OK guys, I said in the Firefly/SR thread that I would create rules for Psionics for SR4. I would like to think these rules are fair and non-munchkin, but I most likely missed something. So what I'm asking is that everyone here read these rules and make some comments (including grammar and such) on them. I did get paws2sky to be my sounding board so that my rules were fair, so I would like to thank him for helping me.




When the Sixth Age began, there was only one type of metaphysical power and that was Magic. Magic "explained" all of the weird and bizarre happenings that occurred during the Fifth Age. Then in 2064 with the "Crash of '64" metahumanity gained access to a second kind of "metaphysical" power. That was the power of virtuakinesis, or "Technomancy". People who can access the Matrix without using any equipment. Now in the Sixth Age a third kind of metaphysical power has manifested itself. That is the power of the Mind unleashed. It is better known as Psionics. Psionics is the ability to tap into the vast untapped powers of the metahuman mind.

Psions are not as multi-faceted as a Mage though. They have a few abilities and can learn a few more by Transcending (more on the later). A Mage or Shaman on the other hand can learn new spells quite easily and gain metamagic techniques by Initiating. Mages pay a price for their versitility though. They are tied into the Gaia Sphere and if they are ever in an environment where the Mana Field drops below a certain point, then they are just like mundanes. A Psion on the other hand can use his abilities anywhere. It doesn't matter what the Mana Field is like, their abilities just work. The downside of this is that a Psion can not get a boost to their abilities by using Foci, "casting" in a High Mana area, or working their abilities in a Lodge.



Psions group their abilities in what are know as Paths. Each Path is a unique discipline and there is no overlap. The Paths that a Psion can travel are Telepathy, Psychokinesis, Pyrokinesis, and Biomanipulation. These Paths have powers that are similar to Magic, and if someone was not wise to possibility of Psionics then they can be forgiven if they thought a Mage was in the area.

A regular Psion can only use Talents from one Path. A powerful Psion might possibly have Talents from two or more of the Paths. If a Psion is traveling on many Paths he will have a Major Path and Minor Paths. The Major Path is the first Path awakened in the Psion and most of his abilities come from that Path. Minor Paths make up the rest of his abilities and can from any other Path.



Psionic powers are a 5/10 Positive Quality. For five points a Psion can have powers from one Path only. At ten points a Psion can have abilities from multiple Paths. The only limitation is that a Major Path must be selected and it can never change. At this point the Psion choses his abilities. He gains one power for every point in Psi Rating. Psi Rating is purchases exactly like Magic and Resonance. For example, Freddie the Telepath has a Psi of 4, then he can chose 4 powers from Telepathy.

A Psion must have as many abilities from his Major Path as he does from all of his other Paths combines. For example: a Psion has Biomanipulation as his Major Path and a Psi Rating of 5, then 3 of his powers MUST come from the Biomanipulation Path. The other two abilities can come from the other Paths. This is true whenever a Psion increases his Psi Rating (more on this later on) and selects another Psi Power. In the example above, the Biomanipulator Transcends one level and has a Psi of 6 then 3 powers must come from Biomanipulation and 3 can come from the other Paths.

When a Psion uses his abilties, he has to use his Psionic Strength (Psi Rating) and his knowledge in how to use each of his abilties (Psionic Skills), just like a Mage when he casts a spell (Magic + Sorcery). Psionic Skills are selected just like any other skills, but each Path requires it's own skill. Knowing how to use your Telepathy does nothing for you when you need to use Magic Fingers. Also, a Psion can not default for a Psionic Skill Test. Either the Psion knows how to use a Psionic ability, or he can't use it at all. Finally these skills are unique to each person so there is no possible way to encode a Skillsoft with how to use Psionic Skills, though a Psion can tutor another Psion in how to use his ability.

Psions are as affected by augmentation as Magicians and Technomancers. Their bodies require a certain balance and if that balance is thrown too far out of whack, then they will lose their Ability forever. This means that if a Psi loses 5.01 or more points of Essence, then he loses all Psi ability immediately. Transcending will do nothing if the Psion's body is too full of Metal and/or damaged.



Each Path has a power associated with that a Psion gets for free. This power is from the Major Path only (no getting two Free Powers). Since a great system for balancing out "cool stuff" with what it costs to toss it is already exists in Shadowrun, I'll be using it for Psions. Drain works exactly like it does for a Magician and each power is exactly like the magic spell (except when noted), it's just that it is Psionic energy and not Mana energy that is powering it. A Psion resists drain using Psi Rating + Willpower. This mechanism mimics a Technomancer and their complex forms.

