Contact

Contact was a fundamental psionic power or skill of the telepathy discipline. Necessary for many other psionic powers, as well as psionic combat, it formed a conduit for telepathic exchange.

Effects
The formal contact skill allowed a psionics-user to learn and use the standard psionic attacks needed to engage in psionic combat and open a closed mind to other powers. In a more general sense, "contact" referred to the application of a psionic power to a mind that had been opened, whether voluntarily or forcibly.

Just as the word implied, it made contact between the mind of the telepath and a target creature. It did not itself permit communication, only formed the conduit for telepathic exchange. Targets had to be known to the psionicist, in sight or in knowledge, and were contacted individually, but multiple contacts could be maintained. It became most costly to contact targets the further they were apart (no more than 10,000 miles or 16,093 kilometer if not seen), if they could not be seen by either sight or another power, if they were very intelligent or knew many languages, if they were non-intelligent animals or not mammalian, or if they resisted. An untrained target could make contact harder by filling their mind with nonsense and emotion, such as yelling battle cries, repeating a poem or song, or sticking fingers in their ears and yelling. If they focused all their attention on this, they might fully resist the contact, but performing other actions left "holes" in this crude psychic defense. A psionicist or psionic creature had "closed" minds, which were automatically protected against contact, even when asleep or unconscious. They needed to deliberately drop their defenses to allow contact, and could choose which contacts to accept. If they did resist, contact could only be made via the psionic attacks, and they could also apply psionic defenses to prevent contact.

Making and maintaining contact both cost psionic energy, but the energy of other psionic powers used via the contact could be used to maintain the contact. A psionicist maintaining contact could perform other actions while they did. Once made, contact could be maintained over any distance, but not past the limit of a crystal sphere.

Within psionic combat between psionicists and psionic creatures, there were degrees of partial contact known as "tangents", made each time a psionic attack succeeded or overcame a psionic defense. A single tangent was commonly called "one-finger contact", two tangents were called "two-finger contact", and three tangents established full contact, in which case tangents were no longer required. (there was no "three-finger contact"). The contacted mind lay vulnerable to many psionic powers.

Contact was broken when a mind was re-closed or when the psionicist making contact ended it or failed to maintain it through distraction or lack of psionic energy. A contacted psionicist could also attempt to eject the one contacting them, but this was risky.

If contact was attempted against a wizard using the mislead spell, it would fail automatically, but the psionicist would also immediately notice the deception.

Displays
A contact had a physical manifestation, with recipients reporting sensing it as a "heavy spot" or "thick spot" somewhere in the mind, though they were unable to locate it exactly within their skull. Contacts made by psionic combat were much more intense; Bezelar Mujarif described a tangent as feeling "like a gallstone in the mind" and full contact as "like a tiger has unsheathed its claws in your head".

Usage
The contact skill was required to learn and use the five psionic attacks: ego whip, id insinuation, mind thrust, psionic blast, and psychic crush.

It was essential to establish contact with another creature's mind before the use of almost any telepathic power. Provided contact was made and maintained, a psionicist could use these other powers and change one power for another.

Contact was necessary for many psionic powers, such as domination, identity penetration, mindlink, and telepathic projection.

Users
Psionicists learned the contact skill automatically, with no additional effort, while beings with wild talents had to train specifically in it.

Contact was known innately by intellect devourers and their larval form, ustilagor, and by lesser and greater shedu.

Notable Users

 * Gayrlana, "Lady Bloodsword", leader of the Mindulgulph Mercenary Company, had a psionic talent for contact.

Background
The nature of "contact" has varied significantly in each edition and version of psionics. In 2 edition, starting with The Complete Psionics Handbook, it is a formal psionic power and fundamental to many other powers and the system of psionic combat. It was later changed in Player's Option: Skills & Powers to being no more than a proficiency required for psionic attacks, while tangents were eliminated. In other editions, it is so fundamental, in fact, that it is no more than a verb. In 1 edition, in Players Handbook 1st edition, it is no more than an action made as part of a few powers, with a cost in psionic points. However, in each edition, it can be unclear which mentions of "contact" refer to the use of a power or proficiency within the mechanics and which are more general descriptions. This article treats "contact" as a psionic power for the sake of organization, and assumes all mentions of it in relation to psionics pertain to the same power, skill, or action for the sake of discussion. The superseded descriptions are retained for flavor and their relationship to Forgotten Realms lore.