Alternative Psionics

[whswhs]

The big problem is that you need a way for someone capable of, say, Mind Reading to be better at it than someone else. The treatment in 3/e had psionic skills that could be bought up. In 4/e, you roll against IQ (for example); but if you take Telepathy Talent, that makes your effective skill higher. If you don't have Talent, anyone who wants to be good at Mind Reading will have to buy up their IQ. That is an option—lots of fictional telepaths are smart, from Odd John to Kimball Kinnison to Professor X—but if you don't want to go that way, I recommend thinking about other ways for a character to be good at a psionic ability.