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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: arthurfallz on September 04, 2011, 04:42:40 PM
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They're touched on in the book, but I was curious how people would handle more full-fledged, telekinetics and the like? Would they just be magic powers copying spells and magic, or something else?
A little lost on what to do. I don't want to just make them "like magic", as they don't come with all the inherent limitations of magic either.
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Could have sworn this was covered under "focused practitioners." Of course, I'm all for adding different non-magic power types to the Dresdenverse.
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What do you want it to do? Chanelling fits most of what I think of when I hear psionics, and Rituals does the rest.
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If for some reason you don't want to use magical powers, stunts and stunt-like powers can move physical trappings to mental skills to represent telekinesis.
Incite Emotion lets you make pretty good telepathic attacks, as does Domination.
Communication through telepathy has never been statted satisfactorily, as far as I know.
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In my game one of the PCs does something like telepathy using an upgraded version of pack instincts.
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These are telekinesis powers I have used in my game. I also allowed a Strength powers purely for Psionics to get the really powerful comic level telekinesis.
Telekinesis [-2] - You can move stuff with your mind, this allows you to make physical maneuvers and attack one zone away from you, treat your discipline as your attacking skill and your conviction as might when using this power.
Fast as a Thought [-1] Your attacks with telekinesis are instantaneous and invisible, they cannot be dodged or parried. Telekinesis is defended against with endurance.
Visual Range [-1] The range for your telekinesis has increased to line of sight. (gm determining)
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Telekinesis [-2] - You can move stuff with your mind, this allows you to make physical maneuvers and attack one zone away from you, treat your discipline as your attacking skill and your conviction as might when using this power.
This seems overcosted to me. Compare Incite Emotions.
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Or compare to channeling:kinetomancy for that matter.
Communication through telepathy has never been statted satisfactorily, as far as I know.
Invocation for effect of high concept (assuming that the high concept has something to do with telepathy) or use of mundane effects rule, depending on story significance.
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Psionics where invented by Sci-fi authors so they could put magic in their stories without calling it magic.
No specific adaptation nessecary. Just diffrent trappings for existing magic.
I'd pick focused practitioners for the diffrent flavor psions.
The only thing I'd ponder is the effects psions pull off on the fly where wizards need more time to prepare a ritual.
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I think Channeling:Spirit fit's this rather well. Just instead of describing it as "I blasted him with pure kinetic energy", simply say "I picked up a rock with my mind and shot it toward him".
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Channeling makes sense for the big blast stuff but dosen't make sense for certain types of pycer because of the stress limit and the fact you can't just use it for just heavy lifting stuff channeling is more of a weapon than a tool.
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Can you give examples of specifics that don't work with Channelling and Ritual?
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Elfen Lied is an the example that comes to mind Elfen Lied telekinetic power is represented as invisible arms which can be used pretty much like normal arms (therefor wouldn't require stress to use) in that although they can be used as a tool for slicing an dicing they can also be used for moving chairs. The stress mechanic of DF casting means that magic means that it can't be used casually and that if you screw up you can kill yourself quite easily.
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Telekinesis doesn't seem underpowered at all to me. It's nearly full substitution of three skills, plus an extra zone of attack range. It's equal to about 4-5 stunts and a -1 power.
Can you grapple with Telekinesis?
I suggest an upgrade that lets you defend against attacks with Telekinesis.
Don't much like Fast As A Thought.
Invoking for effect and using the mundane effects rules is basically just a fancy handwave. Sometimes that's appropriate, but if someone wants something to be a big part of their powerset then handwaving it is a bad idea.
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Telekinesis doesn't seem underpowered at all to me. It's nearly full substitution of three skills, plus an extra zone of attack range. It's equal to about 4-5 stunts and a -1 power.
Which three skills are 'nearly fully substituted'?
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Here's my version of Psionics for DFRPG:
- Cassandra's Tears (YS172)
- Clairaudience
- Supernatural Sense (YS165)
- Clairvoyance
- Supernatural Sense (YS165)
- The Sight (YS174)
- Domination (YS172)
- Incite Emotion (YS172)
- Levitation
- Psychometry (YS173)
- Precognition [-2]
- Description: Some say time is a tree with many branches which grow in number exponentially as they get farther ahead in time but narrow to a single trunk where potential futures meet the present and become the past. You are one of the few who can see those branches, however blurred, as potential paths ahead.
