Psionics

[Oni]

I think a lot of what should make up psionics is already in the core of most versions of the game, it's just under that big (massive,humungous, gargantuan) tent that is arcane magic. You could silo a lot of those types of spells of and make a very interesting psion out of those abilities, while at the same time giving a little more focus to wizards. Some what something can't do is as important as what it can do in defining it.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Psionics is just magic with a different name. Not required in my DnD so as an optional add in? Sure 'cos a lot of people do like it. Any magic which works through new age hippy gem magic mixed with ghostbusters ectoplasm turns my right off!

 

[Aldarc]

Psionics is just magic with a different name. Not required in my DnD so as an optional add in? Sure 'cos a lot of people do like it. Any magic which works through new age hippy gem magic mixed with ghostbusters ectoplasm turns my right off!

You can call it psionic magic, but it has different thematics and aesthetics than both divine and arcane magic.

 

[grimslade]

I think we are going to see a 1E psionics system in the base player book, if not a psion base class. Wild talents point to a feat based or option swap system like 4E Spellplague system?
I like psionics in my medieval fantasy. Not as a futuristic or sci Fi magic but as an alien magic form, completely foreign to the status quo. Githzerai and Githyanki are much more frightening with psionics than with magic. I like it and my players do to, so I hope psionics are base ruled to work or an in-book option like in AD&D.

 

[Lord Zack]

D&D has never been "pure" medieval fantasy anyway. Check out this excerpt from Volume 3 of the original D&D set:

Other monsters to consider, depending upon the level and the surroundings:
Giant Crabs, Giant Leeches, Giant Octupi, Crocodiles, Giant Squids, Sea Monsters,
Nixies, Mermen, Griffons, Pterodactyles, Rocs, Invisible Stalkers, Cyborgs,
Robots, Androids, Shadows, Dopplegangers.

Notice the bolded part. So even if psionics is considered scifi it's definetly not too scifi for D&D.

 

[Thorgrim Sekkrhrafn]

They should be placed in some sort of toxic-waste containment vessel of an optional module, preferably associated with Dark Sun, the only D&D setting in which they remotely have anything of value to add - if not in a Gamma World or other sci-fi/science-fantasy adjunct to D&D, along with mutants, laser pistols, and other things that have just as much right as psionics to be in an heroic fantasy RPG.

Yep. Sci-fi/Fantasy are often placed on the same shelves at bookstores, but that doesn't mean Mr. Spock should be mind melding with Frodo to keep The Ring from controlling him.

sci-fi, pure and simple. Having an alien race that vaguely alludes to celtic mythology and putting horses on the cover doesn't make your time high-tech time-travel epic /fantasy/.

Absolutely not. OTOH, it should use the same mechanics and progressions as other Sources, rather than being abberant for the sake of being able to put 'power points' on the character sheet, or being another clumsy bolt-on 'option' that serves only to add to the complexity of the game.

Don't think Saga of the Plieocene Exile is fantasy? Huh. Okay, YMMV. But one might as well be consistent about it, right? Because by that defintion...

...neither is the Expedition to Barrier Peaks fantasy.

...nor should you even allude to spells or 'powers' that mimic clearly psionic abilities (telepathy, telekinesis).

...nor should you bother with WoW-styled, wonky, super-hero like 'powers', a la 4E, as many are clearly inspired by, what else?, super-heroes, a genre that's firmly in the core of science fiction.

The lines of delineation are not as clear as you would have them. At the extremes, sure. Star Trek is clearly science fiction. Lord of the Rings is clearly fantasy.

But what is the Prince of Nothing/Aspect-Emperor series by R. Scott Bakker? That's just as much fantasy in style as LotR or Song of Fire and Ice or take-your-pick generic Conan novel. And yet the alluded 'secret history' background for the world is decidedly science fiction, with the Consult, the No-God, the background for the skin-spies and Sranc being clearly alien and science fiction in nature. The same for M.A.R. Barker's Empire of the Petal Throne series.

It's a spectrum, with only the extremes being clearly defined. Everything else...

 

[Greg K]

Psionics has, in my opinion, not been done, officially, well- and Dark Sun is my favorite official D&D setting.

I do, however, like Green Ronin's Psychic's Handbook for 3e.

 

[Charleois]

I want psionics for several reasons:

1. Eberron
2. Dark Sun
3. Deryni
4. Anime
5. Spelljammer
6. Gygaxian scifi pulp mixed with Gygaxian fantasy (see Barrier Peaks)
7. I want to make a monk with +6 ki focus vs. fatbeards

 

[SensoryThought]

I hate psionics as the flavor is more sci fi than fantasy. I suspect they will make a module at some stage. Cause 5e's gonna be modular.

 

[Aldarc]

I hate psionics as the flavor is more sci fi than fantasy. I suspect they will make a module at some stage. Cause 5e's gonna be modular.

What's the difference?