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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Graf" data-source="post: 2429296" data-attributes="member: 3087">I accept that you are writing from the "I want Eberron to be immersed in psionics" and that emotion isn't going to change.However your insistence that the way psionics is handled is illogical is wrong. It’s not the way you would do it (obviously, because you dig psionics) but that only makes it different not logically incorrect.Your biggest false assumption is that psionics somehow exist in Eberron naturally. Why? Where did you read this? Do you feel that everyone has always had access to the same stuff that modern society has? If you are willing to accept that Lightning Rails didn’t exist during the age of Demons why does psionics have to?(Is it a love the X-Men-style magic power where “joe farmboy” can wake up one day with the power to destroy buildings?)In Eberron psionics, as people pointed out above, were developed by beings from the plane of dreams and brought to Eberron comparatively recently; Psionics arrived with the Kalashar maybe 1898 years before the current Eberron campaign's dates.It’s important to remember something about Eberron (you may not like it but this is a fact of the setting).1. There are few high level PC class characters, and even fewer high level spell casters.2. Members of the dragonmarked houses, using dragonshard items, can generate effects -much- more cheaply than a comparable high spell caster (especially if you factor opportunity costs of building up a wizard to the point that these powers are available).So, while you as a DM might love the idea of a big market for psionic spells and items it doesn't make much sense. Even if the Kalashar had a racial mindset like that of the Neogi (moneymoneymoney) they can't beat the dragonmarked houses on price. Plus...1) their numbers are probably a few hundred or so at that point they arrived on Eberron.... well over a thousand years after the Dragonmarked Houses set up their monopolies.2) nobody can properly assess and value psionic items, except the people who are trying to sell them3) they are devoting their energies to a holy war against very powerful foes; their method of fighting the holy war involves a lot of praying and religious activity (i.e. they don't have a lot of free time)4) Culture shock.... modern Kalashar are weird.... their ancestors, fresh off the boat from a place where reality was constantly influx must have been extremely weird.5) The Kalashar themselves were, like Kalashar born now, low level. The Quori spirits are vague animating presences and impulses. The Kalashar section of Races of Eberron makes it clear that they gave up their sense of unique self and their powers in order to survive.6) From moment the arrived they were hunted. Some Kalashar lines, including that of their leader, were completely wiped out within a few years of arriving by spies and assassins.So there was no sudden explosion of psionic items being bought and sold, the Kalashar came together to form defensable monasteries and worked hard to keep outsiders (who were most likely spies or killers anyway). They almost certainly didn't feel like taking time away from their holy war to train non-believers (and believers, especially the humans of Sarlona, "breed" into being Kalashar).They are just a small segment of the population avoiding attention. Probably at some point somebody tried to approach them to get them to teach them awesome powers but religious telepaths can probably suss out who's BSing them before that person has gotten far enough to develop even one power point.Meanwhile, the Dragonmarked houses continue to innovate (and expand their economic might) both through their marks and through the magical colleges they sponsor.You are right that a Seer 3 is better than a wizard 3 at certain kinds of divination. But DnD isn't just a raw application of math to solve goals.Assume you are a noble and you need something found quickly. You can go to the local Thrask Guildhouse and hire a wide variety of divination services from a name you can trust OR you can make a months long journey into the mountains to try to get some holy man (who doesn't want your gold and anyway is rather busy with all the assassins and the holy war, thank you very much) to help you.If you were the noble and your daughter was missing would you really go trying to find some 3rd level Seer?Lets talk about the race to develop nuclear arms last century as an example, and then hopefully you can see why you're using an inappropriate metaphor.Nukes, in terms of destructive might, are an order of magnitude superior to the weapons that proceeded them. Conventional bombs could destroy buildings, Nukes destroy cities (plus all the radiation induced sickness, fertility problems, etc).Psionics are, sometimes, a bit better than magic. Sometimes magic is better. They are (thankyouBruceCordelmayIpleasehaveyourchildren) pretty balanced against each other.In the real world someone, (lets say the US) starts to develop Nukes. You (lets say your the USSR) realize that if they get nukes they will gain the ability to destroy entire cities and turn the surrounding area into a wasteland. This is a capacity that your existing conventional weaponry can't do anything about. You really want Nukes. You want them baaaad. Other countries, who may not like you, want you to have them just so the US has somebody to who they can stop.In Eberron someone, lets say a rival noble, as employed a jaded and bitter Kalashar. The Kalashar boy has spent most of his time sitting around and praying in a temple; your recently hired grizzled war mage has killed more people in combat than the boy has probably met. The Kalashar boy can make fire (apparently something about ectoplasm), but your war mage has explained that counter spelling isn't an effective battle field technique, and he's planning on disrupting the boys abilities with a spell that clouds vision or just killing the brat outright with magic missiles.Oh and when you go out to hire another war mage there are a bunch of them around...The next bitter jaded Kalashar who would give up his holy quest to work for money hasn't been born yet.I understand that you want a world where every third spell caster is a psion, but the fact that Eberron isn't doesn't mean its illogical, it just means its not to your liking.</blockquote>

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