Mind Powers (FiD)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark fan page

Mind delves into sentience and intelligence. It is the power most associated with normal folk such as humans and alternate humans such as elves, orcs, social aliens, and other sentient creatures and even intelligent objects like control devices all the way up to sentient AI.

Anthropomorphic man is the epitome of mind, a civilized being, part of a society, sapient and cultured if not necessarily human. It represents the end product of evolution and, by extension, ultimate intellect. It can exist independently of life, in machines and undead.

Mind attacks are mental bolts and blades that can only hurt sentient creatures.

Mind Power Effects

Action	Basic No minimum 3 Stress	Advanced Minimum 2 Dice 5 Stress	Master Minimum 4 Dice 7 Stress	Apex Minimum 6 Dice 13 Stress
Attune	Mind Monitor You can detect sentient creatures and use of mind powers.	Mindforge You can end the operation of a mind ability. You can summon an spirit skilled in a particular action. These are not creatures, their advice gives +1d on their chosen action.	Summon Hero You can summon folk from other planes, which is usually alternate realities. This is used to summon heroes in times of crisis. Learning who to summon may require study or be a a score in itself.	Parallel Plane You can create a portal that allows travel to and from another reality for a limited time.
Command	Mental Mandate You can command intelligent creatures even if normally couldn't, but you cannot understand them.	Telepathy You and allies can communicate with intelligent creatures.	Mental Monarchy You can give commands to intelligent creatures as if you were their superior. This does not remove existing loyalties, which can lead to conflicts.	Thought Thrall You can permanently bind intelligent creatures to service. Unless affected by other powers, they will stay in one location and act according to your instructions, like very loyal and literal-minded goons.
Consort	Pretend Persona You can an assume an identity and reflect it in your actions, such as a healer, noble, merchant etc. This the impression you give without changing your appearance.	Assume Aspect You assume the form of a normal humanoid, such as humans and variant humans. Add 1d to one action and subtract 1d from all actions covered by an attribute except if you just raised one of them.	Gift of Guise You can shapechange a willing or helpless creatures into any humanoid. This can be a curse, it can be broken but it is not easy. You can easily break the effect.	Gift of Gab You can give sentience and intelligence to non-sentient creatures, giving them roughly human intellect.
Finesse	Psychic Saddle If there is an intelligent (but not sentient) mount or vehicle, you can ride it as if it was domesticated and you had the keys.	Neural Needle You can use the power as a fine and potent close-range attack, similar in effect to a fine potent dueling sword or pistol.	Neural Nudge You can do fine manipulation of the power, allowing you to do send small and exact suggestions to intelligent creatures. This allows you to make others open doors and perform other minor manipulations.	Psyche Surge Your power manifests like a storm of blades, suppressing the effect of multiple opponents and acting as a fine potent weapon.
Hunt	Trace Thought You can focus on a particular thought and vaguely sense and track creatures that share this thought.	Mental Marksman You can use your power to attack, similar in effect to a fine and potent rifle doing mental damage.	Cloud Consciousness Targets lose their sense of location and purpose, as if just waking up.	Cognitive Cascade You can use your power to attack similar to a fine and potent grenade. This allows you to fight many creatures in the same area very effectively, but there is a risk of collateral damage.
Prowl	Psychic Pursuit You can hide in crowds and identify someone you know when you see them, even if normal identification is not possible.	Astral Ascent You can detach your astral body, which is immaterial, transparent, and can hover. Any attack scatters it and sends your consciousness back to your body. While you project your astral body, your physical body is like an automaton; it can be led but takes no actions.	Astral Adventure You send your and allies' astral bodies to any location you know of or into the presence of any creature you know.	Astral Gateway You send your and allies' astral bodies to other planes, into someone's dream, and other mystic locations not of this world.
Skirmish	Mental Melee You can use the power as a close-range mental attack, similar in effect to a melee weapon or pistol.	Psychic Strike Same as Skirmish Attack, except the weapon is fine and potent.	Cognitive Cover Your power creates distractions that prevents an intelligent enemy from benefiting from numbers and otherwise works as a fine potent weapon.	Mental Storm Your power strikes out in all directions, attacking all enemies in a wide area.
Study	Identify Intellect You can identify intelligent objects and creatures.	Analyze Intellect You learn the powers and abilities of something you analyze.	Past Perception You can read the past events of something you analyze. This includes previous owners and how the object has been moved around as well as significant scenes.	Universal Understanding You research everything in a wide area. This is easy to do where you are, more difficult at range. You can then use hindsight on some of these targets.
Survey	Thought Trace You can sense manifestations of the mind power at a distance and understand their general nature. This works even when you can't see the target, but both range and information suffers.	Astral Assembly Choose an ally; you can send your astral body to their location. See prowl: Astral Ascent.	Astral Audience Choose a location or creature. You send your astral body to that location.	Psychic Panorama You perceive from all intelligent creatures at once over a wide area. As long as you concentrate you retain this perception and can report what you see to others.
Sway	Intellectual Intuition You can understand intelligent creatures even if normally couldn't, and gauge their motivations.	Intelligent Interpreter You and allies can communicate with intelligent creatures.	Eloquent Enchantment You can post suggestions in the mind of intelligent creatures, which will be triggered under conditions you specify. Common suggestions are to steal something, attack someone, or ignore some event. This is a subtle power, but easier to spot once triggered.	Cognitive Conversion You change the personality and motivations of intelligent creatures. This power is permanent, but blatant. The target remember their past, but regard it as unimportant compared to their new motivations.
Tinker	Automation You imbue mind into objects. Handle can create simple triggers, like a push button.	Create Cognition You can imbue limited intelligence in an object, allowing it to sense a situation nearby and react by directing whatever abilities the item may have or send a mental alarm.	Install Intellect You can imbue limited intelligence able to hold simple conversations. With Attune: Mindforge you can make sentient items.	Mass Mind This is similar to create, above, but you mass produce intelligent objects, even a set of different objects.
Wreck	Disrupt Device You mess with intelligence in items, that is their ability to react to the environment. Noisy and leaves the damaged object in place.	Sabotage System Similar to Disrupt Device. Can also mess with control surfaces like buttons or steering.	Silent Sabotage Similar to Sabotage System, but destroyed targets are disabled silently or you can remove certain functions from them, such as the ability to sense you and allies.	Terminate Tech Similar to Sabotage System, but over a large area. This can negate control devices over a large area, forcing everyone to rely on manual handling of objects.

