Psionics: Balance and Integration

[Particle_Man]

Well, the coolness factor is undeniable. What arguments do these anti-Warlock people use? Just general problems with granting at-will abilities? Or some particular broken combo of invocations? I hardly ever check the Wizards boards and I've not really seen much said against the Warlock here, so I'm really wondering.

[/hijack]

Often it is some variant of the low level "flying invisible ranged touch attack" or "spider climb invisible ranged touch attack" guy, saying they get it earlier than wizards. Also people that don't understand 3.5 darkness thinking Devil's Sight and the Darkness invocation are too powerful.

Others worry at the high end that the item creation idea is not well described, leaving open the possibility of creating extremely cheap rings of wishes, staffs of Weird (and other stuff), scrolls of time stop, and other such items. Some fuzziness over what it means for a Warlock to duplicate a spell for the purposes of item creation, and what lvl the warlock has to be (at least 12th of course, but can a 12th lvl warlock duplicate 9th level arcane spells for the purpose of creating wands and such? The errata on the dmg leaves open a cheap cheap way to create some of these items at lower level, since the level given with items is a guideline, and usually not a prerequisiste itself, so if the Warlock can get the prereq.'s for spells at 12th, things get easier for the warlock. No answer on this yet from Mr. Baker on his wotc thread.

 

[Nail]

Perhaps, but you also get less of them. And not all of the powers are better.

.....and not all of them have to be. Do players typically take a weaker power "just to balance out my stronger ones"?

...on second thought, I suppose there are a few.

In the game with the Psi 14(shaper) we use magic = psioncs, so Dispel Magic = Dispel Psionics. That's a good thing(tm). Even so, we find time and time again the psion able to manifest powers for which there is no obvious counter or arcane/divine equivalent. That becomes a problem.

Still, it's nice to get "counter" ideas from these boards. I ain't lookin' a gift-horse in the mouth!

.....and the Psi 14 player can attest to this. Poor guy. (...and as I've also said, he's a great sport, so there are no hard feelings.)

So maybe bring up some specific issues, and let us see if there isn't something you're missing. And maybe soon your player's psion will be running for the psychic reformation power, MUAHAHAHAHA!

The Psi 14 laready has access to psychic reformation , and has used it extensively. I mean it. He's used it almost once per session for the past 5 months of gaming time! Usually right after I begin to get a handle on what a psion acn do.

 

[Nail]

I don't know of any cheap +5 Concentration items in WotC books.

Keep looking!

In any case, there are rules for the creation of such items. Pretty simple, really.....I know you know that. Why be obtuse about it?

 

[Nail]

The point you avoided is that arcane spell casters CAN go gaseous and cast spells if they pick the appropriate feat(s).

Errrr?

I explicitly addressed it.

Arcane Casters need to spend metamagic feats to get rid of components. The most likely metamagic feat the arcane caster might have that qualifies is Quicken Spell, followed (distant second) by Silent Spell. No one takes Still Spell, and few take Eschew Materials.....so really, quicken Spell is the only serious option. (Sudden metamagics are once per day, so are not really comparable.)

The point: Most wizards will not have all of their spells prepared with these feats. The psion, effectively, has Silent Spell, Still Spell, and Eschew Materials automatically.

(Good Point about the Gaseous Form Psion, Vurt! Costly, tho', don't you think? 750gp a pop for those potions!)

 

[Thanee]

Why would Quicken Spell help with being gaseous?

Does it remove the components? I wouldn't know about that, at least.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nail]

Druids are the most powerful spellcasters in the game.

.....The Balancing factor is in the environments both work with.

Wow....where to begin?

So, you are arguing that balance = restricted environments? Really?

There are two big problems with this approach:

• Some portion of the time the PC will be next to useless, which is hardly fun, and
• the environment of play is entirely up to the DM, meaning that the effectiveness of a player's character is entirely up to the DM.

Moreover, by your logic the further I restrict the PC, the more powerful he should be. Down that road leads madness.

Let me ask a counter question: Why is the Wizard class balanced?

 

[Nail]

Why would Quicken Spell help with being gaseous?

Does it remove the components? I wouldn't know about that, at least.

Hmmm. Good question. (Off to the rule book mines!)

[EDiT]....whoops. Nevermind. Quickened spells have components. So in order to cast while in Gaseous Form you'd need at least one of the "component" metamagic feats.