Old World» Psionics

Psionics is the harnessing of the mind’s energies to produce extraordinary effects, without the use of spells or “magic”.

Psionic characters

Any character who possesses a power point reserve and is capable of manifesting powers is considered to be a psionic character. Any creature that possesses innate psi-like abilities is also considered to be a psionic creature.

Basic psionic abilities

All psionic characters have the following basic abilities.

Sense Psionic Mind (Su): A psionic character who comes into physical contact with another creature can automatically determine whether that creature has psionic capabilities. Note that certain psionic, magical, or other abilities may foil this ability.

Sense Active Psionics (Su): A psionic character can concentrate as a standard action to detect active psionics in use within a 30-foot radius. This ability may be blocked by intervening barriers, in a manner similar to detect magic. Note that this ability only detects the presence of active psionics, not their number, location, or any details about the nature of the sensed psionic effects.

Sense Psychic Contact (Su): A psionic character always has the chance to sense telepathic contact or the use of mind-affecting psionic powers that affect him, even if the ability in question would not normally be detectable by subjects. A Wisdom check, DC 10, is required to successfully sense such normally-imperceptible effects. If the effect allows a saving throw, succeeding on the Wisdom check to perceive the effect grants a +1 bonus on the save. For every 5 points by which the Wisdom check exceeds the DC, the saving throw bonus increases by 1.

Power points

A psionic character has a single, unified power point reserve, even if he gains power points from different sources (feats, classes, etc.).

Regaining power points

To regain used daily power points, a psionic character must have a clear mind. To clear his mind, he must first sleep for 8 hours. The character does not have to slumber for every minute of the time, but he must refrain from movement, combat, manifesting powers, skill use, conversation, or any other demanding physical or mental task during the rest period. If his rest is interrupted, each interruption adds 1 hour to the total amount of time he has to rest to clear his mind, and he must have at least 1 hour of rest immediately prior to regaining lost power points. If the character does not need to sleep for some reason, he still must have 8 hours of restful calm before regaining power points. If a psionic character has manifested powers recently, the drain on his resources reduces his capacity to regain power points. When he regains power points for the coming day, all power points he has used within the last 8 hours count against his daily limit.

To regain power points, a psionic character must have enough peace, quiet, and comfort to allow for proper concentration. The psionic character’s surroundings need not be luxurious, but they must be free from overt distractions, such as combat raging nearby or other loud noises. Exposure to inclement weather prevents the necessary concentration, as does any injury or failed saving throw the character might incur while concentrating on regaining power points.

Once the character has rested in a suitable environment, it takes only an act of concentration spanning 1 full round to regain all power points of the psionic character’s daily limit.

Bonus power points

A psionic character who manifests powers gains bonus power points according to his manifesting ability score (normally Wisdom). Your manifesting ability score grants you additional power points equal to your manifesting ability modifier × your manifester level × 1⁄2 (rounded down). You only gain bonus power points once, even if you gain power points from different sources.

Psionic feats

Psionic feats are listed on the Feats page. Only psionic characters may take psionic feats.

Unless noted otherwise in the feat’s description, each psionic feat taken raises a character’s manifester level by 1. This cannot raise a character’s manifester level above his character level.

Psionic focus

Many psionic feats, powers, and other abilities work either by maintaining or expending psionic focus. Unless noted otherwise, any psionic character who can manifest powers, or who has psi-like abilities, has the ability to become psionically focused. Such characters can put their psionic energy to work without actually paying a power point cost—they can become psionically focused.

Meditating to become psionically focused is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. You must have at least 1 power point remaining in order to become psionically focused. Once you are psionically focused, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep.

When you are psionically focused, you can expend your focus on any single concentration check you make thereafter. When you expend your focus in this manner, your concentration check is treated as if you rolled a 15. It’s like taking 10, except that the number you add to your concentration modifier is 15. You can also expend your focus to gain the benefit of a psionic feat—many psionic feats are activated in this way.

Expending your psionic focus to power a feat, class feature, or any other ability only powers a single effect. You cannot gain the benefit of multiple abilities that require expending focus by expending your psionic focus once; each effect requires its own instance of expending psionic focus.

Psionic powers

Psionic powers represent a variety of passive and active abilities. Some powers require the manifester to maintain or expend psionic focus to gain their benefits; others require the expenditure of power points. Certain powers make use of both methods of accessing the character’s psionic ability.

Unless noted otherwise, psionic powers are supernatural abilities. They are not subject to spell resistance, and cannot be dispelled or counterspelled. Psionic powers are normally suppressed within an antimagic field or dead magic zone, however.

Manifester level

A psionic character’s manifester level determines certain aspects of the effects of powers that he manifests, as well as what powers he can manifest at all, and how many power points he may spend when doing so (see Manifesting powers, below).

The manifester level of a psionic character is equal to his total levels in classes that grant the ability to manifest psionic powers.

A character with no levels in psionic classes, but who has the Hidden Talent feat, has a manifester level of 1. Each psionic feat that a psionic character has increases his manifester level by 1. (Certain feats, such as Additional Talent and Psionic Prodigy, grant greater increases to a character’s manifester level.)

A psionic character’s manifester level normally may not exceed his character level (i.e., his Hit Dice). Certain effects (such as the Overchannel feat) may temporarily increase a character’s manifester level.

Psionic Creatures: A psionic creature (i.e., one that possesses innate psionic ability, such as an intellect devourer) typically has a manifester level equal to its Hit Dice.

Manifesting powers

The most important rule of psionics is that a manifester may not spend more power points on a power than his manifester level. This includes spending power points augmenting the power, using metapsionic feats, or effects that result in needing to pay an increased power point cost to manifest a power. For example a 5th level manifester may only spend a total of 5 power points on any single power, while a 19th level manifester may only spend a total of 19 power points on any single power.

(Effects that allow a manifester to increase this effect, such as the Overchannel feat, do so by increasing the manifester’s effective manifester level—they are still bound by this rule.)

Manifesting a psionic power requires concentration. (This applies only to powers that have a specified manifesting time.) The modifier for any concentration checks made when manifesting or concentrating on a psionic power is equal to your manifester level plus your manifesting ability modifier.

Saving throws against psionic powers

Each power’s description specifies whether any saving throws are permitted against the power’s effects. The save DC for any saving throw against a psionic power that you manifest is equal to 10 + 1⁄2 the power’s cost in power points (rounded down; minimum 1) + your manifesting ability bonus. Some powers may be augmented in such a way as to increase the power’s save DC; see each power’s description for details.

Basic powers

Basic psionic powers are available to any psionic character. They may be learned by taking the Hidden Talent and Additional Talent feats, or via class features of psionic classes.

The following basic powers are available.

Additional rules

The following additional rules relate to psionic characters, creatures, powers, and phenomena.

Ability burn

Ability burn is a special form of ability damage that cannot be magically or psionically healed. It is caused by the use of certain psionic feats and powers. It returns only through natural healing.