Psionics-Love it or Hate It?

[Humanophile]

Psionics tend to be a bit on the weak side, but there are fixes aplenty out there. Check the WOTC site and If Thoughts Could Kill for some good pointers.

I happened to like the 2e system more, but that's because I preferred characters who had a smaller stable of powers but had to roll for success over ones with automatic spells and large spell-list access. 3e's psionics system feels more like a spell point mace character.

If you tweak a few things, though, psionics do force your "casters" to specialize. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your group, but some people may like feeling special because they can pick X power while the other casters in the party can't. And while no one psion can do everything, psionic powers as a whole can cover for arcane magic and divine. (Well, except for fireball-style big booms, which some people may consider a flavor advantage.)

And the system is a little harder than spells, but those differences are easily tweaked out. Remove psicombat, make save DC's equal to 10+ whatever instead of d20+ whatever, and the power points vs. spell slot difference shouldn't be much trouble at all.

 

[Renaissance Man]

I'm running a Ftr2/Savant9 right now, and I may never go back to arcane spellcasting classes! Heavy armor proficiency, no risk of arcane spell failure, the flexibility of a sorceror - 3e psionics rock!

 

[J Lloyd]

I believe 3e psionics to be superior to 2e psionics. Reasons:

* I think a character should be able to use an ability successfully rather than having to roll to activate a power. 2e had activation rolls, 3e uses a spell system, which allows psionics to be used without activation rolls.

* 3e is balanced better. I played in a long 2e campaign with a dwarven psionic, and he was "worm-holing" us all over the entire continent at 7th-level while our mage was just getting his hands on teleport.

* 3e treats psionics as magic, which means arcane casters havea a way of countering it. 2e psionics were near-impossible to counter.

I have a hard time using 3e psionics though for some reasons:

* Hardly any game flavor. I feel it's a spell point magic system. I've used the SRD info on psions and allowed arcane spellcasters to use spells from the Sorcerer/Wizard list. 0 level spells cost 1, 1st-level spells cost 1, 2nd-level spells cost 3, etc. Interesting little varient.

* Still overpowering. Some powers allow characters to have some really over the top capabilities.

* Psionc combat is superfluous and can be dropped.

 

[Fictionaut]

I loved psionics in 2E, but it was a guilty love, the love one feels for, say, specialty priest classes from Faiths and Avatars. You know it's cheesy and broken, but you just can't say no.

Seriously though, I like 3E psionics. I vastly prefer the pseudo-science feel to that of D&D magic, and I don't think psionic combat is any more complicated than counterspelling or the other unique nuances of magic.

I've also contemplated a psionics-only homebrew setting, though I'd probably tie all the disciplines to mental ability scores to preserve the feel of the standard D&D party. In my experience, Psions are almost always less powerful than magic-users, but are adequately compensated by the better skill selection and psionic-only feats. Thus, a psionic campaign might serve as a "low-magic" campaign as well.

And lastly, I would highly recommend checking out the psionic section at Wizards.com, as well as If Thoughts Could Kill from Malhavoc press, if you're running a psionics-heavy game.

 

[ForceUser]

Love it. Hate trying to rationalize why it would exist alongside magic. One day I'll run a campaign where psionics is the only magic.

 

[Renaissance Man]

Yes, If Thoughts Could Kill - excellent adventure, with lots of yummy crunchy bits. All hail Bruce R Cordell!

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Love it. Hate trying to rationalize why it would exist alongside magic.

Do what I do: Make psionics something of non-human (non-elven, etc) origin. Any human psion is either descended from yuanti- had been experimented on by mind flayers, and so on.

Keeps psionics alien and creepy.

 

[Voneth]

Yeah, the coversion of PHB spells into psionic powers in "If Thoughts Could Kill" psionics get the largest power library, which makes up for thier limited roles in standard DND.

In a game where you will want psionics to replace DND magic, ITCK's varient classes help alot, as does the downloads at WotC.

 

[Xyros]

My campaign uses 3E psionics exclusively for "magic," and it's great. Since the focus is on a sword-and-planet, Adam Strange/John Carter-type setting, the pseudo-science-magic qualities of D&D psionics works far better than arcane or divine spells would. 2E psionics was not well designed - overpowered and inconsistent in its rules - but I preferred that system too to regular D&D magic.

 

[Psionicist]

I like the idea, but I -do not- like how the rules are implanted in d20. It doesn't feel "special" any more, it's just another flavor of wizards and sorcerers, however, both wizards and sorcerers have much coolers spells and are a wee bit more powerful... Go figure...