Psionic Roles in the City

Keeping in mind the rule that 100 psionics will be found in a population of 45,000, the question then arises, where will these psionics be? Given the logic of psionic power, it seems clear that psionics will NOT be randomly distributed through the population. Rather, psionics will become concentrated in powerful and leadership positions, and thus, PCs will be even more likely to encounter them than the "simple percentages" indicate.

Remember, psionics are found only among people with high (16+) INT, WIS, or CHA scores. In other words, these are your natural leaders to begin with. Adding to their natural abilities are their psionic gifts, which they would use to leverage themselves even higher on the social ladder.

Imagine some random person who naturally had the psionic devotion of Invisibility. Do you think that person would stay a field hand their whole life? Of course not! I mean, just imagine the possibilities if you discovered as a young teen that you could go invisible... What sort of adventures you would have, what sort of trouble you would get in...

I am thinking someone with the natural ability of invisibility would gravitate towards espionage, thievery, assassination... Perhaps some would enter the field of law enforcement, and what a detective they would make! Clearly, no one is going to remain an "average citizen" for long with the natural gift of invisibility combined with a high INT/WIS/CHA score.

Just as a thought experiment, what would you do with the natural ability of shrinking size (Reduction)? Or walking on water/feather falling (Body Equilibrium)? Phase shifting (Etherealness)? Levitation? Changing appearance (Shape Alteration)? Teleportation?

Is it just me, or do you get the impression the Thieves and Assassin's Guild would be crawling with these guys???

Or, conversely, they'll be "the Supers", the heroes with superpowers hired by the government to combat these super-powered bad guys. People with Clairaudience or Clairvoyance? Detection of Good/Evil? Object Reading? Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions? These people are tailor made for law enforcement!

And what about Telempathic/Telepathic Projection? Empathy? Precognition? ESP? Hypnosis? Domination? Or even Mass Domination??? These people are born to rule! You are practically guaranteed to find these powers among the ruling elite, either in the rulers themselves (high CHA) or in their "handlers" (high WIS).

A quick glance at the 1e Monster Manual entry on "Men" confirms this logic. Under each subheading, it states repeatedly, "leader types will have the normal potential for psionics." In other words, it is practically axiomatic: psionics will rise to leadership positions.

Creating Psionic NPCs the easy way

From our statistical analysis we know that a city of 45,000 will have 100 psionics in it, and their range of psionic strength with be as follows:

25 with one attack mode (01-25)
25 with two attack modes (26-50)
25 with three attack modes (51-75)
20 with four attack modes (76-95)
5 with all five attack modes (96-00)

25 with two defense modes [all have Mind Blank] (01-25)
50 with three defense modes (26-75)
15 with four defense modes (76-90)
10 with all five defense modes (91-00)

10 with 1 minor & 0 major disciplines (01-10)
15 with 2 minor & 0 major disciplines (11-25)
15 with 3 minor & 0 major disciplines (26-40)
15 with 2 minor & 1 major disciplines (41-55)
15 with 3 minor & 1 major disciplines (56-70)
10 with 4 minor & 1 major disciplines (71-80)
10 with 3 minor & 2 major disciplines (81-90)
5 with 5 minor & 1 major disciplines (91-95)
5 with 4 minor & 2 major disciplines (96-00)

The base psionic strength of any individual is postulated as 1-100 (with bonus for INT, WIS, and CHA), so one roll of the d100 can be used to create your psionic NPC.

Your d100 roll will provide the base strength and be applied to each of the above charts. This ensures that a psionic with lots of attacks, defenses, and disciplines will also have lots of strength points to put them to use. It makes intuitive sense, since a psionic with less overall psionic strength would logically have less attacks, defenses, and disciplines as well.

So, for example, a roll of 50 would produce base 50 psionic strength, 2 attack modes, 3 defense modes, 2 minor and 1 major disciplines.

A roll of 72 would produce base 72 strength pionts, 3 attack modes, 3 defense modes, 4 minor and 1 major disciplines.

To create the bonus points for the psionic strength, roll 3d6 for the NPC's INT, WIS, and CHA. Remember that one of them has to be at least 16, or he wouldn't have psionics in the first place. For each point above 12 in those three categories, add 1 psionic strength point.

