Simple Psionics

The first bit here is the why. If you wanna skip to the good stuff, just scroll till you reach the d12 table. Go on, I won't stop you.

I really love Psychic powers. I really hate how psychic powers are portrayed in D&D. It seems nothing ever passes the Jedi Test, which is simply "Do these rules let me throw stuff around like Yoda?"

Some systems use skill checks. This weirds me out, since that means that sometimes Yoda tries to lift the X-Wing and just... can't. The force is more constant then this. I dislike the mechanic of a boolean can/can't because sometimes my character will roll poorly and I will feel lame.

Some systems use mana, or psi points, or whatever you want to call it. This also weirds me out, since it means Yoda can just run out of juice. Even if you're a mind reader or a pyrokinetic, it's strange to have an arbitrary cap, a limit to how much you can use your powers. Only this many mind readings a day. Psychic powers seem like they should always be on. Mana makes the whole thing feel too much like a rip from magic.

The excellent Scrap Princess posted this. It is fantastic. It is psionics as philosophy, as raw emotional turmoil. But it completely fails the Jedi test.

But it does show me that maybe psionic powers can just be this thing you can do, all the time. Which creates its own set of problems! With no limits, how do I stop someone from just Mind Controlling EVERY ONE THEY MEET. My players would do it too. They like to watch me cry.

Then, I found this, written by the fine Ramanan Sivaranjan. It uses mana points, more or less, but here's the awesome bit: the surge system. You have this power, this awesome thing you can do. But then you can get your psychic nosebleed on and WRECK SOME HAVOC. So without further ado, this is how I run psionics.

On Psionic Powers

Next time you level up, spend that level on learning a psychic power instead. Pick one from the table, or just roll a D12. I don't really care.

All powers take up your standard action. You can only activate one power per turn. Activating a surge power costs 1D4 HP, or whatever your HD is. You start with two powers and gain an additional power every level.

While surging, psykers start bleeding from the nose, and their skin barely but noticeably shrivels as the muscles are eaten away to sustain the caloric needs of their spells.

#	Free Effect: You can do this any time you want.	Surge Effect: You have to pay 1d4 HP to do this.
1	Psionic Immunity: While you concentrate, you can't be targeted by other psychic powers.	Psionic Blocking: While you concentrate, your target cannot use psionic powers.
2	Illusion: You project a mental image into a single target's mind. Unrealistic behavior lets the target make an INT check to realize the illusion is all in their head (thought they still keep seeing it).	Mass Illusion: You project a mental image into the head of everyone within a CHA x 10 feet.
3	Telepathy: You can read minds, and beam your thoughts to others. The target must be within CHA feet of you. With an opposed CHA check (you get +5), you can even pass the thoughts off as being the target's own.	Mind Control: For the next level turns you completely take over a creature's mind, dictating it's actions. Mind controlled characters are easily recognized by their up rolled eyes. When the victim is forced to do something they'd detest (ie; hurt a loved one, give you their wallet) they get a CHA save to snap out of it.
4	Read Memory: By touching a person's head, you can read their memory. Depending on whether they're awake, they experience this as either a flashback or as a dream.	Write Memory: You erase or rewrite a subject's memories, changing an hour of memory for every minute you work. Note: If a subject realizes their memories have been tampered with, they don't get the old ones back. What's gone is gone.
5	Torpor: By slowing the effects of time on yourself, you enter into a state of status, where heat, cold, and your wounds don't affect you. You remain conscious and can awake at any time.	Paralysis: You slow down a target, freezing them mid-step. To the target, it looks like the world is stuck on fast forward.
6	Haste: By accelerating the effects of time on yourself, you move at double speed. Every turn you can move twice and act twice, but you lose one hit point from the strain.	Time Stop: For your level turns you accelerate time so quickly that everything else is frozen. During this interval you, and only you, can move and act as normal.
7	Dowsing: You can discoverer the location of a person or object, provided you've personally seen or touched that thing before.	Precognition: You can see what will happen in the future to a person or object you've personally seen. Looking into your own future gives you a seizure that stuns you for 1d10 rounds, since it changes just as quickly as you see it.
8	Clairvoyance: By focusing on a place you've been to, you can see it as if you were standing there. Your eyes glow while you do it.	Teleportation: You focus on a place you've been to and instantly appear there. You take everything you are carrying and anyone you touch.
9	Phase Shift: You transpose yourself into a quantum state, and become misaligned with reality. Attacks have a fifty percent chance of going through you entirely.	Bilocation: You transpose yourself into a quantum state, creating a quantum clone. Both of you can take different actions. If one of you takes damage, the waveform collapses: that copy disappears in a puff of quarks and the other copy is "the real you."
10	Telekinesis: You can move up to 10 x CHA x Level pounds. You move it with all the dexterity of a giant baby's hand.	Disintegrate: You rip the object you're using telekinesis on apart. You destroy up to your level of HD instantly.
11	Static Shock:  You become electrically charged. Anyone who hurts you gets a nasty 1d4 damage shock.	Electrokinesis: A huge bolt of lightning erupts from your hands, arcing between your level targets and dealing each d8 damage.
12	Spontaneous Combustion: By rapidly vibrating tiny bits of matter you generate enough heat to set things on fire. 1d6 damage for every turn of flames, but they go out as soon as you stop concentrating (unless you ignited dry leaves or gasoline).	Spontaneous Explosion: You point, it goes boom. 1d12 damage to everything in a ten foot range.