At the same time I was working with Athas.org in their early days. As an experiment I took Ken's Grim-n-Gritty mechanic as a basis for psychic dueling to whip together something of a Psychic Dueling system that would be quick and offered some amount of "Grimness", whatever that might be. I felt, at the time, that I wanted a psychic dueling system that represented the strain and stress that so often seems to be what is described. You know, people popping a vein in their forehead as they wrestle with the mind of a foe and being exhausted when it was over and needing rest. Enough so that people wouldn't necessarily rush into it thoughtlessly.
The system doesn't give a vast amount of "hit point" that could drag an encounter on forever. A psychic duel could be over in moments, but at the same time there would be significant risk for even the strongest minds to take on moderate minds with a lucky shot and a wisely chosen defense. Still, strong minds have a major leg up. It was also something that could be going on while the psionic characters were doing something else, including physical combat or manifesting power or casting spells.
I took some inspiration from The Will and the Way in designing the tables of options, but I tried to remove whatever might be Product Identity of WotC's in case I ever released this as OGC with the Open Gaming License. I'm still considering it, just because it would be nifty.
Anyway, coming next is the system. Remember, it is meant to represent significant risk and strain to open your mind to attack another's. It's just a flavor thing. Some of you might like it, some of you might not.
[Aside]Is it possible to post non-WotC OGC on WotC's boards, if you include the OGL with it?
Because I do have an OGL ready with the updated Section 15... *shrug*
By Eric Anondson
Inspiration from Kenneth S. Hood's Grim-n-Gritty Hit Point and Combat System [/b]
Introduction
The concept is simple, psychic dueling based upon the concept that psionic attacks are ranged mind-affecting touch attacks. In addition, your psychic attack bonus is determined by Intelligence. Your psychic staying power, i.e. psychic hit points, are determined by your Wisdom score and manifester level. Your Will save, Charisma modifier and manifester level determines your psychic "armor".
The various attack and defense styles are referenced by table. Every character can draw upon any defense style or attack style. Attacking psychically is strenuous and it takes a toll. Each psychic attack style deals an amount of nonlethal damage to the attacker each time the attacker uses it.
Attacking psychically is a swift action. There are no iterative psychic attacks for having high Intelligence.
Choosing a defense is a free action, unless you are a non-psionic creature or are flatfooted. In which case you have a predetermined defense. If you are psychically attacked by more than one attacker, you can change your mind's defense for each new attack, but doing so you incur the Power Point cost for the new defense style. If you leave your mind's defense the same for every attacker in the round, you only need to spend the Power Point for the defense style once.
If a psionic character is out of Power Points to pay for their defense style, they are considered mentally "flatfooted", and must use the flatfooted defense style even if they aren't flatfooted. Psionic characters with no Power Points cannot use the non-psionic defense style.
Step 1: Mind's Attack Bonus
Intelligence score = your Mind Attack Bonus.
Creatures without Intelligence scores cannot be attacked psionically, and cannot psionically attack.
Non-psionic creatures can only attack psionic minds that initiate psionic attacks on it. Additionally, the non-psionic creature suffers a –4 non-proficiency penalty in making psionic attacks rolls. A creature is considered non-psionic if they have no Power Points.
Step 2: Mind's Hit Points
Wisdom score plus 2x manifester level = your mind's hit points.
Your mind's hit points return at the rate of 1 + manifester level per hour. When your mind's hit points have been reduced to 0 or lower, you become unconscious.
Step 3: Mind's Defense Bonus
In these rules, your ability to avoid psychic duel attacks to your mind increases with your manifester level. However, this ability is not represented by a large reservoir of “hit points”. Instead, you get a bonus to your mind's Mind Armor Class (MAC) based on your Will save, Charisma modifier and manifester level. This bonus is called a Mind Defense Bonus.
A Defense Bonus functions like a stackable Dodge bonus to MAC in concept.
Defense Bonus = Base Will save + Deflection + manifester level.
Deflection = Charisma modifier, bonus or penalty.
Defense-related Rules
You can probably tell that it is terribly easy to tweek and customize for however one prefers. Oh, and the AC values in the table assume that characters are being built with a standard point buy. I'd recommend upping the AC values for defense styles if you use higher value character scores.
I do have it in a Word .rtf file. It's just 24kb. I can send it to whatever email address you prefer. I don't have a website of my own to host things.
(I'm so primitive... ;) )
[More edits in primary post: typos typos typos. . . .]
Thanks!
You can probably tell that it is terribly easy to tweek and customize for however one prefers. Oh, and the AC values in the table assume that characters are being built with a standard point buy. I'd recommend upping the AC values for defense styles if you use higher value character scores.
I do have it in a Word .rtf file. It's just 24kb. I can send it to whatever email address you prefer. I don't have a website of my own to host things.
(I'm so primitive... ;) )
[More edits in primary post: typos typos typos. . . .]
Have no place to live?
Have no friend where to share place?
Then Grummore is your friend! :D
Send me the package (small one) and I will host it for you! Geez am I not a nice man?
And thanks for the offer!