Powers and Power Points

The Basics

Psionic characters manifest powers, which involve the direct manipulation of personal mental energy. These manipulations require natural talent and personal meditation. A psionic character’s level limits the number of power points available to manifest powers. A psionic character’s relevant high score might allow him to gain extra power points.

A psionic character can manifest the same power more than once, but each manifestation subtracts power points from his daily limit. Manifesting a power is an arduous mental task. To do so, a psionic character must have a key ability score of at least 10 + the power’s level.

Power Points

The Power Point Reserve

Psionic characters fuel their abilities through a pool, or reserve, of power points. Your power point reserve is equal to your base power points gained from your class, bonus power points from a high key ability score (see Abilities and Manifesters, below), and any additional bonus power points from sources such as your character race and feat selections.

If you have levels in more than one psionic class, you combine your power points from each class to make up your reserve. You can use these power points to manifest powers from any psionic class you have.

Abilities and Manifesters

The ability that your powers depend on—your key ability score as a manifester—is related to what psionic class (or classes) you have levels in, such as Intelligence (psion), Wisdom (psychic warrior), and Charisma (wilder). The modifier for this ability is referred to as your key ability modifier. If your character’s key ability score is 9 or lower, you can’t manifest powers from that class.

Just as a high ability score grants bonus spells to spellcaster, a character who manifests psionic powers  gains bonus power points according to his key ability score.

How To Determine Bonus Power Points

Your key ability score grants you additional power points equal to your key ability modifier × your manifester level ×½. For multiclass characters, calculate bonus power points for each class individually and add all bonus power points gained to your power point pool. The table below is provided as a quick reference.

Daily Power Point Acquisition

To regain used daily power points, a psionic character must have a clear mind. To clear his mind, he must first benefit from a Long Rest. If his rest is interrupted, each interruption adds 1 hour to the total amount of time he has to rest to clear his mind, and he must have at least 1 hour of rest immediately prior to regaining lost power points.

Recent Manifesting Limit/Rest Interruptions

If a psionic character has manifested powers recently, the drain on his resources reduces his capacity to regain power points. When he regains power points for the coming day, all power points he has used within the last 8 hours count against his daily limit.

Peaceful Environment

To regain power points, a psionic character must have enough peace, quiet, and comfort to allow for proper concentration. The psionic character’s surroundings need not be luxurious, but they must be free from overt distractions, such as combat raging nearby or other loud noises. Exposure to inclement weather prevents the necessary concentration, as does any injury or a failed saving throw the character might incur while concentrating on regaining power points.

Regaining Power Points

Once the character has rested in a suitable environment, it takes only an act of concentration spanning 1 full round to regain all power points of the psionic character’s daily limit.

Death and Power Points

If a character dies, all daily power points stored in his mind are wiped away. A potent effect (such as reality revision) can recover the lost power points when it recovers the character.

Psionic Focus

Many psionic class abilities and psionic feats work either by maintaining or expending psionic focus.

Gain Psionic Focus

Merely having the ability to hold a reservoir of psionic power points in mind gives psionic characters a special energy. Psionic characters can put that energy to work without actually paying a power point cost—they can become psionically focused.

If you have a power point pool or the ability to manifest psi-like abilities, you can meditate to become psionically focused. Meditating to gain psionic focus is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity.

Once you are psionically focused, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep (or enter a trance, in cases such as elves).

You may still gain psionic focus even if you have depleted all of your power points.

Expending Psionic Focus

When you are psionically focused, you can expend your focus on any single concentration check you make thereafter. When you expend your focus in this manner, your concentration check is treated as if you rolled a 15. It’s like taking 10, except that the number you add to your concentration modifier is 15.

You can also expend your focus to gain the benefit of a psionic feat—many psionic feats are activated in this way.

Expending your psionic focus to power a feat, class feature, or any other ability only powers a single effect. You cannot gain the benefit of multiple abilities that require expending focus by expending your psionic focus once; each effect requires its own instance of expending psionic focus.

Active Energy Type

Many psionic powers deal damage of a certain type of energy, with cold, electricity, fire, and sonic being the most common. For these powers, the manifester must choose which of these four energy types is his active energy when he regains his psionic power points for the day.

The manifester may choose to change which energy is his active energy by gaining psionic focus. If he is currently maintaining psionic focus, he may expend it as a free action and then gain psionic focus normally to choose a new energy type.

The manifester need not maintain psionic focus to have an active energy type.

Any psionic character may have an active energy type, even if they are unable to manifest powers or do not possess abilities that use it.

Wilders may change their active energy type when performing a wild surge. Kineticists are exempt from this restriction and may freely choose the energy type at the time the power is manifest, so long as it is within the choices allowed by the power. He could not, for example, choose fire as his energy type when manifesting concussion blast, as the power does not allow a choice in energy types.

Adding Powers

Psionic characters can learn new powers when they attain a new level. A psion can learn any power from the psion/wilder list and powers from his chosen discipline’s list. A wilder can learn any power from the psion/wilder list. A psychic warrior can learn any power from the psychic warrior list.

Powers Gained at a New Level

Psions and other psionic characters perform a certain amount of personal meditation between adventures in an attempt to unlock latent mental abilities. Each time a psionic character attains a new level, he or she learns additional powers according to his class description. Psions, psychic warriors, and wilders learn new powers of their choice in this fashion. These powers represent abilities unlocked from latency. The powers must be of levels the characters can manifest.

