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I read it as #1 also

Well, I don't know what the intent is, but it sure sounds like the character has to choose one of those two tracks.

-Vek
"But #2 sounds better."

I have always read it as option 2, partially because option 1 makes them completely suck, while option 2 makes them moderately suck.

I have also always read it as #2. A while back I added up the possible selections as you have and that helped to confirm it for me, but to be honest the idea of option #1 never occurred to me. I just took the sentence to be worded clunkily. There's no way the psychic sensitive class has an option to not take psychic sensitive powers.

Soldier of Od wrote:I have also always read it as #2. A while back I added up the possible selections as you have and that helped to confirm it for me, but to be honest the idea of option #1 never occurred to me. I just took the sentence to be worded clunkily. There's no way the psychic sensitive class has an option to not take psychic sensitive powers.

Another for the "#1 never occurred to me" brigade, as well.

Soldier of Od wrote:There's no way the psychic sensitive class has an option to not take psychic sensitive powers.

Just like there's no way farmers couldn't farm
and first ed sailors don't have sailing for an occ skill
and wizards not being able to create scrolls.

it would never happen.

I'm surprised that people say they can play vanilla palladium, because what is that. There is so much vagueness that one persons vanilla straight from the book game can be different to someone elses.

I'm fine with either alternative, and I think that Option 1 is the canon rule-as-written. However, there's a game-breaking problem here: If the character chooses to take 1 Sensitive power per level (option 1a), the character will run out of sensitive powers to take after Level 10, because Sensitives start out with 10 powers from their category, and there are only 19 sensitive psi-powers in the game.

I disagree with Mark that the Sensitive completely sucks as a class, even under Option 1. The big benefit of the Sensitive is the class-exclusive supernatural sensing powers. While these powers pale in comparison to their Rifts counterparts, they're the only players in the automatically-aware-sentient-psychic-bloodhound business in Palladium Fantasy.

Have you ever played with one of them in rules-as-written? The GM needs to roll any time magic gets used or a significant supernatural creature comes in range. That's kind of annoying as a GM, but it's manageable, and the mechanics lend themselves to an interesting hunt dynamic. If the roll goes in the player's favor, the GM tells them that they sense... something. The character can try to identify it with a crappy chance of success or track it with a crappier chance of success (because you have to re-roll every round to stay on the trail). Basically, their passive powers serve as a useful alarm system (along with the "Sense Evil" power which auto-detects the presence of supernatural evil without ISP expenditure). Beyond that, they need to use active sensing powers like See Aura, Sense Evil, and Sense Magic to learn useful information. It's actually plays out pretty well and becomes something of a detective game as the Sensitive manages his/her ISP and active powers to glean hints about the supernatural creature/magic at play.

That said, I'll freely acknowledge that Sensitives do kind of suck, even under Option 2. What makes them suck is that the class's distinctive powers are so anemic. 30%+5% per level of experience for detecting active magic or supernatural critters is lame, especially considering that a character's dog or horse is 100% guaranteed to sense the same things and provide an obvious reaction. Additionally, the Sense Evil power does this automatically at short range, and it can be taken by any minor psionic. Sensitives' ID and tracking skills are very unreliable (15% at level 1, +2-3% per level), and the requirement to re-roll every 15 seconds for tracking makes it useless except at short range where other powers are better anyway.

Thus, the Sensitive is the best at their specialization, but only marginally so. Any Mind Mage, Mystic, or other character with minor psionics can be nearly as useful by taking Sense Evil and See Aura, and they'll probably have abilities that will be much more useful than the Sensitive at dealing with supernatural prey. Throw in a horse or a dog (which also provides tracking/attack assistance) and you're basically good to go.

Do we possibly have any Psi-Sensitive NPCs out there to gander at?

NPC's often don't follow the rules so aren't a good proof of concept.

Axelmania wrote:Do we possibly have any Psi-Sensitive NPCs out there to gander at?

It could be useful to have an N.P.C. list of where we can find statted-out examples of each class in the game. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any Sensitives, Healers, or Druids (which I regard as being the three worst classes in the basic book).

kiralon wrote:NPC's often don't follow the rules so aren't a good proof of concept.

The PRINTED rules anyway One can theorize that enigmas follow as-yet-unprinted Siembieda-head-canon slated for World Book 99.

Still better than nothing, of course.