Fixing "Expansion" in the PsiHandbook

[Forrester]

I don't think there's anything wrong with the "Expansion" ability in the PsiHB, except that it makes no sense whatsoever that someone expanded to 100% of his normal size shouldn't get reach bonuses, a weapon size increase, a to-hit and AC penalty, and in general all of the effects that occur through a full size change. Yet, this is the Sage ruling on the matter, and no doubt it is a game balancing one.

But really, given its effects, Expansion should work very much like Divine Might, a very lame and undepowered (for its level) 5th level cleric spell.

So here's the question -- what level Psi ability should Expansion be, assuming that using it immediately boosts the character to 100% of his normal size?

Basically, I'm changing the ability to:

1) Get rid of gradations (70% increase, 80% increase, etc. just bug me -- simplest to go right to 100%)
2) Give all of the benefits/drawbacks of having a full size increase.


Is 3rd level unreasonable? I know the cleric spell that does the same only lasts one round/level, and is 5th level, but that's just soooo silly IMO. Quite underpowered. And this really is a PsiWarrior kind of ability -- it makes sense that they should have it.

And there are other PsiWarrior abilities, like Vigor, that clearly (at their level) are far superior to similar spells of equal/higher level (Vigor vs. Cure Light or Aid, for instance).

So what do you think? Would Expansion be "broken" as a 3rd level Psi Power? Would it be "broken" if it were changed in duration to one minute, or one round/level, instead of one minute/level?

Recommendations? I have a PsiWarrior who will definitely be interested in this ability down the line, and I need to tell him how long he has to wait .

 

[Forrester]

*BUMP*

Just beggin' for some feedback .

 

[Forrester]

*BUMP*

Hey, this page has had 33 views, and even if 5 of those are from me, that means there's 28 extraordinarily intelligent viewers out there who haven't posted like they should .

PLEASE? Some opin? Por favor?

 

[WaterRabbit]

Not really broken

I don't agree with your premise that it is broken or underpowered. So what more is there to say ?

 

[Forrester]

My only premise is that it makes sense to have a 100% Expansion change a character's size, which gives him a bunch of other benefits as well.

If you agree with that, and agree that making Expansion a 3rd level power, instead of keeping it 2nd level, makes sense given this increased utility, then that's what I want to hear .


Or do you think that I should keep it a 2nd level ability even if I make it cause a true size increase??

 

[Humanophile]

The problem with that is I think the spell is logically screwed enough as is. Going just by logic, a given 6' tall character becomes small when reduced to 50% size, making it bad for movement but good for hiding. Meanwhile, a mere 50% enlarge puts him at large (by the book, medium is 4' to 8'), giving him nice reach goodies. Both the slowing and especially the reach seem pretty out of place for low level spells, so I'd just stick with the spells/powers as given, and cobble up some reason that it works out how it does in the book.

 

[Forrester]

Enlarge is admittedly goofy, because some Medium-sized creatures should benefit from it, and others do not. But that's the nature of trying to simplify the rules -- it also doesn't make sense that a creature seven-and-a-half feet tall should threaten everything within 5' of him with his greatsword, and someone eight-and-a-half feet tall should threaten everything within 10' of him with his dagger.

However, this isn't Enlarge, this is Expansion -- and I'm assuming a full 100% Expansion. So ignore the rules trickiness -- EVERY single Medium-sized creature that gets 100% Expanded is supposed to "officially" be a Large creature. That part of the trickiness is now gone.

And we're left with something even stupider -- EVERY "large" creature created is stuck with a regular-sized weapon, a 5' reach, and so on. It just doesn't make sense.

So I guess what I'm asking can be put another way:

Take the 5th level Cleric spell Divine Might (a spell most consider to be underpowered). Make the duration a minute/level, and make it a 3rd level Psychic Warrior ability. Is it broken?

Would it be broken if it were only a round/level, or had a one minute duration?

Should it really be a 4th level ability?

Inquring minds want to know.

 

[Jens]

Since I like PsyWar, I'd say: Make it a 4th level power and give it the bennies to match! There are few good 4th level powers and many good 3rd level ones.

That being said, I agree that the rules for Enalrge and Expansion are goofy. They make sense balance-wise, but otherwise they're weird. Larger than 8' is large and smaller than 4' is small. As it is, being large is unbalances (too few penalties) and fixing that would allow the spells/powers to do what they should do. This harks back to Medium being considerd the threshold size with modifiers growing as you get farther from Medium, which should alos be fixed. All this (I believe!) would be simple to fix, but is probably beyond the scope of this thread.

 

[Forrester]

Thanks for the response.

Yeah, I think that it probably scales better as a 4th level ability -- as a third level ability, it might be too powerful.

Though I think I have two choices:

1) Expansion as a 3rd level ability, lasting one round/level (or one minute), no movement bonus, but all other bonuses.

2) Expansion as a 4th level ability, lasting one minute/level, +10' movement bonus, along with everything else.


Do either of those seem underpowered or overpowered? #1 might be a little overpowered, especially since it's pretty easy to spent points to extend spells with PsyWarriors, right?