- Skills Affected: Alertness, Athletics, others.
- Effects:
- Danger Sense. You gain a +1 to Athletics when dodging.
- Guiding Fate. You can spend a fate point to read the possible futures in front of you. This
gives you a +1 to allows you to use Alertness in place of any skill for a single roll.
- Proprioception [-1]
- Description: Sometimes called kinesthesia, proprioception is the awareness of your body and the space immediately around it. This ability gives you an instinctive feel of your environment. You know where you are in relation to things and people around even if you can no longer see it or them.
- Skills Affected: Alertness, Driving.
- Effects:
- Awareness. You gain a +2 to Alertness to detect anything within the same and adjacent zones. Zone barriers reduce this bonus by the barrier amount to a minimum of zero.
- Natural Ace. You gain a +1 to Driving and piloting rolls.
- Sense Emotions [-1]
- Description: You can sense the emotions of those near you.
- Skills Affected: Rapport.
- Effects:
- Emotional Radar. You sense the direction and number of emotional presences. You can substitute Rapport for Alertness rolls.
- Read Emotions. You can read those around you easily. Gain a +2 on Rapport assessments.
- Telekinesis [-1]
- Description: You can lift and move things with mental strength.
- Skills Affected: Conviction, Discipline.
- Effects:
- Mind Over Matter. You can lift and move items you can see. For purposes of what you can lift, Conviction +1 is your strength. It is reduced by 1 for each zone between you and the target. Zone barriers don't matter as long as you can see the target directly. You cannot affect targets if you don't have direct line of sight. When precision is important, Discipline limits your Conviction.
- Mental Potency. You can create barriers and strike out with pure mental force. The barrier or strike's power can be anything up to your Conviction. A Discipline roll is required to control the mental force and you'll take a point of mental stress unless your Discipline roll is double the amount of power put into your barrier or strike. Otherwise, all modifiers for Channelling apply.
- Worldwalker (YS171)
Still internally debating Telepathy and Teleportation other than Worldwalker. May leave telepathy to Channeling mind magics and am not certain I want any form of instant travel.
Edited to correct issue Tedronai pointed out.
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All characters already have the benefit supposedly provided by Guiding Fate, Precognition seems to be lacking the supposed benefit to/from Alertness, and in the absence of that, and any actual benefit from Guiding Fate, it's certainly not worth 2 refresh.
Is there a copy error here?
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All characters already have the benefit supposedly provided by Guiding Fate, Precognition seems to be lacking the supposed benefit to/from Alertness, and in the absence of that, and any actual benefit from Guiding Fate, it's certainly not worth 2 refresh.
Is there a copy error here?
Copy error or mental error...take your pick. :-\
I had it as replacing any roll with Alertness at first...then decided that was too close to Guide My Hand and switched it at the last minute. May have to switch it back, unless you have any other ideas?
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Fists, Weapons, Might. The defence trappings of Fists and Weapons are not substituted, but those are of secondary importance anyway. And I really don't care much about the knowledge part of Weapons. As for Might, this power copies everything about it except for the modifying other skills trapping.
My breakdown of telekinesis:
Stunt 1: Attack unarmed with Discipline.
Stunt 2: Attack armed with Discipline.
Stunt 3: Lift stuff with Conviction.
Stunt 4: Break stuff with Conviction.
Stunt 5?: Grapple with Conviction.
-1 Power: Reach 1 zone.
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Fists, Weapons, Might. The defence trappings of Fists and Weapons are not substituted, but those are of secondary importance anyway. And I really don't care much about the knowledge part of Weapons. As for Might, this power copies everything about it except for the modifying other skills trapping.
My breakdown of telekinesis:
Stunt 1: Attack unarmed with Discipline.
Stunt 2: Attack armed with Discipline.
Stunt 3: Lift stuff with Conviction.
Stunt 4: Break stuff with Conviction.
Stunt 5?: Grapple with Conviction.
-1 Power: Reach 1 zone.
A) Grapples are a special form of block, which are not included in that power as written.
