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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5452599" data-attributes="member: 7006">[MENTION=97538]Nullzone[/MENTION]:  I certainly believe you that the product is great... but I do not think it has generated nearly the excitement and expectation for not nearly the length that it might have had it appeared in a PH4.[MENTION=607]Klaus[/MENTION]:  I certainly understand what you're saying, and in some ways I agree with you.  'Psionic is the mind / Ki is the soul - same thing' is I'm sure the rallying cry behind that belief.  But then again... that's because no one has bothered to actually create a good story behind Ki yet.  Psionics came from an intrusion of the Far Realm... that's it's story.  Ki most likely wouldn't have had anything to do with the Far Realm, and some other concepts would have been created to separate it from Psionic.But at the very minimum... if Psionic was so much better than Ki and it swallowed it up and took it's stuff... then why weren't the mechanics of the Monk changed to match the rest of it's power source?  Why wasn't the Full Discipline mechanic removed in favor of Augments?  If WotC had done that... perhaps I wouldn't have been as disappointed in the idea of the source switch.  But the fact that they changed nothing about the Monk Ki class they created except to say it's now 'Psionic' is just laziness... and I personally believe that many people see that and thus aren't as enthused about the Monk or the Psionic power source as they could have been.[MENTION=59057]UngeheuerLich[/MENTION]:  What you're saying is true, if we were to assume that the Seeker as a Primal is exactly as it would have been as a Ki.  And for that, I don't know.  I'd like to think that if the Seeker class actually was originally a Ki class... that the story behind the controller abilities were more 'infusing Ki energy into the arrows', rather than the primal spirits doing it.  I mean in actuality, any of the power sources (except perhaps Martial) could justify a controller archer concept.  So editing the class to say "The spirits did it!" rather than "he used his mind to do it!" or "the gods did it!" or "he infused his soul energy into it!" is a relatively easy change, which is why they just made it a Primal.[MENTION=56755]korjik[/MENTION] / [MENTION=84095]Skism[/MENTION]:  I heard that too, about the desire not to make a so-called 'Asian' themed source.  And in many ways I can understand that.  But by the same token more Western concepts have become just universal D&D ideas that have absolutely nothing to do with their 'real world' premises.  D&D Druids are nothing like 'real' druidism.  And the the Bards of history don't cast magic spells.   So making Ki classes that have Asian concepts behind them can still turn into just regular D&D concepts over time if you let them.But I also do think that (for instance) had they split the Ki source up to two classes each for PH3 and PH4 (like Divine and Arcane were for PH1 & PH2) it wouldn't have been nearly as difficult a sell, even with the flavor and names inspired by eastern traditions.  And I think that looking back on history with 20/20 hindsight can tell us that even a theme that was based upon 'Asian magic' and whose story in the world of PoL D&D was perhaps slightly inspired by it, would certainly have been more interesting that the lack of story the Monk, Seeker, and Runepriest got.And that's my biggest reason for posting what I did.  It's not a question of whether I think the Ki power source as a concept was good or not or needed or not... but whether the Ki power source would have been better than what we got (or didn't get) from the three islands of Monk, Seeker, and Runepriest.  Was what we have now... Player's Handbook 3 as is, and Heroes of Shadow upcoming... made the game more or less inspiring or exciting over the past and upcoming 15 months and sold more / been more popular... than it would have been had we gotten a formatted Player's Handbook 3 & 4 with matching Power splatbook material?  That's really the question I'm asking.</blockquote>

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