Psychokinesis (WatW)

Drasna needed a distraction. The templar patrol was beating its way down the alley, and in moments they would find her. Shrinking in to the shadows, she concentrated on a bone-handled short sword thrust in to a half-giant's hip sheath. Summoning the Way, she drew the blade from its scabbard with a rasping hiss. While the half-giant gaped in amazement, she sent the sword spinning through the templars' ranks, slashing and thrusting indiscriminately.

The orderly patrol erupted in chaos as the templars ducked and dodged out of the sword's path, cursing and screaming. Drasna permitted herself a cold, small smile. It was working. Then the blade came to a sudden halt, hanging suspended in midair as another mind sought to control its flight. Drasna found herself locked in a battle of will with the templar standing at the back of the patrol. The sword was the prize.

If Clairsentience is the most subtle of the disciplines, then Psychokinesis is the most overt. A wide range of potent attacks make Psychokinesis the most combat-oriented of the six disciplines. Only Psychometabolism rivals it in terms of the ability to deal out physical damage.

The Role of Psychokinesis

Psychokineticists are battlefield psionicists who are actively sought out as military auxiliaries. They can be found serving as elite guards for noble houses or merchant dynasties, assisting templar patrols, or as the heavy artillery for savage desert raiders. A powerful psychokineticist is a most as good as a wizard for creating mayhem in a fight.

In Athasian society, psychokineticists are widely recognized for their firepower. Like the clairsentient, the psychokineticist will never lack for work. However, they rarely are used as advisers; instead, they are enforcers and bodyguards expected to use their talents to destroy the enemies of their employers.

Most noble estates or merchant dynasties have a psychokineticist among their guards. Many nomadic tribes also possess one or more psychokineticists among their number—the potent combat abilities of the psychokineticist can often spell the difference between life and death in the desert wastes.

A psychokineticist can be a great addition to an adventuring party. Much like a wizard, he commands formidable offensive and good defensive abilities. A psychokineticist in a low-level party can literally blow away the opposition. At middle or higher levels, the psychokineticist's abilities are not so powerful compared to other characters. At this point, the character should begin to concentrate on acquiring a broad variety of skills from the other disciplines to keep himself useful.

Psychokinetic Advancement

It is essential that the psychokineticist selects telekinesis as his first science. Most of this discipline's sciences and devotions list telekinesis as a prerequisite, and the character will deadend if he cannot choose these powers until later in his career.

The psychokineticist character should select a good mix of offensive, defensive, and diversionary powers as he advances. While direct-attack powers such as disintegrate, detonate, and ballistic attack are attractive, less offensive powers like create object and levitate can be enormously useful.

The most powerful sciences in this discipline have a large PSP cost and have power scores based on a variety of abilities. The psychokineticist should take a look at his chances to successfully initiate a power and how much of his psionic strength it would consume before selecting it.

Psychokinetic Powers

Special Note: Two psionic powers appearing in Dragon Kings were placed in the wrong disciplines. Teleport object is not a Psychokinetic power; it's a Psychoportive devotion with teleport as a prerequisite. Return flight is not a Psychometabolic devotion; it belongs in the discipline of Psychokinesis.

If existing characters have selected these powers, the DM can either ignore this retraction and allow the character to continue play as is or he may allow the psionicist to discard teleport object or return flight and select another power.

You may own a copy of The Complete Psionics Handbook that has several important pieces of errata in it. The following Psychokinetic devotions do not require telekinesis as a prerequisite: animate shadow, control light, control sound, molecular agitation, and soften.

Other difficult powers include the following.

Detonate: If used against an opponent's weapons or armor, it is reasonable to assign combat penalties to partially destroyed equipment. A -1 to attack rolls or Armor Class for each 10% destroyed is appropriate. If the item targeted by the psionicist is magical, it gains a saving throw versus disintegration to resist the detonation effect.

