Assigned a base level of 0th, 1, 2, 3 - depending on inherent power of effect (see Benchmarks below). Target self = same level (target self includes manifesting effect in hand - melee touch or thrown ranged touch). Target other = +1 level. Additional targets increase level. Additional dice cost VP (always)

?? May be combined with other effects to make greater effects ??

Use is free if character's 1/2 Psychic Level < Psychic Effect Level. Otherwise, cost 1 VP per level (0th cost 0). Gaining knowledge of Group grants access to 0th and 1st Level Effects. Each character level unlocks 1 more effect level.

Level power benchmarks:

• 0th level
  • Minor bonus / penalty
  • 1d6 damage
  • Increase recovery rate 1 step (month - week - day - 8 hours - hourly - 10 minutes - minutes - rounds)
• 1st level
  • Major bonus / penalty
  • 1d8 damage
  • Increase recovery rate 2 steps
• 2nd level
  • Extreme bonus / penalty
  • 1d10 damage
  • Increase recovery rate 3 steps
• 3rd level
  • Extreme bonus / penalty
  • 1d12 damage
  • Increase recovery rate 4 steps

DEVELOPMENT NOTES - WIP

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Some extraordinary people are able to manifest energies seemingly from nothing, influence and even control the minds of others, see hidden things, the future and the distant past, or sicken enemies and accelerate healing. We call these people Psychic, and their powers Psychic abilities.

Introduction

We use some special terms for Psychic powers, so here's an introduction to the ideas. Each will be expanded on in its own section below.

Psychic powers are grouped into Disciplines. Your Psychic character will start knowing only one Discipline, and learn other with experience.

Each Discipline has Tiers of rising power. Beyond the Base Tier, there are 3 Tiers. The Base Tier and Tier 1 are available as soon as you learn the Discipline. Higher Tiers are opened up as you gain Psychic levels.

When you use a psychic power, we call it Manifesting. It usually costs you some Vitality to Manifest powers. You will be able to Manifest some psychic powers for free - that is, without any Vitality cost - as you gain levels.

You can Boost a power that you Manifest beyond the effect of the Tier - we call this the Manifest Level. If you don't Boost the power, then the Manifest Level is the same as the Tier (treating the Base Tier as Manifest Level 0). This is how we work out how much Vitality it costs you to Manifest the power. As you gain levels, the lower Manifest Levels will be free to Manifest.

Psychics manifest their powers by drawing on mental reserves. When you first take a level in the Psychic class, you must choose which mental ability score is responsible for your Psychic powers - Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma. We call this your Psychic ability score. Usually it would be your best score, but it doesn't have to be.

Your Psychic ability score influences your ability to manifest Psychic effects, Concentrate on maintaining them, your ability to hit the target you want, how hard they are to resist, and so on.

• Maximum Manifest level = Psychic ability score - 10
  • If your Psychic ability score is reduced (from damage, or from Prolonged concentration), your maximum Manifest level is also reduced
• Psychic ability modifier: adjusts your Psionics skill, save DCs, attack rolls with Psionic effects

To manifest and maintain an effect, you must be able to concentrate. Manifesting an effect is a standard action (except where noted in the effect description), but maintaining your concentration takes no action.

You use your Psionics skill to make a Concentration check.

Distractions may interrupt your concentration, such as taking damage, violent motion, failing a mental skill check, or deliberate mental assaults by another psychic. You must make a Concentration check each round that you are distracted for any effects you are maintaining. Manifesting without speaking aloud or without gestures also requires disciplined concentration.

• Concentration check = 1d20 + Psionics skill ranks + Psychic ability modifier

If you fail the check, the effect fails to manifest, or if already manifested, it ends. You still pay any VP costs that were required.

Effects last as long as you concentrate on them. You may stop concentrating on any effect at will as a free action.

Alternately, once you have manifested an effect, you may pay a Vitality cost and take a penalty to your Psychic ability score to maintain prolonged concentration on an effect. This allows more than one effect to be manifest at a time. You must make a concentration check to start this prolonged concentration. The VP cost and penalty is equal to 1 per Manifest Level of the effect that is being maintained in this manner. Note that the penalty will reduce the maximum level of the effects you can manifest in future.

