For Nail - The Psion

[Jackelope King]

Instead of discussing the sacred cows in the magic system or the viability of blasting at high levels, why not go through those areas you see the psion as weak, which would go a long way toward showing how the strengths of the class are balanced.

I'd be happy to.

Abjuration magicks are probably the closest for a long while between the two types of casting (arcane and psionic), but the presence of absolutely monstrous spells like the high-end prismatics hand the title to traditional casters. And of course, the end-all-be-all of abjuration, disjunction, does not even exist for psionic characters.

Calling spells don't even exist for psions. Advantage traditional casters by a long shot. And this is a big advantage. Gate wins games, and a psionic character can never manifest anything with the brokenness of gate.

Creation spells and powers are pretty much dead even. The shaper gets nearly nothing unique here (save a few attack powers on-par with conjuration attack spells), and suffers for a long while from a lack of good wall and creature-comfort spells (like magnificent mansion and secure shelter and the like), but the shaper evens it out at high levels with genesis. And note that only a specialist psion (the shaper) can keep up here. Otherwise the title goes to traditional casters.

Healing spells are completely dominated by divine spellcasters. Psions are decent, but they are awful at healing other characters. They enjoy an advantage over arcanists but are nothing compared to divine casters.

Summoning is close. Psions have a highly-customizable astral construct power. It has the advantage of being durable and easily customizable. But traditional casters have creatures which bring magical abilities with them and the list of creatures they can summon grows with every monster suppliment. I'll be generous and call this one another tie, but the inability to ever cast any spells or manifest any powers. Traditional casters have elementals for durable beatsticks. Psions don't have anything to conjure up for magical support.

Teleportation pretty strongly favors traditional spellcasters. Most of the good teleportation powers exist only on the list of a single psion specialist (the nomad) so for anyone other than the nomad to use them, they must spend feats on them. No arcanist needs to spend a feat to learn spells like teleport. 5 out of 6 psions do.

Divination is fairly close, but psionic characters have to pay XP to scry (remote view) an opponent. Note that psionic characters also lack great powers like true strike (breaking magic item creation since 2001). They have a greater number of utility powers, but the added XP cost of many powers evens it out.

Enchantment is close. Telepaths have a great variety of ways to mess with someone's mind, but many of them are redundant. Strong enchantments (like the power words, irresistable dance, and the sort) aren't available to psions while the various subtle mind-messing powers aren't available to non-manifesters. Psions also lack large-scale buffing enchantments at low levels, and they rely on enchantments for their invisibility powers (which means a high-level character who will be mind blanked is immune to cloud mind, the psionic version of invisibility).

Illusions go hands-down to the traditional spellcasters. The versatility of the shadow spells alone would take the cake, but psions cannot match things like invisibility. Figments are also hard to come up with. Most of the psion's strength here lies in the telepathy discipline, and these can all be mind blanked out, while most traditional illusions cannot.

Necromancy is miles ahead for traditional spellcasters. No-brainer here. Arcanists are miles ahead of psionic characters in dealing with undead, and divine characters are lightyears ahead.

Buffing transmutations are close. Psions are good at taking care of themselves, but are terrible at buffing others. Further, the crown jewel of transmutation (shapechange) comes with a fairly hefty XP cost. Some of the higher-level buffs are good, but they mirror what traditional casters can do anyway.

So call psions the kings of direct damage if you want and say they completely outstrip evocation specialists (despite what the numbers actually say in practice), but then remember that direct damage is one of the weakest options at levels 9 and up (when save-or-dies are much more effective). Even if psions are the best blasters in the game, they still fall short in terms of save or die spells, effective party-wide buffs, transportation, and utility powers. They have their advantage in Black Mage Syndrome, but as has already been pointed out, this advantage comes at a price. They have some truly unique powers at their disposal, but they also lack some key traditional spells. In short, trade-offs which have proven to make the class fairly elegantly balanced.

