D&D General What’s The Big Deal About Psionics?

[Yaarel]

Sorting thru the power sources and planes.



The cosmic Weave refers to the magical aspect of the ethereal force. Force itself is still and constant, such as gravity, but when fields of force shift and move the activity is energy.

The arcane tends to engage the Weave from the material plane by means of material components, each of which has natural peculiar magical properties. Arcanism studies these properties protoscientifically and engineers magical technologies.

By contrast, divine tends to engage the Weave from the astral plane by means of symbols, each of which is part of the meaningful language of a particular culture. The divine is community oriented and collective, being the language, worldview, and ways of life that a group shares in common. Divinism attunes the essential symbols of the deep structure, the sacred core of a culture.

Both arcane and divine engage sympathetic magic, where the manipulation of one object influences a target object that resembles it. However the divinist focuses on symbols that the objects share in common, typically a deeper universal symbol that the target object is part of. By contrast, the arcanist focuses on the objects themselves, and any specific properties that they share in common, like flammable bat guano for a flying Fireball incineration. The Weave inherently behaves sympathetic-magically, including both mental and physical aspects.



The main planes are three levels of a great chain of being.

Astral plane = stuff of thought (aster)
Ethereal plane = force (ether)
Material plane = matter

Note, the material plane includes the shallow ethereal forces, like gravity and telekinesis. Also the deep ethereal that disconnects from the material planes, often behaves in patterns corresponding to the dreams and memories of the thought constructs in the astral plane.

Also note, an object of matter can exist as a virtual object in the ethereal plane made out of force but having its form. The object can also exist in the astral plane as an information construct, like an object in a dream.



Within this D&D planar cosmology and its magical arcane and divine sources, where does psionic and primal fit in?

The psionic power source exists at all planar levels, simultaneously. A mind thinks thoughts astrally. It manifests a personal aura of mental influence etherally, whence telekinetic force and other psionic activity. The mind becomes a unique person with an individual consciousness of a body, materially.

Somehow, matter allows the selfless infinite consciousness to entangle it, thus at least experientially disconnect from the infinity to function as the consciousness of a finite material self with a unique personality. This unique conscious mind is the soul (ki) entangling a physical body. This conscious person can also exist outofbody as an disembodied mind that has a virtual body made out of ethereal force. The conscious soul can also exist as a thought construct within the astral plane, a mental self-image. However, to become a unique soul with a personal consciousness and freewill, requires the infinite consciousness to have entangled finite matter at some point in time.

The primal power source is the minds of the elements, including earth, water, air, fire, and plant as a kind of element. Earthy mountains, watery lakes, airy winds, fiery sun, planty trees, and so on are in fact conscious elementals who inhabit the material plane. Their elemental choices, behaviors, and habits are what make the natural world "nature".

Regarding plant as an element. It is a living metabolic element that results from the other four elements. It exhibits the the solidity of earth, the moistness of water, the oxygen of the air, the flammability of fire, and similar. The plant element can associate with any of the four elemental planes. Perhaps the material plane is especially the elemental plane of plant, where the other elements can commingle together. Lush vigorous forms of plant can be found in the feywild, and dead decaying forms in the shadowfell.

A normal tree is a plant elemental. Most trees do what plant elementals like to do, namely exist, vegetate, and grow. A tree with a powerful mind can animate psychometabolically, but even these powerful minds rarely do so. Any psionic effects are possible, such as outofbody manifestation, dream visitation, psychic healing, and so on. Psionic activities of plants are generally ambient, gentle, and self-giving. Humans often experience mental and physical healing among trees.

The primal power source is the ambient psionic activity among natural elementals. Primalists often become members of a local elemental community, including rivers, cliffs, sunlight, thunderstorms, grasses, and so on. Civility and friendships form within the ambient telepathic intermingling among the minds of an open wilderness. Human communities can make an effort to integrate harmoniously with nearby nature.

Elements dont have human minds, but have minds, even personalities that humans can somewhat relate to, such as raging wildfire and hopeful flame.

Primalism is inherently animistic, forming neighborly relationships and even close friendships with elementals. Elementals typically embrace the sensuality of the material plane. Human communities who are close with elementals tend toward primal magic.



Weave
divine: symbols and culture
arcane: components and science

Mind
psionic: humanoid soul with beast
primal: elemental community with plant

 

[TBeholder]

But there is also a group that actively wants psionics to work like magic, because it results in a simpler system with a shallower learning curve. You can just roll up a psion and apply your wizard-playing skills, and it'll mostly work.

And then there was an attempt to make warriors' abilities to work like magic too. Which became infamous under the nickname of "weaboo fightan magic". This could be "justified" the same way.
But let's face it, the strongest real reason was d20 being so laughably broken that this looked like the easiest way to circumvent most broken parts.
Anyway, "add something to the system" and "dumb the system down as much as possible" are not compatible goals, intrinsically and not dependent on exactly what is being added. Perhaps optimization for either of them should be done separately, rather than trying to create crossbreed of snake and hedgehog… again.

 

[Gammadoodler]

...Frank the Fork. And he will spy on the orc...

Reasonably sure there is a limerick that begins this way.

