Identity
Telepaths are the spies, the negotiators, the priests-without-pulpit. Their work is invisible: a sentence delivered into the back of someone's head from across a hangar, the sudden certainty that the merchant is lying, an idea that no one in the room can quite explain having had. Halcyion training treats Telepaths as confessors; Aurelion courts treat them as ambassadors and as threats; Black Meridian fences them through whichever syndicate is paying more this quarter. Most Telepaths develop a strict private ethic about consent, because the alternative is corrosion of self.
Features
- L3 Open Channel
You can establish silent two-way mental communication with any creature you can see within 120 ft, provided you share at least one language (or share no language and exchange only feelings and images). The link lasts 1 hour or until you end it as a free action. You can sustain links with a number of creatures equal to your channeling ability modifier simultaneously; opening a new link beyond that limit ends your oldest active link. Additionally, when you concentrate for 1 minute on a creature you can see within 30 ft, you read its surface thoughts — the language-shaped layer of conscious mind. The target makes a Wisdom saving throw against your channel save DC; on a success, the target is aware of the intrusion (and Telepath-trained creatures, devices, and certain cybernetics will register the attempt automatically). On a failure, you perceive the target's current language-formed thoughts for 1 minute; the target remains unaware unless told.
- L7 Whisper
As an action and a cost of 1 Psionic Point, you plant a single short suggestion — a sentence of no more than 12 words — into the mind of a creature you can see within 60 ft. The target makes a Wisdom saving throw against your channel save DC. On a failure, the target perceives the sentence as its own thought and weighs it accordingly. The suggestion does not compel action: a target will reject obviously self-destructive or against-deep-conviction directives, and creatures with magical or technological mental wards (e.g., Halcyion neural lattices) save with advantage. The effect lingers for 1 minute, after which the planted thought fades from active attention. Once per long rest, you can use Whisper without spending a Psionic Point.
- L11 Threadbind
You weave a deeper link between a willing creature and yourself. As a 10-minute ritual completed during a short or long rest, you bind a Threadbind link with one willing creature you can touch. Once bound, the link persists across any distance on the same plane (with degraded clarity over interplanetary distances at GM discretion) for 24 hours, and may be re-anchored on each subsequent short or long rest indefinitely. While bound: • You and the bound creature can exchange thoughts and images at will as a free action, requiring only the act of intent. • You can sense, at a coarse level, the bound creature's current emotional state and rough physical condition (uninjured / hurt / dying). • Once per long rest, the bound creature may borrow your proficiency in one skill of your choice for a single roll, treating it as if proficient. • Once per long rest, you may cast a Psion channel of 2nd level or lower with the bound creature as its target, regardless of distance, provided you and the creature are on the same plane. You may have a number of Threadbind links equal to your proficiency bonus active simultaneously.
- L15 Mass Link
As an action and a cost of 4 Psionic Points, you establish an Open Channel-style link between yourself and up to 12 willing creatures within 120 ft for 1 hour. Linked creatures can communicate freely with each other and with you, share approximate positions, and exchange targeting information for combat (granting allies in the link the benefit of one ally's vision as if they could see the target themselves, for the purpose of attack rolls and channel targeting). Allies in the link have advantage on initiative rolls while the link persists. Additionally, when you cast a channel with the Mass Link active that requires a target to be a willing creature you can see, you may target any willing creature in the link as if you could see them.
- L18 Confluence of Minds
You can fully integrate the cognition of a small group into a temporary shared mind. Once per long rest, as an action, you initiate a Confluence with up to six willing creatures within 30 ft, lasting up to 10 minutes. For the duration: • All participants share each other's senses, knowledge, and memory access at-will. A participant may use any other participant's languages, proficiencies in INT-, WIS-, or CHA-based skills, and recalled facts as if their own. • Each participant adds your channeling ability modifier (minimum +1) to all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws and checks while in the Confluence. • If any participant is targeted by a channel or ability that requires a Wisdom or Charisma saving throw, all participants may take that save and the participants' best result is used. • You may, as an action while the Confluence is active, attempt a deep-memory extraction on one unwilling creature within 30 ft: that creature makes a Wisdom saving throw against your channel save DC with disadvantage; on a failure, all Confluence participants observe a 1-minute memory segment of your choosing from the target's recent past (last 24 hours) or one specific named memory the target consciously holds. When the Confluence ends, all participants retain anything learned, but each gains one level of exhaustion that cannot be removed except by a long rest.