Expanded Psionics Handbook

[Oberyn]

Thats exatly right, most characters i make have this feat and speed of thought simply for the cool factor.

 

[tylermalan]

Hmmm... and nobody thinks that's overpowered?

 

[Jdvn1]

Not really. It means that whenever you're in combat, you'll probably expend your focus for some reason or another. It's just really useful outside of combat.

In 3.0, the feats let you do stuff all the time, not requiring a focus.

 

[Crothian]

While it is better then the 3.0 version I don't really recomend it. I perfer the psychic handbook from Green Ronin is I must have a psionics system in my game.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Hmmm... and nobody thinks that's overpowered?

I don't think it is all that powerful, because a lot of feats require you to expend your psionic focus in order to do something. So you are stuck with a choice. Keep my psionic focus so I can move faster or run up the walls, or expend it to make my psionic power last longer/do more damage/become harder to resist.

Generally there are 2 types of ways to capitalize on psionic focus. Have a build that takes advantage of feats that require you to have your psionic focus (and not expend it) OR have a build that takes advantage of feats where you expend your psionic focus and get it back quicker (see Psionic Meditation) so you can use these feats over and over in combat with little time wasted in between.

 

[xen_xheng]

You can always have the Psicristal Containmet feat, which allow you to have TWO psionic focuses, the extra one provided by your psicristal. Since this second focus works the same as your own, you can stay focused even when expending your focus to activate other powers/feats (or you could expend both to use two feats in the same round, or the same feat twice in the same round - this is useful for feats such as unavoidable touch).

 

[Thanee]

I've always had issues with incorporating psionics into my games though, does it address any issues with that?

Hmm... maybe then it's not really the best idea to do so?

The book does address this somewhat, but I don't think it's very exhaustive on those matters. There is the magic-psionic transparancy stuff and some background-related information, but most of the book is rules, and they are quite a bit different to the existing systems.

The main question is, do you really need psionics? If you definitely want to include them for the flavor, then it's certainly a good idea to look into it, but if you don't really have a reason to use them other than 'just because', then I would rather leave them be and be happy with what the core rules (and the various supplements) have to offer without burdening you with yet another different magic system. It's not like psionics add anything really necessary, besides their flavor (if that is needed/wanted), that is.

Bye
Thanee

 

[tylermalan]

Yeah, I think the thing I'm going for IS the flavor. The problems that I had before with incorporating psionics were that oftentimes, only one PC wanted to be psionic, and back in 2E, psionics was geared so that it was only as useful as it could be if there were other psionic PCs or NPCs in the game/world. It tended to not be able to suspend disbelief when the only PC that could interact with the psionic character was that ONE and only one psionic PC. I think its probably going to the be the same way in 3.5E, but I think the setting I came up with will help me deal with that.

 

[Thanee]

The problems that I had before with incorporating psionics were that oftentimes, only one PC wanted to be psionic, and back in 2E, psionics was geared so that it was only as useful as it could be if there were other psionic PCs or NPCs in the game/world.

The rules for magic-psionic transparency (means that psionics is simply another form of magic and all spells/powers interact with each other normally, i.e. Detect Magic or Dispel Magic work on both magic and psionics and vice versa) are highly recommended then, even though they make things a bit boring, they definitely help to balance psionics with magic without having to go crazy with psionic encounters all the time.

The good thing is, that psionic combat is a thing of the past, because that was really the worst when it came to psionic encounters. Now everone will be able to contribute in such an encounter. So that's definitely a plus.

One problem is still, that psionic items are completely different to magic items, i.e. the stuff specific to psionic characters (like the equivalents of scrolls and wands).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Klaus]

Even though it was written back in the days of 3.0 PsiHB, I must recommend Fiery Dragon's Psionics Toolkit, written by none other than Mike "the writing robot" Mearls. It goes to great lenghts with advice on how to incorporate Psionics into a campaign.