Yet another... Psionic Combat

[Johno]

Well folks! here I am, trying to keep things simple.

It isn't the mechanics that get to me, its the comlete uselessness of psionic combat as written. As psions have Will as their best saves, nothing ever gets through to harm them, unless you get lucky and come across someone flat-footed.

So, to avoid this I did these three simple things:

Replaced the random d20 setting of the difficulty with a flat 10.

Increased the Will DC across the board, by +6, even for non-psionic beings, and flat-footed.

Increased the damage dealt by the psionic attacks to:

• Mind Thrust: 1d6 Intelligence
• Ego Whip: 2d6 Dexterity
• Id Insinuation: 1d6 Strength (Ignores Mental Hardness)
• Psychic Crush: 3d6 Wisdom
• Mind Blast: 2d6 Charisma

Cost for manifesting these attacks are unchanged, as are their other properties (range, excetera).

I'll be working on some feats, and plan to reduce the cost of both Mind Trap, and Disarm Mind, to some extent.

This still needs some tweeking, so your insights are greatly appreciated. Perhaps the Mind Blast DC should lowered for Non-psions somewhat, or left as is...

 

[Jeph]

I wouldn't increase the damage by so much. Maybe one die type.

Also, instead of a flat '+6 or so' to the DC, I'd keep it the 1d20+ability score mod, and then add + 1/ psionic character's level or HD (round down). That will let the DC increase proportionally with level.

 

[Johno]

I allow the use of metapsionic feats to be applied to the Combat modes, (but the cost may not exceed the standard limit, 2*lvl -1)so you can Quicken, and Heighten a power.

The problem is increasing one die is not enough. The risk/reward ratio is not high enough.

For a player to want to spend a round attacking a psionic opponent (for they are the only ones worth attacking psionically, until you can mind blast, but that uses up a large number of points) with combat modes, you need the reward to be commiserate to the risk. The risk is nothing happens, and the round and power points are wasted, making the player feel useless.

At the moment, as the combat modes use Will saves, the best saves of a psion. Most players will tell you, you don't try to fry a rogue with fireballs, you don't try to poison a fighter, or charm a cleric. Yet this is exactly the kind of stunt the Psion is trying to do and with a lot of randomness thrown in: d20 to set save, save varies according to defense in a non-predictable fashion.

At ninth level, a psion will have a Will save of around +12 to +17 (+17 assumes maxed out Seer +6 Base, +6 Wis, +3 Item, +2 Iron Will) At present, the chances of even touching these Psions (9th level) is so low it is rediculous. The only way you are going to have a chance is to get them flat-footed.

And who suffers the most randomness and ambushes in a game? NPCs or PCs?

So working off the EXPECTED damage per attack and defense, I made the changes above. I also wanted there to be a reason to take the Psionic bastion, Mind trap, Mental adversary, and Disarm mind feats. This assumes that the number of psionic encounters per day is low, I wouldn't recommend going up against a cabal of mindflayers until 15+.

I'm working on some more changes and feats, but now: Off to work!