The Letheans are a dangerous species, with a telepathic attack that’s almost always fatal. They first appeared in the episode “Distant Voices“, where the Lethean Altovar launched an attack against Dr. Bashir. Bashir went into a two-day coma, and had to fight a telepathic shadow of Altovar who was hunting down different aspects of Bashir’s mind. These voices in Bashir’s head were represented by crew he knew on DS9. He eventually figured out what Altovar was doing, and managed to destroy the telepathic presence trying to kill him.
Another Lethean by the name of Soto appeared in “The Sword of Kahless”, who was hired to probe a Klingon’s mind.
This species, while interesting, presents a problem for players and GMs. How do you model a telepathic attack that’s almost always deadly? Balance is an issue, and here’s one attempt. I’ve tried to tie their deadly telepathic assault to the expenditure of two Determination points, making it difficult to use constantly. NPC Letheans would require 6 Threat to launch this attack as well. Let me know what you think!
