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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Particle_Man" data-source="post: 706236" data-attributes="member: 892">But remember, its not just a matter of you winningthe mindscape combat.  It is a matter of you NOT LOSING the mindscape combat.  So on the uber-stat question, you would want the defense against the other guy's chosen mode, as well as the chance of offense.  I think it would be safe to say that very few people would take that double risk by trying a non-uber stat.  So we come back to the lack of variety problem.  On to the example of the mind flayer, I may want to try something that is related to a non-uber stat, and then I rememberthat the mind flayer is trying to get its chosenadvantage over ME, and that ain't gonna be pretty.No way I would risk that.  So speaking personally, if I had an uber-stat and ability mods were in play, I would not risk anything not tied to the uber-stat, and its strong guarantee of a good mindscape defense.  I think that most people in this discussion group feel the same way, as no one seems to be chiming in to support your view.Think of a parallel -- If you were using a rapier(no shield) but had a chance to use a cursed greatsword that was -5 to hit AND gave you a -5 AC penalty, but would do double the damage of your rapier, and you were in combat with a fighter, would you take that kind of risk?In addition, don't forget that with epic rules, an uber-stat can get VERY uber.  Like str 100.  And some people do play with epic rules.  Furthermore, I think a case can be made for avatars having nothing to do with how strong their host is.  Avatars seem to be a different kettle of fish.  Since this leads to a simplification and not a complication, this is OK. Now your concern is that one would always choosethe 'best' out of the 12 possible effects for a given situation.  But it is not always clear whatthe 'best' effect would be.  A better to hit roll on one attack?  A better will save?  Damage resistance?  You may or may not know what mode the other person is using, and it is less likely you will know what move an opponent will try in the 'real world'.  Thus I do not think that one will always fall back on the 'best of 12', since that may not be easy to identify.  In some cases, admittedly, it may be. (If you know for a fact that the opponent has a poisons stinger, a good fort save sounds like a plan (but even here, good AC bonus is another tactical option)).  This is an acceptable use of tactics -- you make a judgement based on the situation to narrow your options, when that is possible.  And since it won't happen all the time, it won't cause one to be a mode #4 guy, or whatever.  This happens in gaming all the time.  The party has the rogue check for traps when they find a chest.  This does not seem to be a limitation that upsets or bores people.  So neither would it upset or bore people to realize, "hey, in this particular situation I bet a will save bonus would be useful, so I will try the mode that gives me that".  Since situations change, and since people can misread situations, there is little danger of boredom in picking one's mode.  There is a danger of exactly that happening with the abilities modifying modes.  Few people are going to take a strong 'mode to hit' and 'mode ac' penalty in order to get a slightly more useful effect.  Most people would play conservative, and go for the more sure benefit (and more importantly, the more sure chance of denying their opponent a benefit).  So I think that the greater variety of tactics, for most players, is preserved by not having abilities affect modes.IMHO, most people's enjoyment of mindscape is therefore increased by NOT having ability mods on modes.  Since you could easily add ability mods to modes for your home campaign, I think the simpler way is better.  No ability mods for modes.  One less thing to calculate on this once per round roll.  The enjoyment of most campaigns is increased because of this, and the slight flavour text jarring of modes associated with stats that have no effect on the modes is a trivial thing, in most campaigns, in comparison.  Just because powers were tied to ability modifiers doesn't mean that modes have to be.  The former, by the way, was precisely to RESTRICT the powers that a particular psion would choose.  In your campaign, What I think of as trivial is apparantly not trivial, and you are welcome to change the mindscape rules (I know I am making some of my own changes, as outlined in earlier posts in this thread) but I bet that few others care as much about this as you.  Thus I support Bruce Cordell's choice in this matter.All that said, I still think that mind blast/psionic blast is overpowered, but that has been true since 1st ed AD&D.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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