Wild Talents
by Ramanan Sivaranjan on February 28, 2013
Tagged: dnd darksun homebrew psionics
I’m thinking of running a Dark Sun game using the Original Dungeons and Dragons rules at some point. As such, I wanted to figure out a simpler set of rules of psionics. I thought a good first step would be to settle on rules for wild talents–people who have some small psychic ability. I wanted about half the population to have a wild talent. It turns out that if you ask a random character to roll under their random wisdom score, they’ll succeed about half the time. I wanted a set of powers that weren’t overly powerful, but still interesting enough to be used in a game. I’m curious to hear what people think.
Player’s should roll under their Wisdom score to determine if their character has a wild psionic talent. If they fail the roll the character has no wild talent; if they succeed, the amount they succeed by determines their wild talent as follows:
| d | Power |
|---|---|
| 0 | Know Direction - The character knows which way is North. |
| 1 | Far Hearing - For one turn the character hears all sounds within 50’ as if they were being whispered directly into their ear. The character may choose what sounds to focus on. |
| 2 | Far Seeing - For one turn the character may view a scene up to 50’ away as if they were right there. They may see through walls and other obstacles, but not through lead. |
| 3 | Thought Projection - The character may communicate a brief message mentally with a creature up to 50’ away. The target understands the character, even if they share no common language. |
| 4 | Object Projection - The character may teleport a small object in their possession up to 50’ away. |
| 5 | Telekinetic Grasp - For one turn the character may manipulate small objects from up to 50’ away. |
| 6 | Spark - The character may ignite any flammable object within 50’ of them. (The “heat” this power generates is no greater than that of a candle.) |
| 7 | Levitate - For 1 turn, the character can float above the ground (up to 10’). |
| 8 | Minor ESP: For 1 turn the character may read the mind of another creature. (The character understand the creature even if they share no common language.) |
| 9 | Cell Adjustment - The character regains up to 1d3 lost hit points. (This increases to 1d6 at level 3, 1d8 at level 6, 1d10 at level 9 and 1d12 at level 12.) The character may make a Save vs. Poison to cure themselves of any non-magical disease. |
| 10 | “Invisiblity”: For 1 turn the character can completely hide his presence from up to one sentient creature per level. The target may make a Save vs. Magic to resist the character’s power. |
| 11 | Id Insituation: All sentient characters, friend or foe, within 25’ of the character feel an uncontrollable urge to eat, murder or fornicate. |
| 12 | Psychic Distress: All sentient characters, friend or foe, within 25’ of the character are immobilized for 1 turn. |
| 13 | Minor Mind Control: For 1 turn, the character may manipulate the target into doing whatever the character wants. The target will have no memory of any events that transpire while under this mind control. The target my make a Save vs. Magic to resist the mind control. |
| 14 | Minor Precognition: The character may re-roll any saving throw. |
| 15 | Psionic Defence - Once per day per level, the character may make a Save vs. Magic to avoid the effects of any psionic power that targets them. (This is in addition to any saving throws the power may allow for.) |
| 16 | Psionic Immunity: The character can not be the target of any psionic power. |
| 17 | The Haitian: no character within 10’ of the character, friend or foe, may use their psionic powers. The character also gains Psionic Immunity. |
A character may use their psionic power once per day. (Psionic Immunity and The Haitian are exceptions here: they are always active.)