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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kobold Avenger" data-source="post: 7675625" data-attributes="member: 779">I don't really care too much about the name Mystic, while I certainly would want many of the powers like Ego Whip and Id Insinuation still around I'm not too tied to pseudo-science names.  While Mystic is generic and ambiguous based on the history of D&D and the usage of that word, it's certainly one way of making Psionics not stick out like a sore thumb for some campaigns.I'm very much in the camp of 3.5e having the best approach in D&D, even though I got my start in 2e.  I remember just how bad it was trying to use psionics in 2e because of things like mental contact from psionic combat, or it's replacement of tangents.  3.0e also had the flop of psionic combat, which was generally best avoided.  I think they got the message going into 3.5e just to drop psionic combat as something to be different for the sake of being different.  With 3.5e being my preferred approach, and Mage the Ascension being another big influence, my ideas of psionics and magic is strongly in the Grand Unified Theory approach of how such abilities relate to each other story-wise.Even though I don't like how 2e psionics played at all, I think they should just have the idea of "sciences" and "devotions" being around in some form.  I feel that Disciplines should have most of it's options being spells just like other classes, there easy to compare with other classes and play with better for more of the fence-sitting-in-opinions-of-psionics DMs, these can be the "sciences".  At will abilities and other miscellaneous stuff that can't be pigeonholed into new or existing spells should be "devotions".For fitting in psionics other than being psuedo-scifi abilities, I actually feel that Pathfinder took a good approach with Psychic spells and abilities in the upcoming Occult Adventures, giving psychic phenomena a strong connection to the "spooky" feel of the occult and the paranormal with classes, in many ways quite Victorian in the feel of a bunch classes like the Medium and Spirtualist.  That's certainly one thematic approach for including "psychic" concepts in a campaign setting.Another approach I liked, was how the CRPG Pillars of Eternity basically had a psionic class in the form of the Cipher. While it basically took up the Sorcerer's slot in the same way the Chanter took the Bard's slot,  the Cipher was very thematically the strange mental talent with somewhat unconventional powers.  They fit into that game's setting since spells and magic were simply based on the manipulation of souls and their energy, and Ciphers were one way of doing it.  Though I wouldn't base anything mechanically on them, since "focus" point tracking based on damage is something easy for a computer, but more complicated for a bunch of human players.</blockquote>

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