Psionic Feats

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Just as nonpsionic characters rely on feats to grant them new abilities and improve upon their existing abilities, so too do psionic characters use feats to unlock hidden potential, improve their powers, and increase their options. Presented here are dozens of new psionic-related feats, as well as a few new general feats.

While some of the feats presented here are general, and have no special rules governing them, some feats have a category associated with them that involves special rules. This category is listed after the feat name.

Psionic feats are available only to characters and creatures with the ability to manifest powers or with a reservoir of psionic power. (In other words, they either have a power point reserve or have psi-like abilities.) Because psionic feats are supernatural abilities—a departure from the general rule that feats do not grant supernatural abilities—they cannot be disrupted in combat (as powers can be) and generally do not provoke attacks of opportunity (except as noted in their descriptions). Supernatural abilities are not subject to power resistance and cannot be dispelled; however, they do not function in areas where psionics is suppressed, such as a null psionics field. Leaving such an area immediately allows psionic feats to be used. Many psionic feats can be used only when you are psionically focused; others require you to expend your psionic focus to gain their benefit. Expending your psionic focus does not require an action; it is part of another action (such as using a feat). When you expend your psionic focus, it applies only to the action for which you expended it.

Item Creation Feats

Manifesters can use their personal power to create lasting psionic items. Most psionic items are created through the same item creation feats that allow the creation of magic items. Regardless of the type of items they involve, the various item creation feats all have certain features in common. Crafting many psionic items utilizes the appropriate magic item creation feats, as detailed below. Crafting psionic tattoos and cognizance crystals uses new item creation feats detailed below.

Psionic Item Item Creation Feat
Dorjes Craft Wand
Power Stones Scribe Scroll
Psicrowns Craft Staff
Psionic Tattoos Scribe Tattoo
Psionic Weapons and Armor Craft Magic Arms and Armor
Universal Items Craft Wondrous Item

Raw Materials Cost: Creating a psionic item requires costly components, most of which are consumed in the process. The cost of these materials equals 1/2 the cost of the item.

Using a psionic item creation feat also requires access to a laboratory or psionic workshop, special tools, and other equipment. A character generally has access to what he or she needs unless unusual circumstances apply (such as if he’s traveling far from home).

Time: The time to create a psionic item depends on the feat and the cost of the item. The minimum time is one day.

Item Cost: Making dorjes, power stones, and psionic tattoos creates items that directly reproduce the effects of powers, and the strength of these items depends on their manifester level—that is, a power from such an item has the strength it would have if manifested by a manifester of that level. Often, that is the minimum manifester level necessary to manifest the power. (Randomly discovered items usually follow this rule.) However, when making such an item, the item’s strength can be set higher than the minimum. Any time a character creates an item using a power augmented by spending additional power points, the character’s effective manifester level for the purpose of calculating the item’s cost increases by 1 for each 1 additional power point spent. (Augmentation is a feature of many powers that allows the power to be amplified in various ways if additional power points are spent.) All other level-dependent parameters of the power forged into the item are set according to the effective manifester level.

The price of psionic items depends on the level of the power and a character’s manifester level. The character’s manifester level must be high enough that the item creator can manifest the power at the chosen level. To find the final price in each case, multiply the character’s manifester level by the power level, then multiply the result by a constant, as shown below.

Power Stones: Base price = power level x manifester level x 25 gp

Psionic Tattoos: Base price = power level x manifester level x 50 gp

Dorjes: Base price = power level x manifester level x 750 gp

Metapsionic Feats

As a manifester’s knowledge of psionics grows, he can learn to manifest powers in ways slightly different from how the powers were originally designed or learned. Of course, manifesting a power while using a metapsionic feat is more expensive than manifesting the power normally.

Manifesting Time: Powers manifested using metapsionic feats take the same time as manifesting the powers normally unless the feat description specifically says otherwise.

Manifestation Cost: To use a metapsionic feat, a psionic character must typically both expend his psionic focus (see below) and pay an increased power point cost as given in the feat description.

Limits on Use: As with all powers, you cannot spend more power points on any power than your manifester level. Metapsionic feats merely let you manifest powers in different ways; they do not let you violate this key rule.

Effects of Metapsionic Feats on a Power: In all ways, a metapsionic power operates at its original power level, even though it costs additional power points. The modifications to a power made by a metapsionic feat have only their noted effect on the power. A manifester can’t use a metapsionic feat to alter a power being cast from a power stone, dorje, or other device.

Manifesting a power modified by the Quicken Power feat does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Some metapsionic feats apply only to certain powers, as described in each specific feat entry.

Psionic Items and Metapsionic Powers: With the right psionic item creation feat, you can store a metapsionic power in a power stone, psionic tattoo, or dorje. Level limits for psionic tattoos apply to the power’s higher metapsionic level.

A character doesn’t need the appropriate metapsionic feat to activate an item in which a metapsionic power is stored, but does need the metapsionic feat to create such an item.

Psionic Focus

Many feats detailed below, as well as many psionic class abilities, work either by maintaining or expending psionic focus.

Gain Psionic Focus: Merely having the ability to hold a reservoir of psionic power points in mind gives psionic characters a special energy. Psionic characters can put that energy to work without actually paying a power point cost—they can become psionically focused.

If you have a power point pool or the ability to manifest psi-like abilities, you can meditate to become psionically focused. Meditating is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity.

When you are psionically focused, you can expend your focus on any single concentration check you make thereafter. When you expend your focus in this manner, your concentration check is treated as if you rolled a 15. It’s like taking 10, except that the number you add to your concentration modifier is 15. You can also expend your focus to gain the benefit of a psionic feat—many psionic feats are activated in this way.

Once you are psionically focused, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep (or enter a meditative trance, in cases such as elans or elves).

You may still gain psionic focus even if you have depleted all of your power points.

Expending your psionic focus to power a feat, class feature, or any other ability only powers a single effect. You cannot gain the benefit of multiple abilities that require expending focus by expending your psionic focus once; each effect requires its own instance of expending psionic focus.

Feat Format

The following format is used for all feat descriptions.

Feat Name

Flavor text.

The feat’s name also indicates what subcategory, if any, the feat belongs to, and is followed by a basic description of what the feat does.

Prerequisites: A minimum ability score, another feat or feats, a minimum base attack bonus, a minimum number of ranks in one or more skills, or anything else required in order to take the feat. This entry is absent if a feat has no prerequisites. A feat may have more than one prerequisite.

Benefit: What a feat enables the character (“you” in the feat description) to do. If a character has the same feat more than once, its benefits do not stack unless indicated otherwise in the description.

Normal: What a character who does not have this feat is limited to or restricted from doing. If not having the feat causes no particular drawback, this entry is absent.

Special: Additional unusual facts about the feat.

Merging Craft Cognizance Crystal

The Craft Cognizance Crystal feat is quite limited in what it can do. If not using supplemental material that expands the items that can be created using Craft Cognizance Crystal, this feat can be merged into Craft Wondrous Item at the GM’s discretion, using the formula above to create cognizance crystals.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Psionics Unleashed. Copyright 2010, Dreamscarred Press.
Psionics Expanded: Advanced Psionics Guide. Copyright 2011, Dreamscarred Press; Authors: Jeremy Smith and Andreas Rönnqvist.
Ultimate Psionics. Copyright 2013, Dreamscarred Press; Authors: Andreas Rönnqvist, Jeremy Smith.

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