 

[KarinsDad]

Instead of discussing the sacred cows in the magic system or the viability of blasting at high levels, why not go through those areas you see the psion as weak, which would go a long way toward showing how the strengths of the class are balanced.

Certainly.

1) Nearly 80% of psionic powers have a range of Close or less. Psions are close range specialists. Arcane spells average a longer range.

2) Arcane spells auto-scale, psionic powers require more PP to scale.

3) Psions have virtually no "minimize me from being targeted" powers. For example, Invisibility, Greater Invisibility, Mirror Images, Rope Trick, Leomund's Tiny Hut, etc. Psions are almost always visible and targetable on the field. Cloud Mind, for example, is a joke. This weakness is huge.

4) Psions get Fly type spells at higher levels. 11th level tends to be the earliest level compared to 5th for Wizards and 6th for Sorcerers (although there are some exceptions) unless they use a feat (which could pull it back to 9th level).

5) Dominate, Psionic is a concentration power for psions (and also a discipline power). Arcane casters get Dominate Person / Monster for one day per level.

6) Catfall drops 10 feet per PP spent from the distance of a fall. Feather Fall drops 60 feet per caster level from the distance of a fall.

7) Arcane casters can cast buff spells on other creatures (e.g. Bull's Strength, Darkvision, etc.). Psions cannot. In fact, psions can manifest very few helpful powers on other creatures.

8) Arcane casters have a defense against Summoned Creatures called Protection From Evil. Arcane casters have a defense against Astral Constructs (and low level Summoned Creatures) called Globe / Lesser Globe of Invulnerability. Psions have no special defense against either summoned creatures or manifested constructs until either Catapsi (which does not help against summoned creatures at all and does not totally protected against manifested creatures either) or Null Psionics Field (i.e. the equivalent of Antimagic Field which arcane casters can get).

9) Globe / Lesser Globe of Invulnerability will protect 100% against low level divine spells, arcane spells, and psionic powers. Psions have no equivalent defensive power.

10) The Shield spells stops Magic Missile spells. Force Screen does not.

11) Expeditious Retreat adds 30 feet to the arcane caster's base movement and last for one minute per level. Burst adds 10 feet for one round. Skate adds 15 feet for one minute per level (but can be cast on others).

12) Psions have no zeroth level powers, hence, all minor powers (like Detect Psionics or Far Hand or My Light) have to be purchased as first level powers and use up the same minimum amount of PP as other first level powers.

13) Psions have very few area effect disabling / movement limiting powers similar to Stinking Cloud, Fog Cloud, Acid Cloud, Web, Evard's Black Tentacles, etc. Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Mass is very disabling, but it is a 7th level Shaper power and only available at high level.

14) There are very few good Prestige Classes for psions. The SRD Slayer is good and Cerebremancer and Elocator are ok, but the rest suck (IMO, YMMV). There are boatloads of good Prestige Classes for arcane spell casters.

15) This weakness is campaign specific. Most campaigns tend to have more arcane spell casters than psions. Hence on average, there would be more opportunities to acquire arcane specific magical items since there should be more arcane spell casters with access to crafting feats. Minimally, all Wizards get Scribe Scroll, so minimally there should be more opportunities to acquire Scrolls than there are Power Stones. Effectively, if a psion wants a psionic item, he most often will have to craft it himself.

16) Sorcerers can swap out lower level less useful spells every other level. Psions have a more potent way to do this, Psychic Reformation, but it costs XP and uses up a power slot. It is not free like the more minor ability is for a Sorcerer.

17) Wizards can easily have more access to spells than Psions have powers, hence, prepared Wizards are more versatile.

18) Arcane casters get Familiars for free at first level. Psions have to use up a feat to gain a Psicrystal.

19) Psions have 4 Mass Powers and 2 of them are discipline specific. Arcane casters have 13 Mass spells in the Players Handbook alone.

