Wild Talents

Every character begins the game knowing a single wild talent. Some characters, such as psions or thri-kreen, have additional psionic abilities. These are detailed under the race or class that grants those abilities.

Using wild talents requires a wisdom check with the DC depending on the wild talent. Failure to make this check results in you losing HP equal to your hit die. This represents the mental strain it takes to use your psionic abilities untrained and doesn’t actually mean you’ve taken physical damage. If your HP reach 0 it means that you have passed out. Any damage taken this way can be restored through rest and spending hit die, magick or potions.

Attraction

This wild talent helps you in dealing with other people. It is a DC 10 wisdom check to use this ability. If you succeed you gain advantage on the next roll you make to affect someone’s mood towards you. Every additional time you use this ability the DC increases by +2. The DC resets to DC 10 after you have an extended rest.

Barrier

This wild talent protects you from psionic attacks. It is a DC 10 wisdom check to erect the barrier initially which lasts for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes you must make another wisdom check with +1 to the DC or lose the barrier. The DC resets to 10 after you have an extended rest.

If you’re attacked with a psionic attack while you have the barrier running, you and the attacker must make opposed wisdom checks to see if the attack succeeds (automatically causing you to lose the barrier). You have advantage on this check.

Contact

This ability allows you to communicate psionically with someone else. The table below determines the DC depending on how far away they are from you:

• DC 10: 100 feet.
• DC 15: 1 mile
• DC 20: 18 miles

This contact lasts for 10 minutes during which time you can communicate with them one way. After 10 minutes you must sever the link or make an additional wisdom check with +2 to the base DC. The DC resets after an extended rest.

Danger Sense

This wild talent warns you when danger is coming. When you roll initiative you can make a DC 10 wisdom check to either avoid being surprised or to gain advantage on the initiative roll.

Heightened Hearing

This wild talent allows you to overhear other conversations much more easily. When you make a listen check you can gain advantage be beating a separate DC 10 wisdom check. This DC increases by +2 every additional time you use it. The DC resets to 10 after an extended rest.

Heightened Smell

This wild talent allows you to track someone by scent. Make a DC 10 wisdom check and you gain the ability to follow someone based on their scent. This ability lasts for 10 minutes at a time, after which you must make another wisdom check with +2 to the DC before or lose this ability. The DC resets to 10 after you have an extended rest.

Mind Over Body

This wild talent allows you to go without food and water for 24 hours without suffering any negative effects. The initial wisdom check is a DC 10. Every day you make an additional check without eating or drinking the DC increases by +1. You cannot attempt to use this ability if you are suffering from the effects of dehydration or starvation.

Know Direction

This wild talent helps you avoid becoming lost. You can imagine a place that you are quite familiar with and then make a DC 10 wisdom check to work out which direction it is. Every time you make another check before resting for the day, the DC increases by +2.

Object Reading

This allows you to pick up impressions left on an object by its previous owner. Listed below are the DCs you must meet to get the relevant information. When attempting to gain particular information you must declare the DC you’re attempting to meet. If you fail this check then you take damage as normal:

• DC 10: Last owner’s race
• DC 13: Last owner’s sex.
• DC 16: Last owner’s age.
• DC 19: How the last owner came to gain the item and how they lost it.
• DC 22: All this information about all past owners.

Retrospection

This ability allows you to try harder to recollect a lost memory. If you make a DC 10 wisdom check you can reroll a failed lore check. If you beat the wisdom check by 5 or more you can reroll the failed lore check with advantage.

Each time you use this ability in a day the DC increases by +2. The DC resets to 10 after an extended rest.

---

Let me know what you think!

Jul 25, 2012 -- 4:08AM, jlpinli40 wrote:

my system is a bit different i could send the write up if you want to take a look.

