Complete Psioinc...now we've had time...

[WarlockLord]

I dare say that if Boccob granted a Barbarian the ability to cast Magic Missile as a Wizard of equivalent level, it would be cast as an arcane spell.

It's granted by a god. It's divine. Boccob's clerics don't cast arcane spells, they cast divine. Magic missile might act like the same spell, but it's divine.

Also, a barbarian couldn't use in while raging, so it would be less useful. But that's another point for another day.

 

[WarlockLord]

1) They can cast arcane spells themselves.

2) They can give out abilities that are arguably more powerful than arcane spellcasting, so why not?

3) Consider Forgotten Realms: Spellfire sources from that campaign's deity of magic, and it allows several arcane-spell type effects (though AFAIK, its not considered either arcane or divine)...and its just a feat.

For point #2, what would said abilities be?

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I think of the divine mind as aligning their consciousness with their god's will and nature, "patterning" their minds after their deity's presence in the universe and therefore drawing upon the same universal forces and powers as the gods themselves do.

It's just that the muscle they flex to achieve this is mental.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Could not be more of the fault some Domains work too well together?

well I was trying to make an Ardent of Fear - so he took corruption & madness + Pain & suffering + mental power + ?
he ended up with a lot of attack powers, none useable on undead/constructs and no defense.

A melee specialist came out very inferior to a PsiWarrior, Unless I could logic in having Fate or Force (energy) as part of his portfolio. ExpKn might help, but feats are at a premium.

Oh, how did they weaken them?

only 1 can be summoned at a time. With their High AC they normally lasted longer in combat than SMA or SNA, and so several of them could really lay down a beating.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Still absorbing it but it looks like a 3 (average) to me.

A lot of reprinted material here, but it's been mangled. The Talorian Mind Lords especially come to thought here.

Lack of page count compared to previous volumes.

Lack of PrCs.

Felt like he took his best material and left it in Hyperconscious.

 

[marshaldwm]

Run everyone, Razz has strong opinions and they might beat your ego resistance so flee! Cast your warding spells and boost those bonuses to Will saves!

Don't worry, a DC 5 is not too frightening.

 

[Henry]

Guys, let's stop the person-sniping and (psionically) focus on the topic, please.

I still like the general gist of the book, but there are a few things that make no sense to me.

I will still never, never, never like Damp Power, and do not plan to ever include it in any of my campaigns. (and THIS is from someone who loves both energy adaptation and the immediate action spell/power concept) Why? Because it really inordinately defangs a spellcaster, especially for too little cost. For 7 points I can wimp-ify practically ANY spell cast at my party, at ANY time? That's too much.

Some changes didn't seem warranted - the "no more than one astral construct at a time" clause. For one thing, they're not THAT powerful; for another, I've never seen anyone in play get out more than one of the things, anyway, because the second someone starts concentrating for a full-round spell, it's like an attack-magnet for every other opponent in the nearby area. The very last time I used one, by the time he was summoned, the combat was one-quarter over, there were no visible targets, and the Astral Construct VI got maybe ONE shot in on an opponent. Hardly very useful, even though pretty tough.

The metacreative / Damage Reduction stipulation, I can see, it makes perfect sense. The changes to Energy Missile et. al. I perfectly agree with (about time.)

 

[paradox42]

Some changes didn't seem warranted - the "no more than one astral construct at a time" clause. For one thing, they're not THAT powerful; for another, I've never seen anyone in play get out more than one of the things, anyway, because the second someone starts concentrating for a full-round spell, it's like an attack-magnet for every other opponent in the nearby area. The very last time I used one, by the time he was summoned, the combat was one-quarter over, there were no visible targets, and the Astral Construct VI got maybe ONE shot in on an opponent. Hardly very useful, even though pretty tough.

Where Astral Construct in its original form got broken was in conjunction with Temporal Acceleration. I've had psions in both my games use this tactic- they TA for 2 rounds (both have been happy to use Overchannel when necessary to be able to do this), and then each round during the TA they manifest an Astral Construct. One of the players specifically always had his AC's appear in flanking positions around a target enemy, whenever possible, and he usually chose to give said AC's the Trip ability for extra nastiness. And as if that's not nasty enough, TA is manifested as a Swift action, so even after the manifester comes out of Accelerated mode he still gets his regular actions for the round (often used by the flanker guy to Dimension Door away to a safe distance).

Now, TA can still let a psionicist get an Astral Construct without the hassle of a full-round manifestation, but you can't do the "flank and spank" trick anymore. This alone was enough of a nerf that the guy who liked to create flanking AC's in TA mode immediately used Psychic Reformation to exchange Astral Construct for another power.

 

[WarlockLord]

Some changes didn't seem warranted - the "no more than one astral construct at a time" clause. For one thing, they're not THAT powerful; for another, I've never seen anyone in play get out more than one of the things, anyway, because the second someone starts concentrating for a full-round spell, it's like an attack-magnet for every other opponent in the nearby area. The very last time I used one, by the time he was summoned, the combat was one-quarter over, there were no visible targets, and the Astral Construct VI got maybe ONE shot in on an opponent. Hardly very useful, even though pretty tough.

Thank you. Even with the temporal acceleration thing (couldn't a mage do something similar with time stop and SMA?), it's not justified. One day, my psion (telepath) with expanded knowledge: astral construct got into a fight with some skeletons. The level II construct didn;t hit them. Ever. They could use hitting power.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Talk about your lunatic hysteria.

What symptoms are you presenting, eh? Fever? Shortness of breath? Nausea? Itchy scalp?

I had those symptoms as side-effects when I started taking that placebo my doctor prescribed. But it cured my athlete's foot, headaches, arthritis, and dandruff.