• Prolonged concentration: 1VP per Manifest Level (instantaneous), -1 Psychic ability penalty per Manifest Level (ongoing)

Failing a mental skill check: If you roll a 1 on a skill check that uses your Psychic ability score, the distraction forces you to make a concentration check for the effects you a currently concentrating on. For example, if Charisma is your Psychic ability score, and you roll a 1 on a Deception check, then you must make a concentration check for your currently manifest effects.

Psychic battle: You can attempt to break the concentration of another Psychic within Personal range by making an opposed concentration check against them. Your range to the target acts a penalty against you, and a bonus to their check.

Motion while manifesting: Depending on how vigorous the motions is, the DC is set at Average, Hard or Heroic. For example, Average concentration is required for manifesting while riding a galloping horse, Hard concentration while being tossed around in a car chase on the highway, and Heroic concentration while hanging on for life in a speeding off-road vehicle.

Check modifier: This is the modifier that is applied to any check that is also being attempted without speaking or without gestures, and the modifier applied to maintain concentration on a manifested effect at range.

The target's distance from the psychic determines how easily the effect may be avoided. Ranges are Close (no adjustment), Medium (Minor adjustment), Long (Major adjustment) and Extreme (Extreme adjustment). You can always apply an effect to yourself if you want.

The adjustment is applied as a penalty to your attack roll against the target, and a bonus to the target's saving throw (if any).

It is also applied as a penalty to your Concentration check to maintain an effect at range when you are distracted. In this case the current range to the target of the effect is taken into account (not that range when you initially manifested the effect).

Ranges are listed as “Close / Medium / Long - Extreme”, where anything up to the first number is the Close range, between Close and the next number is Medium range, between Medium and the next is long range, and between Long and the last number is the Extreme range. You cannot manifest effects beyond the extreme range.

• Thrown
  • Effects thrown by hand. Certain abilities may increase this range, just as for thrown weapons.
  • Range: 20 / 40 / 80-120 ft
• Personal
  • Effects that require mental contact or sight of the target's face are classed as “personal” effects. Beyond these ranges it is too hard to discern the features of the target to use such effects.
  • Range: 20 / 40 / 80-120 ft
• Sight
  • Effects that require the mere sight of the target have a longer range.
  • Range: 300 / 600 / 1200-2400 ft
• Indirect
  • Effects targeting areas have the longest ranges.
  • Range: 900 / 1800 / 3600-7200 ft (or 300 / 600 / 1200-2400 yards)

Effects are arranged in Disciplines, Tiers and Manifest Levels.

The effect's Discipline shows what sort of effect it is - what it works on and the kind of things you can do with it, like manipulating fire, or reading minds.

The effect's Tier is a measure of its basic power, before you boost it. You start out only being able to work with the Base Tier and Tier 1 effects of a Group, but your experience as a Psychic unlocks higher Tiers as you progress.

The Manifest Level of an effect is the power of the effect after all the boosting you apply to it. The Manifest Level dictates how much Vitality you must expend on the effect.

Here we'll explain each of these terms further as well as Boosting effects.

Effects are grouped according to how they operate - Cognition is the sensing and influence of hidden and distant things, Corporeal deals with the physical body, Kinesis deals with the control of energies, and Mental is the detection and influence of other's minds.

You start out knowing only one Discipline of effects. As you gain Psychic class levels, you learn new Disciplines and may use their effects too. You will never know all four Disciplines, however.

Each group includes effects of different applications. The power of effects increases as you gain experience. Each effect has a Basic power, and three higher Tiers of increasing power. We refer to the Base effect, and the Tier 1, 2 and 3 effects. The maximum Tier of effect that you can manifest is governed by your level.

Disciplines known: The number of Disciplines you understand and have access to. You cannot use effects from other Disciplines until you have learned them.

Discipline Tier maximum: The highest Tier effect that you can manifest. You can Boost the Tier to a higher Manifest Level, but you cannot use the higher Tier effects until you have gained more experience.

Free Manifest Level: Effects above this Manifest Level cost 1VP per Manifest Level. However, note that Boosting the number of effect dice always includes a Vitality cost - see Manifest Level.

