Hello Everyone! We have another important update to our Character Sheet System today, coming in the form of modifying how contesting different skills work.

Resolve Nerfed

So for a long time Resolve has been a “must max” skill as it was labelled the counter to such a massive list of abilities: Mind Trick, Illusion, Intimidation, Deception, Charm, Terror, Telepathy, Suppression.

This fact has been discussed a ton over the years, and as our system has grown the problem has just gotten more extreme. There was a recent discussion on Discord around this fact again, and in the end it prompted Turel to send in a proposal with a really good solution to help fight this based on what was talked about there. The Resolve counter issue has been a big one and a lot of people have contributed to the discussion on this matter. Thank you everyone who helped get us to a new solution on this.

Ability	Counter
Intimidation	Resolve
Mind Trick	Resolve
Possession*	Resolve
Terror	Resolve
Charm	Perception
Deception	Perception
Illusion	Perception
Supression	Intellect
Telepathy	Intellect

So how/why these are what they are (especially since they have all been resolve historically and an argument could be made for several kinds of counters to each ability).

Intimidation/Terror is overcome by resolve, as resisting fear is a core part of having resolve. Steeling yourself against something threatening.

Mind Trick is overriding a person’s will to do things, so again, resistance to that is right up resolve’s ally.

Possession is also countered by resolve for a similar reason, but is also a unique ability in that you can’t just possess someone, they have to be willing, and you can’t force them to do something that would obviously hurt themselves (like jumping off a building). This counter comes from if they change their mind, or if you have the feat “Preservation Override”.

Charm/Deception both have to deal with seeing a person’s “tells”. While Charm doesn’t involve hiding that you want stuff, countering a charming person involves seeing and recognizing they are buttering you up to get what they want.

Illusion also has to do with perception in picking up details of “this isn’t really here”.

Suppression involves tricking a mind into not connecting to the Force. With clarity and focus you can intelligently overcome it.

Telepathy involves being smart enough to push past any intrusion of thoughts to focus on what you are doing.

Additional Feats

Alongside this, staff discussion led to some new feat ideas for changing these counters.

Unimpressed: Use your resolve to steel yourself past a charming person’s desires.

Two and Two is Five: Use your intellect to see cracks in a person’s deception attempt.

Inside My Head: Use your perception to notice that telepathy is occurring.

I am in Control: Use your Control Self power to counter Mind Trick.

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