Power of the Mind (opining about psionics)

[Glade Riven]

Psionics, especially in D&D/D20, are a bit of an odd duck. Early on in the realm of fiction, fantasy, and scifi, it was a way to shoehorn magic-like effects into scifi. Super-science has then since moved on to radiation, genetic engineering, quantum theory, and nanotech, and with the exception of a resurgance or two here or there, it isn't nearly as prominant as it once was. Well, except for (maybe) the Force, but that insinuation may spark a flame war, so let's set it aside. Despite the sideline status it ususually occupies (unless you are big into Starcraft and Mass Effect), it is a staple of the sf&f genre.

In D&D 3.x/D20, it just seems...I dunno. Tacked on. Granted, I haven't read the 2e and before stuff, but the inclusion of psionics into the SRD by WotC just seems more of an excuse to put out an alternative casting system than anything else. The handbook (and Expanded for 3.5) put forth a half-setting, some of it (as I understand it, and could be wrong) was from Dark Sun. Much of the fluff just really didn't speak to me, and the human based variants of the psionic races just struck me as flavorless and dull. Balancing issues aside, it felt like it was being different for the sake of being different, and nothing else.

I suppose I'm a bit weird, looking for an angle to make psionics work for me.

 

[SteelDraco]

I work the alien-ness of psionics into my game.

Psionics are the purview of abominations, which are essentially refugees from a destroyed world or plane. They invaded the world, and were mostly fought back in ancient times, and now only exist in the deep places and hidden corners way off the beaten track. That doesn't mean that their natures haven't had an impact on the world, though. Sometimes people are born with strange powers that don't fit in with the magical traditions people understand. It's a way of working the witch-hunt idea into my setting without everybody wondering why they don't also burn all those mages wandering around.

Mechanically, I'm actually quite fond of the 3.5 psionics system. I'm not entirely convinced it's balanced with the magic system as written, but the changes are fairly easy to implement. I don't think being able to switch energy types on the fly is very balanced when no one else can do it so easily AND match or exceed an arcane blaster type in damage output. I've played an all-psionic game at one point, and had quite a lot of fun with it. We were all playing gestalt githzerai on the gith homeworld, which was an entirely wild magic zone where psionics worked fine. It was crazy and over the top and a great time.

A little bit of the fluff from the 3e and 3.5 psionics books were related to Dark Sun - the half-giant and thri-kreen were originally races from that setting, which was the only one that TSR ever put out that had psionics in an important role. It's pretty understandable that they'd show up in psionic-related book, though only a few races were from there - the rest were original to the book except for the dueregar, which was always an Underdark psionic dwarf.

 

[Wik]

I can think of plenty of fantasy books with psionics as opposed to magic. The Priests in the Waylander series, for example, were much closer to Psions than clerics or wizards (Astral Projection, psychic combat, and all that jazz).

But overall, I think you're on the money. Psionics were a tack-on, a rules subsystem to expand what the game could do. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. GMs that like it can use it to change the way their game is played, and that's kind of exciting.

In my upcoming campaign, a Dark Sun e6 game, psionics will play a fairly large part. I do need to figure out a way to make wizards and priests slightly stronger than psions (as they were in 2e), because I want the main strength of psionic power to be that it's not illegal, and thus more accessible.

 

[Arkhandus]

Yes, psionics is more of a tacked-on addition in 3.x D&D and perhaps other editions. The 2E psionics book was more flavorful and cool, but also rather unbalanced (some options were just pathetic, and a few others were probably too strong, though most of it was more moderate in potency/value). Psionics was in the 1E DMG, but only as a short section IIRC and rather different from the way magic worked (as has also been the case in later editions, though less so in 3.x in some ways).

I do like psionics in D&D/fantasy/sci-fi, but it's been kind of mishandled in D&D. 1e/2e made it different enough but still very similar to magic in its effects and presentation (aside from the flavor-text and some names being more scientific). But it was still somewhat too complex and too wierd for some gamers. 3e made it a LOT more like magic spells with just minor differences, and 3.5 further stripped away differences between magic and psionics (aside from the whole augmentation mechanic, but even that was basically just a built-in metamagic/metapsionic ability, so not too different). 3e, and especially 3.5, integrated crystals and some wierd/lame races/items, whereas earlier psionics only had the slightest bit of crystal-use.

I like Dark Sun and its use of psionics, but still......... Also, the XPH's pathetic excuse for psionic races was terrible and lame. Duergar and such fit, and half-giants at least had a place in Dark Sun, but otherwise.......bleh. Plus the half-giants have that wonky Powerful Build mechanic that makes practically no sense given how it works. They could have at least worked in more Dark Sun races and included descriptions for using them in other settings. Or actually tried to be creative and thrown in some interesting new psionic races. Dromites and Elans were at least decent concepts, but poorly executed.

Eberron sorta helped by using more of a dreamscape-related flavor for psionics, but still used the rest of 3.5's psionics material besides the scientic patina.

Psionics has an undeniable place in D&D. It's been there since early on, and I hope it sticks around. I'd just like to see a little more effort/attention given to it by the designers so they stop trying to shoehorn it into "magic by another name with magic points by another name, like most non-D&D fantasy games and video games" or "wierd-ass pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo that doesn't jive with what most folks think of as fantasy gaming."

They need a balance of "different, but not too different" and with a broader scope to the flavor-text presentation (and in the naming/theme of powers/items/classes).

 

[Ahnehnois]

To me, the use of psionics is that it comes from within, whereas magic generally posits an external power source. It's also important that psionics shouldn't be bound by the same arbitrary limits as spells; you don't "run out" of mental power until you collapse.

The best take I've seen is the Psychic's Handbook; which uses skills. I'm less and less a fan of the 3.5 SRD psionics; really just reflavored spellcasting. I suspect a truly appropriate psionic book for D&D has yet to exist; I was hoping Paizo would take a stab but that seems unlikely.

 

[Glade Riven]

From a roleplaying mechanic standpoint, I think Star Wars Saga Edition's Force Mechanics would work well for psionics. Or if Psionics worked more like ki abilities. In fact, is there any reason why psionics couldn't/shouldn't be reflavored as ki abilities?

 

[Wycen]

I like psionics because I want my characters to stand out. Being weird or having "special" powers goes hand in hand with standing out. I never fully understood the psioinic combat system in the back of the 1E DMG, or I never tried, but when 2E psionics came out, those were sweet. The introduction of Dark Sun and the powers from one of their books were even sweeter.

Then 3E came out. It was crap for psionics. I tried the Sleeping Imperium system, which may or may not have been better then 3.0, but at least it was different and thus my character stood out.

After 3.0 psionics I was pretty stand-offish to any d20 3rd party system. Eventually we had a 3.5 psion join our campaign and the sheer power of the character made even me think, "that's broken". With time of course, I've come to realize the player was always the kind to never read the rules fully and the DM was too trusting. So unintential shenanigans went on.

Then I realized after reading some of the 3.5 book myself that I liked the system and it certainly would make a character be special and stand out. But I've never played one. And I wouldn't play a psion in the newest rule release because I'd sure as hell not be special.

Ah yes, reminds me of the good old days with Spezial Pyrate Kat and those funny parody posters.

 

[Corathon]

The distinction between science fiction and fantasy wasn't a sharp, bright line in earlier weird stories. So including science-fictional psychic abilities in a fantasy game may not have seemed like much of stretch.

FWIW, I like a lot of things that straddle the SF/F boundary quite a bit. Are Lovecraft's Great Old Ones extraterrestrial (and extradimensional) invaders or monstrous gods? Yes. Both.