Do you use Psionics in your campaign?

[Dinkeldog]

I'm kind of suprised just how many people use psionics in their campaign. But of course psionics these days are not your father's psionics.

So, if someone was selling an adventure in which Mind Flayers play a major part but the adventure does not use psionics rules, would you bother to buy it?

I would take some aspect of the adventure, say a cabal of sorcerers, and turn them into something psionic, say a cabal of psions.

My campaign allows psionics, but the PCs don't want to play them. Which is all right by me. I use psionic bad guys, toss in some psionic goodies, and then the players have mostly trash when they kill the bad guys and find a ton of crystals. They sure know what's going on when they hear the sound of breaking glass, though (sensory display for Astral Construct n in my campaign).

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Nasty surprise

I do plan to use psionics, pretty soon, even, but only limited to some monsters who play the role of the servants of "Elder Gods" in my campaign world. I´ll set psionics up to be different from magic and not common enough for defenses to exist, so my party will get a pretty nasty surprise when they encounter their first Illithid.

And you have to admit, those tentacled beasts beg to be used as Cthulhu´s servants in a fantasy realm with powers other than "simple" magic

 

[Wolfen Priest]

I do NOT use psionics

I bought the book, flipped through it, read some of it, and shelved it.

In my opinion, psionics really does not belong in a fantasy world. It's far more fitting to science fiction, I think.

Magic is cooler, more believable, and usually more mysterious.

 

[bwgwl]

i agree with Wolfen Priest.

i don't like mixing fantasy with psionics.

psionics in a science fiction setting, though, i'm all for.

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

I use psionics in my campaign world, however, it has less of a presence than arcane or divine magic. (As these are a fundamental part of the multiverse and psionics only comes with with sentience.)

I feel that psionics only fits into DnD if it also fits into the DM's grand vision of the campaign world. Same goes for any other character class. If the gods are dead and divinity is unaccessable, then it stands to reason that the DM disallows clerics, druids and paladins.

 

[Henry]

We use psionics in one of our campaigns (I play an Elven Nomad), but in my opinion, Psionics can fit into a fantasy world just as well as a Wizard or Sorcerer could. Given the way 3E psionics were written, Psionics is just someone's natural ability to tap into magic without needing verbal or material components, and it gives you similar results. The main difference is that because it is not directly tapping into various arcane formulae, then it is slightly les flashy, but it is vastly more effetive on the mind, due to the method through which it is triggered.

Gez, you may have given me the exact impetus I need to introduce psionics into my homebrew 3E campaign! Thanks for sharing!

 

[ninthcouncil]

Personally, I can't see the point in adding psionics into the mix when there are already 2 1/2 types of magic already and, like WolfenPriest, I find it a bit of a refugee from SF. Or, more particularly, the sort of SF that wants to have something a bit like magic, but with a fudgy pseudo-scientific rationalisation

Illithids, however, are funky enough to make me almost want to use psionics rules - but you can get by with the spell-like effects.

 

[Psion]

I find it a bit of a refugee from SF.

But since it was a refugee from fantasy in the first place, it's just coming home.

 

[Desdichado]

Do not. However, I've been tossing around the idea of replacing all other forms of magic with Psionics for a campaign setting.

As it is, I can't justify having magic and psionics, though. Seems a bit much.

 

[Voneth]

But since it was a refugee from fantasy in the first place, it's just coming home.

*reaches for his six-shooter*

Do you really want to go there again, Psion?
We don't need you starting any trouble in this town. You've said you piece, now move on to the next subject in this here thread.

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IMHO, I think that DND has been one of the biggest contribuitors to having gamers think that psi could fit right in next to magic in a traditional fantasy setting.

A lot of literature before that time blurred the lines. C.S. Friedman's "Dark Sun Rising" was perhaps the most extensive in that regard, by putting a scientific foundation on her magic/psionic mechanics. And in the end, the writers seem to decide to settle in one of the two power structures, not both, however. And I didn't read any book where it implicitly was stated "We have a psionist AND a mage in our party."

That is until Raymond E. Feist came out with his fantasy series, which in turn were based on ... his college DND game.