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Occult Rules / Psychic Duels / Psychic Manifestations

Generating Manifestation Points

Source Occult Adventures pg. 201
Psychic manifestations are fueled by psychic energy, represented by manifestation points (MP). Each combatant has a manifesting level equal either to its highest caster level or half its number of Hit Dice, whichever is higher. The maximum number of manifestation points a combatant can spend when creating a manifestation is equal either to the highest-level spell the combatant can cast or 1/4 its HD (minimum 1 and maximum 5), whichever is higher.

In order to create a psychic manifestation, a combatant must generate MP in any of four ways: from ability scores, from class features, by sacrificing spells, or by sacrificing spell-like abilities. She can use each of these methods only once per manifestation. For example, a character who is a gunslinger 1/wizard 8 could generate 1 MP from ability scores, 1 MP from grit, and 2 MP by sacrificing a 2nd-level spell, thus reaching her per-manifestation limit of 4 MP, but she couldn’t do so by sacrificing four different 1st-level spells. If a combatant doesn’t use all of the manifestation points it generates immediately, the extra points are lost.

Generating MP from ability scores doesn’t deplete the ability score, but it has other consequences for a combatant once the duel is concluded (see below). All other sources of MP deplete the spent resources in the real world as well.

Generating MP from Ability Scores: Every combatant begins a psychic duel with a pool of MP equal to the combatant’s HD + the average of her Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. As a free action, a combatant can draw from this pool to generate MP. A combatant who draws any number of points from this pool is fatigued upon leaving the binary mindscape. A combatant who draws half or more of these points is exhausted upon leaving the mindscape, and takes a –4 penalty to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma for 24 hours thereafter. If a combatant expends the entire pool, she becomes unconscious after leaving the mindscape. The fatigued, exhausted, and unconscious conditions and the –4 penalty ignore all immunities and last for 24 hours; they can’t be removed before that time except by a wish or a miracle.

Generating MP from Select Class Features: As a free action, a combatant with an arcane, grit, ki, panache, or phrenic pool (or any other similar class feature the GM chooses) can spend points from these pools to generate MP at a rate of 1 MP per point spent.

Sacrificing Spells to Generate MP: As a free action, a combatant can sacrifice a single spell slot (if he’s a spontaneous caster) or prepared spell (if he’s a prepared caster) to generate a number of MP equal to the level of the spell slot or prepared spell sacrificed. Alchemists and investigators can sacrifice an extract slot as if it were a spell slot, but only if that extract slot is currently open and not already invested in a physical extract.

Sacrificing Spell-Like Abilities to Generate MP: A combatant can sacrifice a use of a spell-like ability in a way similar to sacrificing spells to generate MP. However, each at-will spell-like ability can be sacrificed only once during a single psychic duel; it is not a source of infinite MP.