Energy Missile

[Chimera]

I saw some discussion on the General Board about how Energy Missile had been hotly debated as far as whether or not it was over-powered for a second level psionic power.

Can anyone point me at those threads? Or simply overview them for me here?

I have a Kineticist in my game who uses it all the time. While I don't have a problem with the damage and can see that the eventual scaling of it makes it less useful at higher levels, I do believe that, for a 3rd level PC, it's about the most powerful Power out there. It allows him to 'cherry pick' his targets (the only limit being within a 15' circle), hitting up to five of them with no chance to injure his friends. The 'extras' for different energy types (his favorite being Electricity) being a big bonus as well.

I'm in favor of limiting it slightly, but would like to see some of the more informed discussions of the matter first.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Energy Missile
Psychokinesis [see text]
Level: Kineticist 2
Display: Auditory
Manifesting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./ level)
Targets: Up to five creatures or objects; no two targets can be more than 15 ft. apart.
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half or Fortitude half; see text
Power Resistance: Yes
Power Points: 3
Upon manifesting this power, you choose cold, electricity, fire, or sonic. You release a powerful missile of energy of the chosen type at your foe. The missile deals 3d6 points of damage to each creature or object you target, to the maximum of five targets. You cannot hit the same target multiple times with the same manifestation of this power.
Cold: A missile of this energy type deals +1 point of damage per die. The saving throw to reduce damage from a cold missile is a Fortitude save instead of a Reflex save.
Electricity: Manifesting a missile of this energy type provides a +2 bonus to the save DC and a +2 bonus on manifester level checks for the purpose of overcoming power resistance.
Fire: A missile of this energy type deals +1 point of damage per die.
Sonic: A missile of this energy type deals –1 point of damage per die and ignores an object’s hardness.
This power’s subtype is the same as the type of energy you manifest.
Augment: For every additional power point you spend, this power’s damage increases by one die (d6) and its save DC increases by 1.

Controversial stuff in bold.

The target line doesn't say anything about creatures. You could blow off someone's items pretty easily with the sonic version. Even the most devoted defenders of Energy Missile agree this is broken, yet it wasn't fixed in Complete Psionics.

You can target multiple opponents who are 15 feet from each other - a bit like Horrid Wilting, if you ask me. Horrid Wilting is an 8th-level spell with an unusual save type for direct damage and does untyped damage (so generally superior).

Fireball, a 3rd-level spell, has a radius of 40 feet. You can hit more opponents with it, but you're unlikely to pull that off without roasting friends, unless combat has just started.

Opponents can stay away from each other (and avoid damage from Energy Missile that way) ... but you could say the same thing about Fireball, an equal level effect, so I don't think that argument works.

Saving throws: you can choose the save type. This is extremely deadly against rogues.

Direct damage: you can inflict more damage with the Fire and Cold versions than you can with Fireball. This one is a mixed bag; you have to pay for the augmentation cost, after all. Personally, I think there was an overreaction to the initial free scaling in the playtested 3.0 PsiH. I agree 5d6 damage for 1 power point is excessive, but I'm not sure if 10d6 damage for 5 power points is. Certainly that would leave room to cut down on psions' power points, too, which would curb their amazing save-or-suffer ability.

Sonic: see the note about targetting objects.

Augmentation: the +1 DC per power point was an obvious error, and it's amazing people continued to defend it. (This issue was even worse with Energy Stun.) Considering how much more powerful this is than the benchmark Fireball spell, I think that's going too far regardless. That part got fixed in Complete Psionics. Of course, Complete Psionics had such severe editing problems it introduced new powers with the exact same flaw.

 

[Vurt]

Energy missile is indeed a very strong 2nd-level power. It is perhaps even the kineticist's signature power. I think the designers tried to balance it somewhat by making it kineticist-only, but in practice it's a good enough power that it's worth burning a feat (Expanded Knowledge) to pick it up at 5th for any other non-kineticist psion, especially if that character is even occasionally called on to provide some sort of "artillery" to the battlemat.

