Draw Steel Talent Guide

Introduction

The Talent has awakened their mind to psionic power, learning to shape reality through the force of their will. The specific techniques that each Null develops are grouped into Traditions, which describe the aspect of reality that they have the most control of.

For each choice I've assigned a star rating based on how powerful I think the option is and how often it will be useful, as well as a short explanation.

Base Features

The heroic resource Clarity fuels the Talent's abilities, and they can only get more of it each round the first time a creature is force moved. This is an easy condition to meet as Draw Steel has a focus on forced movement, and it applies regardless of if an ally or enemy is the one force moved.

This is still on the low side of heroic resource generation, so the Talent also has the opportunity to go into debt with their unique Strain mechanic. At level 1, Clarity can be overspent to -3, which will cause them to be Strained. This activates extra effects in abilities and causes the Talent to take damage at the end of their turn. Taking damage in this way isn't always a bad thing as it allows you to easily activate some of the Ward options, but the Strained effects themselves can be painful.

Some Strained effects aren't very impactful as they only last until the end of your turn, and others are "save ends" which you'll have the chance of immediately ending anyway. If you gain a condition immunity from your Ancestry, some Strained effects will be mitigated.

Sometimes you'll actively want to take strained effects, especially for signature abilities, which can be made more likely with the "Self-Taught" complication delaying when you gain Clarity for a turn.

The Mind Spike ability is mostly there to make sure you have a free strike option in case you are granted one, though being granted a free strike while strained isn't great, as an equivalent exchange of stamina is generally worse for player characters.

Augmentations

Battle Augmentation ★★☆☆☆ Worse than the Density Augmentation unless you really want a light armor/weapon treasure, and if that happens you can switch later. Technically your director could say that you can't Imbue Armor unless you take this augmentation, but considering imbuing clothing is an option I consider this a silly ruling.

Density Augmentation ★★★★☆ This is a lot of stamina at level 1 and can make the difference between dying immediately or getting to your turn to spend recoveries at every level.

Distance Augmentation ★★☆☆☆ All of your ranged abilities except Chronopathy's 9th level "Acceleration Field" have a range of 10. Bumping this number to 12 is irrelevant in the majority of circumstances.

Force Augmentation ★★☆☆☆ +1 damage is such a small bonus that it's hard to say it ever makes a significant difference, and there are very few ways the Talent can take extra advantage of it.

Speed Augmentation ★★☆☆☆ There are a couple of melee abilities that might benefit from having more mobility; "Spirit Sword", or the very powerful "Fate" from Chronopathy. However most Talent abilities are ranged, so this has limited usefulness.

Wards

Entropy Ward ★★☆☆☆ The reduction in movement speed is hard to make use of, and as written the removal of triggered actions doesn't work. The enemy will damage you on their turn, and then immediately regain the ability to use triggered actions by ending the turn.
Even if it did work as intended it's pretty likely this doesn't prevent triggered actions often, and there are other ways to remove them from important enemies like the Dazed condition or the Chronopathy "Slow" heroic ability.

Repulsive Ward ★★★☆☆ Can help you stay at range or add some damage against groups. The push is pretty small and hard to use if the enemy is playing around it, but it's consistent and repeatable so in some situations it can be strong.

Steel Ward ★★★★☆ Typeless damage immunity is a rare and valuable benefit. There are a lot of combats where you'll take damage multiple times a round, and some of the better abilities have their Strained costs reduced as well.
Damage from having negative Clarity is reduced, which can also be a good way to activate the damage immunity. With all of the self-damage the Talent can inflict on themselves this Ward can add up to a lot of stamina saved.

Vanishing Ward ★★★☆☆ Similar in application to the Steel Ward, but generally damage immunity is better, with more ways it can be useful.
The invisibility can be used to hide, which is a decent way to use your maneuver considering the weak class options available. The edge gained from hiding can be helpful for some abilities that require a certain tier result to be effective, mostly "Fling Through Time". Staying hidden isn't great if it just gets your allies damaged instead of you.