If two categories are above 16, double these bonus points, and if all three categories are above 16, quadruple the bonus points. Thus
-- an NPC with 16s in INT, WIS, and CHA would have a bonus of 12 points
-- an NPC with two 17s and a 16 would have a bonus of 28
-- an NPC with three 17s would have a bonus of 60
-- with three 18s, the bonus would be 72.

Wild Psionics of the City: the Brawler

As I detailed in some previous posts (here and here), according to the dice, psionics should be far more common that most people give them credit for. In a city of 45,000 people, the odds indicate the presence of 100 people with psionic powers. In this post, I will detail one of the more intriguing possibilities: the psionic brawler.

The Brawler is a smallish looking fellow, perhaps even a woman. Physically weak, slight of frame, an easy mark, apparently. Perhaps our PCs encounter him as part of a bar bet. Imagine a smooth talking local, baiting our heroes with challenges to their manhood. "Take you guys on? Ha, I bet you can't even toss my old grandpa out of the ring!" as he points to a petite looking fellow at the table next to him. He, in turn, looks our heroes up and down, and snorts, "ha, don't waste my time with a tray full of creampuffs like that" and dismisses them with a wave.

Meanwhile, hearing the challenges and sensing a possible fight, a crowd has begun to gather around. The young trouble maker continues his tirade and insults, "These vagabond yahoos are all the same, they ain't nothing without their candy-ass armor and magic swords. Give 'em an old fashioned fight, man to man, and they cry like little girls!" The gathering crowd begins to laugh and jeer... "I'm not going to waste my time with these patsies... I'll bet you a hundred gold you can't even whip my old grandpa!" The crowd erupts in laughter... The spindly old man pulls himself up on his table and flexes his tiny arms to the crowds delight, toothless old grin leering at our heroes...

Once outside, a ring is quickly drawn in the dirt, a large crowd gathered round, cheering the old man on, as he pulls his overshirt and pants off, stripped down to his girdle. "Now, mind the rules, strangers: no magic, no armor, no weapons, first one out of the ring loses." Your hero nods his assent, as he strips off the last of his outergarments and steps into the ring.

The old man across the ring throws aside his walking stick, and with a crooked smile on his face, straightens up his back to stand to his full height, which, you swear, is bigger than he looked in the tavern. The crowd erupts in a rising roar as he throws his hands up in the air, and continues to grow, up, up, up...

The old man across the ring has grown to the size of a giant, with legs like small trees, and arms as thick as a normal man's waist. The ground shakes before you as he stamps his feet and pounds his chest and lets out a loud scream, which drowns out even the cheers of the crowd...


Psionic Details

The old man is exhibiting his psionic power of Expansion. His sixth level power has transformed him to the size and strength of a large ogre, growing to over 10' high, and adding a +6 damage bonus because his 18(00) strength. Luckily for our hero, this minor discipline uses up 5 psionic strength points per round, enough for, say, 10 rounds of combat. Can our hero stay in the ring that long??? Better brush up on your grappling rules, Mr. DM, cause the fight is on!

Another cool idea for this "hand to hand" fighting scam is versus a brawler who has the minor psionic discipline of Body Weaponry. At the sixth level of mastery his hard skin would equal an armor class of 4, and his fists would strike as a morning star!

A brawler with the major psionic science of Shape Alteration could also be quite fun to play. With that power, the psionic can change forms into anything for 3 strength points, and add 100 pounds of mass to his new form for every strength point expended beyond that. Think: instant transformation from skinny old man to 700 pound sumo wrestler.... Yeah, that is a fun NPC to have around.

Psionic Attacks upon non-psionics: Ego Whip

The Ego Whip is another really cool psionic attack. The ego is our conscious mind, our mental dialog, our sense of self. Attacks on someone's conscious thought process and identity can produce some really excellent effects, including insanity and mental domination.


The basic mechanic of Ego Whip is to overwhelm the other person's mental apparatus. In the best case scenario, you can actually take control of their mind. The shock of the attempted takeover might also cause insanity, or at least knock them out of commission for awhile.


The Ego Whip costs 7 attack points against a psionic, or 27 points versus a non-psionic. Remember, a psionic must have at least 100 strength points to attack a non-psionic. The Ego Whip affects only one creature, and its range is S = 4", M = 8", and L = 12".

