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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 9228066" data-attributes="member: 907">3.0 psionics was more or less just a <s>spell</s> power point system for what acted mostly as regular spells, only weaker in many cases (particularly because they didn't scale, and because AOE powers did d4s instead of d6s), with the added &quot;benefit&quot; of psionics characters being vulnerable to various psychic attacks which would inflict ability damage. Oh, and psions were the MADest characters around, because each discipline (basically schools for psionics) was based on a different ability score.3.5 psionics built on this but removed the MADness, and added a mechanic similar to 5e's upscaling (e.g. a 3rd level power would normally cost 5 PP, but if you spent 9 PP on it you could get effects more suitable for a 5th level power), except it also covered things that were different spells on the magic side, which would often allow more gradual improvement than spells do. For example, psionic charm is a 1st level power that's pretty much equal to charm person. For +2 PP (the equivalent of +1 spell level) it can affect a number of relatively normal creature types instead of just humanoids, or +4 PP for more overtly supernatural ones, and you can increase the duration from hours to days for +4 PP. So the equivalent of charm monster is the equivalent of a 5th level power for a psion as opposed to 4th, but you can &quot;build your own&quot; to get just the aspects of the upgrade you need and get away with a lower level.Another cool thing they did was to have a core psion power list containing a fair number of powers, but reserving the more distinctive ones for psions specializing in that particular discipline. It's basically the equivalent of any wizard being able to learn lightning bolt or vampiric touch, but only evokers getting fireball and only necromancers getting animate dead. You could poach a power from another discipline via a feat, which is a pretty heavy investment.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 9228066, member: 907"] 3.0 psionics was more or less just a [S]spell[/S] power point system for what acted mostly as regular spells, only weaker in many cases (particularly because they didn't scale, and because AOE powers did d4s instead of d6s), with the added "benefit" of psionics characters being vulnerable to various psychic attacks which would inflict ability damage. Oh, and psions were the MADest characters around, because each discipline (basically schools for psionics) was based on a different ability score. 3.5 psionics built on this but removed the MADness, and added a mechanic similar to 5e's upscaling (e.g. a 3rd level power would normally cost 5 PP, but if you spent 9 PP on it you could get effects more suitable for a 5th level power), except it also covered things that were different spells on the magic side, which would often allow more gradual improvement than spells do. For example, [I]psionic charm[/I] is a 1st level power that's pretty much equal to [I]charm person[/I]. For +2 PP (the equivalent of +1 spell level) it can affect a number of relatively normal creature types instead of just humanoids, or +4 PP for more overtly supernatural ones, and you can increase the duration from hours to days for +4 PP. So the equivalent of [I]charm monster[/I] is the equivalent of a 5th level power for a psion as opposed to 4th, but you can "build your own" to get just the aspects of the upgrade you need and get away with a lower level. Another cool thing they did was to have a core psion power list containing a fair number of powers, but reserving the more distinctive ones for psions specializing in that particular discipline. It's basically the equivalent of any wizard being able to learn [I]lightning bolt[/I] or [I]vampiric touch[/I], but only evokers getting [I]fireball[/I] and only necromancers getting [I]animate dead[/I]. You could poach a power from another discipline via a feat, which is a pretty heavy investment. [/QUOTE]

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