Psionics- Love 'em, hate 'em, don't care about 'em?

[Libertad]

While not necessarily controversial, the presence of psionics in D&D receives a mixed blessing in various Editions.

What are your opinions on it? Do you use psionics in your games? Do you feel that it's bad, superfluous, overpowered, etc?

As for myself, I don't really have strong opinions. I use it sparingly in my games, only really inserting it based upon the setting (such as Dark Sun), or if one of the players wants to use something in one of the books.

I do enjoy a lot of the ideas, such as the Soulknife and Psychic Warrior in 3.X, and the fluff and flavor text can give the game a sort of sci-fi feel which can gel well with certain settings.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I've always been enamored with the concept, to the extent that my campaign setting is built around it.

I've never been enamored with the execution, to the extent that I was happy to rewrite a third party ruleset to get what I needed.

 

[Gilladian]

I dislike psionics. Initially, I think, because of the crappy execution, but also because I like "pure" fantasy better than a blend of fantasy and science fiction. I just don't think they go together very well in a game.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Arnehnois might be a telepath; that's exactly what I was thinking (except I haven't rewritten any rulesets ... yet).

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Psionics is just another flavor of magic, and power points are just another means of producing spells.

I'm happy to have 'em in any game of mine, as some players really enjoy them.

 

[Darth Illithid]

I generally like psionics. They fit really well in certain settings, especially Dark Sun and Eberron, but I can see how they're not so prominent or fitting in settings like the Forgotten Realms.

I like the aesthetic of psionics more than their execution, for the most part, though I'm not really a fan of 4E's "every psionic character has a halo" artwork. I really like the Soul Knife and Psychic Warrior concepts, along with the idea of a character overcharging and pushing past their limits to get the most out of their psionic power.

 

[Kinak]

I used the 2nd Edition rules extensively in my homebrew and Dark Sun. I never really dipped into them with 3rd Edition.

That's not through any huge love of my own. I've had players that really liked them, both mechanically and story-wise.

That said, I've never found psionics to be more disruptive to fantasy flavor than Vancian magic. The Ages of Chaos on Darkover, for example, are pure psionics fantasy. And it's easy to name a lot of other worlds you could model with psionics. But Vancian magic covers only a vanishingly small section of fantasy. It doesn't even model the Dying Earth stories particularly well.

Which isn't to say that Vancian magic is terrible, just that I find the wizard class and the cleric class put more pressure on how my world looks than psionics ever has.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[PigKnight]

In 3.5e I disliked them at first because I didn't know much back when I was a wee piglet because I hated the flavor and didn't really understand it (nor owned the book so I only knew it from hearsay), but once I got better at the game (and got the book) I actually like it over typical wizard/cleric casting. It's more balanced in my opinion and it is easily refluffed as run of the mill magic.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

I love psionics, though I can't say I've ever been entirely happy with the mechanics. Unlike some, the only place I don't generally care for Psionics is in Science Fiction, where I usually prefer harder science.

What I'd love to see from a psionics system are flexible, at-will core powers, such as telepathy and telekinesis, which are augmented by power points to do new things. Similar to how 4E handled it, but far more robust.

 

[Stormonu]

It's another flavor of magic that I have no use for in D&D-type games. Don't mind such a system in modern, future and alternate worlds (such as Dark Sun), but I don't like their fit in general D&D.