Cthulhutech: Tager power level too high?

[TroubleBrewing]

Starting a Cthulhutech game soon. There are five players, including myself, and the GM. We've voted to play in an Eldritch Society game, which means that we have the option of playing as Tagers.

We're all new to the system, and I was looking through the Tager rules, I was struck by how easy it would be to unintentionally create something way, way too powerful. Is this true? Is there a fix to this problem? Should we avoid Tagers altogether?

TL,DNR: Tagers = "Druids" of Cthulhutech, true or no?

[Psyborg]

CthulhuTech covers so many different styles of play, at so many different power levels, that it really, really requires cooperation between the group and the DM in creating the party, and you absolutely must have a clear idea of the type and power level of game you want to play before making characters.

In the given example, are you going to focus more on the internal and behind-the-scenes workings of the Eldritch Society and its foes? If so, talented mundanes and maybe a sorceror would not be out of place, along with perhaps one of the less combat-powerful Tagers. Or are you going to focus on outright guerilla war in the midst of "civilization", or incredibly risky undercover assignments where an Efreet Tager is the ultimate "concealed weapon" in case of cover being blown? Play Tagers, and maybe a mundane/sorceror as the controller/support/intel guy- as long as he knows he's incredibly squishy and likely to die if he gets close to monstrous combat.

A parapsychic can make an interesting addition to a tager group, either as a supportive type or a nuker. Still fragile, with nothing like a tager's regenerative abilities; on the other hand, they're at least able to participate in combat on the same level as tagers, albeit with a lot more care. There are...a lot of issues with parapsy, though. Looking through some of the homebrew fixes/remakes and/or ignoring parapsychics entirely are probably wiser options.

[TroubleBrewing]

See, comments like "There are... a LOT of problems with Tagers" sparked my initial question. Now I'm wondering about parapsychics. I can see the obvious problems with powers like Precognition, but the game provides a caveat for including Whites and Zoners, going so far as to say "totally disallow this, unless it's REALLY what you're looking for" in a few cases.

[Psyborg]

It's been a while since I read the parapsy rules in detail, but I think the main issues were:

1. You will go insane. (No, really. I promise.)
1a. Zoners already are insane. They will become more so.
1b. Whites rephrase 1. to read "You will go insane eventually."

Eventually might be a career, if you're very very cautious, but it's more likely to be....oh...two-thirds of a campaign, rather than one. :smallannoyed:

2. If you are a Tele/Pyro/Electro/Gravikinetic, you can level city blocks with some ingenuity, but have minimal to no extra senses or defenses compared to a baseline human. Thus, you are an archetypal glass cannon, and combat encounters are incredibly difficult to balance for you, as the line between "blows up instantly" and "gets blown up instantly" is absurdly thin.

3. No one has ever wanted to DM/GM/SG for telepaths or precogs. CthulhuTech is no exception.

4. Remember the five-minute adventuring day in DnD? You are always out of orgone. Always. Either that, or you never use your powers because you might suddenly need to be able to throw a mecha at something hard enough to get its attention, and being out of orgone then would be bad.

Hopefully that's detailed enough to be satisfying, and hopefully my memory is accurate.

If you want to include them- and they are cool- then go with a Somatic or...the healing one...or find/make a homebrew that at least alleviates some of the orgone shortage and gives offensive parapsychics some kind of defense- shields for tele and gravi at least make sense. And be White. Really, every PC psyker ever should be White just to cut down on the whole f***ing over teammates due to being bats*** insane thing.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Basically, Cthulhutech was never meant or even desired to be "competitively balanced" between Professions. You know how D&D has "tiers"? CTech does too, and it's a conscious design decision. Some things are combat monsters, some things are investigators, and there is not a hell of a lot of overlap. In order from strongest to weakest, we have:

0) The hypothetical game of "Tagermech: **** Blows Up Everywhere Forever"
1) Mortal combatants (Or Parapsychs) with access to mechs/Engels
2) Tagers
2.5) Parapsychics
3) Mortal combatants and Sorcerers
4) Mortal noncombatants
5) Nephilim lol

Encounters designed around any one of these things will absolutely crush, mash, and devour anything of a lower tier, especially at low XP levels before people have a chance to diversify. Basically, when you make a game, have an upper power level in mind (mecha warfare, Tager combat, Mortal Kombat, investigation) and make sure anyone who's playing, say, a Sorcerer in an Eldritch Society Tager game is okay with hanging back in combat and playing mission control.