B) That power as written makes no mention of either the lifting or the breaking trappings of Might, only the capability to maneuver and attack.
C) The power's interaction with possible weapons is left thoroughly unclear. As such, counting 'attack with Discipline' twice would seem to be going rather overboard.
D) A power that granted no more than the ability to attack one zone away would be rather bottom-of-the-barrel at 1 refresh
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It's possible I'm reading the power wrong.
I was trying to work out what ways and means meant, and it seemed to me that moving stuff with your mind would have to include lifting and breaking.
Grapples are ambiguous, hence my uncertainty about that stunt.
And I'm pretty sure that you can either club someone mentally or throw a brick at them with this.
I think that attacking, blocking, and maneuvering at a range of one zone is a reasonable 1-point power.
So, yeah.
If you don't think I read this correctly, then how's about I ask you this: Would you consider my misreading of this power to be a reasonable 2 or 3-point power?
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I think that attacking, blocking, and maneuvering at a range of one zone is a reasonable 1-point power.
This is something a pure mortal with the right ranged weapon can do for no refresh cost. So, in and of itself, that ability doesn't seem powerful enough to call a "Power".
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It's possible I'm reading the power wrong.
I was trying to work out what ways and means meant, and it seemed to me that moving stuff with your mind would have to include lifting and breaking.
Grapples are ambiguous, hence my uncertainty about that stunt.
And I'm pretty sure that you can either club someone mentally or throw a brick at them with this.
I think that attacking, blocking, and maneuvering at a range of one zone is a reasonable 1-point power.
So, yeah.
If you don't think I read this correctly, then how's about I ask you this: Would you consider my misreading of this power to be a reasonable 2 or 3-point power?
Whether it's a misreading on your part to a just wonderful intuition for W&M's actual intent, grapples (or any other block for that matter) aren't actually allowed by the text of that stunt, nor is anything beyond attacking and maneuvering.
Your 'interpreted' power, I would probably rate as a good-to-strong 2-point power, or at most a low-end 3-point power, depending on the wording.
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They can't do it with Fists or Might or a melee weapon.
A stunt can add 1 zone of range to something highly specific. A power therefore can do the same thing for everything that doesn't already have range.
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Yes it is my bad, I was trying to build the power of the incite emotion framework but Sanctaphrax was right about what my intentions for the power were (basically a replacement of the non-defense trappings of (fists, might and weapon) . I was caught between 2 or 3 refresh but decided in terms of pure advantage this power wasn't better than Channeling.
The Power could also do with an upgrade to create blocks (including grapples) and defend though I am debating whether that should cost one refresh or two.
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Yes it is my bad, I was trying to build the power of the incite emotion framework but Sanctaphrax was right about what my intentions for the power were (basically a replacement of the non-defense trappings of (fists, might and weapon) . I was caught between 2 or 3 refresh but decided in terms of pure advantage this power wasn't better than Channeling.
The Power could also do with an upgrade to create blocks (including grapples) and defend though I am debating whether that should cost one refresh or two.
One additional refresh is placing it on par with Evocation. Two additional refresh places it on par with non-discounted Sponsored Magic.
The only substantive advantage this power has over evocation is that lack of self-inflicted stress, while evocation has several substantive advantages over it (an inherent specialty bonus and the ability to gain more, the ability to use foci, and two free focus slots, the ability to create effects that persist without further input - and that one is BIG...)
Even with blocks (and grapples), it really doesn't compete with Evocation, and barely competes with Channeling.
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Maybe two refresh for attacks, maneuvers and blocks.
A one refresh upgrade granting grapples and defence rolls. If that seems like too much for one refresh, make the defence rolls a separate upgrade.
And a -0 upgrade that shifts all Strength powers that you have to enhancing your telekinesis.
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It occurs to me that as a GM I would likely want some sort of stress cost or similar attached to that kind of power. From a thematic standpoint abilities like that are never effortless, often they require considerable concentration and effort. So I just dislike the idea that telekinesis costs no effort here.
I guess mechanically I don't have much of a problem with the ability to create weapon:0 attacks for 0 stress cost, and I might even be fine with including the line of sight range with the original power (though I know that's different from the template you were using W&M).
