Non-Core Class Survivor Spin-off: Pro-psionics or anti-psionics

[Glyfair]

However, I wish they'd either make it core or drop it- I'm tired of trying to convince my DMs to use them. They tend to accept about 99% of core material, so making it core may just win the battle for me.

I like them as they are. I believe their are sort of "optional core." Many settings have psionics bits built in, but in a way where they can be ignored. They are handled much better than they were in AD&D for support, IMO.

For quite a while I've allowed them, even moreso since I started running Eberron. To date only two characters have run psionics oriented characters (a soulknife & a psion) and neither stuck to their characters for long.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm sort of mystified why there are some people that hate psionics so much. Any of you care to clarify for me?

I love it!

It has a reputation problem. Previous editions always had problems. (The 3.5 version is the best one yet, but still has stupid things (the same way the core rules have some stupid things), or things that DMs have a hard time adapting to.)

I ran into this problem in a 3.0 campaign.

Two players didn't like psionics (I was another player). One admitted that it was because 2e psionics was horribly broken, and he didn't like Schism. (My character never exceeded 2nd-level and so couldn't demonstrate how balanced - or not - the power was.) The other person was new to DnD, played a druid, thought Entangle was perfectly balanced and hated psionics due to a couple of incidents.

My character was using Biocurrent. That let you do 1d4 damage (Fort save for half) with a duration of Concentration. Twice it looked good.

The first time we were attacked by a pair of wolves in a forest. My character climbed a tree and blasted them. The power had a range of 25 feet, so the wolves could have moved away. They just stayed at the base of the tree until they died. Another psion player hit one with the psionic tanglefoot bag, which entangled one. The DM basically messed up their behavior there (the wolves should have run). The druid player hit the roof. Maybe she was planning on using Animal Empathy on them or something, but she decided the problem had to be busted psionics.

Right. Said druid entangled other opponents so we could just shoot them ... and it affected more than one or two opponents.

The second time, we fought in a house. Part of the fight took place on a stairwell. The fighter was standing in front of me with the bad buy on the other side of him, and Biocurrent is a targeted power (no chance of harming the fighter). I hit the enemy, who couldn't get to me. I deliberately chose that position because Biocurrent requires Concentration and didn't want to get hit at all while manifesting the power. Again, hitting the roof time from the druid player.

I think psionics is disliked because it's another system, it's not simple (us psionic lovers just think it's simple), munchkins take advantage of DMs who don't know the psionics rules all that well but let them in because of munchkin player pressure, and because it always seems to run into disappointing errors.

 

[WarlockLord]

Psionics is KING!

 

[Glyfair]

I think psionics is disliked because it's another system, it's not simple (us psionic lovers just think it's simple), munchkins take advantage of DMs who don't know the psionics rules all that well but let them in because of munchkin player pressure, and because it always seems to run into disappointing errors.

I think this is definitely some of it. Any class can be abused if a GM isn't careful, and a player chooses that route. However, a lot of GMs allow psionics when they aren't well versed in it (I count myself there). When a broken combination comes out, rather than reigning it in (or just the player), they blame the system because they aren't familiar with it.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I'm too lazy to learn the system, but I don't hate them.

I have alternating fond and horror-inducing memories of psionics in 2E. Bad because they were so grossly overpowered, but good because of one guy who played a great psionic character. He really didn't do much with his powers unless it was necessary. He could have easily breezed through every encounter, but he only pulled out the big guns when things started looking bad.

 

[Trickstergod]

I don't care about the system. I care about the presentation. If it were presented as "magic of the mind" or something like that, I might go for it. All too often, however, it has currents of evolution and super-powerful brains (as opposed to being a learned discipline) to it. Crystals. Ectoplasm. The terminology.

All around, not so much a fan because of the presentation.

Conversely, I'm a bit more accepting of it in Eberron, due to its associations with the realm of dream and the like.

But, yeah. Presenting it as "magi of the mind" works better for me than "psychics." By heaps and tons.

 

[Particle_Man]

I like Create Astral Construct more than Summon Monster X spells. It just seems kinder to create a temporary solid hologram to do your bidding than to force a creature from another plane, going about its own business, to do what you tell it to do, regardless of its own wishes or even alignment (for Wizard/Sorceror summoners, anyway).

 

[Drowbane]

Pro-psionics & Anti-Psiwarrior.

 

[Vymair]

It's campaign specific for me. I certainly like Psionics (I've played both a Psychic Warrior (Vymair, my namesake) and a Psion, but Psionics don't work in every campaign. I've allowed them in both my campaigns I ran as a DM since 3e came out. I don't think every campaign has to include every d&d option or even core races or classes, but I like the variety that psionics offers.


I'll grant that 1e Psionics was horribly implemented, but I think they finally got the balance right this time around.

 

[lior_shapira]

I love psionics and I can't explain why. During the 2nd edition days I had a player who loved psionics and always wanted to play one. He was horribly overpowered, and was a horrible power-gamer so I actually had nightmares about his character.

But somehow the Expanded Psionics Handbook really turned me around, I played for almsot a year a Kalashtar Psion and since then I've really loved everything psionic, I think I'm kind of jaded from the regular D20 magic and psionics is something fresh...

lior