Mind Powers Autogenerated

Mind can detect, influence, communicate with, and even create intelligence.

The position usually starts controlled, with the usual consequence that you cannot try again. If the setting is chaotic or violet, your position worsens.

Attune

Mind Monitor You can detect sentient creatures and use of mind powers.

This can detect thinking creatures that you cannot see and disguised or bestial intelligent creatures, but is also useful to detect the use and effects of Mind powers.

Limited effect suffices against a creature you can clearly see. You need greater effect against against a creature that is hidden (standard effect) or behind a wall (great effect).

Mindforge You can end the operation of a mind ability. You can summon a spirit skilled in a particular action. These are not creatures, their advice gives +1d on their chosen action.

Dispelling is often used as a setup action to help another character in a situation when the opposition is using mind powers. Opposed success effect creates an opening that makes the supported action potent. Full effect improves the position of the supported action. Critical success improves both position and effect.

When used directly, the effect is usually standard, which causes an ongoing effect to crash. Against an opponent that uses power to fly or even breathe you can have a better effect. Poor targeting increases the needed effect.

The spirits summoned here don't themselves act, they inspire others to act more intelligently, which provides an extra die for one roll, in addition to normal assistance. You cannot both use this and assistance on the same roll.

Summon Hero You can summon folk from other planes, which is usually alternate realities. This is used to summon heroes in times of crisis. Learning who to summon may require study or be a score in itself.

A common trope in the tradition of the Narnia books, this summons people form another world to help you. Highly unpredictable, and rarely useful to player characters as such a summon would compete for the limelight. It does well as the backstory of a character that otherwise wouldn't fit the setting.

Parallel Plane You can create a portal that allows travel to and from another reality for a limited time.

Command

Mental Mandate You can command intelligent creatures even if normally couldn't, but you cannot understand them.

This allows you to issue telepathic commands to intelligent creatures, allowing use of the action across language and cultural barriers.

Telepathy You and allies can communicate with intelligent creatures.

