[Eberron] - Why the Psionic Bait-and-Switch?!

[shadowlight]

My point was that your initial argument was that there were x feats and PrC's for Warforged, Y feats and PrC's for shifters, roguish stuff for Changelings, but NO support for Kalashtar in those avenues. I was pointing out, as Klaus did, that the XPH could be considered a book full of stuff for the Kalashtar, and it was released only two months before the Eberron setting, so WotC could have thought they didn't need to add more than minimal support in the ECS book.

I totally don't buy that arguement (probably just because I haven't any of the other races yet). That's like reasoning that there shouldn't be any new spells or arcane prestige classes because of the proximity of Complete Arcane.

By contrast, it's the first time we've ever seen the Shifters, Warforged, or Changelings, so they needed the crunchy space more than the Kalashtar.

Yeah, I agree that they should have more space. My argument isn't that they should have equal space, but rather that the support should live up to the initial promise... ergo the "Bait-and-Switch"

If anyone got shafted, it's the changelings - other than Roguish material, they got zilch, and STILL HAVE ZILCH.

I totally agree. Dosen't that race demand a PrC and bunch of feats?

 

[Desdichado]

I hate, hate, hate psionics. Comes off too sci-fi, too modern, etc, etc.

Not to hijack the thread too much, but I see this a fair amount, and it completely baffles me as psychic powers are neither sci-fi nor modern, and especially the 3e+ versions of psionics which are merely a different kind of magic. What's the basis of this claim, anyway?

 

[Desdichado]

I totally agree. Doen't that race demand a PrC and bunch of feats?

Do any of the races? Racial prestige classes, like the warforged juggernaut or the master shifter, or whatever the heck its called, reek of "paragon races" from Unearthed Arcana to me. If you're already a member of that race, why do you need to become even moreso? I can't get behind that concept; it strikes me as fundamentally silly.

For that matter, the shifter feats are all pretty lame anyway; I just looked at them again since my shifter hit third level, and I wouldn't want to take any of them. Might as well not be any.

 

[shadowlight]

Do any of the races? Racial prestige classes, like the warforged juggernaut or the master shifter, or whatever the heck its called, reek of "paragon races" from Unearthed Arcana to me. If you're already a member of that race, why do you need to become even moreso? I can't get behind that concept; it strikes me as fundamentally silly.

I agree for races like humans and elves, but something like the Shifters, Changelings or Warforged - where they have some kind of unique nature (shifting, doppleganging and being a construct), I think a PrC is appropriate.

For the Kalashtar I'd like to see something that gradually brought them closer to their Dream Plane heritage.

 

[shadowlight]

Not to hijack the thread too much, but I see this a fair amount, and it completely baffles me as psychic powers are neither sci-fi nor modern, and especially the 3e+ versions of psionics which are merely a different kind of magic. What's the basis of this claim, anyway?

Dude! Stop Hijacking my Rant!!

 

[Henry]

One mini-hijack: Josh, it's probably all the greek pre and suffixes: Cata- this, Apo-that, Psycho- the other, etc.

In the 3e book, cognizance crystals were called crystal "capacitors." And Regdar would just have to ask, "What in the Hells is a capacitor?!?!" I like how they tried to fantasy mainline it more in the XPH, though.

 

[shadowlight]

One mini-hijack: Josh, it's probably all the greek pre and suffixes: Cata- this, Apo-that, Psycho- the other, etc.

In the 3e book, cognizance crystals were called crystal "capacitors." And Regdar would just have to ask, "What in the Hells is a capacitor?!?!" I like how they tried to fantasy mainline it more in the XPH, though.

Totally! What lame engineer came up with "crystal capacitor"?!! "Cognizance Crystal" is obtuse but not sci-fi sounding.

Dude! Shadowlight, stop hijacking my Rant!!!

 

[Trickstergod]

One mini-hijack: Josh, it's probably all the greek pre and suffixes: Cata- this, Apo-that, Psycho- the other, etc.

In the 3e book, cognizance crystals were called crystal "capacitors." And Regdar would just have to ask, "What in the Hells is a capacitor?!?!" I like how they tried to fantasy mainline it more in the XPH, though.

Ha ha! Thread hijacking!

Anyway, Josh, yeah, Henry has it more or less. A lot of it really comes down to the stylistic way that psionics is presented. The ectoplasm, crystal capacitors and general naming convention for it generally turns me off to it. Which is, in part, why I'm fine with it in Eberron; it presents it more as tapping into the power of dreams and like, which I can deal with a bit better than the occasional inference of psionics being evolutionary or some such silliness.

Oh, and to shadowlight and his comment on how the psionics integration drew some to Dark Sun:

Well, of course. However, the current level of psionics offered in Eberron, while definitely not to the level some would like it, is probably the best compromise that could have been done. It doesn't have much psionics, but it offers more than other settings do. Conversely, it doesn't have too much in the way of psionics that turns other people off to it.

Not to mention that it's also much easier to turn up or down the level of psionics in Eberron than Dark Sun, where tearing out psionics would be akin to taking out magic from most other campaign settings.