The Power Point Reserve

Posted by EarthDragon on 14th August 2018.

Psionic characters fuel their abilities through a pool, or reserve, of power points. The power point reserve is equal to the base power points gained from the character's class, bonus power points from a high key ability score (see Abilities and Manifesters, below), and any additional bonus power points from sources such as the character's race and feat selections. For instance, a 5th-level ghul-na gains 25 power points from their ghul-na level (see the Base Class description)). If they also have an Intelligence score of 17, they gain 7 bonus power points (see the table linked here) for a total reserve of 32. This reserve might be even higher if their race or feats grant additional bonus power points.

Multiclass Psionic Characters

If a character has levels in more than one psionic class, their power points from each class are combined to make up a single power point reserve. These can be used to manifest powers from any psionic class the character has. For example, a 5th-level ghul-na/5th-level ghul-yarl has 20 power points from their ghul-na levels (plus any bonus points for a high Intelligence score) and 7 power points from their ghul-yarl levels (plus any bonus points for a high Wisdom score), for a total of 27 power points (plus any bonus points). These points can be used to manifest any ghul-na or ghul-yarl powers the character knows. Psychic energy springs from a single common source, and is not segregated by individual class training.

While there is a single reserve of power points from class, race, and feat selections, characters are still limited by the manifester level achieved with each power known. For example, a 10th-level ghul-na/2nd-level ghul-yarl can spend up to 10 points when manifesting a ghul-na power, but only up to 2 points when manifesting a ghul-yarl power. The wellspring of psychic energy is a single pool, but characters might possess very different levels of insight, training or accomplishment with powers learned from different classes.

Abilities and Manifesters

The ability that a character's powers depend on—their key ability score as a manifester—is related to what psionic class (or classes) the character has levels in: Intelligence (ghul-na, terran-rah and illumanis), Wisdom (ghul-yarl), and Charisma (wilder). The modifier for this ability is referred to as the key ability modifier. If the character’s key ability score is 9 or lower, that character can’t manifest powers from that psionic class (and for that reason, the table linked here contains no entries for ability scores lower than 10).

Just as a high Intelligence score grants bonus spell pointss to a san-li and a high Wisdom score grants bonus spells to a vraedun, a character who manifests powers (ghul-na, terran-rah, illumanis, ghul-yarl and wilders) gains bonus power points according to their key ability score. Refer to the linked table. For instance, a ghul-na with an Intelligence score of 15 is smart enough to get 1 bonus power point when able to manifest 1st-level powers. Upon attaining 2nd level they would 2 bonus power points instead.

How To Determine Bonus Power Points: A character's key ability score grants additional power points equal to the key ability modifier × their manifester level × 1/2. The linked table shows these calculations for class levels 1st through 20th and key ability scores from 10 to 41.