So, it seems like there is almost no reason to play a Mentalist instead of a Wizard Mentalist. The Wizard Mentalist goes down to a %50 limit on Psychic Ability from %60, in exchange for much better Magical advancement and equality in every other aspect. The same occurs when you compare the Wizard Mentalist to the Wizard. Am I missing something here? Is there an errata I didn't notice?

I only overlooked this class, and immediately banned the class, because it's already difficult to develop a full mage or full psy so developing both would be most likely badly done, then it would allow difficult to handle combos of spells/psy powers ; I can hardly see the logic of someone gifted by magic powers (using the Zeon) and psy (using mind powers) too, not to forget that they are 2 different actions, thus allowing to cast a pell and a psy in the same round

I think she is a good supporter, behind two warriors she can heal or boost them, or boost the Wizard/Mentalist in the party; you can to choose to use psy or magic for combat situations and the other for utility.

(Ach! ...my poor english...)

The reason why you would play a mentalist is not for the 60% limit for DP. (you should really be spending the max limit any way if you want a well rounded charecter).

The reason you play it, is so that what DP you put towards your mental powers are much more developed than that of a wizard mentalist. with a pure mentalist it is easily possible to start with at least 1 dicipline fairly well developed, if not 2 diciplins with a few powers from each.

A wizard mentalist, as with a mentalist warrior suffer from spreading themselves thin. If you are spreading your DP fairly evenly (as I would recommend since anima is not hack n slash...and if you trying to do that with the system your GM will gouge there brain out). The wizard mentalist will probally only have 1 area of mental powers that he/she is reasonaly good in. trying to go beyond that would only make your charecters DP spread to thin and worthless. Also you should factor in the Creation Point cost issue. In order to make a mentalist you should take the 2 CP psycihic trait so that you can take a variety of powers later on. It would also be a good idea to take some mentalist advantages to further boost your power up. If you want some good burst power, or really powerful sustained powers. As for the wizard mentalist you will need to chooice between magic and mental powers on which of the CP you want to focus. Magic by nature already costs 2 CP, leaving only 1 CP for mental powers. Without taking a disadvantage, right off the bat you are restricted to a single mental dicipline. If you take disadvantages (which you can only take 3 of max). youll have to decide were you want to put the points. Do you boost up magic more, or mental powers. Its a tough chooice depending on which you want to lean on more heavily.

I hope you realize that mentalits and wizards are MUCH more powerful in there given areas than the hybrid classes. Hybrid classes can be effective, but they requires alot more forthought as to how all of there powers will sync together. If you dont plan out a hybrid class it will be a very unsatisfiying experience since you will be weaker than all of the other charecters.

But if I am making a Mentalist, why not be a Wizard Mentalist just to leave myself the option later? Nothing says I HAVE to buy anythign but the Gift at 1s level anyway. I just leave myself the option learning some magic later if I want to. It seems like there should be a greater advantage to having a "pure" class. What you are describing is the advantage of spending all of your points in one area, which is fine. But haivng the option if you choose seems much mor epowerful than not.

Is it possible to by both advantages required to be a full wizzard and a full mentalist, for only 3 points of advantages?

It costs 4 points, so you need 1 disadvantage... which seems easy enough

I'm not sure that it works that way.

As I read the rules you can spend 3 points on advnatages period.

Then you can take three disadvantages, but I don't see where it says that points gained on disads increase the number of points you can spend on advantages.

I definatly could be wrong. I have read the book like three times, but I still feel pretty shaky on some things.

Hrathen said:

I don't have my book on me, but I'm fairly certain that it states you can only "purchase" 3 DISADVANTAGES (and gain the Creation points from them). You may have as many Advantages as you can afford.

Also, there is -technically- a way to play a Wizard / Mentalist with just 3 CP. The Gift (2) and Access to A Psysic Dicipline (1) (Or whatever the "You can only learn 1 dicipline advantage is called.). Granted, you're pretty horrid at both, since a Mage or a Mentalist can easily take some of the more fun advantages geared towards their classes.

