Sadrik said:
A psion's theme/niche in my mind is is three things:
1. Telepathy (mind control, astral projection, mind reading, psychic blasts, improved mental capabilities, mind-blade etc)
2. Telekinesis (force like effects: shields, walls, blasts, bigby's hands, "mage" hand, teleportation, levitate himself, fly himself etc.)
3. Body control (heal self, physical improvements, improved senses, monk-like abilities, transform arm into a weapon, make himself light as a feather, shapechange, bio-electric shocks, energy absorption etc.).
I'm sorry, but that's one of the most arbitary summaries of "what psionics does" that you could possibly hope for. Completely ignoring vast swathes of powers for no reason other than "Sadrik doesn't like them". I think all those powers should be in, by Pyrokinesis and Cryokinesis, however much you personally dislike them, are AT LEAST as much of a significant psychic/psionic "theme" as body control, if not vastly more of one. I can think of lots of books and films were psionic or psychic people use pyrokinesis than body control, frankly. It's a major idea of psionics, and ignoring it would just be stupid - sure, it needs differentiation from the arcane magic that also sets fire to things, but it should still be there.
Illusions are also one of the commonest psionic/psychic powers - false images placed in the mind. Contrary to what you suggest, psions should be masterful at illusions, not incapable.
Summoning monsters, raising undead, shooting extremely powerful and flashy blasts, randomly shrinking or enlarging things, these sort of purely-magical effects I agree should be limited to Wizards. Setting a guy on fire though? That's always been a part of psionics, and for it to go for no real reason would be pretty awful.
Rechan - If they give the powers names like "Boil the Core", it will be just as bad as it is currently, frankly, because we will be substituting stupid quasi-sci-fi for idiot anime-esque gibberings.
Fantasy and psionics can, and do, mix, without straying into sci-fi terms at all. A good example is Robin Hobb's Assassin trilogy, where the two forms of "magic" are much more like psionics than any form of typical "arcane magic". Indeed, nothing done in the books stretches outside the bounds of the most basic ideas of psionics. I understand a number of other authors have done similar things, with great success. None of them forced stupid anime/wuxia-type names on all the powers, but perhaps it's so l337 and k3wl that the kids demand it? Just because the default D&D setting is vaguely late medieval, does no mean people must be morons who cannot understand how things work - principles of matter and understanding of ways it worked, for example, date back to Ancient Greece and India, so why must psions be utter simpletons who express things in childish terms? It's one thing to dodge "real science" terms, it's quite another to drag psionics down to Exalted-charm level...
Sorry if I seem vehement, but I have to be honest - names like the ones you suggest would bug me even more than the current ones, which are, as you say, pretty irksome. I hope they have names which suggest the "disciplines" behind them and what they do, not that make them sound like spells or charms, but rather something more considered and organised, and less simply "supernatural".
I do completely agree with your suggestion that Yogic powers, the Shadow's abilities and Jedi powers (including "Dark Side" stuff) are good sources for psionic abilities. However, they should not be the ONLY sources for such abilities, given just how much fantasy there is that deal with this sort of thing. I really think the designers should be forced to read Aeon/Trinity (not the d20 version), to get some ideas about psionic powers that feel very psionic, yet aren't necessarily likely to occur to them immediately.
One thing's for sure, I'd like to see even more "mental" powers (i.e. mind-control, mind-blowing, confusion) etc. in 4E psionics, because I don't think Telepathy, which is the most major psychic power in most fiction, really gets a fair shake in D&D.
Personally, I'd like to see for psionic classes, one for each role:
Controller:
Psion - Controlling enemies via either Telepathy or Telekinesis, or both. Capable of a wide variety of effects. Maybe Cryokinesis to freeze people, or numb them, and perhaps Pyrokinesis to set them on fire (no-one likes being on fire, so it's pretty much a form of CC).
Leader:
Focus (or something to that effect) - Communicating to comrades via Telepathy, giving them extra actions with suggestions or even direct, temporary control of their bodies (that's how it's written - the player the PC belongs to still makes the decisions really), uses telekinesis to shield them, maybe move them around (out of danger, fr'ex - maybe he could use TK to push someone to the floor to avoid an attack) etc., would have typical leader healing capabilities.
Defender:
Psychic Warrior - Focus on self-enhancing abilities just like current Psychic Warrior, tough, adaptive, with little "jedi-like" TK abilities, bursts of speed, strength, and so on. Telepathy to confuse enemies (no taunts, I'd hope, but temporary confusion/misdirection), maybe to create opening.s
Striker:
Psi-sword - Hopefully with a better name, I'm crap at names. Character focused on body modification abilities, stealth, wall-climbing, etc., but also with some heavy-damage abilities, and definately, very definately a psi-sword type ability.
An alternate striker would be a "Burner" or the like, a master of Pyrokinesis, Cryokinesis, and possibly Electrokinesis, focused on blowing the snot out of single targets at close range, but this might be better as a Psion sub-role.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
