Are all psionic abilities alternate abilities to each other?

[adam1234]

Say you have the Psychokinesis power from Psionic Powers. You take various abilities from that power.

E.g. PK Shield and Walk on Air and Super Jump and Cryokinesis and Pyrokinesis and so on.

Does it make sense that they can all be alternate abilities to each other? That is:

• a) Should they need to be more intimately linked, e.g. PK Shield and Walk on Air are "control forces" vs Cryo/Pyro are "control heat"?
• b) or "they are manifestations of psychokinesis" is enough?

(Nevermind that you would only be able to use one at a time.)

[Anders]

All up to the GM.

[whswhs]

That's a matter of how YOU conceive the abilities. If you think that your character can only use one at a time, because they're all drawing on the same brain centers or attention focus or whatever, then design them as AAs. It's not dictated by the rules; the mechanics can represent different concepts.

Note, by the way, that you CAN have an AA pool with two abilities active. Buy the most expensive two at full cost and then the others at one-fifth cost.

[awesomenessofme1]

Sorcery and Divine Powers suggest that a power source can be enough to justify AA. But I agree, it's ultimately up to the GM.

[DangerousThing]

I only allow AA within a category, such as Psychokinesis or Telepathy.

I also put cryo and pyrokinesis into Ergokinesis.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

I only allow AA within a category, such as Psychokinesis or Telepathy.

Came here to say this. I would group them by Power. It's simple and logical.

[adam1234]

Originally Posted by Anders

All up to the GM.

Have you run it one way or the other yourself? Or had your GM do so?

[adam1234]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

I only allow AA within a category, such as Psychokinesis or Telepathy.

I also put cryo and pyrokinesis into Ergokinesis.

Sounds like b) there, since "category" = "power". Thanks!

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

Sorcery and Divine Powers suggest that a power source can be enough to justify AA. But I agree, it's ultimately up to the GM.

I run my magic school campaigns this way. Namely, one world has it so all spells are AAs of one generic power (it used to be Control Magic, now it's similar to Sorcery) and then one other spell that is their 'signature spell' that they can use without having to AA. It's a lot of fun.

For Psionics, I'd not normally allow different versions to AA. So Psychokinesis can AA each other but you can't put Dreaming powers in there.

Note that to me, the giant downside of AA is so much more of a deal than how much it makes sense for lore that I'm basically okay with any campaign doing it if it makes sense.