I just learned the Psionic rules, and I have questions.

[Stalker0]

How is that different from an NPC Sorcerer who is just going to be used for one fight? Most combats last 5 rounds or so, so the NPC Sorcerer just throws out his best stuff and doesn't worry about later fights. He's an NPC, not a PC and unless he is typically used to multiple fights per day (like PCs), why would he conserve?

That's also my argument, at least at mid levels. For an npc of 10th level or so to encounter an actual threat to himself is RARE!! If a party comes to challenge him, he should throw out everything to stop them...it makes no sense otherwise. Sure you might be out of power after that, but your still alive, you can go hide somewhere for a day. But if you die in the encounter, well that tends to hinder long term prospects now doesn't it?

At high level the situation is a little different. High level characters should be a bit more paranoid, they may be scried upon, their actions are reflected in divinations, etc. If they blow their load, someone may take the opportunity to send in a clean up crew.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Henry already posted most of my thoughts, so if you've read his post, just consider this a vote for what he said.

In addition to that, though, when you create a psionic NPC, remember how long you expect them to be a part of the game. If you anticipate them only being around for three rounds, you don't really need to worry about keeping track of their power points. Why keep track of something if they are just around for a round or two and are either going to die or run away? Why go through and list all their powers known? You should know your players tactics and should know that any given psion is only going to have about 25% of their powers be combat powers that are effective against the PCs general tactics. So for a short lived NPC don't agonize over powers known. Just pick a small handful and assume the rest of the powers are general use powers for the NPC's out-of-combat life.

 

[Deekin]

I would like to throw out some links

New 3.5 Psionics FAQ

New DM/Player's Guide to Psionics

MYTH: The XPH is Overpowered

 

[Arkhandus]

He was also out of pp by the time the party got him. I really liked crisis of breath for the decisions it forced the afflicted PC to make. *shrug*

"Hmm, do I feel like breathing right now? Naah, breathing is for the weak!" *hack, slash, gasp, thunk*

First thing that sprang to mind when I saw that.

 

[Krafen]

The answer to your question about imprisoning psionic characters is psionic restraints (XPH). The Complete Psionic also had a few masks that messed with people.

Yes, Mind Thrust is quite powerful. It is limited by being Will negates, Close range, and Mind-Affecting.

I, also, prefer the psionic system to the spell slot system. It is a better fit for how magic seems to me like it should work. If you are not already, simply think of psionics as an alternative magic system.

 

[irdeggman]

Not my observation - Energy Burst (which is a general power, not a psychokinesis power) lets you blow up in an amazing 40ft radius every round. Being on your own and surrounded by foes is great (the PC in our party who used this last Sunday killed two of his own party as well as damaging all of the enemies and five other party members. A previous party member wiped out an entire pack of dire wolves on his own in one round.

6+ encounters a day seem to slow medium and higher level psions down, less will do the job if the psion goes made at attempting to turn lots of stuff into swift/immediate actions

Good catch - my bad on classification of Energy Burst.

But normally still is normally.

Now since this power centers on the manifester that means that his targets must already be within 40 ft before he manifests.

And as pointed out he will damage his allies. When a PC manages to outright kill 2 party members and damages 5 others (real large party which always makes running a game more difficult) and then damages all of the foes - well he already did more damage to the PCs then the foes probably would have before, (20% of resources expended per even EL encounter) - so doing the "Heroes" thing is real risky.

Only the Cold version uses a Fort save the rest use a reflex for 1/2 damage so evasion and improved evasion apply - which means that a barbarian and rogue stand a real good chance of coming out very well on this deal.

Since the radius centers from the manifester he will almost always (unless surrounded by party members willing to take a lot of damage from their "friend") will have to manifest defensively or survive AoO from all threatening opponents.

Good power but its damage to allies limits its situational advantage.

I don't have access to my copy of Complete Psionic at the moment - did they "nerf" this power?

 

[Plane Sailing]

I don't have access to my copy of Complete Psionic at the moment - did they "nerf" this power?

I don't know, I never got hold of Complete Psionic (it didn't seem compelling enough at the time )

The psion in our party is very cleverly created - he has decent hp from very high Con, plus uses vigour, and his schtick is that he derives pleasure from getting beaten up - and once he's taken 50-80 damage or so he uses hostile empathic transfer to heal himself completely while zapping an opponent with huge amounts of untyped damage. For him there is very little risk in getting right into the middle of a bunch of opponents.

The explosive burst, although killing two party members, did do either 37 or 75 damage to all 10 of the advanced celestial stirges which had latched on to the half-dragon PC, which enabled his next full attack + great cleave to clear off all but 1 of the little beggars. He lost 1d6 Con to blood drain, without the burst he would have been down at least 7d6 Con and probably more!