Reading the table: Find your Psychic class level, and read across the row to find how many Disciplines you know, your maximum Tier in those Disciplines, and what Manifest Level is free for you. For example, a Level 1 Psychic knows only one Discipline, can access the Tier 0 and Tier 1 effects of that Discipline, and must spend Vitality to produce effects at Manifest Level 1 or higher - whereas a Level 4 Psychic … worked example

Effects may be Boosted to make them more useful. The Base effect is the weakest of all, and may only be manifested for yourself - a flame appears in your hand, or you gain an empathic insight, or whatever. Boosting an effect allows you instead to target an area or a person, or to increase the power of the effect.

When you Boost an effect, you increases the Manifest Level. The Manifest Level of an effect is either the same as the Tier (if you haven't Boosted it at all), or the Boosted level - for example, a Tier 1 effect boosted to affect a 10ft Cone area becomes a Manifest Level 2 effect.

Boosts may include one or more of the following:

• Direct Targeting - this increases the range of the effect, and allows you to target one or more creatures or objects
• Area Effect - the effect manifests in an area chosen by you (a burst, cone, line or wall - see below), and all creatures in the area are effected by it. The area may be at range, or emanate from you.
• Increased Effect - the number of dice rolled to determine the effect is increased. It costs 1VP per additional die.

Your maximum Manifest Level is only limited by your current Psychic ability score, and your ability to pay the Vitality cost. You may manifest effects up to your Psychic ability score -10: so if your Psychic ability is Intelligence, and your Intelligence score is 16, you may use effects up to Manifest Level 6 - or if your Intelligence is 20, you may produce effects up to Manifest Level 10 (assuming you have 10VP to spare).

Psychic effects can usually be combined for greater effect by using prolonged concentration, or by building up the effect before manifesting it.

By using prolonged concentration, you may manifest an effect and then add another effect to the same target. In this way you can, for example, manifest flames in an area, prolong your concentration on the flames, then manifest an hallucination in the same area - fooling your enemies into believing there is dragon present.

Building up an effect - placeholder WIP -

If you manifest two effects that deal damage, you must consider if they are the same or different sources. Damage from the same source does not combine to inflict greater damage, but different sources do. For example, if you manifest an area of electric shock, and while prolonging your concentration, directly target an electric shock on one of the creatures in that area, these effects add together to deal more damage - whereas if you manifested another area effect of electricity, you would only apply the greater of the two damages.

On the other hand, different damage types will usually combine - but some will cancel each other out. This will be listed in the effect description. For example, if you manifest electricity damage and fire damage together, these will combine regardless of whether they are both area effects or direct targeting - but cold and fire will subtract from each other to deal less damage.

The effects of each group are linked here.

• Cognition - reading objects, seeing the past and the future
• Corporeal - enhancing (or hampering) the bodies of yourself and others
• Kinesis - manifesting and manipulating energies
• Mental - sensing minds, imposing emotions or hallucinations on others

Intro

Single use, or multiple charge items - power is used up. Manifest level 3 maximum.

VP cost to user as if manifesting the power. Users without VP take a Minor fatigue penalty. Concentration check required if distracted when manifesting - user's best mental ability if not skilled. Ongoing effects must maintain concentration.

Creation

Craft skill check, followed by Psionics skill check, DC Average + manifest level. 8 hours per manifest level, no more than 16 hours per day. 0 level items = 4 hours.

VP & Ability cost as if prolonged concentration, but DRAIN, instead of damage (i.e. longer recovery).

Material cost of VP x Ability drain x 10 currency units (PP for medieval).

Power is not used up with use. User must pay VP cost as per Charged items. Manifest level 9 maximum (i.e. 3 x level 3 effects, or similar combination).

Creation

Craft skill check, followed by Psionics skill check, DC Hard + manifest level. 16 hours per manifest level, no more than 16 hours per day. 0 level items = 8 hours.

As for Charged items, but additionally, creator takes VP and ability score drain as per creation cost if item is ever destroyed (promoting creators top be precious and careful of their creations).

?? Only 1 permanent item per Psychic level may be created - if at maximum, to create new ones, old ones must be destroyed ??

WIP

?? Possessed items ?? - bind spirit of summoned outsider to object, bypasses destruction drain risk. Possessing entity will try to steer user to own agenda, attempting possession if necessary. If released (destruction of item, exorcism) entity will seek revenge on summoner / creator.