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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 2269854" data-attributes="member: 2011">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.</blockquote>

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