Belegbeth said:
Why have they persisted? They have always seemed like a bad idea for a "swords and sorcery" game like DnD. Why wasn't (or isn't) magic enough?
Exacerbating the problem of their "poor fit" with fantasy IMO, the rules for psionics have ALWAYS seemed problematic (at least as far as I can tell -- I'm no historian of DnD).
I'm genuinely curious why some people like including psionics in their DnD campaigns. What do they add to the game? (Aside from more rules, that is
)
I know that there are many folks out there who don't particularly like the Vance-ian style of magic (involving memorization of spells, etc.) I know that I am particularly dissatisfied by the whole concept of spell slots (you can only cast one seventh level spell per day, and if you prepared the wrong one well...you're screwed). The idea with psionics (particularly in 3e, and finessed in the EPH) is that you have an alternate magic system that relies on a point system rather than decideing an preparing spells that fill certain slots.
In the past, psionics were problematic at best. Psionics originally were something that would be grafted on top of an exiting character class, rather than their own set of 'alternate magic' classes. That was corrected some time ago (2nd Edition? 2.5?) Since 3rd Edition came out, I have really fallen in love with the mechanics of the psionics system and the EPH simply balances things out a bit, and better integrates it with arcane and divine magic (each system has it's own style and group of abilities).
Personally, I much prefer the casting style of 3E psionics:
You only have so much power. These are the powers (spells) you know. You can cast/manifest whatever you want, and can amplify (augment) the power to make it stronger if you wish, but it takes more power to do so. If you want to use your power to do something big once or twice, that's fine. If you want to do something small but do it all day, that's fine too.
Psionics allows for greater flexibility. It removes the reliance on some archaic system that involves preparing/memorizing spells everyday, only to do it again tomorrow (which always was a bit of a stretch for my taste).
My group plays psionics using the "psionics is magic" concepts,which allows 100% compatibility between the schools ("Dispell..." works on either type, as does "Detect...").
And for the record, the bald, hooded and tattooed psion is no more stereotypical than the long-haired elven archer. Or the bearded, axe-wielding dwarf. You can be as creative or derivative as you like. It's an RPG. For example: my psion is an elven Psionic Trickster (psionic rewrite of the Arcane Trickster PrC from Tome & Blood). Short hair. Wears no armor. No tattoos. Carries a longsword, a bow and a bandoleer containing several different daggers.
hobbes