ARCANE BACKGROUND: Mentalism
Arcane Skill: Mentalism (Smarts) Starting Power Points: 10 Starting Powers: 3
The Mental Sciences were first discovered by the ancient sages of Atlantis ten thousand years ago and led to the climb of their civilization to dizzy heights. These sciences were lost for millennia, practiced only here and there by lucky, talented individuals who stumbled across the techniques by accident, and by a few isolated eastern cults. Over the last 200 years, however, the science has begun to be reborn on a more systematic level.
Mentalism is the power to use one’s own mental energy to manipulate one’s own body and to project that energy to manipulate the minds of other people. If a character does not begin with the arcane background in Mentalism, he must learn the basic techniques from a master to buy the background as an advance. Mentalism replaces the Psionic arcane background from the rulebook. Brainburn: when a mentalist character rolls a 1 on his Mentalism die he is automatically Shaken (regardless of Wild Die). On a critical failure, all beings, including the Mentalist, within a Large Burst radius, centered on the Mentalist, will become Shaken if they fail a Spirit Roll, from a flare of mental energy.
Powers Available
- Beast Friend: as rule book, power to hypnotize animals
- Hysterical Blindness: as the Blind Power, convinces targets they cannot see
- Boost/Lower Trait: as rule book, by manipulating brain performance is changed
- Confusion: as rule book, disruption of mental faculties of the targets
- Disguise: as rule book, manipulates minds of observers to see mentalist as someone else
- Hysterical Paralysis: as Entangle Power, causes targets to believe they are paralyzed, must make a Smarts or Spirit Roll to escape, not Strength or Agility
- Fear: as rule book: activates flight reflex in targets’ brains.
- Cloud Men’s Minds: as Invisibility Power: causes targets’ brains to ignore mentalist's visual image
- Mind Reading: as rule book
- Mesmerism: as Puppet power: mentalist seizes temporary control of target with mental energy
- Slow: as rule book: causes targets’ movements to slow due to brain dampening.
- Slumber: as rule book, changes targets’ brain patterns to sleep mode.
- Speak Language: as rule book, but only for verbal communication with a person who is present, it gives no power to read text or communicate by radio. Mentalist reads and projects visual memory images to translate unfamiliar words and phrases.
- Stun: as rule book, burst of mental energy disrupts thought patterns of targets
- Succor: as rule book, direct mental stimulation of adrenal glands removes fatigue and shaken.