NEW PSIONIC POWERS

BEAST MASTER (x5)

First perfected by the Beast Masters of House Fera to control the creations of their genclan's symbionic research, the use of this power has spread throughout the Waste World. Certain primitive wanderers in the Wastes and Slime Jungles are among the greatest masters of this ability.

Description: You have the ability to not only communicate with animals but to force them to obey your will. This power enables you to communicate with any creature with the animal intelligence disadvantage and make it do what you want. It is essentially a combination of mindspeech and domination which works only on animals. Of course, virtually by definition, any creature which suffers from the animal intelligence disadvantage is not going to be able to understand complex concepts and commands, so you will be limited in what you can achieve using this power. Normally you will be limited to simple commands of one sentence not exceeding ten words. (For example, come here or kill him! Or find Killa and bring her to me. This last assumes that the creature knows who Killa is.) When using this power you forge a partial mindlink with the creature. This allows you to describe people or machines with mental pictures. You can visualize the instruction you are giving to your creature and communicate that message to it.

To dominate a creature, you must roll a d20 using your PL +PW as positive modifiers. The creature gets to resist using its PW as a positive modifier. If you are successful in your use of beast master then the creature will obey you as long as the power is active. You get a +2 modifier to your attempts at beast master if you possess the animal friendship advantage.

In important concept when using beast master is the LF limit. Most levels of ability allow you to control up to a limit in LF of creatures. If you wish to control a new creature which would bring this LF total up to exceed your limit, then you must drop control over one of the creatures you already dominate to allow you to do this.

Control is automatically lost when a creature passes within an area protected by a psi-screen or psi-shield or anything else that blocks psionic powers.

Acolyte: You can communicate and control any single creature or group of creatures with a combined LF of PL x 10 or less within a range of PL x 10 meters. This would enable you to control packs of creatures as long as the combined LF of the creatures you are trying to control does not exceed your limit. The creature gets a +1 modifier to its resistance roll for every 10 LF it possesses or every 10 LF worth of creatures you already control.

Any time you order a creature to do something that goes contrary to its instincts or would result in its destruction, it automatically breaks free of your influence. If the creature goes beyond the range of your power it automatically breaks free of your influence and must be mastered again.

Initiate: You can communicate and control any single creature or group of creatures with a combined LF of PL x 20 or less within a range of PL x 20 meters. This would enable you to control packs of creatures as long as the combined LF of the creatures you are trying to control does not exceed your limit. Any time you order a creature to do something contrary to its natural instincts or which would result in its destruction the creature gets a chance to break free from your power. You must make a contest roll using your PW and PL as modifiers to your d20 roll. The creature uses its PW and gets a further +1 modifier for every 20 LF worth of creatures you have under control.

Once your domination is established it remains in effect even of the creature goes beyond the original range of the power. You can still communicate verbally over the link you have with the creature even when it is beyond the range of your PW.

Magister: You can communicate and control any single creature or group of creatures with a combined LF of PL x 30 or less within a range of PL x 30 meters. This would enable you to control packs of creatures as long as the combined LF of the creatures you are trying to control does not exceed your limit. Even if you order a creature to do something contrary to its natural instincts or which would result in its destruction, the creature must obey.

Once your domination is established it remains in effect even of the creature goes beyond the original range of the power. You can still communicate over the link you have with the creature even when it is beyond the range of your PW. You can even use its senses to see what it is seeing and hear what it is hearing.

GROWTH (x4)

The most famous users of this power are the folk of House Attilus, the Tower of Giants in Hydra, but over the years it has become more common among the mutants of the Wastelands.

Description: You have the power to alter your size and mass. This enables you to grow to enormous sizes and to greatly increase your ST and hardihood. You can add 1 meter to your height for every level of growth you possess. Each additional meters will double your body weight. It will also add 1 to your ST. While the power is in effect it affects all special characteristics, adding 2 to your LF, 1 to your MR and one to your BLF for purposes of determining whether you are stunned or not.

Of course, this power has some disadvantages. When it is in use you may have some difficulty fitting inside rooms with low ceilings etc. You also become a far easier target. Your opponents get +1 to hit with ranged attacks for every level of this power that is in effect.

