Metapsionics is the rarest and most esoteric of the psychic disciplines, with few psychics having the necessary temperament or interest in developing these complex abilities. A metapsion controls psychic energy itself, molding and shaping the flows of energy that spill through the brains of those marked by MES.
Taken in isolation, metapsionics allows a psychic to increase the raw Effort available to them and become more flexible in how this Effort is used. Expert metapsions can even teach other potential psychics how to control and channel their new abilities, and the services of a trained psychic mentor command considerable sums in most systems.
Beyond this, in most stellar sectors a competent metapsion is the only practical way to protect a target from undetectable psychic assault. Without a vigilant brainguard, a head of state, interstellar celebrity, or planetary oligarch might find their minds rifled effortlessly by some undetected psychic intruder.
As a consequence, many metapsions become much more physically competent and better-trained in combat than the average psychic. The high prices they can command as brainguards attract some, though others find their clients too aggravating to endure for long.
Psychic Refinement
Core Technique
The metapsion gains improved mastery over their own powers and an innate sensitivity to the use of psionic abilities in their presence.
Level-0: The adept can visually and audibly detect the use of psychic powers. If both the source and tar-get are visible to the metapsion, they can tell who’s using the power, even if it’s normally imperceptible. They gain a +2 bonus on any saving throw versus a psionic power.
Level-1: The metapsion’s maximum Effort increases by an additional point.
Level-2: The adept can determine whether or not a person is a psychic or has latent psionic abilities through one round of visual inspection. Their saving throw bonus against psionic powers increases to +3.
Level-3: The metapsion’s maximum Effort increases by an additional point.
Level-4: The metapsion can perform a slightly safer version of torching. Instead of rolling the torching damage die, they simply suffer 10 hit points of damage after torching is used. The damage occurs after the fueled power activates, allowing a psychic at low hit points to trigger a power before falling unconscious. This damage cannot be healed by anything but natural bed rest, though a psychic can be stabilized if this technique drops her to zero hit points.
Cloak Powers
Level-1
The metapsion can conceal their own psychic abilities from metapsionic senses. They must Commit Effort for as long as they wish to cloak their powers. While hidden, only a metapsion with equal or higher skill in Metapsionics can detect their abilities with their level-0 or level-2 Psychic Refinement abilities. In such cases, an opposed Wis/Metapsionics roll is made between the metapsion and the investigator. If the investigator wins, the cloak is pierced, while if the metapsion wins, the investigator’s Psychic Refinement remains oblivious.
Mindtracing
Level-1
The metapsion can trace back the use of psionic powers they’ve noticed in their presence. By Committing Ef-fort for the scene as an Instant action, they can see and hear through the senses of a user of a psychic power, gaining an intuitive awareness of their location and treating them as a visible target for purposes of their own abilities. Thus, if they see someone being affected by a telepathy power with no visible source, they can use this ability to briefly share the hidden telepath’s senses. If used on a target that is teleporting, they can perceive the teleporter’s view of their destination. Use on a metamorphically-shaped impostor would reveal the biopsion responsible for the change, and so forth. These shared senses last for only one round and do not interfere with the adept’s other actions.
Synthetic Adaptation
Level-1
This is a particularly esoteric technique, one that requires the adept to have at least Program-0 or Fix-0 skill in order to master. With it, however, the metapsion has learned how to synergize with the quantum intelligence of a VI or True AI in order to apply Telepathy or Biopsion powers to their inanimate corpus. Only intelligent machines can be affected, as the technique requires a sentient mind to catalyze the effect.This synergy takes much of its force from the ad-ept. Any System Strain the powers might inflict must be paid by the adept rather than the target.
Neural Trap
Level-2
The metapsion allows a hostile psychic into their mental sanctum in order to gain a later advantage. When targeted by a hostile psionic power that allows a save, the metapsion may Commit Effort as an Instant action and voluntarily fail the saving throw, accepting the effect. The next psychic power the user targets at that assailant then allows the victim no saving throw. This technique lasts until the metapsion makes their psychic attack or reclaims their Committed Effort. A hostile psychic may be affected by only one Neural Trap from a given psychic at a time.