Of note Sanctaphrax, a 2 point power is often equal to four or five stunts so at best I only see a minor discongruence with the cost.
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Telekinesis [-2] - You can move stuff with your mind, this allows you to make physical maneuvers and attack one zone away from you, treat your discipline as your attacking skill and your conviction as might when using this power.
This is very silly. Channeling Spirit give you the same thing, but more diverse, +2 focus slots, and upgradable to full Evocation. Simply slap a label you are using your mind to control magic. Psionic magic & Arcane magic & maybe Divine magic = magic.
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The reason for that power is to avoid magical mechanics as a whole (fallout, stress, thresholds, weaknesses etc the whole bundle) and all of the pre-attached baggage that came with it. Yes Spirit Magic can move stuff without touching it using conceptual constructs and magic energy and yes you could build a telekinetic template with it, it was just not the kind of telekinetic I was aiming for.
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The reason for that power is to avoid magical mechanics as a whole (fallout, stress, thresholds, weaknesses etc the whole bundle) and all of the pre-attached baggage that came with it. Yes Spirit Magic can move stuff without touching it using conceptual constructs and magic energy and yes you could build a telekinetic template with it, it was just not the kind of telekinetic I was aiming for.
That's precisely what I was aiming for. Magic should be magic, and it seems (though it's hard to say) that psionic powers operate under different rules. Has Jim made any comments about them as an aside?
A lot of the previous posts are great! I'll use them for my game, help solve the problem we were having statting out our resident psychic.
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There are meaningful differences between this and Channeling. As ways and means says, Channeling has rather a lot of baggage.
Will write a revised version of Telekinesis shortly.
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I think taking Breath Weapon (possibly with control-related stunts) may be the best way to go with telekinesis: since we generally want it to do damage and perform maneuvers, and use no Stress.
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I think taking Breath Weapon (possibly with control-related stunts) may be the best way to go with telekinesis: since we generally want it to do damage and perform maneuvers, and use no Stress.
This is exactly how I would do it; make it run off of discipline instead of weapon, and call it a day. Charge -2.
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The reason for that power is to avoid magical mechanics as a whole (fallout, stress, thresholds, weaknesses etc the whole bundle) and all of the pre-attached baggage that came with it. Yes Spirit Magic can move stuff without touching it using conceptual constructs and magic energy and yes you could build a telekinetic template with it, it was just not the kind of telekinetic I was aiming for.
No power is going to let you avoid thresholds. But yeah, I see what you're saying with the rest of it.
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Breath Weapon is too limited. You can't move a sofa with Breath Weapon.
Decided to allow grapples with the base power.
Finished Telekinesis power. Please tell me what you think of it. Even if you hate it. Especially if you hate it.
I may have gone a little overboard with the upgrades, here. I admit, it's a vice of mine.
TELEKINESIS [-2]
Description: You can exert physical force with the power of your mind alone.
Skills Affected: Conviction, Discipline
Effects:
Mind Over Matter. You may use your mind to exert force upon targets within one zone. This allows you to use all trappings of the Might skill at a range of one zone, using your Conviction skill instead of your Might skill.
Telekinetic Attacks. You may make physical attacks against targets within one zone using your mental powers. These attacks are aimed with Discipline and may be made with or without a weapon.
Blades Of Force [-1]. When using Telekinetic Attacks without a weapon, your attacks are weapon: 2.
Mind Like A Rocket Launcher [-1]. (Requires Blades Of Force) When using Telekinetic Attacks without a weapon, your attacks are weapon: 4.
Force Field [-1]. You are protected by a shell of telekinetic power. You may use your Discipline skill to defend against physical attacks or to create physical blocks.
Enhanced Range [-1]. You may use this power out to a range of 3 zones.
Infinite Range [-1]. (Requires Enhanced Range) You may use this power against any target within your line of sight.
Telekinetic Self-Propulsion [-2]. Your telekinesis is strong enough to let you carry yourself. This allows you to fly as though you had the Wings power, using Discipline instead of Athletics to control yourself in the air.
Metaphysical Strength [-0]. (Requires Inhuman Or Better Strength) Your Strength powers apply to your Telekinesis rather than to your physical body. This increases your Conviction when using it to lift or break things, helps with your mental grapples, and increases the stress inflicted by your Telekinetic Attacks.
