Help me accept psionics

[Storyteller01]

Took me a while, but I'm allowing it as is (with errata) in my campaign.

Storywise, it's a menacing system that is either quashed or tightly controlled (sorcerers currently run things).

Mechanics wise I treat it the same as a fighter. They pick the weapon system they want to focus on and run with it. Each have their draw backs and bonuses. Psions and magic users just pick different types of 'weapons'.

 

[airwalkrr]

In my campaigns, I often have commoners refer to psions as "mind mages," a term that offends any decent wizard, who thinks he uses his mind just as much as any pansy psion. But the difference is that when people see wizards casting spells, they see them intoning verbal components and moving their hands to somatic components. With psionics, there is rarely any of that, which makes psionics largely distrusted (the same goes for mages who are known for casting stilled, silenced spells. The best people can tell if there is a psion around is if they hear ringing in their ears, and even then, only if they are close by, and even then, what if their ears are just ringing? Psions IMC tend to be reclusive and very guarded about their ability because of this. In a technological world, even the most unlearned person can use a grenade launcher to inspire terror. One need not know how to actually make a grenade launcher to use one. In some settings, there are also devices that can be used to probe your mind or even dominate. So in sci-fi settings, there is not as much of a reason to distrust those with psionic ability over others. In a medieval fantasy where psionics is not theoretically within the reach of everyone, it becomes something to be feared both for its power AND its subtlety.

Anyway, that is my take on it. I think it adds a nice touch to a fantasy world. It has the added benefit of allowing you to drop it in at any point. It might simply be SO subtle that no one your PCs have met has ever encountered it before.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Oddly, I've reconciled primitive guns (Freeport) and magic-based technology (Eberron), but still shudder at the idea of psionics. (As a practical matter, it's becoming more difficult to ignore the sub-system, since I run an Eberron game.)

The best argument I've heard for psionics is this: "Just think of it as another kind of magic. You already have arcane magic, and divine magic, and arguably even druidic magic (as it is somewhat distinct), so why not mind magic?"

This never convinced me, for several reasons ("why different mechanics?" "why so many new mechanics?" "how is it really different from arcane magic?") but maybe it will work for you.

One thing the argument did convince me of is that I'd be happier with a unified magic system. Then the difference between arcane, divine, and psionic magic would just be a matter of what spells were on what spell list.

Alternatively, since my real issue is what I perceive as a clash between psionics and "magic" in the same world, I could get rid of other kinds of magic and just go with psionics, a la the Deryni novels mentioned earlier. One thing, though: you do not see the Deryni, even the most powerful of them, manifesting serious battlground-shaping effects ... for the most part, Deryni powers are extraordinarily subtle.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Basically, in Eberron if you have psionic powers you are either a quori, the one of the Inspired (who are posessed by quori spirits), or a kalashtar (a human merged with a quori soul).

As far as I'm aware, there's nothing in Eberron -- either background or rules -- that keeps psionics out of the reach of any race.

 

[Roman]

One thing the argument did convince me of is that I'd be happier with a unified magic system. Then the difference between arcane, divine, and psionic magic would just be a matter of what spells were on what spell list.

One thing, though: you do not see the Deryni, even the most powerful of them, manifesting serious battlground-shaping effects ... for the most part, Deryni powers are extraordinarily subtle.

Actually, even though I like psionics, this is something that bothers me too. I would like psionics to be much less flashy than they are. Also, I guess if psionics were core, it would be possible to make magic and psionics more distinct in terms of the spells/powers they have, but since it is not core, magic must be able to do 'everything' as does psionics, albeit they are differently useful for different things.

 

[Merkuri]

As far as I'm aware, there's nothing in Eberron -- either background or rules -- that keeps psionics out of the reach of any race.

That's why I said "basically," but if the OP was looking for a way to fit psionics in the campaign world I thought it might be good to use a system where it comes from a certain source (in Eberron's case, the quori) and only happens when that source is involved in a person.

 

[Fiery James]

In 3 weeks, we'll release an updated 3.5 version of Kevin Kulp's Of Sound Mind adventure.

It's an amazing 1st-level adventure featuring psionics that has converted psi-haters for the past few years.

That's my suggestion. Get the correct adventure that shows the flavor and the rest will follow.

- James

 

[Hussar]

It really doesn't matter where the word comes from, calling someone a psychometabolist is going to throw me right out of the traditional fantasy frame of thought.

Yet "necromancer" and "pyrotechnics" is okay?

What's wrong with "necromancer"? It's a term that's been in use for thousands of years. It connotes all sorts of meanings. It's hardly a new term coined for the game. Pyrotechnics has been in use for a couple of centuries in the English speaking world, so, that makes it old enough to use in fantasy. Psychometabolist, while taken from Greek, is only seen within the Psionics books.

 

[Arkhandus]

It has been mentioned in a recent thread here, based on an article on the Wizards of the Coast website, that psionics can be considered synonymous with ki, and vice versa. It was mentioned as flavor text for a different look at the Psychic Warrior in a Mind's Eye article. While I don't agree with that point of view (I like psionics and ki as they are), it does make reasonable sense for those who want it; psionics and ki as just different cultural names for the same internal, personal energy of the body, harnessed through meditation and such.

Of course there's also Eberron's approach; there, psionics is a power of the mind that is connected to dreams, likely drawing on energy from the Plane of Dreams (Dal Quor in Eberron's own cosmology).

 

[Henry]

What's wrong with "necromancer"? It's a term that's been in use for thousands of years. It connotes all sorts of meanings. It's hardly a new term coined for the game. Pyrotechnics has been in use for a couple of centuries in the English speaking world, so, that makes it old enough to use in fantasy. Psychometabolist, while taken from Greek, is only seen within the Psionics books.

Yet they both come from the same origin. People who have no trouble throwing a Tyrannosaurus into their game, or a Triceratops, or a "Theurge", will have trouble with "Psions." It's fine if people have a "genre bias" with psionics, but I take issue with the fact that the names are too "futuristic" to have a place in D&D -- they fit as well as a necromancer or theurge.