I wrote this in 1995-1996 for AD&D 2nd Edition, having never read TSR's Psionics Handbook. Be amused. This was reformatted for the web in 2011.

This is release 5.0 of the Psionics Handbook, based on WotC/TSR's Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition role-playing game. Feel free to comment on this document by emailing The DM. This AD&D Psionics Handbook is copyright 1995-2000 by The DM. It may be not be disributed or modified in any way without the written consent of the author. AD&D and all Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules cited in this document are copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Intelligence 10, Wisdom 10, Charisma 13

Intelligence

All

All

• Elven or Half-elven psionicist/fighter
• Elven or Half-elven psionicist/thief
• Half-elven psionicist/fighter/thief
• Halfling psionicist/thief
• Dwarven psionicist/fighter
• Can never be combined with wizard or priest, even with the human dual-class ability.

2 starting + 1 every 4 levels, -3 penalty for non-proficient weapon use.

4 starting + 1 every 3 levels.

General, ancient history, astrology, healing, ancient languages, local history, musical instrument, navigation, reading lips, reading/writing, singing, survival, ventriloquism, weather sense.

1d6x10gp

20 minus one per three experience levels.

d6 until level 9, and 2HP thereafter.

The mental talents of the psionicist are unique among the character classes. Unlike wizards and priests, psionicists do not depend on books or prayers to aid them in their skills. Their talents are innate, recognized some time during their lives and used from then on. Some psionicists learn of their skills as children, and some find out only after half a century of solitude. There are stories of psionicists living their lives as gamblers, betting on their resistance to alchahol or tempurature. Many of these over-estimate their resistance and live very short lives. There are other stories of wise empaths who devoted their lives to helping people. Some psionicists posess that bit of wanderlust that turns men of all sorts into adventurers. Many psionicists are misunderstood or hated, and must live apart from society. Many more seperate themselves from the towns and cities because they consider themselves above the common man.

A psionicist is limited in weapon use the same way that a wizard is because of their lack of talent in armed combat. A psionicist/fighter may use any weapon. No psionicist can wear plate mail, and the use of helmets, magical or otherwise, negates all powers. Psionicists can use many of the magical items that are not specifically designed for another class, including potions and oils, rings, books and tomes, jewels and jewelry, cloaks and robes, boots and gloves, girdles, bags and bottles, dusts and stones, musical intstruments, some of the wierd stuff, and armor and weapons available to their class. They have a natural repulsion to intelligent weapons and other intelligent items (and, more often than not, the intelligent weapons and items have a repultion to them), so it is rare that they can wield such objects.

Psionicists usually can not make enough money to survive using only their powers. Furthermore, since psionicists are rarely of the upper classes, they are usually unskilled workers. Any player wanting to play a non-multiclassed psionicist must either chose to be a begger or equivelant, or must chose a type of unskilled labor to be good at. Fishing, masonry, mining and tennantry are some of the possible choices.

Because of the psionicists' control over their minds, they have several innate abilities. These abilities show to some extent throughout the psionicist' lives, but they are only obvious once the psionicists begin to recognize their powers. These abilities all tend to die away when psionicists are very old.

Psionicists have a high resistance to the following:

• Normal temperature extremes: -10 to 110 degrees farenheit.
• Hunger/thirst: Can fast for 10 days before they start to feel hungry, and can go without water for two days before they are thirsty.
• Fatigue and sleepyness: Can swim, walk, run, and stay awake twice as long as non-psionicists can.
• Addiction: They are almost immune to addiction, but if they become addicted to a substance, they can break out of their addiction twice as quickly as non-psionicists can.
• Poison: They can easily save against poison, parylization, and death.
• Alchahol: If actively trying, they can prevent themselves from getting drunk for a long time, almost until they drink enough to kill themselves.
• Suffocation: They can hold their breath for twice as long as others before they faint.
• Desiese: They are unaffected by mind colds, headaches, and nausia, and can save against any non-magical desiese by rolling a 7 or lower on 2d6. If exposed to a desiese for a long time, they must roll their saving throw once a day.
• Death: Possibly the psionicists' most powerful innate ability is their resistance to death. Psionicists' hit points can drop to -10 before they die. However, they can not use any of the Greater or Lesser Powers when they have fewer than 0 hitpoints. Also, psionicists automatically have d20 years added to their natural life expectancy.

Note that, although psionicists can tolerate the above things, they are still affected by them physically. They have control over their minds, but not over their body's requirements. Yes, they can sit in a bowl of ice outside in the winter, but they get frostbite just as easily as anyone else. Psionicists can live without hunger and thirst for a long time, but they become weak due to lack of food and water just like everyone else, and tend to pass out often when starving themselves. After enduring fatigue or sleepyness for double the normal allowed time, the negative results are doubled. These resistances are useful to some extent, but they can also harm the psionicist severely. Being able to remain sober for such a long time can come in handy, until someone drinks enough to kill themselves. Psionicists can live for a very long time, but, more often than not, they die early by misusing their abilities.

Psionicists can detect the presence of other psionicists within 100ft/lvl if actively trying.

They can tell when their minds are being probed or altered by magical or psionic means.

They have a 10% resistance to illusions unless higher resistance is granted to their race.

In addition to their innate abilities, psionicists have several powers. They begin with a few (the Lesser Powers) automatically, and must chose what new skills (the Greater Powers) to practice later on. They begin with one Greater Power, and can chose another at every third level beginning with level three. Many powers require more experience to learn than others. Those have a minimum level qualifyer in their decriptions.

Each power has a success rate, which is the highest number on a d100 that implies a successful use of the power. That percentile is raised each level the psionicist has that ability by the Modifier in the power description. Unless noted otherwise, the success rate can never rise above 95%.

There is also a drain rate for each power. Psionic powers are extremely exhausting, so they drain hitpoints from the psionicist. These hit points are regenerated at the rate of one every three hours. At level eight, the regeneration rate is increased to one every two hours, and at level sixteen, it is one every hour. Only hit points lost through the use of psionic powers can be regenerated. Intense meditation doubles the regeneration rate, but must be performed in complete, natural (non-magical) silence. Sleep restores the hitpoints at the rate of one every hour. These hit points can not be restored by any other natural or magical means short of a limited wish.

Since the psionic powers are so draining, they will not work well if the player is physically exhausted due to high encumberence. For each level of on the specific encumbrance scale above unencumbered, the psionicist suffers a 5% penalty to all psionic powers. Therefore, if a human psionicist has his movement rate reduced to 6 due to encumberence, or a dwarf has his rate lowered to 3, psionic powers have a 30% lower chance of success. The success rate can never drop below 1%. The effects of encumberence last for three turns after items are dropped, so it does not help to suddenly drop everything right before a battle (the effects last at least to the end of the battle no matter how many turns pass, because staying alive during a battle is exhausting enough they the character would not have time to recover from encumbrance). Effectively, psionicists are much more limited in what they can carry than the other classes.

When the description for a power says that the target must be visable to the character, it referrs to all methods of seeing, including through crystal balls and other magical items.

Only one power can be used at a time. If a power fails due to a success roll of 96-00 that gives misdirection or misinformation (does not apply to levitation etc), then the power will yield the same error for the next 24 hours.