How To Make Psionics More Flavorful
Tips From Stephen King's Bestseller Firestarter
Psionic Classes disappeared from dnd books for a while, although those nasty Mindflayers were still sucking brains for go go juice, but they re-appeared in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything in the form of subclasses such as the Psi Warrior for Fighters, the Soulknife for Rogues and The Aberrant Mind for Sorcerers (who use Psionic Points)
Sadly, only the Sorcerer had a random chart to decide how these powers were achieved. At the end of this article I offer you some more random ideas on how your character may have been exposed to these mind bending powers
Right around the time I got into D&D, I saw the movie Firestarter (1984). I love this movie because even though I had not discovered Psionics in dnd yet, I knew I wanted to make a character like Charlie (played by Drew Barrymore) or her father Andrew played by (David Keith).
This movie did so many things well to flesh out the believability of the character’s psionic powers that thought they could do the same for your character.
Charlie (Charlene) had the ability to
Set things/people on fire
Raise the temperature in the room
Melt/Warp Metal
Explode a Wall
Heat/Boil Water
Melt blocks of ice
Make things/people explode or implode
Shoot fireballs from her mind
Her father, Andrew, could
Mind control others (Command)
Manipulate mechanical objects (getting coins from a payphone)
So, what made the psionics in this movie more flavorful?
Emotions
Charlie was a little girl, 8 or 9 years old, and her ability to start fire was her choice but were accentuated by her emotions.
What kind of emotions could start the fire of your character’s abilities? Anger, sadness or anxiety? Charlie’s emotions (mostly anger) magnified her emotions. Emotions, to me, are like wild magic. Things can get out of control if you cannot control your emotions.
Choose something you have to get under control and possibly have to roll a Con save to keep it from getting away from you.
I think there could be a feat called Emotional Release and could be the equivalant of a Barbarians rage but with your mind.
A Tell
Like in poker, your psionics could have a tell which announces that something bad/cool is about to happen, depending who you are. With Charlie an invisible wind or energy would blow her hair and she would start to sweat a little. For Andrew, he would grab his head and his nose would bleed.
These are reactions to power being activated but not all the tells have to be cool, they could also be flaws. You can make the flaws a normal part of the character or what happens if you want to push your luck by using your psionics beyond your energy (psionic points)
Here’s a random table of fun ideas I came up with
Psionic Tells/Flaws d20
1 Nose bleed/headache
2 Migraine
3 Halo of light around your whole body
4 Dizziness
5 Exhaustion
6 Throws up/nausea
7 Weak Legs
8 Gas
9 Ears ringing
10 Blindness
11 Smoke surrounds you (color of your choice)
12 The Runs
13 A rainbow appears above your head
14 Dark clouds and thunder
15 Rain/Snow/Hail Choose one
16 Your body contorts
17 Profusely sweats
18 Blood from your eye, ears, nose (pick one or all three)
19 Levitates 2 ft off the ground
20 Loud burp(ing) until the round is over
How did you get your powers? d10
1 Supernatural means (deity, elder god, etc.)
2 Family or Personal Curse (from who?)
3 Family or Personal Blessing (from who?)
4 Alchemy (experimental drugs)
5 Born with them
6 Resurrected with them
7 Kicked by a horse
8 Magic (caught in a wild magic blast)
9 Dragon Breath
10 Fall from a high place
I hope this list gets your fires burning to create a psionic character filled with lore, background and flavor. Let me know if you create one and what their story is.
If you enjoy the content, throws some coin(s) in the chest.
Thanks,
Paul
The Tabletop Tinker