D&D 4E [4e] Why not savor the PHB3? Major spoilers on the new races and classes.

[Rothe_]

I also dislike psionic PC characters for some odd reason (although not in DS).

I wonder how the psionic power source concept with power points and more at-wills will mesh with multiclassing and power swap feats.

It seems that switching out an at-will for an encounter power will either be too good a deal or too weak an option depending on what happens to power points.

If you lose power points when you swap, it will make the swap a weaker option.
If you don't lose power points, then it is going to be very strong, since the encounter power should be roughly equivalent to an augmented at-will.

 

[Psikus]

Haven't seen anyone discussing this yet: The sample wizard and warlock have a superior implement, a crystal orb and a deathbone rod. Note that the wizard has a +7 modifier to attack and damage with 20 Int, and the warlock has +7 on will attacks and +6 on fort and ref attacks with 20 Char (and a damage modifier that ranges between +5 and +7). Since they are level 1 and have no magic items, +1 could come from expertiese, but I'm guessing the other +1 to attack comes from the implement (and the damage bonus as well?).

My guess is that these implements grant the +1 to attack vs one defense (Will) AND a +2 bonus to damage with a certain energy type (psychic and necrotic, respectively). So they can be really strong (that's about twice the benefit of a superior weapon, at best), but only if you follow very strict limitations on your power selection. I like that!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

the cleanest way would be granting a full augmented at will as an encounter power...

(like the human becomes an unaugmented at will as a racial at will)

 

[Destil]

the cleanest way would be granting a full augmented at will as an encounter power...

(like the human becomes an unaugmented at will as a racial at will)

I'm thinking, for the psion at least:

Buy in - Gain an At-Will. You can use this power unaugmented once per encounter.

Encounter Swap - Loose an encounter, gain 2 power points (or more based on the level of the power).

Since then you'd have power points and get some of the flexibility of your at-will (you could use the cheep augment twice, for instance) but in the end it would be even with other power swap feats.

The idea of getting an augmented at-will as an encounter would work well for classes where the buy in feat won't given you an at-will (non-controllers usually don't get that).

 

[Saeviomagy]

Mostly I dislike psionics in D&D because it's pretty much identical to arcane magic. You concentrate, focus your mind and stuff happens, just like a wizard does. The fact that psionic mechanics have been pretty severely flawed every edition just compounds that: the only difference is the mechanics, and the difference is that psionics mechanics are second rate...

Pretty much for the same reason I dislike assassins, the runepriest and so on, although at least the assassin is mechanically sound.

 

[Stuntman]

I'm certainly looking forward to psionics and other new material in the PH3. I'm so glad that there is going to be another class whose attack stat is based on Con.