Psionics 4th ed Questions

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Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

Well, I apologize for any mental boggling, but I'll be more than happy to offer my unboggling skills to make up for it. :)

Thank you very much for your response. You are my new favorite person in the world for the week. I think you answered all my questions.

[I'll echo what's already been said here: Could you be more specific? I'll be happy to answer this, but I'm honestly not sure what you're asking.

Well looking over the book and analyzing power cost and structures some
things came to mind. 1stly it clarified some things in the characters book
wherein it is said that psionics frequently required skill rolls and that the power talents effected skill rolls but
very few advantages required skill rolls. 2ndly These core rules that you
designed for psionic powers is a fantastic detailed system that makes things
a bit more crunchy and usable and i realized that by taking a referenced
ability and simply changing the power modifier ESP, PSI etc with something
like Divine, MAgic, SPririt etc this basic system could be modified to suit a
variety of campaigns and situations.

But my question refers to the actual CP of the system's modifiers. For example i can understand psi-power 'X' - requires att/skill roll, but what about psi-power 'x' -requires att/skill roll -4? Like the techniques or the effect that psi abilities take a penalty during subsequent uses on the same target or after a failure. Is this just unpointed crunch that falls under the psi modifier or are their exact CP cost rulings somewhere that i am missing?

Your view of "psi" will be different than my view, of course. But I haven't seen many "psi weapons" turn up outside of superhero comics. In fact, GURPS 3rd Edition had a psionic sword ("Mindsword") and I'd heard many people complain about it being unrealistic or silly.


No, Melee Attack isn't touch only. Read the description of the limitation -- "Melee Attack, C, 1" is a -20% limitation. I'd do it as a very weak attack with the ST-Based variant of Melee Attack, from GURPS Powers. I'd also add some sort of interesting secondary ability (like how Astral Sword can banish foes), to make it more than just "I have a knife I can't drop" (which is kinda boring). Something like:

Psychic Sword (7 points/level)

Skill: Psychic Sword (DX/H); defaults to DX-6 or Force Sword-2.

Description: You can manifest a translucent sword of softly glowing energy. Unlike Astral Sword, this psychokinetic weapon is capable of harming flesh and blood. You may swing or thrust with it.

Swinging attacks do swing+(level) cut damage. For example, if you have Psychic Sword at power level 8, you would do sw+8 cut damage. If the target is injured, he must roll against HT, at a -1 penalty for every 2 full points of damage taken, or be mentally stunned from the psionic energy of your attack. He may roll HT to recover each turn.

Thrusting attacks work the same way, but do thrust+(level) impaling damage, which can be much more harmful. In addition, a failed HT roll leaves the target not only stunned, but at -3 to HT for (20-HT) minutes. This is a flat HT penalty -- multiple Psychic Sword attacks will not double it, triple it, etc. -- but it does affect his rolls to recover from being stunned, and to resist subsequent Psychic Sword attacks!

Statistics: Impaling Attack 1 point (Low Signature, +10%; Melee Attack, C, 1, ST-Based, +80%; Psychokinesis, -10%; Side Effect, Stunning and Attribute Penalty of HT-3, +65%; Variable, +5%) [6] + Cutting Attack 1 point (Low Signature, +10%; Melee Attack, C, 1, ST-Based, +80%; Psychokinesis, -10%; Side Effect, Stunning, +50%; Variable, +5%) [1]*.

* This is an Alternative Attack to Impaling Attack, priced at x1/5 normal cost.

Techniques: As for Astral Sword.

Note: The calculations here follow the rules in the box Innate Attacks and Partial Dice (p. 53). I specifically chose the modifiers to make Cutting Attack come to a nice, even 5 points/level (2.1 points * 2.35 from the +135% in enhancements), then I took those and added another +15% to Impaling Attack to make it come to an even 6 points/level (2.4 points * 2.5 from the +150%).

Love it, Using it. Didn't even know that you could used Melee, str based to replicate a weapon attack...

Sure, if the GM agrees with it. Remember that only abilities which could logically be "the same sense, only used differently" would be appropriate Alternative Abilities. I think most ESP Divination abilities make sense as AAs of each other, though, yes.

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It was mentioned in an earlier post the greatest draw back to using this would be that you could only have one active power at a time including 'passive' abilities so i think this would probably only be good for ESP or Telepathy and such. but good to know.