Psionics replacing magic.

I know some people loff at the idea, but let's first look at it from a science fiction perspective so as to get you used to the idea. (Spelljammer, Dead Sun, etc.)

What would be so wrong with nullifying magic all together and there being only psionics?

Overall the psionic classes are more balanced with eachother then the magic classes were. Thier equivalent counterparts is obvious, and unless your big on science fiction campaighns it feels fresh and new to design it all based on one working system rather then two systems. Consider this..

Bard>Wilder. (Passionate, emotional, jack of all trades, music talent used for power could be a flavor tool. A feat or template perhaps.)

Ranger>Psychic thief. (Dabbler, skillful, decent in a fight.. Again, favored enemy could become a flavor too. A feat tree possibly, this would also make fighters (One of the few non-magical/psychic classes..) have something else to look into.)

Paladin>Psychic warrior. (Buffer instead of healer, but overall same basic premise of warrior with magics. Sept the paladin emphasizes purely on the destruction of evil where as the pw gives you more roleplaying options.)

Druid>Soulknife. (You might call me crazy for comparing these two but considering thier both very intensely flavor based.. it makes sense.)

Psion>Cleric. (Clerics pray to gods for power and thier abilities match the clergy they are a part of, psions study a discipline for thier abilities and match the school they chose. This could deffinitlly help balance things out seeing as the cleric has alot more ways to cheat being a rippingly good warrior, a decent offenssive caster, AND buffer/healer at the same time.)

Wizard>Erudite. (Both heavily restricted and unlimited potential. The ultimate plan-ahead class.)

Sorcerers were poorly constructed from the start so they get no-thing.

Now you may ask me, "what about spell-like abilities and such?" well most of the psionic powers have a magic counterpart, for those that don't or you feel would need to simply treat them as such. Considering all creatures have to conciouncely manifest an abilitity is it a big suprise any and all "magic" would infact be psionicist?

Roles would be better suited, more balance would be brought to the game, and there'd be less of a power gap between the differant magic-users. Some were made a little better then others but for the most part every psionic class has a place, magic may be traditional but it was ruined by poor descision making on class construction's part..

So what do you think? A purely psionic D&D world? You think it could work? Would you want it too?

So what do you think? A purely psionic D&D world? You think it could work? Would you want it too?

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Frankly, if I play a pure D&D campaign, I don't like to restrict players' choice. Your campaign would be: Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, and Rogue plus the 4 psionic classes, for a total of 8 classes instead of 11 classes for the PHB (and 15 classes if you add those of the X-Psi).

All in all, it could work however, expecially if you only allow the X-Psi races and do not include elves, gnomes, etc., to create a campaign with a different feel. I am still dubious about such a thing however. Well, there is one case where I think it would be GREAT. You spoke of sci-fi: lets use the X-Psi with Bulldogs! (see my review here), which is truly a D&D game without spellcasters in a pulp/futuristic setting. Lets not only add the classes, but also the races into a Bulldogs! game, and I think it would be really great.

Interesting concept. I am not familiar with the erudite and psychic thief (dragon, I presume?), but I can comment on the rest. I am running a very spionics-heavy party at the moment (two psions and one wilder, plus a druid, fighter, and ranger) and they don't heal people well. If you are going to have an all-psionics campaign, I suggest vastly improving empathic transfer (IIRC the name of the power that transfers hit point loss), to the point where psionic healing would be on par with clerical healing.

As for soulknife replacing the druid.... well, no. Completely different flavor. But there is no essential need to keep the druid archetype; it could just be a psion/erudite protecting the wilderness. Works too with the elves' favored class (erudite, in this campaign, presumably).

I also found a lot of magic items were based on arcane powers (which in my campaign is evil), so you might want to think about that. Try making a ring of feather-fall and you'll see what I mean.

The key point, however, is balance. Are the psionic classes better balanced? I am not at all sure. Consider the amount of playtesting done on the 3.5 classes by the hordes of D&D players, compared to that done on the XPH classes. So far, the psionic classes seem cool in my campaign - but balanced? I am not sure. The druid and two psions in my campaign kick *ss, putting the wilder fighter and ranger to shame - but I am not sure how typical this result is. At any case, I don't think them more balanced then the PH classes, or compared to the PH non-magical classes. Not at all.
So in answer to your question - it might make an interesting campaign world. But I won't do it because of the balance, no.

