend a point on gaining 1 success, but after that your a bit freer with your choices. Of course no point activating range if you haven't activated the Magnitude. And if no one is within Engaged then no point activating the Magnitude without the Rang upgrades. All this means that to reliably give gifts to your friends you need FR2 to get 3 pips. if you just want to be an initiative monster then pump all your points into strength, and if you know you need that maneuver then spend a pip on that.

Its like every force power, they just get better and better with a higher FR. And this is one of my favourites.

Posted at

And yeah, narratively, this is just one Jedi having a vision, and then mumbling to shouting a warning, or having enough time to describe the imminent threat in detail, to the rest of the group. It's the difference between getting a flash of insight and going "Heyyyyy" an instant before the fight starts, and getting the flash 30 seconds earlier and saying "Hey! We have incoming, a squad of stormtroopers at the top of that ridge, scatter!" and having a moment for allies to process that and prepare themselves.

Posted at

And yeah, narratively, this is just one Jedi having a vision, and then mumbling to shouting a warning, or having enough time to describe the imminent threat in detail, to the rest of the group. It's the difference between getting a flash of insight and going "Heyyyyy" an instant before the fight starts, and getting the flash 30 seconds earlier and saying "Hey! We have incoming, a squad of stormtroopers at the top of that ridge, scatter!" and having a moment for allies to process that and prepare themselves.

Oh I understand the narrative of it, I just wasn't sure I was reading the mechanics of it correctly.