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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 9673809" data-attributes="member: 2629">My homebrew psion version has this element (which explains why I want it included).The idea is to replicate the psionic Superhero trope of being able to go all in when you really need to, but risking that you'll do harm to yourself (and potentially others) that is meaningful and lasting, but not forever (usually).  In my design psionics work on a power point system.  As you advance, you reduce the cost of using powers (eventually making many low level powers free), and increase the amount of power you can spend on a given power safely (increasing damage and effects) - but there is never a cap on how much you can spend.  When you exceed your safe cap, you roll dice and check against tables that are specified for each power set and then see what happens.  Some of them 'burn you out' without the power taking effect.  A pyrokinetic that attempts to do something too strong could get some of the standard table entries that appear on every table - power points used to no effect, psionic damage that reduces your hp max, intelligence reductions (that can last a short time, til long rest, days or weeks), lost additional power points (which may not come back with the next long rest) and gaining conditions (blindness, deafness, exhaustion, confusion, poisoned, etc...) for lengthy periods.  They could get also get something specific to their subclass, or specific to the power suite they are using.  So, they might explode in a fireball, encompass themselves in a flame wall they can't put out, or gain vulnerability to cold damage, or might sustain massive burns that lower max hp.  While there are entries on the table that just kill you, there is really no practical reason to push yourself so hard that this might happen (as it is not fun).In practice, people tend to push for this overload late in combats against a big bad for a huge unload - and it has been epic and iconic, as well as being horrifically bad for the entire party.  A psion that created mental illusions effectively cast phantasmal force on all of their allies in the middle of a combat - and they all fell prey to it.  That was devastating.</blockquote>

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