Psionic: Cytokinesis

Cytokinesis
Hair growth, enlarged claws, extra limbs, shape shifting; such are the amazing abilities of Cytokinesis. With this psionic ability, the user is able to manipulate his or her own anatomy by changing their cellular structure. Those familiar with Cytokinesis have nicknamed these Psions “Cell-Psychics” and categorized their phylum as augmenters. Though not as lethal as other psionic abilities, Cytokinesis is far more unhindered with its potential. It is rumored that great “Cell-Psychics” can even change themselves permanently to be better looking, stronger and more healthy.

1D: Alter Hair
2D: Alter Nails
3D: Alter Skin
4D: Accelerated Healing
5D: Severe Treatment, Self
6D: Shape Shift
7D: Natural Weaponry
8D: Permanency
9D: Beast Form
10D: Regeneration

1D, Alter Hair: With this ability, the character is able to manipulate the filamentous biomaterial cells inside the dermis so that they grow, shrink, change colors or shape. This ability has its limitations and can not be used to create hair-like armors or rope made of the Psion’s locks. It can however be used to thicken a mane of hair, allowing the user to stay warm in cold climates. Changing hair in one way or another has a base difficulty as indicated below that has added difficulty bonuses based on additional alterations. These alterations can not be changed one at a time to lower the difficulty. This ability takes a bit of concentration, but transforms almost instantly, costing a single action.

Base Difficulty to change a single detail of Psion’s body hair (blue hue, long tresses, lengthy curls):
10

Difficulty to change more than one trait
+5 per additional change (grow, shrink, change single color, change single shape)

2D, Alter Nails: With this ability, the Psion is able to manipulate the toughened keratin on existing finger or toenails. This ability does not allow for the user to create new nails, horns or hooves on new parts of the body, but does allow the user to grow, contract, sharpen or dull their nails. These alterations can not be changed one at a time to lower the difficulty. This ability takes a bit of concentration, but transforms almost instantly, costing a single action.

Base Difficulty to change a single detail of Psion’s nails (grow, shrink, sharpen, dull): 10
Difficulty to change more than one trait +5 per additional trait

Bonuses:
Long Nails: Grant +1 to all rolls that involve unarmed attacks, climbing or digging.
Sharp Nails: +1D to unarmed damage totals

3D, Alter Skin: This psionic ability allows the user to alter the epidermis pigments of their skin. The user can make themselves appear more tan or pail, or even add exotic flesh colors and designs. If the Cell-Psychic exudes enough concentration, they can even use this ability to camouflage themselves with their environment. This ability is much more difficult than changing hair or nails, requiring more concentration, but transforms almost instantly, costing a single action.

Below are the difficulties to change certain aspects of a Psion’s flesh.
Change the existing hue to appear more pale or tan- 10
Transform one’s flesh to it’s original color 10
Alter skin pigment to a different, but natural color of the Psion’s species 15
Alter skin to an exotic color, not natural of the Psion’s species 18
Customize exotic colors and/or pattern 20
Create Camouflage to blend in with background 25

Camouflage Bonus: +2D to all hide and sneak dice rolls

4D, Accelerated Healing: With this Psionic ability, the user is able to focus on their living tissue, speeding up the process it takes to repair damage, poison, or disease with new living tissue. The Psion must focus a great amount of their concentration on the wound in order to hasten the speed of the cascading healing phases (clot formation, inflammation, proliferation, and maturation). This ability can ONLY be used on the Psion (unlike Vitakinesis where others can be healed), but otherwise works similarly to the Vitakinesis power Innocuous Healing.

Effect:
The Psion may roll half of his/her Cytokinesis dice pool (round down) with a wild die, and restore that many body points to themselves. Body points are restored at the rate of 1 point per second (Max 5 per round) as the body begins healing at an incredible rate. To determine how many combat rounds this power must be sustained, divide the number of body points to be restored by 5, and round down.

Range: Self (concentration)

Duration: Sustainable

Difficulty: 11

Modifiers:

+5 to difficulty if the target is effected by a known poison

+5 if the target is effected by a known disease

+20 or more if the affliction is unknown or is beyond the Psion’s understanding

NOTE: If the Psion drops the power before healing is complete, no healing is accomplished in the round and the power is dropped.

