Alzrius
The EN World kitten
I want to make it clear that I'm not going to try to be even remotely dispassionate about PHBR5 The Complete Psionics Handbook. And that's for a very good reason: I love psionics. I mean I love, love, love psionics, and this book is why.
Now, to be fair to those who don't, I can understand why. Even leaving aside issues of tone and balance, the way psionics was depicted in AD&D 1E was...less than ideal. Things like having the basic information appear in the Players Handbook while the attack matrices appeared in the Dungeon Master's Guide, while par for the course for a lot of things, couldn't have helped simplify what was already a complicated subset of rules, especially since power points were split into multiple pools and the psionic encounter tables seemed designed to bring monsters down on you if you put your powers to use. And even that wasn't as unforgiving as how psionics were presented in OD&D's Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry, where you had to give up spell slots or points in your ability scores (if I remember correctly) to balance out having psionic powers. Brutal!
But I didn't know any of that when I stumbled upon this book. All I knew was that the psionicist presented a fifth class in the four meta-class groups (i.e. warrior, rogue, priest, and wizard), and that alone was enough to impress me. Likewise, the possibility of gaining a wild talent - that is, gaining a psionic power, potentially several psionic powers, for free - was enough to appeal to my munchkin power-gamer heart. That the possibility of that was notably small mattered not at all, and I barely made note of the fact that a bad roll to check for wild talents could actually reduce your ability scores. In fact, that remains perhaps the only way to die during character creation in AD&D 2E. Tell 'em, Spoony!
It also helped that this was the point where psionics were getting their own integrated setting, as found in the Dark Sun Boxed Set. Here was a setting where you didn't check for wild talents, because everyone had them outright (unless you played a psionicist proper). It's no surprise that the official errata sheet for The Complete Psionics Handbook was found in that boxed set!
Dark Sun was also where this book became part of a trilogy. I mean, not really, but that was how I thought of it. The fact that Dragon Kings had a bunch of new psionic powers, alongside rules for psionicists of 21st-30th level, made it a must-buy for me, along with The Will and the Way, which was a dedicated psionic expansion book. Oddly enough, I remember being absolutely convinced that the latter book was also a leatherette product (green, I believe I thought it was). Why I had that in my head I don't know, but with the World Wide Web still being in its infancy, it was some time before I became disabused of that notion. As it was, I eagerly snatched up the Deck of Psionic Powers, as it was the closest thing AD&D 2E psionics got to the Wizard's Spell Compendium or Priest's Spell Compendium, having powers from all three books in "the trilogy."
Of course, psionics would get a massive revamp soon enough anyway. We'd see it radically overhauled in the Dark Sun Campaign Setting (Expanded and Revised Edition), with those rules also appearing in Player's Option - Skills & Powers. Then Third Edition would make them much more Vancian in presentation as of the 3.0 Psionics Handbook (which, everyone forgets, actually brought the "psionic combat" system to Third Edition), and while they got some decent expansions in the Expanded Psionics Handbook and Complete Psionic, wouldn't get much official support after that. (Even if The Mind's Eye articles on the WotC website oftentimes turned up gems, such as the articles on Sardior, the god of the psionic gem dragons. Or the "subpsionics" that mirrored the Forgotten Realms' shadow magic. Or the expanded material about psionic tattoos. You get the idea.)
Still, it was among the third-party community where psionics really shined, such as with Malhavoc Press's Hyperconscious: Explorations in Psionics or Fiery Dragon's Of Sound Mind. But the real leaders in that particular category were Dreamscarred Press, whose carved out their niche as the premiere producers of psionic content, starting when their first book had the innovative society mind class (which got a lot of supporting material, all of which can be found in the excellent compilation product Untapped Classes: Complete Society Mind. Disclaimer: I wrote some of the material that was collected in there), and going on through to Pathfinder 1E, eventually making their Ultimate Psionics book a landmark for those who wanted to keep using psionics in that system.
