Stupid Psionics Question

[Tarlek Flamehai]

So am I missing something, or is Telepathy not a psionic power? I can find a Telepathy Discipline, but not a Telepathy power. The only way to get telepathy is an item or a Special Ability?

[Baroknik]

Mindlink is a level one Telepath power that forms a telepathic link with a target.

[Tarlek Flamehai]

Yes, but it's not Telepathy.

[Red Fel]

What specifically do you mean when you say "Telepathy?" Because there are many options.

• There's the Telepathy special ability, which is basically a form of speech and a prerequisite for Mindsight.
• There's the Missive power, which sends a one-way message but requires a common language.
• There's Mass Missive, which is the same thing but multiple targets (basically a telepathic tweet).
• There's Mindlink, as mentioned, which allows back-and-forth without a common language.
• There are Read Thoughts and Mind Probe, which let you read minds.
• There are Psionic Suggestion and Psionic Dominate, which let you control minds.

To my knowledge, there is no power simply called Telepathy, but that's an annoyingly generic name for something that's supposed to do a specific thing, anyway. If you want Telepathy (the special ability), I'd suggest taking the Telepathy ACF that grants you the special ability at level 5.

[Tarlek Flamehai]

I mean the prerequisite for Mindsight. It just seems weird to me that it is not available as psionic power.

[Renen]

Not really weird. Talking w/o language is just usually an ability. Dipping mindbender is usually the go to method for grabbing telepathy and then mindsight.

[Red Fel]

I mean the prerequisite for Mindsight. It just seems weird to me that it is not available as psionic power.

If it were a power, then you could only use Mindsight while that power was active, or else you wouldn't qualify for the feat. You would either have to spend points on it or acquire a source of persistent power. That's silly.

As Renen points out, Telepathy (the ability) is simply a language ability, like talking. And Mindsight is simply a vision ability, like Darkvision or Tremorsense. One of the key advantages of either is the fact that you don't have to spend PP to use them; basing them on a theoretical power gets rid of that advantage. At that point, you might as well turn Mindsight into a psionic power as well, rather than an always-on feat.

[Flickerdart]

Telepath Psions have an ACF to trade out their 5th level bonus feat for Telepathy.