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<blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 2257335" data-attributes="member: 10201">The flavor is just some trappings--as someone else pointed out, just ignore the flavor of the &quot;psicrystal&quot; in favor of the mechanical bits, and it still works. And so on, for the rest of the flavor bits (crystals, ecto-whatever, etc.).And, in fact, that's my primary problem with D&amp;D3E psionics (both PsiH and XPH): other than the flavor trappings, they're too much like magic. Pretty much anything you can do with magic, you can do with psionics, and vice versa, and they're roughly equally-effective at those things. I really wish they'd stuck to earlier D&amp;D versions of psionics and, for that matter, typical representations of psychic powers in literature: really good at mental stuff, and maybe self-affecting powers, and less-good at anything involving the physical world. And none of this creating-stuff-from-nothing crap. IOW, make psionics really feel different from magic, and not just have different special effects. I want psychics that're much better than wizards at some things, and much poorer at others, and utterly incapable of a lot of things wizards can do. With the XPH, psychics can pretty much do the same things wizards/sorcerers can, and at roughly the same levels and effectivenesses. Sure, it makes balancing them easy, but it kills the flavor in the process. What's the point of having a second type of nifty power if it doesn't make your characters different?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="woodelf, post: 2257335, member: 10201"] The flavor is just some trappings--as someone else pointed out, just ignore the flavor of the "psicrystal" in favor of the mechanical bits, and it still works. And so on, for the rest of the flavor bits (crystals, ecto-whatever, etc.). And, in fact, that's my primary problem with D&D3E psionics (both PsiH and XPH): other than the flavor trappings, they're too much like magic. Pretty much anything you can do with magic, you can do with psionics, and vice versa, and they're roughly equally-effective at those things. I really wish they'd stuck to earlier D&D versions of psionics and, for that matter, typical representations of psychic powers in literature: really good at mental stuff, and maybe self-affecting powers, and less-good at anything involving the physical world. And none of this creating-stuff-from-nothing crap. IOW, make psionics really feel different from magic, and not just have different special effects. I want psychics that're much better than wizards at some things, and much poorer at others, and utterly incapable of a lot of things wizards can do. With the XPH, psychics can pretty much do the same things wizards/sorcerers can, and at roughly the same levels and effectivenesses. Sure, it makes balancing them easy, but it kills the flavor in the process. What's the point of having a second type of nifty power if it doesn't make your characters different? [/QUOTE]

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