Chapter 9:

Psionics

Psionics With psionics, a character can read the minds of others, move objects without physically touching them, or travel across vast distances in an instant. This chapter explains the game mechanics used to run psionic characters and provides enough powers to get wild talent and psionicist heroes started. Consider the definitions of the following terms:

Psionics: The practice of extraordinary psychic powers. A character who has psionic abilities harnesses the power of his or her mind to produce a particular effect. Characters who have psionic powers are either psionicists or wild talents.

Psionicist: A character who uses the force of his or her mind to affect the environment and inhabitants around them.

Wild Talent: A character from any class who has a natural psionic ability and at least one psionic power.

The psionic system presented in this chapter provides descriptions of the core powers. This chapter presents the same psionics rules that appear in the revised Dark Sun boxed set.

What’s Different?

If players are new to psionics, skip this section because the changes to the original rules from The Complete Psionics Handbook discussed below may be confusing. If players are familiar with the previous psionics rules, then a brief discussion of the changes to look for should be noted.

Many of the terms and powers used in The Complete Psionics Handbook have been retained for this new system. However, the definitions and descriptions may have changed, so read this section carefully. The most important changes to watch for are the following:

· Attack and defense modes are no longer powers, but bonus proficiencies. The new terms are psionic attacks and psionic defenses. Psionicists gain psionic attacks and defenses automatically by level advancement. Existing characters with attack modes must select other telepathic devotions to replace them.

· The contact power is now the contact bonus proficiency. The proficiency allows characters to participate in psionic combat. In addition, psionic combat has been simplified to work like other AD&D combat forms (that is, using attack and damage rolls). Characters who had the contact power must select another telepathic devotion to replace it.

· Tangents have been eliminated.

· Maintenance costs for powers have been eliminated. All powers now have a standard PSP cost per round of use and can be maintained each round by paying that cost.

· Power scores and the optional effects of rolls of power scores and 20s have been eliminated. All characters now have mental armor classes (MAC) and mental attack numbers (MTHAC0). MTHAC0 stands for “mental THAC0” or “mental attack roll.” The acronym refers to the number (or higher) a particular character needs to roll on 1d20 to hit an opponent with a mental armor class of 0. This mechanic has two distinct uses that work in basically the same manner.

· The power check has been eliminated. To determine the successful use of a psionic power, a character makes an MTHAC0 roll. In psionic combat, a character makes MTHAC0 rolls to break through a target’s mental defenses and open the mind. To use a psionic power on an open mind, an MTHAC0 roll is made against the power’s MAC instead of the target’s MAC. (All psionic powers have base MAC scores.) Some minds are considered open automatically (like the psionicist’s own mind for the purposes of using a power on himself). In these cases, no psionic combat is needed, for the mind is already open.

· The metapsionics discipline has been eliminated; its powers have been redistributed among the remaining five disciplines.

Table of Contents