Starfinder Theosophy and Psychic Powers for Really Wild West

While magic and full-blown spells are known to exist in the pulp-fantasy 1891 for the Really Wild West setting hack of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, and considerable study in codifying their scope and limitations has taken place over the past century, they are not the only supernatural powers available to delvers into the occult. With the growth of Theosophy, and the radically increased communication between various cultures and esoteric traditions in the Age of Steam, numerous wise folk, parapsychologists, charismatic preachers, shamans, and madmen have become practicing psychics, able to use the power of their minds to impact the world around them.
There powers are represented with a feat, Practicing Psychic, which gives access to a series of additional tasks that can be performed with the Mysticism skill, known as “Mysticism skill unlocks.”

PRACTICING PSYCHIC
You have opened your third eye, learned the ancient ways, mastered the fourth circle of the Secret Masters, attuned your chi, met your fylgja, gained your Doctorate of Theosophy, or otherwise become adept in manipulating the phrenic energies of the mind.
Benefit: Mysticism is a class skill for you. If it is a class skill from some other source than this feat, you instead gain a +1 bonus to Mysticism checks. You do not have to meet the Charisma requirement of the Minor Psychic Power feat, or any feat that has that as a prerequisite. Additionally, you can select one Mysticism Skill Unlock. Once made, this choice cannot be changed.
Special: You can take this feat more than once. Its effects do not stack. Instead, each time you take it after the first, you gain two additional Mysticism Skill Unlocks.

MYSTICISM SKILL UNLOCKS
The tasks you can perform using the Mysticism skill if you have gained access to them through Mysticism Skill Unlocks (such as from the Practicing Psychic feat)—automatic writing, cloud minds, dowsing, faith healing, hypnotism, psychometry, and thought transference—are detailed below. Several of these tasks have sub-tasks you can attempt if you have access to the main skill unlock.

AUTOMATIC WRITING
You can produce mysterious writing that pertains to the immediate future, either under the influence of enigmatic guiding spirits or by unleashing your subconscious intuition.
Once per week, you can spend 1 hour posing questions while your hand unconsciously scribbles messages of varying legibility and accuracy. At the end of this hour, you attempt a Mysticism check to decipher the meanings of these messages. If successful, you gain information as though you had used augury, except the time frame of the information gathered can be up to a week in advance (but the longer it is, the more likely the GM is to conclude the contemplated action will bring both good and bad consequences, since consequences become more difficult to predict further out).
If you have 10 or more ranks in Mysticism, you can attempt a higher DC check to instead gain information as though you had used divination. The chance of successfully producing coherent or meaningful writing from any of these effects equals 60% plus 5% for every 1 by which your check result exceeds the DC (to a maximum of 90%). You must choose which DC you’ll try to meet before attempting the check. The GM rolls the check and d% roll secretly, so that you can’t tell whether the messages are accurate.

Writing Results  Ranks Required DC
As augury spell  1             20
As divination spell            10           30

CLOUD MINDS
You can cloud the minds of thinking creatures so they don’t realize where you are. As a standard action you can make a Mysticism check and a Stealth check, using the lower of the two checks as a Stealth check to hide against any thinking creature (but not traps or mindless creatures) without needing cover or concealment. You can even speak without creatures being able to find you without a successful perception check. This ability lasts until the end of your next turn, but creatures get a +10 bonus to Perception checks to notice you on the next round. This is a mind-affecting, sense-dependent effect.

DOWSING
You channel mysterious forces in the nearby environment to locate hidden resources. Once per day, you can follow a dowsing rod’s movements to locate a particular type of location. Each attempt requires 10 minutes of intense concentration, after which you attempt the Mysticism check with the DC listed on the table below. The maximum range at which you can detect anything using dowsing is 400 feet + 40 feet per rank in Mysticism you possess. The rod’s directions persist for up to 10 minutes. You choose a particular target each time you dowse, and get the following information on a successful check.
Find Water: The dowsing rod points toward the largest source of fresh water within range, including aquifers, lakes, ponds, and springs.
Grave Dowsing: The dowsing rod points in the direction of the largest burial site, cairn, or tomb within range.
Locate Metal and Gems: You concentrate on a specific metal or mineral. On a successful check, the dowsing rod points to the largest quantity of the selected mineral within range.

Dowsing Target DC
Water    15
Grave    20
Mineral 25

FAITH HEALING
You apply esoteric principles to temporarily suspend or remove afflictions (curses, drugs, diseases, and poisons). You can use faith healing once per day. The DC and effect of the Heal check depend on the task you attempt. You can’t use faith healing on yourself.
Suspend Affliction: You treat one curse, disease, drug, or poison affecting a creature. You enter into a deep trance for 1 hour while you treat the subject, after which you attempt your Mysticism check (with a DC equal to the afflictions DC, or 25 for afflictions without save DCs). If the check is successful, you suspend the effects of the affliction by 1 hour, plus 1 hour for every 5 by which you exceed the DC. This time doesn’t count against the effect’s duration (if any). The affliction can still be cured by other means while it’s suspended.
Remove Affliction: You can attempt to permanently remove an affliction in an 8-hour ceremony, after which you attempt a Mysticism check, with a DC equal to the DC to suspend it +15. If your check succeeds the affects is suspended, and the sufferer can attempt another saving throw using the original DC to permanently cast off the effect.

