Psionics in Combat (WatW)

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Note: You may wish to review the rules for telepathic combat in The Complete Psionics Handbook, pages 25 through 27.
In telepathic combat, a psionicist uses a psionic attack The Combat Round mode to attack another. The attacker and defender must make power checks to initiate their respective attacks or defenses. Whoever makes his power check with the highest roll wins the psychic contest. If the attacker wins, he gains a tangent on the defender. If the defender wins, the attack is foiled.
Remember, a character can use a psionic defense while taking another action in the round-attacking physically, casting a spell, using a magical item, or initiating a psionic power or attack mode of his own. There can be two simultaneous telepathic combats occuring between two characters!
An overmatched psionicist may decide to defend himself while using his other action to shoot his crossbow at his tormentor, hoping to disrupt his concentration. If a character chooses to attack via the telepathic attack modes, he may make two mental attacks per round.
Another reminder: maintaining a power of any kind does not count as taking an action.
==How Do Defenses Work?==
When a psionicist comes under psionic attack, he can defend by raising one of the five psionic defenses. In most cases, this can only be done at the beginning of a combat round. There is one exception-the defense mind blank. Mind blank does not need to be initiated, since it costs 0 PSPs to use.
This means that a psionicist who was not expecting a psychic attack can always defend with mind blank, regardless of what he has already done during the current round and without affecting whatever he was planning to do.
To raise any other defense in the middle of a round, the psionicist must abort his intended action. If he has already done something else, he can't raise any defense except mind blank until the beginning of the next round
Psionicists should strongly consider taking mind blank as their first defense, as it is the only defense that will operate at any time. If a psionicist is hit with a mental attack and doesn't have a defense available, the attacker automatically gains a tangent if he succeeds in his power check.
==The Combat Round==
When psionics are part of the melee round, things can get confusing. The correct sequence of play should be:
# Players announce what actions their characters intend to take. If psionicist has not yet come under psionic attack, he need not raise a defense. The psionicist may choose to initiate a power. If he chooses to attack psionically, he states which power he is going to use and selects a harbinger to convey it. If the psionicist is under telepathic attack at the beginning of a round, he must also declare what construct he intends to use.
# Everyone rolls initiative. If a psionicist is initiating a power, use the power's Preparation Time as an initiative modifier. At the DM's option, the character's Intelligence functions as a "mental Dexterity." He may use the reaction adjustments from the Dexterity Table for his Intelligence score. A character with an 18 Intelligence has a -3 initiative bonus with psionics.
# Actions are resolved in initiative order. Psionic powers are initiated whenever they fall in the combat round. If a psionicist without a raised defense comes under telepathic attack, he can raise mind blank and choose a construct. He does not know what attack mode is being used against him; he only knows that he is under attack. He may still take other actions as normal during the round. A character attacking telepathically may make two attacks in a round, but must use the same attack mode and may not change harbingers during the round.