Telepathy: The Telepath gains the automatic ability of Multi-Tasking. Multi-Tasking works exactly like the Physical Adept power of the same name.
Powers:
Mind Bolt: Same as a Stun Bolt
Detect Enemy
Mind Shield: This power gives a Psion two extra dice to resist mental spells/psi powers. It is always on and does not cause Drain. This only affects the Psion himself.
Mind Probe
Mindlink
Analyse Truth
Phantasm
Confusion
Influence


Psychokinesis: A Psychokinetic gains Magic Fingers for free. A Psychokinetic is more efficient when using Magic Fingers than a non-Psychokinetic and only suffers F/2 Drain for using Magic Fingers.
Powers:
Physical Barrier
Levitate
Magic Fingers: Even though it's called Magic Fingers, it is still Psionic in nature.
Psibolt: This is the same as Powerbolt.
Blast
Lock
Bind
Deflection
Poltergeist

Pyrokinesis: a Pyrokinetic gains Psi Rating + 2 levels of Fire Resistance. This works exactly like the Fire Resistance Armor Upgrade.
Powers:
Fireball
Flamethrower
Ignite
Flame wall
Flame Aura
Alter Temperature: This works by the Pyrokinetic adding or taking away heat.
Thermographic Vision
Shape Fire
Sterilize: This uses a micro amount of fire to achieve its affects.

Biomanipulation: a Biomanipulator gains an extra two dice to any healing and toxin/disease resistance tests he takes. This is automatic as the Psion instinctively focuses his power inward to keep himself healthy.
Powers:
Heal
Cure Disease
Increase Reflexes
Stabilize
Detox
Hibernate
Antidote
Death Touch
Alleviate Addiction




Psions can gain abilities in the same ways that a Mages and Technomancers do. The process is called Transcending. A Psion who undergoes Transcendence achieves a greater understanding of his Psionic potential. Like Technomancers and Mages, when a Psion successfully gets a Grade of Transcendence his natural maximum Psi Rating goes up one point. He also gets the ability to choose either a new power or one of the following Memes :

Instinctive Power: The Psion gains the ability to sustain one power (chosen at the time this Meme is selected) without penalty.

Instant Activation: The Psion has trained so well with a power (chosen at the time this Meme is selected) that he can activate that power as a Free action.

Masking: The Psion can hide his Psionic signature so that a Mage can't Assense his ability.

Centering: This Meta-Psi power works exactly like the Mage ability,

Astral Projection: A Psion must have Mind Shield to be able to get this Meta-Psi ability. If he does not then he can't separate his soul from his body. Telepathic abilities work in the Astral Plane, but the others don't.

For a Psion to undergo Transcendence, he has to undergo a process similar to Mages and Technomancers, but with one important distinction: there are no groups for a Psion to join (as of yet, GM's can change this if they want) to make their Transcendence any easier. Also, there are some Ordeals that Psion's obviously can't do (such as summoning spirits)

in SR3, psi-people were basically fucked

Yeah, pretty much SR3 Psions were boned. The idea here was to make a non-boned Psion option that drew power, not from astral space, but literally from the Psion's own mind/chi/ki/etc. Kind of mirroring technomancers, but more magician-like.

If the deviation from canon bothers the reader, perhaps it could be considered more of a "what-if...?"

The basic questions are:
Would you play a Psion? Why or why not?
Is there anything particularly munchkin that was overlooked?
Is there anything that is weak to the point of crippling?

Please try to stay objective and constructive.

Thanks,
-paws

Were the psionics in Brennpunkt:ADL boned too? Admittedly, I never built one or played one, but they had some nice powers, like those protosprites.

I think the path bonuses should be weighed down with a negative, similar to the ones for mentor spirits. I also think giving Telepaths Multitasking and the ability to change powers to free actions is a bit overpowered.

Also, consider Invisibility (not improved) for telepaths. Why not let them remove themselves from the minds of others? Also consider the attribute boost power for biomanipulators.

Also, what are psionic skills? Is there 1 psionic skill, or is there a separate one for each path?

There is a separate skill for each path. They cannot be defaulted on and are only available to characters with a Psi Rating. They are:

Telepathy
Psychokinesis
Pyrokinesis
Biomanipulation

If the GM allows, they may be bought as a skill group.

About balance I think these psionics need a little boost. To do psionics are you looking at a special stat, and a skill minimum. That's 56 BP for a 4 in each. Put that in perspective with that many BP you could buy your way into being a decent rigger, or soft max your edge and get a 6/6 contact. It's a lot of BP. My real issue though, isn't how much it costs. It's that it costs as much as a primary roll, but doesn't stack up. They don't have the firepower of a mage with spells and spirits. They won't have the BP to shoot, sneak ,dodge, and soak like a good sam. They shafted harder than even mages on the matrix, etc. Worsts of all only one path has access to a source of extra IPs. Even that will come with a -2 until they transcend.

What I would do is not make psionics take a hit to psi from essence loss. That way psionics actually have toys to play with again. They have a good source of extra IPs, and a source book to draw on. There is also a long standing fictional president of cybered-psionics. For SR to it would go a long way to setting them apart from mages thematically. Plus this could be the first build to get vaguely even millage from cash and karma.

