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Occult Rules / Psychic Duels / Psychic Manifestations

Creating Psychic Manifestations

Source Occult Adventures pg. 202
Psychic manifestations have three main types: offensive manifestations, defensive manifestations, and thought-form creatures. For the purpose of concentration checks, creating a manifestation is considered casting a spell with a spell level equal to the number of MP spent to create the manifestation. The combatant creating the manifestation treats her manifesting level as her caster level for such checks.

Offensive Manifestation (Full-Round Action)

Source Occult Adventures pg. 202
This type of manifestation is a direct attack on an opponent, a thought-form creature, or both. An offensive manifestation can attack a variety of defenses, depending on the number of MP spent and the desires of its creator. Creating an offensive manifestation requires three steps.

Step 1—Create Sensory Effects: Combatants creating psychic manifestations are limited only by their imaginations as to the look, sound, feel, and smell of each manifestation; these sensory effects guide combatants in their later choices. For example, if a combatant envisions an offensive manifestation as a giant ball of lava he throws at his opponent, that might suggest that the attack should force a Reflex saving throw rather than targeting the opponent’s AC. Regardless of the effect’s form, damage dealt by a manifestation is always untyped damage, and can be mitigated only by defensive manifestations.

Step 2—Determine Attack Type: By default, an offensive manifestation acts as either a melee or ranged attack (creator’s choice) that resolves against a single target’s AC. The creator can have the manifestation resolve against touch AC instead by increasing the cost by 2 MP.

Alternatively, the creator can instead force both his opponent and any thought-form creature it controls to attempt a saving throw to avoid the effect; this increases the cost by 1 MP. The DC is equal to 10 + the total number of MP spent + the Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma bonus of the creator (whichever is highest). The creator chooses which kind of saving throw—Fortitude, Reflex, or Will—the target must attempt. By default, a successful save negates the manifestation’s damage, but the creator can increase the cost by an additional 1 MP to cause the manifestation to deal half damage on a successful save.

If an offensive manifestation’s effects can be negated or reduced with a saving throw, the creator can increase the cost to have the manifestation apply a condition.

Step 3—Determine Damage and Conditions: After determining the manifestation’s attack type, the creator determines its number of damage dice. The creator must spend at least 1 MP on damage, which grants the manifestation 1 damage die, but she can spend more to increase the number of dice, as shown on the table below.

MP Spent on DamageNumber of Damage Dice
1 MP1 die
2 MP4 dice
3 MP6 dice
4 MP8 dice
5 MP10 dice
6 MP12 dice
7 MP14 dice
8 MP16 dice
9 MP1 die per creator's manifesting level (maximum 20 dice)


The manifestation’s damage die type depends on the source of the manifestation’s MP. Psychic spells and spell-like abilities sacrificed grant d8s. Arcane spells and other spell-like abilities grant d6s. All other methods of generating MP (including mixed methods) grant d4s. If the manifestation’s attack resolves against AC or touch AC, a natural 20 on the attack roll threatens a critical hit for double damage.

If the manifestation allows a saving throw, the creator can spend additional MP to add one condition from the list below (she must still spend at least 1 MP on damage). A successful saving throw always negates the condition. Conditions gained in a psychic duel end if the duel ends before the condition’s normal duration expires. The conditions below otherwise follow the normal rules for those conditions, with the following exceptions and additions.

Blinded (3 MP): Affected creatures are blinded for 1 round; they can’t use offensive manifestations that require saves.

Confused (3 MP): The affected creatures are confused for 1 round, breaking concentration automatically. If an affected creature is forced to attack the nearest creature, it attacks its opponent’s thought-form creature if one exists, or the opponent if not. A confused combatant never attacks her own thought-form creature, or vice versa. This condition can be applied only to manifestations that require Will saves.

Dazed (4 MP): The affected creatures are dazed for 1 round. A dazed combatant can continue to concentrate on thoughtform creatures and create defensive manifestations, but can’t create thought-form creatures or offensive manifestations. This condition can be applied only to manifestations that require Will saves.

Entangled (2 MP): The affected creatures are entangled until they take a full-round action to end this condition. This condition can be applied only to manifestations that require Reflex saves.

Nauseated (4 MP): The affected creatures are nauseated for 1 round. A nauseated creature can create only defensive manifestations. This condition can be applied only to manifestations that require Fortitude saves.

