Okay, I know how to use psychic powers; roll d100, add potential, see table and thats what you get. That much is simple.

My question is regarding the psychic crystals and potential. I have noticed they have very limited numbers. Well, not counting certain artifact rules…

In magical potential the bonus gets multiplied. Does this happen with psychic potential?

I might need an example, sorry for asking.

Psychic Potential does not multiply, it just adds to the potential. The reason it may seem like less compared to Magic is the mere fact Psychic powers are unlimited uses, while Magic has zeon costs, which sooner or later you will run out of zeon.

But if I'm correct for every 5 potential enhancement crystal you use, that also adds a fatigue point to the failure chart.

Ex. a Crystal that gives +15 potential was used in a level 3 psychic power, which resulted in a failure. Normally the fatigue cost was 3, but because of the crystal that failure cost increases to 6.

My advice if your making a psychic character, don't invest in to many powers, have a select few to begin with, instead spend majority of your pp in raising your potential. Or even raising individual potentials isn't that bad of an Idea if your thinking of mainly using some powers more than others. Also investing in the advantages, such as the sustained and the advantage that raises the results in one specific descipline, both cost 2 advantage points, total of 4. The names escape my mind right now, and i have to go to work, sorry.

If I may post another question to the message (also, been reading a while, first post, hello all). I have a player with psychic powers that wants to use the same power twice in a round. I know that it is outlined that you can split your potential for multiple powers, but is the same power outlined as a "multiple power". For impact it shouldn't matter much, I don't think, but for some utility or disciplines that have area later it might be a problem.

TGOAkaitachi said:

I do not know for sure, but I believe you can. For the most part it is not unbalancing, splitting the power even with itself weakens it. Sure you make 2 fireballs instead of 1 in a single round, but you cover about 1/2 the area and can be dodged easier. Damage may be slightly more.

Im not really sure what your trying to say in your question. But i will take a guess that your worried about the fact you have to split your potential in order to use multiple powers in one turn. First off their is no limit to how you split your potential, for instance, say you had 10 potential (just a low number example not likely any character would have that low) The first power you could put in 1 potential and the second 9.

Also its unlikely that a low level Psychic would do multiple high powered attacks/effects. And as for the higher level abilities such as Area and imbue they are only at an activation of 140. And all Area and Imbue powers are maintainable, so it really shouldn't be that hard to use those, just maintain them instead of using them the same turn as the other desired effect. All else fails, could just invest some pp in strengthening your potential for your desired Area effect, so that Area effect in its self would have its very own potential to fall back on so that you wouldn't have to divide your potential up as much if you wanted to use both at the same time instead of maintaining them. This method would work for all powers. Just very costly.

If you need more help let me know. And if this wasn't very helpful, Im sorry I can only say what I know, and how I understand the rules of the game. Good luck in your various game sessions. I'm currently getting ready to finish up my first full campaign. It shall be spectacular, An organization that my party made vs Thee Inquisition in an all out war. I know it sounds very unlikely that the party will when, but believe me, they've done a good job up till now in growing their strengths and numbers, but not pissing off various powers. Of course this won't be easy and they know that, but they seriously are trying to crush the Inquisition. And weither or not they accomplish their goals, it does not matter this game will be over, cause either they win, or they die, making a good ending point for a start of new history for my campaign.

cdcace said:

Actually this is wrong, you have to have at least 10 Potential per power (page 192, "It is not possible to apply less than a +10 to any given Power"). Otherwise a person with, say, 100 potential would use Psychic Ambivalence (From the Game Masters Toolkit) to use 100 fireballs with "1" potential each, granting +500 potential to each (total: 100 fireballs with 501 potential).

Ambivalence oly works if its different powers, not the same

Raybras said:

I do not know if you are allowed to use multiple of the same power in one round (although I believe that you can). If you can then splitting it amount the same power would make Ambivalence trigger as far as how I read the rules, if you cannot then the point is moor. Still you could split it in much the same way amount many different powers for the same result without the minimum of +10 Potential in a power.

