Psionics?

[Thyrkill]

I'm starting a new campaign and one of my players wants to play a Psionic Warrior. I have never been a big fan of Psionics (it doesn't feel like it fits to me) but I try to have an open mind towards my group's character concepts.

I am not very familiar with Psionics, particularly in its 3e incarnation, and I wanted to know if I should let him play with it.
Is Psionics overpowered/unbalanced, or is it safe to have in a campaign?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Thyrkill

 

[Crothian]

It's fine, might be a little underpowered. At least that's what many people seem to think. Personally, if you have a n intelligent person playing psionics, they will do very well and it fits in good power wise with everyone else.

 

[Akunin]

Lots os people have expressed that Psions are underpowered when compared to a Wizard or Sorcerer, but the Psychic Warrior seems to fit in well with the PHB classes.

 

[Zhure]

If it helps your sensibilities, call it an "Arcane Warrior" and treat the psionics as spell-like abilities.

I find Psions to be underpowered and PsyWars to be about par with the other classes.

Greg

 

[UD]

The Psion is weak with bad scores, and strong with godd scores (ablity scores that is). The Psion warrior seems balanced to me.

 

[Kamard]

I suggest you rename the class, think of all the abilities as ki energy, and suddenly blam, you've got a monk who is a master of his mind as well as his body.

For example, the psionic feats such as Speed of Thought and Mental Leap are all very interesting coupled with a monk's powers, and many of the psychic warrior powers are animal affinities (claws, armor, etc).

Just change the look and feel, and suddenly you've got a tiger style philosopher-monk covered in tattoos of power, instead of a guy holding a weird crystal sharp thingy.

 

[Dougal DeKree]

power

i played a telepath and have to say psi is ok, IF you change something about the powerpoints. With the standard amount, especially if a PsiWar, you are better off with a fighter/sorcerer.

I like Kamards approach...

 

[LostSoul]

Re: power

i played a telepath and have to say psi is ok, IF you change something about the powerpoints. With the standard amount, especially if a PsiWar, you are better off with a fighter/sorcerer.

Even with the Psionic Feats?

 

[Selganor]

I don't know how far your campaign went, but to try if psionics would fit the setting it might help to try "Of Sound Mind" by Fiery Dragon (written by this board's PirateCat) for the general look and feel of psionics and psionic enemies.

If your campaign is too high for this adventure, why not do a one-shot with a group of new adventurers (you might even try out a psion or psychic warrior this way) and run this adventure in your setting. If you (or your group) don't like they way it went... too bad, but that's not as if there's a thing that can't be "explained away"...

But if you like it you might use it as a springboard for further psionic adventures or other stuff.

HTH

Selganor

http://karathis.2xs.de

 

[Kamard]

I also suggest you make up a half dozen or so psychic warriors and psions of various configurations and put them up against

a) mock-ups of your pc's

b) monsters of various CR

c) NPC's of other classes/races

At least that way you will get a hands on of what a psion or psychic warrior is capable of.

Also, look over the psionic monsters in the MM to get an example of what kind of monster races have psionics (hint- they're mostly creepy crawly tentacled deals)