20) Psions have disciplines. They are automatically the equivalent of a Specialized Wizard (i.e. limited power selection) with the ability to use up a feat to acquire a single power outside their area. And, many of the cool arcane equivalent powers (e.g. Fly, Teleport, Remote Viewing, Astral Construct, Metamorphosis) are discipline specific. The ability to pick and choose whatever spells you want and not be limited in any way is huge.

21) It is very difficult for Psions to last as many combat rounds as Arcane spell casters. Even without using max PP per manifestation, they will run out of PP before arcane spell casters run out of spells most of the time.

22) Books outside of the core books will feature feats and spells for arcane casters a lot more often then they will psions. Most of the psionic feats and powers are limited to the XPH.

23) Psions (tmk) do not have an equivalent to Spell Turning.


The point most people are missing is that arcane casters are more powerful / versatile in some areas, psions are more powerful / versatile in other areas.

The two systems of "magic" are different with different strengths and weaknesses.

The bottom line to psionic weakness is that they have fewer versatile defensive powers with the exception of AC boosting, they have very few powers that can help out a team, and most of their powers are close range or closer.

Sure, Psions are good at various types of offense for short periods of time. But offense (more damage, higher DCs) is not the be all end all of the game and I think many people cannot wrap their heads around that fact.

 

[Testament]

They do have a spell turning, kind of, in Reddopsi. Its Kineticist only though.

 

[Shadowdweller]

Few issues and minor quibbles.

Have you read my post about the gloves above?
I claim that globes hinder sorcerers more than psions! And I'm fairly sure about that, too.

I personally have some issues with your reasoning in this matter. While psions do in fact get more uses of their higher-level powers, psionic power progression doesn't quite follow the "exponential increase" that spells are reputed to have. Many of the staple, and better powers are actually lower level...which sort of works from a balance perspective because of the whole augmentation ruleset.

Cloud Mind, for example, is a joke. This weakness is huge.

While certainly inefficient against multiple opponents, and while the presence of a save is pretty nasty, Cloud Mind also has some HUGE advantages over Invisibility: It affects hearing as well, and cannot be defeated by some of the more traditional means of finding an invisible enemy.

5) Dominate, Psionic is a concentration power for psions (and also a discipline power). Arcane casters get Dominate Person / Monster for one day per level.

You might want to check the errata on this one. Psionic Domination can now be augmented to give the day per level duration without the requirement of concentration.

The two systems of "magic" are different with different strengths and weaknesses.

Indeed. Which is a great source of misconception about many different aspects of D&D. Simply because a class, or spell, or what-have-you, is more powerful than what is offered by any other does NOT make it inherently unbalanced.

Although I can say I don't especially care for the FLAVOR of having psions be more powerful blasters than arcane casters (seeing as how at one time, that was supposed to be the arcane casters' archtypical strength).

Edit: Formatting error

 

[Shadowdweller]

I'd be happy to.
etc
etc
etc

Well put, by the way.

 

[KarinsDad]

While certainly inefficient against multiple opponents, and while the presence of a save is pretty nasty, Cloud Mind also has some HUGE advantages over Invisibility: It affects hearing as well, and cannot be defeated by some of the more traditional means of finding an invisible enemy.

Well, I do not consider the advantages of Cloud Mind huge.

It is worthless in combat situations to protect the manifester (unlike the other examples I gave such as Mirror Image, Invisibility, etc.) or in situations with multiple opponents.

It is only worthwhile at all if 1) you have a single target and 2) that target fails a saving throw. If you have to sneak by a half dozen well spaced out guards, for example, Invisibility and Fly are viable. Manifesting Cloud Mind 6 times is not.

You might want to check the errata on this one. Psionic Domination can now be augmented to give the day per level duration without the requirement of concentration.The two systems of "magic" are different with different strengths and weaknesses.

Yes. When you are an 11th level Telepath (or other Psion using a feat), you can have the same duration as a 9th level Wizard or a 10th level Sorcerer or a 10th level Bard. Mind affecting abililties should be the bread and butter of a Telepath, but arcane spell casters can accomplish the same result at earlier levels. A minor disadvantage to be sure, but they add up.