This is telepathy, allowing communication between chosen targets across language and cultural barriers. This is dry and factual communication, suited to command more than converstion.

Mental Monarchy You can give commands to intelligent creatures as if you were their superior. This does not remove existing loyalties, which can lead to conflicts.

Much like Telepathy, and your projected thoughts carry extra weight, as if issued by an authority targets respect

Thought Thrall You can permanently bind intelligent creatures to service. Unless affected by other powers, they will stay in one location and act according to your instructions, like very loyal and literal-minded goons.

They will stay in one location and act according to your instructions, like very loyal and literal-minded goons, unless affected by other powers. This won’t work unless you are already in a position of power. The effect is similar to Mental Monarchy but potentially permanent. A creature under your enemies' care may break free over time. Strong emotions can also break your control, but otherwise, it lasts until dispelled.

Consort

Pretend Persona You can assume an identity and reflect it in your actions, such as a healer, noble, merchant, etc. This is the impression you give without changing your appearance.

This makes Consort actions potent and can explain away a lack of a disguise—you are acting the role so naturally that people will just assume you are on leave rather than an imposter.

Assume Aspect You assume the form of a normal humanoid, such as humans and variant humans. Add 1d to one action and subtract 1d from all actions covered by an attribute except if you just raised one of them.

You take the form of an intelligent social creature, such as a human and whatever else can be emancipated in your world. This is an actual physical transformation, but it can also change your thought patters, giving you abilities you do not normally have, which explains how your action values change.

With limited effect you can transform into yourself like you would have been, had you grown up as an the people whose form you assume. Those familiar with you will recognize you. Standard effect can make you a generic creature, very hard to recognize as yourself. Great effect allows you to assume the shape and some of the personality of a specific creature you have studied.

Gift of Guise You can shapechange a willing or helpless creature into any humanoid. This can be a curse; it can be broken, but it is not easy. You can easily break the effect.

This is Assume Aspect used on another. The effect needed depends on their similarity to the new form.

Gift of Gab You can give sentience and intelligence to non-sentient creatures, giving them roughly human intellect.

This creates intelligence and the ability to communicate in a creature or object that lacks it. Creating permanent intelligence is a long term project, but even short term intelligence can allow you to discuss and learn from the temporarily awakened, who will retain simple memories from before their awakening.

Finesse

Psychic Saddle If there is an intelligent (but not sentient) mount or vehicle, you can ride it as if it was domesticated and you had the keys.

This works on a creature of animal intelligence and gives it the training required to act as a mount. It might work on smart vehicles depending on how the setting regards machine intelligence.

Neural Needle You focus your mental power into a fine and potent close-range attack, similar in effect to a fine potent psychic dueling sword or pistol.

In a fight, using this does not take any more time, activating your attack power is equivalent to drawing a weapon, no more, no less. Inflicts psychic damage, which is fine against intelligent creatures but weak against animals and automatons.

Neural Nudge You can do fine manipulation of the power, allowing you to send small and exact suggestions to intelligent creatures. This allows you to make others open doors and perform other minor manipulations.

You send a very short and precise order, often only affecting a small part of the target's body. Can make an intelligent target push a button or trigger, open or close a door, lose Ballance of themselves or a vehicle they drive and similar small and immediate actions. Great effect can make the target change what it is doing, limited effect makes them do small and inconsequential things.

Psyche Surge Your power manifests like a storm of blades, suppressing the effect of multiple opponents and acting as a fine potent weapon.

This is Neural Needle, but with scale.

Hunt

Trace Thought You can focus on a particular thought and vaguely sense and track creatures that share this thought.

This works best (needs limited effect) of creatures that are very focused on a difficult task, such as someone driving in an unfamiliar location or a tracker in pursuit of a quarry. A target that is whimsical, asleep, or in a varied social setting requires great effect. The age of the tracks and the number of other minds that left similar traces acts as a higher tier, reducing your effect.

Mental Marksman You can use your power to attack, similar in effect to a fine and potent rifle doing mental damage.

Using an attack power is much the same as shooting a weapon, no more, no less. Inflicts psychic damage, which is fine against intelligent creatures but weak against animals and automatons.

Cloud Consciousness Targets lose their focus and sense of location, as if just waking up.

If what to do is obvious, they will quickly do it. But if things are calm, they need some time to orient themselves, which creates an opening for you to act.