Monsters composed of magically animated material, such as golems, are allowed a saving throw versus spells to resist being detonated. If they fail— lose a percentage of their hit points equal to the percentage of their mass that was destroyed by the attack. Creatures that don't get a saving throw (zombies, skeletons, and plant monsters, for example) against this attack take damage in the same way,

Disintegrate: Some Athasian monsters are so huge that they can lose 8 cubic feet of their mass to disintegration and survive. These include the cloud ray, all drakes, the dune trapper, the megapede, and the sand vortex. If these monsters fail their save versus death magic, they are not killed outright but instead sustain 10d10+20 points of damage.

Project Force: No attack roll (other than the power check) is required with this power.

Telekinesis: It is possible to use telekinesis for very fine work such as sewing, writing, or picking a lock. The character attempting to perform the task must be capable of doing the work himself—sewing telekinetically doesn't help if you know nothing about sewing. The psionicist should make a second power check to successfully complete any fine work. In the case of picking a lock, this gives the character an opportunity to roll against his Open Locks percentage.

If a character wants to engage in a tug-o'-war with someone (for example, trying to yank a sword out of a guard's hand) resolve the situation with the normal psychic contest rules, using the defender's Strength score against the psychokineticist's power score.

Inertial Barrier: The barrier affects missile fire and movement in both directions. It can stop a spell such as fireball or some breath weapons (a red dragon's flames, for example), causing the effect to splash off the surface of the barrier, but does nothing against pure energy attacks like a blue dragon's lightning breath or a magic missile spell. The inertial barrier protects against all forms of disintegration, not just psionic disintegration.

Molecular Agitation: Items are not required to make saving throws until they could actually be damaged. For example, a steel sword is not threatened until the fourth round of agitation, but a scroll must make a saving throw after only one round of molecular agitation.

Molecular Manipulation and Soften can be used against body weaponry or flesh armor. However, the subject can negate the effects by allowing the power to drop and then re-initiating it later in the combat.

Compact (from Dragon Kings): Most creatures can easily tell if something they are about to eat or drink has been compacted. Even water is obvious, because it weighs 10 times what it should. Most animals will refuse to eat compacted material, since it doesn't feel right, but if they are extremely hungry they may let their appetite overcome their judgment. Sentient creatures may realize that "something's wrong with this pear," but the DM should be the judge of whether or not an NPC views it as a potential hazard.

The Psychokineticist Template

The powers listed below are recommended selections for a character of that level. The DM is free to substitute sciences or devotions as he or she sees fit, but should be careful to observe the rules of acquiring psionic powers. First off, no discipline may have as many sciences or devotions as the character's primary discipline; and second, the character must have at least twice as many devotions as sciences in any given psionic discipline.

Level	Powers Gained
1	Telekinesis (S), control light, levitation, molecular agitation
2	PSYCHOMETABOLISM: Adrenalin control, reduction
3	Detonate (S), ballistic attack, inertial barrier
4	PSYCHOMETABOLISM: Body equilibrium, chemical simulation
5	Control wind; PSYCHOMETABOLISM: Life draining (S)
6	PSYCHOPORTATION: Phase
7	Disintegrate (S), soften
8	PSYCHOPORTATION: Dimension walk
9	Control flames; PSYCHOMETABOLISM: Energy containment (S)
10	METAPSIONICS: Magnify
11	PSYCHOMETABOLISM: Teleport (S), teleport trigger
12	PSYCHOMETABOLISM: Double pain
13	Create object (S); PSYCHOMETABOLISM: Cell adjustment
14	CLAIRSENTIENCE: Radial navigation
15	METAPSIONICS: Ultrablast (S), stasis field
16	Molecular manipulation
17	PSYCHOMETABOLISM: Metamorphosis (S); PSYCHOPORTATION: Dimensional door
18	TELEPATHY Contact
19	Control body; PSYCHOPORTATION: Probability travel (S)
20	CLAIRSENTIENCE: Danger sense