D&D 3E/3.5 Psionics 3.5: Errata and Issues to nerf?

[Thanee]

The whole point of metamagic feats in the first place is to increase lower level spells to the power of higher level spells. If this isn't the case, then why do they cost the same spell slot? If an empowered, maximized magic missile is not equivalent in power to a chain lightning, then why does the former take up a 6th level slot? Shouldn't it fill a lower level slot?

You won't find many metamagicked spells that are on par with spells of the modified spell level.

That's ok, since metamagic allows to use lower level spells to some degree at higher levels, but doesn't match the power of higher level spells still (some few exceptions always exist, of course).

Psions effectively get a free heighten and empower metamagic feat for every power. This is balanced because if they use all of their powers at the maximum capacity, they will quickly run out of pps, while a wizard still has truckloads of lower level spells to fall back on.

Yes.

Produce Flame (L1) does 1d6+3 damage every round for 30 rounds. That's 30d6+90 damage.

Flame Blade (L2) does 1d8+1 damage every round for 30 rounds. That's 30d8+30 damage.

And both are melee attacks.

Chill Metal and Heat Metal (L2) each deal 10d4 damage.

Those are also severely limited.

Burning hands (L1) can potentially deal 21d4 damage

And has a range of... slightly lower than 100' + 10'/lvl.

Anyway my point is that 3d6+3, where the average is 14.5 damage, isn't too overpowered when they can't be combined, nor can the targets be far apart from each other.

No, if it only allowed a single target, that would be ok. Allowing up to 5 (even with only 15' between them) is too much at that level (as I said, the same power at 3rd or 4th level would be fair (scaled up to 5 or 7, of course)).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Shadowdweller]

All of the Kineticist's powers make any other artillery caster obsolete (esp. under level 12).

Not sure I quite agree here. To be sure, Psions are extremely good at dealing energy damage. However, the Wizard/Sorceror spell list is extremely versatile. I think even your Sorceror is going to have plenty to do, and especially at high levels (dramatic decrease in the number of high level powers).

Then again, this may very well change as new powers are published in various suplements or at the Mind's Eye.

 

[nimisgod]

psions being able to wear armor is a nonissue

I don't get how it can be a non-issue when a wiz/sorc has to spend tons of gold, use non-core books to get 0% arcane spell failure. All that to match the ability of the psion to cast without components (which are inherently different from displays because the former are causal and the latter are effects).

 

[Count Arioch the 28t]

Not sure I quite agree here. To be sure, Psions are extremely good at dealing energy damage. However, the Wizard/Sorceror spell list is extremely versatile. I think even your Sorceror is going to have plenty to do, and especially at high levels (dramatic decrease in the number of high level powers).

Then again, this may very well change as new powers are published in various suplements or at the Mind's Eye.

Being versatile isn't as good as doing loads of damage when you are talking about, well, doing loads of damage.

Psions are the best at damage dealing. Wilders are even better, but are very limited. Wizards don't even come close, Druids and Clerics are better damage dealers than wizards already.

I don't see a problem with that, the mechanics oof psionics will make it the superior gamage dealing branch of magic, because the same level 1 energy ray is still useful at level 40+, due to the way it increases.

 

[Pax]

Produce Flame (L1) does 1d6+3 damage every round for 30 rounds. That's 30d6+90 damage.

Flame Blade (L2) does 1d8+1 damage every round for 30 rounds. That's 30d8+30 damage.

Chill Metal and Heat Metal (L2) each deal 10d4 damage.

Burning hands (L1) can potentially deal 21d4 damage

... Boneblade (BoVD; Blk 2, Cle 3) can deal up to 2d6+1 damage, +1d6 against living targets, and +1d6 against good targets, for 300 rounds (10 minutes per level). Maximum potential damage, assuming one attack per round, is 1200d6+300 against good-aligned, living foes. (Of course, the catch is, beign in combat for 300 continuous rounds, surviving, AND hitting something every round)

... Song of Festering Death (BoVD; Brd 2) deals 2d6 per round ... with a duration of "concentration"! Potential infinite damage ...! (The catch is, concentrating long enough to deal that much damage, after having gotten something with that many HP's to fail their save and NOT simply kill you ...)

... Ayailla's Radiant Burst (BoED; Sanctified 2) deals (only to evil creatures) 1d6 at CL3, but in a 60 foot CONE. Potential damage is 86d6 with sufficiently-packed mob of enemies; at the maximum of 5d6/creature, this could rise, at CL10, to 430d6. Oh, and it causes blindness TOO.

... Silvered Claws (BoED; Dru 1, Ran 1) allows the target to bypass DR ?/silver with all of it's natural attacks, for 1 minute per CL. Assuming a claw/claw/bite routine, against a natural lycanthrope, and a CL3 druid casting this spell, that's potentially an effective 30hp extra damage per round for 30 rounds, for 900hp total. And that's a first level spell; if we extend it into a 2d leel slot, the total becomes 1,800hp!

... etc, etc.

 

[Pax]

I don't get how it can be a non-issue when a wiz/sorc has to spend tons of gold, use non-core books to get 0% arcane spell failure

Considering the entire Psionic character is based on a non-core book, I don't see as the "that stuff isn't core rules" argument flies, sorry.

 

[Thanee]

Except for one (Ayailla's Radiant Burst - but what is Sanctified 2, anyways? ) none of those come even close.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Considering the entire Psionic character is based on a non-core book, I don't see as the "that stuff isn't core rules" argument flies, sorry.

Yeah, core or non-core is hardly an issue. Gold, however, is.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Spatula]

I think you will find that while a psion can deal a tremendous amount of damage with energy powers, throwing out powers augmented to the max will cause one to burn out much faster than, say, a sorcerer will.

Emirikol, here are the bits from the XPH that I think need to be fixed:
1) Dispel Psionics' augmentation raises the cap, not the bonus, to the manifester check.
2) Dominate Psionics' duration can be augmented, as per Bruce Cordell's correction to the text.
3) Energy Missile & Energy Stun's DC only increases by 1 for every 2 extra PP spent, instead of 1 for 1 PP.
4) The Metamind PrC is useless (again) and needs to be fixed somehow.

Those are the only real errors in the book, IMO.

 

[nimisgod]

Considering the entire Psionic character is based on a non-core book, I don't see as the "that stuff isn't core rules" argument flies, sorry.

But when they were making psions in comparison to the other classes, what else but core books did they have to base the class balances on? Certainly, not everyone is going to have the splat books like BOED or BOVD or even Magic of Faerun. However, everyone who's going to get the XPH is certainly going to have the core books.