Psion
insert flavor text
Psionics
You are able to manifest supernatural abilities with the power of your mind.
Psionic Skills
Choose one:
| Skill | Stat | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Intellect | Int | |
| Discipline | Wis | |
| Willpower | Cha |
Differences TBD. Current thinking:
- Intellect has more power knowledge
- Discipline has more max Focus
- Willpower hits harder
Powers known: 1 per level
Powers
Each Power has three tiers. When you learn a new power, you can either gain a new power at tier 1, or advance a known power by 1 tier.
- Tier 2 requires level 5+
- Tier 3 requires level 10+
Focus
You have an attribute called Focus. Its value is given by your Psion level (see the chart in upper right).
Some powers are free; others cost Focus, as noted in the power's description.
Attunement
Some powers are "attuned". This means that they occupy an attunement slot. Short version: you have 3, short rest to activate or deactivate, magic items occupy them too.
Restoring Focus
When you complete a short or long rest, your Focus is restored to maximum.
In an emergency, if you need to spend Focus you do not have, you can trade in levels of exhaustion for Focus, one to one.
Powers
Biometabolism
Autokinesis
Move thyself
Tier 1
- Free: gain +10 ft of movement per round, double jump distances.
- Attuned: spider climb, +30 ft move, or 30 ft swim speed.
- Expend Focus:
- at-will, reaction (trigger: incoming attack including you), costs 1 Focus; you instantly take a move action to avoid danger.
- at-will, move, costs 1 Focus; you instantly move up to twice your movement speed. You are not teleporting, just moving super fast, so it must be a physically possible movement for you. Does not provoke opportunity attacks.
Tier 2
- Free: Levitation, max altitude 10 ft per level, horizontal speed = walking speed.
- Attuned: Fly speed equal to walking speed, burrow speed equal to walking speed, or ability to insta-move (as in tier 1) without spending Focus.
- Expend Focus: ??
Biofeedback
Self-healing.
Tier 1
- Free: at-will, free action; you can spend a Hit Die to heal, as if you'd taken a short rest.
- Attunement Options:
- Resist (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing, nonmagical)
- Expend Focus:
- At-will, bonus action, costs 1 Focus; you heal yourself for medium damage, or remove a single disease, blindness, deafness, paralysis, or poisoned effect from yourself.
Tier 2
- Free: each time you take damage, you gain Fast Healing equal to half the damage dealt over 3 rounds, stackable. The healing stops if you fall unconscious.
- Attunement Options:
- TBD
- Expend Focus:
- At-will, reaction (trigger: you hit 0 HP), costs 1 Focus; you immediately heal yourself back to 1 HP.
Kinetic Conversion
Tier 1
- Free:
- at-will, bonus action; you create a force shield allowing you to block kinetic damage coming from your front arc. Roll your casting skill for each attack, and subtract half that amount from the damage you suffer. Tally all damage reduced.
- Attunement:
- TBD
- Expend Focus:
- at-will, augments another action, cost 1 Focus; add all tallied damage to one kinetic attack that you make.
- at-will, reaction (you suffer falling damage), costs 1 Focus; roll casting skill check, reduce falling damage by that amount. Tally all damage reduced.
- at-will, reaction (you suffer kinetic damage), circle 0-2, costs 1 Focus; all kinetic damage affecting allies in the area is reduced by your casting skill check. Tally all damage reduced (but don't multiply it by the number of targets).
Tier 2
- Free:
- your free kinetic shield can also apply to adjacent allies.
- Expend Focus:
- at-will, free, costs 1 Focus; you modify your momentum, instantly changing its vector, without suffering any whiplash or acceleration.
- at-will, std, ranged, costs 1 Focus; you modify the momentum of target creature, instantly changing its vector.
Metamorphosis
- Tier 1: alter self, disguise
- Tier 2: polymorph, custom features
- Tier 3: ?
Psychokinesis
Cryokinesis
Electrokinesis
Pyrokinesis
Telekinesis
You know what this does.
Tier 1
- Reserve 1 Focus: wield a force as dextrous as your hand and as strong as your chosen mental stat within range.
