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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morrus" data-source="post: 2008073" data-attributes="member: 1">The Psionics Handbook is a hardcover book, not as thick as the other core rules books from WotC, but certainly adequate in size.The layout is very similar to the Player's Handbook - it begins with classes, and moves on to skills, feats, psionics rules and then psionic powers.  Then comes the 'DMG' part of the book, including prestige classes, psionic items and, finally, monsters.  Everything is covered well, and there appear to be no areas missing.The general appearance of the book is similar to the PHB, but without the background lines.  The text is laid out in two, rather than three columns; I personally don't feel that that makes much of a difference, but I know that some find it easier to read.  The artwork is similar in style to that in the PHB - full colour pictures of high quality.The classes chapter introduces the two main psionic classes - the psion and the psychic warrior.  If I had to use an analogy, I would say that the psion is the psychic equivalent of the sorceror, and the psychic warrior is the equivalent of a fighter-sorceror.  The chapter also introduces the concept of the psicrystal, an intelligent psionic item similar to the sorceror's familiar; this crystal grows in intelligence and power as the psion's level increases, and is imbued with a distinct personality selected at creation (this is chosen from a list).The skills and feats largely echo the magic-related skills and feats in the PHB.  Thus spellcraft becomes psicraft, combat casting becomes combat manifestation.  This is a theme repeated throughout the book (spells, skills,feats etc.) and seems slightly pointless to me: much easier would be a list of skills and feats which are used by psionic characters and their alternate, psionic names indicated.  Some of the skills and feats are, of course, new and these do not appear unbalanced.Next we have a chapter that deals with psionic rules in general.  These rules tell you how to manifest a power, how many power points this will cost and how psionic combat works.  Those who have seen previous D&D psionics rules will be familiar with the five attack and defense modes - fortnately these rules are far more streamlined than in previous incarnations and fit neatly into the 3E core rules.Next we have the powers.  These are presented in the same way as the spell lists in the PHB.  First you have the master list of powers for each of the two classes, with a brief one-line description of that power.  Psionic characters have cantrips just like spellcasters, but these are renamed talents.  The powers are then dealt with in alphabetical order with familiar entries: level, target, duration, saving throw and a description.  A couple of new, psi-related entries are also included ('display' and 'power points').  The powers themselves are divided into different disciplines (for that read 'schools' or 'domains') and many echo spell abilities of the same or a similar name.  However, there are loads and loads of abilities not covered by spells.  The powers scale from levels 1 through 9 in the same way as spells, and are far less unbalancing than in previous incarnations.The prestige classes are next.  There are four of these: the Metamind, a character who concentrates on amassing raw mental power at the expense of some higher level abilities; the Pyrokineticist, who does exactly what it says on the box; the Soulknife, who wields a shimmering blade of psionic energy; and the Slayer, a character who devotes himself to the hunting of and slaying of Illithids (Mindflayers).These prestige classes are colourful, unique and well-crafted.  I was a tad bemused by the power progression tables on each - the character stops gaining powers for a few levels and then starts again with level 0 powers.  None of them build on the charcater's existing psionic ability in the same way that most wizard or sorceror prestige classes do.The prestige classes are followed by a short section on psionic NPCs, similar to the NPC tables in the DMG.  If you use the tables in the DMG, you'll be grateful for their inclusion here - otherwise you'll just skip these 6 or so pages.Psionic Items is the next chapter.  The chapter is laid out in exactly the same way as the magical items chapter in the DMG.  There are some interesting new concepts - psionic tattoos for example, but nothing earthshattering.  Useful if not especially inspiring.  And last, but not least, we come to the monsters.  The chapter is laid out like the Monster Manual with full-colour pictures and includes17 creatures plus a psionic template that can be laid over the top of any other monster.  All the old favourites are here, although I  feel that the Illithids should have appeared in this book rather than the MM.  One minor point is that there isn't quite enough information to use any of the monsters as PC races - the Githzerai, for example, has a brief section on using them as PCs but does not provide the equivalent level for balance purposes.  I finally used them as level +2, but it was largely a guess.In conclusion- what we have here is the product that should have been made ten years go.  For the first time in my gaming career, I am going to allow psionic characters into my campaign.  The rules are balanced, and the psionic classes are equal to the other core classes.  If I have any gripes, they are the lack of uniqueness that occasionally crops up (e.g. the renamed magic feats, skills and spells).  I feel also that, if you introduce the Psion, you should do away with the Sorceror from your campaign, but that's just me!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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