Note that mind blank is normally helpful against psionic attacks, but against the Ego Whip, mind blank is actually harmful. According to the DMG psionic combat tables, Ego Whip is twice as effective against Mind Blank as any other psionic defense. Because Ego Whip is basically trying to highjack the victim's thought processes, the Mind Blank actually helps things along. It's like a "lay down" defense against a grappling attack. Yeah, not too smart.




Savings throw table

Effects table

Psionic attacks on non-psionic: Id Insinuation

The Id Insuinuation is another very creative psionic attack. It seeks to loose the uncontrolled and subconsious mind of the victim. Against the psionically-aware, it is an area attack (2" by 2"), and costs 10 points. Against non-psionics, I would treat it as an individual attack, and make it cost 30 points.

The Id is the animalistic/reptilian part of the brain, focused on passion, emotion, and pleasure/pain. The Id Insinuation stimulates that part of the mind, attempting to cause it to overwhelm the super-ego, which provides our sense of right/wrong.

Because of the nature of this attack, the savings thrown table against this attack is modified differently than against other attacks. It is also more even across the board, as the INT+WIS level matters relatively less than one's mental character traits and habits:
--Bonuses are given to those peolple and races who are disciplined in mental control and less likely to give in to their passions (lawful, good, dwarf, halfling, cleric, monk, cavalier/paladin)
--Penalties are given against those who tend to be less disciplined and more likely to give into their lower natures (thief, assassin, chaotic, evil, half-orc, elf, gnome).
--Mind Blank spells are given extra bonus here because Mind Blank is the most effective psionic defence against this attack on the psionic combat tables.
--Being in a highly agitated emotional state, as well as sleeping, also opens one up to this attack.

Id Insinuation has the longest range of any psionic attack: Short - 6", Medium - 12", Long - 18"

Saving throw Table vs Id Insinuation

The effects of a succesful Id Insinuation attack are more dependent upon the victim's alignment than mental capacity, due to the nature of people's subconscious tendencies.

Psionic attacks on non-psionics -- Mind Thrust

This is house rules stuff for those who enjoy playing with psionics. The way I see it, everyone has a mind, an id, an ego, and a psyche, therefore everyone is potentially vulnerable to these psionic attacks (not just Psionic Blast, as defined in the 1e rules). Giving psionics the ability to attack non-psionics is potentially a big "game unbalancer", so I am trying to constrain these powers to logical limits while still keeping them somewhat effective and fun.

The PH1e states that Psionic Blast is costly in terms of attack point expenditure, but is the only attack that can affect non-psionics. I take that as a statement of intended game balance, and I respect the logic of it. I would postulate that any psionic attack used on a non-psionic costs 20 extra strength points. Keep in mind, the psionic must have a current psionic strength of at least 100 to be able to affect a non-psionic. Thus, only a very powerful psionic would have a chance at using their powers on a non-psionic.

Used on a non-psionic, the Mind Thrust would cost 24 points. The attack range of the Mind Thrust is as follows: Short - 3", Medium - 6", Long - 9"

The Mind Thrust is a stabbing attack which seeks to short the synapses of the victim. I think of it like swirling a stick inside someone's skull. You are basically just trying to mess something up. When used on a fellow psionic, the Mind Thrust can wound or permanently damage the victim's psionic abilities. When used on a non-psionic, I figure that worst case scenario, it can cause the loss of INT or WIS points.

Save vs Mind Thrust table

Effects of Mind Thrust table

Psionic attack upon non-psionics: the Psychic Crush

This is house rules stuff for those who enjoy playing with psionics. The way I see it, everyone has a mind, an id, an ego, and a psyche, therefore everyone is potentially vulnerable to these psionic attacks (not just Psionic Blast, as defined in the 1e rules).

The PH1e states that Psionic Blast is costly in terms of attack point expenditure, but is the only attack that can affect non-psionics. I take that as a statement of intended game balance, and I respect the logic of it. I would postulate that any psionic attack used on a non-psionic costs 20 extra strength points. Thus, used on a non-psionic, the Psychic Crush would cost 34 points.

Keep in mind, the psionic must have a current psionic strength of at least 100 to have any chance of effecting a non-psionic. Thus, only a very powerful psionic would have a chance at using this on a non-psionic, and because of its cost, it could only be used once or maybe twice.

