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Main Goal: A general idea of fighting, or a specific example of a fight that fits (like general strategies all use, or a single fight where "fast users" beat "strong users". Traps laid in advance, or brute force, or specific style to each person? How would wars look like with many telekinetics? Are there powers that are "overpowered" (pun-intended) and can't be used at all?

Goal: G1: Have a fair fight for telekinetics with similar fighting experience.

G2: Have a wide variety of different "telekinetic abilities" that fighters can have, with natural balances. For example, fast telekinesis beats strong telekinesis.

Stipulations: S1: Everyone gets telekinetic powers they control naturally (like a limb or hand) from birth. (Yes, war will be chaos possibly.)

S2: All of them have similar potential with maximum fighting experience/tactics/intelligence. An extremely strong and healthy person could be beaten by a weaker person with martial arts training. I'd imagine similar situations of a telekinetic with "weak" power but decades of experience.

S3: Nobody has more than one power. If a person can multi-task, then they can't have above-average strength or speed. If a person can quickly move things, there is a maximum speed they can accelerate an object to. If a person can move a heavy thing, there is a limit to the weight, or the speed moving decreases as a ratio to weight. If a person controls air/gases (wind?), they can't move solids.

S4:There are clear-cut ways people activate their telekinesis. Not telekinesis in a conventional sense, but some people can move things while maintaining eye-contact, some can move things as long as physical touch/contact is kept, and others may have another "activation" method if you can think of one, but is balanced in terms of "fighting".

S5: For whatever handwavium reason, you cannot use telekinesis at close-range. You can certainly use powers to make yourself dodge (throw your body away from a falling boulder, faster moving, flight), but you can't simply twist a person's neck out of nowhere. You can't use their clothes to choke them. You can, however, "control" a knife from a far distance away from them, and move it into close range (either throwing it with some curvature in aim, or "float" it to their neck as a threat).

Basically, objects within 10 feet (arbitrary) of people can't be controlled. If there is a small town of hundreds, the effect grows and you can't simply crumble all the buildings to kill people. Perhaps a mile away you can trigger a landslide down the mountain, but for a large city perhaps dozens of miles away.

S6: This is VERY optional. People can notice other telekinetics at all times (a sixth sense?), or only when their powers are used. If a trap with telekinesis is set up ahead of time, it will not be noticed.

For example, I lift a mountain for two hours. In the moment, it is detected, but after the first few seconds, it is not noticeable until it moves again, like a "strong-type" dropping a literal mountain on an enemy army.

If any stipulations gets in the way, keep in mind I just want general ideas, so only focusing on the Main Goal(s) is/are fine, as would be pointing out any over-powered abilities I should avoid ever using in characters. As per my vague and arbitrary question(s) and stipulations, I don't need a direct answer, a vague one with many ideas I can build upon or be inspired by will do.

Sorry for the inconsistent and vague stipulations and questions.

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  • $\begingroup$ one thing is 'time on target' barrages as soon as somebody thinks of it. might also want to look up if the micro-gravity/zero-g martial arts questions ever got useful answers, telekinesis is in many ways similar to the ability to intelligently and effectively manipulate inertia in such environments. $\endgroup$
    – Giu Piete
    Commented Mar 16, 2019 at 0:59
  • $\begingroup$ thinking about it, I don't have a clue what the movie/action style is called, but a deal of the far eastern martial arts movies have martial arts choreography in which the mc's essentially ignore physics. $\endgroup$
    – Giu Piete
    Commented Mar 16, 2019 at 1:11
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    $\begingroup$ Welcome! I recommend taking a look at our Sandbox where you can post questions and get advice as to how to make it best fit our site. As is, the question is too broad and open ended for the stack exchange format. On WB.SE, there's a bit of open-endedness to most questions, but you've basically asked "Make a large number of telekenetic powers, with scaling factors for skill, such that they are all balanced at every skill level." That's really too open ended... $\endgroup$
    – Cort Ammon
    Commented Mar 16, 2019 at 1:32
  • $\begingroup$ ... in fact, balancing jobs like this are the full time job of many employees at Blizzard for their games! That being said, one comment I would make if you put this in the sandbox: all telekenetic fights would consist 100% of abusing the precise implementation S4. Every fighter's goal is to get an attack as close to the enemy as possible without exposing themselves to attack. Thus you can critique any ideas you have by playing devil's advocate and trying to exploit your S4 implementation as much as you can imagine. $\endgroup$
    – Cort Ammon
    Commented Mar 16, 2019 at 1:34
  • $\begingroup$ You're asking for "general ideas" and "a vague" answer on a site that requires specific questions (help center: Questions ... must be specific and answerable). You don't even define the abilities ("wide variety of different 'telekinetic abilities'"). I apologize, but VTC OT:TB. Can you rewrite this with a single, specific telekinetic ability? That combined with your stipulations would be enough for me to retract my vote. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Mar 24, 2019 at 7:11

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It seems that the only way, assuming everyone has more or less equal strength and ability, would be to hit the hostile telekinetic with something they are not aware of. Ex. I while hurling rocks and stuff at my enemy I subtly propel a small needle to enourmous speeds so that when it nears the enemy and my telekinesis cuts out it can still pierce them. They don’t know about the needle till it has hit them.

If they have to see to use the telekinesis, manipulating sand, dust, or some type of barrier that hinders their view would be a highly effective tactic.

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  • $\begingroup$ So simply put, the most consistent methods always are surprise attacks. Thanks. $\endgroup$
    – Firemorfox
    Commented Mar 30, 2019 at 2:08

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