 

[Thanee]

Actually, I would say that your position is what has been disproven repeatidly...

Of course.

You probably mean one of those evading-the-subject-and-turning-away-the-focus-of-the-discussion-to-another-topic proofs.

Yes, those really work well.

Saying that one guy has a total of X known spells and another has Y known spells is reasonable.

Saying so... yes. Using that number to compare their spells known on an equal level... No.

Unless you say - dare I say it again, ah why not - you think Detect Magic adds the same amount of "spells known" as does Meteor Swarm.

Also, I didnt say you misunderstood in this case, I said you were misrepresenting. I have just shown how.

LOL. Yeah, right.

"No, it's nonsense! See? I have just proven it!" -- typical "Scion argument".

Good thing it isnt 'vastly' stronger then. Most of the the time it is either equal or a few more points of dc, at the very highest level it can be much harder to resist but even then in most cases I'd 'still' rather have horrid wilting.

So, you'd rather have an 8th level spell than a 2nd level power? Good choice!

You mean your arguement that if the sorc is an exactly the level where he could run into a globe but hasnt quite gotten many spells that can go above it? The one that only works for a single level 'sometimes' and doesnt even apply to any monstrous type opponents? Cool, so for one level there is a problem going the other direction.

Yes! And the note added to that post, you must have missed.

But you misquoted so extremely that what you said was a lie. That is the problem.

Misquoted via cut&paste, eh? My computer must have some issues, I guess.

Even simply reading the first couple of posts on the first goes through a lot of the problems in a decent way. There are still a few issues and will continue to be, they arent professional writers, they are just people trying to help.

Help with what? Saying that Energy Missile is a completely balanced spell (like you are saying)? Wow!

The myths thread was made for a reason: a lot of people overreact to anything different.

Some of those claims listed as myths are pretty ridiculous, of course, but so are many of the arguments, why the others are not.

In order to give enough on here I would have to post dozens and dozens of posts worth of information. I'd rather just link to one of the more concise places that has many of them instead of doing that.

I see. So there is nothing worthy in there after all. Thought so.

I know people wont want to read the whole thread, but at least read the first page with an open mind and trying to see what is going on.

Oh, I did that! And then I laughed.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Shadowdweller]

Yes. When you are an 11th level Telepath (or other Psion using a feat), you can have the same duration as a 9th level Wizard or a 10th level Sorcerer or a 10th level Bard. Mind affecting abililties should be the bread and butter of a Telepath, but arcane spell casters can accomplish the same result at earlier levels. A minor disadvantage to be sure, but they add up.

Except that the psion is also dominating non-humanoids a good deal earlier than any wizard/sorceror. (Also, overchannel deserves to be mentioned if we're going to talk about specific levels).

Mind-affecting powers ARE the bread and butter of a telepath.

 

[Thanee]

I'd be happy to.

Thank you!

Some comments... the parts I do not quote, I mostly agree with.

Abjuration magicks are probably the closest for a long while between the two types of casting (arcane and psionic), but the presence of absolutely monstrous spells like the high-end prismatics hand the title to traditional casters. And of course, the end-all-be-all of abjuration, disjunction, does not even exist for psionic characters.

While Mordenkainen's Disjunction really is a power-house of a spell, I would rate Psionic Dispel (unless house ruled) to be of an equal power level (that other "power level" ); equal, because its power lies within levels, which are much, much more often seen in actual campaigns.

However, that power will probably be house ruled in most campaigns (funny enough, that it hasn't been covered in the errata), then it's not an issue.

Healing spells are completely dominated by divine spellcasters. Psions are decent, but they are awful at healing other characters. They enjoy an advantage over arcanists but are nothing compared to divine casters.

Of course, divine casters are not really relevant here.

So, the availability of healing "magic" can only be seen as a big advantage!

Summoning... I'll be generous and call this one another tie, but the inability to ever cast any spells or manifest any powers. Traditional casters have elementals for durable beatsticks. Psions don't have anything to conjure up for magical support.

