primal urge - effects in combat ?

[galafrone]

The 5th circle beastmaster's power seems a bit "vague" about the effects on target if the power is used during combat:

Primal Urges: For 2 Strain, the adept may induce a strong animalian urge in a target animal or Namegiver, by making a Charisma Test against the target’s Spell Defense.
If successful he may induce an urge of his choice into the target, for example fear, fury, hunger, thirst, sexual desire, or drowsiness.
The urge is strong, but does not force a target into acting against his will, though it may influence his actions at the gamemaster’s discretion.
Primal Urges uses a Standard Action.


1) the urge induced can somehow inder the target ? fear for example, how can it affect the target in relation to the BM and his eventual friends ?
2) drowsiness can be considered a "light harried status" ? (- 1 to all defenses, - 1 to all actions)
3) the duration of the power ? rounds ? minutes ? immediate ?

sorry to pester, but my wife's PC has just reached the 5th and she is pestering ME about the effects in combat.
ah, ED, what do you do to the women ?

[Tanthalas]

I would think that this sort of power can only really help you tangentially in a fight. As it is just a Beastmaster power and not an actual talent, it seems pretty clear that the design was not for the Beastmaster to use it as a true compulsion.

As such, at my table I would rule that if you were using it on enemy name-giver in combat, your options would be fairly limited. Inducing fear or fury successfully would simply modify the tactics of your opponent. If afraid, they would take a more defensive posture. If afflicted with fury they would be very aggressive. Both of these could be reflected simply by combat stances, or by more complex talent combos if the enemies in question are adepts with a large variety of tactics up their sleeves.

The ability goes on to state that you can't make the target to act against their will, so they probably shouldn't do anything out of character or foolish. I would think that getting sleepy in the middle of a fight, while adrenaline is high, is clearly a detriment to the character, and completely goes against what they would normally do. I would probably not allow the Beastmaster to influence someone in combat this way.

Duration of the power is a little bit trickier, but the intent is probably either immediate or something on the order of minutes. Perhaps the user's willpower step in minutes? If the emotional change is minor, I see no problem with making the change semi-permanent until the subject could be convinced that they were in error. However, I imagine that the effect could be broken if the subject realizes that their moods are being played with and it is causing the Namegiver to make foolish mistakes.

Long story short, I think at best this power would effect the overall tactics of the enemy without applying much of a modifier. This may make the power seem less potent, but from the wording and idiom of the Beastmaster, this could be quite potent when working on relationships with others outside of conflict.

Of course, in the end its your game, do what you will.

[galafrone]

thanks, the answer is pretty consistent and approaches the problem from good points of view.
Speaking of the power, if not supported by some good ruling is pretty awful for the beastmaster
even if not in combat, the effects are totally left to the GM, the player cant really hope in nothing; even in a social situation, where the talent is probably working at his best, the lack of definition of "urge" leave me with a total discretional power. If i give "lust" to an opponent, but my beastmaster isnt liked by the target, what happens ? i mean, he can be lustful as a hot donkey, but if he really dont like my race (for example) what can happen ? that i have a npc lustful that can react exactly as before being "urged".
Or hungry: ok, the target is hungry. so ? if he didnt planned to eat, or cant eat (i am talking about a social situation, not a combat situation) what changes for the Beastmaster ?
the only thing i can figure out is that the target of the urge is "distracted" by it.
is pushed to consider that urge as the primary thing to satisfy. so maybe a guard that needs to be distracted will be worked more quickly (he will not stay there to question to much the PC, he NEEDS to eat/do sex/etc).
Or if the urge is "fear", the target will be more incline to threats, intimidations and such.
so a penalty to SD ?

well, anyway i think that is a power that SHOULD be re-wrote, or at least clarified and errataed.
as it stays is really less powerful than other "combat classes" 5th circle powers (swordmaster, air sailor, warrior).
It's ok even to consider the BM a less fighting oriented class, but even so, the power fails to express the "tactical" modification (being combat, social or whatever) that his use (and duration) will create in a target.

thanks anyway