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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flynn" data-source="post: 3527751" data-attributes="member: 1836">Okay, bear with me for a moment. Let's assume that this, as written in your original post, is a feat available in a standard game. The standard game is modeled on 13 encounters per level. Let's further assume that the DM of this standard game creates a quarter of his encounters such that they are psionic in nature, because a quarter of his four-PC band is a psion. That's three psionic encounters per level. Let's assume that each psionic encounter has only one person that you can use this ability on, so that's three targets per level.You are 9th level when you get the feat, per the prereqs. So that means that at 9th level, you could have up to 5th level powers, right? So could your target, right? You have a modest +15 on the psicraft skill check (assuming a 17 stat at the moment), against a DC of 30, so you have a 30% chance of adding a 5th level ability. You have four chances to "download" a 5th level power before the brain doesn't work anymore. (At 9th, the target likely only has two, so you get to go for 4th level powers as well.) On the average, each encounter would give you a bonus power at your current highest level or the one right below it, and at the end of the level, you would end up with approximately 3 extra 4th-5th level powers permanently.At 10th, your chance of success goes up to 35%, and you end up with approximately 3 extra 5th-level powers, since the targets now have four powers at your highest level. You now have probably 2 4th level powers, and 4 5th level powers that you didn't have to research. (Research involves an expenditure of 200 XP per week and takes one week per level of the power, and then requires a Psicraft check to add to your list. You did these without the XP investment or the time requirements. Already, this feat has saved you around 5600 XP, right?)At 11th, your chance of success stays at 35% (because there are higher level powers, but you've upped your ranks as always). You get 1 powers an encounter, and by the end of the level, you have an additional 3 extra 5th-6th level powers. That's a savings in XP of 3600-4000 xp. Combined with the above, you've saved yourself almost a whole level's worth of XP, and you have 2 extra 4th level, 6 extra 5th level, and 2 extra 6th level powers.It just gets worse and worse from there, as the psicraft scores continue to outstrip the DC required to make the check.Oh, but wait, there's more. I'm sure the call will go up that the average DM won't make a quarter of the 13 encounters psionic, just because one of the four players in the game is a psion. Even if only one encounter a level is, that's probably an extra power over the course of a single level, with a commiserate savings in research time and XP saved for adding new powers to your list.And before there's an outcry that the standard game shouldn't have a psionic encounter every level, I'll just nip that in the bud here. According to WOTC, the DM should craft at least one encounter every level that focuses on the class abilities of each character. Therefore, each level should have at least one psionic encounter as part of the character's experience. Psionic-friendly DMs are likely to have more.Oh, and as for thoughts about the DM throwing encounters with the same powers every time, that's an invalid assumption because that does not address the WOTC directives mentioned above. As you go up in level, the CR of the encounter goes up in level, and if the target is a psion, that means that they have more powers than they did last level, powers that are intended to be used in the 2-3 rounds before the target is dropped,and thus new powers that can be absorbed.Okay, this presents in great and laborous detail why I think the feat is broken. Most PCs have higher stats and skill totals than I'm proposing, so the number of powers learned will go up even more quickly than I imply above. The character with this feat will learn many, many powers over the life of his career, without spending any XP or time as the rules usually require psions to expend in order to gain additional powers beyond their basics.Hope this helps,Flynn</blockquote>

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