Lucky Psychic Character Creation Question

[Hunterrose]

Hey folks, I apologize if this is a dumb question, but I'm trying to create a Lucky Psychic (OCC from Rifter 53) Character for an HU campaign.
But I'm completely confused on how much ISP the character should start with.
As written, it seems like he would max out at 10 ISP (2D4+2) which seems very under powered.

The Rifter article refers back to BTSv2's "Physical Psychic". Which explains the ISP a little more, but also indicates that the amount of ISP changes depending on the threat?
I understand that this is one of the weirdo (not entirely popular) rules from BTSv2 so I can ignore that.

I also understand that HU characters are typically more powerful than BTS characters (understandably).

I tried using the Latent Psychic as an ISP base, and that's fine. But now the character feels overpowered.
The typical power moves that the LP uses are pretty inexpensive in ISP expense, but can be really powerful in game.

I do think that for an HU environment, the base ISP should be higher than 10, but maybe not approaching 50 (which is where the Latent puts the base at).

Does anyone have any recommendations or clarifications? Am I missing something obvious?
I'm not sure if we are allowed to post excerpts, but I'm happy to if that helps clarify my question.

Thanks!
Hunter

[Crimson Dynamo]

I just read over the class (which sounds like an absolute blast to play, as an aside), and that whole section is worded rather oddly. I'm particularly confused by the multipliers listed in parenthesis after it. I literally have no idea what that's supposed to mean. I'm guessing its a reference to the BtS 'threat level' ability you mentioned in your post, but I really don't know much about that system.

Regardless, the easiest thing to do next to just fiating it would be to look at the Rifts Conversion Book 1 and try to reverse engineer things a bit. I'd start with page 59, using the entry for the Physical Psychic that states that their I.S.P. is tripled (while simultaneously ignoring the addition of a ton of new powers). Then, after looking over the conversion rules for Heroes Unlimited starting on page 43, it appears they use the same general I.S.P. ranges that Rifts does. Thus it seems to suggest that if you want to convert the Lucky Psychic to Heroes Unlimited, you basically just triple their I.S.P. and have at it.

Which, honestly, feels fine to me. Most of their innate powers are in the 5-6 I.S.P. range unless they choose some psionic powers with their bonus abilities, and being able to use them 3-4 times a day at 1st level feels perfectly adequate. If anything, they feel kind of weak compared to other hero types who can use their powers pretty much at will.

Interestingly enough, that puts them right in the middle of what you considered the sweet spot; a max of 30 (2D4+2 at 1st level, x3).

[Hunterrose]

Hey Crimson!
Thank you for that suggestion! I will have to track down a "Conversion Book 1". But if as you say they use a x3 multiplier that makes sense, and works for me.

I've had mixed results playing the character so far, I'm going for a "Maxwell Smart" / "Inspector Clouseau" vibe, and its tricky because most of the powers are supposed to be subconsciously activated, even though in-game they need to be intentional and directed. There's also a lot of leeway and interpretation when it comes to some of the powers, so your GM has to be willing to play along (for better or for worse). That kind of punishingly stupid character type can grate on the other PCs.

And since this is luck manipulation it does bite me (and the party) in the butt sometimes.

I eventually re-wrote the article into a playable document that lists the powers in a similar way to other Psionics/Spells, and that has helped a lot.
But all in all I've only gotten to play a few times with this character in kind of one-off test scenarios.