Precognition
Precognition enables the psionicist to foresee the probable outcome of a course of action. This foresight is limited to the near future - no more than several hours from the time he uses the power. Furthermore, the character must describe the intended course of action in some detail in order to establish the course of events. The DM makes the power check secretly.
If the check fails, the character gains no information. If the roll is 20 exactly, the character sees himself meeting his own death in a particularly nasty and grisly way and must make a saving throw vs. petrification. If the character fails the save, he is so completely shaken up by the vision that all his psionic power scores are reduced by three for d6 hours. If the power check succeeds, the character sees the most likely outcome of the actions described.
The DM has some liberty in describing the scene and should use the d20 roll as a guide to how much detail to include. High rolls get more detail. Even when it’s successful, precognition offers no guarantees. The psionicist sees only one possible (albeit likely) outcome to a specific course of action. If the characters involved deviate from the actions the psionicist describes, then they are changing the conditions and the lines of time, thereby making other outcomes more likely.
Die rolls (particularly for surprise, initiative, and normal combat) also play a large part in a precognition‘s inaccuracy. The DM cannot be expected to engineer die rolls to the players’ advantage, and even events with 95% certainty fail to occur 5% of the time. Anyone who relies on precognition to the exclusion of caution and common sense is asking for trouble.
Precognition is tiring. Regardless of the outcome, a psionicist who has used this power must rest for at least one turn before he can use any other clairsentient powers (the use of other disciplines is not affected).
Comments