Psionics
The Basics
Psionics are mental abilities, generated by the minds and will of some creatures. They're only available to certain kinds of creature and even then aren't inherent to most of them. This makes them comparatively rare across the worlds, and psions inspire a wide range of reactions from people and societies that are aware of them. The societies that cultivate psions have a pretty stable set of effects that are safe to use (by which we mean they don't cause any harm to the wielder or any unforeseen side effects). Some monsters (to use the term loosely) have much stronger or weirder effects; some of those can be taught, some rely on alien physiology, some could be taught but require so much power that they're guaranteed to kill cross-trained users.
For day to day purposes, Psionics resemble energy-driven skills. The skill itself costs some number of Skill Points and activating it costs some number of Psionic Points. Every Psionic skill you learn gives you two Psionics Points free of charge. Your psion can have as many as ten distinct psionic skills (and thus, 20 psionic strength points to fuel them) without any exceptional training or effort. These are things that are easy to self-teach or commonly taught in places that cultivate psionics. As your psion encounters other psions, you may or may not be able to learn powers from them or teach your powers to them, with or without some consequential side effects. As strictly mental powers, Psionics enjoy a bit more latitude in deployment than magic; psionic skills can be activated regardless of restraints or silence, although they require you to be conscious and in control of your own actions. Psionic skills pass cleanly through magical barriers - wizard locks, Imprison cages, Circles, and similar magically-generated structures. Psionics are generally packet-delivered and called as "Psionic <effect>", making them comparatively quick to use. Some are voice-delivered and these'll be noted in the relevant skill description.
Common, stable psionic skills include:
Psychometabolism
| Power Name | Skill Point Cost | Use Cost | Prerequisite Powers |
|---|---|---|---|
| XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX | |||
| Mind Over Body | 2 | 2 | None |
| Psychic Surgery | 3 | 1 per effect | Mind Over Body |
| Correct Form | 5 | 5 | Psychic Surgery |
| Defibrillate | 4 | 6 | Correct Form |
| Heightened Nerves | 4 | 3 | Mind Over Body |
| Deadened Nerves | 4 | 3 | Heightened Nerves |
Telepathy
| Power Name | Skill Point Cost | Use Cost | Prerequisite Powers |
|---|---|---|---|
| XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX | |||
| Empathic Thoughts | 2 | 1 | None |
| Telepathic Link | 2 | 2 | Empathic Thoughts |
| Tailgunner | 2 | 3 | Telepathic Link |
| Awaken | 2 | 3 | Empathic Thoughts |
| Psionic Shield | 4 | 3 | Awaken |
| Clear | 5 | 5 | Psionic Shield |
| Psionic Guard | 4 | 5 | Psionic Shield |
| Psionic Charm | 4 | 3 | Empathic Thoughts |
| Psionic Command | 5 | 5 | Psionic Charm |
| Psionic Enthrall | 8 | 10 | Psionic Command |
Telekinesis
| Power Name | Skill Point Cost | Use Cost | Prerequisite Powers |
|---|---|---|---|
| XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX | |||
| Psionic Blast | 3 | Variable | None |
| Psionic Lance | 3 | Variable | Psionic Blast |
| Psionic Stun | 4 | 6 | Psionic Lance |
| Psionic Slay | 5 | 8 | Psionic Stun |
| Ghost Hand | 2 | 2 | None |
| Poltergeist | 4 | 4 | Ghost Hand |
| Ogre Hand | 4 | Variable | Ghost Hand |
| Thieves' Hands | 5 | 4 | Ghost Hand |
Psionic Skill Descriptions
Psychometabolism
Mind Over Body: This allows a psion's will to override his physiology, limiting the effect of his environment on him. Mind Over Body prevents negative environmental effects for up to one hour or module and functions as a self-only Planar Asylum effect on any Prime, no matter how bizarre the local physics get.
Psychic Surgery: Psychic Surgery cures negative effects on the target, at the cost of incurring Body damage as the effects are solidified and ripped through the victim's skin. A psion with time (five minutes) to prepare inflicts one point of Body damage for every effect removed. A psion rushed at battlefield speeds inflicts 5 points of Body damage per effect removed. Psions can peform this surgery on themselves but are advised not to knock themselves out with it.
Heightened Nerves: Psions can intentionally overload the conduction of their nervous systems, allowing for short bursts of great speed. This increases their Flurry limit by 1, and lasts for one encounter or five minutes.
Deadened Nerves: Deadened Nerves provide 10 temporary Body points; these are consumed after Body buffs but before base Body. Deadened Nerves is mutually exclusive with Heightened Nerves; you can turn them up, or down, but not both at once.
Correct Form: By directing willpower to restore a body to its healthy state, a psion can repair himself. Correct Form lasts for one encounter or five minutes; during that time, a psion's Body points refit with his Armor points after adjusting/refitting.
Defibrillate: With this skill, a psion forces his own will into another body, shocking them back from the brink. Defib acts as a Life effect, but can only be used on targets that were killed outright, rather than bled out or rendered helpless and executed (or Executed). If you're unsure what killed the target before you, you can use the Diagnose skill to determine cause of death before possibly wasting Psionic Points. Defib is effective on victims of Slay, Kill, and similar effects that set a target's status to Dead without all the inconvenient bother of beating through defenses and body points.
Telepathy
All Telepathy skills require a sentient target. There are branches of psionics that deal with things like animal communication, object reading, and other interactions with non-sentient creatures or objects, but none have been stabilized by playable races.
Empathic Thoughts: This power allows the character to read the thoughts of another creature they are in contact with. To use the ability, the character must be in contact with the target and must expend 1 Psionic point. This allows the characters to have an OOG conversation and is completely Role-Play. Alternately, it can be used to detect sentient creatures near them; this is called as “Everyone in the sound of my Voice Detect Sentient”. Fully-trained Psions (those with 10 purchased Psionic skills) can expend 5 Psionic Points to ask a question that must be answered truthfully out of game.