Summoned monsters cannot compare with astral constructs at all, when it comes to combat ability, they are also immune to Protection from Evil and other summon-protections, since they are not summoned. Summons have the advantage of minor magical abilities, of course. While the magical abilities are certainly nice, the combat ability is more powerful IMHO. But it's not that far off, so about even seems to fit.

Teleportation pretty strongly favors traditional spellcasters. Most of the good teleportation powers exist only on the list of a single psion specialist (the nomad) so for anyone other than the nomad to use them, they must spend feats on them. No arcanist needs to spend a feat to learn spells like teleport. 5 out of 6 psions do.

This is irrelevant. While it certainly is a disadvantage for psions in general (also see below), it has nothing to do with the powers themselves. If you say, that teleportation magic is better, since most psions have to spend a feat to get it, then you also have to say, that, for example, Astral Construct is like five times better than any summon spell, because it's nine spells in one, a sorcerer can never hope to match this kind of scaling goodness with Summon Monster. We do not do that, so we do not do the other as well.

The psionics version of Dimension Door is vastly superior to the arcane version, therefore alone, psions enjoy an advantage in this area.

Divination is fairly close, but psionic characters have to pay XP to scry (remote view) an opponent.

While arcanists usually cannot use it at all, unless they have a base of operation, yes. Well, unless they get Greater Scrying, of course.

Note that psionic characters also lack great powers like true strike (breaking magic item creation since 2001).

Heh. Not really, tho (breaking the magic item creation, that is).

They have a greater number of utility powers, but the added XP cost of many powers evens it out.

A lot of the low-level combat-focused divinations are really good and do not cost any XP, tho.

But fairly close... yes, I can see that.

Enchantment is close. Telepaths have a great variety of ways to mess with someone's mind, but many of them are redundant. Strong enchantments (like the power words, irresistable dance, and the sort) aren't available to psions while the various subtle mind-messing powers aren't available to non-manifesters.

Power Words are weak. Otto's Irresistable Dance is pretty good, tho.

But how about really strong enchantments like Mass Suggestion and Dominate Monster?

Those are available to psions of *moderate* level! Big advantage for the psions there.

Illusions go hands-down to the traditional spellcasters. The versatility of the shadow spells alone would take the cake, but psions cannot match things like invisibility. Figments are also hard to come up with. Most of the psion's strength here lies in the telepathy discipline, and these can all be mind blanked out, while most traditional illusions cannot.

Mind Blank isn't really a big factor. Only at higher level play (much higher and much more rare than True Seeing, which you nicely didn't mention and which does foil all illusions).

So, how does it look without mind blanking everything away? That's more important, I think.

Also arcane Invisibility is foiled by many abilities and even low-level spells/powers (starting at 1st). It's still a *very* good spell, of course, and yes, also better than the psionics "equivalent".

Necromancy is miles ahead for traditional spellcasters. No-brainer here. Arcanists are miles ahead of psionic characters in dealing with undead, and divine characters are lightyears ahead.

Well, that's for sure. Of course psions have no trouble actually dealing with undead, they just have to resort to traditional blasting stuff and such.

So call psions the kings of direct damage if you want and say they completely outstrip evocation specialists (despite what the numbers actually say in practice)...

Which numbers would that be? You hopefully do not speak of any of those silly damage comparisons using single spells to compare the total damage dice in a day, which say absolutely nothing about the actual power there.

...but then remember that direct damage is one of the weakest options at levels 9 and up (when save-or-dies are much more effective).

That is something I actually do not agree with. Save-or-die is great during moderate to higher levels, but the saves outrun the DCs quickly and there are some really effective countermeasures out there (i.e. Death Ward).

Damage is always relevant, if you can deal enough of it.
Remember, that you are usually not alone, and the fighter is dealing damage, too.

If a save-or-die spell fails, you have achieved nothing.
If a damage spell deals half damage, you still have done something meaningful.

