I just re read the description of "zone" and it seems much too powerful to me :

"Maintaining area enables the psychic to use any other Telepathic power on all subjects within the radius ..."

does it mean that one you maintain éarea", all the telepathy/sentience powers you use after cover the area?

The French text is even worse : "as long as this power is maintained, it allows use of any other Telepathic power on all individuals present in the radius indicated by the reached difficulty" ...

how do you people use it?

Pretty much as written.

When a mentalist is maintaining Area, any power they use while it is maintained can affect any target they choose in the given area. If they decide to maintain that power along with Area, they maintain the expanded effect they got by having Area active.

This can seem powerful, but it has some drawbacks.

As a third level power, Area is difficult to reliably pull off. Also, the best you can ever use it at is with a 30ft radius until your Psychic Potential is 180 without rolls. So that's a lot of PP (and thus DP) to increase the Area.

Failing the activation roll is also VERY punishing, with the minimum fatigue loss being 4!

It's also limited by the number of Maintenance Slots the mentalist has available to him, which is again limited by DP spent to buy PP. And PP spent on Maintenance Slots is PP not spent on Psychic Potential.

Further, Area is actually two separate powers. One for Telepathy and one for Sentience. Each one only works for its specific discipline, so it requires you to purchase each one separately (more DP spent) and more to buy the additional slot to have both active.

Taking that into account, what exactly makes it so overpowering considered what is required to bring him beyond a 30ft radius?

TheTenth said:

Well, in addition to what the other post said. There are a few specifics about it that could be more clear.

Specifically, when you use the power, you also use psychic projection to determine how far you reach "within" the area. For 30ft that isn't saying much, as you probably reach the maximum, but if a person initially succeeds and has a 300 ft radius, they would roll projection to determine if they can reach the whole 300 ft. This is because you use projection even on powers that have an area or range defined unless it specifically says you don't roll projection (i believe area scanning is the only one i usually find).

In addition, target selection is there, but only if you are conscious of the person being there. That means if within your area and projected reach, there are 3 people, a friend, an enemy you see, and a stealthy person gonna stab you that you cant see, you could do psychic death on the enemy you see, exclude your friend, but could not use it on the stealthy person. This is to allow for balance and to make sure that when you use area on an entire town that you don't kill the peasants by accident.

thanks to both

I'm not too familiar with Mentalist powers, is it stupid or dangerous to have a power maintained all the time? maybe give headaches?

It depends on the power. Currently I have a Mentalist that is both blind and deaf, but still manages to see and hear whats around her. I managed to pull this off but maintaining Connect Senses on a dog she keeps as a companion. The upside is that she can see and hear what is around her and from a perspective that is not her own. The downside is that she can only see in black and white and does not have direct control of what she sees or hears. The biggest downside is that if the dog dies she is completely helpless.

TheTenth said:

There isn't any particular problem with constant maintenance. At least, not mechanically.

But having it up means you are telegraphing to anyone who can sense them that you are capable of using psychic powers. Some people may take that as a threat (like walking around with a loaded gun on your hip) and you're more likely to attract the attention of organizations that hunt the supernatural (in the core Anima setting).

If the power has a visible effect, such as an energy object or a shield, you are announcing that you are looking for trouble, and you're more likely to get everything from weird, fearful looks to being driven out of town. Same problem as above, but EVERYONE can see it.

Blackburn said:

If I read teh fluff right, the Inquisition and the Tol Rauko only target people that use magic or are supernatural in origin. Even though Psychics and Ki users stand out, would the Inquisition or the Tol Rauko even waste time on them if they posed no immediate threat? As to the other organizations, I'm sure they would take notice.

Keylime said:

Samael is made up of supernatural beings and would likely get involved if , Wissenschaft is looking to artificially create psychics and recreate sources of power and ancient technology and would probably love a new test subject, and Black Sun has a portion messing with Necromancy so another would likely be looking for some supernatural advantage. Meanwhile, the Azur Alliance wants power to take on the Empire and the Empire needs to solidify its holdings again and prevent anymore outbreaks of chaos. All of the (secret) societies have some sort of interest in the supernatural.

And I can't see the Inquisition leaving an unregistered and untested psychic to wander around. Their mandate is for ALL supernatural beings, not just those that cause problems. They do have method of "testing" a magic user/psychic to see if their powers are actually granted by God, but the only ones that get that sort of pass are those that show extreme devotion to the church. Not having murdered millions and kicked puppies doesn't usually matter, as they see the powers as demonic and believe that they will start punting cute and fluff creatures at any moment.

Tol Rauko would investigate, as their duty is to collect and preserve the supernatural (albeit in small glass cases apparently). They are unlikely to hunt the person down and lock them up just for being psychic, but they would be interested in their past behavior, and would likely pass along some sort of warning not to announce themselves so much.

I realize that I make it sound like using a power is going to get everyone in the world on your back. It isn't, as they have to hear about it and start looking. But if you walk around with powers maintained someone is eventually going to notice. They might mistake you for an enemy or take an interest and start watching you, but you're going to make your life more complicated if you constantly have something up.