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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5741714" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon Magazine Issue 255: January 1999</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 4/8</p><p></p><p></p><p>Psi Kits: Having given our big psionic monster a load of new stuff, now it's the players turn again. Now, we already got 13 psionic kits over the course of 1993 by various writers, so there's always the risk that they'll repeat the same ideas. But if not, that'll take our total up to 23, which is quite a substantial number for players to choose from, and certainly more than can fit in a single campaign. So let's see if this particular vein of stuff is tapped out already. </p><p></p><p>Charcoal burners are a much more specific example of psionicists hiding their powers from oppression than issue 200. They obviously get a bunch of extra fire manipulating skills to back up their cover identity, but will be kicked out of the organisation if they ever show their powers. I think this is an improvement on generic mountebanks. </p><p></p><p>Gatekeepers are all about watching and guarding over stuff. They get substantial benefits to aura sight so they can pick out troublemakers before they cause trouble, but their law enforcement training means they prefer to subdue rather than kill. In a dungeoncrawling campaign, that will probably turn out to be a net negative. But they would make good NPC's. </p><p></p><p>Janissary are your basic honorbound exotic psychic warrior sorts. They get an extra specialisation, at the cost of a few PSP's and powers, and a fairly strict behavioural code. Is this a fair trade? Depends on if you're the straight-up fighting sort. A +1 to hit and +2 to damage really adds up over the course of an adventuring career. </p><p></p><p>Militant Psionicists, like the previous kit and like their wizard counterparts, get slightly better combat capabilities at the cost of their psionic powers. But at 4 levels behind, a multi-class fighter-psionicist would be strictly better, while also having room to pick another kit, so I think I can safely say this is a suboptimal choice. </p><p></p><p>Mind Mages are yet another one that pretends to be another class to avoid oppression. As long as people believe they're casting spells, they get a +2 to all their power scores, so they have a pretty strong incentive to pick their powers and trappings carefully to keep up the facade. If they can, yeah, that's a pretty powerful benefit. </p><p></p><p>Mind Monks get minor clerical powers, at the cost of having all the behavioural restrictions of following that faith, plus another 3 hours of mandatory meditation tacked on. Not really appropriate if you worship a god of sex, drugs and flaunting your bling. But since psionicists have their own alignment restrictions, they're not likely to follow someone like that. </p><p></p><p>Paranaturalists are another familiar idea, the self-trained psionicist trying to understand their powers in a magic-heavy world. However, instead of being more self-reliant, they go the x-files route, investigating the world around them to find clues as to what they are. I think they two approaches and mechanical implementations have room to co-exist. </p><p></p><p>Pioneers get to develop brand new psionic powers every few levels on top of their regular ones, but suffer a -1 to all their power scores for their constant moving on to new things, rather than sticking with one idea. Like dilettante, their bag of tricks may well save the day, but they'll have trouble keeping up with a more focussed character. </p><p></p><p>Such as these ones. Specialist Psionicists are even more restricted than specialist wizards, only getting access to a single discipline, but getting huge boosts in all their powers as they progress. As with other specialists, this is only a drawback in a small team where you don't have another complementary member of the same class to fill the other niches, or they get taken out. </p><p></p><p>Voices are psychic ambassadors, using their telepathic skills to facilitate open and honest communication between important people of different nations. They have huge benefits using Mindlink, but of course may be sent on missions by their employer that don't suit the party. Course, you could go freelance, and negate that issue anyway. So it seems that the kits here that are most powerful, are the ones that emulate wizardy ideas, while the fighty ones end up underpowered. I think that's a pretty good indictment of the overall balance issues in the system at this point. But there's more than enough new ideas to make this worthwhile is a psionics heavy game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 5741714, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon Magazine Issue 255: January 1999[/U][/B] part 4/8 Psi Kits: Having given our big psionic monster a load of new stuff, now it's the players turn again. Now, we already got 13 psionic kits over the course of 1993 by various writers, so there's always the risk that they'll repeat the same ideas. But if not, that'll take our total up to 23, which is quite a substantial number for players to choose from, and certainly more than can fit in a single campaign. So let's see if this particular vein of stuff is tapped out already. Charcoal burners are a much more specific example of psionicists hiding their powers from oppression than issue 200. They obviously get a bunch of extra fire manipulating skills to back up their cover identity, but will be kicked out of the organisation if they ever show their powers. I think this is an improvement on generic mountebanks. Gatekeepers are all about watching and guarding over stuff. They get substantial benefits to aura sight so they can pick out troublemakers before they cause trouble, but their law enforcement training means they prefer to subdue rather than kill. In a dungeoncrawling campaign, that will probably turn out to be a net negative. But they would make good NPC's. Janissary are your basic honorbound exotic psychic warrior sorts. They get an extra specialisation, at the cost of a few PSP's and powers, and a fairly strict behavioural code. Is this a fair trade? Depends on if you're the straight-up fighting sort. A +1 to hit and +2 to damage really adds up over the course of an adventuring career. Militant Psionicists, like the previous kit and like their wizard counterparts, get slightly better combat capabilities at the cost of their psionic powers. But at 4 levels behind, a multi-class fighter-psionicist would be strictly better, while also having room to pick another kit, so I think I can safely say this is a suboptimal choice. Mind Mages are yet another one that pretends to be another class to avoid oppression. As long as people believe they're casting spells, they get a +2 to all their power scores, so they have a pretty strong incentive to pick their powers and trappings carefully to keep up the facade. If they can, yeah, that's a pretty powerful benefit. Mind Monks get minor clerical powers, at the cost of having all the behavioural restrictions of following that faith, plus another 3 hours of mandatory meditation tacked on. Not really appropriate if you worship a god of sex, drugs and flaunting your bling. But since psionicists have their own alignment restrictions, they're not likely to follow someone like that. Paranaturalists are another familiar idea, the self-trained psionicist trying to understand their powers in a magic-heavy world. However, instead of being more self-reliant, they go the x-files route, investigating the world around them to find clues as to what they are. I think they two approaches and mechanical implementations have room to co-exist. Pioneers get to develop brand new psionic powers every few levels on top of their regular ones, but suffer a -1 to all their power scores for their constant moving on to new things, rather than sticking with one idea. Like dilettante, their bag of tricks may well save the day, but they'll have trouble keeping up with a more focussed character. Such as these ones. Specialist Psionicists are even more restricted than specialist wizards, only getting access to a single discipline, but getting huge boosts in all their powers as they progress. As with other specialists, this is only a drawback in a small team where you don't have another complementary member of the same class to fill the other niches, or they get taken out. Voices are psychic ambassadors, using their telepathic skills to facilitate open and honest communication between important people of different nations. They have huge benefits using Mindlink, but of course may be sent on missions by their employer that don't suit the party. Course, you could go freelance, and negate that issue anyway. So it seems that the kits here that are most powerful, are the ones that emulate wizardy ideas, while the fighty ones end up underpowered. I think that's a pretty good indictment of the overall balance issues in the system at this point. But there's more than enough new ideas to make this worthwhile is a psionics heavy game. [/QUOTE]
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