5D, Severe Treatment, Self: The Psion has become so comprehensive of how to heal their own cells, that he/she may alleviate any diseases they’ve transmitted or regenerate their own severed limbs. Examples include diseases like Cholera, Cancer, Space Rot as well as regrowing a hand, eye or organ (but not the head unless the creature somehow manages to remain alive). The Psion must concentrate for one hour. If the Psion concentrates long enough, he/she can completely wash away their own illness or regrow any missing parts. This does not repair special Psionic effects, age, mental illness or any non-biological disorders. It can not be used on anyone except the Psion him/herself.

Range: Self (must concentrate)

Duration: Sustainable

Difficulty: 25

Modifiers:

+5 if a target is effected by a known disease

+5 if the target is effected by a known weapon

+5 to regenerate parts of a limb (fingers on a hand, smashed in ribs, split liver)

+20 to regenerate an entire limb (entire hand, arm, leg, organ)

+20 or more if the affliction is unknown or is beyond the Psion's Understanding

Effect:

The Persistent Harmful Effects of the Illness as well as the Illness it's self is removed, and lost limbs are regrown.

6D, Shape Shift: With this psionic ability, the user is able to change his/her cellular structure in order to appear as someone else. The Psion is capable of changing their sex, race, voice and features to look like a completely new person OR use the power to impersonate an individual they’ve seen before. While this ability changes the person’s physical appearance and vocal chords, it does not grant them the sex or race’s abilities. So while a “Human Male Psion” can transform in order to look and sound like a female Naga, he does not get any of her powers like ambidextrous, danger sense or natural weapon, nor can he become pregnant as a woman would. The Psion is also able to change so they appear to be an animal or false-species, though the change is much more arduous. Below are a list of accumulative difficulties to help determine the target difficulty. Failure means that the Psion concentrates for a minute, but does not shift, while a critical failure results in some sort of abnormal deformity.

This ability takes a significant amount of concentration in order to change which is timed in minutes. The initial step of the transformation takes 1 complete minute (6 rounds) and has a base difficulty of 10. Every additional +10 to the target difficulty adds another minute to the transformation. So a difficulty of 30 would take 3 minutes. The Cell-Psychic can shave off a minute (for a minimum of 1 minute) by adding an additional +10 to the target difficulty. The character takes a -1D penalty so long as they have shifted, concentrating on upholding their visage. If they wish to release the shape freely or are no longer able to withhold the -1D penalty, they quickly transform back into their original shape, taking a round to change (5 seconds).

Difficulty Modifiers
Base Difficulty: +10

Alter Race: +5

Alter Sex: +5

Alter Height & Weight (this is in addition to the average height/weight of the race): +5

Alter color of skin, hair, eyes or any other part: +5

Impersonate someone the Psion is very familiar with (do not add additional difficulties such as sex, race, even if it would normally apply) : +15

Impersonate someone the Psion has only seen briefly or is unfamiliar with (do not add additional difficulties such as sex, race, even if it would normally apply) : +20

Transform into an animal: +10

Transform into a completely imagined or creature never seen before: (+15)

Reduce the amount of transformation time by 1 minute {this difficulty never adds an additional minute to the attempt}: (+10)

Examples:
1.) So if a human male Psion wishes to turn into an average looking female Naga they would apply the following…
+10 Base Difficulty, +5 Alter Race, +5 Alter Sex for a total difficulty of 20. It would take the character 2 minutes (12 rounds) to transform.

2.) If a female Human Psion wishes to transform into her best friend who is a Solin Male in a hurry, she would apply the following…
+10 Base Difficulty, +15 Impersonate someone the Psion is very familiar with, +10 to shave off a minute from transformation time for a total of 35 (though the target time would only be 2 minutes as attempts to reduce time do not add additional minutes) . If the character succeeded, it would take them only 1 minute to transform instead of 2.

7D, Natural Weaponry: The Psion is able to transform their body parts into natural weapons, causing additional damage than a traditional unarmed strike. By focusing for an exorbitant amount of time, the Psion can shift their hands, feet or head so that they have additional lethal capabilities. Also, the Psion may sprout new limbs such as tails, additional arms/legs or appendages from other parts of their bodies, but wields them with a -2D unless they attain the proper qualities for natural weapon usage and ambidexterity. What the item may be (tentacle, scorpion tail, additional arm) is up the Psion.

The Psion may attempt to create these natural weapons at a base rate of 1 minute (w/ a base difficulty of 10), but must add 1 additional minute to the transformation per +10 added to the difficulty. The Cell-Psychic can shave off a minute (for a minimum of 1 minute) by adding an additional +10 to the target difficulty which does not count against the user in time increments. The character takes no penalty once the weapon has formed, but must shift again in order to allow the natural weapons to be removed. The Psion can add multiple stacking benefits to their natural weaponry, but each rank must be added to the base target difficulty.

