Psions and Combat

[comrade raoul]

It seems to me that while the psion's power points make him versatile, his limited pool requires him to use his powers vary sparingly -- much more so than a wizard or especially a sorcerer must do so with their spells. Too often, psions tend to sit on the sidelines, unwilling or unable to spare their precious powers. What's more, psions (like the egoist) who concentrate on powers that improve melee combat capability are often just poor substitutes for fighters or psychic warriors.

I think the psion would be a more versatile and appealing character class if it were a bit more rugged. Psions would be okay in a fight -- but still a bit weak -- but able to rely extensively on their powers. I'd make the following changes to the class:

• Psions gain a bonus psionic or metapsionic feat at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels.
• The psion's hit die is increased to d6.
• Psions begin play proficient in all simple weapons and light armors.
• The psion's base attack progression is increased to the "medium" rate - that is, their base attack becomes as good as the bard, cleric, druid, monk, and rogue.
• The psychic warrior, now more or less superfluous compared to the psion/fighter or perhaps the egoist, is eliminated.

So the question is: does this make the psion too powerful? Remember that the cleric also has a good spell list, but is even tougher than the psion. Does this version of the psion look playable to folks?

 

[Wolf72]

If Thoughts Could Kill by Bruce Cordell

would be a good start as well.

He doesn't change anything as drastic as you have but does have the following suggestions:

an increased PP pool, not that much different at low levels, but it does significantly increase as you go up.

secondary disciplines: you can use your primary discipline stat in place of two others as well. ie you have 8 str and 13 dex, Cha (primary stat for example) is 17 ... you can use 17 as the stat for both str and dex when it comes to learning and using powers.

 

[comrade raoul]

(bump) Any other thoughts?

 

[Crothian]

I think you are making the class way too good. I'd not change the BAB or the HD. The feats are powerful in themselves, and giving weapons and armor really helps in the usefulness of the class.

However, I've yet to see any problems with the class as it is. People have used it with no complaints so far.

 

[taotad]

I'm sorry if this is something out of context relating to this thread, but the title is Psions and Combat, so here go:

I don't like changing the base mechanics for the psionic classes so much as you do here. The problem with psions is that they are weak, very weak, but probably the most flexible class in the system.
However, the psionic combat system is something of a bore. It just doesn't fit very well. As a psion you just don't want to use it. So here's my little housie:
I treat psionic combat modes (modes from here on) much more like the feat system. Allowing the players to use their modes to build on earlier selected modes. If a player would like a more powerful attack mode, he waits until the level where he can aquire a new one, and uses the mode to build up his former choice.

A psionicist specializing in Mind Blast could opt to put another mode into it, and thereby increasing the DC of the power. What this allows the psionicist to do is let another part of his consciousness into the attack, and thereby add the bonus of that stat into the mode. So a character using mind blast with a Cha of 18 (+5 DC) could melt his wisdom 16 (+4 DC) into his attack resulting in a final DC adjustment of +9.

This may seem like a powerful thing to do, but not really. Against non-psionicists it packs it's punch good, but this is not one of my problems.
Against psionicists it isn't really that good. A defending psi would fast understand what the attacking psi was doing and build his defensive mode around that understanding. It would add something more then the mindless guessing to the psionic combat and make the psionicist much more desirable to play.

Again I'm sorry to clog up your thread comrade raoul, but I'd like to keep this idea somewhere where the psion-fans are. Just let me know if you'd like me to remove this post...