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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2985637" data-attributes="member: 172">Many of his Thanee's arguments have been addressed on the rules forum; most of those that I agreed with him on were errata'd in the complete psion. That said, having been part of said arguments, I can say that I know from experience, this is the kind of discussion that will lead into a protracted debate with excel spreadsheet captures and arguing around non-shared assumptions, and I currently don't have the time or patience. So it's with hesitation I step in here, with the admonition to consider the arguments that I and other have put forth on the rules forum if I get too busy with GenCon preps to get back to this thread.I see a sorcerer as sort of a poor cousin of the Wizard. The sorcerer's spell selection is much more harshly than that of a specialist (save that you still have a bit more room to cherry pick... you just don't have a very big basket), and the specialist wizard's spells per day are almost as good as a sorcerer's, and a wizard can compensate for preparation to a large degree with spell scrolls. So if you think the sorcerer is "definitive" in its power, you may find a Psion exceeds your standards. That said, tweaks by both Wizards and Third party publishers attempt to jazz up the sorcerer, so this feeling that the sorcerer is somewhat substandard exists even outside of context of a psionics comparison.Even so, there are a few things you have to keep in mind when it comes to evaluating the power of a psion against a spellcaster.First, spells scale for free; powers require an investment to scale up. If magic missile were a power, it would cost a psion 5 pp, the equivalent of a 3rd level spell slot. Above Thanee argues that the need for restraint is not a drawback. That sort of sidesteps the point. If there is a fight that does not require the full support of your spellcaster, just activities like harrying spellcasters or helping remove nuissances with guaranteed damage, spells like magic missile are a trivial investment for a mid level spellcasters, where a psion has to not only manage that power, but it costs a bigger fraction of its power.Second, with respect to the use of metamagic versus metapsionics, due to the fact that powers don't scale for free, you can't enhance a psionic power without taking a hit to your augmentation.Finally, remember that a central balancing assumption in the DMG is 4 encounters between rest periods. An analysis on the rules forum shows that 2 or 3 encounters is normally sufficient to begin to take a deep bite into the psion's power point pool. If you don't follow the 4 encounters guideline, and never spring unexpected encounters on players, then I think you will find that the up-front damage capability of the Psion to be telling. But you follow the guideline on the average, and spring unexpected encounters on the players, then you should be fine.</blockquote>

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