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<blockquote data-quote="green slime" data-source="post: 941661" data-attributes="member: 1325">Except, Spatula, you could say the same thing about all &quot;save or die&quot; spells, even at high level.The thing is, even in a climatic final battle, against the the BBEG, it isn't likely to work. It is great for getting rid of a large number of low level mooks, but against that Evil Cleric (tm) it isn't likely to bite. Nor against an enemy Psion, Wizard, or Sorcerer.A &quot;climatic final encounter&quot; will likely involve a classed creature at least a level or two above that of the PCs. With the appropriate equipment and challenge, the PCs shouldn't have a cake walk even with the Mind Blast.I didn't say it was &quot;balanced&quot;. I said I thought it was OK, that it wasn't an ability beyond that I was able to cope as a DM. Given some of the PrCs and other wacked out design features available to other classes, I find Mind Blast something relatively easy to handle.Perhaps it is because there is always at least three story threads going on at the same time, so even if this is a &quot;final climatic encounter&quot; for one thread, the PCs are in no way certain that the other baddies are going to give them the leeway to lick their wounds.A psion is reasonably in line. Somewhat weak, but with certain powers that really shine, in certain situations, and with the right set-up.IF you find it such a real hastle, there is a VERY easy workaround: Don't allow PCs to use attack modes that have a power point cost greater than the powers they can manifest.One sentence. A house rule. That is all. So easy.In my experience, the number of times this ability comes up (low level psion, with mind blast, in a climatic &quot;final&quot; encounter, aware that nothing bad is going to happen for the rest of the day, who rolls High on the DC setting roll) is so infrequent it isn't worth mentioning.Mindblast is also limited in that it affects ALL creatures within its cone-shaped blast. This should be used by the indiscriminate DM, if he has set-up a final encounter against an NPC that has been the center of PC attentions.BTW, there is a huge difference between disintegrate at 3rd level and mindblast at 4th...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="green slime, post: 941661, member: 1325"] Except, Spatula, you could say the same thing about all "save or die" spells, even at high level. The thing is, even in a climatic final battle, against the the BBEG, it isn't likely to work. It is great for getting rid of a large number of low level mooks, but against that Evil Cleric (tm) it isn't likely to bite. Nor against an enemy Psion, Wizard, or Sorcerer. A "climatic final encounter" will likely involve a classed creature at least a level or two above that of the PCs. With the appropriate equipment and challenge, the PCs shouldn't have a cake walk even with the Mind Blast. I didn't say it was "balanced". I said I thought it was OK, that it wasn't an ability beyond that I was able to cope as a DM. Given some of the PrCs and other wacked out design features available to other classes, I find Mind Blast something relatively easy to handle. Perhaps it is because there is always at least three story threads going on at the same time, so even if this is a "final climatic encounter" for one thread, the PCs are in no way certain that the other baddies are going to give them the leeway to lick their wounds. A psion [b]is[/b] reasonably in line. Somewhat weak, but with certain powers that really shine, in certain situations, and with the right set-up. IF you find it such a real hastle, there is a VERY easy workaround: Don't allow PCs to use attack modes that have a power point cost greater than the powers they can manifest. One sentence. A house rule. That is all. So easy. In my experience, the number of times this ability comes up (low level psion, with mind blast, in a climatic "final" encounter, aware that nothing bad is going to happen for the rest of the day, who rolls High on the DC setting roll) is so infrequent it isn't worth mentioning. Mindblast is also limited in that it affects ALL creatures within its cone-shaped blast. This should be used by the indiscriminate DM, if he has set-up a final encounter against an NPC that has been the center of PC attentions. BTW, there is a huge difference between [i]disintegrate[/i] at 3rd level and [i]mindblast[/i] at 4th... [/QUOTE]

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