Tutaminis is the ability to use the Force to absorb, negate, or disperse energy such as heat, electricity, or even Force energy in order to protect oneself from harm. It is a basic use of the Force taught to almost all Jedi and many other Force users at early stages in their training, but for it to have any use in combat requires extra training and expertise. Skilled practitioners can even make use of absorbed energy to boost their own Force powers.
What can Tutaminis do?
- Provide protection to the user from heat, electricity, or Force-based attacks or hazards.
- Allow absorbed energy to be converted and utilized for another purpose such as empowering Force abilities.
What can Tutaminis -not- do?
- Protect the user from conventional physical attacks such as blades, slugs, fists, and so on.
No Points: You can use Tutaminis to resist ambient heat and mild shocks, allowing you to better handle hot environments (like desert heat) and minor electrical hazards within reason. However, you are simply too unskilled to be able to resist the concentrated energy density of things like blaster bolts, Force powers, or especially lightsabers.
1 Point: You have become more adept at dispersing energy around yourself. You can withstand more intense hot environments and grab dangerously heated objects like hot pots and pans without external protection, and you can begin to lessen (but not eliminate) the damage caused by heat- or electricity-based attacks. You might be able to tank a stun bolt, a strike from a shock baton, or a shot from a particularly low-powered blaster such as a holdout pistol, but you cannot negate the damage entirely. You might find it a bit easier to block Force Lightning with your lightsaber with the help of Tutaminis at this level.
2 Points: Your control over the transfer of energy is becoming more refined. At this level you can begin to not just disperse or negate energy, but absorb it and put it to other use, such as increasing the power or effectiveness of other Force abilities such as Healing, Enhance Attribute, Telekinesis, or Force Lightning - any ability which involves an expenditure of energy (any mechanical effect from this is subject to Staff approval in events, or player agreement in PvP). You can more reliably dampen the harm caused to you by energy-based threats. You are still unlikely to be able to completely resist blaster bolts or other attacks of notably concentrated energy, but they will harm you less than they otherwise would. Unfocused energy attacks, such as gouts of flame or waves of telekinetic force, are more manageable for you to disperse or absorb the heat from - although other effects, such as a flamethrower igniting your clothes, are harder to resist or manage. You can resist truly severe ambient heat, such as from volcanic lava fields or intense hot springs (this is not to say you can resist *actually touching lava*), and if you wanted to you could impress people with great chef hands - reaching into boiling water, or eating McHutta's Apple Pies straight out of the oven (this is still not recommended).
3 Points: You are exceptionally skilled at absorbing and negating energy. At this level, you have finally achieved sufficient control over this discipline to achieve such things as catching Force Lightning or Blaster Bolts with your hands and remaining unharmed - though this is far from a guarantee. Dispersing attacks such as these completely is not easy, even now; you are unlikely to be able to do this more than once or twice in a short span.
3☆ (Mastery): The Force protects you impeccably. You are among the scant few in the Galaxy who have such command of Tutaminis to actually stop a Lightsaber with their bare hands - though 'bare hands' isn't quite true when they are wreathed in the Force. You can resist sustained applications of concentrated energy, but you are not invulnerable - it takes concentration from you as well. As ever, this is not an easy task, and to rely on this ability when you could simply dodge instead would be foolish.