Psychic Numina

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Introduction

Animal Telepathy

While most psychic abilities affect other humans, some psychics use their talents on the "lower" animals. The actual method of communication may vary. Some psychics bark or growl at the animal. Others use dressage gestures, even if the animal has never even seen a trainer before. A few simply speak their native language (or even an imaginary one) and hear the animal speak it back to them. Animals may communicate with the psychic, though the information they relate should be limited by their intelligence and perceptions.

Animal psychics may use their power on any mammal, lizard or bird with no change in the difficulty. In fact, highly intelligent animals (chimpanzees, dolphins, gorillas) or well trained animals (dogs, horses, circus or show animals) are more susceptible to Animal Psychics. The difficulty is reduced by one. Fish are harder to control; increase the difficulty by two. Insect minds are too simple (or perhaps too different) for the psychic to affect.

Roll: Charisma + Animal Ken

● Communication -- The psychic may "speak" with a single animal, allowing two-way communication with the beast. The communication does not give the psychic control over the animal, though misunderstandings may be explained away. Roll at difficulty 6.
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●● Command -- The psychic can command the animal to perform for him. The animal will not endanger itself for the psychic. However, it can do any trick the psychic can adequately describe to it. Under some circumstances, an animal will attack for the psychic, though it would be under circumstances where the animal had some proclivity toward attacking in the first place. A police dog might bring someone to the ground, or a hungry tiger might go after a hunter. Roll at dif. 7, with modifiers depending upon the complexity of the command (plus 1 for a rather complex command or one to which the animal is ambivalent; minus one for something it would do anyway).
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●●● Mass Communication -- This power works like the Communication power, though it now works on all animals within earshot. Additionally, the psychic may communicate with multiple types of animals simultaneously. Roll at difficulty 6, plus one for each additional species of animal in the area of communication.
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●●●● Mind Link -- With this power, the psychic joins his mind with that of a single animal. Once the link is established, the psychic's and the animal's minds are linked until the psychic drops the connection. While linked, the psychic can perceive whatever the animal perceives. She can also communicate with the animal using any of the lesser Animal Psychic powers, with the difficulty reduced by 1. The drawback to this power is that if the animal is injured, the mental feedback injures the psychic. For every lethal wound level the animal takes, the psychic takes one bashing wound level (soakable normally). Difficulty is 8.
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●●●●● Domination -- This ability gives total control of an animal's mind. It will do whatever the psychic wishes, even at the cost of it's own life. Roll at difficulty 8 and spend 1 Willpower. The animal will explicitly follow 1 command. The command may be conditional ("if somebody attacks me, then kill him") but it cannot be conjunctional ("follow the scent of this shirt and attack him").



Anti-Psychic

Anti-psychic is the rarest psychic talent yet observed. The psychics' very presence makes even reliable psychic talents weaken or fail. Sensitives, before their powers fail them, describe the anti-psychic as generating a "static" in the mental plane. An anti-psychic cannot purchase additional psychic powers. Due to the subtle nature of their powers, most anti-psychics remain unaware of their talent until approached or even attacked by other psychics. Anti-Psychic is useful against all psychic abilities, as well as the Mind Sphere (though it provides only a single level of defense against the latter, regardless of the anti-psychic's power).

The stronger the anti-psychic, the larger the radius affected. Anti-Psychic isn't "activated" in the fashion of other powers; rather, it always clouds those around the anti-psychic, adding its level to the difficulty of all psychic powers in the area. (As usual, pushing a difficulty past 9 generates a threshold for successes.) With a roll of Intelligence + Meditation (difficulty 7) an anti-psychic may dampen this aura down one level per success rolled; this allows the anti-psychic some attempt at controlling the power.

Level 1 5-yard radius
Level 2 10-yard radius
Level 3 15-yard radius
Level 4 20-yard radius
Level 5 25-yard radius



Astral Projection

The power of Astral Projection allows the psychic to split his spirit off from his body. The discarnate spirit can travel very quickly in this form. The spirit intangibly travels across planes of thought while still able to look in on the physical world. While in astral form, the psychic cannot physically affect the real world, though he may use other psychic abilities (the difficilty numbers for doing so are increased by two). However, while away from his body, he cannot perceive what is happening to it. Many out-of-body travelers have nightmares about someone moving or harming their physical self while their spirit is roaming free. Two astrally projecting characters may affect each other, though for purposes of astral combat, they substitute their Wits for Dexterity, their Intelligence for Strength and their Perception for Stamina. Some astrally projecting psychics could once perceive ghosts and certain spirits, but most such spirits now appear as blurry forms, barely in the realm of perception. In general, an astral spirit can see the material world or other abstract spirits in the realm of thought; ghosts of the dead and the like usually remain imperceptible except to those psychics who also have some mediumship abilities.

To release the astral form, the player spends one point of Willpower and rolls for the power. Should the player botch while attempting to have his characters step outside his body, the psychic is unable to leave his body for 24 hours. Psychics who frequent the astral plane whisper that other entities sometimes intrude there, human or otherwise, and on some occasions find their souls drawn to strange spirits worlds far removed from the mortal plane. A few never find their way back. Caution is the rule when exploring planes unknown to humans.