Ancestries

This is an interesting topic for Talents because of the various condition immunities available to different Ancestries. A lot of Strained effects will give a condition as their cost, so if you can ignore it, you can have access to the extra Clarity with very little penalty. Some Ancestries could instead take a bonus to saving throws to make any "save ends" Strained cost less likely to matter.

As an overview, the important immunities for Strained costs are; Dwarves and Hakaan for weakened, Memonek and Orcs for slowed, and Revenants for Bleeding or anything from their base Ancestry.

I'm not going to run through every Ancestry you can take, just point out any that are interesting for the Talent for a specific reason.

Hakaan ★★★★★ "Forceful" is an easily affordable upgrade to the forced movement abilities you have access to. This is especially true for the Telekinesis Tradition, but any Talent has access to the powerful "Kinetic Grip" or the Knockback maneuver, which is reasonable compared to some of the class specific maneuvers available.
The weakened immunity is relevant to a variety of abilities depending on your build. "Gravitic Burst", "Synaptic Override", "Greater Kinetic Grip", are all Tradition specific abilities that can self-inflict weakened, and they become significantly weaker if that causes the tier result to drop. The Chronopathy tradition has "Fate" which is a very strong ability, but being weakened there matters much less.
If you want to make maximum use of "Force Orbs" it's much better to be immune to weakened. "Inertia Soak" has a very punishing Strained cost that can be prevented, but it's compared to the amazing "Flashback" so is a very unlikely pick.
Being a Dwarf could give weakened prevention effectively as well, but +1 stability isn't as good as "Forceful" and the size increase, especially for Telekinesis Talents.

Memonek ★★★★★ Better than the Orc for gaining slowed immunity, as it has additional features to support some Talent abilities such as "Keeper of Order", which prevents a bane that might stop you achieving a tier 2 roll on "Fling Through Time". Starting with a surge helps afford a potency increase faster with "Spirit Sword", or can be used with the Telekinesis feature "Kinetic Amplifier".
The slowed immunity is best for easing the drawback of the very strong "Flashback", and a few other abilities such as "Hoarfrost" or "Hypersonic".

Revenant ★★★★☆ Bleeding immunity only prevents the Strained effect of "Kinetic Pulse" which can make for a very large area ability to chip down minions, but this probably isn't worth the build investment when you could just take "Incinerate".
Revenant can still be a good choice to take slowed or weakened immunity while gaining a lot of damage immunities as well. The fire weakness can be mitigated with an appropriate complication, or safeguarded against by taking "Exothermic Shield" at level 5.

Tradition

Each Tradition comes with a different maneuver and triggered action, features at 2nd, 5th, and 8th level, as well as your choice between two heroic abilities at 2nd, 6th, and 9th level.

Chronopathy

Triggered Action - Again ★★★☆☆ This ability is very random. There are occasions where it will be hard to tell the correct time to activate it, and especially with double edges or banes the reroll might not do anything. It's extremely useful to stop a critical from happening, but this is very rare and overall, I'd prefer a more reliable option.

Maneuver - Accelerate ★★☆☆☆ Giving out a small shift ability isn't very useful in many situations. It can be used as a disengage, but that's unimpressive for a class maneuver. Spending Clarity to give your maneuver to someone else is expensive (the Talent is guaranteed to have a heroic resource maneuver they could use anyway) but it could technically be used to help activate Strained effects while upgrading your maneuver slightly.

2nd Level Feature - Ease the Hours ★★★★☆ For a standard-length montage test, this is a large increase to the number of individual tests available to the party. Allows you to make assist tests without as much worry of running out of time, which shunts the expected action economy of montages more into your favor.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Applied Chronometrics ★★★★★ This can give out a lot of extra maneuvers with proper timing, which is amazing for certain classes or can be used as a way to spend recoveries. It's also a huge speed boost, and dazed is the most annoying condition so it's great to have a way to easily remove it. The Strained cost isn't a horrible downside in most circumstances.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Slow ★★★★☆ Speed reduction isn't the best condition to apply, but removing triggered actions improves it, and it's only a maneuver to potentially mess with multiple melee creatures.
Improving potency isn't a great Strained effect, most of the effect happens regardless of potency, while taking the repeated damage can be quite painful at early levels.