Difficulty Modifiers:
Base Difficulty: +10

Wounding Appendage (must declare if is slashing, piercing, blunt): +10 per rank, Adds +1D to unarmed combat damage per rank. The amount of ranks allows is maxed out by the character’s body rating.

Poisoning Strike: +15 per rank, +1 of poison per rank. The Psion must make a successful attack for damage. For each round of exposure, the target receives additional damage equal to the amount of ranks invested in Poisoning Strike per round. Each new round, the poisoned character may attempt to stop the spread of the poison within them by rolling their body on the beginning of their turn. If successful, the poison continues for 1 remaining round per rank of poisoning strike until depleted. The base Body check for fighting off the poison is 15, with +5 to the check per additional rank. A successful medicine skill check for poisons automatically stops poisoning strike.

Elongated Appendage: +10 per rank, Adds +1D to the character’s unarmed attack roll to hit. The amount of ranks allows is maxed out by the character’s body rating.

Gripping Limb: +10 per rank, Adds +1D to any subduing difficulty checks for pinning, grappling or tripping due to rope like tendrils, muscular arms, or clasping appendages.

Shift Natural Weapons to innate state: +10

Reduce the amount of transformation time by 1 minute {this difficulty never adds an additional minute to the attempt}: (+10)

8D, Permanency: The Cell-Psychic has become so talented at manipulating their own cells, that they can make any alterations permanent within their own physiology. The Psion must concentrate for an exorbitant amount of time (1 hour’s worth) to permanently establish these new transformations. First, the Psion must make a check accordingly, based on the possessed power they may own (alter hair, alter nails, alter skin, shape shift, natural weaponry).The Psion must then succeed in a “Heroic” check for the effect to work. If the Psion fails, he/she can not attempt this process again for one month. If successful, the Cell-Psychic’s new natural state always defaults with the chosen changes. These changes can only be from the abilities Alter Hair, Alter Nails, Alter Skin, Shape Shift, or Natural Weaponry. If the character uses Permanency, then decides they wish to return to their original form, they must redo Permanency, focusing on their previous visage.

Cost: 1 Fate Point paid by the Psion, and a total of 25 Character Points
NOTE: THE COSTS ARE PAID REGARDLESS IF THE POWER IS SUCCESSFUL OR NOT

9D Beast Form: The psion can now temporarily change their form in order to impersonate powerful alien creatures of the wild. This discipline temporarily gives the psion the appearance, physical abilities, and certain alien ability of any creature within their scale limits, however most extraordinary powers such as "infection" or "regeneration" are not available. This power is typically used to take advantage of a creature's Attribute and Skill dice.

Duration: 1 action to activate, 1 additional action per round to sustain until time limit expires

Time Limit: Number of rounds equal to the psion's Cytokinesis skill dice total

Range: Self

Difficulty: DC 30 (Heroic)

Limits: Psion can not transform into anything smaller/larger than their Cytokinesis skill dicepool rating in scale

Basic Creatures
Most times, the psion wishes to take advantage of a creature's main attribute, such as the strength of a bear or Agility of a fox. As a rule of thumb, ask the player why they would like to transform into this beast and give them a bonus of 2D+2 w/ scale bonuses, or x2 movement in order to not bog down gameplay. You may also consult the D6 Monster Manual. If characters wish to play certain creatures they've encountered, refer to the "Beasts of the Wild" chart that is typically updated on the forums (see link below).

Example Beasts
Milky Way Beasts of the Wild

10D Regeneration: The psion is now so talented at changing their DNA at a moments notice that they have learned to automatically regenerate new cells without even trying. This allows the psion to not only grow new limbs within days, but heal massive amounts of body points in seconds. This ability is always active regardless if the psion is taking new shapes.

Range: Self

Duration: Automatic, active until healed or dead


Regeneration: Character rolls Strength every round, and then divides by 2. This is the amount of Body Point regenerated. If the character is knocked down to negative body points, keep track. In the following round, the psion rolls their Strenth and divides by 2. If the total result does not get them into positive numbers, the character is truly dead.

Character can also begin to regrow new body parts within days. As a rule of thumb, any body part lost due to S. Wounded damage or through Role Playing can regain a new body part in 2D6 days minus 1/2 the psion's Cytokinesis skill dice total.