Psionic Incantations: "Make Elan" Communal: "Living Prisons are made, not born."

[Maginomicon]

When a quori (a spirit-like creature in the Eberron setting) commits a heinous crime against its own kind, it receives a terrible punishment: It is bound into a human vessel against its will. Unlike in the normal process of Inspiration, the bound spirit has no power or influence over its host. Condemned to eternal powerlessness, the quori's energy sustains and empowers the host, transforming it into an elan. No elan council exists on Eberron, and no one undergoes the process voluntarily.

Elans are exceedingly rare. Most are found in Riedra, serving in the Harmonious Shield. Elans know what they are — living prisons for evil spirits. An elan has been granted great power with which to serve the Inspired, and the potential to redeem the il-altas imprisoned in its body. Many elans rise to this challenge, becoming champions of the Path of Inspiration. Others stray from the path. Some hear messages from the spirit within or at least believe that they do; the life of an elan often ends in madness. Others learn the truth about the Inspired — with a potential lifespan of centuries, an elan has a great deal of time to put together the pieces of the puzzle.
I want to design a psionic equivalent to incantations (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm) called "communals".

Further, I want to design a communal for calling a condemned spirit from Dal Quor to permanently be imprisoned in a human host, thus transforming the targeted human into an elan.

What I want to know is:

How does the playground feel I should pull it off? For example:

Generally-speaking for any communal, how should I set the Base...
DC,
Range,
Target/Area,
Duration,
Saving Throw, and
Power Resistance
for each of the psionic disciplines?
How should other incantation-like requirements and effects be implemented for communals (given how psionics works)?
Given the nature of how Elan are made as described above, what specific discipline(s) and skill checks should be involved for the Make Elan communal itself?

[erikun]

Well, psionic "incantations" don't really make all that much thematic sense.
(spoilered for off-topic a bit)
Wizards get their spells by studying arcane magics of reality and what needs to be done to affect them. Clerics are given this information directly from a deity in exchange for worship. Psions are much more like "mundane" characters, like rogues or warblades, who have knowledge and ability to do something and use their inner potential to make it happen.

Incantations are something like super-wizard spells, or casting similar to how a wizard does so without going through specific study or memorizing to spell slots. Psions have Metaconcert (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/metaconcert.htm), which is similar, but it still wouldn't be producing an entirely new effect - the Metaconcert would just be using one of the powers a member knows to greater effect. (Older D&D editions has priest circles which could do much the same.)

As for making psionic incantations anyways, it seems like you can just use the existing rules as-is. Here are the relations (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicPowersOverview.htm#powerDescriptions) between psionic disciplines and magic schools:


Psychometabolism is Transmutation
Psychokinesis is Evocation
Clairsentience is Divination
Metacreativity is Conjuration
Telepathy is Enchantment

Psychoportation does not have an equivalent, although most are going to fit in the Conjuration (Teleportation) magic school. Several others would be Transmutation.

[Maginomicon]

Well, psionic "incantations" don't really make all that much thematic sense.The heck they don't. A bunch of people sitting around a circle meditating, using their combined mental aptitude to make something happen without any capability to manifest specific powers makes a ton of thematic sense. Also, I defer you to the last line of my sig.

[Fax Celestis]

What you're describing isn't really psionics, it's a seance.

[Lateral]

What you're describing isn't really psionics, it's a seance.
In a world full of magic and stuff, a séance would be a perfectly logical way to describe a psionic group incantation. After all, the default fluff of psionics could be described as 'magic, only pseudosciencier and comes from the mind.'

[Fax Celestis]

Sort of? Most psionic stuff is either self-oriented instead of socially-oriented, if that makes sense.

[Lateral]

Well, true. I guess the idea would be that those 'communals' represent normally self-oriented psionics used socially.

[theIrkin]

I know this departs some from the OP, but why not shift the idea for psionic incantations. What about super-powerful Quori that can be summoned psychically for favors, much as the spirits that fuel magical incantations? Just come up with some psionic flavored abilities that different powerful Quori might grant.

[Lateral]

Quori... aren't especially friendly. I mean, if you aren't in Eberron you could fluff it any way you like, but by the default fluff they're more likely to just kill you all.

[Maginomicon]

This is a draft of what I have so far:

Make Elan

Psychometabolism/Psychoportation
Effective Level: 8th
Skill Check: Knowledge (dungeoneering) DC 33, 2 successes; Knowledge (psionics) DC 33, 2 successes; Knowledge (the planes) DC 33, 4 successes
Display: Material and Visual
Components: XP, SM, B
Manifesting Time: 8 hours
Range: Touch
Target: One touched human
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Power Resistance: No

The targeted human must be bound (helpless, for everyone’s safety), and try to keep his mind clear. You must take 1 hour between each skill check, and throughout the communal you must sit beside the target’s bound form and meditate on the nature of the quori and the frailty and impermanence of the human body.

XP Cost: 1000 XP from the primary manifester, plus 500 XP from each of the three secondary manifesters.

Backlash: Regardless of success or failure, the primary manifester is exhausted.

Secondary Manifesters: Three required; Throughout the communal they sit in a 20-foot-radius triangle centered around the target and meditate on the the paradox of bodily perfection at the cost of becoming a mental prison.

Failure: For each Knowledge (the planes) success that has already been made so-far (prior to the failure), consult the table below. That many creatures appear within the triangle and immediately attack everyone nearby, starting with the human that was to become an elan, followed by the primary manifester, then the secondary manifesters, and then any bystanders. If the primary manifester dies or moves more than 100 ft away from where he was when the creatures appeared, or after 1 minute passes, the creatures vanish back to Dal Quor.
{table=head]Number of Successes | Encounter Description
0 | 1 Tsureva Quori (MoE p147) |
1 | 1 Tsucora Quori (ECS p296) |
2 | 2 Tsureva Quori and 1 Tsucora Quori |
3 | 1 Du'ulora Quori (SoS p153) |
4 | 3 Tsureva Quori, 2 Tsucora Quori, and 1 Du'ulora Quori |[/table]
Furthermore, For each Knowledge (dungeoneering) success that has already been made so-far (prior to the failure), consult the table below. If the target becomes a tainted raver (HoH p154) or dolgaunt (ECS p281), it immediately attempts to break free and attack everyone nearby.
{table=head]Number of Successes | Effect
0 | The target is knocked unconscious from nonlethal damage. |
1 | The target gains the tainted raver template for 1 minute. (The player loses control of the character for this period) |
2 | The target becomes a dolgaunt for 1 minute. (The player loses control of the character for this period) |[/table]

Does that look consistent with the incantation rules? (DC 30+10(dual disciplines)-7(modifiers) )