I'm back, and a possible Psionic Helm idea

        After too long an absence (and a changed email address), I have returned
to yet again bother the goodly people of this list :)

        Actually, I have two things to toss out, and here's the first:

        Psionic Helms.

        I'm aware of the arguments that have surrounded Psionic Helms in the past,
but I think I've actually stumbled across something cannon relating to
Psionic Helms.
        I was leafing through the Lorebook of the Void, and re-read the entry on
Illithid.  I believe that a mistake was made in that entry, because it
refers to the Illithid's "magical psionic powers", and we all know that
Illithid are almost purely psionics, with Illithid mages being extremely rare.
        So I had a sudden inspiration.  The reason that Psionic Helms had never
been perfected in the past was that people were trying to get a helm that a
single psionicist can use.  The Series Helms used by the Illithid are
actually different from the other Series Helms in use in that they operate
on the psionic energies the Illithid naturally use.  A group of
non-Illithid psionicists ought to be able to use an Illithid Series Helm
with no problem, though using a normal (magic draining) Series Helm would,
of course, not work.

        Now, getting hold of an Illithid Series Helm might take some work, and
most adventuring parties don't have more than one psionicist around.  Still
groups of psionicists aren't that rare, and wildspace seems like a good
place to build a retreat (gods know its quiet enough, right?), so some
psionic groups might be interested in such things.

        The next obvious question is: Will the Arcane sell these helms to
non-Illithid, or must the interested people steal them from the Illithid.
Also, of course, series helms are all minor helms, it takes the entire
psionic force of an Elder Brain Pool to move a ship of more than 50 tons,
so psionic ships aren't going to be that powerful, especially since they
would require the services of one psionic per SR point (and psionics aren't
*that* dreadfully common most places).
        Also, one does have to wonder if such helms are vulnerable to sargasso?
Personally, I'd say yes, strictly in the interests of game balance, and I'd
justify it with some BS about the motive force being magical in nature
regardless of the origin of the power.  This would also be my justification
for making the Illithid Series Helms as vulnerable to various anti-magic
effects as normal helms are, they are combination magic/psionic items and
thus are vulnerable to everything that affects BOTH magic and psionics,
which makes an infestation of cerebral parisites doubly nasty.

                Brad, back, and still weird