5th Level Feature - Distortion Temporal ★★★☆☆ This much difficult terrain can be quite strong in stopping enemies from reaching you, especially charging enemies, though this isn't a huge benefit if they can just get to one of your allies instead. Some melee allies may appreciate the speed boost.

5th Level Feature - Speed of Thought ★★☆☆☆ With a different triggered action this could be a strong benefit, but "Again" is already situational, and spending 2 Clarity for a repeat use is only worth it in emergencies. It also doesn't read like you can use this feature if you don't currently have your triggered action available, which is even worse as you have to predict whether there will be an emergency.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Fate ★★★★★ Lasts for 2 rounds of unavoidable damage weakness if you time it well, while also keeping them prone. Becoming Strained is an amazing benefit here to get maximum use out of the mechanic. Insane against solo encounters especially.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Stasis Field ★★☆☆☆ It's very expensive just for an aoe restrained, and at lower tier results it doesn't even do that. Still technically helpful against groups of melee enemies.

8th Level Feature - Doubling the Hours ★★☆☆☆ It's likely you can get to 5 victories before taking a respite, but if you're taking multiple respites in a row this only gives an additional activity during the first one. Even without the condition this isn't a huge benefit, as you should have followers helping with respite activities by now anyway.

8th Level Feature - Stasis Shield ★★★☆☆ Expensive compared to just using a base triggered action, but the effect is good. The "if it gets them out of harm's way" clause is assumedly only there for area abilities, which isn't the best use case for this ability anyway. Becoming Strained would make this pretty useless.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Acceleration Field ★★★☆☆ An action and 11 Clarity is very expensive compared to other effects that can hasten the turn order. Some characters would much prefer having their movement and maneuver alongside their action, but this can have its place if it stops a significant number of enemies taking a turn, or to finish the combat safely.
The Strained attack can be good for the slowed condition, but it's not a very relevant amount of damage, so at least it won't hurt much.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Borrow From the Future ★☆☆☆☆ The Talent doesn't have fast enough Clarity gain to use this ability well. It can technically be useful if more than 1 ally gains enough of their heroic resource for an amazing ability, but you're giving up a lot of Clarity that could be used elsewhere.

Overall ★★★★☆ Has the least useful set of features, the biggest problem being the less consistently useful triggered action. The heroic abilities are much better to make up for it, especially "Fate" being an incredibly powerful ability that makes maximum use of the Strained mechanic.

Telekinesis

Triggered Action - Repel ★★★★☆ Damage reduction is always good. The reduction in forced move distance is unlikely to compare well except in emergencies such as preventing a fall.

Maneuver - Minor Telekinesis ★★★☆☆ For most of the Talent's levels this is only a small improvement from the Knockback maneuver, and the Clarity upgrades are very expensive.
On the plus side it has out of combat applications, being able to slide from a distance is better for the Talent's gameplan than a regular Knockback, and it can trigger your Clarity gain.

2nd Level Feature - Ease Their Fall ★★☆☆☆ There aren't enough enemies that can vertically move you for this to be a large benefit. Generally, characters can have at least 1 Agility and 1 stability which is enough to mitigate a lot of vertical movement abilities, though this can be useful against certain enemies or in particularly vertical battle maps.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Gravitic Burst ★★★★☆ Quite a lot better than "Kinetic Pulse", though it falls off in usefulness sharply as Agility/stability of enemies increase. The higher tier results get substantially better, so the Strained effect can be punishing if being weakened ends up mattering.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Levity and Gravity ★★★☆☆ "Kinetic Grip", or "Optic Blast" can already apply the prone condition, though making them unable to stand on a tier 3 result is markedly better, and you might not have those abilities. The Strained cost is very bad and basically never worth letting happen.