The Psychic Crush is a pretty cool attack. It is your basic kill shot, "a massive assault upon all neurons in the brain, attempting to destroy all by a massive overload of signals." It affects but one other creature at a time. Its short range is 5", which is also its max range, as no medium or long range is given.

I figure that a person of average INT and WIS has about a 50% chance of throwing off the Psychic Crush without any effect. The saving table works out as follows:




I am also slightly modifying the effect of Psychic Crush, which is normally save-or-die. I figure there is a range of damage prior to instant death that can result from this "massive assault upon the neurons", so the effects table is as follows:




Again, in terms of game balance, I postulated that a person of average INT and WIS would only suffer instant death 50% of the time. Remember, this is after they already failed their saving throw, meaning that the real chance of killing an average person with a Psychic Crush is only 25%.

On the other hand, someone with max INT+WIS would have a 50% chance of suffering confusion, but only a 5% chance of death (and their saving throw was at 0 to start with anyway).

Giving psionics the ability to attack non-psionics is potentially a big "game unbalancer", so I am trying to constrain these powers to logical limits while still keeping them somewhat effective and fun.

Psionic attacks on non-psionics - Psionic Blast

In the 1e DMG rules, the only psionic attack that can be used against non-psionics is the Psionic Blast. I find this a bit arbitrary and inconsistent. After all, the attack modes are Mind Thrust, Ego Whip, Id Insinuation, and Psychic Crush. Doesn't everyone have a mind, an ego, an id, and a psyche? Of course they do. Therefore everyone should be vulnerable in some degree to these attacks.

The main limitation on Psionic attacks upon a non-psionic is that the psionic must have at least 100 strength points in order to affect the non-psionic. This makes perfect sense to me, and will apply to any of the attack modes.

The Psionic Blast is described as a wave of brain force, experienced like "stunning news" to the mind. The attack is a cone-shaped waive of force 1/2" diameter at its source and 2" diameter at its terminus 6" distant.



The saving throws for Psionic Blast attacks on non-psionics is as follows:






range for psionic blast:
short = 2"
medium = 4"
long = 6"


The effects table is as follows:

Seeding the city with Wild Psionics

Wild psionics are those people who have inborn psionic power. I postulate these people as separate from those of the [optional] Psionic class, who develop their psionic powers as a science and therefore progress in levels and psionic power. The "wild psionics" of the world just have it as an inborn and never-changing power (perhaps as a vestige of their descent from a god).

As detailed in a previous post, wild psionics are not as rare as most people play them. In a city of 36,000 people, random chance would indicate the presence of 80 people with wild psionic power. In order to get the nice round number of 100 psionics, we would require a city of 45,000 people. The following list is based on the percentage charts in Appendix I of the 1e Players Handbook.

In our protype city of 45,000, those 100 wild psionics would line up as follows

25 with one attack mode (01-25)
25 with two attack modes (26-50)
25 with three attack modes (51-75)
20 with four attack modes (76-95)
5 with all five attack modes (96-00)

25 with two defense modes (01-25)
50 with three defense modes (26-75)
15 with four defense modes (76-90)
10 with all five defense modes (91-00)

10 with 1 minor & 0 major disciplines (01-10)
15 with 2 minor & 0 major disciplines (11-25)
15 with 3 minor & 0 major disciplines (26-40)
15 with 2 minor & 1 major disciplines (41-55)
15 with 3 minor & 1 major disciplines (56-70)
10 with 4 minor & 1 major disciplines (71-80)
10 with 3 minor & 2 major disciplines (81-90)
5 with 5 minor & 1 major disciplines (91-95)
5 with 4 minor & 2 major disciplines (96-00)

The PH1e lets the PCs choose their modes, but for random purposes we can use the d10:
--attack modes
1-2 --> Psionic Blast
3-4 --> Mind Thrust
5-6 --> Ego Whip
7-8 --> Id Insinuation
9-0 --> Psychic Crush
--defense modes, d8 (all have Mind Blank automatically)
3-4 --> Thought Shield
5-6 --> Mental Barrier
7-8 --> Intellect Fortress
9-0 --> Tower of Iron Will

Psionic attacks upon a non-psionic creature can only occur if the attacker has a current psionic strength of 100 or more. Of course, by the book, only a psionic blast can be used upon a non-psionic creature. In my house rules, I would open that rule up a bit. After all, don't all humans have a mind, an ego, an id, and a psyche? Since attacks target those aspects of the mind, it only makes sense that any human would be vulnerable to them. I will detail this house rule in a future post.

