Psychic2

Stuff stolen from Shanownessence.

Puppet Master *
Action: Instant
Cost: 1 Willpower
Roll Resolve + Occult

a sucess raises 1, preservitive free, corpse, which must be relitivly intact, for a scene
it is as dumb and slow as a romero zombie but is as tough as a return of the living dead

an exceptional sucess raises as many zombies as your rating in occult

Pickled Minions *
Prereqsite: Pupet Master
same as puppet master except preserved corpses may be raised as well

Mr Potato Dead *
Prereqsite: Pickled Minions
Cost: Special
action: instant
a sucess allows the necromancer to stich together multiple corpses in to one functional zombie
the corpses must be physicly attached prior to raising
this lasts one scene
this allows you to create any thing from franinstein (its still just a zombie) to a giant golem made of dead flesh

an exceptional sucess causes joints held together by flesh alone to act as if held together by bone joints

Bone Heads *
Prereqsite: Mr Potato Dead
same as picled minion and pupet master except the corpse may be at any stage of decay.
A skeliton will be held misticly together
Aditionaly a dot of willpower may be spent to perminently raise a corpse, however this corpes will de-animate one scene after the charactor's death

You Lose *
At the death of the necromancer all corpses in the area will rise for 24 hours (including her own) and atack her enemies.

Third Eye (••• or ••••)
Prerequisite: See Aura's, See Spirits, or Second Sight.
A great deal of Thaumaturgy deals with perception: altering it, expanding it, or gaining entirely new senses to explore it. It comes as no surprise that many thaumaturges seek to hone and control these new and altered senses, sometimes even to shut them down to avoid sensory overload. The ritual for Third Eye gives the Thaumaturge a metaphorical third eye, painted on their forehead (or anywhere else with exposed skin) and acts as a sensory charm, allowing the thaumaturge to aid any ritual that expands the senses or grants new ones. At three dots the thaumaturge creates a new focus for rituals creating arcane senses, and gains a +2 bonus to use any of them. She may also opt to use it to expand her "mundane" senses and gain a +2 bonus to all wits rolls for a scene. At four dots the thaumaturge learns to create the sleeping and wakeful eye. Once drawn, the eye "sleeps" (is drawn closed) until woken (the drawing changes to an open eye). The thaumaturge may use any sensory ritual she knows as an Instant action with a +1 to it's activation roll, but must still spend a Willpower point to activate it.
Roll: Wits + Occult
Cost: 1 Willpower
Ritual Duration: 10 minutes
Duration: Indefinite, Once activated: Scene
Dramatic Failure: The eye is closed, any sensory rituals cast the same night suffer a -2 penalty.
Exceptional Success: The eye sees more clearly, mundane senses benefit, represented by all Wits rolls and Initiative gaining 1 bonus die.

Ritual Details: The thaumaturge paints an eye on a part of their body using henna, ink, or other paints. The eye can be concealed, but must be exposed for it to work.
Ritual Option: The thaumaturge has tattooed the eye with specially prepared ink, this cuts the Ritual Duration to 1 minute, and adds a +1 modifier to using this ritual and any perception based rituals once it's activated. Drawback: the tattoo must be exposed for the ritual to work, so the thaumaturge must place it either in a highly visible place or undress to use it. Other thaumaturges or supernaturals can easily recognize the tattoo and drawing as a symbol of perception with a successful Intelligence + Occult roll.

Psionic Trening (••)
Prerequisites: ???
Effect: The Psychic went special trening ( maybe in secret program of government or corporation ) to make full advantage of his powers. Instead of using 1 Willpower point to activate a power, he can damage his body for it. He get one resistance bashing damage for each Willpower point he exchange.

Most of so called Psions ( very skilled Psychics ) understand, that weakening their body is dangerous thing, but in some situation is better than be just dead.

Possession (•••••)
Prerequisites: Astral Projection, Telekinesis???
Effect: Being in state of Astral Projection allows a clairvoyant to completely dominate actions of other person, just like ghosts do. Character cannot gone in to mind of his target, only control his body. He must be in Twilight side of location where his target is. Then there is contested roll between Psychic's Presence + Wits and victim Resolve + Composure. Projector's roll is handicapped by Manifestation Modificator ( WoD, p. 210 ). Possession last until victim wins or number of turns of PPresence of Projector, witch ether is earlier.

