Test Page 7

Let's talk about the psionicist for a minute.

• Devotions: 30 powers
• Sciences: 15 powers
• Arts: 5 powers

That list is roughly the number of powers of each grade should be available for each discipline. So... I need to write roughly 300 powers before I'm happy with psionics.

That's... yeah. Probably not going to happen any time soon. But it's something to keep in mind.

OKAY.

So... psionics. At the moment very similar to how the Divine works, in that they have their raw powers, all usable at will, and augmentable in some fashion. The differences are:

• All divine prayers require a move action to use. Almost all psionic powers require a standard.
• Prayers usually have a set duration of 5 rounds. Almost all powers require concentration to persist.
• Prayer augmentation just involves making the check harder. Psionic augmentation requires the expenditure of points, a limited daily resource.
• The best prayers can only be used against willing or weak targets. Psionics has no such limitation.
• Both prayers and powers require a check to be successful. Psionics can get around this by spending points from a limited daily pool.

And a bunch of other similarities. Basically it comes down to: psionics is way shittier than the divine. We need to fix that.

Hmm.

Mode and Focus

So here's what I'm kind of thinking at the moment.

Redo the whole psionic focus thing. Make psionic focus a status effect that psionicists can grant themselves. It does... a thing, whatever.

At the same time, introduce the notion of a "mode." A psionicist can put their head into a mode for each discipline. Each discipline's mode does a different thing, or maybe impacts their powers, whatever... point being that you're always in a mode, but not always having focus. While you're in a mode, it's harder to use powers of other disciplines, somehow.

Switching modes should be... something you can do reasonably in-combat. So probably a swift to switch, maybe a move. Yeah, move, then talent it into a swift.

Focus is not something you can regain in combat. Focus you something you gain after sitting around concentrating or meditating or whatever for a few minutes. We'll call it one minute: that way, its akin to the caller getting their eikon back.

Focus does a bunch of good things for you. You want to keep it. But you can burn the focus to do shit. Like... a bunch of basic things you can do with it, then maybe some things based upon your mode, then maybe each power has a thing? Like a... supercharge this thing for a moment.

Kind of a lot of accounting, eh? Three things... which mode am I in, do I have focus, how much PP do I have. I guess that's not too much, that's not too bad. Considering what the blue folks have to deal with these days, with tracking the recharge on all their memes... yeah, having those three isn't so bad.

Now we need to talk about implementation.

Sidebar: Focus Status
Your mind is primed, ready to manipulate the world in ways fitting your current mode. Having this status improves your abilities in a variety of ways; some abilities may allow you to expend this status to improve the effect in some fashion. Changing modes does not cause you to lose this status, and you retain this status even while unconscious, but the dead status causes you to lose it.
You can gain this status with one minute of quiet meditation and reflection.

You always have a mode. You're never not in a mode; by default, if you go unconscious and lose your mode or whatever, when you come to or first wake up in the day, your mode is your first discipline. It's just how your mind naturally works and what it trends towards. Switching it isn't a big deal, tho, so whatev.

You don't always have focus. You have to gain it. While you have it, it gives you benefits; you can spend it to get a big burst, but that's essentially going nova: once you do, your shit sucks for the rest of the fight, or until you have time to regain it.

PPs refresh with rest, and are like... a reserve of power, or whatever. Like an internal battery. Whatever. You can use that shit to fuel things so they're more badass, or so that they work, but their impact should be linear, predictable.

Burning focus should have some flash to it. Should be considerably better than just dumping PP into a thing. Or whatever.

 

New Concepts

We got some ideas cookin' over here.

Renaming Things

I've always hated that three of the six disciplines have the word "psycho" in them. Also, "psychometabolism" is way the hell too science-y for psionics, in my opinion.

So we're changing them.

• Psychoportation is now Imagiportation.
• Psychometabolism is now Ratiovitality.

Psychokinesis can stay.

Base Powers

Okay, so here's a new idea.

Psychokinesis right now consists primarily of powers that require telekinesis to be active - for instance, ballistic telekinesis is a power that improves upon the telekinesis. We did this through use of the [telekinetic] descriptor, which... leaves a lot to be desired, but we'll allow it for now.

So instead of psychokinesis being the odd man out, we instead make all the disciplines like that. Each discipline has a core power.

• Clairsentience: Precognition, giving a limited ability to sense the future.
• Imagiportation: Teleport, as a short-range dimension door effect.
• Metacreativity: Telefab, the ability to make small objects out of nothing.
• Psychokinesis: Telekinesis, duh.
• Ratiovitality: Biofeedback, giving yourself limited control over your body.
• Telepathy: Telepathy, duh.

The vast majority of powers - if not all of them - will call upon this base power. Thus the whole maintenance issue goes away: so long as you can maintain the base power, all of the effects off of it can be maintained.

This also leads to psionics being a "ramping-up" Force: you have to build up each round to the next thing in the chain, rather than going nuts all at once.

Grades and Upgrading

Rather than have separate powers at each grade - devotion, science, art - each power instead has three grades. When you gain access to a science, you upgrade an existing power, rather than choose an entirely new power.

Base powers do not have grades. They're just basic powers, scaffolding for other effects; while they can do things on their own, the point of learning new powers is to expand upon them.

Each grade gets its own set of augmentations with PP.