Anyways... the king of high-level play are no-save disabling spells/powers, of course.
Without really looking, I'd say that arcanists do have an edge there, tho.

Even if psions are the best blasters in the game, they still fall short in terms of save or die spells, effective party-wide buffs, transportation, and utility powers.

Yes, psionics are definitely lacking in the area of party buffing.
Utility, maybe slightly, but not much, they just have different utility powers, but also good ones.

In general, I totally agree, tho (always have and also always stated that myself), that psionics do not have the breadth which arcane spells cover. This is, of course, because there are far more spells out there and most books include spells, but only few have powers (and even then only very few of them). Maybe there will be some book expanding that, I don't know. Right now, it's an advantage for the arcanists for sure.

However, one thing should not be forgotten here, both the sorcerer and the psion have a very limited amount of known spells/powers. This number is in the end the one that is relevant, and there this advantage for the sorcerer (having a better base to choose from), while still present, lessens a lot! Especially once you look at the spell/power levels, which are at any given time most relevant, that is the current highest level spells/powers *known*. The psion always has a HUGE advantage in terms of breadth then. Often knowing four high level powers instead of one spell. That is a tactical breadth the sorcerer cannot match.

In short, trade-offs which have proven to make the class fairly elegantly balanced.

That "proof" is something I'm missing to date, tho. Can you point me to it, maybe?

Or did you just mean, that in your games psions have proven fairly balanced?
That I can, of course, not disagree with.

I am actually fairly sure, that these trade-offs (not only the lack of breadth in the power base (so remember what I have written in the above paragraph) and weaker party-friendly powers (I would even consider this an extra trade-off, because it is a fairly important one), also the augmentation cost (no free scaling, which is the BIG trade-off, of course) and other mostly minor stuff) are not enough, not even close, to balance the immense advantages psions have over sorcerers (much more "effective spells known" (lots of augmentable powers include higher level versions, also includes the incredible advantage of freely choosing energy type, a rather big tactical advantage), much more high level powers known at any given level and faster power level progression (huge advantage at all levels, from 3rd+), no caps (which keeps the lower level powers viable, unlike most of the lower level arcane spells), quicker power output and thus always able to create the full effect of their PP in a day (huge advantage, especially at higher levels), spontaneous Quicken (plus Schism, which can further improve this output), free DC scaling (auto-heighten, when using a lower level power as a higher level power), no VSM components (auto-still/silent/eschew materials (arcane casters need epic feats for that!), also near grapple immunity, the bane of arcane casters at low-mid levels, also Silence immunity), bonus feats (those are needed to get some of the discipline lists powers, tho, thus are not that big an advantage, of course, they mostly diminish that disadvantage to some degree), better skills (class list and Int instead of the weaker Cha as caster/manifester ability), almost unaffected by Globe spells , and so on). Quite a list.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

1) Nearly 80% of psionic powers have a range of Close or less. Psions are close range specialists. Arcane spells average a longer range.

This is true, but is this really an issue? How many long range spells/powers do you need to not be ineffective? One? A few? Psions get enough of those for sure and a huge majority of confrontations will happen at short range, anyways (or is that different in your games?).

Out-of-combat, range is usually no issue at all (except in rare, specific circumstances).

2) Arcane spells auto-scale, psionic powers require more PP to scale.

Correct.

3) Psions have virtually no "minimize me from being targeted" powers. For example, Invisibility, Greater Invisibility, Mirror Images, Rope Trick, Leomund's Tiny Hut, etc. Psions are almost always visible and targetable on the field. Cloud Mind, for example, is a joke. This weakness is huge.

That might be. In general, the self-buffing powers are pretty good, tho.

4) Psions get Fly type spells at higher levels. 11th level tends to be the earliest level compared to 5th for Wizards and 6th for Sorcerers (although there are some exceptions) unless they use a feat (which could pull it back to 9th level).

7th level for Egoists, 9th level for everyone else. Not really a difference to typical sorcerers.

That "some exceptions" part for sorcerers is funny... 99% exceptions?

