Opinions of Expanded Psi-handbook

[River]

Destiny Dissonance

You clearly miss the implications. RoE costs some STR.. thats hardy incapacitating.. maybe a -2 to hit and damn.. maybe -3?

A sickened character is just plain out of combat.. take one enemy out of combat every round almost guarenteed.....

Thats awfully powerful for a 1st level effect...

River
'

 

[Thanee]

Sicken gives -2 to basically all rolls. That's surely not nice, but hardly out of combat.

Ray of Enfeeblement can take a character out of combat (ask the minotaur warrior whom my 7th level sorceress granted a nasty -25 penalty to Str - that one was out of combat).

No, most powers are (other than a few exceptions) fine, really.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Piratecat]

With respect, River, this is the definition of sickened:

Sickened: The character takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.

That seems pretty far from "out of combat" to me. Were you perhaps thinking of a different, more debilitating condition?

 

[Virtue]

Psi Handbook

The first PSI handbook sucked
Now with the revishion there are a few in my gaming group who dont mind if they die so they can play a new psionic class.
Im one of them
The psionic races are a great addition
They have made the powers much more stream lined and playable
We havent found a major flaw with this set up the original none of the players in my gamming group liked it so im very happy with this revison
The Soul Knife kicks A** can anyone say X-Mans Pylocke
GFL Out (Gamer For Life)

 

[Spatula]

River, you're probably confusing nauseous (which is pretty debilitating) with sicken (which didn't exist in 3.0).

EDIT: That said, I think that some of your criticisms might have some merit.

Empathic Transfer, Hostile (telepath/psywar 3) is a touch attack that does 50 damage (will save for 1/2) and heals the psion 1/2 that amount. It can be augmented to do more damage or to affect multiple targets (although how that second bit works isn't exactly clear). The obvious magic equivilent would be vampiric touch (wiz/sorc 3), a touch attack that does 1d6 damage per 2 levels (no save) and grants temporary hit points equal to the damage for 1 hour. There's no comparison between the two - empathic transfer is much better. And the damage for the power looks to be out of line for a 3rd level effect. The only real possible advantage for the wizard here is that vampiric touch can be empowered and/or maximized, and can be cast through a spectral hand spell.

 

[Plane Sailing]

At 7th level, as it would cost 7 power points to manifest expanasion augmented in that fashion. At 7th level, a psywar gets 15 base points points per day, so using that ability sucks up 1/3-1/2 (depending on bonus power points) of the character's power for the day.

And of course, it means that the psywar is effectively using a 4th level power (can you say polymorph?) to do this instead of a 1st level power.

 

[Spatula]

The psywar is sort of odd in that respect, since they can potentially manifest '4th level effects' through augmentation before they can actually learn 4th level powers (which they don't get until the 10th level of the class). But of course they get so few power points that they can't really afford to manifest powers fully augmented too often, so I suppose it balances out.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

The key thing to the Hostile Empathic Transfer is that you're transferring damage you've taken to an enemy. The opportunity to transfer 50 points is going to be very rare, especially if you're a Telepath who will normally stay out of combat. And on top of that, it is a touch power, so you're at even greater risk.

Take those two things into account, and it's not so egregious. I'd have to see how it plays in-game before I think its an issue.

 

[Piratecat]

My badly injured 8th lvl psi warrior used an augmented hostile empathic transfer to try and transfer 60 points of damage to a hag last game. She easily made her save, so I transferred 30 pts... then she dominated me, and I was somewhat healed when I turned on the rest of the party.

Based on that brief encounter, we saw no real problems. More details as I get 'em.

 

[Psion]

Empathic Transfer, Hostile (telepath/psywar 3) is a touch attack that does 50 damage (will save for 1/2) and heals the psion 1/2 that amount. It can be augmented to do more damage or to affect multiple targets (although how that second bit works isn't exactly clear).

Um, your paraphrase isn't QUITE what the text says. You can only transfer damage you actually have; there is nothing about the psion healing half. You heal what you transfer.

If you have ever played final fantasy 6, you would realize this power isn't quite qhat it's cracked up to be. There is a sword in there call the drainer which does the same thing, but there is no limit. You do as much damage as you heal. But once you are healed, you can't do any damage.

So unless you plan on walking around down 50 hp all the time, it's not that uber powerful.

I am honestly more hesitant about mind thrust.

Edi: Kid Charlemane beat me to it. That's what I get for watering the lawn between hitting reply and answering the post!