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

[Yaarel]

Can we also make it so tool proficiencies actually do something?

Skills and tools depend on the DM, but in my games they are effective. One can use a tool check for ANYTHING relating to that tool, including social reactions on the topic of that tool, to convince about its effectiveness or haggle about prices. Anything.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The point is a wizard has a whole bunch of ways to bypass the chance based portion of any given challenge, a fighter and a wizard want to get past a stone wall, a fighter has to make a probably very high skill check if not multiple and that’s if the DM doesn’t just say ‘no it’s just too hard to deal any significant damage to it’, the wizard can just say ‘i cast stoneshape’, or passwall, or dimension door, or stone to mud, or disintegrate, or any other number of spells they have available that don’t require a dice roll

I just walk through the wall ala Juggernaut and shout 'Social Contract!' in the DM's face when their mouth even thinks about twitching in disagreement.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I just walk through the wall ala Juggernaut and shout 'Social Contract!' in the DM's face when their mouth even thinks about twitching in disagreement.

All the DMs must love you.

 

[Vaalingrade]

All the DMs must love you.

They have to love me. Social contract.


No one else will.

 

[Yaarel]

I mean, like by not doing it. There's no explanation why they came to such an asinine number in the first place.

I know we always talk about D&D being its own genre, but what piece of fantasy ever features the protagonists going through a fight (and let's be honest here, the game assumes it's a fight, not just any encounter because it expects resources to be expended and most of the resources are combat resources) every 2 hours on a constant basis?

I know you know but there are ways to tinker the encounters per rest, while retaining the math.

A long rest can be redefined as per week, while a short rest as for ten minutes. And so on.

One can define every rest as a short rest, except twice per level the player can choose to treat a rest as a long rest to refresh.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I know you know but there are ways to tinker the encounters per rest, while retaining the math.

A long rest can be redefined as per week, while a short rest as for tem minutes. And so on.

One can define every rest as a short rest, except twice per level the playet can choose to treat a rest as a long rest to refresh.

Basically the only ways to make the current math work is to reduce player agency and capability. In my opinion that means it's time to take the math out behind the shed and... send it to a farm upstate where it can ruin all the games it wants.

 

[Yaarel]

Basically the only ways to make the current math work is to reduce player agency and capability. In my opinion that means it's time to take the math out behind the shed and... send it to a farm upstate where it can ruin all the games it wants.

Not sure I follow.

If the player chooses which two rests per level to count as a long rest, then the player has full agency. Meanwhile, the player can choose to fight 10 minutes from now or 10 months from now, and retain the math. The player has full agency.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Not sure I follow.

If the player chooses which two rests per level to count as a long rest, then the player has full agency. Meanwhile, the player can choose to fight 10 minutes from now or 10 months from now, and retain the math. The player has full agency.

They have agency on how long their actual agency-granting abilities are taken away for. That's not actual agency.

Remember: everything that isn't a discreet designer-given ability is gated behind DM May I.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They have agency on how long their actual agency-granting abilities are taken away for. That's not actual agency.

Remember: everything that isn't a discreet designer-given ability is gated behind DM May I.

I truly hope you one day find/create the fantasy game you want. It is clearly very different from any version of D&D.

 

[Minigiant]

One thing I prefer in general is for psionics to be stronger than magic at mind stuff but weaker at not-mind stuff.

I want my psions to be better at mind screwing you than my wizards. If wizards have ultimate spell versatility, they cannot have ultimate spell power as well.

Which means exclusive spells if you don't do an alternate system.