Sign In Sign-Up

Welcome!

Close

Would you like to make this site your homepage? It's fast and easy...

Yes, Please make this my home page!

No Thanks

  Don't show this to me again.

Close

Psychic Powers

Page 4 of 8

Back To Page 3

Biomancy Powers

Biomancy is the psychic manipulation of biological energy and processes with the power of the mind. This allows them to change or influence the physical form of themselves or others. There is the mistaken belief that biomancers are also capable of controlling other aspects of nature, particularly the weather, stemming from powers that simulate the effects of these aspects, such as Sunburn or Storm of Lightning.

The biomancer can stimulate spontaneous growth and ageing into any animal or plant. The effects of this ageing process, while awe-inspiring in plants, are utterly terrifying in humans and animals. This power can only be cast on a victim in physical contact with the biomancer.

Over a few seconds, the victim ages by a number of years equal to the margin of success. The GM may rule that this ageing will kill a victim. If the victim is a child or young animal, he or she will increase physically, but still retain the mental capacity of a child. If the victim is already mature, old age, illness and senility may set in, affecting characteristics and abilities. If the victim is elderly, it is all too possible that death may occur.

See the Character Generation rules for guidelines regarding the characteristics of particularly young or elderly characters.

Ten years hair and fingernail growth will halve the character’s Initiative (for all purposes) until trimmed.

Because of the horrifying nature (and excruciating physical pain) of accelerated ageing, the victim must take a Nerve test or gain D10 Insanity points. The victim’s allies, as well as any bystanders, must also take a Nerve test, although the penalty for failing is only D3 Insanity points.

Over a few seconds, the plant ages by a number of years equal to the margin of success, multiplied by ten. It will grow as normal, but must have enough soil in which to spread its roots.

Note that tree roots are easily capable of burrowing through and splitting solid rock or other solid substances.

When cast on a plant, treat the power as having a Difficulty of 15.

The biomancer somehow manages to psychically engineer some of the harmless bacteria within a target’s body, transforming them into something far more toxic. The victim is infected with a disease chosen from the Diseases section.

The biomancer reaches into the target’s body with his mind, rapidly accelerating the pulse and pushing blood pressure to near-lethal levels. Often, blood vessels near the victim’s skin rupture, causing spontaneous haemorrhaging. The most spectacular results involve the heart and brain literally exploding, spraying those nearby with bone and tissue.

For every 30 points by which the Psychic test was passed, the target’s head and torso take a level of location injury each. Armour and force fields have no effect against Blood Boil.

This works in exactly the same manner as Blood Boil, but the temperature of the blood is lowered, rather than raised. Death tends to result from oxygen starvation and internal tissue damage.

The biomancer weakens part of a target’s skeletal structure, causing bone to crumble and splinter. The D100 result of the Psychic test is reversed to determine the location affected. No location injury is inflicted, but the target loses 2D6 hit points due to the pain of having the bones broken. The margin of success determines what injuries are inflicted:

The biomancer imbues a corpse or dead plant with the energy needed to reanimate for a short period of time. Recently deceased creatures retain most of their memories from life, although the longer the creature has been dead, the greater the neural decay and loss of memory. Even though they remember their life, and may act upon these memories, they cannot relate to the world around them in any emotional manner. A reanimated animal or person will have no personality (this left with the creature’s soul), acting only on instinct. The biomancer can attempt to give orders to the reanimated corpse, but must take a Leadership test each time to determine success. When the duration of the power comes to an end, the subject dies again.

With a simple gesture, the biomancer reaches out with his powers and remotely pinches tight the target’s windpipe. The victim is stunned for a number of rounds equal to the margin of success divided by ten. If the victim is stunned for a number of rounds greater than his Toughness divided by 10, he immediately loses consciousness for D10 minutes.

Thanks to the biomancer’s massive over-stimulation of the target’s sweat pores, the target immediately feels seriously dehydrated, and begins suffering the effects of dehydration as if the period of grace had just ended. This lasts for a number of hours equal to the power’s margin of success, and no amount of drinking can replace lost fluids (the sweating increases the more water is given to the character). A character killed by this power will literally have sweated to death.

Alternatively, the power can be used to cause a plant to wither and eventually die, although hardy plant varieties will probably recover if the duration of the power was less than a day or so.

The biomancer makes him or herself, or a single other animal or person that he touches, utterly repellent to a single type of parasite (e.g. bed bugs, fleas, ticks, alien mind-control parasites). Any parasites in the subject will immediately leave (possibly infesting characters nearby).

The biomancer manipulates his muscles, and the pigment of his hair and skin, to become a near-perfect double of any other person of whom he has a detailed image. Normally, this requires the person being imitated to be present, but a high-resolution, three-dimensional pict-image or holographic recording may be used. The person being imitated need not be alive in order to be copied. In fact, a severed head will do, although this will remove information like height and build, thus making for a less effective double. A character can only imitate a member of the same species or sub-species.

The biomancer is able to maintain the doppelganger imitation for a number of minutes equal to the Psychic test’s margin of success. While in the subject’s physical form, the biomancer retains his or her original characteristics. The biomancer has a +20 modifier to any attempts to Bluff anyone into believing that he or she is the subject, although this can be modified upwards if the other character is not familiar with the subject, or downwards if the other character knows the subject well (a lover, family member or lifelong friend, for example).