Yes, I am very interested in playing or running a psionic only campaign. In fact, a couple of weeks before the Expanded Psionics Handbook came out, I had a sleepless night where my mind was brainstorming (more like brain exploding) such a campaign setting. These are the thoughts that I wrote down during that night, with some clarification.

Psionic Campaign:

Society is ruled by gem dragons: (kinda like how its done in Dragonstar.) Gem dragons are royalty, gem half-dragons are nobility. They all run through the entire spectrum of alignments, but the right and privilege to own other sentient creatures is considered acceptable even though it bothers some gem dragon individuals. Some cheerfully exploit their subjects, while others regard themselves as respectful caretakers of their charges. Only a rare few are inclined to put any effort into changing their society so that slavery is not part of it.

Freedom of slavery? The gem dragon rulers own "mindshare" of the population instead of land. Because of this, they are motivated to "fertilize & grow" their "crops". Each citizen has a facial brand, received when they are born, that identifies which dragon currently owns them, but they are otherwise unfettered in their pursuit of their own goals since the gem dragons can automatically gain control of anyone of their subjects when they need them. Until then, the gem dragons encourage everyone to become as powerful as they can be. When someone becomes so successful or powerful that they could create a monopoly or rule a region, those individuals "ascend" to the direct service of the gem dragons. Subjects of allied dragons peacefully interact and even intermarry with each other, while being alert from attacks of citizens that belong to the gem dragon that is the enemy of their gem dragon master.

Subjects have better access to education and knowledge. All Knowledge skills can be uses as if they were "untrained". All races have bonus skill points, just like humans do. Humans double their bonus skill points every level.

Better quality of life: Commoners make 10x more than default D&D commoners. Everyone else makes more (but not 10x more) than their D&D counterparts. More civil rights and social services (but not up to real-world modern standards), but free enterprise is encouraged.

Legal remedies for lawbrekers: Instead of time in prison or the death penalty, guilty criminals are psionically reconditioned to avoid doing the crime that they were charged with. Reconditioning is done very precisely because any reconditioning tends to arrest the individual from becoming more powerful or accomplished. Other than the dragon brand that conditions everyone to automatically obey their gem dragon masters, subjects are otherwise mentally untampered.

PCs are born special: For some mysterious reason, PCs have the ability to resist the control of their dragon brands. This is undetectable and currently unknown, as the PCs have yet to choose to oppose their gem dragon masters.

Races: Humans & the psionic races from the Expanded Psionic Handbook. No other D&D races. This is a world that from the ground up features the XPH races as the prominent default races of the world.

Classes: Psionic classes & Fighter, Rogue, & Monk (whose abilities would be psi-based instead of magic-based.)

No Magic: No arcane or divine spellcasters. No Knowledge(arcane), Spellcraft, or Use Magic Device. Any magic items in the campaign are actually psionic items.

No gods or religion. People follow philosophies or worship their gem dragon masters, but receive no supernatural benefits for doing so.

Psionically infused society: Psion levels are not counted for XP penalties. Almost everyone has PSPs. All classes (including NPC classes) that don't normally grant PSPs grant 1 PSP/level if the person has a INT, WIS, or CHA of 10 or better.

Greater access to powers: PSP-using classes can access powers they don't have by touching a power stone, dojre, or a person with the power they want to use, then spending their own PSPs to manifest it. Although the XPH has a nice system for this described in the Psionics chapter, this ability works automatically and with no extra time in this psionic campaign.

PSP-powered items are common and affordable. These are psionic items that require at least one PSP to function. The least expensive items require several PSPs and only function for a very short duration, whereas the items that run all day on one PSP tend to cost almost as much as a regular continuous psionic item. Currently there will be PSP-driven appliances, vehicles, communications and information access through a social "metamind". Normal gems can be used by anyone with PSPs to store and recall information. Each gem holds one page of text, one mental image, or one second of full-sensory memory per GP of the gem. Costs PSPs to imprint, but anyone can access it at will. Normal writing is still used for public signs and such.

