All these Classes to choose from...... Oh My!

[Nonlethal Force]

I like the XPH alot and I wish one of my players would get interested in Psionics so I could see one in action. All three of the above books you mentioned are excellent.

Do you play online here? I know PbPs are often slow ... but you could play a psionics character in one pretty easily. Most of the DMs here allow psionics as it is in the SRD. Just a thought.

Hehe. Of course, there is a sudden rash of "Solo Games" goingon in the TtT forum as of late. You could always start up a psionics solo game for a faster paced adventure!

EDIT:

If you want one of your players to get into psionics ... make them fight a level 1 minion of the BBEG with the crystal shard power and the Psionic Shot feat. 3d6 damage for 1 power point and blown focus is pretty darn good. Granted a 1st level character isn't going to be able to do that every round because of the blown focus - hence the game balance there. But at 1st level that simply rocks.

 

[Psion]

Actually, I've seen all four of the classes from the PHBII in play, and they actually are pretty perfectly balanced.

THe powergamer wanted to play a Dragon Shaman. He quickly learned that it has no particular advantages over any other class.

I played a Knight. I enjoyed it immensely, but was no more effective in combat than a barbarian or a paladin.

A Player tried a duskblade, and got some good hits in, but those didn't rise above anyone else in the game.

And the Thespian played the beguiler. And she played her with a vengeance. Both in and out of combat, she was devastating, but always in a way that agreed with everyone else.

Frankly, I like it as a supplement. it's the best polished one in my opinion.

Since you were responding to me, I can only assume you were thinking that the reason that I was banning most of these was that they were overpowered. The only one that seemed overtly unbalanced to me, as noted, was the Beguiler. And your anecdote doesn't seem to contradict that.

My main issue with the duskblade is that it lacks the flexibility in design that bulding such a character up via eldritch knight and core classes would. I would wonder how high level the character you cite was, though, because the high level powers seem a bit scary to me.