Unification Of Mind And Body [-1]. (Requires Metaphysical Strength) Your Strength powers apply to both your Telekinesis and your physical body. This provides all the benefits of Metaphysical Strength alongside all the benefits of ordinary strength.
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telekinesis
More or less OK, since it gives both range and changes a skill's worth of trappings.
Blades of Force
OK
Mind Like A Rocket Launcher
The name seems silly to me - but that may be just me. Mechanically it's OK.
Force Field
OK
Range
Both range upgrades are OK
Telekinetic Self-Propulsion
Overpriced. Why should it cost twice as much as "Wings"? And how far can you move (not just control yourself), is it still based on Athletics or Discipline? It should be clarified.
Metaphysical Strength
OK
Unification Of Mind And Body
Suppose someone with just Metaphysical strength wants to grab someone else. Is there something preventing them from using their mental strength at melee? If not, then why would they need to use their physical strength? Also, if they are grabbed, does something prevent them from using their mental strength to break a grapple? If not, then why would they need to use their physical strength?
(in short, it is a power where you pay refresh without getting any tangible benefit)
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Finished Telekinesis power. Please tell me what you think of it. Even if you hate it. Especially if you hate it.
I may have gone a little overboard with the upgrades, here. I admit, it's a vice of mine.
Yeah, you may have. ;) Overall impression - it's a lot of refresh to dump into a single power. Particularly since Telekinesis (-2) plus blades of force, mind like a rocket launcher, force field, enhanced range, and infinite range (-5) total up to -7 refresh and are still less useful than Channeling - with the exception of mental stress. But I don't think avoiding mental stress is worth 5 refresh.
Telekinetic Self-Propulsion [-2]. Your telekinesis is strong enough to let you carry yourself. This allows you to fly as though you had the Wings power, using Discipline instead of Athletics to control yourself in the air.
I'd keep the same cost as Wings.
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Mind Over Matter. You may use your mind to exert force upon targets within one zone. This allows you to use all trappings of the Might skill at a range of one zone, using your Conviction skill instead of your Might skill.
Telekinetic Attacks. You may make physical attacks against targets within one zone using your mental powers. These attacks are aimed with Discipline and may be made with or without a weapon.
Delicate work should be done with Discipline rather than conviction. Work it the same way and don't require many shifts of power but make the aim difficulty higher or require several successes at a lower difficulty, depending on the situation.
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Base power still makes no mention of grapples, let alone simpler blocks, and now no longer makes mention of maneuvers.
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Aha!
Now this, this is a good response.
Mind Like A Rocket Launcher is indeed a silly name. But it was 2 am and I was thinking, "I'm not going to sleep until I finish this." So I got kind of desperate near the end. I'm open to suggestions for a better name.
Not sure what The Mighty Buzzard is trying to say. Would appreciate clarification.
Unification Of Mind And Body is an extra cost for versatility. If you want to make a character with both super-strength and massive telekinetic power, you shouldn't have to buy your Strength powers twice. But applying Strength to both should not be free, because then there would be no good mechanical reason ever to make a character with super-strong telekinesis who wasn't also super-strong physically. Think of it as like buying extra elements with Refinement.
Force Field does stuff that Channeling doesn't, so UmbraLux ought to remove it from his example. As for the rest, Channeling has a number of random drawbacks. Backlash, fallout, rolling to control, taking mental stress, limited duration, etc. So it's not a great comparison. A comparison to Breath Weapon would be better, I think. And in that, Telekinesis looks pretty good.
The base power is supposed to allow blocks and maneuvers and grapples. "All trappings of the Might skill" was meant to include those. If it doesn't, I'll rewrite.
Telekinetic Self-Propulsion costs 2 for three reasons:
1. Wings is underpriced, I think.
2. When a thread discussed #1, people said that Wings without physical wings would be a -2 power.
3. It includes a stunt letting you move around with Discipline. That's pretty useful for a character with low Athletics.
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Force Field does stuff that Channeling doesn't, so UmbraLux ought to remove it from his example.
How do you figure? It's just creating a reflexive block. Only difference is mental stress.
