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Question RE: Psionics
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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 340666" data-attributes="member: 907"><p>At low ability levels, psions get bonus power points for stats that equal what a spellcaster would get if you converted him to power points. However, at higher ability scores, where a spellcaster would start getting two bonus spells instead of just one, psions just get two more power points instead of the equivalent of one more power.</p><p></p><p>For example, a 10th level seer with Wisdom 16 would get 1+3+5 bonus power points, the equivalent of one 1st, one 2nd and one 3rd level power. A 10th level sorcerer with Charisma 16 would get one 1st, one 2nd and one 3rd level bonus spell.</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, a 10th level seer with Wisdom 24 would get 3+5+7+7+9 power points - equivalent of one 2nd, one 3rd, two 4th and one 5th level power. A sorcerer would instead get two 1st, two 2nd, two 3rd, one 4th and one 5th level power. The psion sort of trades in all the second bonus powers he should get for one bonus power of one level higher (in this case, one each of 1st, 2nd and 3rd level for one 4th level power). If the bonus power points had worked just like the bonus spells, the seer would instead get 2+6+10+7+9 power points - he "loses" three points.</p><p></p><p>In other words, the psion has it bad enough already when it comes to daily oomph, especially when you consider that a 10th level psion's regular power points per day work out to a spell progression of 13 0th level powers, 4 1st, 2 2nd, 2 3rd, 2 4th and 1 5th. A wizard would have 4/4/4/3/3/2 and a sorcerer would have 6/6/6/6/5/3.</p><p></p><p>Heck, even if the psion uses all his power points on his highest level spells, he can only do four of them per day (with enough for a 4th level spell afterwards) - sure, one more than the sorcerer, but the sorcerer has four more 4th level spells, not to mention six each at level 1-3. This is especially nasty because the sorcerer's spells remain useful a lot longer than the psion's powers, especially the damaging ones (the sorcerer's fireball does 10d6 damage at 10th level, the psion's Whitefire does 5d4).</p><p></p><p>But, you say, the psion can put out HUGE number of low-level powers per day! Not really. The 10th level psion, with 43 PP, can manifest 14 2nd level powers per day. The sorcerer can cast 20 2nd level powers. The only levels where the psion can output more per day than the sorcerer are 0th and 1st (56 and 43, respectively, whereas the sorcerer has 32 and 26).</p><p></p><p>Oops, this seems to have turned into one of my rants about how psionics got the shaft again...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 340666, member: 907"] At low ability levels, psions get bonus power points for stats that equal what a spellcaster would get if you converted him to power points. However, at higher ability scores, where a spellcaster would start getting two bonus spells instead of just one, psions just get two more power points instead of the equivalent of one more power. For example, a 10th level seer with Wisdom 16 would get 1+3+5 bonus power points, the equivalent of one 1st, one 2nd and one 3rd level power. A 10th level sorcerer with Charisma 16 would get one 1st, one 2nd and one 3rd level bonus spell. On the other hand, a 10th level seer with Wisdom 24 would get 3+5+7+7+9 power points - equivalent of one 2nd, one 3rd, two 4th and one 5th level power. A sorcerer would instead get two 1st, two 2nd, two 3rd, one 4th and one 5th level power. The psion sort of trades in all the second bonus powers he should get for one bonus power of one level higher (in this case, one each of 1st, 2nd and 3rd level for one 4th level power). If the bonus power points had worked just like the bonus spells, the seer would instead get 2+6+10+7+9 power points - he "loses" three points. In other words, the psion has it bad enough already when it comes to daily oomph, especially when you consider that a 10th level psion's regular power points per day work out to a spell progression of 13 0th level powers, 4 1st, 2 2nd, 2 3rd, 2 4th and 1 5th. A wizard would have 4/4/4/3/3/2 and a sorcerer would have 6/6/6/6/5/3. Heck, even if the psion uses all his power points on his highest level spells, he can only do four of them per day (with enough for a 4th level spell afterwards) - sure, one more than the sorcerer, but the sorcerer has four more 4th level spells, not to mention six each at level 1-3. This is especially nasty because the sorcerer's spells remain useful a lot longer than the psion's powers, especially the damaging ones (the sorcerer's fireball does 10d6 damage at 10th level, the psion's Whitefire does 5d4). But, you say, the psion can put out HUGE number of low-level powers per day! Not really. The 10th level psion, with 43 PP, can manifest 14 2nd level powers per day. The sorcerer can cast 20 2nd level powers. The only levels where the psion can output more per day than the sorcerer are 0th and 1st (56 and 43, respectively, whereas the sorcerer has 32 and 26). Oops, this seems to have turned into one of my rants about how psionics got the shaft again... [/QUOTE]
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