This skill allows a character to open his or her mind to the thoughts of others or send thoughts into the minds of others. With just the broad skill, a character can attempt to use any of the related specialty skills except those that can’t be used untrained. The difficulty of such an action is reflected in the increased psionic energy cost and the higher base situation die for using just the broad skill.

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Contact

With this skill, a character can send and receive thoughts to and from another character, usually for the purpose of exchanging information. Modifiers may apply, depending on the range, familiarity, and willingness of the target mind to be contacted. The type of thoughts that can be exchanged depends on the result of a skill check.

Check Results

• Ordinary: simple concepts (brief questions and one-word answers) can be exchanged.
• Good: moderate discussion (pass notes back and forth, one note per 2 phases) can occur.
• Amazing: the communicating characters can have a detailed discussion, as though they were conversing vocally. If the psionics-user’s intended target isn’t willing to communicate, the target’s Will resistance modifier is applied as a penalty to the skill check, in addition to any other situation modifiers. If contact is established anyway, an unwilling mind can expel the user by making a successful Will feat check or a Resolve-mental resolve skill check, with a penalty (+1, +2, or +3 steps) depending on the psionics-user’s degree of success.

Situation modifiers for the familiarity of the mind and the distance at which contact is being used are as follows:

Rank Benefits

▶ Rank 4 [Multiple Targets] The character can establish contact with additional targets: equal to the number of ranks in this skill, but the skill suffers a -1 step penalty.

▶ Rank 6 [Language] A telepath learns to comprehend the meaning underlying ideas expressed even in languages he or she does not understand. The character may attempt an Intelligence feat check to understand the gist of the concept being communicated, or to make his or her own thoughts clearer to the target. At the Gamemaster’s discretion, a +2 step penalty applies to attempting to communicate with alien minds.

⊗ Rank 12 [Switch] A telepath who reaches rank 12 in contact can attempt to switch his or her consciousness with that of the target—effectively trading bodies.

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Empathic Projection

With this skill, a character may alter the mood of other beings, even those with whom the character does not share a language, such as foreigners, aliens, or animals.

In the event of a Critical Failure, the target’s emotional state shifts two steps in the direction opposite of what was desired.

The target must be within visual range of the psion.

This power last until the begining of the next turn and a number of extra turns equal to half the ranks in this skill. Multiple targets can be selected, but each additional target beyond the first provides a cumulative +1 step penalty to the skill check.

Check Results

• Ordinary: the user shifts the emotional state of the target by 1 step.
• Good: the user shifts the emotional state of the target by 2 steps.
• Amazing: the user shifts the emotional state of the target by 3 steps.

Situation modifiers for the current attitude of the target are as follows:

Rank Benefits

▶ Rank 3 [Extended Duration] The skill is now considered extended duration.

▶ Rank 5 [Subtlety] using this skill is now very hard to detect, only characters with psionic sensitivity have a chance of detecting it, but they still suffer +3 step penalty yo their [[awareness-psionic sense]] skill roll.

▶ Rank 6, 9, 12 [Ignore penalty] The user can ignore one step of penalty for either the target’s current emotional state, or the number of intended targets. At rank 6, the character can ignore two such penalty steps, and at rank 12, the character can ignore three.

Stress Relief

When the persistent stress rules are in play, the character can use this skill to help the surrounding people to resist the effects of stress, doing so require the character to be trained in this specialty skill and spend at least one hour a day in the presence of the people he wants to help.

The result of the skill check is translated into a bonus on the [[resolve-mental resolve]] skill check used to resist stress. The bonus applies to each person in the group, include the psion.

