D&D 3E/3.5 Beating 3.5 Psionics with the nerf bat

[avr]

In a campaign using the standard ~4 encounters per day, there's not too much power creep with psions vs. arcane casters. My campaigns usually don't match that formula & I've created some house rules dealing with the mismatch. If anyone has better ideas for dealing with the problems, I'd like to hear them.

Problem 1: Psions going nova

If a power is augmented to more than half the manifester's level, the powers manifesting time is increased to at least a full round action (using the same guidelines as for sorcerers using metamagic) and expends psionic focus. The manifester can use the focus for a metapsionic feat used on the same power if desired, and using quicken power supercedes the manifesting time extension.

Problem 2: 1 power = An energy type for every occasion

When learning a power which allows the choice of one of the 4 energy types when manifested, this choice must be made when the power is learned instead. A psionics user with powers of only one energy type gets +1 manifester level with those powers.

Problem 3: No psion ever learns Detect Psionics

Psions and Wilders get the Detect Psionics power for free.

Problem 4: I manifest Energy wall [sonic] and wait for the wall to fall down

Powers with durations of Concentration or Concentration + x cost one extra power point each minute of concentration after the first. Also, the Energy wall power is now dismissable!

Comments?

 

[iceifur]

Are you going to throw down a similar system for limiting comat-focused spellcasters? 'Cause, you know, they can blow their most powerful spell-load in a few rounds too. And what about all the other combat-based "x/day" abilities? Should they be similarly limited?

Seriously, though, I'm not quite understanding what the problem is. If you're only having one or two encounters per day, just make those encounters a little larger and tougher (+1 CR or so, with more enemies to fight) and/or reduce the amount of XP awarded per encounter in order to account for the lack of need to conserve resources. There's no real need to modify the psionics system as you've proposed.

Speaking of your proposed system, do you foresee anyone who would want to play a psionics-based character with such a rules modification? You've basically reduced the primary ability of psionics characters (single-power versatility) to near-useless levels (requiring a full-round action and expending psionic focus just to augment past the halfway point, and requiring each of the bajillion "energy" powers to be taken once per energy type). And then, on top of that, you've turned every "Concentration" power into a poison that affects the user's power points. In return, the psionicist gains a (quite) limited form of energy specialization, a minor bonus power known, and the ability to dismiss a single power.

If you don't like psionics, or if they don't fit in the game you're trying to run, that's fine -- don't use them. If you do enjoy psionics, and they do have a place in your game, I'd suggest you check out the following articles and the discussions contained therein (if you haven't already):

New DM's and Player's Guide to Psionics

Myth: The XPH is Overpowered

Myth: The XPH is Overpowered II​

It's not that I'm against house rules; not in the least. I do, however, believe that such things should be thoroughly researched beforehand. I apologize if this post comes across as snarky.

 

[Bacris]

Rules 2, 3, and 4 I don't see a big problem with - although 4 penalizes psions without similarly penalizing casters.

Rule 1, I'd say instead implement something closer to what Complete Psionic recommends - only allow the psion to have x% of his power points available in an encounter - perhaps proportionate to the ratio of the Encounter Level to the Party Level - so something of equal CR, give him 1/3 his power points, something of higher CR, give him more power points, less for lower CR, etc.

 

[sirwmholder]

I read through your rules but I fail to see why a Wizard is allowed to use his best up front without penalty but a Psion can not. Keep in mind that a Psion can only use a number of power points equal to his manifester level in a single manifestation... the most overlooked rule in Psionics.

William Holder

 

[maggot]

If you don't like psionics, or if they don't fit in the game you're trying to run, that's fine -- don't use them.

I see this all the time when people want to modify psionics for their game. Perhaps he likes psionics, and thus wants to use them, but finds that they don't quite fit his game.

I like changes 2, 3, and 4. I think 1 is way out there. Having played a psychic warrior, having to use a full round and drop the psionic focus to get the most out of a power is just too much.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I read through your rules but I fail to see why a Wizard is allowed to use his best up front without penalty but a Psion can not. Keep in mind that a Psion can only use a number of power points equal to his manifester level in a single manifestation... the most overlooked rule in Psionics.

I've never actually seen anyone overlook that rule in discussions on psionics on ENworld FWIW.

The problem with a psion vs a wizard is that a wizard only has a relatively few uses of his top spells (2-3 perhaps?), while the psion can actually burn everything at top whack, converting all his pp into top level powers/augmented powers if he so wishes.

Thus 'going nova' is much more of a problem with psions than it is with wizards or sorcerers.

 

[sirwmholder]

How about this as a suggestion to replace #1... limit augmentation with counters. Whenever you augment a Power you have to wait a number of rounds equal to the amount of pp spent on that manifestation before you can augment again. For instance a level 3 Psion uses Energy Ray ( 1 pp ) spending 2 pp on augmentation. The Psion will have to wait 3 rounds in order to augment another power.

Just a thought,
William Holder

 

[Bacris]

For instance a level 3 Psion uses Energy Ray ( 1 pp ) spending 2 pp on augmentation. The Psion will have to wait 3 rounds in order to augment another power.

Too fast and dirty and not really balanced...

The real fix is to just tell the player not to nova. I've played psions / psychic warriors / ardents /erudites in low-encounter-per-day and high-encounter-per-day games. As a player who understood that going nova was metagaming the majority of the time, and as one who didn't want to break every encounter, I didn't nova. Plain and simple. Unless the party faced a TPK, I always, always left power points in reserve and only used what was necessary - precise, tactical strikes made far better use of resources than massive power point dumps.

Unfortunately, that's not always a solution, because some players just don't get it. The limiting of the PP pool per encounter is a much simpler and closer-to-balanced solution, at least in my experience

 

[Yesminde]

I like 3, in fact in the campaign I'm running psionic people can detect the presence of psionic power automatically, but I wouldn't recommend this for anyone else: it is supposed to reflect the fact that psionics are a group apart in the game I'm running.

As for psionics going nova: I like this ability. I see it as part of the way the game works and I plan on using it against the PC's as much as possible. That Thrallherd is a serious threat when he can punch the DC of his Dominate through the roof: I'm even experimenting with a Wilder/Thrallherd combo to see if I can make it Super Mega Ridiculous and annoy the crap out of everyone.

 

[Psion]

Problem 2: 1 power = An energy type for every occasion

When learning a power which allows the choice of one of the 4 energy types when manifested, this choice must be made when the power is learned instead. A psionics user with powers of only one energy type gets +1 manifester level with those powers.

My take here is that every psion can only use one energy at a time with powers which allow you to choose energy types. It's their "focus" energy. To shift focus energy, a psion must expend their psionic focus. As this interferes with many abilities and feats that require focus, I consider it a fair, if minor, cost. It also has the added effect of making the few powers that have a specific energy type more attractive... if for some reason you need both energy types on hand at the same time.