If Psionics replaced magic...

[Nifft]

The primary weakness of Psionics is the lack of Wands of Cure Light Wounds.

Rangers, Paladins, Bards, Rogues (with UMD) and Druids can all do out-of-combat healing, at a cost of 15 gp per 5.5 HP of expected healing (~2-3/4 gp per hp). Psionics has no such bargain. (And that's the price if you buy the wand -- the party can make them, cut that in half.)

Ooo, forgot something:

Dragon Shaman: The Fast Healing aura is a great complement to using Psionics to patch up after a fight. It's not a strongly magical class, and you could easily substitute Psionic powers for their spell-like abilities. It does a decent job of filling the Cleric's role without being a Cleric.

Cheers, -- N

 

[drothgery]

Yeah, I got plenty of options, I just want to make sure that I understand what the psionic classes are capable of compared to the cleric before I consider changes there. Sounds like the psionic classes are not as good as the cleric (which I suspected) but how do they stack up to, say, having a druid in your party instead of a cleric?

Well, the big problem isn't really curing HP damage; there are powers that work for that (though as mentioned up-thread, they probably need a bit of a power-up). It's dealing with unsual conditions (poison, ability damage/drain, level drain, etc.) that's the real problem.

 

[Psion]

Yeah, I got plenty of options, I just want to make sure that I understand what the psionic classes are capable of compared to the cleric before I consider changes there. Sounds like the psionic classes are not as good as the cleric (which I suspected) but how do they stack up to, say, having a druid in your party instead of a cleric?

Well, I think the short answer is that with existing psionic options, aside from cure powers being higher level than equivalent cure spells, you are working with a sorcerer type "knowledge" model where the power you know are limited, instead of a "I know the whole spell list" model with clerics and druids. You have to design a healer to be a healer with psionics, instead of implicitly having the ability as with clerics and druids.

 

[Desdichado]

So, from three different people, I've got three completely different descriptions of the "problem of healing" without a cleric.

But, like I said, I actually usually run games other than D&D where magical healing is not assumed, so I'm not terribly concerned about that. I just want to be clear on what my baseline is.

Y'know, I'm finding myself and more and more intrigued by this idea. I think I may "Ray Winninger" up this idea with psionics in place of magic as the "hook" of the setting.

 

[Evilhalfling]

The divine mind is terrible its a non-working psionic paladin.
Dragon shaman works better as an aura class, but the flavor does not fit for a Psi-campaign
Dragons should be given other benfits in exchange for sorcerer levels. - MMV has some ideas.

Psionics only class list:
Classes:
- Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, Rogue
- Psion, Psychic Warrior, Ardent, Lurk, Wilder
Add - Scout (Cadv), Thug(UA)

Healing will be an achilies heal, not available till 3rd level (expanded knowlege: healing touch) unless there is an Ardent with healing domain. The other problem is that all clerical fixes, such as lesser restoration, neutralize posion, cure blindness, now come at the expense of more fun/ commonly used powers. I believe that the Complete psion even added death ward - a must for mid to highlevel parties facing undead.

The party will be less prepared to heal than a standard party with a druid, partially due to the previously mentioned lack of CLW wands. (which have always been a staple of cleric poor parties)

 

[GreatLemur]

I'm loving Nifft and Jackelope King's ideas, here.

Also, if it helps, here's the list of WotC-released, non-supernatural base classes that I'm aware of:

• Barbarian
• Fighter
• Rogue
• Knight (Player's Handbook II)
• Marshal (Miniatures Handbook)
• Samurai (Complete Warrior)
• Scout (Complete Adventurer)
• Swashbuckler (Complete Warrior)
• Warblade (Tome of Battle)
• Fighter variant: Thug (Unearthed Arcana)
• Ranger variant: Ranger Without Spellcasting (Complete Warrior)
• Rogue variant: Wilderness Rogue (Unearthed Arcana)

...Of course, quite of lot of classes with obviously supernatural abilities could easily be given a psionic flavor. The Monk, Ninja, Sorcerer (without a familiar), Duskblade, Beguiler, Artificer, Warlock, Swordsage, and Shadowcaster come to mind as particularly workable, but the Binder, Dragonfire Adept, some Incarnum classes, and maybe even the Truenamer could work, too. It's all pretty much a question of how you theme the class toward psionics, or expand the kinds of things that psionics can do.

 

[Nifft]

Revised suggested power changes:
- Make healing touch a general Psion/Wilder power; have it cure 4 hp/pp.
- Merge body adjustment and body purification; make both 2nd level for everyone. It's still valuable thanks to the ability healing.
- Keep mend wounds an Ardent-only power. The focused healer niche still exists.

Revised suggested class list:
- Dragon Shaman -- healing, condition removal, area buffs.
- Dragonfire Adept -- with the Draconic Aura feats, it's also an area buffer.
- Warlock -- the perfect NPC.
- Binder -- adaptable and fun, if slightly on the weak side.
- ToB Martial Adepts -- Healing? And tanking? I think we have something for you.
- Scout & Knight -- the best of the non-magical PC splat-classes.
- Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue, Monk -- Yep, them.
- Psion, Psychic Warrior, Wilder, Ardent, Lurk ... and maybe Soulknife, bleah.

This class list sets the tone of the campaign. Magic-users are either draconic (and may pay allegiance to Dragons) or are sinister in some way, making pacts with alien powers or having the blood of fiends in their veins.

Psionics becomes the "civilized" form of magic.

- - -

Setting questions: Where do Undead come from? How do BBEGs summon fiends & elementals? (They make good plots and good foes, and they don't grow on trees.)

Warlocks can solve some of this with their 12th level class ability... any magic item in the Core Rules could have been produced by a Warlock.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Stormborn]

There is, I believe, a psionic variant of the Artificer and Warforged (in Magic of Eberron maybe?) that might fit.

 

[Desdichado]

Alright, I'm living up to my threat and "Ray Winningering" this idea. Here's the Index page. http://www.freewebs.com/jdyal/psion/index.html

 

[kenobi65]

Revised suggested power changes:
- Make healing touch a general Psion/Wilder power; have it cure 4 hp/pp.

There's an Empathic Healer prestige class in Paradigm Concepts' Psionics Unbound that, fundamentally, has this idea as a class feature. (IIRC, it starts out at 3 hp/pp, and gets to a better exchange rate as it goes up in level.)