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Illusion

This skill enables a character to fool a target’s mind by projecting an illusion into it. An illusion can be a sight or a sound, but no other senses can be affected. An illusion is not capable of directly causing damage, but might do so indirectly. The skill is usable only against targets the character can see, and it has a maximum range of 5 meters per skill rank of the user. Any actions the user attempts while maintaining an illusion receive a +1 step penalty. The result of the character’s skill check determines how powerful the illusion is, which provides a penalty to the target’s Awareness-intuition skill check to recognize the illusion: Ordinary, +1 step ; Good, +2 steps; Amazing, +3 steps. Multiple targets can be selected to receive a single illusion, but each additional target beyond the first one provides a cumulative +1 step penalty to the psionics-user’s skill check. Each target is entitled to make an Awareness- intuition check to see if the illusion is effective against that individual. Rank Benefits:

• At rank 5 [Vanish]: a character who reaches rank 5 can mask his or her presence, effectively becoming invisible. The ability affects a number of observers equal to the psionics-user’s rank in illusion without a penalty to the skill check; each additional target provides a cumulative +1 step penalty to the user’s skill check.
• At rank 9 [Delusion]: the illusion created is so convincing that the target mentally supplies nonsensory details, such as emotion, and intangibles, such as a sense of freedom or peace. With a successful illusion skill check, the psion can include a suggestion in the illusion, as per the Telepathy specialty skill suggest.

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Mind Blast

This skill allows the user to direct a powerful blast of pure mental energy at another mind. The target must be within visual contact and no more than 40 meters away (range 10/20/40). Penalties for medium and long range are +1 and +2, respectively. Damage depends on the result of a skill check and the user’s rank in the skill. Armor doesn’t protect against a mind blast. When a character first acquires this skill, he or she is able to cause damage of d4+1s/d4+2s/d8+2s. Rank Benefits:

• At rank 5 [Increased Damage]: damage becomes d4+2s/d6+2s/d8+2s. At rank 9, the damage caused by the skill goes to 2d4+2s/2d6+2s/2d8+2s.
• At rank 12 [Additional Targets]: the telepath can affect an additional target, who must also be within range. The range modifier for the skill use is based on the range to the farthest target.

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Mind Shield

This skill allows a character to establish a mental defense against psionic powers. Mind shield protects against these psionic skills: contact, drain, empathy, illusion, mind reading, mind blast, mind wipe, suggest, and tire. Mind shield provides a penalty to the skill check of another psionic character who’s attempting to use any of the above-mentioned skills. The amount of the penalty depends on the result of the user’s skill check: Ordinary, +1 step; Good, +2 steps; Amazing, +3 steps. These penalties are cumulative with any other resistances or protections a character might have. The shield created by this skill remains in place for 5-8 hours (d4+4) or until it fails to stop a psionic power directed against it, at which point it collapses. Rank Benefits:

• At rank 4 [Parry]: he or she can attempt to mentally parry the use of contact, illusion, mind reading, mind blast, mind wipe, suggest, or tire against him or her. The parry attempt uses up the character’s next available action, but if the Telepathy-mind shield skill check is successful, the opposing skill automatically fails. Further, on an Amazing success using this ability, the parry attempt costs the character no psionic energy points.
• At rank 8 [Defend]: the character may extend the mind shield to protect others within 10 meters. For each additional person, the psion must expend 1 psionic energy point, in exchange for which he or she can apply his own mind shield modifier to psionic attacks directed at the subject. At rank 12, the psion can also attempt to parry such attacks directed at any of the subjects being protected.
• At rank 12 [Redirect]: the character can use mind shield to redirect an attack back on an attacker. The defender must make a mind shield skill check (modified by the attacker’s Will resistance modifier) to determine the effect of the redirection. This requires the user to spend 1 psionic energy point; an Amazing result eliminates the need to spend this point. A psion cannot redirect an attack directed at another character.

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Mind Wipe

With this skill, a psionic character can erase memories from a target’s mind. One minute’s memories can be erased for every rank the character has in mind wipe. The target must be within visual range, and no more than 10 meters away (range 2/5/10). The memories must be no older than 1 day per rank of the psionics-user. The character’s skill check determines how difficult it is for the target to recall events during the ’erased’ time. On an Ordinary success, the target receives a +1 step penalty on Intelligence feat checks to recall anything that happened during that time. On a Good success, the target receives a +2 step penalty. And on an Amazing success, the target receives a +3 step penalty. In any case, characters with erased memories will definitely know that something is wrong, assuming they are aware of the passage of time or of changes to themselves or their environment. They simply will not quite remember how these things happened. Rank Benefits:

