This column is the last in a series looking at the four "categories" of attributes, and the Conflicts that relate to them.  These are Intrigue, Military, Diplomacy, and Psi/Misc.

So last but not least we come to Psi, as well as a couple of miscellaneous Conflicts.  As is obvious, Psi is useless to the Narn.  None of their characters start with it, and Latent Telepath won't give it to them.

The characters who currently have Psi are:  Bester (12), Talia Winters (6), Centauri Telepath (5), Minbari Telepath (6), Jason Ironheart (starts at 10), and Lyta Alexander (5).  You can start out any non-Narn, non- Ambassador with a 3 Psi by using Latent Telepath enhancement.  And you can boost a Psi character up to 15 using Vorlon Enhancement.

The Humans obviously have the greatest number of telepaths.  They can use Vorlon marks, discounting Lyta and providing a good chance of boosting a Psi character through Vorlon Enhancement.  And they have Psi Corps Intelligence, which we'll talk about below.

The Minbari, besides their own telepath, can recruit Lyta fairly easily if they're using Vorlon marks.

The Centauri only have their own telepath, although his secondary ability can prove useful.

Jason Ironheart is a (Unique) that can prove useful to everyone.  The Centauri are better, however, at using Forced Impairment and eliminating the text that both boosts his Psi and later removes him from the game.  Jason then stands pat as a 10-strength telepath.

So what can you do with Psi?  Well, there are only two Psi-specific conflicts.  They are Psi Attack and Telepathic Scan.

Psi Attack requires that you tie up a character with a Psi of 5+ to immobilize an opposing character.  You cannot target an Ambassador (as per the errata).  This Conflict does not constitute an attack, however (despite its name), so cards like Diplomatic Immunity won't let an Assistant avoid it, and Talia Winters can use it.

This can prove extremely useful, but ties up a valuable resource of yours.  Talia and Lyta are probably your best choices here, as Bester and Ironheart's higher Psi can be used in other ways, using Level the Playing Field and a couple of other cards we'll talk about in a bit.  The Centauri and Minbari Telepaths have special abilities which makes it better for them to remain free agents.

Telepathic Scan, on the other hand, is a much more useful card.  It's a great starting card to use, along with a Telepath.  Target an opposing player's hand, and force them to discard randomly from their starting hand!  If they put a strategy-critical card or two in there, the odds are good they'll lose it, delaying if not totally messing up their strategy.

Telepathic Scan is equally useful later in the game.  Bester can cause an opponent to discard 12 cards, which is going to hurt no matter what.

There are also two Psi-related conflicts that are not specifically Psi-based.  Those are Psi Interrogation and Sleeper Personality.

Psi Interrogation is primarily an Intrigue Conflict, but you can use Psi for it, and you must support with at least one Psi-rated character.  However, I haven't found the ability to look at hidden agendas that useful.  For one thing, _everyone_ finds out what they are, not just
you.  For another, it's often not hard to figure what the other players are using for hidden agendas anyway.

Sleeper Personality requires you have a good Psi (10+), and be good at Intrigue.  The actual demotion effect is somewhat trivial, and if you're using Intrigue, there are probably other ways to accomplish it.  If you can generate the necessary Psi, though, you can make their
Inner Circle member _your_ supporting character.  It might seem hard to get that much Psi, but you can use Level the Playing Field to have other character(s) contribute Psi.

Psi Corps Intelligence, a Human Group, can let you start a second Psi Conflict, and move a potential key card to the bottom of his deck.  This can have a huge impact on your opponent.  Even if you don't use it in this manner, looking at the top two cards of your deck requires no Psi, and can give you some helpful suggestions on when to play Meditations or buy cards.

One last Conflict has nothing to do with Psi, but I'm going to include it here for completeness.  That is The Great Machine.  A great card for raising your Influence, and even for raising B5's Influence if you're using a  strategy that counts on winning through B5.  And you can
use Psi to assist this conflict by using Level the Playing Field.  Bester can make quite an impact here.

So these are the remaining Conflicts.  Psi can also help you in non-Psi conflicts through the use of Commercial Telepaths (half Psi as Diplomacy), Military Telepaths (Psi for Leadership), and Secret Police (Psi for Intrigue).  Bester, for instance, can boost his Intrigue
up to 11 by using Secret Police.  This can give the Humans a substantial edge in supporting or opposing such Conflicts.

And don't forget, you can use multiple copies of these group to boost the same character multiple times.

Psi Bodyguard can help, but is somewhat limited in its application.  It only lets you help to oppose Intrigue Conflicts, and only those that target your characters.  Against a Forced Impairment or Technological Espionage its useless.  It's also not of any help against a Kidnapping or Temptations aimed at another player.

Vorlon Enhancement can kick a character's Psi up to 15.  This does require 4 Vorlon marks to perform, though.  However, the benefits of a 15 Psi can be seen from looking at the stuff above.

Overall, most of the Psi-based characters are a valuable addition to nearly any deck.  The Centauri and Minbari Telepaths, and Bester, are useful even if you or anyone else never play a single Psi Conflict.  Jason Ironheart can convert his massive Psi to something else using Level
the Playing Field.  Talia and Lyta are not quite powerful enough to warrant inclusion unless you do use Psi Conflicts.

Next issue:  we may take somewhat of a break here, until the Shadow Wars expansion is out and I've had a chance to take a good look at it.  It should be coming out shortly.  If you have a topic you'd like to see explored in more length, drop me a line (at  scrow@chop.isca.uiowa.edu).  However, we've pretty much covered the basics at this point.

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Steve Crow