Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zhure" data-source="post: 1505978" data-attributes="member: 308">I've taken a look at the psions and they seem more powerful than wizards at first blush.Upon closer examination they don't appear to be.Only 1 metapsionic feat per manifestation until epic levels. Compare to a Wizard launching a Maximized Empowered Fireball (8th level equivalent - 73 points, 17th level caster). The Kineticist (a specialist) spends 15 pp on Energy Ball to get either 15d6 (52 points of damage) at 15th level, or at 17th level spends 17 pp to get a 17d6 Energy Ball (59 points of damage). Using metapsionics the psion Maximizes for 11d6 for 15 pp (losing his psionic focus and yielding  66 points of damage) or empowers 13d6 for 15 pp (losing his psionic focus and yielding 68 points of damage.) The psion is a wee bit behind in damage, but a lot ahead in flexibility since he effectively gets Energy Substitution for free and doesn't have to prepare.We can further compare examples of Extended or Maximized powers vs spells but the wizard has relatively the same benefits. The Psion has to spend an extra MEA and an extra feat (Psionic Meditation) or a full round, double-provoking an AoO much of the time. The Wizard has to prepare in advance.- The Wizard gets a familiar for free. The Psion does not.Personally I think the balance points are pretty close. The only real way to compare the two camps is for the "Psions are overpowered camp" is to build a psion and rate it against a Sorcerer or Wizard built by the other side and do a side-by-side comparison. Too often in these sorts of debates there's a lot of talk of hypotheical wizards (Schroedingers Wizard, I call it, he's all things all the time, indeterminate). Wizards pay an opportunity cost in spellbooks and scrolls, feats and schools. Psions's opportunity costs are in their feat and discipline selections. Picking one path blocks another, so the psion who can use Metamorphic Transfer probably is an egoist and he'll be weaker than a Transmuter for a few levels because he gets his cool polymorph ability a little later. Afterwards he'll be a little more powerful.While one feat gives the metamorph a lot of supernatural options, the summoner wizard gains a lot of supernatural options via his summoned animals and at no feat cost with a lot lower risk to himself. It's all about trade-offs.So far, the arcanists and the psioncists seem fairly balanced to me.Greg</blockquote>

Verification