5th Level Feature - Kinetic Amplifier ★★★★☆ This is a better damage increase than the default way of using surges, more so if the forced movement is into another creature, or is a vertical push ability such as from "Kinetic Grip" or "Gravitic Burst".
You don't have many ways to gain surges by yourself, but there are a couple of signature abilities, Strained effects, and "Iron".

5th Level Feature - Triangulate ★★☆☆☆ It's a quite unlikely situation, but if your ally somehow needs this range boost to be effective then it will do the job.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Gravitic Well ★★★★☆ Good area damage with the extra power from slamming enemies into the ground or each other. By becoming Strained the area becomes massive, and it's usually easy to avoid putting any team members in the area.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Greater Kinetic Grip ★★★☆☆ Not worth the Clarity over "Kinetic Grip" unless the slide becomes vertical, in which case it's easy to drop the target on top of other creatures for high damage and the prone condition.
It's a good way to spend surges through "Kinetic Amplifier", and the Strained effect makes this useful against a wider variety of enemies, though the fall damage will still be reduced by Agility, and weakened is quite bad if it downgrades the tier result.

8th Level Feature - Levitation Field ★★★★☆ On demand flight for just a maneuver is helpful in and out of combat, and it comes with a lot of added movement. Unfortunate that for some reason it doesn't make yourself fly.

8th Level Feature - Low Gravity ★★☆☆☆ Minor effects overall. Difficult terrain shouldn't matter with all the ranged abilities you have, and prone has more relevant downsides than just the extra cost of moving.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Fulcrum ★☆☆☆☆ Too low damage to be worth the Clarity even at full effectiveness, and any amount of stability or Agility will make it very ineffective. Compares badly to "Gravitic Well", let alone what it's actually competing against at this level. The Strained effect is also a bad trade.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Gravitic Nova ★★★★☆ Pretty similar to "Gravitic Well", but the push has much better applications for making enemies too far away for them to be effective. Being Strained can be a little awkward if you die instantly, but it's unlikely.

Overall ★★★★☆ Most of their heroic abilities are aoe options, which isn't great for build versatility, but it has the best triggered action/maneuver combo. It also has "Kinetic Amplifier", which is a great way to use surges if your team is good at generating them.

Telepathy

Triggered Action - Feedback Loop ★★★★☆ Kind of weird that this can't reflect damage back onto an enemy that hits you, only if the damage hits your allies. It gets better steadily as you gain levels, but it's dependant on how strong the enemy hits whether this will be much better than something like the Devil triggered action.

Maneuver - Remote Assistance ★★☆☆☆ Adding range to an Aid Attack maneuver isn't the worst thing, but the upgrade isn't great as it encourages splitting attention between enemies, though it's still fine to round up into becoming Strained should that be helpful.

2nd Level Feature - Ease the Mind ★★☆☆☆ It's relatively unlikely that hostile or suspicious NPCs will be worthwhile to negotiate with, but it definitely happens. It does a good job of making these negotiations better, but it's still a rather narrow benefit.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Overwhelm ★★★☆☆ The variance on this ability is huge. For the first two tiers this ability doesn't do enough to be worth the Clarity, but at tier 3 this is above rate damage for a dazed applier. The Strained cost is quite easy to play around, but next level you have access to "Soul Burn" or the even better "Fling Through Time" which are much more consistent.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Synaptic Override ★★★☆☆ One of the worst tier 1 results around, but there are a lot of 2 target signature abilities that can do good work in group combats, and at tier 3 the extra free strikes can add up to high damage. Often an area ability will be better in cases where this is useful, and the Strained cost is really bad if it downgrades the tier result.