Shaken (1 MP): The affected creatures are shaken for 1d4 rounds. This condition can be applied only to manifestations that require Will saves.

Defensive Manifestation (Action Type Varies)

Source Occult Adventures pg. 203
Defensive manifestations protect a combatant from her opponent’s manifestations. A combatant in a psychic duel can manifest the following defensive abilities.

Evasive Mind (1 or more MP; swift action): The combatant gains a +2 bonus on all saving throws and gains evasion for a number of rounds equal to the number of MP she spent to create this manifestation.

Hardened Mind (1 to 4 MP; swift action): For 1 round, the combatant’s Armor Class increases by an amount equal to the number of MP she spent to create this manifestation, and her touch AC increases by half that (minimum +0).

Thought Barrier (1 or more MP; swift action): A thought barrier reduces the damage dealt to the combatant by offensive manifestations and thought-form creatures by 5 points. This manifestation lasts for a number of rounds equal to the number of MP the combatant spent to create it.

Disruptive Counter (variable MP; immediate action): When the combatant’s opponent creates a manifestation, the combatant can spend a number of MP equal to that manifestation’s cost + 2 to counter that manifestation. When she does, any currently active thought-form creatures or defensive manifestations she has are dismissed.

Nimble Mind (2 MP; immediate action): When the combatant is attacked with an offensive manifestation that targets her touch AC, this ability changes it to target her full AC.

Psychic Redirect (1 MP; immediate action): When the combatant would take damage while she has a thoughtform creature active, she can use this ability to apply the damage to her thought-form creature instead. If the attack targets both the combatant and the thought-form creature, the thought-form creature takes the damage for both itself and the combatant and suffers any condition conferred by the attack, but the combatant suffers no effects.

Thought-Form Creature (1-Round Action)

Source Occult Adventures pg. 204
A thought-form creature is a mentally constructed thrall that takes any form its creator desires. Creating a thought-form creature takes 1 full round (as if the creator were casting a spell with a 1-round casting time) and lasts as long as its creator concentrates on the creature’s existence as a full-round action; a combatant can manifest only one thought-form creature at a time. A thought-form creature must make its attacks against another thought-form creature if one is manifested; if not, it can attack its creator’s opponent. The creature makes its attacks when its creator uses a full-round action to concentrate on the thought-form creature. When a thought-from creature is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points, it disappears and its creator takes an amount of damage equal to the thought-form creature’s psychic backlash (see Thought-Form Creature Statistics below). A thought-form creature can be dismissed as a free action.

A basic thought-form creature costs 1 MP to create, and has the following base statistics.

Thought-Form Creature Statistics: AC creator’s AC; touch AC creator’s touch AC; hp 1/2 creator’s current hit points; Attack Bonus creator’s manifesting level + creator’s Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier (whichever is highest); Damage 1d6 + creator’s Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier (whichever is highest); Saves creator’s save bonuses; Psychic Backlash 1d10 + the MP cost of the thought-form creature.

Thought-Form Creature Augmentations: When creating a thought-form creature, the creator can apply any of the following augmentations, up to her maximum MP limit.

Increase Attack Bonus: Increase the cost by up to 4 MP to increase the thought-form creature’s attack bonus on all its attacks by the same amount.

Extra Attacks: Increase the cost by 2 MP to grant the thought-form creature a second attack each round. Increasing the cost by an additional 2 MP grants it a third attack, but the creature makes the third attack at a –5 penalty.

Increase Armor Class: Increase the cost by up to 4 MP to increase the thought-form creature’s AC by the same amount and its touch AC by half that amount.

Increase Saving Throws: Increase the cost by 2 or 4 MP to increase the bonus on all of the thought-form creature’s saving throws by half that amount.

Increase Hit Points: Increase the cost by up to 4 MP to increase the thought-form creature’s hit points by 10 × that amount.

Increase Damage: Increase the cost by 1 MP to increase the thought-form creature’s damage die type for all its attacks to d8, or by 2 MP to increase the damage die type to d10. If the thought-form creature has only one attack, its damage bonus with that attack increases to 1-1/2 × the creator’s Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma bonus (whichever is highest).

Protective Ability: Increase the cost by 1 MP to grant the creator a +4 bonus to AC (both normal and touch), a +2 bonus on Reflex saving throws, and evasion for as long as this thought-form creature exists. Increasing the cost by an additional 2 MP also grants the creator immunity to attacks against AC or touch AC for as long as this thought-form creature exists.