From Scratch: Designing a Psionic Setting

[ForceUser]

If you were going to design from scratch a homebrew setting with a heavy emphasis on psionics, what would you include from a world design perspective (classes, races, monsters, magic systems, religions, geography, variant rules)? What would you omit? Would it be a D&D/d20 game, or something else? What about such a setting would be exciting? What would potentially be annoying?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd remove all the races from the PHB other than humans and use the XPH races as the default non-humans, as well as the material from Complete Psionic. (Since you need to substitute something for clerics and druids.)

From there, I would skip JRRT and look at the works of ERB and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and go for a pulp/sword and sorcery feel over traditional high fantasy.

I'd also toss out most of the Monster Manual, other than animals, and anything magical, and replace them with psionic variants from XPH.

I'd make a setting of high adventure, complete with ancient dinosaur-infested jungles (I'd probably get the Natural History of Skull Island book for this), ruin-dotted deserts and other settings that lend themselves to the works of Burroughs and Doyle, along with pockets of civilization surrounded by a threatening and mysterious wilderness.

Lords of Madness -- except for maybe the beholder stuff -- would be a cornerstone, as might the Incursion stuff from Paizo.

 

[Sejs]

First thing that comes to mind?

Have psionics be the only form of magic in the setting. Means a couple of things: either eliminating a large number of classes, or significantly redesigning them, religeon retakes its role of primarily intrasocial significance rather than dealing directly with magical hoopla (particularly healing), and so on.

 

[DonTadow]

Wow, I'd actually go the opposite route with it. Perhaps a world where magic is outlawed and seen as barbaric and universe destroying. I wouldn't forbid magic, but I'd have additional rules on it to make it a bit more chaotic.

I'd include half the phb races, none of the "half" races. Elves would have been killed centuries ago as the war between magic and psionis came to a close.l I'd include the more modern looking Psionic races such as the Elan and Xeph.

I imagine the world as a very victorian type of world from the "equilliberium" movie. There would be floating cities held up with nothing but thought slaves, wood and lumb would be difficult because trees and plants have learned to replant themselves (among other defenses) to protect themselves from prediators.

Most, but not all creatures should have a psionic bent to them in some fashion. Crystal dragons instead of the usual dragons. However, if there are monsters or creatures you want to use, nothings stopping you from just tweaking the flavor of their description as psionic magic instead of typical magic.

Teleportation would be the main mode of transportation. No horses. There would probably be destination points in cities where you have to teleport into if you're teleporting. Some type of dampener to prevent teleportations at any of these locations.

Women may wear fancy hats, a way to prevent mind control. However it could be outlawed to "hide your thoughts".

 

[Insight]

I like the concept. Anything to break from the boring old Tolkien-esque fantasy worlds we see time and time again.

I'd like to see it advanced a bit, maybe Renaissance era technology and social systems. No magic, just psi. Monsters would exist, but would change to reflect psi.

Cool idea.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

Dark Sun?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Dark Sun?

Dark Sun is no more the sum total of psionic settings than Middle Earth is the sum total of magical high fantasy settings.

 

[drothgery]

Hmm... first I'd decide whether I want no magic, or (relatively) common psi/rare magic.

In the former case, I'd want all the XPH, all CPsi classes, barbarian, fighter, monk, and rogue, and then possibly pull out a few for flavor. And I'd add a "healing" mantle for ardents with a bumped-up first-level cure power on the level of the Cure X Wounds spells and means for removing disease, removing blindness, neutralizing poison, etc.

In the latter case, I'd allow a handful of casting classes (exactly which ones would depend on the setting), and probably leave top-grade healing to divine casters.

Races -- I'd want to find a way to allow Kalashtar heroes and Illithid villians, basically to minimize the amount of stuff I'd have to make up (if Kalashtar aren't the most-supported psionic race yet, they will be soon; Illithid are the cannonical psionic villians).

 

[Ferrix]

I've done something with a Psionic themed campaign here in the PbP forums. It drops most magic except for a few shreds of spirit magic and limits that to specific cultures and races.

Psionics is more prevalent.

You can check it out here. Most of the world and rules information is in the beginning.

 

[Arkhandus]

To avoid needing much houserules, I'd include magic as only a minor force. The only magic-users of any sort would be clerics, monks, and sorcerers (and a few related prestige classes). The barbarian, fighter, and rogue would stick around, while the psion, psychic warrior, soulknife, wilder, ardent, lurk, and divine mind would be added from the XPH and CPsi.

Clerics and sorcerers would be rare, with clerics and divine minds getting their power from connections to a few ascended mortals, the only deities of the setting, who would only be able to grant spells/powers to a limited number of mortals.

The XPH races would be used in lieu of the core races, with humans sticking around as the only core race. Most MM critters and races would be left out, with only a few dozen sticking around at most. Illithids, yuan-ti, githyanki, and such would be the main villains of the setting. Gem dragons would of course be the only dragons, aside from wyverns and dragon turtles. Psionic monsters would be almost as common as the more-mundane monsters, while magically-gifted monsters would be rare.

The setting itself would probably be roughly Renaissance-era technologically, but with a largely southeast-asian flavor to the world, with strong emphasis on personal improvement and the search for enlightenment, giving rise to the prevalance of psionics and the decent degree of technological advancement. Republics and socialist nations would likely be the norm, with a few kingdoms, empires, and theocracies managing to stay afloat. The astral and ethereal planes would be rather significantly colonized. Magic would be a distrusted and mysterious force for the most part, outlawed in some regions.