5th Level Feature - Compulsion ★★★★☆ As written, this is really powerful for information gathering. It's easy to justify making a test with an interpersonal skill in any number of situations, which then results in you stripping their mind for information on any topic you wish.
Even if limited to rolling interpersonal tests in as few situations as reasonable, negotiations are still a core mechanic where rolling a success on one of these tests is likely, letting you gain any piece of secret information you like.

5th Level Feature - Remote Amplification ★★★☆☆ The increased telepathy range is good for coordinating with allies from a distance, while the increased ability range is a significant change compared to similar features, which makes it more likely to be relevant.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Synaptic Conditioning ★★★☆☆ The tier 3 result can create massive dissonance between narrative and gameplay mechanics. Most signature abilities are still usable against allies, while things that should logically still function such as death explosions, retaliation damage, or terrain effects will mysteriously fail.
This is equally true for the Strained effect, which in many cases won't do anything as most of your abilities are also usable on non-enemies.
The tier 2 result will be more useful than tier 3 against some enemies, but many solo monsters have multiple abilities that can only target enemies. It's reasonable to rework this so a creature affected by a tier 3 just isn't allowed to target enemies at all, which isn't overpowered compared to some other abilities that exist, but still technically a house rule.
Overall, it's a fine ability at tier 2 for easily applying a double bane, but it's hard to tell when the tier 3 result will be useful and it's often better to just use "Fling Through Time".

6th Level Heroic Ability - Synaptic Dissipation ★★☆☆☆ Invisibility is only concealment unless you use a maneuver to hide, which isn't a strong use of a maneuver for the Clarity required to set this ability up. Extremely weak, but it gets a star for stealth bonuses out of combat, and because the other option isn't very strong anyway.

8th Level Feature - Mindlink ★★★★★ Saves a lot of action economy on spending recoveries. In harder combats managing stamina can become a big issue, and this lets more effort and heroic resources be focused on dealing with enemies rather than making sure no one dies.

8th Level Feature - Universal Connection ★★☆☆☆ Practically this isn't much of a benefit over "Remote Amplification". There aren't often reasons to consult with an NPC from a distance outside of roleplay.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Resonant Mind Spike ★★☆☆☆ It's likely you can set up a more efficient use of Clarity with "Flashback" or "Smolder", and a lump sum of damage is often worse than applying a strong condition like with "Fling Through Time".
If there isn't time to make any of these things work, then it's a fine way to end a combat. The Strained cost makes this ability even worse as it becomes a very harmful trade.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Synaptic Terror ★☆☆☆☆ It should be pretty unlikely to roll a tier 1 result by this level, unless your team is receiving a lot of banes and no edges. An aoe frightened also isn't a great effect when "Hypersonic" could be used to apply a condition and damage at the same time. Costing a main action and 11 Clarity is far too expensive for the minor benefits.
The Strained effect just not being allowed here is very strange considering a few other abilities have bad enough Strain costs that they become basically unusable, and this ability is nowhere near strong enough that it requires such an immutable restriction.

Overall ★★★☆☆ The best features of this Tradition are more utility focused, as most of the heroic abilities are quite underwhelming. It also doesn't start getting its most useful features until quite late, and being a utility choice this Tradition could end up very bad if it is not suited to the campaign or team composition.

Ability Choices

Signature Abilities

Entropic Bolt ★★★★☆ It's unlikely you'll use this enough for the damage bonus to add up sufficiently, even in solo encounters, as the base damage is just so low. It's most helpful to discount Clarity costs, as it's easy to Strain yourself with a maneuver then use this for a refund.
The slowed condition can be helpful, and with a Tactician on the team it's possible for this to reach high damage numbers by using the Tactician's "Hammer and Anvil" paired with "Flashback" for 3 Entropic Bolts in a round.

Hoarfrost ★★★★☆ A signature ability to apply restrained is very rare, only otherwise available to Wode Elves on a tier 3 result. Can be hard to apply against a Might potency, but it's a strong condition and the "downside" only actually slows until the end of your current turn so it's exceedingly easy to work around.

