Psion

There are some who say that knowledge is power. They are not far off. In this case, the mind itself is power. Whether you have the patience to practice the discipline, or whether you were gifted with the ability natural, you have come to master the powers of the mind. You are a Psion, and what you think can literally change the world around you.

Primary Stats: Intelligence (Telekinetic and Telepathic abilities), Charisma (Pain and Mental attacks), Constitution

Bonus to Skill Checks: Bluff, Concentration, Insight, Intimidate, Knowledge, Perception

Basic Abilities

Opening this talent tree grants you the following powers and abilities.

Telepathy: You are highly telepathic and capable of reading minds, even if it’s only surface thoughts. You can also communicate with people psychically. If you desire, you can connect people together in a psychic conversation. You can even leave the “channel” open with allies who can use you as a hub to communicate with one another. Establishing the link is what takes the most energy and time. Once the link is established, keeping it established is very easy. The distance this works at and the number of people you can channel to is based on your Intelligence and Mastery.

Telekinesis: You can lift and manipulate things with your mind. This is a physical force that you can use to do a large number of things from moving objects to you with ease, to punching someone across the room with a thought. The ability, fine motor control, and power you have with this ability is based on your Intelligence and Mastery.

Mastery: Mastery is a measure of your overall power and ability in a given talent branch. Each rank raises your ability a bit higher, and grants you greater power and access to more abilities further down the line. You must purchase each rank in order. Each rank is explained in detail below.

Rank 1: Your powers are slightly enhanced and it takes slightly less energy to use your abilities. You gain slightly more fine motor control with your telekinesis allowing you to write, though it would not be very neat writing. 10 points.  

Rank 2: Your powers are slightly enhanced and it takes slightly less energy to use your abilities. You can now have a telepathic conversation with an ally that is up to 1 mile away, and keep a telepathic link with up to Intelligence modifier willing participants. In addition, you can now manipulate more than one thing at a time with your telekinesis. 20 points.

Rank 3: Your powers are enhanced and it takes less energy to use your abilities. In addition, you can now perform other actions while you are using your telekinesis. For example, you could fight someone in front of you with your fists while you wield a sword behind you with your mind. You might not be able to fight well on either count, but it is a strong start. You gain a +2 to Intelligence or Charisma. 30 points.

Rank 4: Your powers are greatly enhanced and it takes much less energy to use your abilities. You can now link up to 3+ Intelligence modifier people telepathically for up to 5 miles. You gain a great deal of fine motor control with your telekinesis and can manipulate several items at once. You could write, practice with a sword, and even shave all at the same time with your mind. This would restrict you from doing much physically, but is easily in the realm of possibilities. 40 points.

Rank 5: Your powers are greatly enhanced and it takes much less energy to use your abilities. You can now sustain a telepathic link with allies on a global scale, but you will likely lose the contact if they travel to another plane. You could perform delicate surgery with your telekinesis. When figuring how much you can lift with your telekinesis, add 10 to your Intelligence score to find the proper weights. You gain a +3 bonus to Intelligence or Charisma. 50 points.

Psychic Impression: You can gain a basic idea of the history of an object, including where it may have been or who held it, by touching it yourself. 10 points.

Eidetic Memory: You never forget anything you see or hear, and can recall things perfectly, as though your mind were a digital camera set to a computer. 15 points.

Psionic Shield: You surround yourself with telekinetic energy, building an invisible shield to protect yourself or others. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 10 points.

Iron Will: Your mind is a steel trap, and it is very difficult for anyone to break through the mental walls you have built up. You are highly resistant to charm, illusion, fear, and other such mental effects. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Flight: You can now fly using your telekinetic powers. How fast you can fly, for how long, and if you can take others with depends on your power and ability. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Astral Projection: Your mind can leave your body and wander the world freely, seeing and hearing things a great distance away, even traveling to other planes. It cannot have any physical interaction with anything and your body is vulnerable while you are in this state, but it can come in very handy and prove to be quite useful. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 25 points. 

Astral Tendril: You can reach out with telepathic, telekinetic tendrils and search for things. Once something has been found you can pull yourself to the item or pull it to you. If it’s unwilling, you will have to fight to move it. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 25 points.

Vanish from the Mind’s Eye: You literally reach into the minds of those around you and erase yourself from their brains so that they cannot see or hear you. You are still there, but you are, in essence, invisible. You can do this for a small number of people around you. The more people you try to hide from and the more people you try to hide with you, the more difficult it becomes. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 30 points.

Dominator Path

10 Points.

Opening this branch of Psion grants the following abilities.

Psionic Slam: Some psions prefer a subtle approach to things. They’ll terrify, or make people think they’re hurt, or any number of other things. You simply attack with unbound hate, rage, and pain. You flood your enemy’s mind with psionic energy that causes them mental anguish and physical pain.

Dominator Branch Abilities

Paralysis: You disconnect the mind from the body and leave your foe unable to move any part of their body. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 10 points.

Their Own Worst Enemy: You simply make your foe hit themselves. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Precise Daggers: Your foe screams as their mind tells them that daggers have been slowly pushed into some very painful pressure points. They might be crippled for the rest of their short life. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Leave You Breathless: Your enemy falls to the ground, flopping like a fish. Seems someone made their body think that their lungs were missing. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 10 points.

Blackout: You simply reach into your enemy’s mind and turn it off. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 15 points.