Minor Devotions
1 Animal Telepathy
2 Body Equilibrium (walk on water/feather fall)
3 Body Weaponry
4 Cell Adjustment (heal wounds/cure disease)
5 Clairaudience
6 Clairvoyance
7 Detection of Good or Evil
8 Detection of Magic
9 Domination
10 Empathy
11 ESP
12 Expansion
13 Hypnosis
14 Invisibility
15 Levitation
16 Mind Over Body (no need for food/water/sleep)
17 Molecular Agitation (cause heat)
18 Object Reading
19 Precognition
20 Reduction
21 Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions
22 Suspend Animation (death-like sleep)

Major Sciences
1 Astral Projection
2 Aura Alteration
3 Body Control (withstand hostile environment)
4 Dimension Door
5 Dimension Walk (quick long range travel)
6 Energy Control (cancel energy attacks)
7 Etherealness
8 Mass Domination
9 Mind Bar
10 Molecular Manipulation (break hard objects)
11 Molecular Rearrangement (transmute metals)
12 Probability Travel (to parallel worlds and planes)
13 Telekinesis
14 Telempathic Projection (sending emotions)
15 Teleportation
18 Shape Alteration

Population Distribution of Psionics

According to the math of 1e, Psionics are WAAAY more common than you thought. Hell, they're way more common than I thought, and I like psionics. Doing the math is really enlightening.

OK, so first of all, what is the basic probability of psionics? According to the Player's Handbook 1e, if you have an ability score of 16 or higher in INT, WIS, or CHA, you have a base 1% chance of having psionic powers. So the question then becomes, what percentage of people have ability scores that high?

First of all, from the basic odds of rolling dice: The odds of having a score of 16 is 6/216, or 1/36.

So, 1 in 36 people will have a 16 in, say, INT. 1 in 100 of them will have psionic power. Thus, 1 in 3600 people will have 16 INT and a psionic power. Think about what that means:

--In a city of 36,000 people, 10 of them will have 16 INT and a psionic power.

Now given that the base chance of having a 16 WIS or 16 CHA is the same as having a 16 INT, the 1% chance of psionics gives us the same number as well. Thus 1 in 3600 peole will have 16 WIS and a psionic power, and 1 in 3600 people will have a CHA of 16 and a psionic power.

--In a city of 36,000, 10 of them will have a 16 WIS and psionics, and 10 of them will have 16 CHA and psionic power.

Thus, in our city of 36K, we can expect 30 people to have psionic powers because of their single 16 ability score.

So what about people with scores higher than 16? It gets a little more complicated here because the Players Handbook gives different bonuses for high scores in the three different abilities. First, the basic probability of the dice: The odds of having an ability score of 18 is 1/216, and the odds of having an ability score of 17 is 3/216, or 1/72.

INT = 17

The score of 17 INT gives the person a +2.5% chance of having psionic powers. 1/72 has a 17 INT, and 3/100 of them will have psionics. Thus 1 in 2400 will have both. In our city of 36,000, we would expect to have 15 people to have INT 17 and psionic power.

WIS = 17

The score of 17 WIS gives the person a +1.5% chance of having psionic powers. 1/72 has a 17 WIS, and 2/100 of them will have psionics. Thus, 1 in 3600 will have both. In our city of 36,000, we would expect to have 10 people to have WIS 17 and psionic power.

CHA = 17

The score of 17 CHA gives a person a +0.5% chance of having psionic powers, but unfortunately, fractions are rounded down, so it remains the base 1/100 chance. 1/72 has 17 CHA, and 1/100 will have psionics. Thus, 1 in 7200 will ahve both. In our city of 36,000, we would expect to have 5 people to have CHA 17 and psionic power.

Thus, in our city of 36K, we can expect 30 people to have psionic powers because of their single 17 ability score.

INT = 18

The score of 18 INT gives the person a +5% chance of having psionic powers. 1/216 has a 18 INT, and 6/100 of them will have psionics. Thus 1 in 3600 will have both. In our city of 36,000, we would expect to have 10 people to have INT 18 and psionic power.

WIS = 18

The score of 18 WIS gives the person a +3% chance of having psionic powers. 1/216 has a 18 WIS, and 4/100 of them will have psionics. Thus, 1 in 5400 will have both. In our city of 36,000, we would expect to have 6.7 people to have WIS 18 and psionic power.

