PSICLASH: Quick rules for psionic duels

 

Two psions can choose to engage in psychic battle. 

Duels are conducted by rolling attack dice and adding to a shared total called PRESSURE.
Attacks come in 3 forms: 

• HEAVY (d8) 
• VARIED (d6) 
• SUBTLE (d4) 

Initiative is rolled each round; the winner chooses whether they act first or second. Whoever goes first decides which form of attack to make, rolls the dice, and adds the result to the PRESSURE score.

The psion that causes the PRESSURE to exceed 21 becomes overwhelmed by their opponent. The opponent rolls their power dice and inflicts that much damage. For every power a psion has above their first, they can once per round roll their attack dice twice and choose the result. 

If a psion raises the PRESSURE to exactly 21, they overwhelm their foe and make two power dice rolls instead of one to determine damage.

Duels continue until one side would be reduced to 0 hp, at which point the victor can either kill their opponent (typically by exploding their head) or forego dealing damage and choose one of the following: 

• PHASE: foe suffers a psychic shock of the victor's choosing. 
• DOMINATE: victor overrides the foe’s nervous system and controls them for 2d6 days, after which the foe becomes permanently catatonic.
• CRUSH: victor destroys all or part of the foe's mind. Can erase memories, remove certain faculties and abilities, or extinguish their cognition (as per the Feeblemind spell).

Regardless of what is chosen, there is a 50% chance after the duel that the victor learns one of their foe's psionic powers.

No other action can be performed during a duel. One round in a duel is equal to one round in real time. Psions are only vaguely aware of what is happening outside of a duel—they are otherwise completely engrossed psychic combat. Sustaining damage from a source external to the duel imposes a -1 penalty to initiative but otherwise does nothing to break a psion's concentration. 

Both sides can agree to end the duel at the start of a round. If only one side wishes to break free, they must succeed on a saving throw vs. spells before rolling initiative.