You cannot use this power while wearing normal armor, it would crush you as you grow. Hydran carapace armor will grow with you although there are some limits. Normal carapace armor can accommodate growth at up to acolyte level. To grow beyond this the armor has to be specially created to expand beyond normal limits. This doubles the cost of armor that will grow up to initiate level and triples the cost of armor that will grow up to magister level.

Acolyte: In order to activate this power you must concentrate. You do a base damage of 1M with your bare hands or claws. You can also add 1M to the base damage you do with any close combat weapon or with natural weapons such as horns, tail or jaws.

Initiate: You no longer need to concentrate to activate the power. You do a base damage of 2M with your bare hands or claws. You can add 2M to the base damage of any close combat weapon although these have to be specially scaled and built for your use, or with any natural weapon. Specially scaled weapons cost five times as much and weigh four times as much as normal weapons.

Magister: You can activate this power without taking a use psi power action. This means you can perform any other action while activating this power. You do a base damage of 3M with your bare hands. You can add 3M to the base damage of any close combat weapon although these have to be specially scaled and built for your use, or with any natural weapon. Specially scaled weapons cost ten times as much and weigh fifteen times as much as normal weapons. Naturally they can be a pain to carry around before you change.

GATEWAY (x5)

The most famous users of this power are the Wayfarers of House Venturae in Hydra. They maintain a network of small waystations across the Wastes to facilitate the fast transportation of goods and people. These waystations are hidden colonies. Any non-Venturae passing through them must be blindfolded to prevent them from seeing the inside and perhaps being able to open a gateway to them for raiders and marauders.

Description: You can open a hyper-spatial gateway between two points that will remain open for as long as this power is active. This resembles a brightly glowing archway with a shimmering surface. The final destination of the gateway is not visible through the arch so anyone using the gateway needs to trust you. Once the gate is open anyone can pass through it. Of course there are some limits to the creation of gateways. You cannot open a gateway through a psi-screen or psi shield, or into any location protected by psi-screens or psi-shields. Certain substances, such as adamant, completely block gateways and no gateway can enter or leave a structure created from them. In addition, certain natural phenomena can interfere with gateways disrupting their flow and even ensuring that take you to the wrong place altogether.

In addition to this, you need a very clear picture of your destination in your mind. In order to do this you must either be able to see your final destination either with the naked eye or with clairvoyance or some other psi power, or you must be very familiar with it.

To familiarize yourself with a location, you must have physically visited it and memorized it. To do this you must make a successful IN roll using your PL as a positive modifier and you must spend one XP. This will fix the spot in your memory. If in future you need to familiarize yourself with another location and you don't have a spare XP, you can always forget a location you have already memorized. This will free up the XP you used to familiarize yourself with the location. It does mean however that in future, if you want to open a gateway to a location you have forgotten then you will need to refamiliarize yourself with it. This ability to memorize and forget locations represents a floating pool of locations with which your character is reasonably well acquainted.

When you first acquire the power, you can familiarize yourself with one permanent location. This does not cost you any XP and you cannot forget it. This represents your homebase or some other location with which you are totally familiar.

To open a gate you need to activate the power and tell the Narrator your intended destination. If the Narrator deems it is possible to reach this place, he will make a success roll for you using your PW and PL as positive modifiers and applying any negative modifiers as he sees fit. If the roll succeeds the gateway is created and may be used normally. If the roll is failed, you have strained yourself and may not attempt to create a gateway for another 24 hours. If the roll is fumbled then the gateway will lead to someplace completely random, which need not be within the range of your power and might be halfway across the world. If this happens you will have strained yourself as described above and will not be able to use the power again for another 24 hours. There is no way you can tell where a gate leads to until you pass through it.

Acolyte: You can open a gateway between two points up to 1 kilometer x your PL apart. There is a -1 negative modifier to your gateway creation roll per kilometer after the first.

Initiate: You can open a gateway between two points up to 10 kilometers per PL apart. There is a -1 modifier to your gateway creation roll per 10 kilometers after the first.

Magister: You can open a gateway between two points up to 100 kilometers per PL apart. There is a -1 modifier to your gateway creation roll per 100 kilometers after the first.