5) Dominate, Psionic is a concentration power for psions (and also a discipline power). Arcane casters get Dominate Person / Monster for one day per level.

Yeah, right! Psionic Dominate is a really bad power. C'mon!

6) Catfall drops 10 feet per PP spent from the distance of a fall. Feather Fall drops 60 feet per caster level from the distance of a fall.

Okay, a minor issue, close to being neglectable.

7) Arcane casters can cast buff spells on other creatures (e.g. Bull's Strength, Darkvision, etc.). Psions cannot. In fact, psions can manifest very few helpful powers on other creatures.

Yep, a sorcerer can buff his-/herselves AND others Str (for example) with Bull's Strength.
A psion can buff his-/herselves Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha with Animal Affinity.

Sounds like a fair deal to me, if not more.

8) Arcane casters have a defense against Summoned Creatures called Protection From Evil. Arcane casters have a defense against Astral Constructs (and low level Summoned Creatures) called Globe / Lesser Globe of Invulnerability. Psions have no special defense against either summoned creatures or manifested constructs until either Catapsi (which does not help against summoned creatures at all and does not totally protected against manifested creatures either) or Null Psionics Field (i.e. the equivalent of Antimagic Field which arcane casters can get).

Ok. Not much of an issue either, since summoned creatures tend to be rather weak overall.

9) Globe / Lesser Globe of Invulnerability will protect 100% against low level divine spells, arcane spells, and psionic powers. Psions have no equivalent defensive power.

There are actually quite a few spells, which psions do not have access to.

There are also some powers, which arcanists have no access to.
Some of those are quite powerful, too (i.e. Psychic Reformation, Psionic Restoration, Psionic Freedom of Movement, etc).

10) The Shield spells stops Magic Missile spells. Force Screen does not.

Granted. A very minor issue, tho.

11) Expeditious Retreat adds 30 feet to the arcane caster's base movement and last for one minute per level. Burst adds 10 feet for one round. Skate adds 15 feet for one minute per level (but can be cast on others).

Burst did get a hit with the new Swift Expeditious Retreat for sure.
Previously, the free action was a good advantage, now it is no longer.

12) Psions have no zeroth level powers, hence, all minor powers (like Detect Psionics or Far Hand or My Light) have to be purchased as first level powers and use up the same minimum amount of PP as other first level powers.

Yeah, a disadvantage (if you can even call it that), that is about completely neglectable from 3rd level onwards.

13) Psions have very few area effect disabling / movement limiting powers similar to Stinking Cloud, Fog Cloud, Acid Cloud, Web, Evard's Black Tentacles, etc. Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Mass is very disabling, but it is a 7th level Shaper power and only available at high level.

Yep. That is one of the areas, where arcane spells are certainly better.

14) There are very few good Prestige Classes for psions. The SRD Slayer is good and Cerebremancer and Elocator are ok, but the rest suck (IMO, YMMV). There are boatloads of good Prestige Classes for arcane spell casters.

True enough. Maybe there will be some more in future.

15) This weakness is campaign specific. Most campaigns tend to have more arcane spell casters than psions. Hence on average, there would be more opportunities to acquire arcane specific magical items since there should be more arcane spell casters with access to crafting feats. Minimally, all Wizards get Scribe Scroll, so minimally there should be more opportunities to acquire Scrolls than there are Power Stones. Effectively, if a psion wants a psionic item, he most often will have to craft it himself.

Yep, in some campaigns that could be an issue. Most often, you can then buy items, which will lessen the impact quite effectively. Even arcane casters do not usually find the stuff they really want.

16) Sorcerers can swap out lower level less useful spells every other level. Psions have a more potent way to do this, Psychic Reformation, but it costs XP and uses up a power slot. It is not free like the more minor ability is for a Sorcerer.

I would rather compare the swapping to the auto-level-scaling psions get. The sorcerer has a very limited form of upgrading spells (to higher versions, or something else; this is mostly to prevent sorcerers from avoiding low-level spells with caps, since they would then be stuck with those choices forever like in 3.0).

