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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 4798094" data-attributes="member: 54846">I wanted to give my take on psionics, since what makes it fun for me hasn't been touched on:I'm a psych grad student. So thematically it's something I"m familiar with, and fun to daydream about. I'm sure everyone also dreams about going "You didn't see me do that", or otherwise messing with folks' heads. Most of the various magical effects in the game didn't touch on this: A lot of the telepathy stuff is perception-based. I just liked that flavor. You're not actually invisible, you're just tricking someone's mind. The Jedi mind trick of suggestiveness is neat. Where the rogue is tricky because he's clever, the psion is tricky because he uses the target's own mind against them.Wizards and arcane magic users struck me as scientists (ala <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Hermes_%28Mage:_The_Ascension%29" target="_blank">Order of Hermes</a>). Magic and the effects it could produce were measurable and quatifable. Wizards had Labs where they Researched. The fireball spell is just an equation of "Latin for Fire + Somatic Component / Latin for Explosion + Bat Guano = 20' Radius of fire". In comparison, Psionics felt fluid and unspecified. Like Vulcan mind melds, or being able to "read" the emotional impressions that have tainted an object/place. That's a little less measurable and quantifiable.Psions could also sculpt their bodies. Aside from Alter Self, Polymorph, and Shapechange, there aren't any magic spells that let you alter your body. Psions could graft weapons to their arms, turn two dimensional (in 2e), make themselves light enough to run over water or run up walls, and a mass of other crazy stuff. These powers came packaged with Eastern Mysticism fluff of Kung Fu legends. The "If I meditate, my chest can deflect arrows and I don't have to breathe." That appeals to me greatly.I also just like telekinesis. Although 3e didn't let you punch people with your mind from level 1, which would've been nice. But the 3e system was very, very solid and good and sexy and I liked it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> And like FS said, there are just some stories that are more able to be told using mental stuff, than with magic. Not to mention that the mind is a strange, mysterious place, so this makes psions like explorers in the uncharted territory of the self.</blockquote>

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