I really like the basic way that psions are developed, and I like the feel of their powers. The original PsiHB had them severely underpowered wrt arcane casters, to the extent that I introduced a number of house rules to re-balance them. My own opinion (which I recognise isn't universally shared!) is that while the XPH did an overall fantastic job, there are some areas where psions put the arcanists in the shade too much now.

My ideal solution (which I put in another recent thread) would be to bring arcanists up to the same standard - e.g. applying the same energy type special effects to all energy spells.

Cheers

 

[Benben]

I quickly realized how much hurting Mind Thrust does. It seemed extremely powerful for a 1st lvl power.

As others have noted mind thrust has limited targets (mind-affecting) is close range and is will negates. So constructs and undead scoff at the power.

It is however an absolute JOY to use as a player. Over-channeling, picking up a big wad of d10s, and blasting a target is hideous amounts of fun for a caster. Magic types rarely get to use anything over d6 so it's a treat to use d10s.

 

[Enforcer]

"Hmm, do I feel like breathing right now? Naah, breathing is for the weak!" *hack, slash, gasp, thunk*

First thing that sprang to mind when I saw that.

And that was basically the choice the PC had to make, which was cool I thought.

And hostile empathic transfer was indeed nerfed (rightly so in my opinion) in Complete Psionic. It's still a great power for Telepaths, just not a must-have.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I've always wanted to add Psionics to my campaign but the big book always intimidated me...a whole thick book on just one class?

So my friend came over the other day with a Psion he made in order for us to learn how to use Psionic characters. I just reviewed the Mind Flayer Psion from the Expanded Psionics book and used that to do a practice combat with his level 7 PC. It was just for fun and to learn how the rules work, so we weren't worried about the fight being fair.

The rules were pretty simple to learn. I liked it. From a DMs perspective though, it seems kind of pointless to use Psionic rules for an NPC Psionic character. It's a lot of work to accomplish basically the same affect with spells. It's easier to "pretend" a Mind Flayer is Psionic using his spell abilities rather than juggling & dealing with power points as a Psionic Mind Flayer.

I agree. I reworked the MM mind flayer to be more similar to the 2e version (eg having Dominate instead of just Suggestion) but, of course, was balanced with 3e rules.

Also, If he's just going to be used for 1 fight, then the DM would most likely dump his max power points into each attack. That's a little unfair vs a Psionic PC since he would be conserving his power points for later combats. I quickly realized how much hurting Mind Thrust does. It seemed extremely powerful for a 1st lvl power.

The same goes for any NPC psychic or spellcaster. By the way, you are obeying the power point limit right? That should be on every page in obnoxiously large red writing; you cannot spend more power points on a power than your manifester level. This applies even if the power is "free" (eg doesn't cost points).

By the way, which mind flayer powers did you use? Mind Blast? Mind Blast? Or Mind Blast?

I'd probably get flamed for saying this at WotC, but psionics still isn't perfectly balanced, and you will run into some overpowered things. Mind Thrust is still pretty tame compared to Energy Missile, though. (IMO, Mind Thrust should do 1d6 damage per power point.)

One question I have is, does a Psionic Mind Flayer's CR go up? I didn't see any CR adjustment under its statblock. But when comparing it to the core Mind Flayer from the MM, it has 3 times more "spell" attacks. So it gains a whole bunch more powers that can make it more powerful from buffs and attacks. I was wondering if I was overlooking something since I'm new at the Psionic rules. A Psionic Mind Flayer seems much more powerful than the MM Mind Flayer.

It seems you used the wrong monster to test. Don't use a monster. Use a party vs party, and make sure one of the NPCs is psychic. Also the "magic" mind flayer has a 7th-level spell-like ability; I don't recall if it can be used as an attack anymore (it could in 3.0); if it could, it still ends up more powerful.

Also, what are ways for people to deal with a Psionic person? Say a Psionic criminal is thrown into jail in a big city. What do authorities do to deal with Psionic people in their custody? With casters you can bind their hands, take away their compenents/focuses, and blindfold them. I would imagine authorities have ways to keep these guys under their control right? I just don't know how

They couldn't keep my mage down. He always learned Silent Dimension Door at the earlier opportunity. A sorcerer in that position wouldn't even run the risk of losing their spellbook.

It's a plot twist for NPCs anyway. PCs rarely get captured and hate it when that happens, so it's not a big deal.

Overall I liked the class and I'm interested in the other versions of Psionic classes. I can see how this would be fun to play as a player. And the rules are so much easier than 2e rules were!

No kidding. 3e psionics rules actually ... gasp ... follow the rules!