Psionics in Dresden

[UmbraLux]

Here's my version of Psionics for DFRPG:

• Cassandra's Tears (YS172)
• Clairaudience
  • Supernatural Sense (YS165)
• Clairvoyance
  • Supernatural Sense (YS165)
  • The Sight (YS174)
• Domination (YS172)
• Incite Emotion (YS172)
• Levitation
  • Wings (YS165)
• Psychometry (YS173)
• Precognition [-2]
  • Description:  Some say time is a tree with many branches which grow in number exponentially as they get farther ahead in time but narrow to a single trunk where potential futures meet the present and become the past. You are one of the few who can see those branches, however blurred, as potential paths ahead.
  • Skills Affected:  Alertness, Athletics, others.
  • Effects: 
    • Danger Sense.  You gain a +1 to Athletics when dodging.
    • Guiding Fate.  You can spend a fate point to read the possible futures in front of you.  This gives you a +1 to allows you to use Alertness in place of any skill for a single roll.
• Proprioception [-1]
  • Description:  Sometimes called kinesthesia, proprioception is the awareness of your body and the space immediately around it.  This ability gives you an instinctive feel of your environment.  You  know where you are in relation to things and people around even if you can no longer see it or them.
  • Skills Affected:  Alertness, Driving.
  • Effects: 
    • Awareness.  You gain a +2 to Alertness to detect anything within the same and adjacent zones.  Zone barriers reduce this bonus by the barrier amount to a minimum of zero. 
    • Natural Ace.  You gain a +1 to Driving and piloting rolls.
• Sense Emotions [-1]
  • Description:  You can sense the emotions of those near you.
  • Skills Affected:  Rapport.
  • Effects: 
    • Emotional Radar.  You sense the direction and number of emotional presences.  You can substitute Rapport for Alertness rolls.
    • Read Emotions.  You can read those around you easily.  Gain a +2 on Rapport assessments. 
• Telekinesis [-1]
  • Description:  You can lift and move things with mental strength.
  • Skills Affected:  Conviction, Discipline.
  • Effects: 
    • Mind Over Matter.  You can lift and move items you can see.  For purposes of what you can lift, Conviction +1 is your strength.  It is reduced by 1 for each zone between you and the target.  Zone barriers don't matter as long as you can see the target directly.  You cannot affect targets if you don't have direct line of sight.  When precision is important, Discipline limits your Conviction. 
    • Mental Potency.  You can create barriers and strike out with pure mental force.  The barrier or strike's power can be anything up to your Conviction.  A Discipline roll is required to control the mental force and you'll take a point of mental stress unless your Discipline roll is double the amount of power put into your barrier or strike.  Otherwise, all modifiers for Channelling apply. 
• Worldwalker (YS171)

Still internally debating Telepathy and Teleportation other than Worldwalker.  May leave telepathy to Channeling mind magics and am not certain I want any form of instant travel.

Edited to correct issue Tedronai pointed out.

[Tedronai]

All characters already have the benefit supposedly provided by Guiding Fate, Precognition seems to be lacking the supposed benefit to/from Alertness, and in the absence of that, and any actual benefit from Guiding Fate, it's certainly not worth 2 refresh.
Is there a copy error here?

[UmbraLux]

All characters already have the benefit supposedly provided by Guiding Fate, Precognition seems to be lacking the supposed benefit to/from Alertness, and in the absence of that, and any actual benefit from Guiding Fate, it's certainly not worth 2 refresh.
Is there a copy error here?

Copy error or mental error...take your pick.   

I had it as replacing any roll with Alertness at first...then decided that was too close to Guide My Hand and switched it at the last minute.  May have to switch it back, unless you have any other ideas?

[Sanctaphrax]

Fists, Weapons, Might. The defence trappings of Fists and Weapons are not substituted, but  those are of secondary importance anyway. And I really don't care much about the knowledge part of Weapons. As for Might, this power copies everything about it except for the modifying other skills trapping.

My breakdown of telekinesis:

Stunt 1: Attack unarmed with Discipline.
Stunt 2: Attack armed with Discipline.
Stunt 3: Lift stuff with Conviction.
Stunt 4: Break stuff with Conviction.
Stunt 5?: Grapple with Conviction.
-1 Power: Reach 1 zone.

[Tedronai]

Fists, Weapons, Might. The defence trappings of Fists and Weapons are not substituted, but  those are of secondary importance anyway. And I really don't care much about the knowledge part of Weapons. As for Might, this power copies everything about it except for the modifying other skills trapping.

My breakdown of telekinesis:

Stunt 1: Attack unarmed with Discipline.
Stunt 2: Attack armed with Discipline.
Stunt 3: Lift stuff with Conviction.
Stunt 4: Break stuff with Conviction.
Stunt 5?: Grapple with Conviction.
-1 Power: Reach 1 zone.