HYPNOTISM
You use the power of suggestion and subtle psychic influence to alter a subject’s mind and dredge up repressed memories. You can use hypnotism once per day. Hypnotism requires one minute of calm, uninterrupted interaction—it is impossible in crowded rooms, loud areas, and anyplace where both you and the subject aren’t free to take 10 on most skill checks—though you cannot take 10 on skill checks to hypnotize a subject unless the subject is both aware and cooperating with the attempt.
The DC of a Mysticism check to hypnotize is 20 + the subject’s Will save modifier against mind-affecting enchantment (compulsion) effects. All uses of hypnotism are mind-affecting enchantment (compulsion), sense-dependent, language-dependent effects.
Implant Suggestion: You can implant a suggested course of reasonable action in the mind of a willing creature, along with a defined trigger. To implant a suggestion, you spend 1 minute inducing a trance-like state in the subject, after which you attempt a Mysticism check. You can attempt to subtly implant a suggestion in the mind of an unwilling creature with an attitude of indifferent or better after 1 minute of continuous, calm interaction with that creature rather than being obvious about it with a willing target, but the DC is 10 higher.
If the check is successful, you implant the course of action, as a suggestion spell with a duration of 10 minutes plus 10 additional minutes for every 1 by which your check result exceeds the DC. If the suggestion is one the subject would not perform for a creature it had a reaction of Indifferent toward, once it has an opportunity to act on the suggestion  it can attempt a Will save once each round to shake off the effects. The save DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Charisma modifier.
This is a mind-affecting, sense-dependent effect.
Recall Memory: You can draw out forgotten memories from a willing subject. You spend 1 minute inducing a calming, trance-like state in the subject, after which you attempt a Mysticism check. If you succeed at the check, the hypnotized creature can reroll any previously failed Intelligence or Knowledge check to recall the forgotten information with a +4 bonus. The information must be something the subject once knew or was exposed to.
This is a mind-affecting, sense-dependent effect.

PSYCHOMETRY
You can read the psychic impressions left on objects or in places by previous owners and events.
Once per day, you can concentrate for 1 minute while in physical contact with an item or location, during which you receive flashes of insight regarding the subject’s nature and ownership. After 1 minute, you attempt a DC 15 Mysticism check to decipher the visions. You gain one piece of information about the historical significance or the last previous owner—such as a glimpse of the last owner’s appearance or its emotional state when it last used the item—determined by the GM. You learn one more piece of information for every 10 by which your check result exceeds the DC, as long as you concentrate for 1 additional minute for each piece of information. If you fail the check by less than 5 or the item has no significant psychic imprint, you don’t learn any information. If you fail this check by 5 or more, the item appears to be psychically significant even if it’s not, and the information you gain is wildly inaccurate.
If you attempt to use psychometry on an item affected by a spell or effect that hides its true nature or history, you automatically learn all the false information imprinted by the spell or effect. You must also attempt a Will save (DC 15 +1/2 the level of the creature that created the spell or effect). If you succeed at this save, you realize the implanted information was false, and can determine the true information as well. On a failed save, you believe the implanted information is true.

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE
Once per round without taking an action, you can make a Mysticism check to attempt to pass a secret message without speaking. If you exceed the DC by 5 or more, the recipient can send a secret message back to you in the same way. Only creatures with the thought transference skill unlock, limited telepathy, or telepathy can make opposed Sense Motive checks to attempt to learn the gist of the message. The DC for this increases by +10 if you attempt to use it on creatures you are not currently perceiving, and +20 if you attempt to us it on creatures a mile or more away.

PATREON
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About Owen K.C. Stephens

Owen K.C. Stephens Owen Kirker Clifford Stephens is a full-time ttRPG Writer, designer, developer, publisher, and consultant. He's the publisher for Rogue Genius Games, and has served as the Starfinder Design Lead for Paizo Publishing, the Freeport and Pathfinder RPG developer for Green Ronin, a developer for Rite Publishing, and the Editor-in-Chief for Evil Genius Games. Owen has written game material for numerous other companies, including Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, White Wolf, Steve Jackson Games and Upper Deck. He also consults, freelances, and in the off season, sleeps. He has a Pateon which supports his online work. You can find it at https://www.patreon.com/OwenKCStephens

Posted on May 5, 2018, in Anachronistic Adventurers, Game Design, Starfinder Development and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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