Your missing my point. Sure you could play a wizard mentalist and only go into one or the other, and advance in another path later. (aside from the fact that you get certain things for free any way. like base Zeon, MA etc.)

But lets suppose that you did this. Hear is the issue you will run into. The second you decide to advance in your secondary area of expertise you will fall behind the pure class. You will always have to decide between spending DP for more phychic points, and between Phychic projection and magic projection, and with magic also comes the cost of spending DP for more Zeon and MA. The fact that you start with 600 DP allows you to create a fairly effective wizard mentalist from your starting play time. But seeing as how I have run several anima games iv seen the same song and dance happen time and time again with hybrids. You only get 100 DP per level. To increase your wizards MA even 1 increment you wound need to spend 50 of that right there. Thats half your levels worth of DP gone in a flash. Now if you didnt invest any starting DP into 1 area or the other, you now get to spend several levels playing catch up spending all of your dp for several levels to make your second powers even remotly useful.

If you have a good GM the game should be scaling. Like wise a good GM will also not make the game any eaiser just for you while you level up your secondary powers from scratch. So your primary powers stay exactly the same for several levels while you level up your powers you ignored. It begs the question why are you wasteing so much time and charecter development? If your going to do that why not just play a pure class and actually be useful. 100 DP really not enough to become useful in any primary area. combat, magic or phyconics, let alone a ki user. If you spend 200 dp at first level your powers should be tested, and encounters should be challanging. if you wait several levels to boost it up? how much more difficult would the encounters have become by the time you equal them out. I can tell you from experience that your charecter would be useless and be nothing but a burden on your party if you tried to pull this stunt.

The hybrid class exists for people that want to create a charecter from day one that is a synthisus of two powers. Its also meant to grow as a synthisus of two powers. The limiting factor is starting DP and DP per level.

Ops double post. My internet was goofy.

-previous post deleted-

Geist06 said:

The rules state. 3 points for advantages and 3 total disadvantages (it does not put a stipulation on the amout of points you can gain from dissads)

If you could spend as many advantage points as you wanted you could do some crazy things. For example for like 32 points you can have straight 10's in your stats. Now this is pretty cheeze, more so than just about any powergamer I have ever seen, but advantages can be really good. They are all way worth the points you pay for them. The real cost of advantages is that you can only have 3 points spent. So if you spend 2 points on gift. you only get on more point.

Now if you want to get the 1 point advantage that gives you acess to a simgle psychic (what ever the groups are called) then that is a lot weaker than your normal mentalist. Hence the mentalist wizard can not be as good a mentalist as a straight mentalist would be. Hence he is a hybrid.

The Point made about the points is a good one too. However as I see things Straight class character seem to have some points to spend on skills and other more fluffy aspects of their characters. Hybrid characters will in general never have as good of skills.

Hrathen said:

This seems like a deliberate misreading of the rules. So, to quote, from p. 015:

"...PLayers can spend up to 3 Creation Points on the Advantages he chooses..."

"...each Disadvantage gives a Player Creation Points he can spend on other Advantages..."

If you still think that you can only spend 3 creation points on advantages regardless of points obtained from disadvantage,s I would have to ask: What do you think a player would do with those remaingin Creation Points? Save them for posterity?

Wa? you get 3 CP to start wtih. Any more points you get from Disadvantages you can spend on advantages. the limit to disadvantages is just 3.

If you take 3 disadvantages each with a 2CP bouns then you could have 6 more CP to spend (granted your charecter would have some nasty problems from 3 2 CP disadvantages.)

You were right. I was assuming that the book meant DP when they said CP. I was really confused.

Basically you get 3 CP to spend on advantages and can get more CP by taking up to three dissadvantages. So if you want to be a full mentalist and a full wizzard you need to spend 4 CP. You can do this if you are willing to take a dissadvantage. Let's point out that disads really are disadvantageous.

As an Anima noob, I would imagine that to make an effective hybrid class, you would want to take a good number of disadvantages and use the creation points that you gained to buy advantages that would make you effective in both. It would result in a character with many difficulties that might be fun for roleplaying but could lead to some difficulties. Seems to me the hybrid classes are best left to advanced players that are already familiar with the system.