• At rank 3 [Extended Reach]: the character can “see” a number of weeks into the past equal to his or her skill rank. At rank 6, this becomes months; at rank 9, it becomes years; and at rank 12, it increases to decades.
• At rank 6 [Edit]: the character can supply false memories to fill in the gaps in the target’s mind. The success of the skill check determines the modifier for attempts to spot the false memories: Ordinary, +1, Good, +2, Amazing, +3.
• At rank 12 [Unlearn]: a character who reaches rank 12 with this skill can remove specific knowledge from the target’s mind. A successful skill check—resisted by the target’s Will modifier—removes 1, 2, or 3 skill ranks (with an Ordinary, Good, or Amazing success) from the target’s mind.

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Psychic Armor

This skill creates a psychic “buffer zone” around the character, which helps to lessen the effect of drain, mind blast, and tire attacks directed at him or her. Psychic armor provides the character with a number of “psionic defense points”. An Ordinary success gives the character d6 defense points; a Good success gives him d6+2 defense points; and an Amazing success gives the character d8+2 defense points. Defense points remain for d4+4 hours, or until they are used. A character cannot use this skill to gain more defense points until any previous defense points are lost. These points are used to reduce the amount of damage suffered from mind blast (on a one-for-one basis) or to give the character another option for resisting tire, drain, or empathic projection attacks. Two defense points reduce one point of fatigue loss caused by Telepathy-tire, and three defense points reduce one point of attribute loss caused by Telepathy-drain. Four defense points reduce by one degree the extent to which a character’s emotional state has been altered by Telepathy-empathic projection. Rank Benefits:

• At rank 4 [Increased Effect]: the character gains d6+2 defense points on an Ordinary success, d8+2 on a Good success, and d8+4 on an Amazing success. At rank 8, the character gains d8+2 defense points on an Ordinary success, d8+4 on a Good success, and d12+4 on an Amazing success. At rank 12, the character gains d8+4 defense points on an Ordinary success, d12+4 on a Good success, and d12+6 on an Amazing success.

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Psychic Projection

With this skill, a character can separate mind from body and travel wherever desired, leaving his or her physical form behind. The psion’s consciousness is able to fly and to pass through solid objects. The character’s mental form is invisible and intangible, though his or her physical body is still vulnerable, making psychic “joyriding” a less intriguing prospect. Many psions endowed with this ability make use of a bodyguard (literally).

While travelling psychically, the character’s movement rate is equal to (INT + WIL) x 2. The character is effectively naked—being unable to bring physical objects such as clothing or weapons along—though he or she can appear however desired. Only other psychically projected beings can perceive the character in any fashion, though he or she can perceive the real world via sight and sound. Other senses are effectively inactive—except for perceiving contact with other psychically projected beings as a sort of tingling sensation, which is either pleasant or unpleasant, depending on the reaction of the other being toward the character.

While projected individuals can pass through solid real-world objects, they cannot pass through one another. This makes it possible for such characters to attack one another, though they will ordinarily only be able to do so with unarmed combat techniques, or with psionic abilities. See “Mental Combat”, later in this chapter, for more information.

A projected individual can return to his or her physical body at any time desired, simply by traveling back to it and successfully performing another Telepathy-psychic projection skill check. A character who runs out of psionic energy points while attempting to return becomes trapped in non-corporeal form until such time as he or she is able to recover enough psionic energy to try again. In the meantime, the body is effectively comatose, and will begin to deteriorate unless care is somehow provided.

The major danger of psychic projection is that one will return to one’s corporeal form only to find it already inhabited by someone else. In such dire circumstances, the character will be unable to reenter his or her body, and must find another physical body to occupy. The alternative is living forever after as a kind of ghost, able to perceive the real world, but unable to affect it in any way.

Characters can enter any “unoccupied” living being they encounter, by the same means they reenter their own bodies. However, a character occupying an unfamiliar form will be unable to “operate” it as well as his or her own. While in another person’s body, a character retains his or her own memories and skill ranks, but uses the Ability Scores for the occupied body. (See the description of ESP-contact for more information.)

