Sunder Mind

Sunder Mind

	Mental
	4
	SunderMind
	no
Infobox data from game version 2.0.206.63

Sunder Mind

You sunder the mind of an enemy, leaving them reeling in pain.

For up to 10 rounds, you engage in psychic combat with an opponent, dealing damage each round.
Taking any action other than passing the turn will break the connection.
Each round you make a mental attack vs mental armor (MA).
Damage increment: (level based)
After the tenth round, you deal bonus damage equal to the total amount of damage you've done so far.
Range: sight
Cooldown: 80 rounds

Sunder Mind is a mental mutation that can be used on a creature to deal mental damage every round for ten rounds.

This mutation grants the "Sunder Mind" activated ability, which when used, will prompt the player to select a tile somewhere within the current zone. Any tile can be selected regardless of distance, so long as the tile is visible or contains a creature detected by Sense Psychic. Sunder Mind will only succeed if it is used on a creature with a mind.

Selecting a tile containing a creature will cause both the user and the target to become "locked in psychic battle". This status condition causes the target to take damage determined by mutation level every round, allows the attacker and target to see each other even if they are in darkness, behind occluding objects, or invisible, and prevents any other creatures from using Sunder Mind on the attacker or target. The psychic battle will continue for ten rounds or until interrupted.

When there are only five rounds remaining, both the attacker and the target will suffer a nosebleed. This effect is distinct from the bleeding status effect, and deals a flat 1 damage every round until Sunder Mind is interrupted for any reason. If a creature lacks a face, they will instead "hemorrhage", which is identical in nature to a nosebleed and a purely cosmetic difference.

On the tenth round, the target will suffer additional damage equal to the total damage done during the previous 9 rounds; if this damage instance kills them, their head will explode.

As it deals mental damage, Sunder Mind must penetrate a creature's Mental Armor in order to deal damage. Normal penetration rolls take place each round damage is dealt, with the user's →PV value equal to their Ego modifier or mutation level - 2 (whichever is higher), rolled against the target's MA. The damage increment denotes the mental damage inflicted per penetration.

Interrupting Sunder Mind

A psychic battle will be interrupted if:

• The attacker takes any other action besides passing their turn
• The attacker becomes confused
• The attacker becomes terrified
• The attacker is psionically cleaved
• The attacker or target is killed
• Either the attacker or target moves to a new zone (this includes climbing up or down stairs)
• Sunder Mind is successfully reflected by Mental Mirror
• The attacker is hurt by damage reflection effects

A sunder mind attack will not be interrupted if:

• The attacker and target move out of visual range of one another
• The attacker becomes frozen
• The attacker and victim become out of phase

Death Messages

Sunder Mind and its related effects can cause the player to receive several unique death messages.

The player will receive the following death message if they die due to a nosebleed or hemorrhaging, respectively:

You died from a nosebleed.

You died from a hemorrhage.

If the player dies due to their head exploding, they will receive the following popup message:

Your sense of self is pulled apart by what feels like a billion years of geologic pressure.

Followed by:

Your head explodes!

Then finally, this death message:

Your head was exploded by [creature name].

Formulas

The following formulas are used to determine damage increment based on mutation level, rounded down. Note that different formulas are used to determine damage based on whether the mutation level is an odd or even number.

Odd Levels	1d3 + (Level / 2)
Even Levels	1d4 + ((Level - 1) / 2)

Advancement Table

Mutation Level	Damage Increment
1	1d31-3 (Avg: 2)
2	1d41-4 (Avg: 2.5)
3	1d3+12-4 (Avg: 3)
4	1d4+12-5 (Avg: 3.5)
5	1d3+23-5 (Avg: 4)
6	1d4+23-6 (Avg: 4.5)
7	1d3+34-6 (Avg: 5)
8	1d4+34-7 (Avg: 5.5)
9	1d3+45-7 (Avg: 6)
10	1d4+45-8 (Avg: 6.5)

Mutation Level	Damage Increment
11	1d3+56-8 (Avg: 7)
12	1d4+56-9 (Avg: 7.5)
13	1d3+67-9 (Avg: 8)
14	1d4+67-10 (Avg: 8.5)
15	1d3+78-10 (Avg: 9)
16	1d4+78-11 (Avg: 9.5)
17	1d3+89-11 (Avg: 10)
18	1d4+89-12 (Avg: 10.5)
19	1d3+910-12 (Avg: 11)
20	1d4+910-13 (Avg: 11.5)

Mutation Level	Damage Increment
21	1d3+1011-13 (Avg: 12)
22	1d4+1011-14 (Avg: 12.5)
23	1d3+1112-14 (Avg: 13)
24	1d4+1112-15 (Avg: 13.5)
25	1d3+1213-15 (Avg: 14)
26	1d4+1213-16 (Avg: 14.5)
27	1d3+1314-16 (Avg: 15)
28	1d4+1314-17 (Avg: 15.5)
29	1d3+1415-17 (Avg: 16)
30	1d4+1415-18 (Avg: 16.5)

Ability Cooldown

Sunder Mind's cooldown (CD) in rounds depends on the user's willpower (WI) attribute:

WI	CD	WI	CD	WI	CD	WI	CD
9	108	15	84	21	60	27	36
10	104	16	80	22	56	28	32
11	100	17	76	23	52	29	28
12	96	18	72	24	48	30	24
13	92	19	68	25	44	31	20
14	88	20	64	26	40	32	16

Advantages & Disadvantages

This section is opinion-based. Your mileage may vary.

Advantages

• Can be used to deal damage to any targets within sight no matter the distance, including enemies revealed via Clairvoyance
• Deals very high damage if the tenth round is reached
• Deals damage against Mental Armor rather than Armor Value
• Synergizes well with high AV equipment and abilities- for example, you can tighten your Carapace before sundering an enemy's mind

Disadvantages

• High cost on character creation
• The user must remain totally still and cannot act in any way without breaking the connection, making usage dangerous in close quarters
• High base cooldown
• Does not work against creatures with a mental shield, such as robots, oozes and plants

Creatures with Sunder Mind

• novice of the Sightless Way(Level 1)
• Aoyg-No-Longer, servant of Ptoh in the Cosmic Wood(Level 10)

Trivia

• Sunder Mind was one of the mutations revamped in the Tomb of the Eaters patch. Before, Sunder Mind was a single large attack against a creature. This was less damage overall compared to the new version, but had the benefit (or point of suffering for players on the receiving end) of being instant. This old version still exists in game code under the mutation MentalBlast.

References

This information is reliable as of patch 2.0.201.69.