Telepathic Link: Telepathic Link allows the user to form a connection with a willing target. While the link is active, the linked parties may communicate out-of-game, and may communicate over long distances - a Link can be maintained for up to 20 miles per max Psionic Point of the user (someone with 6 Psionic Points could run a link for 120 miles, someone with 10 could manage 200 miles). Telepathic Links do not cross planar boundaries and are severed as soon as one party moves into another plane. Telepathic Link lasts for one day and can be terminated at any time by either party. Links can also be forcibly terminated via Cleanse (which treats enemy links as 'negative effects' for this purpose). Telepathic Link does not allow for rummaging through someone's mind; it's simply a communications tool. Messages take as long to deliver as they take to rep - you can use out of game communications tech to speed this along, if you can do it unobtrusively - and must be deliberate. You can't eavesdrop via this skill.
Tailgunner: A very recent development in the world of psionics, Tailgunner allows a psion to join minds with a willing target. A Tailgunner may choose to go out-of-game and tag along as a psychic presence with the target; this leaves the psion's body Helpless wherever it was when the skill was used (we recommend a nice cozy Tailgunner chair in your cabin). Tailgunners cannot use combat skills, but can communicate with their targets as though joined by Telepathic Link - this allows them to advise, make suggestions, and otherwise offer the benefits of their experience to the target. As a psychic presence, a Tailgunner has the uses of their normal senses; they cannot see through Stealth but can prevent the use of the Surprise tag on their targets. A psion can only be a Tailgunner for one person at a time, although mulitple psions can tag along with a single target. (Tailgunner is here to allow vets to help newer players along without altering the balance of power on lower-level modules and such - on the occasions similar effects have come out, they've been very helpful and everyone involved has either really like them or lied to my face about it. I am 100% certain there's some horribly abusive Tailgunner exploit and we'll deal with those as they come up.)
Awaken: This will end the duration of Silence and all Mental effects on the target save for: Enslavement, Feeblemind, Horrify, Nightmare, Thrall and Slumber. (This is a psionic-vector Awaken effect, copied here for ease of reference).
Psionic Shield: Psionic Shield passively protects a character from the next Mental or Psionic effect that lands. (Mental and Psionic have high overlap but aren't interchangeable). This can be used on other characters.
Psionic Guard: Psionic Guard acts as Resist Psionic, chosen at time of use. This can be used on other characters. (Resist Psionic, like Psionic Shield, blocks Mental effects regardless of source and Psionic effects regardless of whether or not they appear on the Mental effects list).
Clear: Clear immediately ends the duration of all negative mental effects on a character, regardless of source.
Psionic Charm: Inflicts the Charm effect on the target.
Psionic Command: Inflicts the Command effect on the target.
Psionic Enthrall: Inflicts the Thrall effect on the target.
Telekinesis
Psionic Blast: Psionic Blast is a telekinetic punch, delivering 5 points of normal damage per Psionic Point spent in its activation. This is called as "Psionic X Normal"; while it may seem underwhelming, remember that it can be used while confined, missing all your limbs, silenced, hanging upside or whatever - it lacks for the power of a Spell Pool but compensates in ease of delivery.
Psionic Lance: This is the more traditional telekinetic brain bleed. Psionic Lance is called as "Psionic X Body" and delivers 2 points of Body damage from every Psionic Point spent activating it.
Psionic Stun: This inflicts the Stun effect on its target.
Psionic Slay: The (current) pinnacle of psionic violence, Psionic Slay inflicts the Slay effect on its target. (This effect deals 100 points of damage to the target.)
Ghost Hand: Ghost Hand allows a psion to remotely manipulate small objects. Flipping switches from across the room, stirring a pot with or without a spoon, if you could have done it with one hand close up, you can do it from up to twenty feet away for a Psionic Point. Ghost Hand isn't nimble or fast enough to fight with (by which I mean you can't get someone in a white headband to carry a shield around for you while you're dual wielding) and can't exert enough force to injure someone (by which I mean you're not Darth Vader). Ghost Hand is largely a roleplay skill, since it frequently needs a marshal to adjudicate its outcome, but clever players can always find a way to do something environmental that manages to affect combat anyway.
Poltergeist: Having learned how to move one small object with fine control, it is not a huge leap to move a lot of small objects with no control all. Poltergeist whips up leaves, or dishes, or rocks, or whatever loose stuff is laying around into a whirlwind of confusion and frustration. Poltergeist lasts for one encounter and produces Difficult Terrain for the duration, or until the psionicist chooses to end the effect. Terrain Adapation allows victims of a Poltergeist to act freely in their Terrain - a Wood Elf (for example) can ignore Poltergeist in the woods, a Triton could ignore it underwater, etc.
Ogre Hand: Some psions prefer more focused and controlled telekinesis after learning Ghost Hand. Ogre Hand can perform a single Feat of Strength with Strength equal to twice the number of Psionic Points spent on its activation, to maximum of +10 Strength for 5 Psionic Points. It can be used to add to damage from bows or thrown weapons, forcing the projectile along, but cannot be added to guns or melee damage (and it'd be too expensive to be practical even if you could.)
Thief's Hands: Thief's Hands functions as a pair of Ghost Hands that are capable of fine manipulation. A psion can use Thief's Hands at up to 50 feet; that hand can write a letter, pick a lot, sort coins, or do anything else the user could do with his hands if they were close enough. This requires Concentation and lasts until Concentration is interrupted. The Psion has to be able to see what he's doing; you can pick a lock from across the room but can't just open the handle from the other side of the door.