New PH3 Class....The Psion!

[lutecius]

I really like the fact that they have finaly broken the power structure for the psion. It helps answer one of the most common complaints about 4e, i.e. that all the class feel the same.

Too bad they did not venture earlier in that area. I can see Wizards as having a few at wills, no encounters and almost all dailies and the reverse for fighters (mostly at wills and perhaps no daily) to really bring back the flavor of the earlier edition for these classes.

Yes this is a refreshing change, although I'd prefer dailies and utilities to be included in the power point pool.

The real problem is, as implied in your 2nd point, that there is no logical reason why the psion (rather than say, martial classes) should have this kind of flexibility.

So for me, this is too little, too late.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

SO , you think martial classes needed a mana bar that refresshed per encounter, call it rage or energy. Wow.

 

[Caliber]

I read the entire Psion writeup within the Compendium before the article went live, so I didn't even notice the link thing as an issue. Looking back though, yeah that would've sucked. With the Compendium interface though I just searched for Psion and scrolled through their entire power list.

One problem I have with lumping Psion knowledge under the Arcana skill is it feels like the skill is being overloaded somewhat. Now Arcana tells you about the Arcana AND Psionic power sources? Will it also tell you about the Shadow and Elemental power sources? Wimpy 'ole Religion just gets you Divine, and Nature just gets you Primal. This seems a bit lopsided, no? (That said, giving each source its own skill is also not tenable, so there has to be some middle ground solution. Maybe Elemental can be lumped under Religion, but I'm still not sure how Shadow knowledge will work ...) Any thoughts?

 

[Rechan]

You also get utility powers. And, you don't stick with just three at-wills the whole time. You replace old at-wills with a relatively new concept of higher level at-wills. So, it will not be nearly as boring as it seems based just on a rough description.

I don't mean level by level, although you only get to replace a power at every two levels.

What I mean is round by round, encounter by encounter. Setting aside dailies and utilities, which only pop up (usually) once per day per ability, you're using only three powers every fight. Yes, you can supe up those three powers, but it's still the same trcik. Your strategy or variability in terms of 'what you can do' is fairly limited.

As a side note, I do hope that the other "disciplines" from previous editions show up in the other classes, rather than the psion. I personally really liked the psychometabolism discipline, and so I hope that gets eaten by the psionic defender. I would be willing to bet that the divining/precog stuff will get eaten by the psionic leader. (My other hope is that we'll see teh Lurk re-emerge, either repackaged in the Soulknife, or someting; the monk doesn't do it for me as a psionic striker.)

 

[Rechan]

One problem I have with lumping Psion knowledge under the Arcana skill is it feels like the skill is being overloaded somewhat. Now Arcana tells you about the Arcana AND Psionic power sources? Will it also tell you about the Shadow and Elemental power sources? Wimpy 'ole Religion just gets you Divine, and Nature just gets you Primal. This seems a bit lopsided, no? (That said, giving each source its own skill is also not tenable, so there has to be some middle ground solution. Maybe Elemental can be lumped under Religion, but I'm still not sure how Shadow knowledge will work ...) Any thoughts?

Were I in charge, elemental would be related to Nature. And Shadow would be related to Religion. Purely because shadow = shadowfell = undead, which is keyed into religion.

But Arcana all ready is a hefty skill package as it is. It handles rituals, it handles detecting magic, it handles other monsters, etc etc.

 

[Jhaelen]

That's a bit more of a hassle, actually. Right now I've got the psion stuff as 53 separate, printable files (powers, feats, etc.). If I wanted to, I could compile that stuff into a text document or even a pdf (using a pdf editor), but frankly, that's too much work for me.

... and that's exactly what they're trying to achieve. The point isn't to completely prevent piracy (which would be impossible), it's about making it more difficult to provide pirated copies.

If YOU think it's to much of a hassle, many or even most others will think so, as well.

Similarly, no amount of security measures will ever completely prevent code or encrypted data from being cracked or deciphered. The goal is simply to make it difficult enough that not everyone can do it in a couple of minutes. The more expert knowledge and time it takes, the less attractive it becomes for a would-be pirate.

As for the kind of hackers, that would just do it because it might be a challenge - they are not typically the kind of people who make it generally available if they were successful - precisely because they only care about the challenge.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

One problem I have with lumping Psion knowledge under the Arcana skill is it feels like the skill is being overloaded somewhat. Now Arcana tells you about the Arcana AND Psionic power sources? Will it also tell you about the Shadow and Elemental power sources? Wimpy 'ole Religion just gets you Divine, and Nature just gets you Primal. This seems a bit lopsided, no? (That said, giving each source its own skill is also not tenable, so there has to be some middle ground solution. Maybe Elemental can be lumped under Religion, but I'm still not sure how Shadow knowledge will work ...) Any thoughts?

I don't think it said that anywhere, though psionics can be rather "arcane" you could just as likely use insight (though that skill gets more than enough use too).

 

[Particle_Man]

Behold my remarkably slow and plodding ninja skillz and hippo-like reflexes!

As a side note, hippos are actually the deadliest animal in Africa.

The 6 Cutest Animals That Can Still Destroy You | Cracked.com

 

[Kobold Avenger]

So how many people think we're going to get a class that uses weapon attacks with augmentations?

And I can already see there being the Shaper as a build in Psionic Power. It seems like it's the trend to introduce a summoner build for any controller unless they already had summoning before (Arcane Power and Primal Power respectively do it for the Wizard and Druid). Augmentable at-wills would be something like crystal shard or 1 round terrain effects, while dailies would be summoning astral constructs.

 

[lutecius]

SO , you think martial classes needed a mana bar that refresshed per encounter, call it rage or energy. Wow.

I think non-magical actions shouldn't be magically limited to once per encounter. At least a mana bar can be rationalized as rage or energy. Fire-and-forget powers cannot.