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

[Mind of tempest]

* blink * . Monk reskinned as a psionicist, using ki. Hmmm....

I see them as more the relationship of the cleric and paladin.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Fighter, rogues, barbarians, and monks don't use spell slots.

They also don't cast any magic. (???)

* blink * . Monk reskinned as a psionicist, using ki. Hmmm....

We've actually been toying around with this very idea for how to tamp down the class. It's tough to balance it out, but I think the idea is a good one.

 

[Mind of tempest]

They also don't cast any magic. ???

We've actually been toying around with this very idea for how to tamp down the class. It's tough to balance it out, but I think the idea is a good one.

would need way more ki points to work.

 

[Guest 7034872]

would need way more ki points to work.

Well, we've been toying around with it, and so far any time I rebalance them to where they have enough juice to "run with the boyz," as we might say, they become OP. As soon as I try to scale it back, we're back in "support staff" territory. It's been tricky.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

would need way more ki points to work.

For the record, so do monks lol.

 

[Minigiant]

They also don't cast any magic. (???

5 ways to do weapons is fine.
2 ways to do supernatural is too much?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

5 ways to do weapons is fine.

There is one way to do weapons. All the classes use the same basic combat mechanics.

 

[Guest 7034872]

5 ways to do weapons is fine.
2 ways to do supernatural is too much?

I did not say that nor did I imply that. I suspect perhaps we're talking past each other at this point and failing to see each other's ideas.

Let me try to clarify my position, yes? I don't think psionics can work reasonably in the current system for most of the same reasons it didn't work in 1e: too flexible and powerful to keep things challenging and fun for all. The number of ways to work magic is not the issue for me at all (though there already are at least three distinct ways of casting magic, not just one); the issue, rather, is that the kind of flexibility psionics bestows is too great for them to balance well in a system where (IMO) flexibility is king. I mean, isn't flexibility what makes the bard the bard? And isn't the bard the one that everyone else loves to hate for just that reason? (Though I actually like bards myself...)

Like I said above, we've been toying around with different ways of taming the mystic class, but so far the age-old problem has remained: either I have to make them so weak that they're mere support staff, or else just beyond that point they suddenly become too powerful and leave everyone else in the dust. I don't say this cannot be fixed; I only say we've tried to fix it, and so far it's a no-go.

 

[Minigiant]

There is one way to do weapons. All the classes use the same basic combat mechanics.

Yes but there are 5 scaling mechanics for it

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Yes but there are 5 scaling mechanics for it

So what? Different caster classes also get access to differing amount of spell and spell slots in different ways.