Incinerate ★★★★★ A very strong area ability for no cost anyway, but this could also combo with "Smolder", or other damage weakness well with its two instances of damage.

Kinetic Grip ★★★★★ Such a long slide is already good damage hitting enemies into each other, but the range, the potential prone condition, using it as a disengage, activating your Clarity gain, and the Strained bonus can all make the ability even better.

Kinetic Pulse ★★★☆☆ Generally a bit worse than "Incinerate"; the area is harder to use effectively, and it has less combo potential. The Strained upgrade can make for a huge area, but the bleeding is quite punishing unless you become immune with the Revenant Ancestry.

Materialize ★★☆☆☆ Definitely the most boring signature ability available, barely more damage than the default "Mind Spike". Using the Strained effect for the aoe is awful when you could just use "Incinerate" and not take the extra damage.

Optic Blast ★★★★☆ The potential of this ability is very high; in certain adventures the extra effect will be very likely to occur and make for a high damage, condition applying ability. The condition targeting Might can make it tricky to apply.
The Strained effect can be an okay trade if you want to collect surges for potency increases, but without the reflection condition "Spirit Sword" is likely better and less painful for this purpose.

Spirit Sword ★★★★☆ A fine choice if all you want is single target damage, but gaining just one surge is too slow for potency increases without extra help. Making a direct trade of stamina with the Strained effect isn't great.
The Telekinesis Tradition can like the easy surge gain for use with "Kinetic Amplifier".

3-Clarity Abilities

Awe ★★★☆☆ Gets points for being versatile, as both modes are somewhat usable. Targeting a melee enemy at range can cripple their ability to fight back, though "Entropic Bolt" or "Hoarfrost" could do a similar thing. If there's no other way to end an important saving throw condition, then coming with 6 temporary stamina is okay for extending someone's recoveries.

Choke ★★☆☆☆ There's a lot of things wrong with this ability, primarily how poorly it compares to "Hoarfrost", but there are plenty of signature abilities you might take otherwise so this can technically add something to your kit. The pull is very minor.

Precognition ★★☆☆☆ An ally with bad triggered actions could technically make use of this effect well, but it's a big ask to waste Clarity and an action on this, and any character could get a relevant triggered action with an appropriate Ancestry. Awkwardly low range as well.

Smolder ★★★★☆ Can combo with "Incinerate" if you're lucky, and with plenty of abilities from other classes for a lot of potential damage depending on who is around.

5-Clarity Abilities

Flashback ★★★★★ Even when this doesn't get a discount by targeting a 7-cost ability, it's still an amazing benefit for a maneuver to reuse any heroic ability that costs an action.
There are a lot of powerful abilities for this to copy, and the Strained cost isn't awful. It's unlikely the slowed condition will matter significantly, and the damage could activate one of your Wards.

Inertia Soak ★★★☆☆ The small effects here can add up, but it's unlikely enough of them apply to a given situation to be worth the Clarity. The pushing is decent damage against groups but can be hard to utilise. Being weakened by the Strain is very dangerous in some of the circumstances that this ability is useful.

Iron ★★★☆☆ The temporary stamina is decent for preserving recoveries at low levels, and the surges can help apply an important condition. The stability increase might do nothing if the temporary stamina is removed by a pushing attack, "Inertia Soak" is better for countering forced movement.
Losing out on maneuvers from the Strain can be bad if it prevents you from using Catch Breath, but otherwise the class specific maneuvers aren't very important.

Perfect Clarity ★★☆☆☆ The speed increase can be marginally helpful, but otherwise this ability compares very poorly to "Flashback". It's substantially better to repeat a heroic ability rather than improve its result, and the potential discount isn't enough to change this. The Strained cost is also worse.