Psychic probing, fingerprinting, retinal scans, DNA tests, voice patterns and so on will always reveal the fake.

The biomancer saps the vigour from the target’s body, reducing the target’s Strength by a number of points equal to the margin of success. Characters reduced to 0 Strength or less collapse unconscious. When the power’s effects come to an end, lost Strength points are recovered and unconscious characters will regain consciousness at the start of their next round.

The biomancer hardens the flesh of his fists and strengthens the tendons and muscles in his arms, turning them into effective weapons.

For the duration of the power’s effects, the biomancer’s unarmed close combat attacks count as coming from improvised weapons, and his Strength is doubled. The GM may also decide that the biomancer takes less damage when his hands are exposed to injury.

The biomancer enhances his or her senses to the acuity of a hunting animal or bird of prey. All Awareness tests taken while the power is in effect gain an Initiative bonus equal to the margin of success.

The biomancer fortifies his resistance to poisons and disease, granting him a positive modifier, equal to the margin of success, to any Resistance tests against diseases, toxins (including gases) and animal venom.

The biomancer can create plant life where there was none before. This miraculous ability is common amongst so-called ‘elementalists’ in primitive cultures, who believe they are drawing on the energies of the earth, rather than the power of their own minds.

Vegetation erupts from the ground around the biomancer’s feet, spreading outwards in a carpet of green. The vegetation will be of a type native to the area, and will spread a distance equal to the margin of success in yards. The growth takes place within a single round, taking the plants to full maturity within that time. The dense vegetation counts as difficult ground for anyone within the area (except for the caster, for whom the plants will part).

This power cannot be used in an area where plants could not possibly exist, like the depths of space, although it will work in urban environments where there is a heritage of plant life – even the streets of a hive world could sprout with long-extinct native vegetation.

If the plants do not receive nutrition (water, fertile soil etc.), they will wither and die within a day or so.

The biomancer alters the physical makeup of his own mind, increasing his intelligence, language skills and blocking certain feelings, such as fear. For the duration of the power’s effects, the biomancer’s mental characteristics are increased by the margin of success.

The biomancer distorts the victim’s biological makeup in some unnatural manner, causing the spontaneous development of a mutation. This power can only be cast on a victim in physical contact with the biomancer.

The victim immediately develops a mutation rolled randomly on the Mutations table. This sudden, revolting, transformation causes the victim to automatically gain D10 Insanity points. The GM may rule that more Insanity points be gained if the victim has a highly intolerant attitude towards mutants.

The mutation cannot be removed by any means short of amputation, which in some cases may be impractical or dangerous to the bearer. Although the mutation is created by a psychic power, it is not a Chaos attribute, and therefore won’t grow back if amputated.

By touching an injury, either on himself or others, the biomancer is capable of knitting together flesh and closing wounds using his mental power. The biomancer can touch any location, healing one level of location injury and D6 hit points for every 10 points, or part, by which the Psychic test was passed. Alternatively, the effects of a single crippling injury, disease, or other malady (such as radiation sickness) can be healed.

The biomancer causes any single piece of dead organic matter to decompose into dust or sludge. This can be the handle of an opponent’s pistol, clothing, leather armour, food, a wooden fence, a corpse, and so on. Living creatures cannot be harmed by this power. The largest item that can be affected by this power is a one-yard cube.

The biomancer’s fists are enveloped in crackling bio-electricity. Any unarmed close combat hits can neutralise an opponent in the same manner as a shock weapon.

A spark of bio-electricity leaps from the biomancer’s fingertip. This spark is not powerful enough to cause location injury, but causes D3 damage to any target hit. It can also be used to jump start engines, set light to flammable materials, and so on.

This power can only be used against targets in physical contact with the biomancer.

The biomancer can cause organic structures to split open. The structure can be made of wood, bone, flesh or any other organic material, but not substances like metal, stone, brick or concrete. The rupture in the structure is one yard in diameter. Larger ruptures can be created with a –5 penalty to the Psychic test per additional yard of diameter.

Structures attacked with this power may collapse.

The biomancer lashes out with a storm of bio-electricity. This is a psychic bolt with the following profile:

Each hit electrocutes the target, and the shock will try to earth itself through the character’s body. See the GM’s Section for more details on electrocution.

The biomancer temporarily converts the target’s melanin into some other substance, making the target’s skin visibly paler and incredibly susceptible to damage from ultra-violet light. For the duration of the power, the target suffers D3 damage per round for every location not protected from sunlight or other UV sources. This damage does not cause location injury, but is painful and may cause permanent scarring or skin cancer in particularly bad cases.

Note that this power is of limited use indoors, and is virtually useless at night.

The biomancer raises or lowers his body temperature beyond levels that would normally be fatal. The biomancer is not harmed in any way. A biomancer with a significantly raised temperature can be used as a source of heat. A cooled biomancer will not register on heat sensors or infra-red auspexes.

The biomancer invigorates himself with psychic energy, letting the power of the warp flow through muscles, tendons and bones, giving him amazing strength. The biomancer’s Strength characteristic is increased by the Psychic test’s margin of success.

Forward To Page 5