New Psionics Balance

[Eltern]

Nope, you can't, at least not too reasonably.

Psicrystal Containment or some such can be used to store focus in your PsiCrystal, but I'm not too sure how that works or can be applied.

At 21st, Epic Psionic Focus allows you to spend focus for two effects, and I think can be taken again to increase the benefits.

Well fie. Here's what I had going:

Fighter2/Psionic Warrior2/Monk3/Fist of Zuoken 5
(Doesn't actually need to be this level to do this trick, but that's the level the character is)

Feats (not in order):
Wild Talent
Dodge
Mobility
Spring Attack
Stunning Fist
Combat Reflexes
Up the Walls
Psionic Meditation
Psionic Fist
Unavoidable Strike
Speed of Thought
Some Zen Melee feat, but not important

Now, we have bad soldier guy X standing on one side of a 25 foot wall, protecting the castle or somesuch. Our psionmonk is on the other side of the wall.

Speed of 80, spring attack, up the walls, burst
Up the wall, down the wall, smack the guy, back up the wall, down the wall.

Now while this is awesome, if I use my focus to Unavoidable Strike him in order to assure my Stunning Fist hits, I lose my Speed of Thought (which we assume is divvied up evenly between the two moves), making me fall 5 feet on my way back. Darn

Granted, this guy can't do much else, but DANG that guard's going to wonder what's going on Just wish Burst was augmentable.

 

[The Souljourner]

The limit can be side-stepped by taking Psionic Meditation, which allows a character to regain the focus as a move action. At the start of a fight, a psion would presumably have a focus in place. Round 1: move action + manifest using a metapsionic feat. Round 2+: move action + manifest (no metapsi) OR regain focus + manifest using a metapsionic feat. I think Psionic Meditation is basically mandatory for most psions.

The flexibility of the powers themselves goes a long way towards reducing the need for metapsionics, anyway.

What I see as a heavier limitation is needing to expend your focus in order to use Power Penetration.

So now you have to take two feats to make metapsionics worthwhile. *sigh*

Yes, that feat does make it a lot more tolerable.

Still, I doubt *anyone* who takes metapsionics would not also take Psionic Meditation. It would be utter stupidity not to. And that bothers me. There should never be a feat that is that much of a no brainer. Sometimes it's a fault of the feat being too good, in this case, I think it's the fault of the rest of the feats being too restricted without it.

Regardless... yes, I have not tested them. Obviously, since it's not even slated to be out until the end of the month.... I guess we're lucky to get the few copies that are out now. We'll try it out... heck, I'm considering taking one of the classes in my next campaign.... but I won't be convinced until I've got a little more to go on than "trust in WoTC". They were, after all, the ones who made the first psionics handbook.

-The Souljourner

 

[Spatula]

Well, I don't see Psionic Meditation as strictly mandatory. If you're going to be using a lot of power-enhancing feats (metapsionics, Psionic Endowment, Power Penetration), then yeah, you probably want it. You could also go the psicrystal route (2 feats gives you the ability to hold 2 foci simultaneously).

But at the moment, I don't see metapsionics as strictly necessary. Heighten Power is gone - most powers that allow a save have it built into their augmentation. Hide Power is also gone - a psion can suppress displays with a Concentration check. Maximize is still around, and psions finally get Empower, but do they really need either one? I haven't looked at the numbers, but damaging powers generally add one extra die of damage per extra PP and often increase the power's DC at the same time. So, if you have Maximize, you can: spend 4 PP & lose your focus to get max damage, or you can spend 4 PP to add 4 dice of damage and add 2 to the DC through augmentation.

At a guess, I'd say that Maximize becomes a better option at the upper levels. By that point, you have plenty of feats and can probably make Concentration checks without much chance of failure.

 

[Caliban]

1.) Having to take ONLY metapsionic feats to make Psionic Body useful means Psionic Body is ass.

2.) Having the ability to expend your psionic focus in order to cheapen the cost of using a metapsionic feat would be cool. Having no choice in the matter and *always* expending your psionic focus means that metapsionics are ass. Anything that requires a full round action that draws attacks of opportunity ought to be very powerful.... and saving 2 power points does *not* qualify.

Only being able to use a single metapsionic feat in a battle (which is essentially what that restriction is doing) is crap. Especially with all the other things that require either having or expending psionic focus.

Man... you would think that they would playtest these damn rules and listen to the people whine about how crappy they are!

-The Souljourner

It seems that most of the powers already have the equivalent of one or more metamagic feats built into them or available as augmentations, so you don't really need to use metapsionic feats that often.

All the "Energy" powers have Energy Substition as part of the base spell (everything except acid for some reason), and you can augment the damage and the DC without using a feat or taking a higher level version of the power.

Many of them allow you to augment the duration, area, or number of targets. All without the need for additional feats, or increasing the time it takes to manifest.

In many cases the new Psionic powers are much more flexible and effective than the equivalent spell.

 

[The Souljourner]

You guys have a good point... with the built-in enhancements, they're nicely flexible as is. To be honest, I hadn't looked too carefully at individual powers yet. I guess if you only use metapsionics rarely, it's not so bad. I still think Psionic Meditation is going to be a must have for most people. The difference between a full round and a move action is huge. Of course, if you don't care about having psionic focus, then you're all set.

Even though I may complain about the rules, I'm still excited to see the revision, and am already planning my new character.

-The Souljourner

 

[Caliban]

You guys have a good point... with the built-in enhancements, they're nicely flexible as is. To be honest, I hadn't looked too carefully at individual powers yet. I guess if you only use metapsionics rarely, it's not so bad. I still think Psionic Meditation is going to be a must have for most people. The difference between a full round and a move action is huge. Of course, if you don't care about having psionic focus, then you're all set.

Even though I may complain about the rules, I'm still excited to see the revision, and am already planning my new character.

-The Souljourner

I'm waiting until I play with them more to make a final judgement, but my first impression are that they are little too good. Why play a sorcerer?

 

[Plane Sailing]

All the "Energy" powers have Energy Substition as part of the base spell (everything except acid for some reason),

I'm really glad to see this, since to be honest acid isn't an energy it is a chemical. Fire, cold, electricity and sonic I can see as energies, but acid... no. (Although the term gets gathered loosely with energies in core D&D I notice that acid is the purview of Conjuration (which brings an actual thing present) rather than Evocation (creating energy), and it doesn't appear as a default weapon damage enhancer.

So I think that there are some good reasons for not including acid in the list of things they can substitute.

Cheers

 

[The Souljourner]

Why play a sorcerer? Heck, I was asking that *before* the XPH came out!

-The Souljourner

 

[Evilhalfling]

Inertial Armor?

My LGS sold out before I picked up a copy,
but looking through the feat list on the WotC site
Inertial Armor was missing, as a no-brainer psion feat in 3.0
was it removed or modified? ..thats a lot of NPC psionic halflings
that I will need to change.....

 

[Dinkeldog]

I'm waiting until I play with them more to make a final judgement, but my first impression are that they are little too good. Why play a sorcerer?

Because all of your scrolls and wands are coming down the line with arcane spells? A lot of them, anyway.