Thally's new Psionics vs. Arcane RL campaign

Thalantor

First Post
After finally finding time again to start a new camapign and seeing that my Demise campaign world is far from complete I came up with a new FR campaign I am going to DM with my RL group of 6.

Below is a short description/intro of the theme I want to use. It will be a campaign I hope to run for years and will go from 1 to the 20's in levels. I've had such a campaign before, so I have some experience with the scope of things, and wanted some help from you guys to hammer out the general storyline. The idea is that in the early levels, the PC's don't really need to interfere with this, as they are still small fry, but that it is more rumors/news they hear in then world where they do their quests.

It will be a mixed group of 'standard' races with psionics and arcane in it. Perhaps I can even create some secret agenda's within the group as the psionic and arcane side starts to distrust each other. :)

The start will be in Baldur's Gate one month prior to the Festival of Fools (Which is a testing/proving ground for adventurers who would like to join guilds and organisations, as well as it is for the guilds and org's to see what new meat is in the grinder.) They are free to do whatever they want and it will be my challenge to weave them into the main story arch without them really noticing.

It will be all 3.5 with some things from Unearthed Arcana thrown in. I won't be using my Revised Masterwork system or Gunpowder system, as they still need tweaking.

Upon starting the RL campaign, I plan to present the parties exploits in a Story Hour-esque manner here on the 3ebb and on ENworld.
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Zuoken has a fallout with Mystra. This is due to her stepping in on the ethereal plane by immolating a 'rogue' thought-slayer who was about to kill a wounded advanced Couatl. This Couatl came back from negotiations with emissaries of Elsensine about how to treat each other's portfolio. What Zuoken doesn't know is that Elsensine 'changed' the thoughtslayer to do this, so this would occur.

Somehow, this conflict seeped down to Faerun, where higher ups now distrust each other on the psionic/arcane sides. No open fights are declared, but they treat each other with cold disdain, convinced that one side thinks they are superior to the other. Elsensine uses this unrest to propegate her religion under the guise of a 'new god' who does respect arcanics. This demi-God is an elevated Elan called Enetherion.

In the beginning of this year, a huge conference was held in Waterdeep to resolve the issues amongst the religion's finest. It was a heavily anticipated and tense meeting where a lot of people hoped a lot of issues would be resolved. It would be presided over by one of the best known arcane/psionic liaisons known on the west side of Faerun, the Cerebrancer Thalantyr. Huge stakes were riding on this, and all sides left nothing to chance to protect their safety and interests. Waterdeep had never seen so many guards, protections and potential for problems. It was a timebomb, with a fuse the size of a small ant.

The day the meeting began, all met in the Hall of Mirrors in Castle Waterdeep. All invitees seated in their place, and Thalantyr walked to the Speaker's Chair. A silence fell on the crowd as Thalantyr raised his hands for attention. With heavy eyes of worry, he looked at the gathered crowd. For a second, he marvelled at the sheer amount of power gathered on just one spot. But more important matters pressed, and he started his introduction.

"Dear colleques, friends and allies. We're here for one thing today."



And then his head exploded.



1.2 seconds later, all contigency spells went off, and all that was left after a massive wave of separate teleportations, were empty chairs where they sat before.


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The things I want help with is the following things:

- Should Thalantyr be in on it with Elsensine and was this a simulacrum that was destroyed? How should one go about it to make that feasible? Thalantyr could be lured with minor godhood, possibly? It would be cool if it somehow could be kept within the rules without to much DM intervention, so to speak. :)
- I want to include the red wizards and the Zentarim as power groups, so what kind of quests/influence can I use of them?
- I use the "Psionics are different" option. So, a detect magic won't detect psionics and vice versa. There are detect and dispel spells of either sides available to the other side, but they are always 2 spellevels higher. Is that too much? What other kinds of pitfalls should I expect? Will, for instance, mind blank block psionics? Etc.
 
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Also, for the Festivals of Fools.. What are fun challenges and games for the PC's besides the usual fight-to-the-death or Greased Goblin Rugby games? I was also thinking of a contest of Bardic Songs or of Wizardly wits, so to speak.

Of course a band of child thieves will be active as well as a nice psionic abducter. But I don't count those amongst the games. :)
 

Come to think of it... Should I use that whole "Silvery Psionic Moon in the sky" explanation for the appearance of Psionics in the world? Or that it's always been there? Or that it has blossomed in the last 2 or 300 years? If I choose the second option, then I am stuck rewriting a lot of FR history to incorporate psionics.. I don't feel much for the moon idea, so that pretty much leaves me with the later intro... Although I am a bit stuck as to how it is introduced without it sounding corny.
 


Thalantor said:
- I use the "Psionics are different" option. So, a detect magic won't detect psionics and vice versa. There are detect and dispel spells of either sides available to the other side, but they are always 2 spellevels higher. Is that too much? What other kinds of pitfalls should I expect? Will, for instance, mind blank block psionics? Etc.

I don't really know much about the Forgotten Realms, I must admit, but here's something to think about. Presumably the clerics of a psionic god would be on the psionic side -- in which case, the psionicists have a magic-user through whom they can "interface" with magical effects and so on. The casters likely wouldn't have that option, unless the battle isn't that polarized.

Unless divine magic plays a completely different role in this entirely. But it might lead to some interesting results.
 

Thalantor said:
- I use the "Psionics are different" option. So, a detect magic won't detect psionics and vice versa. There are detect and dispel spells of either sides available to the other side, but they are always 2 spellevels higher. Is that too much? What other kinds of pitfalls should I expect? Will, for instance, mind blank block psionics? Etc.

I think 1 level would probably be plenty, or even no levels, but make the spells less efficient somehow (-5 on level checks to dispell, etc).

I would say that mind blank would block psionic mind reading, scrying etc, just as it does magical, but protection from spells and spell turning would be useless. You have to dedcide these things on a case by case basis, I supose.


glass.
 

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