[Eberron] Artificer / Psionic Artificer

What purpose does splitting Artificer from Psionic Artificer serve? This seems to go completely against the psionic/magic transparency as well as the Artificer's unified magic concept. (Magic, in this case, meaning Divine, Arcane and Psionics. If you've played Rolemaster, this corresponds with Channelling, Essence, and Mentalism and is where I got the inspiration)

Is there some compelling reasons these should remain seperated or should Artificers be allowed to make all sorts of magic/psionic items? In my opinion it seems like the psionic artificer was afterthought to say "oh yeah, and psionics exist in Eberron too ..."

I have a redone artificer that does psionics and magic but doesn't have infusions f you want it...

I wasn't too happy with it either, to be honest. To add to it, they also seemed to have neglected some things. Such as how they still have Craft Construct on their feats list, metapsionic feats cost more to use then megamagic feats on dhorjes then wands, and they don't actually say how an Artificer can deal with getting their homunculli, seein ga sthey lack the prerequisite spells.

The group I'm in is actually running with more transparant rules, and when I brough thtis up, we had already been letting an artificer I made make psionic stuff anyhow.

In all honesty, I think the seperate item creation feats is part of the problem. There's no real point for dhorjes, power stones, and universal items. The only items really distinct, IMHO, are psicrowns and congiscence crystals. Same with UMD and UPD.

But yeah, just a rant. The solution in our gorup is just say Artificers can emulate Powers too. This is the most sensical, the least book-keepy.

Basically, if you do this, you can use Craft Wand to do dhorjes, Scribe Scroll for power stones (hell, there's a thing in Complte Arcane on making scrolls that are stone-shaped), Craft Wonderous Item into Craft Universal Item, and Craft Construct can do psionic constructs. Add the option to choose psicrowns or staves at the righ tlevel (they are pretty different I think), and make congiscence crystals an available bonus feat.

Saves a lot of work. And stuff.

That's about what I was thinking, except I think I'll make Psicrowns require Craft Wondrous Item and Craft Staff. Aren't Congiscence crystals the psi-equivilent of Potions/Oils?

Actually, psionic tattoos are. Forgot to metnion them entirely. Sit and compare them, and a tattoo is basically the exact same as a potion or oil, down to costs and all that. We've even allowed some characters to use magical tattoos instead of potions when they are the space-constrained sorts (ie, acetic monk types, or druids who prefer the all natural look).

Psicrowns generally to me equal staves actually. The main thing is they are funcitonally different enough that I think just making them seperate items sitll is justifyable.

Congicense crystals, or hwoever yous epll it, are just extra pp storers. They don't actually have any magic beyond holding pp from what I can gather.

Stuff.

Cognizance Crystals are pearls of power.

So it's like a pearl of power under the spell points system. I'll just toss the crystals under craft wondrous item then.

magic_gathering2001 said:

I have a redone artificer that does psionics and magic but doesn't have infusions f you want it...

Click to expand...

I want to keep the infusions, but thanks. Btw, Rock! Bwahahahaha!

Out of Eberron, there may or may not be a reason.

Within Eberron, psionics are extremely rare, known of by only an extreme few out of Sarlona. The Adarans are very familiar with them but most of the Reidrans think it is the extraordinary powers of the very enlightened.

At the most basic level, the people of Khorvaire, where artificers come from, know next to nothing. There is no reason an Artificer would be trained to use psionics.

That said, in another game, it is a matter of flavor. If you use full magic/psionics transparency then artificers should be able to do both. The changes are simple:

Use Magic Device = Use Psionic Device

Treat each of the craft feats as both.
Scribe Scroll = Imprint Stone
Brew Potion = Scribe Tattoo
Craft Wondrous = Craft Universal
Craft Magical Arms & Armor = Craft Psionic Arms & Armor
Craft Wand = Craft Dorje
Craft Staff = Craft Psycrown
Craft Construct = Craft Psionic Construct

Craft Ring, Craft Rod, Craft Cognizance Crystal don't have analogues so they are treated seperately.

There may need to be one or two new infusions made at each level but an artificers infusions aren't magically oriented for the most part they are functionally oriented; ultimately the things an artificer can do shouldn't change much based upon the power he is drawing from.

Craft Cognizance Crystal doesn't have an equivilant feat, but the cognizance crystals do have an equivilant item, the pearls of power. I'd fold Craft Cognizance Crystal into Craft Wondrous Item.

As far as the transparency issue goes, it's mainly for interaction between magic and psionics. Such as, say, Dispel Magic can end Personal Mind Blank, and PR applies against Fireball. However, a dwarf still only gets his +2 saving throw bonus against spells, and the Strong Mind feat only gives its +3 saving throw bonus against psionics.