Dominate: It might be difficult, but you can, with a bit of concentration, literally take over someone’s mind. You can do this in different ways, putting your consciousness in their body, or simply puppeting them, but you can make an enemy a weapon. When you start, this won’t be easy, but as you grow in power you can dominate more than one mind and start to do any number of things, including dominating them quickly and leaving them with a compulsion they have to follow. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 25 points.

Trauma: With a mighty bellow you shock your foes with a terrible thought, and watch as they fall to the ground, their bodies exploding open from the force of your rage. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 20 points.

Raging Tempest: You unleash a great deal of psionic energy, flooding it around you and simply pummeling the weaker minds of your foes into dust. It is the mental equivalent of a barbarian smashing his foe to pulp. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 20 points.

Heart of Fury: Taking the ambient rage in the air from the battle, you channel the psychic energy into a devastating psychic attack that rages across the field, causing strokes and seizures in all those it affects. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 30points.

Living Psyche: Your body wavers, shimmering until it becomes pure red energy. Your mind knows no bounds now. For a short time, your powers are greatly enhanced and you are tireless and invulnerable. You cannot use any psychic power for a short time after this, and you are greatly fatigued, but you will suffer no physical damage because of this power. Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 50 points.  

Flayer Branch

10 points.

Opening this branch of Psion grants the following abilities.

Flay: Your psionic abilities are refined to a point where you show your enemy’s mind that they’re hurt, and it’s so convinced that the body responds in kind, causing wounds to appear in the manner presented. Creativity is useful here as well as darkly entertaining.

Flayer Branch Abilities

Boil: You mess with your foe’s internal thermostat, raising their temperature until their blood literally boils. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 10 points.

Seizure: A blast of random psychic commands confuses your foes, and causes them to shake, sweat and convulse. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 10 points.

Unyielding Pain: You light up every pain receptor in your enemy’s mind, literally killing them with unending amounts of pain. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Nightmares: You alter your foe’s perception so that his reality seems to be his worst nightmare. He cannot wake from the terror that assaults him. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points. 

Encouraging Emotions: You flood the field with positive psychic energy, feeding it directly to your allies. They are inspired and push forward with renewed vigor and greater ability. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Emotional Distortion: You amp up or turn down someone’s emotion. You do this to the furthest extremes. If someone is afraid, you make them terrified beyond reason. If someone is angry, you blind them with rage. Or, if the need arises, you take their rage and make them docile. This isn’t always easy, and you will likely only affect one person at a time, but it can be a very useful ability. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 25 points.

Thrall: A smile and a wink ensnare a foe to do your will. They will not harm themselves in any fashion, but they will attack their friends. Once you have control of someone in this fashion, it will last until you stop forcing your will on them. If done long enough, the person will actually fall for you, which can have repercussions all its own. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 15 points.

Irritation: Your enemies begin to itch, just a bit. It grows until they must scratch. However scratching it makes it worse. The more they scratch, the more terrible it becomes until they begin to rip off their own flesh in order to rid them of the terrible itch. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 20 points.

Sharing is Caring: Summoning all your will, you link your foes together so that when one of them suffers pain, they all suffer together. This can be both good and bad. When you you’re your enemies bound in this fashion, you can use one power on them, and many will be affected. However, if you were to use your thrall, it would nearly destroy your mind trying to keep control of that many people at once. So, while this can be effective to use minor powers on, or to help your allies who can attack with magic or steel, it can be dangerous for you if you are not careful. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 25 points.

Free Your Mind: Summoning the totality of your psychic ability, you reach into the minds of your allies and unlock their true potential. For a very short time, you and all allies have your powers greatly enhanced, and become invulnerable and tireless. Any damage your allies take during this will be transferred to you when this ability ends. Your allies do not tire or weaken, but your mind and body will be completely useless for at least an hour after you use this ability. You will not be able to use it more than once a day. Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 50 points.

 

Kinetic Branch

10 points.

Opening this branch of Psion grants the following abilities.

Psionic Weapon: The focused totality of your powers allows you to manifest a psychic weapon. This weapon is a type of your choosing, and it improves as your power and ability do. The weapon not only damages the physical, but causes mental anguish and disorientation.

Kinetic Branch Abilities

Psi-Shards: You spray thousands of tiny, razor sharp shards of telekinetic energy at your foes, shredding them. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 10 points.

Rebounding Attack: You throw your enemy’s attack right back at them. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Breathing Room: You summon a massive burst of telekinetic energy to shove your foes back, giving you a bit of space. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Psychokinesis: You have perfected your telekinesis to the point that you can create lightning and fire with your mind, directing it as you will. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Pierce: Building on your Psi-Shards, you simply focus your will and shoot people with telekinetic arrows. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Psionic Chains: You launch a net of telekinetic energy at your foe. It traps them, then roots the spot, leaving them vulnerable. At Mastery Rank 4, you can make the net large enough to hold several enemies at once. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 25 points.

Earthquake: In a terrifying display of ability, you tear up the earth in a path, like a snake racing toward its prey, and then cause an explosion in the middle of your foes. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 15 points.

Concussive Grenade: You compress a great quantity of air, hurl it into your enemies, and watch as they go flying. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 20 points.

Blade Storm: You hold out your hand, summoning you telekinetic powers to their full. Several of your psionic weapons appear, floating and spinning around you. With a smile and a gesture, you send them flying at your foes. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 25 points.

Everywhere At Once: Your mind is strong enough that you can essentially create telekinetic versions of yourself to fight on multiple fronts while you fight as well. The clones you’re your abilities and mind, and will fight on their own but you can control them if you need. This takes a great deal of energy, and they last only a short time before fading away. Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 50 points.