Minor nit picks you could hammer out if you feel like it.

• No listed drain stat
• No description of sustaining
• Mental shield is the only 'always on power' (cut it, or add more similar powers)
• IMO 'psi' feel' to short to be an ability name.

I remember one time a guy wanted to play a psi character without using the magic tradition idea... so the option of using a few critter powers was presented. I don't know what kind of balancing factors you would need for something like that - but it might be easier than creating a whole new system.

Psions resist drain with Psi Rating + Willpower, kind of like Technomancers.

-paws

OK in reverse order:

• Psi can be changed to Psionics. I was just lazy and didn't want to type Psionic(s) all the time
• Mental Shield is the only power that even remotely (in fiction) stays on all the time
• Sustaining... opps, my bad... Sustaining is just like with magic. I wanted to use as much of the mechanics of SR so as to not complicate matters
• Drain stat is as Paws said Willpower + Psi Rating

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The reason I didn't do that is I didn't want a munchkin character class. If I allowed cyber up the ying yang then everybody would play it and at that point you have to look at the class and ask: "What's broken about this concept?"

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Again I didn't want to make an uber "class" that would pwn all the other character types. I went with the skill system that I did because while it might take 56 BP to get all the Psi skills at 4... you don't have to have them all. You can learn them later. Besides if I made them too cheap, or made them a skill group then it would make it too unbalanced.

the mental shield thing isn't really a big deal. Esthetically I just like a class of rules entities to behave in the same way like spells (all active) or qualities (all passive) or be explicitly a grab bag like meta magics or adept powers. I would make it easier/possable to get extra IPs without a -2

I also respect the desire to keep a new pc 'class' from being to uber. I'm also glad are avoiding creating a must have option. I do not think though that making psionics and cyber compatible does either of those things. All runners have a power base or 'origin'. Mostly that is cyber or magic. As written psionics is a new 'origin' in as much as taking it cuts you off from from both of the other options. Psionics is much much worse then the other two. In comparison to magicians psionists pay the same BP cost for 'spell casting' which is the weakest ability of mages. Astral projection, warding, and especially summoning much more powerful than spell casting. Plus psionists don't have any foci or mentor spirits, or even specializations to get there casting roll up.

About the 56 BP that isn't all the psionics, that's just a stat and skill of 4, hardly a master. I picked that number because you have a good verity of powers and a reasonable expectation that you can get a couple hits. IMO the reason that everyone wouldn't go psionic is that those 56 points can be put into things that synergized unlike the isolated psionics. If you are playing a face have 3 6/6 contacts to work over will get you a lot more than the ability to levitate. If you are playing a sam, a drone swarm could well do more for over watch and support fire and detection than telepathy or psychokinesis.

OK, everybody, WeaverMount is making some good points. I would like to know what everyone else thinks.

I pretty much agree with WeaverMount here - but I'd like to add that another thing to consider is that Psionics are "supposed" to have a few powers, but with great versatilty of use. Which is to say that Mind Bolt and Levitate could for instance be something like:

(Mind Bolt)
Psychic Assault [Knockout, Stun Bolt, Death Touch, Mana Bolt]

(Levitate)
Mind over Mass/Jedi Skillz [Levitate, Fling, Poltergeist]

(Obviously you choose which 'aspect' of your power to use at a time)

As you're never going to get more than a few powers, naturally you'll choose the good stuff - Influence, Levitate, Heal - so bundling the good powers with the weaker powers of the same style (Touch spells with LOS, Lethal with Stun, Detox with Antidote, Heal with Stabilize) will make each Power more interesting, unique and less a like Mage's exactly defined formulae.

This stops the Elemental Powers from being totally sucky, though you might need to add Cryokinetic effects to pad out the Pyro category as well - call it "Molecular Kinetics" or something.

Maybe putting in distinct bonuses - "refinements" - for each Major Power that depend on your Psionic stat.

Biomanipulation Refinements
1 - Heal Faster
2 - Resist Disease
3 - Heal Even Faster
4 - +1 Impact Armor
5 - Slow Aging by Psionic Rating
6 - Lower Karma to boost Physical Stats by X (or +1 IP, stacks)
Transcended: Add Unique X, Y and Z options to list if Psi>6.

All of that's pretty much off the top of my head - it's 4 am for me so "thinking things through" be damned

Sidenote: I wouldn't worry about people calling you a munchkin (they're often tools) if it's not as good when optimised as an Elf Summoner or specialty build then screw them.

The thing is, I want this to be seen as a "real" attempt to make a set of rules that are playable AND balanced. I don't want people looking at my rules and thinking: "Well this is a bunch of shit. Unbalanced all the way." That's part of the reason that I went totally conservative and people like you and WeaverMount can say: "OK good rules, but here is how to make it fair AND balanced AND Desirable to play."

As for your points, I'll take a look at them. You and Weaver have some great ideas, but I want time to digest them before I say anything stupid.