- Expend 1 Focus: cause heavy damage with a crush or a forceful thrust.
Tier 2
- Reserve 2: grab a bunch of stuff, or larger stuff.
- Expend 2: throw many things or cause severe damage.
Tier 3
tbd
Metacreativity
Light Bending
- Free, bonus, conc, em1-3; obscure light emanating from area, granting disadvantage to perceive what lies inside, and making its form undiscernable. Cost, std, conc, em1-3; nullify the appearance of chosen subjects within area.
- Reserve: invis (tier 1), mass invis (tier 2)
Sound Bending
- Free, bonus, concentration, emanation 1-3; muffle sound emanating from area (and entering it), causing disadvantage to perceive the sound, and making it unintelligible. Cost, std, concentration, em1-3; completely nullify all sound entering or exiting.
- Reserve: silence
- Expend: shatter
Space
Blink, dimension door, teleport, etc.
Time
Blink? Time hop? Time compression? Time stop?
Clairsentience
Combat Precognition
With this power, you sense attacks and hazards before they happen, enhancing your ability to defend, and improving your ability to capitalize on your enemy's openings.
Tier 1
- Free:
- When enemies provoke opportunity attacks, you gain advantage to attack rolls.
- You are never surprised in combat.
- Attuned:
- Gain your proficiency bonus to AC and advantage to Dev saving throws.
- Expend Focus:
- Speed of Thought: At-will, reaction (trigger: attack affects you), costs 1 Focus; you may take a single action to counter the attack.
Tier 2
- Free:
- Enemies do not gain advantage to attack you if you were not aware of them, or if they are flanking you.
- Gain blindsight, radius 1 square per proficiency bonus
- Your Speed of Thought can be triggered by an attack affecting allies and not you.
- Attuned:
- TBD
- Expend Focus:
- Mulligan: At-will, reaction (trigger: you completed an action), costs 1 Focus; having seen the result of your action, you can undo it completely, removing any costs you spent, and any consequences of the action. You then regain your action and can use it however you please.
Tier 3
- TBD
Telepathy
Empathy
With this power, you become sensitive to emotions, feelings, and psychic impressions.
Tier 1
Free:
- You can sense the presence of psychic impressions, and make skill checks to interpret them. You can sense the emotional state of nearby creatures, and, if you make bodily contact with them, you can read their thoughts and experience their feelings (can be resisted using Cha saves or by breaking contact). Expends Focus:
- By expending 1 Focus, you can project a desired emotional state or physical sensation onto a single target by touch (Cha ends).
Tier 2
Free:
- You can sense the thoughts and feelings of those within range and eye contact. Expends Focus:
- By expending 1 Focus, you can project emotions or feelings within a small radius or at long range via eye contact.
Tier 3
tbd
Paths
| Path | Description |
|---|---|
| Psychic Warrior | One who focuses psionic ability through martial arts |
| Metamind | tbd |
| Medium | tbd |
Psychic Warrior
| Level | Ability |
|---|---|
| 2 | Psychic Weapon |
| 6 | Psionic Augmentation |
| 10 | |
| 14 | |
| 18 |
Psychic Weapon
- You can reserve 1 Focus into a held weapon to grant the "magic" attribute to its damage
- You can reserve 1 Focus to manifest a weapon from pure psychic energy
Psionic Augmentation
- At level 6, you can reserve 1 Focus into a weapon to grant a bonus damage die of thermal, kinetic, or EM damage
- At level 6, you can reserve 1 Focus into worn armor to grant resistance to thermal, kinetic, or EM damage
Metamind
Notes:
- Psicrystal grants an extra focus, with limitations
- Instead of just getting more permanent focus, Metamind has a pool of expendable focus (regenerates on long rest)
- Metapsionic abilities which cost focus, such as:
- Size matters not (increase size limitations of powers)
- All in your mind (transmute physical damage to psychic)
- Normal metamagic? Dunno
- Schism, natch
Notes
Design Philosophy
Paths should have abilities to rapidly achieve Focus, or Focus on more than one thing, etc. Powers should not.
Ideas
- Focus goes to 3? Secret of Mana style
Powers, take 2
Just write them down, categorize later.
