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<blockquote data-quote="Frylock" data-source="post: 3011818" data-attributes="member: 38140">Yes, They're BrokenThere's one thing relevant to this discussion that my undergraduate degree in Physics taught me: theory is just theory; if reality says differently, then you must change your theory.&nbsp; Psionics are broken.&nbsp; Anyone who claims not to see that has his head in the sand.&nbsp; You can throw out any &quot;logical&quot; and mathematical arguments as to why psionics is balanced, but when there's a psionicist at the table, he's doing more damage and than even the warmage (see my home game for an example <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ) and his Call to Mind (XPH, page 82) makes him just as valuable outside combat.&nbsp; Do you think it's a coincidence that power gamers are attracted to psionics?&nbsp; They know that their characters will be the most powerful at the table.&nbsp; Now it's a matter of figuring out how to fix psionics, which I'd really like to do being that I like my players to have any character concept they want.&nbsp; I'd prefer a simpler route than many of you have provided, and I have a suggestion, but I'm not a power gamer, so I don't have the precise mathematical answer.The problem appears to be (IMHO) that a psionicist is able to increase his &quot;spell slot&quot; without any real consequences.&nbsp; That is, I've never seen a psionicist run out of power points.&nbsp; Although they always complain about not having enough, when they're complaining, they're at about 50% max, which to a power gamer is a horrifying thought.&nbsp; If a psionicist is constantly augmenting but the extra cost doesn't have the consequence of taking him out of future encounters (or skill checks, etc.), then the system is broken.&nbsp; Can anyone (other than a power gamer that thinks 50% PP = 0 PP) really say that this hasn't been their experience with psionics?So, my suggestion is to adjust the augmentations so that psionicists and spell casters are running out of &quot;spells&quot; at about the same time.&nbsp; Does that mean adding 1 to the augmentation formula, doubling the augmentation formula, or what?&nbsp; I don't know, but I'm guessing one of you guys/gals is willing to do the math.&nbsp; Go to, for example, Force Screen, XPH, page 108.&nbsp; Augmentation: for every 4 additional PP, the AC improves by 1.&nbsp; Instead, we could say &quot;for every 8 additional PP&quot; (PP x 2) or &quot;for every 5 additional PP&quot; (PP + 1).Maybe there's a slightly more complicated formula that would be better.&nbsp; For example, PP + 1 for powers of a certain type, and PP x 2 for powers of another type.&nbsp; Of course, these are just examples.&nbsp; Maybe the answer is PP x 8, for all I know (although I doubt it's that high).Granted, this solution won't balance each power as well as the suggestions above, and a uniform formula might actually make certain powers useless, but it wouldn't take a doctoral thesis to address.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Frylock, post: 3011818, member: 38140"] [b]Yes, They're Broken[/b] There's one thing relevant to this discussion that my undergraduate degree in Physics taught me: theory is just theory; if reality says differently, then you must change your theory. Psionics are broken. Anyone who claims not to see that has his head in the sand. You can throw out any "logical" and mathematical arguments as to why psionics is balanced, but when there's a psionicist at the table, he's doing more damage and than even the warmage (see my home game for an example :) ) and his Call to Mind (XPH, page 82) makes him just as valuable outside combat. Do you think it's a coincidence that power gamers are attracted to psionics? They know that their characters will be the most powerful at the table. Now it's a matter of figuring out how to fix psionics, which I'd really like to do being that I like my players to have any character concept they want. I'd prefer a simpler route than many of you have provided, and I have a suggestion, but I'm not a power gamer, so I don't have the precise mathematical answer. The problem appears to be (IMHO) that a psionicist is able to increase his "spell slot" without any real consequences. That is, I've never seen a psionicist run out of power points. Although they always complain about not having enough, when they're complaining, they're at about 50% max, which to a power gamer is a horrifying thought. If a psionicist is constantly augmenting but the extra cost doesn't have the consequence of taking him out of future encounters (or skill checks, etc.), then the system is broken. Can anyone (other than a power gamer that thinks 50% PP = 0 PP) really say that this hasn't been their experience with psionics? So, my suggestion is to adjust the augmentations so that psionicists and spell casters are running out of "spells" at about the same time. Does that mean adding 1 to the augmentation formula, doubling the augmentation formula, or what? I don't know, but I'm guessing one of you guys/gals is willing to do the math. Go to, for example, Force Screen, XPH, page 108. Augmentation: for every 4 additional PP, the AC improves by 1. Instead, we could say "for every 8 additional PP" (PP x 2) or "for every 5 additional PP" (PP + 1). Maybe there's a slightly more complicated formula that would be better. For example, PP + 1 for powers of a certain type, and PP x 2 for powers of another type. Of course, these are just examples. Maybe the answer is PP x 8, for all I know (although I doubt it's that high). Granted, this solution won't balance each power as well as the suggestions above, and a uniform formula might actually make certain powers useless, but it wouldn't take a doctoral thesis to address. [/QUOTE]

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