Psychic Static
Level-2
As an Instant action, the metapsion may Commit Effort for the day to negate a perceived psychic power.
The psychic responsible for the effect must Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action to resist this negation, otherwise the power ends and any action used to trigger it is wasted. The PC may then Commit Effort for the day again, with each spending and counter-spending until one runs out of Effort or chooses to stop. Psychic Static can be applied only once per round to any particular power. The target of the Psychic Static automatically knows the position of the interfering metapsion, though other onlookers do not have any obvious way of identifying the metapsion.
Suspended Manifestation
Level-2
The metapsion is capable of “hanging” a psychic power in their brain, forming the energy patterns and then suspending them in a self-sustaining loop until it’s time to trigger their release. The psychic must Commit Effort for the day to hang a power, along with the Effort normally necessary to trigger it. None of this Effort can be recovered until the power is expended, after which it recovers at its usual speed. Activating the power is an Instant action, or an On Turn action if it allows the target a saving throw of some kind. Only one ability can be held suspended at any one time.
Concert of Minds
Level-3
As an On Turn action, the metapsion may Commit Effort and form a psychic gestalt with one or more willing psychics within three meters, including up to one other psychic per Metapsion skill level. This gestalt persists as long as the Effort remains committed, regardless of the subsequent distance between psychics.
On their own turn, any member of the gestalt may use any power or technique known by any other member, using the other member’s skill levels as necessary and paying any Effort cost from their own pool. This gestalt shares only psychic power, not thoughts or senses. At the end of each round in which one or more members have used some other member’s powers or abilities on their turn of action, the metapsion must Commit Effort for the scene or the gestalt drops and cannot be re-established for the rest of the scene.
Metadimensional Friction
Level-3
As a Main Action, the metapsion Commits Effort for the scene to create localized MES turbulence around a visible target psychic within 200 meters. Each time the target Commits Effort or an NPC initiates a psychic power, they suffer 1d8 damage per Metapsionics skill level of the adept. Each time the target suffers the damage they can attempt a Mental saving throw to throw off the effect. It lasts no longer than the rest of the scene at most. Only one application of this friction can affect a target at once.
Psychic Tutelage
Level-3
An expert metapsion can modulate and temper the metadimensional energy that surges through an untrained psychic’s mind. This “safety buffer” allows the novice to experiment with their abilities and gradually develop the control they need to channel their powers without causing permanent brain damage. Without this technique, it is virtually impossible to turn a normal with untapped potential into a trained psychic.
An adept with Metapsionics-3 skill can train up to ten pupils at once. One with Metapsionics-4 can train up to one hundred. It requires only a week to train a potential in ways to avoid accidentally triggering their powers and suffering the damage that follows, but actually teaching them to use their powers effectively takes anywhere from one to four years depending on their natural aptitude and the availability of other psychics willing to assist the metapsion in the training process.
Surge Momentum
Level-3
The metapsion’s abilities can be reinforced with a degree of metadimensional energy that would cause substantial damage to a less adept mind. Particularly weak or unprepared minds might be completely crushed by the force of the adept’s augmented will.The adept must Commit Effort for the day when using a power that normally grants its target a saving throw. The target then suffers a penalty equal to the adept’s Metapsionics skill on any saving throw normally granted by the power. If the target’s hit die total or character level is less than half the adept’s level, rounded up, they automatically fail their saving throw.
Flawless Mastery
Level-4
When this technique is learned, the adept may choose one technique from any discipline they know. That technique no longer requires Effort to be Committed in any way, though other techniques that augment it may still exact a cost. Mastered Psychic Static, for example, can expend an effectively unlimited amount of effort.
If the technique has a duration based on Committed Effort then it lasts until the metapsion chooses to end it or is killed. This technique may only be mastered once, though the perfected technique may be changed with a month of meditation and practice.
Impervious Pavis of Will
Level-4
When this technique is learned, the metapsion must choose a discipline. They then become entirely immune to unwanted powers from that discipline; they and their abilities are simply not valid targets for purposes of that discipline’s powers unless the adept chooses to be affected. By Committing Effort for the day as an Instant action, they can extend this immunity for a scene to all allies within 50 meters. This technique may be learned more than once, and any shared protection applies to all disciplines negated by the adept.