Rank 1
- Force Displacement: Free, bonus, conc, ranged; displace the force of your hand to a location within range, allowing telekinesis.
- Cost, std, ranged; amplify hand power to push, pull, slide, strike, crush, disarm, etc at range. (Damage is medium bludgeoning if used to damage)
- Advanced use: cost, reaction vs melee or projectile; displace the force of the attack so that it misses you.
- Thermal Radiance: Free, bonus, emanation 3; change ambient temperature up to 30 degrees F. Cost, std, burst 3; medium thermal damage (hot or cold).
- Kinetic Charge: Free, bonus; held weapon or fist gains +1 damage and strikes as "magical". Cost, melee augment; add heavy force damage to one strike.
- Sound Bending: Free, bonus, concentration, emanation 1-3; muffle sound emanating from area (and entering it), causing disadvantage to perceive the sound, and making it unintelligible. Cost, std, concentration, em1-3; completely nullify all sound entering or exiting.
- Quantum Sight: Free, bonus, conc; you sense the quantum probability field pervading the Universe. You can easily disinguish between objects in a low-energy rest state (i.e. most things in the Universe) and objects in flux (e.g. a die in the process of rolling). In the latter case, you can attempt Intelligence checks to predict the outcome, if it is sufficiently simply and depends only on factors within your perception (e.g. a die roll). You can also determine if the probability field has been locally altered--in other words, you can detect magic. (Cost effect ideas: decode an alteration or predict a complex outcome)
- Potential Difference: Free: ?. Cost, std, touch; you cause medium electromagnetic damage to target, potentially overloading electronic devices. (Ideas for free powers: magnetize/demagnetize, static cling, etc)
- Energy Sink: Free, bonus, conc; you arm one of your extremities to absorb damage. Thereafter, you may either ready it to absorb attacks, or use it with the Block skill; when used in such a way, it reduces damage from kinetic, thermal, or electromagnetic attacks by a medium damage roll. If you instead expend Focus, it can negate up to a critical heavy damage roll.
- Adjust Friction: Free, bonus, conc, em1-3; you adjust the friction of surfaces within the area, either turning slippery into solid or vice versa. (Cost ideas: turn dirt into quicksand, water into goo, etc; maybe enemies get stuck in their own clothes/armor)
- Jubilation: Adjust the local quantum foam, causing temporal displacement between spontaneous generation and annihilation of particle/antiparticle pairs. At this level, creates nifty firework effects and can cause minor explosive damage.
- Photonic Emission: Convert psychic energy into photons. Light up a room or blast people with lazors.
Rank 2
- Light Bending: Free, bonus, conc, em1-3; obscure light emanating from area, granting disadvantage to perceive what lies inside, and making its form undiscernable. Cost, std, conc, em1-3; nullify the appearance of chosen subjects within area.
- Energy Cache: Tally the energy you absorb with Energy Sink; you can use that to power a cost-effect Kinetic Charge without losing Focus.
- Translation: Various uses:
- Free, bonus, conc; you enhance your own movement, doubling your speed, or, if desired, allowing you to "fly" up to your normal movement during a move action (after which gravity swiftly resumes).
- Cost, std, ranged; teleport a creature or object within range.
- Advanced used: teleport weapon or projectile as reaction.
- Rotate Force: Change the vector a force is acting on. Can instantly redirect a moving object/creature, incoming attack, etc. TBI
- Transform Energy: Exchange thermal, kinetic, or electromagnetic energy for an equal quantity of one of the others, in the same place with the same vector.
- Greater Jubilation: At this level, you can start to create nasty chain reactions, causing large explosions dealing radiation damage.
- Quantum Field Adjustment: Requires active Quantum Sight. Cost effect: you can tweak the quantum field, either changing the outcome of unresolved probabilistic states, or modifiying or nullifying others' changes to the field, i.e. dispel magic (or modify magic).
Rank 3
- Coherent Force: Start with a simple input momentum--say, your own punch--and causes all matter intercepted by it to "stick" to it rather than combining vectors. In other words, turn a force effect into a line, cone, etc.