Limited effect suffices for a single target. Great effect can affect more than a dozen people all at once.

Cognitive Cascade You can use your power to attack similar to a fine and potent grenade. This allows you to fight many creatures in the same area very effectively, but there is a risk of collateral damage.

Mental Marksman with scale.

Prowl

Crowd Camouflage You can hide in crowds.

You can hide in a crowd even if you look or act different by mentally matching the people around you.

Astral Ascent You can detach your astral body, which is immaterial, transparent, and can hover. Any attack scatters it and sends your consciousness back to your body. While you project your astral body, your physical body is like an automaton; it can be led but takes no actions.

Astral Adventure You send your and allies' astral bodies to any location you know of or into the presence of any creature you know.

Astral Gateway You send your and allies' astral bodies to other planes, into someone's dream, and other mystic locations not of this world.

Skirmish

Mental Melee You can use the power as a close-range mental attack, similar in effect to a melee weapon or pistol.

Psychic Strike Same as Skirmish Attack, except the weapon is fine and potent.

Cognitive Cover Your power creates distractions that prevents an intelligent enemy from benefiting from numbers and otherwise works as a fine potent weapon.

Mental Storm Your power strikes out in all directions, attacking all enemies in a wide area.

Study

Identify Intellect You can identify intelligent objects and creatures.

Analyze Intellect You learn the powers and abilities of something you analyze.

Past Perception You can read the past events of something you analyze. This includes previous owners and how the object has been moved around as well as significant scenes.

Universal Understanding You research everything in a wide area. This is easy to do where you are, more difficult at range. You can then use hindsight on some of these targets.

Survey

Thought Trace You can sense manifestations of the mind power at a distance and understand their general nature. This works even when you can't see the target, but both range and information suffers.

Astral Assembly Choose an ally; you can send your astral body to their location. See prowl: Astral Ascent.

Astral Audience Choose a location or creature. You send your astral body to that location.

Psychic Panorama You perceive from all intelligent creatures at once over a wide area. As long as you concentrate, you retain this perception and can report what you see to others.

Sway

Intellectual Intuition You can understand intelligent creatures even if normally couldn't, and gauge their motivations.

Intelligent Interpreter You and allies can communicate with intelligent creatures.

Eloquent Enchantment You can post suggestions in the mind of intelligent creatures, which will be triggered under conditions you specify. Common suggestions are to steal something, attack someone, or ignore some event. This is a subtle power, but easier to spot once triggered.

Cognitive Conversion You change the personality and motivations of intelligent creatures. This power is permanent, but blatant. The target remembers their past but regards it as unimportant compared to their new motivations.

Tinker

Automation You imbue mind into objects. Handle can create simple triggers, like a push button.

Create Cognition You can imbue limited intelligence in an object, allowing it to sense a situation nearby and react by directing whatever abilities the item may have or send a mental alarm.

Install Intellect You can imbue limited intelligence able to hold simple conversations. With Attune: Mindforge you can make sentient items.

Mass Mind This is similar to create, above, but you mass produce intelligent objects, even a set of different objects.

Wreck

Disrupt Device You mess with intelligence in items, that is their ability to react to the environment. Noisy and leaves the damaged object in place.

Sabotage System Similar to Disrupt Device. Can also mess with control surfaces like buttons or steering.

Silent Sabotage Similar to Sabotage System, but destroyed targets are disabled silently or you can remove certain functions from them, such as the ability to sense you and allies.

Terminate Tech Similar to Sabotage System, but over a large area. This can negate control devices over a large area, forcing everyone to rely on manual handling of objects.

Expanded Mind Powers

Expanded descriptions of effects that differ significantly from Typical Powers.

Attune

Harness the power of Attune to perceive and manipulate supernatural energies, allowing you to detect and interact with beings and phenomena from other planes of existence.

Perceive: You gain the ability to detect supernatural creatures and powers. Your senses become attuned to the chaotic energies that permeate the world, allowing you to perceive entities and phenomena that are beyond the ordinary senses of mortals.

Dismiss: Through sheer force of will, you can compel any creature native to another plane of existence to return to that plane, or to cease the operation of any power. By disrupting the connection between the target and their plane of origin, you can banish them from the mortal realm or neutralize their abilities.