As for the rest, Channeling has a number of random drawbacks. Backlash, fallout, rolling to control, taking mental stress, limited duration, etc. So it's not a great comparison.
Backlash and fallout aren't negatives, they're positives - they allow you to turn a failed roll into a success. Rolling to control / hit is something you're doing with both channeling and tk. Mental stress is definitely a difference. So is duration - but it's worse than channeling not better if you're basing it off of Might (takes action to maintain every exchange).
A comparison to Breath Weapon would be better, I think. And in that, Telekinesis looks pretty good.
If you rolled blades of force into the base power it would equal Breath Weapon - a power many think isn't worth 2 refresh. Without adding the +2 damage it's significantly underpowered even compared to BW.
The base power is supposed to allow blocks and maneuvers and grapples. "All trappings of the Might skill" was meant to include those. If it doesn't, I'll rewrite.
Telekinetic Self-Propulsion costs 2 for three reasons:
1. Wings is underpriced, I think.
2. When a thread discussed #1, people said that Wings without physical wings would be a -2 power.
3. It includes a stunt letting you move around with Discipline. That's pretty useful for a character with low Athletics.
Shrug, I think this was argued sufficiently in other threads - I won't continue it here. :)
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I agree with Umbra: the base power is a overpriced. Adding Blades of Force to it might make it more worthwhile.
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Not sure what The Mighty Buzzard is trying to say. Would appreciate clarification.
Just meant that not everything you could conceivably do with TK is combat/kerblooie based and offered suggestions for how to deal with something like yoinking the manacle keys from the keyrack across the room and using them to uncuff yourself. There you're not needing a ton of power but you are needing a ton of Discipline.
Say a control roll for pulling them off the rack, another getting them between the cell bars, and another to get them in the manacles and turn the key.
That would be for time critical situations though. If you had all the time in the world, anyone with TK would eventually succeed.
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For ease, I'd have Discipline limit Conviction when precision matters. That would be some attacks (precise blade of telekinetic force vs blunt wall of force) as well as things like keys or pushing buttons on a keypad.
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I agree with Umbra: the base power is a overpriced. Adding Blades of Force to it might make it more worthwhile.
It can be done standing in running water, with thorn manacles on, gagged, circled, and inside a threshold you don't have an invitation to all at the same time. Plus it doesn't cost you mental stress. I'd say that's worth a point or three of refresh.
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...inside a threshold...
I suspect this would vary greatly from table to table. To me, psionics are still supernatural and still subject to suppression by a threshold.
Edit: Also, a wizard doesn't need to keep his hands free or be able to speak. Those simply make casting easier.
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I suspect this would vary greatly from table to table. To me, psionics are still supernatural and still subject to suppression by a threshold.
Edit: Also, a wizard doesn't need to keep his hands free or be able to speak. Those simply make casting easier.
Big AD&D background here, so I see psionics as more than PM but not affected by things that affect magic.
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It can be done standing in running water, with thorn manacles on, gagged, circled, and inside a threshold you don't have an invitation to all at the same time. Plus it doesn't cost you mental stress. I'd say that's worth a point or three of refresh.
I would not allow psionics to work behind an unfriendly threshold or a circle. Those both affect Incite Emotion abilities, so I see no reason why they shouldn't suppress psionics. While gagging does limit magic, it does not make it impossible, merely painful. Running water and thorn manacles I'll give you (though the manacles aren't exactly something you could find just lying around, and I'm sure that someone who wanted to block out psionics could rig up some sort of "delta-wave nullifier.")
I'd also like to point out there is no evidence that breath weapons are negatively affected by either water or the manacles. I'd say my point still stands.
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I would not allow psionics to work behind an unfriendly threshold or a circle. Those both affect Incite Emotion abilities, so I see no reason why they shouldn't suppress psionics.
Human brain origin vs inhuman powers origin. Mortal will is one of the core elements that will break a circle, so I'd say no way would a circle stop a non-magical expression of it. Threshold, maybe, but it would be the only thing purely of mortal origin that they do stop if you were to rule it that way.
I mean if you want to declare that psionics are the result of something tinkering with humans back in the day and it counts as supernatural in origin, more power to you, but there's plenty of argument for it to be otherwise.
