Are Druids Psychic?

[Tor]

In Mutants in Avalon there is an option to play a druid but you take huge experience penalties to level up to account for the abilities they learn. It's not clear but I'm pretty sure to do this you need to roll 'druid' on the background table.

Anyway a lot of these abilities are magic powers that describe working like various animal psionics, such as see aura. It never calls them psychic powers, it always says magic powers, but it does not that someone saving against these abilities would roll to save versus psionics.

That made me suspicious, like why would you save vs psi if it's magic? This got me wondering if there are examples of spells in other games that require psionics saves rather than magic ones. I'm thinking possibly 'Mental Blast' in FoM (first featured in Wormwood, will have to go check out).

What I'm wondering though, is if a mutant animal doesn't actually buy any psionic powers, but gets their equivalents from being a Druid, would you say they're a psychic? Like would they show up from a 'detect psionics'? Would they get the enhanced savings throw ability versus psi that psychics get? There would be ups and downs to it.

[green.nova343]

Hard to say. I know that magic actually is used in the setting -- Transdimensional TMNT not only borrowed the magic spells/magic combat tables from PFRPG1/HU Revised, but added in "temporal magic" (not the Temporal Magic from Rifts WB4 England, but magic exclusive to the TMNT/AtB setting). However, IIRC that was based on saving vs. magic.

May have to do some more investigating on this. However, if every Druid spell-like ability requires a save vs. psionics, I'm going to say that they're psychics.

[Tor]

The explanation on the top left of pg 52 isn't all that clear. "druid magic bears similarities to psionic abilities, except conducted through ritual rather than just tapping the mind"

"a few scholars claim druidid magic simply is psionic abilities dressed up with ceremony"

"druidic magic powers: mind block and see aura; same as animal psionics"

I'm not sure this means they ARE animal psionics though. We have had spells and psionics overlap before (astral projection being a spell and sensitive psi power, I think possibly see aura too, probably some others). Druids also have abilities that aren't under psionics.

Another critical thing is that none of the psychic abilities that druids gain have any Bio-E costs. What they pay instead is higher experience leveling requirements. That seems to associate it more with a learned skill (like magic) rather than animal psionics which generally must be bought.