Cost: 1 Willpower to posses attempt.
Dice Pool: Projector's Presence + Wits vs victim Resolve + Composure
Action: Extended to control possessed.

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The psychic is shocked by the mind of victim – he instantly tries to return to body.

Failure: The psychic fails to posses, but can try again.
.
Success: The psychic can command actions for this being for one turn.

Exceptional Success: The psychic completely dominate actions of target – he can us him by one minute for success or up to minutes of his Presence, with ether is earlier.

Onto the merits. Psionic Training is way too good. two or three dots is reasonable, but the damage should be resistant lethal. Bashing heals in 15 minutes, but Willpower takes a day. Even at 5 dots, such dramatic shift in recovery time would be way too good. Also, it wouldn't hurt to explain what resistant damage is, and how it differs from regular damage. I don't believe resistant damage is explained anywhere in Second Sight (I don't think it shows up anywhere at all outside of Mage), so it could use a brief description.

Possession, on the other hand, isn't good enough. Instead of a fixed limit of Presence turns (not nearly long enough), why not give the 'Ridden' a way of actively resisting the effect? Each person makes a series of opposed rolls, and the first person to exceed the Willpower of the other wins. If the Possessor wins, he's in control for a scene (though really dramatic actions, like trying to kill the Ridden, should trigger a new contest). If the Ridden wins, the Possessor is forced out, and would have to spend another Willpower to try again. It's a 5 dot Merit that requires at least one other 5 dot Merit; it should be good.

As to Trening effect - well Resitant damges that last up to 2 days AND fill your general Health bar are too bad - no one thinking logicly would use somthing that can easliy killed you AND has giving too much disadvantage in battle.

This Merit is dedciated for games like Second Sight – you are Psion, Special Ops Psi agent, etc.

And in my games Bashings cure after 1 hour, so for me it's realy okey.

As to Possession - you know, one utrn is enough to shoot in back of your enemies, really. happy.gif

What about the whole "Making Psychics into a a major template" thing that was suggested as an option in second sight? Has anyone explored that? Or perhaps something like a "Minor" power stat (goes 1-5 instead of 1-10) which makes them still mortal but able to compete with actual supernaturals. I guess Psi Powers could work kind of like charms in the exalted system, with power trees and an assigned experience cost for each.

Firstly, your house rule doesn't apply when submitting new rules for general use. That should have been obvious.
Secondly, An Hour is basically a Scene; the difference is irrelevant. With either healing rate, after a day, you'll have recovered all of your Bashing damage, but still only 1 willpower.
The Training Merit is huge, even with it being Lethal damage. For only six XP, a Psychic can potentially double the number of times he can use his powers if he has to. Plus, if he's willing to lose a health, he can use a power AND increase the dice pool by spending a willpower at the same time. At 2 dots, with Lethal damage, it's really good, and any psychic would seriously consider taking it. As Bashing damage, even at 5 dots, it's required. As Bashing damage, it completely changes the way Psychics use their powers. It would be like letting Mages take Bashing damage instead of Lethal to get Mana. It has to be lethal; it's too good otherwise.

Possession: if some force somehow managed to possess you, and tried to shoot your best friend in the back, wouldn't you fight it? Doesn't that qualify as a "Dramatic Action", like I mentioned above? Besides, in order to possess the person, you'd have to be beside him, in Astral Form, which takes some time to set up and leaves you rather vulnerable physically. It's not something that has direct combat applications; it's more for messing with people. Plus, it has a rather significant set of requirements. Thus, the duration should not be measured in mere rounds, but should last for a whole scene (or until a Dramatic Action is attempted).
It definately needs Astral Projection, Mind Reading (5, I'd say), with possibly Biokinesis and/or Thought Projection.

