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What’s The Big Deal About Psionics?
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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8604559" data-attributes="member: 6877472"><p>Ok jokes posts aside, what I feel some DM's balk at is they don't want Psionics to just "show up one day". If it exists, it should be integrated into the campaign. There should be secret societies of psions (Elan, perhaps?), psionic monsters, psionic myths and legends, psionic items, the whole nine yards. If it doesn't have a clear origin, it needs to at least have legends about early psionics. Whether it be a gift from the gods, gem dragons, or a relic of ancient domination by Aboleths or Illithids.</p><p></p><p>And let's be fair, most campaign worlds aren't written with psionics in mind. Even the psionics lore of the Forgotten Realms is minor, and largely overshadowed by magic using cabals and nations. And if you have a home game, well, there's no room for these new powers unless you go to the trouble to make room.</p><p></p><p>So by and large, psionics can be rejected simply because it hasn't been integrated well into D&D. It's always been this optional, vestigial thing, that gets talked about sometimes, but rarely explored to the degree that magic has.</p><p></p><p>A given setting has a pantheon of Gods, but if psionics exists, it's squirreled away in a corner somewhere, like Sarlona in Eberron. And it doesn't help that psionics hasn't been core since 1e, always forcing fans to wait for a book to come out later, <strong>after </strong>the first few settings have been released (and after a new DM creates their own).</p><p></p><p>And in the case of long-running campaign worlds, the cyclical nature of how psionics will vanish at the start of a new edition, only to reappear later is particularly obnoxious. Sure, magic changes, but magic is always present. It never just <strong>disappears </strong>for years at a time!</p><p></p><p>So for decades, we have this rules element that goes dormant for long periods of time, then resurfaces later to say "surprise! psionics is back!" after DM's have either adapted to it's absence, or never had a chance to get on board with it in the first place. Of course there's going to be pushback.</p><p></p><p>I'm sure if you introduced Binders and Shadow Mages now, they'd get a similar treatment (or a free pass because it's still "magic").</p><p></p><p>And yes, I know, someone has been screaming <strong>ATHAS!</strong> the whole time they've been reading this post. Great, fantastic, so one campaign setting supports psionics. That doesn't help. It basically makes psionics as relevant to the D&D world at large as Dragonmarks.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8604559, member: 6877472"] Ok jokes posts aside, what I feel some DM's balk at is they don't want Psionics to just "show up one day". If it exists, it should be integrated into the campaign. There should be secret societies of psions (Elan, perhaps?), psionic monsters, psionic myths and legends, psionic items, the whole nine yards. If it doesn't have a clear origin, it needs to at least have legends about early psionics. Whether it be a gift from the gods, gem dragons, or a relic of ancient domination by Aboleths or Illithids. And let's be fair, most campaign worlds aren't written with psionics in mind. Even the psionics lore of the Forgotten Realms is minor, and largely overshadowed by magic using cabals and nations. And if you have a home game, well, there's no room for these new powers unless you go to the trouble to make room. So by and large, psionics can be rejected simply because it hasn't been integrated well into D&D. It's always been this optional, vestigial thing, that gets talked about sometimes, but rarely explored to the degree that magic has. A given setting has a pantheon of Gods, but if psionics exists, it's squirreled away in a corner somewhere, like Sarlona in Eberron. And it doesn't help that psionics hasn't been core since 1e, always forcing fans to wait for a book to come out later, [B]after [/B]the first few settings have been released (and after a new DM creates their own). And in the case of long-running campaign worlds, the cyclical nature of how psionics will vanish at the start of a new edition, only to reappear later is particularly obnoxious. Sure, magic changes, but magic is always present. It never just [B]disappears [/B]for years at a time! So for decades, we have this rules element that goes dormant for long periods of time, then resurfaces later to say "surprise! psionics is back!" after DM's have either adapted to it's absence, or never had a chance to get on board with it in the first place. Of course there's going to be pushback. I'm sure if you introduced Binders and Shadow Mages now, they'd get a similar treatment (or a free pass because it's still "magic"). And yes, I know, someone has been screaming [B]ATHAS![/B] the whole time they've been reading this post. Great, fantastic, so one campaign setting supports psionics. That doesn't help. It basically makes psionics as relevant to the D&D world at large as Dragonmarks. [/QUOTE]
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