Re: [Psionic Powers] If Tesla were a Psionic
 

I am with Langy on Visualization also being built as an ESP skill.
It can be prediction and adjusting to the outcomes (See Next or any number of movies and books) or used to boost an Analysis roll a special perception of the object or for many skills a tap into the global or universal subconscious.

Racial Memory, Intuition and most sensory powers could be aspects of ESP.
temperature control could also help in lab work.

Re: [Psionic Powers] If Tesla were a Psionic
 

In a world where people have supernatural abilities at all, it's easier to justify an ability to 'intuitively be good at inventing' than it would be in a realistic world.

Re: [Psionic Powers] If Tesla were a Psionic
 

From your original post, your edit and your other posts in the thread, my thoughts are: Your GM doesn't want you playing a gadgeteer and is being passive-aggressive about telling you to play something else. As such? My suggestion would be to ask your GM what kind of character it would rather you play instead.

...

Less usefully, I'll second the esp-based (modified) visualization and suggest that you also purchase esp-based (modified) precognition and esp-based (modified) psychometry.

Become a "knower of things" rather than an "inventor of things".

Re: [Psionic Powers] If Tesla were a Psionic
 

There was going to be some psi involved but then I got sidetracked... oh, you might have precognitive visions, and use that to justify a higher TL. Then grab visualization, justified by "peering into the future" and finally a bunch of the skill/technique for your higher TL. Also something to buy off the penalty for improvised equipment since you don't have access to high TL tools. All in all you can manage a pretty good approximation of gadgeteer by: High TL 3, technique: 10

Re: [Psionic Powers] If Tesla were a Psionic
 

Yeah that was kind of my thought as well.
If as a gadgeteer he found you too hard to handle I suspect he will fin it worse as an ESPer.
Having a PC rebuild his character in a campaign is a pretty drastic thing.

Re: [Psionic Powers] If Tesla were a Psionic
 

To be clear my intention is not to recreate the gadgeteering advantage using psionics. Banishing gadgeteering means the GM doesn't want that. What I'm looking for is suggestions of pisonic powers that an inventor might be inclined to pursue. As suggested already, intuition and visualization are great options. ESP and telepathy would be useful but only if lots of scientists share them.

What about precognition focusing on machine events? Or Oracle for reading the movements of parts to deduce future events?

Re: [Psionic Powers] If Tesla were a Psionic
 

Oracle (Digital) (ESP, -10%) would likely be more thematic than Oracle (Requires observation of moving pats, -5%; ESP, -10%)

Re: [Psionic Powers] If Tesla were a Psionic
 

If you have psionic powers and you want to invent stuff, jumper(time) is the best. Go forward, learn all the new science, pop back. You can fund your classes in the future by investing now. Then buy a bunch of gold and make a huge profit in the present. You have time to invent because of time traveling through the same moment over and over. Ect. Ect. Second is someway to see the future, just look at the patent offices records 100 years in the future. Third is something to make you better at what you do: Visualization, luck and super luck.

Re: [Psionic Powers] If Tesla were a Psionic
 

The op was referencing Psionic Powers, so it seemed reasonable to stick with the concepts used there. The ProbAlt power represents the user actually making changes in the environment, like what a skill bonus to craft-like skills would imply, while ESP can give you less directly helpful knowledge, like which line of development might be more likely to be successful. You'd get that latter with things like Precog or Intuition.

Re: [Psionic Powers] If Tesla were a Psionic
 

The ESP power I presented does use the concepts from Psionic Powers - I made it for a precog character of mine who uses Psionic Powers. (the only difference is I gave it a +50% Cosmic to make it so the bonus is always equal to the Margin of Success, rather than the +50% Reliable)

The Visualization advantage is perfectly acceptable for representing direct knowledge of the future and reacting to it.