Rank Benefits:

• At rank 12 [Body-Riding]: the character can attempt to seize control of a body that is already occupied, by making a Telepathy-psychic projection skill check, modified by the target’s Will resistance modifier. The result determines how much control the character has over the new form, if any. On an Amazing result, the character has complete control of the target’s body, and the target’s consciousness is effectively “shut off.” On a Good success, the character can only partially operate the body, as described above under entering unoccupied bodies. On an Ordinary success, the character can control the target’s body only when the target is unconscious, or otherwise voluntarily relinquishes “control.” On a Failure, the character merely remains noncorporeal. With a Critical Failure, the character enters the body, but becomes buried in the target’s subconscious, unable to influence the target’s body or mind (except perhaps as a sort of vague nagging sensation). The character can attempt to “escape” once per day, by making another Telepathy-psychic projection skill check.

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Suggest

This specialty skill allows a character to mesmerize another person. If successful, suggest plants a thought into another person’s mind and convinces that person that the thought is his or her own. The target must be within visual range of the psion. No suggestion can have a permanent or immediately detrimental effect on the character it’s directed at. A suggestion lasts for as long as 1, 2, or 3 hours, depending on the degree of success of the user’s skill check (Ordinary, Good, or Amazing). It could expire before its time limit is reached, but it can’t be extended without another successful application of the skill at precisely the time when the original suggestion is due to run out. The Gamemaster will assign a bonus or a penalty to the user’s skill check to reflect how extreme the suggestion is (e.g. opposed to the character’s nature would provide a severe penalty of +3 steps or more). Rank Benefits:

• At rank 6 [Programmed Suggestion]: the character can implant a suggestion that does not immediately take effect. Instead, when the subject experiences some kind of sensory cue, the subject acts upon the suggestion. The triggering event can be as long as 1 hour, 1 day, or 1 month later, depending on the result of the user’s skill check.

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Tire

This skill inflicts fatigue damage upon a target, perhaps prompting that character to decide that he or she is in need of rest. The target must be within visual contact and no more than 30 meters away (range 10/20/30). Penalties for medium and long range are +1 and +2 respectively. The amount of damage inflicted depends on the result of a skill check: Ordinary, 1 fatigue point; Good, 2 points; Amazing, 3 points. Rank Benefits:

• At rank 4 [Increased Effect]: the range increases to 15/30/50 meters. At rank 8, an Ordinary result inflicts 2 points of fatigue damage, a Good inflicts 3 points, and an Amazing 4 points. At rank 12, the range increases again to 20/40/60 meters.
• At rank 9 [Transference]: the character can take fatigue points drained from the target and use them. The fatigue points can exceed the character’s normal fatigue point total, and remain until lost through normal activity, or until 24 hours have passed—whichever occurs first.

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Undo

With this skill, a telepath can reverse the effects of a successful use of Telepathy-illusion, mind wipe, or suggest. The telepath must achieve a better result than the user of the original telepathic skill, with a +1 step modifier per rank of difference if the original user’s rank is higher, or a -1 step modifier per rank of difference if the original user’s rank is lower. Only one attempt is allowed each day.

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Guidance

Requires Perk: Fraal Psionics Schooling (Exclusive Perk).

The psion reaches into the Idea Dimension—an ancient, semi-sentient Fraal repository of knowledge. The psion queries the construct for general guidance on the situation at hand. If successful, the dimension projects a “virtual assistant” into the psion’s mind, providing abstract and practical knowledge, as well as insightful tip in real-time.

The assistant resist helping with actions with the intent of harming sentient being (+3 steps penalty to the activation test), while is eager to help with action which have a clear, and in the short term will save people (-3 step bonus to the activation test), like for example disarming a bomb. The power last until the beginning of the next round, but it can be extended by spending a psionic power point at the beginning of the round. Out of combat it last 1 minute per rank, or until the task for which it was invoked is resolved.

The depth of the construct’s guidance—and thus the resulting Assist Score—is determined by the psion’s activation check.