Independent Research

A manifester also can research a power independently, duplicating an existing power or creating an entirely new one. If characters are allowed to develop new powers, use these guidelines to handle the situation.

Any kind of manifester can create a new power. The research involved requires access to a retreat conducive to uninterrupted meditation. Research involves an expenditure of 200 XP per week and takes one week per level of the power. At the end of that time, the character makes a Psi Lore check (DC 10 + spell level). If that check succeeds, the character learns the new power if her research produced a viable power. If the check fails, the character loses any expended XP and must begin the research process again if she wants to keep trying.

Learning a power from a restricted discipline or from the power list of another psionic class uses the same process as creating a new power described above.

If the manifester has access to a power stone containing the power she wishes to learn or another psionic character who knows the power and is willing to teach her, the process requires only one day per level of the power. The manifester must expend 200 XP each day that she spends in study, rather than expending XP each week.

Limitations of Research

Learning and retaining new powers in this way is exceptionally difficult. A manifester can learn a maximum number of powers in this way whose combined total level is less than or equal to half her Intelligence score, rounded down. If she learns a power which would put her beyond this limit, she permanently loses researched powers known or her choice until she is no longer in excess of her limit.

If a manifester also researches additional spells known as a spontaneous spellcaster, she adds the total level of researched spells known to the total level of researched powers known for determining her research limit.

Manifest an Unknown Power from Another’s Powers Known

A psionic character can attempt to manifest a power from a source other than his own knowledge (usually a power stone or another willing psionic character). To do so, the character must first make contact (a process similar to addressing a power stone, requiring a Psi Lore check against a DC of 15 + the highest level power in the power stone or repertoire).

A psionic character can make contact with only a willing psionic character or creature (unconscious creatures are considered willing, but not psionic characters under the effects of other immobilizing conditions). Characters who can’t use power stones for any reason are also banned from attempting to manifest powers from the knowledge of other psionic characters.

Mental contact requires 1 full round of physical contact, which can provoke attacks of opportunity. Once contact is achieved, the character becomes aware of all the powers stored in the power stone or all the powers the other character knows up to the highest level of power the contactor knows himself.

Next, the psionic character must choose one of the powers and make a second Psi Lore check (DC 15 + the power’s level) to see if he understands it. If the power is not on his class list, he automatically fails this check.

Upon successfully making contact with another willing psionic character or creature and learning what he can of one power in particular, the character can immediately attempt to manifest that power even if he doesn’t know it (and assuming he has power points left for the day). He can attempt to manifest the power normally on his next turn, and he succeeds if he makes one additional Psi Lore check (DC 15 + the power’s level). He retains the ability to manifest the selected power for only 1 round. If he doesn’t manifest the power, fails the Psi Lore check, or manifests a different power, he loses his chance to manifest that power for the day.

Using Stored Power Points

A variety of psionic items exist to store power points for later use, in particular a storage device called a cognizance crystal. Regardless of what sort of item stores the power points, all psionic characters must follow strict rules when tapping stored power points.

A Single Source

When using power points from a storage item to manifest a power, a psionic character may not pay the power’s cost with power points from more than one source. He must either use an item, his own power point reserve, or some other discrete power point source to pay the manifestation cost.

Recharging

Most power point storage devices allow psionic characters to “recharge” the item with their own power points. Doing this depletes the character’s power point reserve on a 1-for-1 basis as if he had manifested a power; however, those power points remain indefinitely stored. The opposite is not true—psionic characters may not use power points stored in a storage item to replenish their own power point reserves.

Special Abilities

Psionic creatures can create psionic effects without having levels in a psionic class (although they can take a psionic class to further enhance their abilities); such creatures have the psionic subtype.

Characters using dorjes, cognizance crystals, and other psionic items can also create psionic effects. In addition to existing spell-like and supernatural abilities, creatures can also have psi-like abilities. (Psionic creatures may also have extraordinary and natural abilities.)

Psi-Like Abilities (Ps)

The manifestation of a psionic creature’s psi-like ability usually works just like the power of that name. A few psi-like abilities are unique; these are explained in the text where they are described.

Psi-like abilities have no verbal, somatic, or material components, nor do they require a focus or have an XP cost (even if the equivalent power has an XP cost). The user activates them mentally. Armor never affects a psi-like ability’s use. A psi-like ability has the same manifesting time as the power it replicates unless noted otherwise in the ability description. If the psi-like ability does not replicate a power and doesn’t state a manifesting time, then its manifesting time is 1 standard action. In all other ways, a psi-like ability functions just like a power. However, a psionic creature does not have to pay a psi-like ability’s power point cost.

Psi-like abilities are subject to power resistance and to being dispelled by dispel psionics. They do not function in areas where psionics is suppressed or negated.

Supernatural Abilities

Some creatures have psionic abilities that are considered supernatural. Psionic feats are also supernatural abilities. These abilities cannot be disrupted in combat, as powers can be, and do not provoke attacks of opportunity (except as noted in their descriptions). Supernatural abilities are not subject to power resistance and cannot be negated or dispelled; however, they do not function in areas where psionics is suppressed.