Roll: Perception + Meditation (difficulty 8)

● -- With only rudimentary awareness of astral existence, the psychic can shift her senses to feel the astral realm but cannot quite enter it. The psychic sees the astral realm overlaid upon the normal physical world. There are psychics who prefer to close their eyes and visualize the astral plane, while others have no difficulty watching both. A psychic may view the astral realm for so long as she maintains her concentration upon it.
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●● -- The psychic practitioner can leave her body for one minute per point of Stamina. While in astral form, she can only perceive things by sight. She is also limited to traveling approximately one mile away from her body.
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●●● -- The character can leave her body for up to ten minutes per point of Stamina. She gains the ability to hear in astral form and can travel up to 100 miles from her body.
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●●●● -- The psychic can now leave her body for up to an hour per point of Stamina and travel up to 1,000 miles away. Each additional hour out of her body after the first requires the expenditure of a point of Willpower. If the player succeeds on a Charisma + Occult roll (difficulty 8), the psychic can manifest visually to observers as a translucent, ghostly apparition, though the projector cannot communicate verbally with observers.
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●●●●● -- The psychic may astrally travel anywhere in the world, so long as her body remains healthy, and she may use all of her senses normally. The psychic's form (should the character choose to manifest, using the same roll as previously noted) appears as a blurry and translucent version of her usual physical form but somewhat idealized. While manifest, the projection can speak, though only in a soft whisper. Like her visual appearance, the psychic's speech does not appear on recordings.



Body Control

Most psychics turn their paranormal abilities outward, sensing things beyond normal perceptions or controlling them with their wills. Other psychics turn their powers inward. Psychics with Biocontrol regulate their autonomic nervous systems with the ease that others tie their shoes. Proper use of Biocontrol allows a psychic to shut down pain, regulate his internal organs or even direct the flow of blood and glandular secretions at will. While some otherwise normal people learn basic techniques of biofeedback, the truly talented psychic can perform marvels beyond all but the most dedicated meditative disciple.

Roll: Stamina + Meditation

● Basic Body Control -- The psychic has power over his body to a basic degree. By entering a self-induced hypnosis state, he controls basic functions. He can stop a small cut from bleeding, ignore small amounts of pain or hold his breath longer than he would be able to under normal circumstances. Roll at difficulty 6 for the effect to succeed. While in this self-imposed trance, the character can do nothing else but focus on his body. He remains peripherally aware of his surroundings but can bring himself out of the trance at will.
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●● Self-Healing -- By maintaining his internal focus over a long period of time, the character accelerates the healing process. Psychics with self healing recover at a vastly accelerated rate, as their bodily controls allow them to more efficiently reknit flesh and fight off infections. Roll at difficulty 7, though the current wound penalty does apply to the dice pool. Every success reduces the time for the wound to heal by one stage on the healing chart. The character must spend his time resting comfortably (preferably under some sort of medical care) for the power to work. For instance, if Raymond was Mauled, he would roll his Stamina + Meditation minus 2 dice. If he scored three successes, he would heal from Mauled to Wounded in three days. He could then roll again to heal from Wounded to Injured.
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●●● Hysterical Strength -- The psychic gains control of his adrenal glands, allowing brief periods of hysterical strength and speed. The player rolls at difficulty 8. Every two successes on the roll gives the character one additional point to Strength, Dexterity or Stamina, up to a maximum of five dots in any characteristic. The effect lasts one scene, after which the player must roll again at difficulty 6 to "soak" these successes in bashing damage--as the psychic "comes down" from the hysterical episode, his body responds to the excessive stress and pain. (Some psychics see this more as a form of channeled energy than as a scientific methodology and might well have Hysterical Strength without any glandular response. The results are the same.)
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●●●● Ignore Pain Response -- he psychic has the ability to shut off his pain centers for a brief period of time. This does not heal any damage, though it does let him function while injured. Roll against difficulty 7. Every success allows the psychic to ignore one die of wound penalties for one scene. At the end of the scene, the wound modifiers return, and the character cannot deflect away the pain again until he has healed at least one wound level.
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●●●●● Mind Over Matter -- The character's control of his body is complete. At will, he can stop his heart, control the immune system and accelerate or suppress cell growth, generation or processing. In effect, the pyschic can direct his body consciously to perform feats of biology almost as if cells responded individually to his mind. The psychic can nullify most toxins with a difficulty 8 roll, though sufficiently large doses (like a quart of mercury) would overwhelm his system. He can fight off just about any mundane disease, allergen or irritant and can even try to counteract severe diseases like HIV or cancer (again, at difficulty 8). With pain control (previous), he can flex and contort his body into unnatural positions and slip out of bonds or into tight spaces. He can hold his breath for minutes at a time while remaining active and, if necessary, can actively redirect toxins to other parts of the body--so he might be able to keep his mind and hands working by shunting the effects of poison gas all into his legs. The psychic can, if he prepares his body against trauma, gain a normal Stamina soak against any sort of damage, even aggravated (difficulty 8; successes determine the maximum number of dice that the psychic can use to soak lethal or aggravated damage for the scene, not counting armor or other external modifiers).



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