Psychic Shield (3.5e Variant Rule)

This material is published under the OGL

Psychic Shield (Wis)

You can shield your mind from psychic influences.

Requirements: Psychic Ability feat

Check: When you are the target of any psychic skill that grants a Will saving throw, you can make a Psychic Shield skill check instead. The attacker must make a skill check using the attacking psychic skill. If your check result is higher, the attack fails. If the attacker’s result is higher, the psychic skill affects you normally, but you still get a normal saving throw. You may choose to voluntarily lower your Psychic Shield as a free action (and can raise it again as a free action as well). Otherwise, your shield is assumed to always be active, even if you are unconscious or sleeping.

Overcoming Psychic Shields: An attacker can attempt to use extra effort to overcome your Psychic Shield and you can reinforce it at the same time. For each point of strain that the attacker suffers, your Psychic Shield bonus is reduced by 1 (but not to less than 0). For each point of strain you take, your Psychic Shield bonus is restored by 1 (but not greater than its normal value). This continues until both sides choose to stop spending effort, then psychic skill checks are made to determine whether the shield holds. This process takes no actual time, it happens as part of the check to overcome the Psychic Shield. An attacker trying to avoid notice cannot use extra effort.

Shields and Maintained Skills: Once a psychic skill check has overcome your Psychic Shield, it continues to affect you as long as the user maintains it. You’re still entitled to your normal saving throws (if any) but your shield no longer protects you. Once the attacker needs to make a new skill check, your shield comes into play again and must be overcome again.

Deathblock: In extreme cases, a psychic can prevent mental tampering of any sort by setting a deathblock. This requires a full-round action by the psychic. Thereafter, if the psychic fails both a Psychic Shield check and a Will save against a psychic skill that requires mental contact, his mind collapses in on itself rather than bend to the invading psyche. In essence, the psychic dies rather than allowing the psychic skill to affect him. Among other things, this prevents the character from being telepathically interrogated, controlled, or altered in any way.

Deathblocks are considered a last line of defense. Another psychic who achieves mental contact with the character can tell that there is a deathblock in place unless there’s a deliberate attempt to hide it, in which case an opposed Psychic Sense and Psychic Shield check is required to detect it. A psychic can set a deathblock for specific circumstances such as to protect a specific piece of information, or only to guard against specific psychic skills (such as Mind Reading or Domination). The character who set the deathblock always chooses whether to activate it, and can choose to deactivate it at the last second, if necessary.

Special: You can’t take 10 or take 20 on Psychic Shield checks.

Time: Psychic Shield use is a free action.

Strain: 0 (plus any strain due to extra effort).

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