Psionics or not?

[tllith]

If you play in a version of D&D which has optional psionics, would you have psi in your campaign? Why or why not?1.9.2.3

[john]

In 2, no, because at level 3 you can have a psionic throwing around disintegrates, that breaks the game pretty good.

[tllith]

I went and looked at Eldritch Wizardry -- the supplement to the little tan books that introduced rules for druids, demons, psionics, and artifacts. The psi rules there absolutely suck. Any character can be psionic. The more psi powers you have, the worse you are at your actual class... Fighters lose one point of strength per four powers (plus they lose some followers), so they get a bit worse. Magic users and clerics lose massive amounts of spells. Back when we used those rules, mid-level psionic magic users had no spells left, just psi powers.

And the psi powers are a totally mixed bag. Some are absolute crap -- one lets you create 2*level gold pieces once a month. Some are pretty imposing: my old mid-level psionic character used to be able to terrify many monsters dozens of times a day, and heal 70 points per day (which was a lot in those days). Not a bit of game balance anywhere in the feature.

And the rules are so poorly written, too.1.9.2.3

[john]

abhor the witch, burn the heretic Lousy psykers.

[Niemz]

I allow them, but nobody uses them...

[john]

Because they're full of HERESY!

[Niemz]

Mages hate them more than clerics, especially since magic resistance doesn't stop them...

[tllith]

Apr 6, 2010 20:05:50 GMT -6 john said:

Because they're full of HERESY!

So Medjai (psion/cleric) is suffering from auto-heretical syndrome?

[john]

Aye. And must be cleansed. (Not really stix)

[mathus]

The 4th Edition psi powers in Player's Handbook 3 are fairly interesting. One of my players had me assist him in rolling up a Battlemind. It is the psionic version of a fighter.

His three main powers at level 2 are:

Iron Fist - You use your weapon to do damage to your opponent. This allows you to harden your arm and fist which allows you to ignore a small portion of damage until your next turn. (In this character's case he ignores 2 points of damage from every attack.)

Demon Dance - You hit your enemy and this implants visions of howling demons in his mind distracting his ability to stop those that might provoke attacks of opportunity.

Twisted Eye - You hit your enemy flooding his mind with psionic energy causing him negatives to attack. You can increase the power you push into his mind to blind him completely.


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