CHA = 18

The score of 18 CHA gives a person a +1% chance of having psionic powers. 1/216 has a 18 CHA, and 2/100 of them will have psionics. Thus, 1 in 10,800 will ahve both. In our city of 36,000, we would expect to have 3.3 people to have CHA 18 and psionic power.

Thus, in our city of 36K, we can expect 20 people to have psionic powers due to their one ability score of 18.



****In sum, because of single ability scores of 16, 17, or 18, we can expect a city of 36K to have 80 people with psionic powers. ****


Combinations of Ability Scores

Having multiple scores that are in the high range gives you a slightly higher chance of having psionic powers. The problem is, people are far LESS likely to have multiple high ability scores than just one high ability score. Thus, the people who have high scores in 2 or 3 abilities and a psionic power are much more rare.


17 INT (+2.5%) + 17 CHA (+0.5%) = 1/72 x 1/72, 4% base chance = 1 in 129,600
17 INT (+2.5%) + 18 CHA (+1%) = 1/72 x 1/216, 4% base chance = 1 in 388,800
18 INT (+5%) + 17 CHA (+0.5%) = 1/216 x 1/72, 6% base chance = 1 in 259,200
18 INT (+5%) + 18 CHA (+1%) = 1/216 x 1/216, 7% base chance = 1 in 666,514

17 INT (+2.5%) + 17 WIS (+1.5%) = 1/72 x 1/72, 5% base chance = 1 in 103,680
17 INT (+2.5%) + 18 WIS (+3%) = 1/72 x 1/216, 6% base chance = 1 in 259,200
18 INT (+5%) + 17 WIS (+1.5%) = 1/216 x 1/72, 7% base chance = 1 in 222,171
18 INT (+5%) + 18 WIS (+3%) = 1/216 x 1/216, 9% base chance = 1 in 518,400

17 WIS (+1.5%) + 17 CHA (+0.5%) = 1/72 x 1/72, 3% base chance = 1 in 172,800
17 WIS (+1.5%) + 18 CHA (+1%) = 1/72 x 1/216, 3% base chance = 1 in 518,400
18 WIS (+3%) + 17 CHA (+0.5%) = 1/216 x 1/72, 4% base chance = 1 in 388,800
18 WIS (+3%) + 18 CHA (+1%) = 1/216 x 1/216, 5% base chance = 1 in 933,120


--17 INT (+2.5%) + 17 WIS (+1.5%) + 17 CHA (+0.5%) = 1/72 x 1/72 x 1/72, 5% base chance = 1 in 7,464,960

--17 INT (+2.5%) + 17 WIS (+1.5%) + 18 CHA (+1%) = 1/72 x 1/72 x 1/216, 6% base chance = 1 in 18,662,400

--17 INT (+2.5%) + 18 WIS (+3%) + 17 CHA (+0.5%) = 1/72 x 1/216 x 1/72, 7% base chance = 1 in 15,996,342

--17 INT (+2.5%) + 18 WIS (+3%) + 18 CHA (+1%) = 1/72 x 1/216 x 1/216, 7% base chance = 1 in 47,989,029

--18 INT (+5%) + 17 WIS (+1.5%) + 17 CHA (+0.5%) = 1/216 x 1/72 x 1/72, 8% base chance = 1 in 13,996,800

--18 INT (+5%) + 17 WIS (+1.5%) + 17 CHA (+0.5%) = 1/216 x 1/72 x 1/72, 8% base chance = 1 in 13,996,800

--18 INT (+5%) + 17 WIS (+1.5%) + 18 CHA (+1%) = 1/216 x 1/72 x 1/216, 8% base chance = 1 in 41,990,400

--18 INT (+5%) + 18 WIS (+3%) + 17 CHA (+0.5%) = 1/216 x 1/216 x 1/72, 9% base chance = 1 in 37,324,800

--18 INT (+5%) + 18 WIS (+3%) + 18 CHA (+1%) = 1/216 x 1/216 x 1/216, 10% base chance = 1 in 100,776,960

Everyday Psionics: the Psychic Reader

The village psychic is a common feature in all human habitations. The typical psychic is a willowy individual with a strong spirtiual sensitivity, being, often as not, poor in common sense but good with people. In game terms, they have a low strength and constitution, average to low intelligence, but high wisdom with average to high charisma.

