#werewasp

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Part 6. Sting

It’s one of ‘dem Cow-killers!

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Class Feature Friday: Psychedelia Discipline (Psychic Discipline)

 For as long as there has been sapient life, one of the most common ways to attempt to expand consciousness has been the consumption of various mind-warping drugs and substances. From the oracles of Greece to the spiritual journeys of various indigenous cultures throughout the globe.

The consumption of such substances can be entirely recreational, or they can have spiritual or religious significance, depending on the culture.

…What, you were expecting hippie jokes?

Anyway, today we are looking at a psychic discipline that taps into those mind-expanding substances.

Maybe the psychic in question unlocked their mental abilities after a particularly potent trip, or simply find such substances to be the best way to draw upon those abilities.

Conversely, however, a good psychedelia psychic will know how to moderate their dosage, being all too aware of the risks.

The end result, however, is a psychic that knows how to use substances to bolster themselves, and how to replicate the sensations they experience in the minds of others.

 The spells associated with this discipline focus on using hallucinations and feelings of euphoria both to aid allies and to debuff foes, branching out into creating vivid illusions over the surrounding area, and transcending the body to explore the astral plane.

Their regular exposure to such substances leave these mentalists highly resistant to the negative effects and addictive nature of such drugs.

Additionally, their experience has lead to them learning how to concoct their personal cognatogenic formula for enhancing the mind at the expense of the body. While basic, it is identical to the cognatogens that certain alchemists create, and if such psychics are also alchemists, they can discover ways to improve it.

Expanded and warped as it is, foes will find using mental effects on such a psychic to be a risky proposition, their minds briefly overloaded by psychedelic feedback, regardless of whether they succumb to the mental power or not.

More powerful psychics can even generate an aura that afflicts all nearby with strong hallucinations, potentially briefly making their behavior erratic, though they adjust afterwards. This aura is indiscriminate, but luckily these psychics can brew an antidote to fortify the minds of allies for about a month.

This discipline is perfect for a debuffing and battlefield control psychic, laying on various confusion and debuffing effects. However, they can also be good for support, dropping the various positive emotion-based enchantments to aid allies as well. Also consider playing up the expanded mind aspect by throwing on some divination spells for added utility, as well as one or two attack spells for some offensive options. Definitely pick up the will of the dead phrenic amplification so you don’t get caught with your pants down against the undead.

 It may be tempting to give these psychics stoner or other “druggie” personalities, and if it’s a less serious game, go for it. That being said, the traditions of “expanding the consciousness” have very real significance to cultures that still persist throughout the world, so if you want to use that sort of imagery and themes, please do your research and do so respectfully.

  While the drug Elysium’s Kiss was first introduced to the Tengu Quarter to “cripple foreign avian influence”, the crow-folk have taken the drug and made it their own, with quite a few powerful psychics emerging from the so-called “Kiss Dens”, bearing mental might and a keen awareness of the subversion attempted against their people.

 The infamous Sour Sting is a drug and rum-running organization that has vexed local authorities for some time, mostly because of the difficulty pinning down an identity on the ringleader, as stories of those involved are strangely hazy and contradictory. Some believe they are a subterranean xulgath, others a shapeshifting werewasp. All, however, remember their head swimming after the encounter.

 They say no sane mind can navigate the warrens of the Keening God. Those who have tried rarely ever return, and when they do, they are babbling, wretched shells of their former selves. So, if a sane mind has no hope, perhaps an addled mind is what is needed. So the party must seek out a master of mind-altering substances.