Nightmare

[Captain Hammersmith]

My villain would like to have a "Nightmare" power.

 

I was thinking the effect would be she could send bad dreams to a character during their sleep and this would gradually weaken them over time.

 

I was thinking some kind of clairsentience linked to drain END, PRE and BODY with a very slow return rate.

 

She will have some combat powers as well, but I like the idea of a longer term power as a campaign hook.

 

Any thoughts?

[SteelCold]

Telepathy to read the sleeping subject's mind and subconscious and Mental Illusions linked with Drain to tailor the dreams/hallucinations of said subject.

[Doc Democracy]

I dont think there is any need to look for anything exotic.

 

I guess the game effect you are looking for is to cause the target to lose END, PRE and STUN.  I see no need for linking to clairsentience or telepathy or requiring mental illusions.  The nightmare effect is special effects.

 

My thoughts are more on how you plan to attack.  Does it happen when you attack in a separate way - like a slap or something and that night the target begins to get nightmares?  Do you expect to find the sleeping mind and attack then?  that then decides how you build it.

 

Essentially though, it is simply a delayed effect drain with delayed return, just as you said...

 

Doc

[pinecone]

Yeah a invisible effect, the rest is special effects noticing that you're having bad sleep is a " visable" effect...

[薔薇語]

When it comes to big baddies, I am of the school of thought that says "don't worry. It just works". That is to say, I don't worry about building such limited (only the baddie has it) powers. I just explain the effects and leave it at that. 

But if you want to build it as a power, I would think about what effects you fully want for the players. If you want to achieve the same general effects of sleeplessness, then look at what the effects would be: sense of weakness, inability to focus for long times, reduced cognition. If the characters suffer from this level of sleeplessness for an extreme time, they could start to feel paranoia, struggle with recalling any new information given to them, inability to develop and maintain any new skills, have psychotic breaks, etc. 

So, when I look at this, I would arrange those into two tiers:

1 day to 1 week of neigh full sleep loss:

-1 to 2 on on skill checks and Per Rolls.

This can be done with either an elaborate Change Environment or Minor Transform (normal person to person not getting enough sleep).

1 week to 2 weeks of neigh full sleep loss:

Same as above plus overall reduction in stats (Str, Con, REC, etc). Probably by 4-6 points each

This can be done with an elaborate drain OR Major Transform (Person without enough sleep to nightmare induced insomnia suffering person)

 

2 plus weeks of neigh full sleep loss:

Same as the above two PLUS the character starts suffering from the full on mental anguish of their situation - adding on disads

This can only really achieved with a sever transform

In order to target the PCs, I would have the baddie use a Mind-Scan power to find his victims and then use his transforms through it. The baddie will either need an extremely large dice pool if he is randomly looking across the continent or need some kind of informative network to cue her onto where the PCs are. Maybe even strive for the +20 effect to avoid detection. After establishing detection, the Baddie can use her Transform. 

For the Transform, I would build it as AVAD - Mental Defense so it can be used through the Mind Scan. Also, I would generally just build one big enough to do the whole job in one go but I could see a good reason for it to be smaller and thus require the baddie to be active every night or so to keep it up. This means the baddie could be working with small bits of transform dice each night and doing partial transforms each night until the full transform takes effect. The full transform being defined as the target's EGO in transform PLUS a minimum time limit (1 week of being subjected). Thus even if the baddie achieves the transform goal in 2 days, it still takes time before the full effects come into play. The other option is to just build a sufficiently large transform off the bat that can transform the character in one go. After doing so, the effects just state that it takes time before the full effects come into affect. 

Then you could have the Major and Sever Transforms be usable but require the target be suffering from the effects of the one prior before being applied. 

Since Transform needs a healing condition, you could say that it is one or two nights of full rest per layer of effect (a week if fully enthralled). If you go with option one of nightly application, then the trigger to start recovery is missing one night of application. If you go with the Once and Done method, then say that after the transform hits it's one week goal, it needs to be reapplied or start to fade at the stated rate. 

---

As for other powers that the Baddie could have:

Super High PRE for PRE attacks to instill fear. Bonus PRE against characters suffering from nightmares / insomnia 

Mind Control / Mental illusions to inspire the creeping whispers of the victims own self doubt and dreams to bubble up. Bonus Dice for those characters suffering from nightmares / insomnia.

Telepathy to directly communicate with victims. 

Summon to bring forth embodiments of the victim's fears. 

Foreign Orchid. 

 

[Captain Hammersmith]

Thanks for everybody's input, much appreciated.

 

This is what I have so far, the transform heals normally, I imagine Body comes back less often if the target is not sleeping;

 

60    Mental Contact: Multipower, 60-point reserve, (60 Active Points);

 6f    1) Read the nightmare: Telepathy 12d6 (60 Active Points);

 4f    2) Ride the nightmare: Mind Scan 12d6 (60 Active Points); only on targets that she has previously used telepathy on (-1/2)

 

 9    Nightmares: Multipower, 45-point reserve, (45 Active Points); all slots AVAD (mental defence) (-0); only while target is asleep (-11/2); 5 charges (-3/4) costs END (-1/2) Must wait 1.5 hours between attacks (-1)

1f    1) Sleep Loss: Transform (minor) 6d6; OMCV vs DMCV (+1/4), Vs Ego not body (+1/4) Effect: -2 to all rolls

1f    1) Sleep Deprived: Transform (major) 3d6; OMCV vs DMCV (+1/4), Vs Ego not body (+1/4) Effect: -2 to all rolls, -10 END, -5 CON, -2 REC, -5 PRE

1f    1) Waking nightmare: Transform (severe) 2d6; OMCV vs DMCV (+1/4), Vs Ego not body (+1/4) Effect: -2 to all rolls, -10 END, -5 CON, -2 REC, -5 PRE, 20 point psychological disavantage