Being spiritually inclined, with a stronger constitution, they might have made an effective cleric. Without a psionic master to apprentice them, they never really develop the full range of their mentalist potential, but they can often parlay their natural psychic talents into profitable careers.

In game terms, their natural talents lie in the areas of psychic sensitivity, and psychic projection. Specific disciplines would include precognition, object reading, clairaudience, clairvoyance, and locate person. Astral travel would also be present, but in an uncontrolled form, mainly occuring at night while the psychic slept.

--Low level psychics can be found in tents and at fairs, struggling along in poverty reading palms and fortune telling.
--Those with more skill and accuracy will be found in their own shops in town, with a regular clientelle and a solid reputation for useful information.
--The most accomplished psychics will be wealthy, working directly for kings, nobles, and merchants, and will not be availble for immediate pubic consultation.

Adventuring Hooks

Consultation with psychics can be a regular source of adventuring hooks.

PCs can find themselves hired out to find lost people or items, perhaps with only a map drawn by a psychic (of questionable repute) to guide them.

PCs might pay a psychic for rumors and information that the psychic has picked up from her clientelle. Naturally, the psychic would be privy to all manner of secret information, and might divulge some, in complete confidence and secrecy of course, for the right price.

A psychic might come to the PCs, warned in a dream of an impeding danger/disaster, begging for assistance.

The PCs might be accosted by strangers, or by law enforcement, for their role in some dark dealings, which was revealed by the "spectral evidence" testimony of a psychic at trial.

Perhaps a local psychic saw the PCs doing something IN THE FUTURE, which motivates the townsfolk/authorities to give the PCs some trouble.

Everyday Psionics - the Animal Whisperer

Wild psionics exist throughout society, and in a given campaign, can add great flavor to the role playing. Today: the Animal Whisperer.

The Animal Whisperer is a high-charisma individual who exhibits unconscious skills in the psionic type of Communication and Control***. In game terms, he is adept at Charm and Mass Charm. As a skill level 1 or 2 psionic, simple-minded creatures, like insects, reptiles, and fish, he can manipulate easily, while most mammals and birds respond to him readily enough with small efforts, especially when combined with mundane training techniques.

The Animal Whisperer typically advertizes his services as an animal trainer, and training hunting dogs and guard dogs is his stock and trade. He has also produced many prize-winning hunting falcons and messenger birds.

The Amimal Whisperer can also turn a nice profit as a caravan driver. The most stubborn mules move quickly and quietly when he is driving them. Veteran teams of docile draft horses seem to cover twice the ground per day under his guidance. Animals never spook or run away under his care, even when surrounded by fierce carnivorous threats that normally send pack animals bolting in panic.

The Animal Whisperer is also prized by ranchers at round-up time, and to bring back valuable animals which have escaped the herd. He can also be hired to break in wild stallions.

An Animal Whisperer of questionable ethics is also higly prized in the criminal underworld, being hired by thieves and assassins to neutralize guard animals.

The Animal Whisperer is always well-liked, with many would-be friends, including a large stock of female admirers. He attributes his luck with the ladies to his "charm and wit", but he secretly realizes that when he concentrates, he can subtely bend people to his will almost wordlessly. This power scares him, and he does not speak of it to anyone. [In game terms, the ability to Charm people is a skill-level 3 ability, so it is slightly beyond his power to control or exploit with confidence].

The Animal Whisperer is also secretly plagued with hearing voices inside his head, especially in crowds when he is tired or lets his mind wander. For this reason, despite his popularity, he tends to prefer solitude, and usually lives in untrafficked areas, alone with his menagerie of pets and animal companions.



*** Communication and Control type disciplines:
Charm, Confuse, Dispell Exhaustion, Emotion, Empathy, ESP, Hypnosis, Invisibility, Detect Lie, Dominate, Mass Charm, Mass Confuse, Mind Bar, Hold Creature, Sleep, Suggestion, Telepathy, Forget, Fumble, Hallucination, Possess, Summon, Feeblemind, Mass Dominate, Mass Hallucination, Commune with Dead, Contact Other Plane, Exorcise, Mass Possession, Commune with Divine, Commune with Nature, Geas, Hallucinatory Terrain.