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 Psionic Mastery
A System of Rules:

Overview:
These rules are meant to give you guidance to add a psionic element to a PC or NPC. These
rules were written to evoke the feel of training a character’s psychic capabilities over the course
of an adventure in order to hone their mastery over them. The rules of psionic mastery are
therefore meant to be used as a downtime activity, and something that will take many in-game
days to fully master.

Lack of control over your psionic powers is very much to be expected, especially at the
beginning of your road towards mastery. This is to replicate the feeling of a character struggling
to control their psychic powers at first, only to become a master of them after hours of dedicated
training. Do not feel discouraged if most of your first attempts to train your psionic powers fail.

With regard to questions of balance, these psionic powers offer a boon to characters, but they
have been written for them to be boons that mostly affect out-of-combat situations, and for these
to not disrupt general character progression more than your average magic item would. If you
are a GM concerned about balance, you can make it so that the character with psionic powers
doesn’t get as many magical items tailored to them as their companions.

Psionic Mastery Rules

Your character was either born with latent psionic abilities or gained them later on in life. You
have little control over these powers, but through rigorous training, you may hone your psionic
skills to use them to your benefit both in and out of battle.

You can train your psionic abilities once a day, and must complete a long rest before you are
able to train again. Training takes one hour of your undivided attention, and this hour is not
considered light activity for the purposes of resting. At the end of this hour, you may roll a check
to see whether your training is successful. This check cannot be assisted by any spells, and
only creatures with psionic abilities may use the Help action to give you advantage on this
check. On a success, check one square on the “Number of Successes” row of the table below.
When you reach a certain number of successes, you unlock a new psionic power. The DC for
these checks starts out high, and is lowered as your mastery over your psionic abilities grows.
You choose whether you make a Charisma, Constitution, Intelligence, or a Wisdom check to
succeed on your training. This decision indicates whether you are harnessing and channeling
your psionic powers with your strong sense of self, with the strength of your body, with your
intellect and careful study, or with sheer force of will.

Optional Rule: You may choose to make this check with any ability, including Dexterity and
Strength. Being able to choose any ability evens the playing field so that specific character
builds are not condemned to be worse at harnessing their psionic powers than others, even if
this leads to ability checks that would make less sense than others in fiction.

Powers DC 24: Telekinesis DC 22: Telepathy DC 20: Mind Reading

Number of Successes

Powers DC 18: Calming Mind DC 16: Improved Telepathy

Number of Successes

Powers DC 14: Far Telepathy DC 12: Psionic Puppetry

Number of Successes

Psionic Powers
These are the powers unlocked when attaining a certain number of successes on the table
above. Once you have mastered Psionic Puppetry, with a DC of 12 and requiring 7 successes to
master, you unlock the last power, Psionic Flight. After unlocking Psionic Flight, you have no
more need to train. You have attained true mastery over your psionic abilities.

DC 24 - Telekinesis:
You can use a modified, psionic version of the mage hand cantrip. The hand is invisible, its
range is 60 feet, and does not require verbal or somatic components for you to cast.

DC 22 - Telepathy:
You are able to communicate telepathically at will with one creature at a time within 60 feet from
you that knows any language.
DC 20 - Mind Reading:
You can use a modified, psionic version of the detect thoughts spell. It lasts for 10 minutes
instead of 1, and does not require verbal, somatic, or material components, but it only allows
you to learn the surface thoughts of a creature. You must concentrate on maintaining this power
for its duration as if you were concentrating on a spell. You can use this power a number of
times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all expended uses after finishing a long rest.

DC 18 - Calming Mind:
You can use a modified, psionic version of the calm emotions spell. It lasts for 10 minutes,
instead of 1, and does not require verbal or somatic components, but you can’t use it to
suppress effects causing a target to be charmed or frightened. You must concentrate on
maintaining this power for its duration as if you were concentrating on a spell. You can use this
power a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all expended uses after
finishing a long rest.

DC 16 - Improved Telepathy:
As an action, you create a link between the minds of up to 6 creatures of your choice that you
can see. As long as those creatures stay within 200 feet of you, they are able to communicate
telepathically with one another. Creatures with an Intelligence of 3 or lower or creatures that
don’t know any languages cannot be communicated with telepathically. If one creature
connected telepathically to other creatures leaves the 200-foot range, the link is severed
between them and the other creatures, even if they enter the 200-foot range again.

DC 14 - Far Telepathy:
You can use a modified, psionic version of the sending spell. It does not require verbal, somatic,
or material components and you can choose to either send a message of 50 words or less and
receive a reply that is also 50 words or less, or send one message that is 25 words or less,
receive a reply that is 25 words or less, and then send another message of the same length that
can also be replied to. You can only send a message to a creature with whom you have
communicated telepathically before. Once you’ve used this power you can’t use it again until
you finish a long rest.

DC 12 - Psionic Puppetry:
You can extend the will of your mind over the minds of other creatures. As an action, you invade
the mind of a creature you can see within 60 feet of you. The creature must make an
Intelligence saving throw. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 plus the number of psionic
powers you can currently use. On a failure, the target is under your control for ten minutes. It will
answer any question honestly and carry out any tasks you command it to perform to the best of
its ability as long as your command isn’t obviously harmful to it. Asking the creature to stab
itself, throw itself onto a spear, immolate itself, or do some other obviously harmful act ends your
control over the creature. If you or your allies damage the target, the psionic control is
immediately severed.

NO DC - Psionic Flight:
As a bonus action, you can use your psionic powers to levitate off of the ground. For 10
minutes, you gain a flying speed of 40 feet and are considered to be hovering while in flight. You
can use this power a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all expended
uses after finishing a long rest.
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