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I mean if you want to declare that psionics are the result of something tinkering with humans back in the day and it counts as supernatural in origin, more power to you, but there's plenty of argument for it to be otherwise.
The DF setting assumes that all powers are supernatural in origin even if they come from humans with no supernatural ancestry at all. I.e. Abby from the Order of the Big Cooking Pot had a form of Precognition. She didn't have any non-human ancestry and her ability was purely mental... but still supernatural.
Regarding psionics in other mediums, no matter how the settings handwave the explanation, psionic powers flat-out violate natural laws. Telekinesis violates the Action/Reaction principle, conservation of momentum and probably conservation of energy and the Laws of Motion. Any sort of perceptible energy projection from human biology violates conservation of energy, and several laws of electromagnetism and thermodynamics. Precognition violates cause-and-effect and relativity. Telempathy and Telepathy are the only ones that don't seem to violate any natural laws.
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The DF setting assumes that all powers are supernatural in origin even if they come from humans with no supernatural ancestry at all. I.e. Abby from the Order of the Big Cooking Pot had a form of Precognition. She didn't have any non-human ancestry and her ability was purely mental... but still supernatural.
That's a bit of a stretch for seeing one instance of a power that shows up far more often in magical themed settings than psionically themed ones. You may very well be right by Jim's thinking but we've nothing even close to definitive that her power was psionic in nature or that it was inhibited by thresholds/circles/etc...
Regarding psionics in other mediums, no matter how the settings handwave the explanation, psionic powers flat-out violate natural laws. Telekinesis violates the Action/Reaction principle, conservation of momentum and probably conservation of energy and the Laws of Motion. Any sort of perceptible energy projection from human biology violates conservation of energy, and several laws of electromagnetism and thermodynamics. Precognition violates cause-and-effect and relativity. Telempathy and Telepathy are the only ones that don't seem to violate any natural laws.
Non-newtonian fluids like Silly Putty appear to at first as well. Then you find out why they do what they do, write that into the natural laws, and Bob's your uncle. I mean for that matter, gravity violates natural laws since we can't explain at all why it does what it does.
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If Psionics can ignore circles/thresholds in your game, then I would say that it is fair at the price Sancta gave it; however, if they have the same restrictions other supernatural powers have, then it is underpriced.
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You mean overpriced, right?
Anyway, the rules for thresholds are super vague. It seems that a given power could either be suppressed or unaffected depending on the character who has it. A bear with Inhuman Strength would be fine, but a WCV would lose their powers.
As for the comparison to Channeling:
Rolling to control is definitely a downside. A bad roll for TK is just a low chance to hit. A bad roll for Channeling is that and some kind of pain/collateral damage. Duration is mixed, since aspects created with TK are not limited in duration but blocks created with Channeling can be extended. Also, TK is much better for utility work. You can't carry around a sofa with Channeling. Even with enough control to not just be throwing it repeatedly, you'd run out of stress pretty soon.
As for the comparison to Breath Weapon:
Even without Blades, TK is probably better. It has the following advantages:
-Aimed with a noncombat skill.
-May be used to block and grapple.
-Also gives complete substitution of a skill.
Breath Weapon has only the following advantage:
-In situations where there is nothing rated weapon 2 or greater within a zone, it has a better weapon rating. These situations are extremely rare, though.
I really think that people overlook the noncombat aspects of this power. With a single -1 upgrade, it totally eliminates the need for three whole skills! Fists, Weapons, and Might simply don't matter anymore.
Though I am considering adding the first range upgrade to the base power. One zone feels kinda short ranged. Would that make people look upon this more favourably?
Man, I'm rambling like an old man. I hope that post made sense.
PS: Please do not use reflexive blocks as a balance point. They're an optional rule of questionable balance. Although they do have the effect of making wizards burn out even faster.
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I don't think range really needs an upgrade. Feels pretty good at 1 zone for the default.
Blocks, they could use maybe a point of mental stress if they're overcome to represent feedback. Same with failing a Conviction roll on Mind Over Matter.
Strength powers should be required to be taken after TK if you want them to apply mentally rather than physically. Unification is fine how it is but might need a bump to -2, I'd have to see it in play a while to decide.