Differeces between 3rd psionic book and the new 3.5 expanded book?

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I preferred the 3.0 book. Claws of the bear was preferable to claws of the beast.

How.

Claws of the vampire in 3.0 was preferable to cClaws of the vampire in 3.5

The 3.0 CotV power was outright broken. It had no restrictions of any kind on what you could use it on. There was nothing preventing you from digging up Oearth or Toril for more hit points. You either got unlimited hit points or you literally destroyed your campaign world (objects that run out of hit points are destroyed). You could use it on yourself (while protected by biofeedback no less), your fission duplicate, furniture, blades of grass... and the duration was excessive too.

and there was no vigilance in 3.5.

Several powers went missing, but not this one. It's called Blindsense.

My gaming table (a psychic warrior and a psion) found the "psionic focus" rules quite confusing and unwieldly.

They're not the only one.

I did like that psychic warriors got power points based on their wisdom in 3.5. Soulknife would be more interesting if the soulknife didn't "always function as a short sword regardless of shape"

You didn't read the soulknife class clearly. They can change the shape of their mind blade, doing more damage as well, as a class feature.

 

[Gez]

I didn't much liked the new funky races, nor the changes they made to classes. Psychic warriors, for example. They're kinda impossible to convert, it's a wholly different class.

The updated powers are much better, though. PH had lots of useless powers (for example, the feel light, hear light, see sound, etc. and steadfast gaze were all merged into one in the XPH) that no one would take since the psionicist's limitation is in the number of power he knows. Kinda doesn't make you to want to waste your precious few slots.

 

[Zimri]

Claw of the Bear VS claw of the beast. *I* prefered the straight d12 damage rather than a range of d6's if I chose to spend more PP on it.

I honestly missed blindsense because I was looking for a power the other psychic warrior kept making reference too which was vigillance.

The part I liked more from 3.0 wasn't what you could use it on. Honestly I don't power game like that. The only time it would have gotten used was on a living opponent that had engaged me in melee. In 3.0 it did 1d8 slashing (a die step down as it were for me as a 10th level monk) but all of that went to healing me not 1/2 of my base damage.

I read the soulknife class completely. It didn't do what I wanted it to (it didn't in 3.0 either).

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

I think the psionic focus rules aren't that confusing. You take a standard action and make a Concentration check. If you pass a DC 20, you're now psionically focused. You remain focused until you deliberately chose to "expend" you focus.

You expend your focus to power certain psionic feats. This replaces the power point reserve mechanic that 3.0 had. This prevents people from just not using their power point to get a constant amount of excellent abilities, or from burning them to get extra damage (Fell Shot or Psionic Shot for example). So, instead of spending power points or keeping them in reserve, you just expend your focus. You become no longer focused, and you get the benefit of the ability.

For example, Speed of Thought - instead of having to keep a power point reserve, you instead must remain psionically focused to use this feat. Or Deep Impact - You expend your focus instead of paying power points.

Does that make any more sense? It prevents psionic characters from having to use their power point to power their feats, and allows them to use them for manifesting powers, which is how it should be.

 

[Piratecat]

I'm playing a psiwarrior in KidCthulhu's game. We're finding the psionic focus rules to be quite simple; I have an index card as a mnemonic that says "Focused?" on it, with one side saying YES and one side saying NO. I flip it to the right condition when I do something. Using psionic focus is proving to be a wonderful limiting factor that's fun to take into consideration.

What do you mean by that?

Given no time to buff by activating psionic powers, my PC is worse than a fighter. Given just a round or two, he's about the same, and given five rounds he's more effective.

The challenge is that activating all those powers in five rounds will use up about half of my power points for the day. Sure, he can boost his AC and to hit rolls and stats. . . but most of my powers have a one minute per lvl duration, so they're really only good for one fight before they vanish.

I have to make some decisions as a result: blow all my resources on one fight? Just buff up partially? Spend an absurd number of PPs to buff up faster than normal? It's a fun tactical choice that affects how well the character performs.