Armor and Weapons are made of "sheen". Sheen costs just as much as D&D steel and works like steel (steel in this campaign world costs less.) A character can spend one PSP as a swift action to psionically enhance or improve a sheen weapon's enhancement by +1 and to double the threat range for one round. A character can spend one PSP as a swift action to psionically enhance or improve a sheen armor or shield's enhancement by +1 and to reduce any critical hits done to the character by one multiple for one round. If the character uses a standard action to enhance their armor or weapon, then the psionic enhancement lasts for 1 round/level. Sheen tools grant a bonus to skill checks in a similar manner. Sheen is not masterwork, but doesn't need to be masterwork to be psionically enhanced. Sheen items can be crafted to be Masterwork if desired. Sheen becomes ultra-shiny when infused with a PSP.

No unneeded obfuscation: The functions of psionic items can be identified with Psionicraft along with Detect Psionics, or with Appraisal or Psionicraft along with a PSP spent for the identification purpose.

Non-psi tech is medieval level: As per D&D. No gunpowder, steam, or electricity, nor is it likely that it will ever advance. Any advanced technology is psi-based and psi-powered.

Obviously, this is going far away from your traditional fantasy setting. This psionically-based campaign features several modernisms and will not appeal to those who use fantasy gaming to connect with the history, literature, legends and folklore of our culture. This campaign is all about the sci-fi-like exploration of "what would a world be like if it was dominated by psionics?" and discovering where this will take us and experiencing what it would be like to live there. However, it will make a strong effort to implement the classical elements of D&D psionics in the campaign. The mind-flayers would be a major persistent threat as would be the yuan-ti (part gem dragon instead of part snake?). The use of classical monsters (minotaurs, orcs, goblins, etc.) would be minimized. Some monsters would be retrofitted so that their spell-like and supernatural abilities would instead be psi-based, such as dopplegangers. But the monsters that are Cthulhuian in nature such as mind flayers and gibbering mouthers would be prominently featured in this campaign (although the "we're powerless and helpless against the aliens" element of Cthulhu would not.) There is room for some Twilight Zone twists for the characters to discover, such as discovering the Matrix-like function of the mindshare system, or what really happens to those individuals who become too powerful (something like what happens in Atlas Shrugged would work well here,) or discovering what awesome beautiful beings of pure psionic form that people could be if it wasn't for the "mindshare". Perhaps the mind flayers turn out to be liberators. They don't eat brains as commonly potrayed in propaganda, but instead "free your mind".

Cheerful Coffin said:

So what do you think? A purely psionic D&D world? You think it could work? Would you want it too?

Click to expand...

It could work fine, the biggest issue game play wise would be the reduction in quick healing. Call psionics magic, the psion a wizard, the wilder a sorcerer, and you have a straight fantasy D&D world with a slightly different feel. And no spellbooks, song magic, or deity worshippers!

Clarification: "we're powerless and helpless against the gem dragons" is part of the campaign, although this is simply a normalized fact of life and not a horror element. But this campaign element is to be followed up by the revelation of "You mean we're not helpless and powerless against the gem dragons?"

The Erudite was in Dragon #319, The Psychic Rogue is from The Mind's Eye.

One variation I have been working on for a D20 Modern setting is Psionic vs. Magic. In this setting, all magic is Black, it comes from "Outside". Psionics is the "natural" power of those native to the real world.

Druids could be Psion: Kineticists with their energy powers. And for Monks, check out the Inkyo in Rokugan.

Good stuff, Whimsical!

i don't like psionics one bit, and when such things do come up in my game, they are treated as magic, not anything diffrent. just like clarics casts 'spells' so do psionics cast 'spells', that is my way to handle that psikish.

That sounds really cool Whimsichal, it has a sortof D&D meets The Matrix feel to it.

Ironically I get Morpheous on all matrix personality tests and the erudite class looked alot like Morphy. For those of you without the issue Erudite is bassically a psionic wizard. He can cast instanously and can learn "unlimited" powers through differant means, but is heavily restricted to a unique power per day list (Let's say he has two unique powers per day of a level 1 power, he can choose at anytime which powers he wants to manifest but once the deed has been done for the rest of the day he is stuck using those same powers.) which by level 20 looks like the wizard's spell per day list.