AD&D1 Psionics

[the Jester]

I loved 1e psionics, but damn they were broken.

 

[Henry]

Not well designed at all. But still quirky fun when I was 12.

 

[Orius]

No experience with, so much so I thought they were in the DMG.

From what I understand they were another old-school ability that were balanced by rarity. A character rolled for the chance to know whatever powers he might have, and it was a pretty high roll on a d%. Supposedly, these abilities ended up being pretty powerful. The psionics in 2e tried to address this by making a psionicist class, but still including the wild talents; the 2e psionicist could be pretty powerful if he focused on the right disciplines and front-loaded abilities that wizards or clerics wouldn't get until around name level.

 

[Maldin]

As someone said earlier, they weren't very well designed, but ok for the time. We had some fun with them, but as an example of how broken? A 13th level Fighter with not-so-high intelligence and mediocre psionics managed to kill an archdevil (1E MM stats) with a very lucky Psychic Crush roll. Talisman? Ummm... crushing a mind is not the same as slaying a body. He was Dead. Dead. Dead. That was just wrong.

When the 2E Psionics Handbook came out, we switched all our psionic characters to that system, and things were MUCH better. A much better and infinitely more playable design.

Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
Loads of edition-independent Greyhawk goodness... maps, magic, mysteries, mechanics, and more!
Including a short adventure location (ancient ruin) designed to be used with parties that have a psionic character (or one that wants to become psionic).

 

[Hussar]

One of my favorite bits from the psionic system was the chance of random encounters whenever you used them. That was funky.

Led to a situation where a PC fell into a pit trap and used a psionic blast on the spiders at the bottom suddenly summoning a very large demon (I misremember the type, but I want to say Type VI Balor) in the pit with him. Hijinks ensued.

But well designed? IMO, not even a little. Opaque, clunky, swingy, vastly broken? Yup, all words I'd use. Well designed... not so much.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

The wierd thing is that it feels as though buried somewhere in there might be the core of a decent system - it's just that as it was actually constructed is EPIC fail.

Every psionic system since has indeed been vastly more sensible and playable, but that doesn't mean any of them were particularly good. They only shine when compared to the mess that was the 1E system.

 

[Hussar]

Heh, I can agree with the MitFH. 2e psionics was horribly broken. I'd say that between 1e and 2e, that pretty much sums up my complete and utter lack of interest in psionics in D&D. I tried, got burned, and have no interest in trying again.

 

[Celebrim]

Heh, I can agree with the MitFH. 2e psionics was horribly broken. I'd say that between 1e and 2e, that pretty much sums up my complete and utter lack of interest in psionics in D&D. I tried, got burned, and have no interest in trying again.

And 3e psionics really aren't much better. Their flaws are really only mitigated by the huge amount of brokenness available by mid to late 3.5. But I don't think you can say that they aren't ridiculously broken, nor do I think you can say that they really capture the feel or flavor that most people associate with paranormal mental powers.

My complete lack of interest in psionics can be summed up quite simply - 'psionics = magic'. ESP, clairvoyance, precognition, telepathy, telekinesis, ect., that's all just magic. When you add psionics to a fantasy game, it's redundant. When you add psionics to a science fiction game, it's ceases to be science fiction and turns into fantasy. So I simply never see the use of it unless you want to run a fantasy in science fiction garb, like say 'Star Wars'.

However, if I was going to add psionics to a fantasy game, it would be in the form of random talents (like 1e) to capture that feel of a world filled with bizarre arcane gifts, and it would not in the form of a redundant magic system and redundant alternate magical classes like all the other editions.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I voted that they were not well designed...but I loved them anyway!

2Ed was an improvement, and IMHO, 3.5Ed was the best version of all.

 

[mmadsen]

My complete lack of interest in psionics can be summed up quite simply - 'psionics = magic'. ESP, clairvoyance, precognition, telepathy, telekinesis, ect., that's all just magic. When you add psionics to a fantasy game, it's redundant. When you add psionics to a science fiction game, it's ceases to be science fiction and turns into fantasy. So I simply never see the use of it unless you want to run a fantasy in science fiction garb, like say 'Star Wars'.

The term psionic is analagous to bionic. Where bionic means biological + electronic, psionic means psychic + electronic; it originally referred to sci-fi technology for amplifying psychic powers. (Read Poul Anderson's Call Me Joe for an example.)

The term psychic is itself modern and pseudo-scientific, created in the late 1800s to lend a scientific air to the same magical beliefs that had existed since pre-history. The 19th-century spiritualists created all kinds of pseudo-scientific jargon for magic powers; they're the terms gamers use today: extra-sensory perception, telekinesis, etc.

So psychic (or psionic) flavor is really about keeping magical elements plausible in a modern, scientific setting -- which, come to think of it, Star Wars oddly isn't. It really is fantasy with technology thrown in, rather than the other way around.