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Overall, it looks as if default transparency slightly favors the defender, whereas default opacity favors the aggressor.
Hmm, yeah it would appear so. I just thought it would be better to have a contest of sorts.
Like a Psion trying to beat a spell would have to make a spellcraft check to know enough about the spell to try to defeat it.
A mage trying to beat a manifested power would have to make one to know enough about it to try to defeat it...
Then allow a caster or manifester check...
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Then allow a caster or manifester check...
Most things already work that way, with full transparency. In the case of beating a nondetection spell, for example, you need a level check to beat it even if you're a wizard and the defender is a wizard.
So would a psion have to make two checks? Or would the DC just be adjusted? Or do they stack into failure?
Same issue for dispel magic, defeating SR, etc., etc.
I think it's worth mentioning the origin of psionics in 1E -- that oddball appendix, with the ridiculously-slim chance of any psionic ability at all -- made more ridiculous by the fact that the attribute "requirements" for the roll hugely favored spellcasters, as it was based on high mental attributes.
In a situation like THAT, wherein psionics are terribly rare, and most likely possessed by spellcasters when they happen at all -- psionics and magic not functioning vs. each other wasn't of much import: usually, a psionic character would HAVE magic to use if the psionics s/he possessed didn't work.
Once psionics became more mainstream -- classes conferring psionic aptitude -- THEN the issue becomes more important. While I've been a little sad at the way psionics has become "just another kind of caster," I do think that magic and psionics ought to affect each other; perhaps less efficiently than magic-vs-magic or psi-vs-psi, but otherwise you get a bizzarre magic-vs-psi arms race. It might make for an interesting story, but kind of a lousy game. Imo/ymmv.
Then allow a caster or manifester check...Most things already work that way, with full transparency. In the case of beating a nondetection spell, for example, you need a level check to beat it even if you're a wizard and the defender is a wizard.
So would a psion have to make two checks? Or would the DC just be adjusted? Or do they stack into failure?
Same issue for dispel magic, defeating SR, etc., etc.
Yes! That's the point, not having to reinvent the wheel. The contest mechanic is already there, we just need to decide how it works.
Normally a psion wouldn't even get the chance with opaque, so there is that.With DSP there is no Psi-craft...its just spell craft for both spells and powers. They assume knowledge about how powers and spell work is covered under the one skill.
Maybe, then, the magic user needs to make a knowledge psionics check DC of 15+final power level (in case of meta-psionic feats; total points spent would determine this) and a psionic power user needs to make a knowledge arcana check check DC of 15+final spell level check (if meta magic boosted the slot used). Or maybe 25+ for the DC?
Make it an INT check? I dunno. You'd have to do the math to check success rates to find something fair but not easy.
Success would mean you defeat, or suppress the effect.
EDIT: I would imagine, in mid to higher level games, with skill checks as they are, the opaqueness would become a joke, with either side easily working against the other's powers/spells... is this something to avoid, or embrace?
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I think it's worth mentioning the origin of psionics in 1E -- that oddball appendix, with the ridiculously-slim chance of any psionic ability at all -- made more ridiculous by the fact that the attribute "requirements" for the roll hugely favored spellcasters, as it was based on high mental attributes.
In a situation like THAT, wherein psionics are terribly rare, and most likely possessed by spellcasters when they happen at all -- psionics and magic not functioning vs. each other wasn't of much import: usually, a psionic character would HAVE magic to use if the psionics s/he possessed didn't work.
Once psionics became more mainstream -- classes conferring psionic aptitude -- THEN the issue becomes more important. While I've been a little sad at the way psionics has become "just another kind of caster," I do think that magic and psionics ought to affect each other; perhaps less efficiently than magic-vs-magic or psi-vs-psi, but otherwise you get a bizzarre magic-vs-psi arms race. It might make for an interesting story, but kind of a lousy game. Imo/ymmv.
I've played in the cold war type game, and it was fun as hell. My psionicist carried around "fetishes" that he had no idea what they did, only that they protected him from some magical effects. Mages had similar things, usually taken off of psions.
The mages out numbered the psions, but the "universe" made psions to police the mages...Mages had tried for years to create spells that would suppress psions an exclude mages, but could not. SR didn't help, globe of invulnerability didn't help, etc etc. If you were a mage who didn't abuse his power, you usually never got a visit from a psion. The mages that did so and banded together started the cold war, and it got nasty...
TL;DR: To each their own I guess. The psi cold war experience was fun for me.
I've played in the cold war type game, and it was fun as hell. My psionicist carried around "fetishes" that he had no idea what they did, only that they protected him from some magical effects. Mages had similar things, usually taken off of psions.
The mages out numbered the psions, but the "universe" made psions to police the mages...
Mages had tried for years to create spells that would suppress psions an exclude mages, but could not. SR didn't help, globe of invulnerability didn't help, etc etc. If you were a mage who didn't abuse his power, you usually never got a visit from a psion. The mages that did so and banded together started the cold war, and it got nasty...TL;DR: To each their own I guess. The psi cold war experience was fun for me.
Oh, didn't mean such a game couldn't be fun; just the level of logistics and difficulty involved are a pain (imo). It sounds like you had a fun game with it, which is really the important thing.
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The gm of that game loves that kind of attention to detail, so it was a win/win :)