Summon: By tapping into the chaotic forces of other planes, you can call forth creatures from realms of pure chaos. However, these summoned beings are generally unwilling servants, and their obedience may be tenuous at best. You can issue them a single command, which they must obey, but maintaining control over them beyond that initial command may require further study or even a separate score.

Gate: With the power of Gate, you can create temporary portals that allow travel to and from chaotic planes of existence. These portals are unpredictable in nature, and the destination may vary each time they are opened. Exercise caution when using this power, as it can lead to encounters with beings of immense power and unpredictability.

Command

Assume control over intelligent beings and shape the course of events to your will.

Mental Mandate You can command intelligent creatures even if normally couldn't, but you cannot understand them.

Psyche Parley You and allies can communicate with intelligent creatures.

Mental Monarchy You can give commands to intelligent creatures as if you were their superior. This does not remove existing loyalties, which can lead to conflicts.

Thought Thrall You can permanently bind intelligent creatures to service. Unless affected by other powers, they will stay in one location and act according to your instructions, like very loyal and literal-minded goons.

Consort

Influence and manipulate social situations to your advantage.

Pretend Persona You can assume an identity and reflect it in your actions, such as a healer, noble, merchant etc. This the impression you give without changing your appearance.

Assume Aspect You assume the form of a normal humanoid, such as humans and variant humans. Add 1d to one action and subtract 1d from all actions covered by an attribute except if you just raised one of them.

Gift of Guise You can shapechange a willing or helpless creatures into any humanoid. This can be a curse, it can be broken but it is not easy. You can easily break the effect.

Gift of Gab You can give sentience and intelligence to non-sentient creatures, giving them roughly human intellect.

Finesse

Master subtle and precise applications of your powers to achieve your goals.

Psychic Saddle If there is an intelligent (but not sentient) mount or vehicle, you can ride it as if it was domesticated and you had the keys.

Neural Needle You can use the power as a fine and potent close-range attack, similar in effect to a fine potent dueling sword or pistol.

Neural Nudge You can do fine manipulation of the power, allowing you to do send small and exact suggestions to intelligent creatures. This allows you to make others open doors and perform other minor manipulations.

Psyche Surge Your power manifests like a storm of blades, suppressing the effect of multiple opponents and acting as a fine potent weapon.

Hunt

Track down targets and unleash the power of your mind in combat.

Trace Thought You can focus on a particular thought and vaguely sense and track creatures that share this thought.

Mental Marksman You can use your power to attack, similar in effect to a fine and potent rifle doing mental damage.

Cognitive Cascade You can use your power to attack similar to a fine and potent grenade. This allows you to fight many creatures in the same area very effectively, but there is a risk of collateral damage.

Cognitive Cataclysm You call down the equivalent of a fine potent artillery barrage, attacking everything and intelligent creature in a wide area.

Prowl

Navigate unseen realms and explore the depths of consciousness.

Psychic Pursuit You can hide in crowds and identify someone you know when you see them, even if normal identification is not possible.

Astral Ascent You can detach your astral body, which is immaterial, transparent, and can hover. Any attack scatters it and sends your consciousness back to your body. While you project your astral body, your physical body is like an automaton; it can be led but takes no actions.

Astral Adventure You send your and allies' astral bodies to any location you know of or into the presence of any creature you know.

Astral Gateway You send your and allies' astral bodies to other planes, into someone's dream, and other mystic locations not of this world.

Skirmish

Engage in mental combat with precision and finesse.

Mental Melee You can use the power as a close-range mental attack, similar in effect to a melee weapon or pistol.

Psychic Strike Same as Skirmish Attack, except the weapon is fine and potent.

Cognitive Cover Your power creates distractions that prevents an intelligent enemy from benefiting from numbers and otherwise works as a fine potent weapon.

Mental Storm Your power strikes out in all directions, attacking all enemies in a wide area.

Study

Uncover secrets and unlock the potential of your intellect.

Identify Intellect You can identify intelligent objects and creatures.

Analyze Intellect You learn the powers and abilities of something you analyze.

Past Perception You can read the past events of something you analyze. This includes previous owners and how the object has been moved around as well as significant scenes.

Universal Understanding You research everything in a wide area. This is easy to do where you are, more difficult at range. You can then use hindsight on some of these targets.