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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tzarevitch" data-source="post: 138162" data-attributes="member: 1792">There is a Sword and Sorcery product (I think it was called the "Psionics Tooklit") that just came out. I just picked up a cupy myself yesterday to see if it would be of use in my DarkSun game. It has some interesting ideas about psionics suddenly awakening in a campaign world. You might want to try and find it. It is primarily about ideas on how to add psionics and run a psionics campaign. It also includes a prestige class - The Psionic Thief (or something like that), an psionic race of near-humans, psionic societies, and a sample god of psionics. It is a thin softcover and costs about $12.00 or so. Here are some obervations I have made about 3e psionics and psions. 1. Psions tend to congrgate. In Dark Sun, psions tend to congregate into entities resembling universities or secret societies. Lone psions are usually toast. Psions can't swap out their powers for new ones so they need to be around others like them who have different powers that they can use. This tends to lead to the creation of formal or informal psionic groups. I suggest you create some of these in advance and spec out the rules for membership. How does a psion use another's power? The short of it is he has the other guy craft a cheap power stone. The first guy takes the stone and makes it into a dorje. (Depending on the level of the power it may take multiple stones.) He then employs the Master Dorje feat to use the power from the dorje without burning charges, at +2 PSP cost. Note, this works better with lower level powers because higher level powers require more powerstones and the cost can become prohibitive. Some psionic groups might have a loan policy, where psion members can check out dorjes like library books. ("You can use it so long as you don't expend charges. You blow a charge and you've bought it.")2. Psions tend to know much more about what is going on than wizards or priests (and certainly more than the rather ill-informed sorcerers). Clairsentient psions are almost as good at finding out information as a priest is. A priest however has other things to do than memorize nothing but divinations. A psion with clairsentient and telepathic powers (Detect Thoughts and Mind Probe in particular) can be a frightening information gathering machine and will have no reason not to use them at every turn. Be prepared for your players to use them. If you don't want them to use divinatory powers against everyone and everything come up with some PLAUSIBLE campaign reason for some people to be able to block them. (Psionic versions of non-detection, screen etc.) Also, come up with some in campaign explanation as to who provides the answers to psionic auguries and such. I ruled that there is a Universal Consciousness comprised of the minds of most sentient beings and this Unimind is the one who answers the questions. If you know who or what is answering the questions is is a little easier to squeeze out reasons why the psion can't get an answer to every question he asks. 3. Psions tend to be mobile. Once they hit the point where they can D'Door and Teleport, expect them to do it a lot (assuming they know the required powers.) 4. Have a plan for how the law in your campaign deals with unwanted intrusions into people's minds. Mark my words, this WILL come up so be prepared for it. Few wizards (and fewer sorcerers) use Detect Thoughts much. Psions who have it will use it A LOT because it is one of the few powers they know.  In my Dark Sun campaign the psionic academies police their members like the Babylon 5 PsiCorps. While slavery is allowed and widely practiced, unwanted intrusion into someone else's mind is a serious crime. Also figure out what the powers that be in your campaign are permitted to do as far as mental intrusions against ordinary citizens. In my DS campaign commercial psions are available for hire and can be hired for "mental bodyguard" work. 5. Determine how magic and psionics interact. This goes way beyond what the PsiHB mentions about "Psionics are the Same" and "Psionics are Different" options. Players will invariably attempt to stack the effects of spells and powers that are close but not identical. (Stacking Schism and Haste is specifically barred by the rules, but there are other spells and powers that are similarly related.) (For example, if someone descovers a psionic power similar to a Slow Spell, does that automatically counter a magical Haste spell like an actual Slow spell would?) If you use the "Psionics are Different" option, decide if an item can have psionic AND magical powers. That's all I can think of that might be helpful for now. Tzarevitch</blockquote>

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