Thursday, August 23, 2012

Psychic Power List Part III

So we have come to the third part of this list. This time we have mesmerism, genius and location. Mesmerism is your common fascination/captivation ability, which is useful among other things for preparing a subject to other psychic powers. Genius is a passive power, its most obvious utility coming from photographic memory. This power is mostly for flavor/consistency and so that devil-like creatures and dark muses can offer musical skills or mad genius for unfortunate souls. Location is another low-key power, though it can be useful if combined creatively with other powers as it allows you to know the exact location of anyone you have a psychic link to, including those sensed through telepathy or psychometry.

MESMERISM
You can emit an aura of fascination that encaptivates one or more non-psychics around you. While using this power, the targets’ attention is fully fixated on your every move and word. Anyone under the influence loses all awareness of their surroundings and become harmless, unless attacked or physically affected. If you have animal control, you can use this on animals as well. The targets need to be able to see or hear you for the power to work, the effect dissipating if they are unable to sense you for more than a few seconds. The number of successes you get on your will roll count as a bonus to any subsequent powers used on the captivated targets.

Trappings: captivating eyes and voice, dumbstruck audience

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Psychic Power List Part II

So, on to the actual powers. First we have animal control, astral projection and commune. Animal control is useful for indirect operations, such as spying and guarding or even attacks. Astral projection is useful for exploration or sneaky maneuvers as you're invisible and pretty much untouchable while doing so, though your body is defenseless. Commune is mostly for NPC:s and is used by cultists and priests to commune with their god for advice or to provide sacrifice and prayer. To get the most out of commune you'd need to rely on the respect and fear the god itself has.

ANIMAL CONTROL
You can communicate with and command all types of animals. You can control the animals directly or assign them simple tasks that come to them naturally (such as hunting for a hound or running for a horse.) While you can control their actions, the creatures still remain of animal intellect and cannot perform complex tasks autonomously. Animals also never voluntarily attack you, even if you’re unconscious, though your control over them ceases if this happens. If you also have possession, you can possess animals at will. They will not resist your possession.
Trappings: one or more animal parts (teeth, feathers, scales, bones, etc)

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Psychic Power List Part I

I've been working on a psychic power list for a while now. I didn't want to publish any part of it until it was complete and checked and such, but then I thought, why not? After all, it might give me the motivation to finalise the list itself.
So, first of all, a couple of restrictions I gave myself when composing this list:

  1. No flashy powers like pyrokinesis, especially not ones where you throw flames and fart around on firebursts like a rocket. This includes no powers that allow flight or some such as well as all kinds of magic missiles.
  2. Must adhere to at least some basic science and not be just miraculous 'magic', so no teleporting and no creating something from nothing.
  3. At the same time, the power should be one that can be used to emulate gothic and lovecraftian witches and other supernatural creatures to some extent. Controlling animals and weather and even time.
  4. The powers themselves should be broad and easily combined. Most psychic rules disappoint me in that they are mostly lists of effects rather than powerful tools and that you can hardly ever combine the effects of two different powers in a meaningful way. Psychic powers are not spells.