Psionic Rules Clarifications and Suggestions (Core22)

[mavikfelna]

My read is that 'Universal' powers are things which are easy to teach or which come naturally; Jack of All Trades is neither, and Mental Versatility should be equally hard to gain and raise.

I chose Meta-Psionics because it is a Talent specifically focused on interacting with Powers from every Talent. It might fit into 'Awareness' -- "the psion is intimately familiar with how their mind manifests psionic Powers, and so can use that familiarity to overcome some known limitations".

Note that I am adding a new clarification to Range. 'Activating Psion Only' is NOT a range, it is a restriction; Augment Range can extend the reach of 'Self' range powers allowing them to affect others, but it cannot remove this restriction.

I like those additions. And of course you're right about it being a Meta-Psionic ability

 

[mavikfelna]

Reading through the Pioneer Preview they dropped a new rule for skill checks, at least I don't remember seeing it anywhere before, that allows you to replace the Stat Mod being used for the skill check with a skill that is also reasonably associated with the check. And if I'm doing a psionic system based around powers as skills, this is something really useful! If you have a power that would be related to a skill check, it would be easy to use the skill levels from that power in place of the stat mod DM. I'm thinking maybe have it cost 1 PSI point to do the substitute, but I'm not sure if that's necessary, since there's no cost for doing it with a standard skill.
It's also a way to do hybrid powers! Do a check on a power and instead of using your PSI bonus, you substitute another power and it has some affect on using the power. Thoughts on this? To hard to implement, since it's mostly the GM making a call on what's allowed and it's effects?

 

[J. L. Brown]

Reading through the Pioneer Preview they dropped a new rule for skill checks, at least I don't remember seeing it anywhere before, that allows you to replace the Stat Mod being used for the skill check with a skill that is also reasonably associated with the check. And if I'm doing a psionic system based around powers as skills, this is something really useful! If you have a power that would be related to a skill check, it would be easy to use the skill levels from that power in place of the stat mod DM. I'm thinking maybe have it cost 1 PSI point to do the substitute, but I'm not sure if that's necessary, since there's no cost for doing it with a standard skill.
It's also a way to do hybrid powers! Do a check on a power and instead of using your PSI bonus, you substitute another power and it has some affect on using the power. Thoughts on this? To hard to implement, since it's mostly the GM making a call on what's allowed and it's effects?

The existing 'Healer' Talent has a Power called 'Triage' (I am re-naming it to 'Aid') which works something like this with Medic skill. I have had trouble finding a completely satisfactory way of handling it, so maybe browsing through the Pioneer preview might be useful.

I think the intention for 'Healer' was that the whole psionic ability always built on & worked with medical knowledge.

 

[mavikfelna]

The existing 'Healer' Talent has a Power called 'Triage' (I am re-naming it to 'Aid') which works something like this with Medic skill. I have had trouble finding a completely satisfactory way of handling it, so maybe browsing through the Pioneer preview might be useful.

I think the intention for 'Healer' was that the whole psionic ability always built on & worked with medical knowledge.

Yes, I think that works.

 

[J. L. Brown]

I have been looking at the 'Augment Range' Power, and I am not satisfied with it. The original intention was for the Meta-Psion to have a way of assisting other psions with their powers -- so 'Augment Range' implies that there ought to be Powers to augment duration, and area, and speed of use, and difficulty, and everything else under the suns. And, since Meta-Psionics is about manipulating psionic Powers, 'Augment Range' also implied a whole host of 'Suppress' Powers to inhibit range, duration, and etc.

This creates several problems. Not the least of which is that now 'Meta-Psionics' contains a staggering number of Powers; and also that many of those Powers are too tightly focused to the point of being nearly worthless. It also is not very flexible; some Powers are quite weird and have other worthwhile aspects -- and imagining a pair (an 'Augment' and a 'Suppress') of powers for thing like 'Affects more fish with better success' is vaguely ridiculous.

So now I am convinced that:

1. I need to re-write 'Augment Range' and all the similar Powers. All the 'Suppress' Powers also need to be re-written, but might be more usefully folded into 'Block' or 'Deflect' related Powers.
2. I need to re-write all of psionics. Each power needs ways to spend extra Effect to achieve better results; and ways to make a Power of higher difficulty in order to achieve greater results. Since range, duration, casting times, and a host of other properties of psionics will be useful to a wide range of Powers, as many as we can foresee need to be written up in standard format with consistent costs.

Anyhow -- 'Augment Range' is now just 'Augment'. Range: Personal (Must Be Touching); Activation 1d6 seconds (or the activation time of the other Power, whichever is longer), 10+ (Difficult); PSI Cost: 1+ Psi points to activate. A psion who succeeds with 'Augment' may add one plus their effect as a bonus to the roll to activate another psions Power.

New general psionics rules:

A psion may spend extra PSI points before and or after a roll to activate any of their Powers.

One or more extra PSI points may be spent immediately before the die roll to activate a Power; for every extra PSI point so spent, gain a +2 bonus. If the activation roll fails to activate the Power the extra PSI points are still spent.

One or more extra PSI points may be spent immediately after a roll to activate a Power; for every extra PSI point so spent, gain a +1 bonus. If the activation roll plus the bonus fails to activate the Power the extra PSI points are still spent.