#mind thrust

[retrocgads]

USA 1981

[retrocgads]

USA 1982

[wearesorcerer]

Spell/Power: Mind Thrust

Easily one of my favorites.

This was originally a “psionic attack mode” because psionics originally had its own telepathic battle system:

(Oriental Adventures 3.0 had a mechanic for the similar “contest of fighting spirits/wills” thing samurai do. It was a lot simpler.)

It eventually got turned into a power (Expanded Psionics Handbook) and then a spell series (Occult Adventures) and a scaling spell in 5e (UA). The 5e version has a dazing effect, whereas the PF version only gets that at higher levels.

...and while I like the dazing effect, the reasons I liked the XPH version were that 1.) it dealt d10s (one per point spent on the power) and 2.) it dealt typeless damage (since there was no psychic damage type) so bypassed all DR and energy resistances.

You may be thinking “Isn’t that OP?” Ish. The catch was that it had an incredibly low save DC (even when augmented -- and that was the only way to raise the save DC) and dealt no damage on a successful save (other save vs. damage effects dealt half damage). High risk, high reward. Finally, because it had the mind-affecting decriptor (tag), lots of creatures were outright immune to it (contrast with fire immunity, which isn’t nearly as common).

And no, this isn’t the Scanners-style head exploding power; that’s cranial deluge (from Complete Psionic).