Check Results

• Ordinary: The construct is partially engaged. The Assist Score is equal to 12/6/3.
• Good: The construct shows willingness to help. The Assist Score is 16/8/4.
• Amazing: The construct help to the best of his abilities 20/10/5.

Once the Assist Score is determined, the psion must acts as a channel for the construct. He doesn’t spend actions to assist that he makes, but while assisting other rolls he still needs to spend an action to communicate the assistant advice. If the character is capable of using the contact power he can treat the assistant as another target an avoid needing using his time or actions to assist. Resolve the assistance as usual, replacing the skill used to assist with the Assist Score.

Rank Benefits

▶ Rank 3, 8 [Prolonged Session] At rank 3 the out of combat duration increases to 10 minutes per rank. At rank 8 the duration increase once again to 1 hour per rank.

▶ Rank 4, 6 [Foundational Competence] The virtual assistant provides such clear foundational instructions, if the character making the main check does not possess the required Broad Skill for the task, he counts as having it for the assisted checks. At rank 6, if he is not trained in the required specialty skill he counts as having 1 rank.

▶ Rank 12 [Restricted Access] The sentient dimension recognizes the psion as a trusted user. Giving him access to secret and restricted information. Reaching rank 12 is not enough to use this benefit, it also requires authorization from the Fraal governing body in charge of the construct. It is usually granted after a rigorous background check and an oath(tied to the construct).

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Subdual

This skill allows the user to engender feelings of calm, or even detachment, in any intelligent species. The target must be within visual range. With an Ordinary result, the target becomes less violent, suffering a +1 step penalty to combat skill checks, including action checks. On a Good success, the reaction is even stronger, conferring a +3 step penalty to combat skill checks and action checks. And on an Amazing success, the subject becomes incapable of launching an attack against another living being, and will hesitate for a phase before attacking objects, structures, or other nonliving things. Most Aleerins, incidentally, would never dream of using this ability to take advantage of another being. To do so requires that the Aleerin succeed at a Resolve-mental resolve check. Rank Benefits:

• At rank 4 [Increased Effect]: the user can affect two targets with the same skill check. At rank 8, he or she can affect four targets, and eight targets at rank 12.

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Thought Worm

The psion inserts a mental construct into the mind of another being. This worm consumes the target’s cognitive energy, making mental tasks harder while allowing the psion to force the target’s mind to process tasks for them.

The target must be within 30 meters and in line of sight, or an active target of the Telepathy-contact power. Upon activation, the target’s Will defense imposes a penalty to the activation check. If successful, the worm is implanted and the psion selects one of the target’s Intelligence-based skills. While the power lasts, the psion can use that selected skill, utilizing the target’s ranks and Intelligence score.

Awareness & Control: The target is aware of the psion’s presence as alien thoughts pop up in their mind. If the target is unwilling, whenever the psion wants to use the borrowed skill, the psion must make a new skill check (penalized by the target’s Will defense modifier) to force the target’s mind to comply. Failing this check means the task is not processed, but the worm remains; only a Critical Failure frees the target.

Check Results

• Ordinary: The target suffers a -1 step penalty to all Intelligence-based skill and feat checks.
• Good: The penalty is -2 steps.
• Amazing: The penalty is -3 steps.

Rank Benefits

▶ Rank 3 [Broad Selection] You can now select up to 3 of the target’s specialty skills instead of a single one.

▶ Rank 6 [Psionic Link] If the target is a psion, you can choose one of their psionic skills instead of a standard skill. Because you are only drawing upon their knowledge rather than utilizing their remote mind to process it, you use your own ability score combined with the target’s ranks. The power point cost comes from your own reserves and is doubled.

▶ Rank 9 [Improved Link] Using the target’s psionic skill via Psionic Link no longer costs double power points.

▶ Rank 12 [Improved Worm] You are no longer limited to Intelligence. You can now select any Intelligence, Will, or Personality-based specialty skill. All selected skills must share the same ability score, and the step penalty from the Check Results is applied to all checks using that chosen ability score.

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