Weekly Update - Rules Teaser: A Psychic Power

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

These weekly updates had begun to slip to Saturday or Sunday of each week, and I want to buck that trend this week. Also my week just got pretty complicated, so I figured if I do this now I can't miss it. :)

I've said Warlords of the Apocalypse is going to contain a new set of psychic power rules, which are separate from psionics but can work side-by-side with psionics for GMs who want both. These psychic rules are designed to give a much more classic sf feel to mental powers, with vague senses and the potential for backlash, while still being useful enough players are interested in them. Up until now, however, I haven;t given any details on how the powers themselves will work.

The psychic rules are going to get their first full release with Anachronistic Adventurers: The Sensitive, a pdf out later this week. The following is the unedited, undeveloped version of the Mesmerism power, one of several psychic abilities (such as distant viewing, dowsing, thought transference and mind over matter). All the psychic powers ahve some general rules in common which I'm not including here (this is a teaser, after all), and a lot of their balance comes from general rules like psychic backlash so you're not getting the full picture, but it should give you some feel for how the skill-based pychic abilities work.

 

Mesmerism (Su): You can send false information into the mind of a target, causing it to believe something that isn’t true. This allows you to make Bluff checks to deceive (rather than to feint or send secret messages) at range against a target you can see. You do not have to speak to or share a language with your target, though it must have an Int of 2 or greater. Using mesmerism is a standard action, regardless of how complex a lie you attempt to convince your target is true.

If you attempt to convince a target of the falsehood of something it can directly observe (such as claiming you are holding a banana, rather than a gun) the target may choose to resist your Bluff check with a Perception check (rather than a Sense Motive check). You suffer normal penalties for attempting to convince your target of unlikely or impossible lies, but gain no bonus for having proof of your lie.

Mesmerism has no obvious visible or audible effects. Someone observing you may make a Perception check opposed by your mesmerism check to realize you are intently focused on your target (and if your target begins acting in an obviously unusual way, such observers may conclude you are responsible, even if they do not know exactly how).

While you are not dependent on language, trying to use mesmerism on a radically different mind is difficult. When attempting mesmerism on a creature of a different type than you own, you suffer a -4 penalty.

If your Bluff check against a target is successful it is unaware that you influenced it (though a target can later contemplate its behavior, and how you benefited from it, and conclude you are somehow responsible). If your Bluff check fails, the target makes a Will save (DC 10 +1/2 your total Bluff bonus) to realize you are somehow attempting to alter its perception of reality. On a failed check, you suffer no penalty to future efforts to use mesmerism to Bluff the target.