Psychic Contests (CPsiH)

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Psionic powers often clash "head-on." For example, one psionicist may make a psionic attack against a character with an active psionic defense. Which power prevails? Does the attack break through the defense, or bounce off? A psychic contest determines the answers.
Resolving a psychic contest is simple when both powers are initiated in the same round. The two contestants just compare the die rolls for their power checks. The character with the higher successful roll wins the contest. If neither character's power check succeeds, or if both rolls are equal, the defender "wins" by default (in other words, a tie goes to the defender).
Example: An attacker is using ego whip. The defender has erected a thought barrier. The attacker's ego whip power score is 15, and the defender's thought barrier score is 12. The table below shows several possible outcomes of the psychic contest between these powers.
Attack Roll	Defense Roll	Result
11 	6 	Attacker wins because his die roll is higher.
3 	9 	Defender wins because his die roll is higher.
4 	18 	Attacker wins because his attack roll succeeded and the defender's roll did not - in effect, there is no defense this round.
16 	10 	Defender wins because his defense roll succeeded and the attacker's failed.
19 	15 	Neither power check succeeded. The defender "wins" by default simply because the attacker didn't.
8 	8 	Tied rolls. Again, the defender wins by default because the attacker didn't beat the defense roll.
15 	- 	The attacker wins this automatically. His power check succeeded and his roll is higher than the defender's power score, so NO roll will let the defender win.
Maintained Powers: In the example above, powers were initiated in the same round as the conflict. Some psychic contests involve a power that is being maintained - i.e., a power that was initiated in a previous round. In this case, the player whose character is maintaining the power must make a new power check strictly to resolve the contest. He gains a +1 bonus to his power score because the power is being maintained. If the contest roll "fails" it doesn't mean the power fails. It's still being maintained - just not very well. For the contest, the character ignores the "failed" check and instead receives a "successful" result of 1.
Multiple Conflicts: In the thick of battle, a psionicist may be involved in more than one psychic contest per round. If he's using more than one power, the player must make a separate die roll for each power used that round.
If he's using a single power against more than one opponent, the player can make a separate die roll for each opponent. As soon as he rolls a number he likes, the player may use that result for all remaining psychic contests involving that power, in that round (in other words, once he gets a power really well "tuned in" during a given round, he can stop "fiddling with the dial"). This rule applies to telepathic defense modes, as well as other powers.
==Psychic Lock==
In some psychic contests, there is no clearcut defender. For example, two characters may try to use psychokinesis on the same object simultaneously. (They do a little psionic arm-wrestling.) In such a case, the character with the higher successful die roll still wins the contest that round. In our example, the winner would control the object.
If the power checks indicate a tie, however, the characters are deadlocked-or psychically locked. Neither character wins that round. To resolve the conflict, both characters should maintain the same powers during the next round, and engage in a new psychic contest. If either character fails to maintain his power (effectively giving up), he suffers a backlash and loses 4d4 PSPs immediately.
In any case, victory may be fleeting. If conditions are right, the loser can challenge the winner to a "rematch in the next round.