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What’s The Big Deal About Psionics?
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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 8571573" data-attributes="member: 907"><p>It should do other stuff than spells. There is a very strong element of "I know it when I see it" there, which I realize is not helpful.</p><p></p><p>Part of it is that spells, at least in D&D, are discrete units of power. An analogy might be that a spell feels like a program you run on reality (that is of course not an analogy anyone in-setting would make). The program/spell does the thing it does, and while you may have control over certain parameters, there's not much room for improvisation. It can do some pretty powerful things, and since it's pre-programmed some of those things can be exceedingly complicated. Many spells also manage themselves once cast – for example, <em>arcane lock</em> keeps a door closed forever unless it gets dispelled. <em>Mage armor</em> lasts all day long.</p><p></p><p>A psion instead has a more direct command over some aspect of reality. They should be able to control this in a more flexible fashion, particularly as they develop their abilities, but they should stay in their overall wheelhouse. Psions generally shouldn't be able to create things ex nihilo the way magic easily does, but should be limited to manipulating that which already exists (I am convinced that the only reason metacreativity was a thing in 3e was that the 3.0 psion had different disciplines based on different stats, which meant that six disciplines were needed, and unlike 2e they couldn't use metapsionics because all had to be available at 1st level). If they create something, it should likely be force-based and only last as long as it is actively maintained. An all-day-long effect like <em>mage armor</em> should be beyond the abilities of a psion – a telekinetic might be able to create a suit of force armor, but not one that lasts all day.</p><p></p><p>But in exchange, they should have a lot more flexibility with the abilities they do have. A wizard can have a spell that opens a lock (<em>knock</em>), another spell that can lift an object and slowly move it from one place to another (<em>unseen servant</em> or <em>mage hand</em>), and a third that throws a small object with enough force to hurt or possibly kill (<em>catapult</em>). For a psion, those would all just be expressions of telekinesis. A bard has one spell that inspires feelings of friendship and loyalty (<em>charm person</em>), another for bravery (<em>heroism</em>), and a third for placidity (<em>calm emotions</em>), but for the psion those would all be part of a telepathic ability to control emotions.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm kind of neutral on "animistic" psionics. I think a psion can certainly use their abilities to affect or emulate natural things (think Treeshapers in Elfquest), but I like to keep primal magic as a separate thing where you're dealing with or emulating spirits of the elements/nature. A psion could certainly grow wings to fly, but they wouldn't be "the wings of an eagle".</p><p></p><p></p><p>I was mostly referring to the aberration/far realm stuff some people like for their psionics. I could see this being a pathway to open up other avenues of psionic ability. Using the previous analogy of supers, this would be the domain of the Shadow King, a psychic entity that possesses people and uses their own abilities combined with his own to manipulate reality, often on a more fundamental level than psionics normally can do.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 8571573, member: 907"] It should do other stuff than spells. There is a very strong element of "I know it when I see it" there, which I realize is not helpful. Part of it is that spells, at least in D&D, are discrete units of power. An analogy might be that a spell feels like a program you run on reality (that is of course not an analogy anyone in-setting would make). The program/spell does the thing it does, and while you may have control over certain parameters, there's not much room for improvisation. It can do some pretty powerful things, and since it's pre-programmed some of those things can be exceedingly complicated. Many spells also manage themselves once cast – for example, [I]arcane lock[/I] keeps a door closed forever unless it gets dispelled. [I]Mage armor[/I] lasts all day long. A psion instead has a more direct command over some aspect of reality. They should be able to control this in a more flexible fashion, particularly as they develop their abilities, but they should stay in their overall wheelhouse. Psions generally shouldn't be able to create things ex nihilo the way magic easily does, but should be limited to manipulating that which already exists (I am convinced that the only reason metacreativity was a thing in 3e was that the 3.0 psion had different disciplines based on different stats, which meant that six disciplines were needed, and unlike 2e they couldn't use metapsionics because all had to be available at 1st level). If they create something, it should likely be force-based and only last as long as it is actively maintained. An all-day-long effect like [I]mage armor[/I] should be beyond the abilities of a psion – a telekinetic might be able to create a suit of force armor, but not one that lasts all day. But in exchange, they should have a lot more flexibility with the abilities they do have. A wizard can have a spell that opens a lock ([I]knock[/I]), another spell that can lift an object and slowly move it from one place to another ([I]unseen servant[/I] or [I]mage hand[/I]), and a third that throws a small object with enough force to hurt or possibly kill ([I]catapult[/I]). For a psion, those would all just be expressions of telekinesis. A bard has one spell that inspires feelings of friendship and loyalty ([I]charm person[/I]), another for bravery ([I]heroism[/I]), and a third for placidity ([I]calm emotions[/I]), but for the psion those would all be part of a telepathic ability to control emotions. I'm kind of neutral on "animistic" psionics. I think a psion can certainly use their abilities to affect or emulate natural things (think Treeshapers in Elfquest), but I like to keep primal magic as a separate thing where you're dealing with or emulating spirits of the elements/nature. A psion could certainly grow wings to fly, but they wouldn't be "the wings of an eagle". I was mostly referring to the aberration/far realm stuff some people like for their psionics. I could see this being a pathway to open up other avenues of psionic ability. Using the previous analogy of supers, this would be the domain of the Shadow King, a psychic entity that possesses people and uses their own abilities combined with his own to manipulate reality, often on a more fundamental level than psionics normally can do. [/QUOTE]
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