Psionics Handbook 3.5 Confirmed!

[Spatula]

And there's no improved Body Adjustment powers, so you're stuck with healing 3d6 per round, ignoring empower and maximize effects.

If you allowed Biofeedback to work on the damage being aborbed with Empathic Transfer, the psion could get by without doing much healing until the fight is over. Still not as a good as a cleric, but you're not going to beat a cleric when it comes to healing.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Yep. I own the first one and have used it about... twice. Once when I first bought it (hated it) and once when I ran Of Sound Mind (just to read the description of a psionic effect).

I can write off all my gaming purchases as a company expense, and I still won't be buying this one.


Wulf

Still haven't gotten over the Speaker in Dreams?

Aaron2 ran a short campaign, and the psion I played fit right in. The Mindscapes combat fixed the bad problems. Hopefully the main fix will be to strip out the old combat system.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Bah, much as I like 3.5, I'll pass on this one, as I've passed on all psi-related material since 1.0.

Olgar (rabid psionics hater)

 

[Otakkun]

Yay!

Another copy sold here!

I just hate the release date though. I was hoping for an earlier release. I guess we can't have it al though.

I have confidence about this book being much, much better than the 3.0 one. you've got to remember that 3.0 psionics were the first adaptation of psionics into the "mainstream" rules. Psionics now used the same rules as everyone, making them much more balanced, easy to use, and understandable to everyone. You no longer had to read 2 or 3 times a completely new book to allow them in your game.

Was the 3.0 boook flawed? Oh yeah, however it had very good ideas in it. They wanted to end the equation of psionics = broken from most people, and they did a good job at it. Not an excelent one, but certainly it was a nice try.

After all the gaming, the rants, and the amazing WotC psionics boards (I still remember those flame wars, endless threads and Psi&Co the flame master, a great guy, but with problems to keep cool in a forum).

They have the feedback. They have who to ask to if they have any doubt. I have very big expectatives for this book.

For those people that insist that psionics have no space in DnD because they use the same system as everyone else .... does that make druids, sorcerers and bards boring? After all they use the same system than Wizards and Clerics. No? I thought so.

Well, it's going to be a long wait, but waiting is better than not knowing. Nice!!

Edo.

 

[Remathilis]

Without opening old wounds, I'll say I've used psionics since 2e, and sincerely hope for a balanced revision to the current system.

Of note:

Remove Muti-stat dependency, or reduce it to no more than 3 stats tops.
Make Psion one class with constant skills, etc.
More unique powers and psionic feats, some bonus psionic feats for psion.
MORE PSIONIC MONSTERS! Include a few psionic races too.
Gut the psionic combat system, but keep the 10 names if possible.

 

[zoroaster100]

fix, but don't redo from scratch

I hope the fix the admittedly major problems with psionics 3.0 such as multiple stat dependency and psions being too weak a class. Oh, and they'd better make major changes to the psionic combat system or scrap it altogether. But as for totally scrapping the system for a totally different skill based system, I think that would be a terrible idea. Cordell's Mindscapes provides some excellent fixes to the 3.0 system. The Mind's Eye has also added a lot of creative ideas to the 3.0 system. If they start from scratch again they'll screw it up again. We'll never get a balanced and sophisticated system if every time they "fix" the system they scrap everything and start over. They should work from the current system, fixing specific problems based on feedback from the folks who've been using the current system and coming up with houserules or d20 products that address the shortcomings of the current system.

 

[rounser]

For those people that insist that psionics have no space in DnD because they use the same system as everyone else .... does that make druids, sorcerers and bards boring? After all they use the same system than Wizards and Clerics. No? I thought so.

I think the insistence is for reasons of archetype, not reasons of rules system.

For instance, for me, psionics in D&D's swords & sorcery fantasy setting is somewhat redundant next to magic, and next to it it comes across as weird and alien, with fish-out-of-water sci-fi overtones. For me, it's only really welcome as a true rarity amongst things which are supposed to be weird and alien, like mind flayers and githyanki, or in a setting specifically designed to be weird and alien, like Dark Sun. On PCs, in a place like FR or Greyhawk? Yuck...

I'm convinced that in AD&D, it's been historically used by powergamers as a sort of back door to break the game by. In 1E AD&D they were a powerful freebie that you just tacked on to your PC from a random roll. In 2E a psionicist had a grab bag of game balance hobbling tricks which allowed him to dominate pretty much any other character of the same level, and min/max to do things that would take a mage of far higher level to do the same. No wonder psionics got it's fans.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

rounser pretty much nailed my thinking dead on!

 

[BryonD]

Well, I think he had a bit of "mother's eyes" over the PsiHB, and steadfastly insisted that there was nothing wrong with the Psion. To a certain extend he was right; certainly I think there was quite a bit that was criticized that really worked.

But I do think, reading some of the revisions he has made, he has aquired a sensible humility and bona fide perception of where the PsiHB is weak.

Again, as with the 3e corebooks, I mostly worry about compatibility with other products that have come out. However, there are fewer products to worry about in the case of psionics, so I worry less. That said, I still fear they may get carried away.

What you said is probably what is best for the game. So that is what they SHOULD do.

However, because psi is SO close to standard magic, a straight conversion is really very simple. Therefore, I do not see any need to buy a new book. What I would like to see is another shot at building a new system from the ground up.

 

[Mercule]

Anyone who says this has never seen my wife play... Her 13th level Savant (Constitution focused Psion) used two powers: Body Adjustment and Name Escapes Me. The second power allowed her to absorb hit point/ability/subdual damage, and then she healed herself with body adjustment.

I did something similar with the Strength-focused psion in a one-shot. My little shortspear and I could out-fight and out-heal the Cleric of Moradin.