Mike Mearls Games
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Psychic Turns and Powers
🕑 Added 2024-02-02 21:20:27 +0000 UTCI've been ruminating on psychic turns and powers for a bit. In fact, the last article was posted later than I wanted because I couldn't quite crack where I was going. Thanks to a few comments from backers, I think I have a clearer vision for the psyker's core mechanic.
The psyker gains a psychic turn each round that occurs on their initiative + 10.
Psychic Turn:
- The psyker can manifest powers, or techniques under powers, that are usable on the psychic turn.
- If the psyker does so, that's the only power they can use this round.
On their normal turn, they act like any other character.
The idea is to drive home the concept that the psyker is very different. The design might also make handling powers easier. You pick your power for the round on your psychic phase, then use it again on your normal turn.
So, let's take another look at the telekinetic:
Telekinesis
Normal Turn: Bash someone, grab objects, typical telekinetic stuff. You can move your "mage hand" before using it to manipulate or bash things.
Psychic Turn: Manifest the equivalent of mage hand, picking the space it occupies or moves to. You can then spend points to create a barrier around it, restricting movement and giving cover to your allies.
Comments
Eric Tam
Really like the feel of the Psychic Turn — provides a sense of the “mental struggle / activity” that goes on in that separate psychic realm you described previously! 😵💫✨😄 One design challenge it could present is having to create separate Normal vs. Psychic Turn elements for every Psychic Turn-eligible Power. Wonder if you were thinking to relieve that burden by limiting such Psychic Turn-eligible Powers to signature Class / Sub-Class Powers? E.G.: A 1st-Level Telekinetic’s only Psychic Turn-eligible Powers might be Telekinesis + maybe 1 “purely psionic” attack / defense (only useful vs. psionic opponents); they might pick up an additional Psychic Turn-eligible Power every 3 - 4 (Sub-) Class Levels.
Marquis
As for the actual Psychic Turn, I like it a lot, but I do wonder what's the difference between that and a reaction, since either way it's still slowing down the turn; however, I'm very eager to see how the design of such a turn evolves. The idea of glimpsing the future, creating a mental program, etc is very interesting. It would have been an interesting mechanic for a ritualist class too