 

[Yaarel]

Anyway, "add something to the system" and "dumb the system down as much as possible" are not compatible goals, intrinsically.

Indeed, they are antithetical to each other, a dialectic interaction of opposites. The goal is to continually optimize between them, for each new situation.

On the one hand, the game needs to actualize as many important narrative concepts as possible.

On the other hand, one must reduce the complexity of the gaming system as much as possible.

The two equally important requirements make necessary mechanics that are as efficient and as simple and as adaptable as possible. In other words ergonomic.

The two opposite requirements together make redundant mechanics a sin within gaming design.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Wait I thought the Fifth Element was love?

It could be.. disciplines in that element might include..

Eropathy
Eroaudience
Erocognizance
Erovoyance
Eroportation
Erometabolism
Erokinesis

It could be argued that such abilities would be more properly placed on a marital chassis though.

 

[Yaarel]

Regarding the primal power source.

Animism views every object of nature as a sentient mind. In D&D mechanics, every object of nature, whether watery lake or earthy mountain, is an elemental with a mind.

Some elemental minds of nature are stronger than others. Generally the mental activity is subtle and ambient, and less central minds defer to the more central minds that are stronger, like children to parents. Some objects of nature have powerful minds with much influence over other minds, even influence over nearby physical phenomena.

For example. The mind of a mountain is often more prominent than the minds of the specific rock formations, waterfalls, fields, and forest that are on it. The mind of a major river is often more prominent than that of a stream trickling into it. The mind of the land of a forest collectively can be more prominent than the mind of each tree that comprises it. Note, the mind can be an object that appears and disappears, like fire igniting and extinguishing, variously, across time and space. Likewise, thunderstorm.

There is a correlation between power of the mind of an elemental object and its cultural importance to a human community. But it is mutual. A powerful elemental mind influences and becomes more prominent within the minds of the human community. Oppositely, a nonprominent elemental object might gain central significance to the culture of a human community, such as a rock formation of a recognizable shape or a useful mineral, thus the power of its elemental mind "awakens" and gains prominence from the human interest.

Mechanically, in D&D, objects of nature are assumed to be "normal" objects despite the ambient psionic activity of their minds. Only the minds whose power crosses a threshold that compares to a human mind, and able to engage humans interactively, are considered to be an "elemental" in the sense of a D&D creature type. Even so, these interactive elementals are still normal features of nature, differing only in quantity, not quality. These minds are native within the material plane.

The magic of these elemental minds is identical to psionic, the same magic that the minds of humans can wield. However, the nonhuman motivations, ubiquity of occurrences, and thematic distinctiveness, seems sufficient to distinguish the elemental "primal" power source from the psionic power source.

The elemental minds are nonhuman and alien to human minds. It is hypothetically possible for the mind of a mountain to telekinetically stand up and walk somewhere else. But that rarely happens because the mind of a mountain rarely desires to do the kinds of things that the mind of a human body desires to do. The mountain wants to be still and meditate. Other mind magic phenomena are more likely. Despite how alien its nonhuman mind is, a human mind can often relate to it analogously. For example, a human might perceive a mountain accurately enough to be ancient, calm, supportive, and reliable. This mutual relatability enables genuine friendships to develop between humans and objects of nature.

It is common for prominent objects of nature to project their minds away from the material object, thus manifest ghostlike rather than as an animate elemental. It is possible but rare for a mental projection to disconnect from its material elemental to journey elsewhere to become the mind of an other object of nature elsewhere. For example, the mind of one mountain detaches to travel across sea to become the mind of an other mountain elsewhere. The new mountain gains instant prominence and retains the memories of the original mountain. The mental projection wields its mind magic.

Where existing incorporeally as a force in the material plane is the same thing as existing in the "shallow" ethereal plane, the projected mind travels in this manner. The stronger the mind, the stronger the force of its virtual body. A disembodied mind is the same thing as a ghost, but lacks the negative influence of the shadowfell.

In some, animism views objects of nature as sapient minds, that wield mind magic. In D&D these concepts correlate the elemental creature type and the psionic power source. But the elemental themes are significant and useful enough to warrant to treat as a separate "primal" power source.

 

[Yaarel]

Wait I thought the Fifth Element was love?

Kinda. It can be.

In certain reallife alchemical traditions, the mind is understood to have a force, in other words be a soul made out of ether, the fifth element. Thus sometimes the alchemist used personal mental intention to supply the fifth element, the ether, as one of the alchemical ingredients.

Love can be a personal mental intention.

 

[James Gasik]

Kinda. It can be.

In certain reallife alchemical traditions, the mind is understood to have a force, in other words be a soul made out of ether, the fifth element. Thus sometimes the alchemist used personal mental intention to supply the fifth element, the ether, as one of the alchemical ingredients.

Love can be a personal mental intention.

Quintessence was added to the game in the Epic Level Handbook, as I recall.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I thought the fifth element was coffee. Nothing of importance is possible without it.

 

[James Gasik]

I thought the fifth element was coffee. Nothing of importance is possible without it.

Except in the Dark Times where coffee hadn't been introduced to the world yet! (Many D&D campaigns shouldn't even have coffee!)