D&D 3.x Still playing 3e? Share your 3.0 and/or 3.5 house rules

[Alzrius]

Or maybe I should buy a PDF of 3.x Psionics Handbook … which I assume exists.

It does, but the psionics rules (both 3.0 and 3.5) were released under their respective SRDs, so you don't need to buy either the 3.0 Psionics Handbook or the 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook if you'd rather not.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Re: psionics:

I thought Hyperconscious was a very good 3PP for psionics, especially for what it did for the soulknife. There’s also a PrCl that combines elements of the SK & PsyWar.

Also, Dragon#348 has a bunch of mindblade feats, most of which are cool and/or good.

D&D 3.x Thread 'I like psionics…'

Mar 25, 2023

…but I know my 2 favorite classes- the Psychic Warrior and the Soulknife- are flawed. I still play them & build future potential PCs using them. I like the others, too, but I almost always choose one of these two.

I have 2 questions:

1) Besides Hyperconscious and assorted Dragon Magazine articles, are there any other good resources for those 2 classes?

2) What homebrew rules have you used or seen that shore them up?

• Dannyalcatraz
• Replies: 18
• Forum: D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants

• 

 

[VHawkwinter]

I briefly scrolled through 3.Y. A major change is Soul Knife as a main character class (and no Prestige Classes). In 25 years of 3.x DMing, I have only seen Prestige Classes for PCs a few times, so I am not too concerned. (I generally prefer not, but tolerate it.) But how to do Psionics in 3.x is intriguing to me.

Or maybe I should buy a PDF of 3.x Psionics Handbook … which I assume exists. I want a little Psionics - for this adventure and perhaps Psionic monsters, but not a full blown “alternative magic” system.

There are 3.X psionics books, yes, Expanded Psionics Handbook is the main one. Much of those contents are in the SRD though so you could see them on d20srd for free. There's also the update / conversion to PF1 by Dreamscarred Press, "Ultimate Psionics", if you want much much more of it.

It's definitely a full-blown alternate magic system though.

I found a 2e adventure in Dungeon, where PCs gain temporary, minor psionic powers from a damaged gate to the Astral Plane, and then travel there. It seems interesting to me, so I might run it. I may just wing the semi-psionics bit, using what the adventure has.

If you don't want the psionics books, you might consider using Upper Krust's Challenging Ratings v5 to ballpark the value of getting individual spell-like abilities X/day, and compare it against darkvision 60 in Challenging Challenge Ratings and build some basic spell-like ability packages "as feats" that you hand out, either making them available through normal level up, or just giving them to players through plot, but having your little powers be relatively balanced against eachother.
Alternately, you can build them using the custom magic item rules in the DMG as a slotless wondrous items that do spells; divide the price by 4000 gp, and then square root it, and the number remaining is a reasonable starting estimate as to how many feats it's worth (I did some indepth analysis and conversion math between them in spreadsheets last year).