7-Clarity Abilities

Fling Through Time ★★★★★ As long as you don't roll a tier 1 result, this is an incredible ability to skip an enemy turn without checking a potency. Strained can give a nice discount if you don't mind the damage, but overusing the Strain can make aging to death a real problem until level 8 where you can take "Rejuvenate".

Force Orbs ★★★☆☆ By default this ability does very little, only preventing 6 damage or achieving some poor attacks, and the damage immunity overlaps with "Steel Ward". It gets better with the Strained bonus, and an appropriate Ancestry to ignore the weakened cost.
It can get pretty strong if you go all in on stacking up as many orbs as possible, and using the ability for free just before entering combat helps achieve this in a timely manner. If there's damage weakness around the orbs can easily trigger it extra times.

Reflector Field ★★★★☆ When this ability is strong it can be really strong. The Strained cost becomes very painful quickly, but it can still be acceptable if you're dealing with only a few hard-hitting ranged attacks.

Soul Burn ★★★☆☆ Kind of expensive compared to the top tier dazed abilities in other classes, and giving a bane on Presence tests is a very strange extra effect. Using Strained, you can make the dazed condition basically guaranteed, but this costs stamina when you could just use "Fling Through Time" to avoid potencies altogether and apply an even stronger effect.

9-Clarity Abilities

Exothermic Shield ★★★★☆ A limited time buff isn't likely to be amazing, but if an immunity applies then this can generate enough value for the cost. Pairing this with "Smolder" can improve the damage, which is a relatively affordable combo.
The Strained cost isn't too bad, and the surges are nice for tactical potency increases. Overall, not an awful choice to keep on hand in case the situation calls for it.

Hypersonic ★★★★☆ Deals strong damage for clearing out minions of any echelon, and the area is versatile enough to hit a variety of groups. Being a charge ability makes it even easier to position effectively, and the teleport can also have useful applications.
The Strained effect can be tricky if it prevents you retreating back to safety, but it's pretty likely that it won't matter and could hurt enemies a lot more than it will you. The Telekinesis Tradition could instead take "Gravitic Well" next level, but the other Traditions don't have access to strong area abilities so are more likely to want this.

Mind Snare ★☆☆☆☆ If the slowed condition is what you're after there are far less expensive ways to apply it. "Hypersonic" could be used for that purpose while being useful for many other situations in addition. This only has damage going for it, and not enough to be worth the 9 Clarity.

Soulbound ★★★★☆ It's convenient that only one target has to fail the potency for all targets to be stitched together. You'll probably fail your own potency with the Strained effect, but this is an extremely easy way to get yourself killed if you don't immediately pass the saving throw to disentangle from the stitched pile.
It's likely the effect won't last long, but the attack isn't terrible as a default and adding 50% extra value to any single target abilities is great in the meantime.

11-Clarity Abilities

Doubt ★★★☆☆ Outside of certain themed adventures this should have an edge most of the time, and the follow up benefit can easily set up for other strong abilities. The conditions applied are some of the weaker ones, so to be worthwhile this really has to be the tier 3 Strained version for the damage weakness.
Chronopathy Talents have the stronger and more consistent "Fate" from level 6 and thus no use for this.

Mindwipe ★★☆☆☆ There are better ways to restrict enemy usefulness than spending this much Clarity on applying banes. It is a lot of banes, but the target will be able to damage you anyway, when you could just use "Fling Through Time" to skip their turn entirely.

Rejuvenate ★★★★☆ The individual effects are pretty bad for the high Clarity cost, but it can still be useful to save an ally from death by conditions. However, it also comes with the "minor" benefit of eternal youth for you and whoever you choose to share it with, which is important if you want to use the Strained version of "Fling Through Time" without aging yourself into dust.

Steel ★★★☆☆ An extremely force movement focused ally can make this ability usable. Targeting yourself with it will never be worth it, but once the extra forced movement distance triggers more than twice it starts to do enough damage with the extra survivability to be worth it. The loss of maneuvers from the Strain isn't so bad unless you need to Catch Breath.