3PP Release (3rd Party Book Release) Paranormal Power: A Psionics Option for 5e and A5e, written by Steampunkette!

[Steampunkette]

 

[W'rkncacnter]

 

[Corinnguard]

I know a picture is worth a 1000 words, but if you could put words into their mouths, what do you think they would be saying?

 

[Steampunkette]

I know a picture is worth a 1000 words, but if you could put words into their mouths, what do you think they would be saying?

 

[Scars Unseen]

Alternatively...

 

[Steampunkette]

Psionics and Magic: How do they interact?​

Is a question I do not answer in Paranormal Power, for four reasons.

Firstly, Antimagic Fields exist not only to disable spellcasting, but also magical equipment. There is no psionic equipment in this book. Mostly because I find that magical items are a core piece of D&D/Level Up/Fantasy gaming's specific narrative fantasy. While Psionic Equipment really isn't a specific "Thing" with narrative weight to it. And to some degree I wanted to avoid 3e's "Everything is Crystals" psionic items.

Secondly, they do so largely for the benefit of players rather than NPCs since players have greater agency to prepare such spells. It's a specific function of an aspect of magic to shut itself down to weaken a magical foe. Personally I've never felt it made sense to apply it to psionics for that reason. And resulting from that: There is no anti-psionic power for players to wield against NPCs.

Thirdly, The Psionics presented in this book are slightly weaker, for combat purposes, than spellcasting. Using the split basic augment, for example, allows an Esper to hit more targets than normal, but any psi dice put toward splitting a power to make it hit more people is a die that could have increased the damage of the power, outright. And with a maximum of 9 psi dice total, even their maximum power on a single target is about 10d8.

Finally, it's going to be a setting dependent decision in most cases. In a gonzo high fantasy setting like the Forgotten Realms where all power is tied into Mystra's Weave, it makes sense for psionics to be suppressed if psionics is an interaction with the weave. While in Dark Sun, the aggressive and often feral nature of psionics being capable of bypassing defiling magic gives espers a chance to overthrow the Sorcerer Kings.

Personally, I don't feel that Psionics need to be suppressed by an antimagic field for these reasons. But I ultimately did not make that choice for the system, instead leaving it up to a given Narrator or Dungeon Master, based on their own personal preference and setting's rules of psionic and magical interaction.

 

[Steampunkette]

Well would you look at that...

WARNING: Don't put your copy of Paranormal Power in snow. It won't void your warranty, because there is no warranty. It is a book, though, and liable to be ruined.

Thanks to our friends at DriveThruRPG.com, I can now post pictures of physical copies of the book that I can hold in my own two hands! And as soon as the Kickstarter is over, Print on Demand will be available through them!

And now, for the first time ever: Prepare to meet the dreaded Id Beast!

And just to make sure you can read everything on those pages... here's what he looks like in the PDF itself!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well would you look at that...

WARNING: Don't put your copy of Paranormal Power in snow. It won't void your warranty, because there is no warranty. It is a book, though, and liable to be ruined.

Thanks to our friends at DriveThruRPG.com, I can now post pictures of physical copies of the book that I can hold in my own two hands! And as soon as the Kickstarter is over, Print on Demand will be available through them!

And now, for the first time ever: Prepare to meet the dreaded Id Beast!

And just to make sure you can read everything on those pages... here's what he looks like in the PDF itself!

I'm definitely going to make use of the POD option! My players are much more likely to take advantage of options if I can hand them a physical book.

 

[Steampunkette]

That's for after the kickstarter, @Micah Sweet! The kickstarter has a printed book option.

 

[xiphumor]

I know the art is very pretty and all, but the only thing I can think is "Huh. Steampunkette has hitchhiker's thumb."