Sell me on Psionics

I've been working on an upcoming campaign set in the DCC 35 Known World Gazeteer. And there's a bit in there that's based on Psionics (I won't spoil things by saying any more...). My first impulse was simply to ignore that (small) portion of the setting, because I don't use Psionics in my games. However, I thought it might be interesting to post here and see if there was some reason I should take a second (well, third, really) look at 3.5 Psionics.

OK, AD&D Psionics was this weird thing in the back of the Player's Handbook. We tried it out once or twice, and the few players who rolled well enough to gain psychic powerz where complete jerks about it (like the ten-year-olds we where) to everyone who didn't right up until those same powerz resulted in some weird monstrosity crawling out of the random encounter charts to eat their brain-meats and wipe the party in the process.

Second edition Psionics had it's own book that I never actually bothered to buy or read because I was too busy running Cyberpunk and Mekton. Oh, and they turned me off to Dark Sun when that setting came out.

Third (and 3.5) Psionics have their own books as well... And I've looked at the stuff, but it just hasn't grabbed me enough to get that deep into it, despite the fact that the rules seem good, possibly better than the normal 3.5 magic rules. This seems to stem mostly from three things:

1) K.I.S.S. ~ This is the reason I have to append a qualifier above when I say that the Psionics system might be better than the normal spell-slots D&D magic system. In practice I haven't really seen that the system behind casting spells or using powers really has so much impact on the overall fun of the game that it overwhelms the disadvantage of having to keep track of power point expenditures. (And I do consider the math and record-keeping involved to be a very small step up from keeping track of a Wizard's spells. It's just that the gain is, for me, very limited as well.)

2) Magic - Psychic Transparency ~ It seems to me that one of the key reasons to bother having another "magic" system is that it be different from the existing systems. If it's "just like magic", then why bother? I know that there where some optional rules in the 3.0 Psionics Handbook at least for dealing with non-transparent Psionics, but they seemed rather slim, and the base assumption these rules where built on is transparency... So, again, it didn't seem worth the bother.

3) Flavor ~ It seems like every time I go browsing through the Psionics SRD, I come across any number of powers that, while being fine from a mechanical standpoint, just seem downright silly from an in-character perspective. I understand that the powers list is attempting to not copy the extensive Arcane and Divine spell lists where possible. However, the effect, to me, is something that doesn't seem to really make me think of the powers of the mind. It's just another type of magic, and one with more "goofy" effects. And I don't need more silliness in my D&D, my players bring more than enough to the table already...

So, any thoughts?

Use Psionics. Enough said.

Nah, don't bother.

Well. For me, D&D psionics never had to do much with the psionic flavor of most SciFi novels I've read. It always was just another type of magic. For game balance reasons, I didn't like the variant that magic =|= psios, I wanted a dispel magic to get rid of "all dat evil sorc'ry" like Gronk says.

Nowadays, 3.5 psios: I like them. Nice classes, nice abilities, nice flavorbuilds (pyrokineticist). I wouldn't have minded to see them in the PHB... but I don't care whether a class is psio, divine or arcane.

Hey, it's magic. Blast them and have fun.

1) Keeping track of spells cast/power points spent isn't too big a deal. But deciding what wizard/cleric spells to prepare each day is definately a hassle, so I'd say psionics is distinctly simpler, system wise.

2)"Psionics is different" sounds like a cool idea, but most people who have tried it report back that it's a huge headache. Psionics will still feel different even with full transparency, and unless there's a really good campaign reason to treat them separately, it's not going to be worth the DM's time to run them differently.

Ultimately, a lot of your qualms are of the "why bother?" aspect. I'd have to say that, if neither you nor your players particularly care about psionics, then there's no real reason to force them into the game.

Unless you are in for the specific psionics flavor, I wouldn't bother.
It doesn't add much to the game, besides that flavor-thing, IMHO.

It also is a monster to balancing, since it requires a specific playing style (with many enforced encounters per day) to (somewhat) balance psionics with anything else, since psioncs are way too powerful, if you can freely use up power points, because of the huge flexibility gain over traditional spellcasters.

Bye
Thanee

Thanee said:

Unless you are in for the specific psionics flavor, I wouldn't bother.
It doesn't add much to the game, besides that flavor-thing, IMHO.

It also is a monster to balancing, since it requires a specific playing style (with many enforced encounters per day) to (somewhat) balance psionics with anything else, since psioncs are way too powerful, if you can freely use up power points, because of the huge flexibility gain over traditional spellcasters.

Bye
Thanee

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I'd disagree with this. Nova tactics are metagaming to an extreme. No in-game psion is going to say "well, I only have this one encounter today, so I can just use up all my power points and rest" - a better adventurer would say "I need to save some power in case something happens later, like this guy's buddies show up, or we get jumped in camp." Metagaming players does not mean the system is unbalanced - it means you have metagaming players. Last I checked, that was a bad thing and something a DM should nip in the bud.

The power point system is simpler than the spell slot system - I've used spell slots since AD&D - I prefer PPs. I hate going through which spells I have for which level. If I want to toss out a Detect Magic or a Hold Monster, I don't want to worry "Did I memorize enough for the day?" I want to wonder "Do I have enough power to do that?"

Regardless of flavor, I'd use psionics for the power point vs spell slot system any day - and my psions typically use powers of the middle-range of augmentation to save power in case of future encounters. Only in truly dire emergencies do I use my highest level augmentations.

If you have a player that is using nova tactics, it's a pretty simple discussion that such tactics will result in repercussions - either surprise encounters or simply not allowing the system.

Having used every version of psionics since 2nd Ed, I can tell you that 3.5 is by far the most balanced. Yes, there are things to take into account, but it's nothing compared to what wizards / clerics / druids can accomplish.

Thanee: I disagree that you need an enforced number of encounters per day. Rather, you need the threat of more encounters to make people understand that Nova tactics are risky. (But may be worth the risk, against a BBEG for example, when it's cinematic and plot-appropriate and generally awesome.)

If you as the DM do not use the threat of extra encounters, casters of all stripes are going to shine.

So, roll those random encounters! It's a long and honorable tradition!


kaomera: Compared to spellcasting, Psionics is pretty well balanced. Why? Partly the PrCs, but also the individual powers. (The ones in the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Do not bother with Complete Psionic, and look carefully at new powers in new books.)

Wizards and Clerics have game-breaking effects (gate for one) which Psions don't. Wizards have more "meta-gaming" spells (like rope trick) than the Psion has "meta-gaming" powers.


I've played one as a PC, and played many as evil NPCs, and allowed them in my games. IMHO they're very nicely balanced.

Cheers, -- N

I must add to the pros of the system that the psychic warrior represents a gish (fighter/mage) much better than any other class that actually uses spells.

And the wilder is much cooler as what the sorcerer was supposed to be than the sorcerer.