Definitely. I've been thinking of a "psion" class where you can choose among these "level 1" psion powers. If WotC produces a spellpoint system for a arcane class I'm thinking of stealing it for a homebrew psion class. It would probably only be an NPC class as it would be difficult to create a wide range of psionic abilities (but perfect for me when cooking up NPCs).

Jul 25, 2012 -- 4:08AM, jlpinli40 wrote:

i do have a question though to use a psionic power they have to make a charisma check ? isn't that putting them in a unfair position compared to say a preserver or even a standard gladiator ?

No it's wisdom checks the whole way through. The base material I'm working on had it based on the wisdom modifier and I saw no reason to change that. By being based on wisdom modifier the only classes it coincides with are clerics. Rangers and Druids also use wisdom but I take issue with having a spellcasting ranger class in Dark Sun (it doesn't belong IMO) and I also don't like the idea of druids in Dark Sun (preservers get as close to the idea of a druid as I'm comfortable with).

As for it giving an unfair advantage to clerics, I'm okay with that. In my version of Dark Sun Clerics are granted their powers by their sorcerer-king and are the templars of the city-states. Having a templar be more powerful is something I'm okay with.

I also like it because it adds an extra incentive for characters not to dump wisdom. Too often it's tempting to have a wisdom 7 fighter. By introducing these wild talents there is added incentive to boost wisdom (depending on how much value you place on the wild talent you've gained. I'm going to be using random rolls).

Jul 25, 2012 -- 4:08AM, jlpinli40 wrote:

but great right up if its ok i would like to use them. 

Definitely! The more the merrier.

Jul 25, 2012 -- 5:18AM, jlpinli40 wrote:

i am wondering why the DC roll to use them ? shouldnt it be a natural inner power thing ?

Wild Talents are untrained. These are the natural abilities people have, but they aren't necessarily skilled in their use. Here's a real life example.

I have muscles. They are a natural part of me. However when I try to use these muscles to score a goal in a game of soccer, I don't always score. Sometimes I'll kick it too high or too wide. These types of failed shots could be considered a dex check against a set DC.

Just because something is a natural part of you, doesn't mean you're highly skilled in it's use.

That's how I view the wild talents. They're a natural part of the person, but they won't always succeed on them because using them is hard. Just like any physical activity, using these psionic powers isn't always going to be guaranteed. Sometimes they'll just fail at a basic task (any DC 10 check) because they lost a moment's concentration.

The DC increasing (as it does for all of them except for the Object Reading one) helps represent that using these powers is exhausting. The more you use them the more exhausted you become.

All of these analogies, however, fail to represent the fact that the more you use an ability (become more experienced) the easier it should be to use them. I've deliberately left that out because representing that starts to move into "psion" territory. Instead I'm saying that using a wild talent is the equivalent of making an "unskilled" check.

Jul 25, 2012 -- 5:18AM, jlpinli40 wrote:

but with that said things like the barrier i do not use a check to use. they do in my campaign have to pay using power points.

Because I haven't implemented a power point system, I'm using the "DC increasing" to represent that the PC only has a finite amount of resources. The more they use their wild talent the less resources they have to use it again that day. The system doesn't stop them from using their wild talent as often as they want. But eventually the DC will become so high that they just can't beat the DC anymore. It also means people with higher wisdom scores can use their wild talent more times a day.

Jul 25, 2012 -- 5:18AM, jlpinli40 wrote:

if you are interested i would very much like to brainstorm and get a handel on the powers list as far as what level which ones i will not allow in the campaign

That's going a bit far. At this stage I'm happy to just wait until D&D Next does come out so I can compare any proposed psionic powers with spells and see how they compare.

Jul 25, 2012 -- 6:14AM, jlpinli40 wrote:

ok you sold me your explaination was dead on , guess i wasnt taking into account " wild talent " and not actaully trained in the way i am gonna ipose this

Although I'd love full credit, it was based heavily on psionics as they exist in ArmageddonMUD. Particularly the "needing to be skilled" in psionics and "falling unconscious from failed checks" mechanics.