COCOON
Classes: Psi Ratiovitality [Biofeedback]
Activation Time: Standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Concentration
Saving Throw: None
Psionic Resistance: Yes
You harden your skin into a tough carapace.
When you are using biofeedback, you may activate this power. If you do, you manipulate the structure of your skin, bones, and other bodily structures, strengthening you against physical harm. As your understanding of this power advances, your ability to manipulate and modify your body becomes extreme, such that while manifesting it your appearance visibly undergoes extreme transformations, skin hardening into plates and bones protruding from beneath your skin, intertwining with your muscles.
DEVOTION You gain a +1 armor bonus to AC, plus an additional +1 for every two manifester levels. Augmentation (1 PP): Increase the armor bonus to AC by +1.
SCIENCE In addition to the benefits gained from this power as a devotion, you gain a +1 natural armor bonus to AC, plus an additional +1 for every three manifester levels. Augmentation (2 PP): Increase the natural armor bonus to AC by +1.
ART In addition to the benefits gained from this power as a devotion and science, you gain DR X/-, where X is equal to one-half your manifester level. Augmentation (2 PP): Increase the DR by +1. Augmentation (5 PP): Instead of gaining DR X/-, you instead gain the protect status.

 

CHAMELEON
Classes: Psi Ratiovitality [Biofeedback]
Activation Time: Standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Concentration
Saving Throw: None
Psionic Resistance: Yes
You willfully change the color of your skin, allowing you to blend into the background.
When you are using biofeedback, you may activate this power. If you do, you manipulate the coloration of your skin to more closely match your surroundings. As your mastery of this power improves, your ability to match your surroundings improves, allowing you to move faster and eventually becoming effectively cloaked.
DEVOTION You gain a +2 insight bonus to Hide checks, and an additional +1 bonus per two manifester levels. Augmentation (1 PP): Increase the insight bonus by +1.
SCIENCE In addition to the benefits gained from this power as a devotion, you can use the Hide skill even if you do not currently have cover or concealment. Augmentation (2 PP): Increase your maximum speed while moving while using the Hide skill by +10 feet, to a maximum of double your move speed (this allows you to take a double move action without breaking stealth).
ART In addition to the benefits gained from this power as a devotion and science, you can use the Hide skill while being observed, and attacks against you have a 0% miss chance. Augmentation (1 PP): Increase the miss chance of attacks against you by 10%, to a maximum of 80%. Augmentation (5 PP): You gain the cloaked status while this power is active.

 

ENERGY ADAPTATION
Classes: Psi Ratiovitality [Biofeedback]
Activation Time: Standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Concentration
Saving Throw: None
Psionic Resistance: Yes
You attune your body to an energy type.
When you are using biofeedback, you may activate this power. If you do, you modify your body in such a way that it becomes resistant to an energy type. As your knowledge of this power improves, you eventually can protect yourself against multiple energy types simultaneously, gain immunity to them, or even use that energy to refuel yourself.
DEVOTION Choose one energy type. You gain energy resist 5 against that energy type, plus an additional +5 for every four manifester levels. Augmentation (1 PP): Increase the energy resist by 2.
SCIENCE You may choose one or two energy types. If you choose one, you gain immunity to that energy type. If you choose two, you gain energy resist 10 against those types, plus an additional +5 for every three manifester levels. Augmentation (6 PP): You can choose another energy type. If you initially chose one, you gain immunity to that energy type; if you initially chose two, you gain energy resist against it as per above.
ART You may choose one, two, or three energy types. If you choose one, you gain energy absorb against that energy type equal to your manifester level. If you choose two, you gain immunity to those energy types. If you choose three, you gain energy resist 20 against those types, plus an additional +10 for every three manifester levels. Augmentation (2 PP): If you chose one energy type, increase the energy absorb granted by this power by +1. Augmentation (6 PP): You can choose another energy type. If you initially chose one, you gain energy absorb against that energy type as per above; if you initially chose two, you gain immunity against it; if you initially chose three, you gain energy resist against it as per above.

 

SYNESTHETE
Classes: Psi Ratiovitality [Biofeedback]
Activation Time: Standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Concentration
Saving Throw: None
Psionic Resistance: Yes
You modify your sensory organs, allowing you to perceive the world in unusual ways.
When you are using biofeedback, you may activate this power. If you do, you modify your sensory organs, allowing you to see sound, feel light, and similar other modifications. With greater understanding of this power, you unlock senses that most do not possess, greatly expanding your ability to perceive things.
DEVOTION You gain low-light vision (with a base multiplier of x3) and darkvision (with a base distance of 60 feet). You are immune to the effects of blind, deafen, and gaze attacks, as you shift your sensory organs to allow you to continue to perceive "normally." You gain a +2 enhancement bonus to your Perception, plus an additional +2 for every four manifester levels. Augmentation (4 PP): Increase the Perception bonus by +2.
SCIENCE In addition to the benefits gained from this power as a devotion, you gain blindsense (base distance of 30 feet) and tremorsense (base distance of 60 feet). You can also detect Force effects, to a distance of 60 feet. Your base enhancement bonus to Perception from this power increases by +2. Augmentation (2 PP): The base distance for your blindsense and tremorsense increase by 10 feet and 20 feet, respectively.
ART In addition to the benefits gained from this power as a devotion and science, you gain blindsight with a base distance of 20 feet. Your base enhancement bonus to Perception from this power increases by +2. Augmentation (3 PP): The base distance for your blindsight increases by 10 feet. Augmentation (6 PP): You gain lifesense with a base distance of 20 feet. Augmentation (6 PP): You gain mindsense with a base distance of 20 feet.