Making Telekinetic Push

Ok so, as we all know, one of the powers most commonly used in various supernatural or scifi stories is the power to shove someone back with a thought.  Obviously the Force Push from Star Wars comes to mind, but also things like the movie Push, the Dresden Files (his kinetic rings he uses), etc etc.

Now given that mages can do anything (within limits) they put their mind to, I'm pretty certain my players are going to want to do this at some point.  But I can't recall any description of a shoving power in any of the books.  The closest is Telekinesis in the corebook, but I think you need Forces 4 to move people?  and its slow movement at best if I recall correctly.

I was thinking of making an addon to the Forces 3 Telekinetic Strike, but instead of causing damage, it will move your target.  I was thinking the easiest way to do this would be to keep it as an aimed spell, and allow the caster to sacrifice damage for distance. Perhaps have it where at casting, he can choose to devote the spell to pushing the target back a distance based on successess, maybe say, 1 yard per success.  I was also thinking for simplicity's sake, having it an all or nothing deal, either he does damage, or he shoves them, no mixture of the two. 

Now given in most of the above examples, while the shove itself might not injure the target, the resulting trip through the air and the landing might, depending on what they land on.   I was thinking of just using the rules for throwing for this, but not sure what speed is reasonable for this power.  Maybe a default speed of 10mph, but can be increased if the potency is boosted maybe?  

Can you guys who are better at game crunch give me a critique?  I'm not trying to make any uber power, just a reasonable mechanic for an ability that I know at least 1 of my players is going to want to do :)

Thanks.

Adamantine Arrow has a spell "Empowered Voice" which allows you to use sound to Knockdown people, and is available at Forces 3. I'm away from the book at the moment, but I'll get back to you with it's mechanics.

Other than that, if a Telekinetic Strike was applied to someone in a precarious position (such as while running, jumping, or on a ledge) than you could probably apply Knockdown.

Shaitan40too:

The closest is Telekinesis in the corebook, but I think you need Forces 4 to move people?

The way I interpret this is that you need Forces 4 to lift and hold people who are struggling against you.  I would say that at Forces 3 a mage doesn't have the control to account for a struggling body and thus trying to hold someone up against their will automatically fails.  Holding a dead body or an unconscious person or even just shoving someone should be able to be done with Telekinesis.  If someone jumps at you, you can even use Turn Projectile instead to redirect their jump vector in any direction you want and you can do it before your Initiative, like a Dodge action, too.

Well i might not be "better" than you at mage. But i figured you wouldnt mind me giving my opinion anyway.

So i know that Force mages can controle the force of gravity, changing its direction/affecting its potency and what not. Im not realy sure if this would be "easyer" or not, but if you realy wanted to move somebody without touching them, you could just change the gavitational pull in a sphere around them in whatever dicection you wanted, for a throw i would assume towards their back and slightly up, causing them to be "thrown" untill they left the affected gravity zone.

Blitz787:

So i know that Force mages can controle the force of gravity, changing its direction/affecting its potency and what not. Im not realy sure if this would be "easyer" or not, but if you realy wanted to move somebody without touching them, you could just change the gavitational pull in a sphere around them in whatever dicection you wanted, for a throw i would assume towards their back and slightly up, causing them to be "thrown" untill they left the affected gravity zone.

Definitely possible, it just takes Forces 4 to control your own gravity and Force 5 to start controlling gravity in an area. Here's a list of all the published spells. It's a helpful reference to see what spells are already out there.

Although it isn't stated anywhere, you could take precedent from Time 3's acceleration copying celerity's effects and make all levels of Forces have a telekinetic effect.  Make that effect equal to the strength level of their dots in Forces, like acceleration uses Time dots.  So at Forces 2, you can freely move things (levitate/float) things that require strength 1 to move, and at Forces 2, move things that require strength 2 to move.  This fits in nicely, because at Forces 4, you can freely move things that require strength 3 to move (approximately 250 lbs) which covers MOST people... maybe a few exceptions in there.  Extra successes on the casting roll can be spent on multiple targets, spell potency, duration, or maybe adding 1 strength to the effective strength of the telekinesis used.  What do you guys think?

Telekinesis (Forces ••)
Practice: Ruling
Action: Instant
Duration: Transitory
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: 1 Mana

Success:  The caster gains 1 strength per dot he has Forces in telekinetic force which he can apply to objects.  The caster can freely manipulate objects whose strength requirements are less than the telekinetic strength he possesses.  The caster can dedicate extra successes as a bonuses to the telekinetic strength he has on a 1 to 1 basis, for the remainder of the spell.  For this spell's duration to increase, target factors must be applied.


This spell allows simple spoon bending for forces 2 mages (which is on par with their ability to manipulate fire or electricity, while not giving them too powerful a weapon (at least I think)

HomunculusMortus:

Telekinesis (Forces ••)

I think to avoid confusion I'd rename it Telekinetic Enhancement.

The Psychic Telekinesis merit from second site has telekinetic push as one of the levels, take a look at it to see a general guideline for this power in nwod.

rickayelm:

The Psychic Telekinesis merit from second site has telekinetic push as one of the levels, take a look at it to see a general guideline for this power in nwod.

I will, thanks.