I apologize for not clarifying on that, but if you payed attention I said the numbers i used was not realistic. I was putting this msg up on my phone while I was at work so I was pressed for time. Thank you for correcting me though, I had forgotten the 10 potential minimum rule, it was more like and ingrained rule to me, since its obvious your going to have to use some potential unless you want to fail.

As for using Ambivalance, It does not clarify exactly but I was also under the understanding that you can use it with multiples of the same power. "When the character divides up his psychic potential in order to use more than one power per turn, he gains a cumulative bonus of +5 for each power that is declared" No where do i see it saying you can't use this for multiples of the same power.

Thanks for the answers. They helped a lot.

Now I got another one: Can then, in theory, sustain the same power twice? Like psychokinetic trap or regeneration?

they can sustain the same power as many times as they want so long as they have an innate slot for it, but some powers do not stack if used on the same person (particularly the physical increase ones)

I guess stacking would be overkill.

And how about psychokinetic shield? is it automatic like a limited form of damage reduction? Or do we need defensive psychic projection?

Alesandra said:

There is no, "Defensive" Psychic Projection because Psychic Projection is used for both offence and defence. The same is true of Magic Projection (albeit with that it can have an offensive or defensive lean to it). So no, it is not any form of Damage Reduction, it uses the Psychic Projection of the Mentalist to defend in much the same way as a Block does (but does not take many of the penalties).

Lia Valenth said:

Not exactly true, as there are the modules that replace the magic or psychic projection with attack and defense scores (even seperatly for magic). So in this case you would indeed roll for attack projection and defense proection, because the value of both may differ depending on your spending. Usually just applies for warlocks and some psychic warriors though.

//Edit: Oh, and there is the possibility to choose an imbalance between offense and defense projection for any spellcaster too (don't know about psionics..), so it applies yet more often. (the angel in the basics book had that for example)

Rii Nagaja said:

I did note that there can be an imbalance (though I forgot what to call it) to Magic Projection, the same is not true of Psychic Projection. Further while the Attack and Defence Magic Projection modules must be bought seperately for 75DP each, the Attack and Defence as Psychic Projection is bought only once for 100DP. So for psychics there is no "Defensive Psychic Projection", they just use one value for both, while there can be a, "Defensive Magic Projection". I do not know why.

Lia Valenth said:

My bad, I just remembered that imbalance thing shortly after posting again.

But I don't think the total projection module for psychics is meant that way. I think it actually still seperates attack and defense scores, but for some reason you can only purchase both at once. Maybe someone with a rulebook at hand can confirm or disprove that, otherwise I will look it up later.

Rii Nagaja said:

You are correct. But that only applies to Warrior Mentalists (or others that take the module). People who get actual projection don't get the option. A bit weird.

I was asking more about the psychokinetic shield.

Let see, say if I get a PPotential of 180 I get a psychic shield of 1000 LP. Do I use psychic projection for defense and then we remove the damage taken from those points? is this right?

And if so. Let say I don´t purchase psychic projection. Just dodge or parry. then what would happen?

Alesandra said:

You use the 180 potential to defend against attacks. It works the same way as Dodge or Block except the shield takes damage if it blocks the attack completely. If you don't have projection and use Dodge or Block it works like anyone else using Dodge or Block, you cannot use a psychic shield with Dodge or Block unless you have the Attack and Defence as Psychic Projection module.

So in other words; No ablative force field without psychic projection?.

100 DP sounds expensive, but it helps in the long run.

For a Warrior Mentalist, yup. A normal Mentalist just buys Projection.

But the psychic projection gets expensive.

Anyway to make it cheaper? or rise it faster? Maybe without arcana exxect?

Alesandra said:

Short answer: nope.

Attack and Defence is also expensive. People who buy Attack and Defence (Dodge or Block) spend about 50% of their DP on it (normally) whereas a Wizard or Mentalist only have to spend 30% on Projection, and they get more than the Attack and Defence (Albeit with class bonuses they equal each other at level 10, the math is not needed to be explained here).

The ability to attack and defend yourself effectively is expensive in this game .