Telepathic Fighting Style (• to •••••)
Prerequisites: Can not exceed dots in Mind Reading.
A mind is a terrible thing to use. When telepaths turn their minds towards fighting, towards hurting others, the results are too terrible to contemplate. Characters with this merit likely learned it from extensive government or institutional training; clandestine groupings of telepaths developing this fighting style organically are not out of the question, but it is extremely difficult for an individual to develop this power alone. At the very least it would require a supremely talented telepath with a network of friends to help develop and train these techniques.

Blind Mind (•): The telepath learns to make do without their eyes, honing her “inner ear” to listen with her mind. By spending a Willpower Point she can find the direction and general distance of anyone in pitch darkness for a scene, and if blindfolded can detect the presence of those nearby by listening for thoughts. This is of course limited to people and entities capable of sentient thought and being detected by Telepathy. When fighting blind, (WoD pg. 166), penalties are reduced to -1. This power is for discerning presence and location, the input received is best described as an indiscernible whisper. A telepath still has to concentrate and focus to read specific thoughts, at best she gets word fragments when using this power, it does not allow her to use other telepathy merits without seeing the target.

Read Intent (••): Using telepathy requires concentration and freedom from distraction, neither of which is easily come by in a fight. With Read Intent the telepath trains her mind to block out distraction and focus on a single, specific train of thought. By spending a point of Willpower the telepath can tune out the thoughts of everyone else nearby and get a reading from a single opponent. They read not only their body language but also their mind, adding a die to defending from and attacking the target, as well as losing all penalties to other uses of telepathy related merits on him for the rest of the scene. This power can only be used on one target at a time, but they can be switched by spending another Willpower Point.

Earshot Thought (•••): The telepath comes to understand that thoughts are like waves, feeling thoughts from distant minds like ripples in a lake. The telepath can use any telepathy dependant merit on a target as long as they are (Intelligence + Wits) Yards away from the telepath. This applies to Blind Mind as well, granting the telepath nearly prescient awareness of those nearby.

Two Heads Are Better (••••):
Prerequisites: Telepathic Communication.
While forming a permanent gestalt with others is (for now) out of the question for most mortal telepaths, the possibility of uniting minds and efforts towards a single goal is not. The telepath can link minds in a strictly non-verbal network with as many other people as her dots of Resolve. Each must spend a Willpower point to enter the network, and gains a sense of each other members’ rough location, health, and mood for a scene. They get a bonus die to attack and defend when doing so against the same target. Where this power truly shines is in non-combative applications.

When the network use Teamwork (WoD pg. 134) to accomplish a task, each secondary actor gets a bonus die when forming dice pools, and the primary actor gets a number of bonus die in addition to those gained from the secondary actors’ successes equal to the number of people in the network present minus one.

Tactile Telepathy (•••••): Telepaths often shield themselves from unnecessary physical contact for fear of uncontrolled mind reading, but some have learned to turn the tables. By touching an opponent (or having one touch the telepath) with skin-to-skin contact, the telepath may initiate any telepathy or psychometry related merit on the opponent reflexively, even if using it normally requires an instant action. Using Tactile Telepathy on her own turn however grants an intimate connection to the target, giving a two die bonus.

Though not immediately useful in a battle, Tactile Telepathy actually affords many uses as a source of confusion (thought projection, illusion), information, and outright attack (mind breaker, mindblast) that would be difficult to get away with when multiple opponents are present and every second counts.

Telekinetic Fighting (• to •••••)
Prerequisites: Can not exceed Dots in Telekinesis.

Lucky Dodge (•): The psychic learns to trust her mind over her gut instincts, when calculating Defense she may replace the lower of her Wits or Dexterity with Intelligence, provided it is not lower than both.

Rep’s over Weight (••): Similar to how bodybuilders choose to train with repetitions to build stamina, the Telekinetic trains her mind by lifting small objects many times rather than large ones a few times. The result is that she can lift objects equal in size to her Telekinesis Dots minus one without spending Willpower. Everything else remains the same though, and she will tire of keeping even small objects aloft longer than half her Resolve (rounded up) necessitating spending WP to keep the object suspended.

