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<blockquote data-quote="Jmarso" data-source="post: 8451491" data-attributes="member: 7032066">My favorite way to treat psionics is not to make them a distinct class of character, but to make them a special overlay to a 'regular' class that gives them added abilities and powers. Does it unbalance things a bit? Yes, it does, but in past campaigns where I've allowed psionics as a DM, only one or two characters have ever qualified.In order for a standard human / demi-human to be psionically capable, I ruled that they must possess exceptional mental faculties. In order to be eligible, their INT, WIS, and CHA scores had to add up to a minimum of 50 points- something very rarely achieved the way we used to do chargen. (That's two 16's and an 18!) Just by nature of that requirement, these characters were almost always clerics or magic users. After that, they could roll a percentile die. On a 100, they were gifted with psionic powers. Then they had to survive past first level- just like anyone else.In one campaign, a party that obtained access to some wish spells used them to obtain psionic powers.The couple players with psionic characters treated them like treasures, and were not happy when they eventually perished. My other 'thing' is that psionic characters sort of mentally attract psionic opponents from time to time, so things could get tough when the Gith and Mind Flayers started showing up...Other than that, though, I sort of treated them as Deryni from the Kurtz novels, except that they were extremely rare individuals, kind of like the&nbsp; immortals in Highlander.Slightly humorous sidebar: As kids, when we first started playing the game, we didn't know how to pronounce the word. For a few years there, we called them 'pah-sonics.'</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jmarso, post: 8451491, member: 7032066"] My favorite way to treat psionics is not to make them a distinct class of character, but to make them a special overlay to a 'regular' class that gives them added abilities and powers. Does it unbalance things a bit? Yes, it does, but in past campaigns where I've allowed psionics as a DM, only one or two characters have ever qualified. In order for a standard human / demi-human to be psionically capable, I ruled that they must possess exceptional mental faculties. In order to be eligible, their INT, WIS, and CHA scores had to add up to a minimum of 50 points- something very rarely achieved the way we used to do chargen. (That's two 16's and an 18!) Just by nature of that requirement, these characters were almost always clerics or magic users. After that, they could roll a percentile die. On a 100, they were gifted with psionic powers. Then they had to survive past first level- just like anyone else. In one campaign, a party that obtained access to some [I]wish[/I] spells used them to obtain psionic powers. The couple players with psionic characters treated them like treasures, and were not happy when they eventually perished. My other 'thing' is that psionic characters sort of mentally attract psionic opponents from time to time, so things could get tough when the Gith and Mind Flayers started showing up... Other than that, though, I sort of treated them as Deryni from the Kurtz novels, except that they were [I]extremely[/I] rare individuals, kind of like the immortals in [I]Highlander.[/I] Slightly humorous sidebar: As kids, when we first started playing the game, we didn't know how to pronounce the word. For a few years there, we called them 'pah-sonics.' [/QUOTE]

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