A) Grapples are a special form of block, which are not included in that power as written.
B) That power as written makes no mention of either the lifting or the breaking trappings of Might, only the capability to maneuver and attack.
C) The power's interaction with possible weapons is left thoroughly unclear.  As such, counting 'attack with Discipline' twice would seem to be going rather overboard.
D) A power that granted no more than the ability to attack one zone away would be rather bottom-of-the-barrel at 1 refresh

[Sanctaphrax]

It's possible I'm reading the power wrong.

I was trying to work out what ways and means meant, and it seemed to me that moving stuff with your mind would have to include lifting and breaking.

Grapples are ambiguous, hence my uncertainty about that stunt.

And I'm pretty sure that you can either club someone mentally or throw a brick at them with this.

I think that attacking, blocking, and maneuvering at a range of one zone is a reasonable 1-point power.

So, yeah.

If you don't think I read this correctly, then how's about I ask you this: Would you consider my misreading of this power to be a reasonable 2 or 3-point power?

[UmbraLux]

I think that attacking, blocking, and maneuvering at a range of one zone is a reasonable 1-point power.

This is something a pure mortal with the right ranged weapon can do for no refresh cost.  So, in and of itself, that ability doesn't seem powerful enough to call a "Power".

[Tedronai]

It's possible I'm reading the power wrong.

I was trying to work out what ways and means meant, and it seemed to me that moving stuff with your mind would have to include lifting and breaking.

Grapples are ambiguous, hence my uncertainty about that stunt.

And I'm pretty sure that you can either club someone mentally or throw a brick at them with this.

I think that attacking, blocking, and maneuvering at a range of one zone is a reasonable 1-point power.

So, yeah.

If you don't think I read this correctly, then how's about I ask you this: Would you consider my misreading of this power to be a reasonable 2 or 3-point power?

Whether it's a misreading on your part to a just wonderful intuition for W&M's actual intent, grapples (or any other block for that matter) aren't actually allowed by the text of that stunt, nor is anything beyond attacking and maneuvering.

Your 'interpreted' power, I would probably rate as a good-to-strong 2-point power, or at most a low-end 3-point power, depending on the wording.

[Sanctaphrax]

They can't do it with Fists or Might or a melee weapon.

A stunt can add 1 zone of range to something highly specific. A power therefore can do the same thing for everything that doesn't already have range.

[ways and means]

Yes it is my bad, I was trying to build the power of the incite emotion framework but Sanctaphrax was right about what my intentions for the power were (basically a replacement of the non-defense trappings of (fists, might and weapon) . I was caught between 2 or 3  refresh but decided in terms of pure advantage this power wasn't better than Channeling.

The Power could also do with an upgrade to create blocks (including grapples) and defend though I am debating whether that should cost one refresh or two.

[Tedronai]

Yes it is my bad, I was trying to build the power of the incite emotion framework but Sanctaphrax was right about what my intentions for the power were (basically a replacement of the non-defense trappings of (fists, might and weapon) . I was caught between 2 or 3  refresh but decided in terms of pure advantage this power wasn't better than Channeling.

The Power could also do with an upgrade to create blocks (including grapples) and defend though I am debating whether that should cost one refresh or two.

One additional refresh is placing it on par with Evocation.  Two additional refresh places it on par with non-discounted Sponsored Magic.
The only substantive advantage this power has over evocation is that lack of self-inflicted stress, while evocation has several substantive advantages over it (an inherent specialty bonus and the ability to gain more, the ability to use foci, and two free focus slots, the ability to create effects that persist without further input - and that one is BIG...)

Even with blocks (and grapples), it really doesn't compete with Evocation, and barely competes with Channeling.

[Sanctaphrax]

Maybe two refresh for attacks, maneuvers and blocks.

A one refresh upgrade granting grapples and defence rolls. If that seems like too much for one refresh, make the defence rolls a separate upgrade.

And a -0 upgrade that shifts all Strength powers that you have to enhancing your telekinesis.

[sinker]

It occurs to me that as a GM I would likely want some sort of stress cost or similar attached to that kind of power. From a thematic standpoint abilities like that are never effortless, often they require considerable concentration and effort. So I just dislike the idea that telekinesis costs no effort here.

I guess mechanically I don't have much of a problem with the ability to create weapon:0 attacks for 0 stress cost, and I might even be fine with including the line of sight range with the original power (though I know that's different from the template you were using W&M).

Of note Sanctaphrax, a 2 point power is often equal to four or five stunts so at best I only see a minor discongruence with the cost.

[Discipol]

Telekinesis [-2] - You can move stuff with your mind, this allows you to make physical maneuvers and attack one zone away from you, treat your discipline as your attacking skill and your conviction as might when using this power.

This is very silly. Channeling Spirit give you the same thing, but more diverse, +2 focus slots, and upgradable to full Evocation. Simply slap a label you are using your mind to control magic. Psionic magic & Arcane magic & maybe Divine magic = magic.

[ways and means]

The reason for that power is to avoid magical mechanics as a whole (fallout, stress, thresholds, weaknesses etc the whole bundle) and all of the pre-attached baggage that came with it. Yes Spirit Magic can move stuff without touching it using conceptual constructs and magic energy and yes you could build a telekinetic template with it, it was just not the kind of telekinetic I was aiming for.