The psion gets this ability for free for (pretty much) all powers (except, of course, that the psion cannot change to a completely different power), there are very few powers for psions, which are completely useless later on, since there are (almost) no caps and many scale with the power level (can be augmented to higher versions). With a careful choice of powers (which sorcerers, even with the ability to swap one spell every other level, also have to do) this is no issue at all and overall even an advantage for the psion, since it works on the full breadth of their chosen powers, not just an extremely limited amount.

Psychic Reformation, while costing a power known, completely tops this ability by being able to rewrite almost your whole character (for a cost, of course).

17) Wizards can easily have more access to spells than Psions have powers, hence, prepared Wizards are more versatile.

Yep, that is also the wizard's advantage over the sorcerer.

They have to prepare their spells, tho. No spontaneous casting/manifesting for them.
A quick look at the sorcerer and the wizard class shows, how much this ability is worth.

18) Arcane casters get Familiars for free at first level. Psions have to use up a feat to gain a Psicrystal.

A bonus feat, no less. Psions do not get Scribe Scroll or an equivalent, but neither do sorcerers.

Being able to not obtain a familiar, which as I have read many arcane casters do (I don't know why, I like familiars, but still), is a big advantage for the psion. I guess, if you could swap the familiar for a bonus feat, many arcanists would do so.

We all know what makes the human such a powerful race. It's the bonus feat at 1st level!

19) Psions have 4 Mass Powers and 2 of them are discipline specific. Arcane casters have 13 Mass spells in the Players Handbook alone.

Did you include all the augmentable powers, or only those with "mass" in their name?

20) Psions have disciplines. They are automatically the equivalent of a Specialized Wizard (i.e. limited power selection) with the ability to use up a feat to acquire a single power outside their area. And, many of the cool arcane equivalent powers (e.g. Fly, Teleport, Remote Viewing, Astral Construct, Metamorphosis) are discipline specific. The ability to pick and choose whatever spells you want and not be limited in any way is huge.

Agreed. That is a huge disadvantage.

However, since their powers known are limited (as with the sorcerer), this disadvantage is not as big as it would be, if they were more akin to wizards (then it would be REALLY huge).

Also, with the bonus feats, this disadvantage is lessened further.

In the end, it comes to how any psion's power selection really looks like compared to a spell list a sorcerer can cast the daily spells from. That is the only spell/power list, that is really relevant. If you look at those, I don't think the psion is at such a disadvantage, really. All in all (including the quicker access to higher levels and the higher number of powers of the highest levels) the psion is probably at a rather big advantage even. We all know how much more important the highest known levels are.

21) It is very difficult for Psions to last as many combat rounds as Arcane spell casters. Even without using max PP per manifestation, they will run out of PP before arcane spell casters run out of spells most of the time.

Yes, but by the time they run out, they have already done like half-again or even twice as much.

22) Books outside of the core books will feature feats and spells for arcane casters a lot more often then they will psions. Most of the psionic feats and powers are limited to the XPH.

See 14).

23) Psions (tmk) do not have an equivalent to Spell Turning.

See 9).

The point most people are missing is that arcane casters are more powerful / versatile in some areas, psions are more powerful / versatile in other areas.

Who is missing that? I certainly am not.

The two systems of "magic" are different with different strengths and weaknesses.

So much for sure.

The bottom line to psionic weakness is that they have fewer versatile defensive powers with the exception of AC boosting, they have very few powers that can help out a team, and most of their powers are close range or closer.

Sure, Psions are good at various types of offense for short periods of time. But offense (more damage, higher DCs) is not the be all end all of the game and I think many people cannot wrap their heads around that fact.

Sure.

Higher offense, lower defense... that sounds like a reasonable trade-off to me.

The problem is just, that psions get more advantages (see last paragraph of above post) than disadvantages compared to sorcerers (or arcane casters in general).

Bye
Thanee