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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1748931" data-attributes="member: 3146">Well, color me influenced by previous editions of the psionics rules.1e was unbalanced and unplayable.2e was playable but unbalanced3e was rather weak except in a few very narrow areas. (Astral Constructs had potential and Mind Blast was an encounter-destroying power).As for 3.5e, I haven't seen it in action yet. However, having looked through the SRD, and thought about how to create a variety of different characters, I think that Thanee has the right of it: 3.5 Psionics are rather unbalanced. I hadn't noticed the ability to manifest powers from power stones or other psions before but that means that psions (and PsiWars) essentially have no limit on the number of non-combat powers that they can manifest. A party with two psions or even a psion and a psiwar will be exponentially more effective than a party with only one at least by mid-levels. And the ability to use power stones makes it utterly ridiculous. How much would any of you charge for an item that added a first level spell to a sorceror's list of spells known? I'd be willing to bet you'd charge more than 25gp. (Yes, I know there's a skill check but it's trivial. By 3rd level, any psion or PsyWar can take ten and automatically succeed on the check). What's worse, I don't even read any requirement that the psion actually be able to manifest powers of the level of the stored power. So a 3rd level psion with a power stone of a 2nd level power could manifest that power through the power stone. Ditto for a 3rd level PsyWar. This grants practical access to mid-long duration powers at least one level earlier than the characters would otherwise get it. With a torc of power preservation, that's two power levels earlier than access would otherwise be possible. With Overchannel and/or an orange ioun stone as well, that's potentially five levels before the psion would otherwise have access to the power. So, Psions can get consistent access to 9th level powers by 14th-15th level rather than at 17th or 18th level.There's also a problem with pricing augmented psionic items. A dorje of augmented energy ray, for instance would be the equivalent of an energy substituted wand of polar ray at 1/8 the cost--if wands of polar ray were possible which they aren't. Leaving aside any question of how this advantages psions, etc, augmented psionic items are a UMD character's wet dream. Access to effectively 8th and 9th level powers at the price of 1st level powers and with a far easier check to activate than would otherwise be possible for powers/spells of level 5+. If items of augmented powers were priced based on their effective level rather than their native level this loophole wouldn't exist but, as it stands, it's pretty darn massive.As to the rest, it seems pretty clear to me that psions are only balanced in an environment where pp output is actually limited. Since very very few adventures seem to really place time at a premium, a psion who can blow through all of his pps in one or two encounters worth of maximally powered abilities (chosen on the fly from a very wide selection) and then rest to regain the spent pps is at a HUGE advantage over sorcerors, wizards, and clerics. At mid-levels, the lack of party buffs like haste may be telling, however, if one is comparing spell/power lists, the number of powers with built in quickening (or better yet, Immediate) mechanisms more than makes up for it. The psionic energy resistance powers, for instance are so dramatically better than all magical ones (with the possible exception of Energy Buffer which is neither core nor 3.5) that direct power/spell comparison is futile.</blockquote>

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