Psionics: Worth adding in?

[Bront]

Here are some of the simple tweaks to the rules I've used in my game:

1) Astral construct - can only summon one at a time. No ectoplasmic armies without a prestige class or something.

2) Energy missile - +1 to save DC for every 2d6 augmented. In general, any time you see 1 power point augment resulting in +1 save DC or the like, I recommend you scale it 2 PP = +1 DC. That way it effectively scales the same way spells do.

3) Expanded Knowledge feat - you can only take this feat once. This helps keep the people from cherry picking all the cool powers they want from other disciplines. Sure you could grab energy missile at 5th level, but then you miss out on other cool powers later on.

4) Dispel Psionics - The augment affects the cap on the manifester level, not the manifester level itself. So no augment lets a psion go up to +10 without any problems, just like dispel magic. However, if an 11th level psion augments with an extra PP, this lets them get up to +11 on the dispel check, since the augment bumps the cap up to +12.

I personally haven't had anyone abuse schism or any of the empathic transfer powers, so I don't have any suggestions there. But in general, if you can think of the most conservative way to read any given section of text in the XPH, you should be fine. And if you run into any problems, folks around here are usually quite good and rather polite about offering suggestions.

Hope this helps and have fun!

Cheers,
Vurt

They Eratad the DCs in Complete Psionic I believe, as well as Astral Construct.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

There's a few people with really biased opinions here, too (against psionics), but they can't snowball you as there's not enough of them.

You know it's interesting, but I've always gotten the opposite feeling. That there are several rather rabid pro-psionics folks around these parts (not referring to you. I don't know if I've seen you participate in a psionics war thus far). Strange, how different folks can view circumstances in entirely different ways.

/hijack

 

[MatthewJHanson]

You know it's interesting, but I've always gotten the opposite feeling. That there are several rather rabid pro-psionics folks around these parts (not referring to you. I don't know if I've seen you participate in a psionics war thus far). Strange, how different folks can view circumstances in entirely different ways.

I think there's bias on both sides. People probably are probably more likely to notice the ones that disagree with their own oppinion.

 

[Kieperr]

These comments I find interesting.

If you let them sleep whenever they want to, Psionic characters become far too strong.

If your group's party only has one big encounter, and then a peaceful uninterrupted rest in between, the psions will come out a bit ahead in power.

They interest me because psionic characters regain their power points in the same manner spellcasters regain their spells/spell slots. They have a certain number of power points per day and the rules for rest, interuption of that rest, and recent use (within the last 8 hours) apply as they do to spellcasters. The only difference is that it takes only a full round of concentration following the rest period to regain the points instead of an hour of study or prayer. They cannot regain power points every time they rest.

 

[Thanee]

I don't think they meant, that you can have your PP multiple times per day.

But if you can blow all PP in one encounter, knowing there won't be another, psionic characters are much more powerful than spellcasters, because they can manifest much more high-level powers, than spellcasters can cast high-level spells. And at a higher level, with the right feats/powers, they can manifest three powers per round (two of which at -6 manifester level, of course).

Bye
Thanee

 

[doghead]

I have, in my LEW game, a number of psionic characters. The level is around 2-3, and so far there haven't been any glaring balance issues. It is however, early days yet, so I don't really know enough to enter the balanced or not debate.

I quite like psionics, and ran a psionics rather than magic game for a while. It was quite good. But I would be less likely to include both psionics and magic. Somehow, to me, they seem to be like different genres. I think its more of a setting question. Eberron handles this quite neatly, for example.

thotd

 

[kigmatzomat]

They interest me because psionic characters regain their power points in the same manner spellcasters regain their spells/spell slots. They have a certain number of power points per day and the rules for rest, interuption of that rest, and recent use (within the last 8 hours) apply as they do to spellcasters. The only difference is that it takes only a full round of concentration following the rest period to regain the points instead of an hour of study or prayer. They cannot regain power points every time they rest.

The difference is not in PP recovery vs. spell recovery but PP expenditure vs. spell expenditure. A well equipped 18th level wizard can fire off 2-3 9th level spells before switching to 8th and lower spells. A psion can burn every PP he has in 9th level effects or lower level powers augmented to 9th level equivalent. This means that a psion is more powerful for one or two encounters (throwing 4-5 9th level effects each encounter) but will quickly exhaust their power reserve. The wizard will only be able to throw a few 8th and 9th level spells but will still have plenty of 7th & lower spells to get through the rest of the day.

This can be a big deal for some GMs who don't routinely throw multiple encounters per day as the psion seems soooo much more powerful than a mage.

GMs with the opposite style, who throw 5-6 encounters/day, bemoan the warlock because it never gets exhausted.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

This can be a big deal for some GMs who don't routinely throw multiple encounters per day as the psion seems soooo much more powerful than a mage.

GMs with the opposite style, who throw 5-6 encounters/day, bemoan the warlock because it never gets exhausted.

This is one argument I have never agreed with, because it assumes the psion is casting only high level spells, and ignores the factthat psions do not scale for free. Should i berate a 15th level caster who casts 15d6 flamestrikes, delayed Blast fireballs and such, and suggestthey throw 5d6 fireballs instead? Of course not.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Should i berate a 15th level caster who casts 15d6 flamestrikes, delayed Blast fireballs and such, and suggestthey throw 5d6 fireballs instead? Of course not.

The fact that you are ignoring with this statement is that the spellcaster can only cast so many delayed Blast fireballs before they are done. Then they have to cast other spells (either of a different level in the case of a bard/sorcerer/etc or one's that they picked when they meditated). The psionic character has the option of burning all of their powerpoints on their highest level power(s).

When you have 5-6 encounters, chances are the mage is going to be reduced to using the lower level spells at some point: either later because they didn't hold back, or earilier because they di hold back and cast the lower stuff first. The psion is never in that boat unless they choose to scale down for the purpose of saving powerpoints.

I feel fortunate in the fact that this has never been a problem for me. But then again, as I have grown older my games have taken on a combat-lite feel and our groups have really discovered how much fun it can be to do other stuff with spells/powers. In this case the wizard is at a great advantage because their spell list is limited only by their spellbook. The psionic powerlist is rather limited in comparison to that.

I would argue that the responses above about burning powerpoints quickly and "powerhogging" are accurate in combat-focused games. In those games the DM does need to be aware to occasionally give the psion a reason to hold back some powerpoints. But in non-combat focused games, I do not think this is an issue.

 

[Vurt]

To be clear to the original poster, you don't always need 4-6 encounters before rest in order to challenge the psion, but the player needs to be reasonably certain that it could happen.

Which is to say, the threat that his character may end up a not-so-innocent bystander in things to come is usually enough for him to conserve his PP somewhat and not blow his wad early with a half dozen fully augmented energy overkill missiles.

Cheers,
Vurt