Unfortunately, that would be the high point for psionics. In 4E, they were just another power source, and ended up getting only a single dedicated book from WotC: Psionic Power. 5E has been even less forthcoming where psionics are concerned, covering it in a few Unearthed Arcana articles but so far not bringing it into any print releases, something that will hopefully change soon. (EDIT: I'm told that Tasha's Cauldron of Everything has some options that could be considered psionic, such as the aberrant mind sorcerer, or the Telekinetic and Telepathic feats. If so, the bar has certainly been lowered on what constitutes "psionics" being their own distinct thing.)
Did I mention that I really love psionics?
So, about this book in particular. I remember gleefully looking into making a psionicist character only to sit down and eventually realize that they were far more "utility character" than "blaster" type. Most of the psionic powers in this book simply didn't lend themselves to direct damage-dealing. Even powers like detonate or death field tended to be the exception rather than the rule, and quite often had limitations that made them difficult to use with impunity (even aside from how, in this edition, you needed to make a check to use your powers correctly). They just weren't focused on battle, aside from psionic combat (i.e. mind-to-mind mental combat).
I was, however, fascinated by the all-too-brief section on how psionics and magic interacted. Contrary to popular belief, they weren't completely divorced from each other, which lent to some fascinating instances of the rules being tweaked (e.g. a psionicist used their combined Wisdom and Constitution for the differential modifier when targeted by a magic jar spell). Also, the psionic monsters were fascinating. Remember how the thought eater looked like a psiduck that someone forgot to feed in 1E?
Well here's how he looked in PHBR5:
Much more badass!
Oh, and the fact that the book had an overview of psionics in the various AD&D campaign worlds was intriguing to boot, mostly because I didn't have many campaign-specific materials at the time (except Ravenloft, which already covered psionic-specific changes as of Forbidden Lore and the Ravenloft Revised Boxed Set). Dragonlance having no psionics while the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk did? There were all kinds of interesting ideas you could draw from that.
So yeah, this book rates very highly among the leatherettes for me. It sparked my love for D&D's weird psychic powers, and I've had them on my mind ever since.
Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.
Now, to be fair to those who don't, I can understand why. Even leaving aside issues of tone and balance, the way psionics was depicted in AD&D 1E was...less than ideal. Things like having the basic information appear in the Players Handbook while the attack matrices appeared in the Dungeon Master's Guide, while par for the course for a lot of things, couldn't have helped simplify what was already a complicated subset of rules, especially since power points were split into multiple pools and the psionic encounter tables seemed designed to bring monsters down on you if you put your powers to use. And even that wasn't as unforgiving as how psionics were presented in OD&D's Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry, where you had to give up spell slots or points in your ability scores (if I remember correctly) to balance out having psionic powers. Brutal!
But I didn't know any of that when I stumbled upon this book. All I knew was that the psionicist presented a fifth class in the four meta-class groups (i.e. warrior, rogue, priest, and wizard), and that alone was enough to impress me. Likewise, the possibility of gaining a wild talent - that is, gaining a psionic power, potentially several psionic powers, for free - was enough to appeal to my munchkin power-gamer heart. That the possibility of that was notably small mattered not at all, and I barely made note of the fact that a bad roll to check for wild talents could actually reduce your ability scores. In fact, that remains perhaps the only way to die during character creation in AD&D 2E. Tell 'em, Spoony!
It also helped that this was the point where psionics were getting their own integrated setting, as found in the Dark Sun Boxed Set. Here was a setting where you didn't check for wild talents, because everyone had them outright (unless you played a psionicist proper). It's no surprise that the official errata sheet for The Complete Psionics Handbook was found in that boxed set!