Mind over matter (•••): Where once lifting a single object required complete concentration, the psychic can now lift and manipulate as many objects as half of her Composure, rounding up. Moving each additional item past the first imposes a cumulative -1 penalty. This ability does not stack with other Telekinesis abilities such as Telekinetic Grapple or Telekinetic Blow, except at ST discretion.

Wall of Air (••••): The Telekinetic is not just nudging incoming projectiles away from herself, but outright stopping them mid flight with sheer force of will. When a Dodge Action is declared, she may choose to spend a Willpower Point and roll Intelligence + Resolve, each success stops one incoming ranged attack. Of course, machineguns and firing squads can still make short work of her. On the positive side, she can also shield up to three other people next to her this way, granting them +3 to their defense as though they were substantially concealed (WoD pg. 162) while this ability is active. Drawback: The telekinetic must exert exquisite concentration, and has no Defense against any attacks that do penetrate Wall of Air. Moving is possible, but imposes a -1 penalty to using this ability.

Strength of Will (•••••): The Telekinetic learns to add the strength of her mind to that of her muscles. By spending on Willpower point she may add her Intelligence dots to any Brawl, Strength, or Dexterity dice pool this round. (As the Extra Talent rules in WoD pg 135)

Edit: Clarified concealment in Wall of Air, and added duration to Rep's over Weight.

Teleportation (•••, ••••, and •••••)
Prerequisites: Clairvoyance OR Biokinesis •••+
Effect: With three dots the psychic teleports or "Jumps" to anywhere in the immediate area as long as it is in a line of sight to where she is. The radius of this Jump is one yard for every Dot of Stamina.
At four dots she may "Jaunt" to any place inside her field of vision, regardless of range, even attempting a riskier Jump into an area that's out of view. The psychic suffers a -1 penalty for distances past their movement range, and -2 for distance greater than twice their movement rate.
With five dots she may "Journey" to any place she has previously visited, however this is far more taxing than simple line of sight teleportation. The psychic must maintain and carry a link to each place she wishes to journey to (an object that has been at that location for more than a year) and spend a Willpower point to "memorize" it's location. She may memorize as many locations as the lesser of her Dots of Intelligence or Composure. The psychic may teleport only what they can carry physically, so whatever weight their Strength dots allow them carry. To take heavier or larger objects imposes a penalty of 1 for each dot over the strength rating of the object or person.
Cost: 1 WP
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Stamina
Action: Instant, Extended
Results
Dramatic Failure: The jump goes horribly wrong, as any of a dozen variables are miscalculated. The psychic may end up well above their intended destination, falling down to earth, or with an object piercing them. A less savory possibility is that not all of her makes it, suffering a point of Lethal damage for every one rolled. Though science fiction says that they might end up "melted" into a wall or solid object, matter tends to dislike that. At worst the psychic will suffer cuts, lose a limb or part of an organ as it fails to keep up and follow the body.
Failure: No successes are rolled, and the psychic stays in the same place.
Success: The psychic manages to bend space, and moves to a new location. Sadly, there are no special effects involved, only a snapshot vanish.
Exceptional Success: More successes are their own reward, but in this case the psychic manages to gain great insight into the nature of space. Her next roll to teleport gains a + 1 bonus, OR she can ignore the next Dramatic Failure she would have if using Teleport. Alternately, the teleportation is so sudden and powerful that any onlookers doubt the psychic was there to begin with.

Modifier Situation +2 if the psychic has recently scryed the location she is teleporting to, +1 if she possesses an item from there.
Option [Blind Jump]: The psychic must close her eyes and concentrate on where she goes, denying all her defense during the turn she attempts to use Jump. +1 dice.
Option [Uncontrolled Jump]: The psychic has no control over where she teleports, though it's never into physically harmful places, it's rarely where she expects. +2 dice.
Option [Self Only]: The psychic can't carry anything larger than size 2 with her, other people and larger objects are impossible to carry since she has no intimate connection to them. Any attempt to do so will cause Lethal damage and structural damage to all participants. +1 dice.
Option [Objects Only]: A strange variation, the psychic can only send objects other than himself (and size 4 or smaller). A benefit of this is that she may also bring objects to her as well as away. She may not even realize she does this, as she hides or summons her car keys. +2 bonus.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License