As written in the XPH, the scaling of +1 to the save DC per +1 power points spent seems to break the convention of things going up +1 per 2 power points spent, which makes power scaling roughly equivalent to spell scaling, as far as saving throw DCs go. And indeed, in Complete Psionic, this has been changed to +1 save DC per 2 PP spent. However, there has yet to be issued any kind of formal errata for the XPH itself, and many folks feel slightly miffed at having to pick up Comp Psi for errata that WotC usually tends to provide for free.

If energy missile is a problem in your game, then by all means I recommend you discuss it with your players and ask them for ideas on how to tone it down. In my experience, this works a lot better than simply changing stuff from up on high. Otherwise, with the errata, I don't find it terribly problematic in play, especially after 5th level when fireball comes on the scene. One is good for groups, and the other is good for dealing damage in and amongst friendlies. One thing I've done in my own game is to make the energy slightly conductive, so that if you fire it at a target that's grappling with a friendly, half of the damage taken gets transferred to the friendly (who also gets a saving throw). But this house rule arose specifically for one particular campaign, and hasn't seen much use since. Another option might be to decouple the save DC from the damage dice. So instead you can either spend 2 PP to raise the damage by 2d6, or the save DC by +1, instead of both. Many other psionic powers do something like this, so there is precedent for it.

Cheers,
Vurt

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

The Complete Psionic eratta was required, and took way too long to get out. Otherwise, I think this spell is fine.

Remember, unless you're a Kineticist you're burning a feat to get it . So, instead of balancing it versus Fireball, you should balance it versus Fireball +Sudden Widen, or Fireball Vs. Sudden Empower.

Ken

 

[Someone]

It´s all said: it´s a extremely potent and versatile power. There´s very little chance that in any round it won´t be useful if you manifest it, unlike most of the attack spells and powers over there.

Common limits are +1 DC/2 pps spent, and not being able to target attended items.

 

[Question]

The Complete Psionic eratta was required, and took way too long to get out. Otherwise, I think this spell is fine.

Remember, unless you're a Kineticist you're burning a feat to get it . So, instead of balancing it versus Fireball, you should balance it versus Fireball +Sudden Widen, or Fireball Vs. Sudden Empower.

Ken

Ah but sudden X is only usable once a day.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Ah but sudden X is only usable once a day.

I don't think Sudden Metamagic as written is balanced, for that matter. (Mind you, I feel the same way about Overchannel and Wild Surge.)

 

[starwed]

I read somewhere that the author of the XPH didn't realize you could target attended items with spells/powers. So disallowing that even follows the intention of the power.

 

[Thanee]

Remember, unless you're a Kineticist you're burning a feat to get it . So, instead of balancing it versus Fireball, you should balance it versus Fireball +Sudden Widen, or Fireball Vs. Sudden Empower.

Last time I checked, Sorcerers didn't get bonus feats and Wizards didn't have spontaneous casting...

The comparison isn't nearly as simple as you put it there.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Chimera]

I realize that it is the "Signature Power" of the Kineticist. And since I have one in my game, I'm not willing to 'just take his toy away' by GM fiat. In yesterday's session, I let him know that I'm thinking that it's a bit over-powered and that I was going to see if I could find any follow-up to where I had seen it noted that others had the same problem.

Made my player a bit uneasy about using it so much. He wanted to know what I was going to change and if he should take another power. Ah, but I'm not such a complete rat bastard as that and I am running a high power game. I just wanted to know if there was some reasonable discussion of how this power can be put more in-line with what a second level power should be.

And yes, I know about the DC and Object problem errata.

We'd already had a problem where the player seemed to think that as long as the next opponent was within 15' of the last one, everything was fine. Was a bit of an effort to make it clear that NO, it's basically a 15' diameter. "No two enemies more than 15' apart", as in ANY two, not just "but those two are 15' apart, and that one is 15' from this one", etc.