Power build [psionic] feat, ((Retired))

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none sort of thing? I agree, maybe that's why half-elves and bards are the least popular of the races and classes.

My previous "benchmark" of 1pp/level is not quite accurate, since that's pp that can be used anytime, anywhere. I think this feat could allow for more than that, because of its limitations.

I think version 1, with the added fatigue limitation, would be balanced. That way you're not limited per day, but per combat.

This kind of pushes the feat away from an "ominous hummm" and towards a "conservative meditation". To me, an ominous humm should make the spell more powerful, not less costly, and though you did say that increasing the psion's strength was better than having him conserve pp, I think it might fit with the flavor of the ominous humm if expending psionic focus allowed you to increase your manifester level by +1 for the purposes of one power cast.

If you like the association with towers, what if each tower powered one type of psionic power? Earth -> body, biopsionics or whatever that is, air -> teleportation, something like that. Just an idea.

But anyway, if you're okay with current version 1 with the fatigue limitation, I would vote yes to that.

 

[Someone]

This kind of pushes the feat away from an "ominous hummm" and towards a "conservative meditation". To me, an ominous humm should make the spell more powerful, not less costly, and though you did say that increasing the psion's strength was better than having him conserve pp, I think it might fit with the flavor of the ominous humm if expending psionic focus allowed you to increase your manifester level by +1 for the purposes of one power cast.

That could make a good addition to the existing chain of Overchannel->Talented. Talented currently only workd for 3rd level powers or less, and it's conceivable another one that offsets that limitation, specially if it ties with LEW background.

If you like the association with towers, what if each tower powered one type of psionic power? Earth -> body, biopsionics or whatever that is, air -> teleportation, something like that. Just an idea.

I like the idea, it can be used to expand the feat's flavor, but the association is difficult. There are six towers and six disciplines, but Psychokinesis handles all elements and I don't think there's a discipline that could directly tie with the tower of negative energy. I'll see what I can do.

 

[Someone]

Replace the feat's description with this text:

"Most psions have always claimed that their power comes from within, and it has no ties with the energy that mages handle. That point is normally quickly countered with the fact that magic negating spells negate psionic powers and vice versa, so there must be clearly a connection and both arts are differents aspects of the same whole.

Perhaps, as others point, the truth lies in between, and bodies and minds can act like towers on their own, generating relatively small amounts of energy but shaped and manifested by the creature's will and different in nature to the

Some psions that believe in this theory or have associated with mages (or sometimes by accident and dumb luck) have developed a way to add some of the energy flowing from the elemental towers to his own. This gathers small amounts of magic, mental power and physical energy to reinforce the psion's own mental reserves. While he's meditating, the psion using this technique grows fatigued and minute quantities of energy flow uncontrolled from him much like when he's manifesting a power."

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

I really like the idea of casters being "mini-towers", that's clever. The grammar is a little confusing, and the second paragraph seems to be cut off. Also, the final description of the actual ability is a little muddled.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Here are some thoughts I had for the Psionics -> Towers associations:

Psychoportation: Air (Wind travels everywhere, all over the earth)
Metacreativity: Fire (The forge, matter is created in the gods' fiery forge)
Psychometabolism: Earth (The tower with the most vibrant, living region)
Clairsentience: Water (See the eddies and currents of fate, "Waterseer" from Orson Scott Card's Homecoming Saga anyone?)
Telepathy: Negative (Control, domination)
Psychokinesis: Positive (All the elements, pure unadulterated energy)

 

[Velmont]

I think, flavor wise, that if cleric are tied to the two energy tower, wizard to the four elemental tower, psionics should be not tied to any tower. Psionic is more a power coming from within than using forces coming from the outside.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Well, I think the point isn't so much that the Towers are the source of psionic energies, rather a psionic manifester can bend the Towers' energies to supplement his own psychic powers. And a psion is like a small Tower in his own right. And a wizard (or any caster) who normally simply manipulates the energies created by the Towers, could, possibly with another feat, become a small Tower and use some of his own inner power to supplement his spells.

I don't mean to hijack Someone's feat thread, but it was his idea. My comments are just my interpretations and hypothetical expansions on Someone's concept. If you want, we can take the idea and run with it in another thread. But I think the idea applies to this feat, so we should at least discuss that part here.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I strongly dislike the choices--particularly Telepathy and Negative Energy. Huh? Telepathy is pretty much the least negative energy you can get--you're dealing with emotions, not death. All the death/destiny stuff is Clairsentient. I think we shouldn't try to tie the disciplines to towers. However, if we ever want to tie Wizard schools to towers, that one is easier--I've done such a match up for another project, so we could steal that.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

It was just a thought. 6 Towers, 6 disciplines, it was worth a shot. They were all stretches, some worked okay, some not at all. But oh well, I think the flavor of the feat still works.

 

[Someone]

It was just a thought. 6 Towers, 6 disciplines, it was worth a shot. They were all stretches, some worked okay, some not at all. But oh well, I think the flavor of the feat still works.

It doesn't matter much if the energies don't match exactly. We already have metamagic feats that can alter energy descriptors, magic and psionics interact just fine, and there is a spell that transforms magic slots into power points. To me that suggests that magical/psionic energy share an identical core that's shaped by the energy's source: the towers dye it of elemental energy, while a creature shape it in terms of body, mind, perception... but it's ultimately possible to change one into another much in the same way that in real life you can transform movement into electricity and electricity into light.