<rant>Psionic Magic?! WTF?!

[Angellis_ater]

<warning: rant ahead>
Ok, I gotta say this first. I'm biased. I'm a psionics fan. I write psionics books and I publish them. I LOVE psionics.

Done.

WHAT THE EFFING HELL? Psionic MAGIC? As far as I see it, personally, psionics is NOT magic. I disliked the "Psionic X"-factor that was happening in 3.5 (such as "Mindflayer, Psionic" or "Charm, Psionic") and it really irks me when it is done in 4E.

It would be, atleast to me, the equivalent of saying "martial magic" - which is cool if you're doing Tome of Battle... but not for the Rogue. And well, either martial is "magic" too, because some of its powers are pretty wild, or psionics ISN'T magic.

But that might just be me...

 

[lukelightning]

1: Psionics is basically magic. Sure, it has a sci-fi spin to it, but it is for all intents and purposes a fantasy concept.

2: Many books and games have a concept of "mind magic"

3: Real occult practices/superstitions link the two. Fortune tellers can "ee the future in their minds" and also "cast spells" to remove curses, etc.

4: There is no definition of magic in D&D. "Arcane" is generally considered synonymous with magic, but that would leave out divine, primal, etc. all of which (depending on the specific power) definitely have magic.

5: Most importantly: This is an opportunity to turn your dislike of lumping psionics into magic in roleplaying. Play a psion, and when anyone in the game calls your powers magic, your psion glares at them and gives them a technical lecture on how psionics are not that hokey "magic" but is the real power source without all the superstition and junk.

 

[fuzzlewump]

There's no difference between "psionics" and "psionic magic" unless you think "psionics" exist in real life. Then I can see some ranting, like 'hey, my mind reading has nothing to do with magic, it's completely real', or whatever.

That said, would I prefer different terminology? Yes, only because 4E stuff is mostly homogeneous, and the more things convincing me that some aspect of the game is different the better. But given that they already use power points and all, I'm pretty cool with it.

 

[Wepwawet]

I was always in favour of total psionics-magic transparency.
They all are supernatural effects, they just have different sources and ways of coming into being.

If Psionics is not magic, then what do you call Divine... stuff?

What differences there are between divine magic, arcane magic and psionic magic? Is it more than the source?
Divine magic is the will of the gods, they will it and it happens;
Arcane magic comes from the study or manipulation of the aether (whatever) present everywhere;
Psionic magic comes from within the practitioner, his mind can twist and control the world around him.
And Primal magic comes from the communion with the nature spirits of the world.

That's basically it...

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Don't worry man, I'm with you, I've already got the white out ready to white out those places in the book, and simply move on.

 

[Piratecat]

Even as a huge psionics fan, it doesn't bother me. Since it doesn't particularly affect mechanics, I just ignore the word "magic." Tah dah!

Let's hear it for having good internal filters.

 

[Cheesepie]

I must admit, I also coughed up my coffee all over my keyboard when I saw *shudder* "psionic magic" but now that I've thought about it for a while, it seems perfectly okay to me!

As far as this edition of D&D is concerned, magic is pretty much defined as "supernatural effects." No matter how exactly you produce said supernatural effect, you're practicing magic. The differentiation between (non-martial) power sources is where the power to perform the magical effect is drawn from, and how said power is tapped and melded into the desired effect.

While wizards need to perform elaborate rituals using complicated formulas to draw energy out of reality, invokers need to channel the divine energies of their deity through their body, druids need to beckon the primal spirits to grant mastery of nature upon them, and assassins need to more or less sell a part of their soul to draw power from the Shadowfell, psions produce magic purely by their extraordinary force of will and discipline.

Now we just need to work on a solution for those incredibly goofy-looking mid-head halos... *sigh*

 

[DracoSuave]

Um...

So manifesting a fireball with the power of your will is magic, but manifesting a pyrokinetic sphere with the power of your will is not magic?

Yeah?


Really!?!

Okay.

 

[Piratecat]

Now we just need to work on a solution for those incredibly goofy-looking mid-head halos... *sigh*

Easy. Ignore them! I also think of them as the detectable (but not visible) pulse of power that emanates from psychic people in my world.

And at least they aren't psychokinetic ectoplasm.

 

[Jhaelen]

Yeah, well, I'm not totally comfortable with it.

It actually helps me to think of the three power sources in Rolemaster:
Channeling <-> Divine
Essence <-> Arcane
Mentalism <-> Psionics