Just picked up the Expanded Psionics Handbook

[Azazyll]

Sever the Tie is gone as are all the "Improved" versions of powers as this is now handled by Augmentations.

AAAAAAGH! sever the tie is gone? it was one of the neatest powers, certainly with an awesome picture. it gave an undead hunter feel possibility to the psion. It had great background if anyone remembers it from The Illithiad. Well, I'm peeved. I had hoped they'd give it a bunch of augmentations and instead they toss it.

Other than that pretty cool. I, too, wish the soulknife fit the rogue mold better, but tinkering could probably change that.

 

[Psion]

The most unbalancing thing that I have seen is the new creature called the Unbodied. This creature is stated out for use as a PC race at the end of it's entry with only a +4 level adjustment. It has a metric F*** ton of innate powers, stat increases, 4 racial hit dice (+feats and skills), and it's considered a 4th level Psion (Telepath) for stacking with class levels. Unbalanced or not, who wouldn't want to play Saint Jack the Bodiless?

You do understand that level adjustment is not ECL right? You add racial hit dice to get ECL. You'd have to have an 8th level group to be one of these.

 

[Jarval]

Because Psi isn't magic. Lots of the 0-level powers were useless, anyway, and I think that the other ones will be part of the chain-turnded-powers or augmentable.

I'm one of those people who takes almost as much time choosing which cantrips my spellcasting characters will prepare as I do picking out the rest of their spell list, so I'm probably a bit biased on this. That said, making things like Far Hand augmentable makes a hell of a lot of sense, and I'm sure I can live without Float, Trinket or Catfall.

I'm happy to see that - WotC listened to it's fans. Great news. Now there'll be some kind of balance to the system. You won't need 6 19s any more (underpowered) and you won't be able to use shapechanging, mind switch or psychofeedback to flat out break the save DC system in such a manner that the archmage 3.0 and incantatrix 3.0 look like wimps (overpowered).

Getting rid of MAD made it possible to actually analyze the psion's power.

As for the psychic warrior using Wisdom, he's using mental powers with a mental stat.

I'm not saying that the MAD problem caused by 'each discipline has its own stat' was a good thing, but I did like the difference it promoted between psions of differing disciplines. It made a lot of sense to me that a Telepath would have a higher Charisma than Intelligence, or a Seer would focus on Wisdom. Plus I thought the tying of powers to physical stats was one of the truly differentiating features between psionics and magic. A psionic character was using their entire body, not just their brain, to manifest.

But as you say, it does give a bit more choice to the psion. You're no longer restricted to a choice of two or three powers at higher levels, and that has to be a good thing. I'll just have to tinker around with a few house rules to get things running the way I want them...

 

[Greybar]

Epic Psionics

Just since I've been thinking epic-power recently (even though my players won't be there for years) since I'm looking at a campaign-motivator type force being psi-based:

Does the Expanded Psi-etc change the Epic Psi rules out there. They look really tacked-on to the Epic Spells from what I can see in the SRD.

Alternatively, has anyone used the Epic Psionics as they stand?

thanks,
john

 

[zen_hydra]

You do understand that level adjustment is not ECL right? You add racial hit dice to get ECL. You'd have to have an 8th level group to be one of these.

OK, I lost my mind for a minute. That makes thing seem almost sane. Even so I think that the Unbodied would actually be pretty descent at +8 ECL. They can use manifest Telekinetic Force at will, along with their other powers.

 

[Prof.Dogg]

Anything missing?

Is there anything in the old book that didn't make it into the new book (critters, magic items, etc)? I'm thinking about hocking the old book but I don't like giving up that one paragraph that has some stat block that I wish I had held onto.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

A few questions:

1. Can Concusive Blast hurt inanimate objects?

2. Does Control Air still exist and does it have a cap? In 3.0, an epic level psion could level a city with an F6 tornado for the cost of 3 power points.

3. How does Far Hand augment?

 

[Videssian]

AAAAAAGH! sever the tie is gone? it was one of the neatest powers, certainly with an awesome picture. it gave an undead hunter feel possibility to the psion. It had great background if anyone remembers it from The Illithiad. Well, I'm peeved. I had hoped they'd give it a bunch of augmentations and instead they toss it.

Well, I don't know if it means anything, but on the ExpPsiH illustrations page on the wizards website (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ag/20040403a), look at the image for "Energy Ball".. notice something? It's the same illo used for "Sever the Tie" in the 3.0 PsiH.. so just maybe, it's been incorporated into that power! (can anyone confirm/rebut this?)

(and yeah, its one of my Savant's favorite powers too!)

ttyl,
Videssian

 

[Psion]

OK, I lost my mind for a minute. That makes thing seem almost sane. Even so I think that the Unbodied would actually be pretty descent at +8 ECL. They can use manifest Telekinetic Force at will, along with their other powers.

Unfortunately, some third party publishers have confused the issue, by offering LA numbers that are clearly meant to be ECL numbers.

 

[Hardhead]

Did they change the level that psions can Dominate?