Dark Sun was also where this book became part of a trilogy. I mean, not really, but that was how I thought of it. The fact that Dragon Kings had a bunch of new psionic powers, alongside rules for psionicists of 21st-30th level, made it a must-buy for me, along with The Will and the Way, which was a dedicated psionic expansion book. Oddly enough, I remember being absolutely convinced that the latter book was also a leatherette product (green, I believe I thought it was). Why I had that in my head I don't know, but with the World Wide Web still being in its infancy, it was some time before I became disabused of that notion. As it was, I eagerly snatched up the Deck of Psionic Powers, as it was the closest thing AD&D 2E psionics got to the Wizard's Spell Compendium or Priest's Spell Compendium, having powers from all three books in "the trilogy."
Of course, psionics would get a massive revamp soon enough anyway. We'd see it radically overhauled in the Dark Sun Campaign Setting (Expanded and Revised Edition), with those rules also appearing in Player's Option - Skills & Powers. Then Third Edition would make them much more Vancian in presentation as of the 3.0 Psionics Handbook (which, everyone forgets, actually brought the "psionic combat" system to Third Edition), and while they got some decent expansions in the Expanded Psionics Handbook and Complete Psionic, wouldn't get much official support after that. (Even if The Mind's Eye articles on the WotC website oftentimes turned up gems, such as the articles on Sardior, the god of the psionic gem dragons. Or the "subpsionics" that mirrored the Forgotten Realms' shadow magic. Or the expanded material about psionic tattoos. You get the idea.)
Still, it was among the third-party community where psionics really shined, such as with Malhavoc Press's Hyperconscious: Explorations in Psionics or Fiery Dragon's Of Sound Mind. But the real leaders in that particular category were Dreamscarred Press, whose carved out their niche as the premiere producers of psionic content, starting when their first book had the innovative society mind class (which got a lot of supporting material, all of which can be found in the excellent compilation product Untapped Classes: Complete Society Mind. Disclaimer: I wrote some of the material that was collected in there), and going on through to Pathfinder 1E, eventually making their Ultimate Psionics book a landmark for those who wanted to keep using psionics in that system.
Unfortunately, that would be the high point for psionics. In 4E, they were just another power source, and ended up getting only a single dedicated book from WotC: Psionic Power. 5E has been even less forthcoming where psionics are concerned, covering it in a few Unearthed Arcana articles but so far not bringing it into any print releases, something that will hopefully change soon. (EDIT: I'm told that Tasha's Cauldron of Everything has some options that could be considered psionic, such as the aberrant mind sorcerer, or the Telekinetic and Telepathic feats. If so, the bar has certainly been lowered on what constitutes "psionics" being their own distinct thing.)
Did I mention that I really love psionics?
So, about this book in particular. I remember gleefully looking into making a psionicist character only to sit down and eventually realize that they were far more "utility character" than "blaster" type. Most of the psionic powers in this book simply didn't lend themselves to direct damage-dealing. Even powers like detonate or death field tended to be the exception rather than the rule, and quite often had limitations that made them difficult to use with impunity (even aside from how, in this edition, you needed to make a check to use your powers correctly). They just weren't focused on battle, aside from psionic combat (i.e. mind-to-mind mental combat).
I was, however, fascinated by the all-too-brief section on how psionics and magic interacted. Contrary to popular belief, they weren't completely divorced from each other, which lent to some fascinating instances of the rules being tweaked (e.g. a psionicist used their combined Wisdom and Constitution for the differential modifier when targeted by a magic jar spell). Also, the psionic monsters were fascinating. Remember how the thought eater looked like a psiduck that someone forgot to feed in 1E?
Well here's how he looked in PHBR5:
Much more badass!
Oh, and the fact that the book had an overview of psionics in the various AD&D campaign worlds was intriguing to boot, mostly because I didn't have many campaign-specific materials at the time (except Ravenloft, which already covered psionic-specific changes as of Forbidden Lore and the Ravenloft Revised Boxed Set). Dragonlance having no psionics while the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk did? There were all kinds of interesting ideas you could draw from that.
So yeah, this book rates very highly among the leatherettes for me. It sparked my love for D&D's weird psychic powers, and I've had them on my mind ever since.
Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.
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