Mind Reading

Type: Sensory (mental)

Action: Standard/Full (active)

Range: Perception

Duration: Concentration (lasting)

Saving Throw: Will

Cost: 1 point per rank

You can read another character’s thoughts. To use Mind Reading, make an opposed power check against the result of the target’s Will saving throw. If Successful, you can read the target’s surface thoughts (meaning whatever the target is presently thinking). Mind Reading transcends language; you comprehend

the target’s thoughts whether or not you share a common language. The target gets an additional opposed Mind Reading check vs. Will save for each interval that passes on the Time Table, with a cumulative +1 bonus per save. If you lose the opposed check, you cannot read the target’s thoughts. You can try again the following round, but the renewed attempt requires extra effort and the target gets a cumulative +1 bonus on the Will save per attempt in that encounter.

BLUFF AND MIND READING

If you can interact with your subject, a successful Bluff check against the target’s Sense Motive check result causes the subject to 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 surface thoughts.

MIND PROBE

You can also mentally probe a target’s mind for information. Take a full-round action and make an opposed check of Mind Reading vs. Will save. If you win, 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. Especially personal or guarded information grants the target a +1 to +5 bonus on the Will save, while information the subject doesn’t consciously know (subconscious

or forgotten due to amnesia, for example) grants a +5 to +10 bonus on the Will save and the target can’t choose to forego the save. You can continue to ask questions, one per round, for as long as you maintain your mind probe, requiring a full-round action each round. The target gets an additional opposed Mind Reading check vs. Will save for each interval that passes on the Time Table, with a cumulative +1 bonus per save. If you fail your power check, you cannot probe the target’s mind. You can try again the following round, but the renewed attempt requires extra effort and target gets a cumulative +1 bonus on the

Will save per attempt.

MENTAL GRAPPLING

You can use Mind Reading to initiate a mental grapple (see Mental Grapple, M&M, page 157, for details).

POWER FEATS

• Subtle: As a mental sensory effect, Mind Reading has a degree of subtlety, only noticeable to the subject or to characters with an appropriate Super-Sense, such as Mental Awareness (see the Super-Senses effect). Subtle Mind Reading is less detectable, requiring a DC 20 Notice check for either type of character to

sense it, while two ranks of the Subtle power feat makes Mind Reading completely undetectable.

EXTRAS

• Action: Applying this extra to Mind Reading lowers the action required for both reading surface thoughts and mental probes, so a +1 Action extra moves those actions down to move and standard, respectively.• Area: With this extra, you can read the surface thoughts of anyone within the affected area; make a single Mind Reading power check and compare the result to the Will saving throws of all potential subjects in the area. Retries and further opposed power checks are the same as for reading a single subject. You can only use the mind probe aspect of Mind Reading on a single subject at a time; the Area modifier does not apply to it. You can engage in a mental grapple with multiple opponents at once using area Mind Reading, but you must win the mental grapple check against all your opponents in order to break off a mental grapple, should it go against you.

• Sensory Link (+1): You can “tap into” the senses of your subjects, perceiving what they perceive while reading their minds like an ESP effect (see ESP). 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.

FLAWS

• Feedback: You suffer Feedback if a subject you are reading is harmed, using your Mind Reading rank as the saving throw bonus against the non-lethal 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 (a kind of Side Effect flaw).

• Limited by Language (–1): You can only understand the subject’s thoughts or memories if you share a common language.

• Limited to Emotions (–1): You can only read or probe for emotions and emotional associations, not coherent surface thoughts or memories.

• Limited to Mental Grapple (–1): You can only use Mind Reading to initiate mental grapples and cannot read thoughts or perform mind probes.

• Limited to Mind Probe (–1): You can only perform mind probes (taking the usual full round action) and cannot read surface thoughts.

• Limited to Sensory Link (–1): 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 probe their memories.

• Limited to Surface Thoughts (–1): You can only read surface thoughts and cannot probe for information.

• Range: Ranged Mind Reading effects require a ranged attack roll in addition to the effect’s normal saving throw. Mind Reading limited to touch range requires a melee attack roll against an unwilling target and physical contact throughout the effect’s duration; breaking contact ends the effect.

• 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 biochem-istry (Scent-Dependent), and so forth. Alternately, it may be dependent on being in Mental Communication with the target (see Communication).

OPTION: DEFENSIVE MENTAL GRAPPLES ONLY

If you find the ability to initiate mental grapples via Mind Reading problematic, you may wish to restrict the ability to initiate a mental grapple to the subject of a Mind Reading attempt. That is, Mind Reading subjects can initiate a mental grapple as part of an effort to eject a psychic intruder, but mind-readers cannot do so on their own. This makes mental grappling solely a defensive rather than offensive capability, although a defender who loses a mental grapple is still largely at the mind-reader’s mercy.

OPTION: SUBTLE MIND READING CHECKS

Rather than following the normal rules for Subtle effects (see the Subtle power feat description), you can use the following optional rule for handling Mind Reading and similar effects with the first rank of Subtle. The effect’s user makes a Mind Reading check for “mental subtlety” while the subject of the effect makes an opposed Sense Motive check to pick up on the subtle sensation of mental invasion. If the mind-reader wins, the subject does not detect the effect (whether or not it is successful), if the subject wins, he senses the effect’s use and whether or not it was successful. If someone knows you have invaded their mind, they can attempt to eject you, as described previously.