(Discussion) Psionics

[GnomeWorks]

Hey, all.

So, we've introduced psionics. Now, don't get me wrong - I love the idea of psionics, and have incorporated it into my own campaigns since I first found out about the idea.

However, I don't think that introducing something so... world-shaking as psionics should be done lightly. Yes, there's the option for having magic-psionics transparency, but there is much more to it than that. We have to look at psionics and determine exactly how it fits into the scheme of things. Do psions have knowledge of the arcane, like spell components and such, and do wizards have knowledge of psionics, like displays and such? Are spellcraft and psicraft interchangeable? If they are, to what extent? Is psionics like magic, or is it just another kind of magic?

These are important questions, and they need answering. I'd provide some ideas, but I'm quite biased... my own campaign setting has magic and psionics violently opposed, to the point where their practitioners have inherent resistance to the other. And that plainly won't work in LEW.

Anybody have any thoughts?

 

[El Jefe]

My $0.02 worth is that the magic-psionics transparency as described in the SRD is appropriate for LEW. A mage wouldn't automatically know that a manifested power is a psionic power, and if it mimicked a known magic effect, the mage would assume magic was in use. Per SRD transparency, he could "counterspell" the manifested power. He wouldn't necessarily have any psicraft skill, and wouldn't know that he had somehow countered psionics (unless he otherwise knew that psionics were in use), he would just knew that he "threw a counterspell, and by the gods, it worked!" That all works for me.

I don't know if some of the stuff in the SRD fits LEW really well, though. Some of the psionic races seem really world specific. I can't recall from the other thread; are all the SRD psionic PC races available in LEW?

I have to confess that I've thought more about psionics in the brief time since The Lost Gem started than I have in all the rest of the time that 3.0 and 3.5 have been out. Maybe LEW has started something, at least it has for me. I'm tempted to make my next LEW character psionic, but for now fear that might be too much of a good thing. Are we really going to have that many psionic adventures available?

 

[Creamsteak]

However, I don't think that introducing something so... world-shaking as psionics should be done lightly.

It's not so world shaking from my perspective. I think it's just an "optional" type of magic.

Yes, there's the option for having magic-psionics transparency, but there is much more to it than that. We have to look at psionics and determine exactly how it fits into the scheme of things. Do psions have knowledge of the arcane, like spell components and such, and do wizards have knowledge of psionics, like displays and such? Are spellcraft and psicraft interchangeable? If they are, to what extent? Is psionics like magic, or is it just another kind of magic?

Psionic/Magic Transparency extends to the effects of each. The effects of the spells specifically are transparent (anti-magic field affects psionics and such, just the same as they affect spell-like abilities). It does not extend to skills or the results of those skills (such as knowing the components or effects of the other side). That's the way the Psi/Magic transparency works in the SRD, as I recall.

That's my thoughts.

Edit: Pretend for a second that every psionic spell that a psion has is called a "spell like ability." That is, pretty much, what the transparency does.

 

[Knight Otu]

In my view, psionics was around on Enworld for a long time, storywise. Its presence is not actually world-shattering. Only some learned sages would know that psionics isn't entirely magic, and vice versa. Wizards meeting psions would know that they use different paths to do the supernatural, but would judge only by the symptoms, not the cause (unless they train in learning the differences).

That said, Psionics may very well become more prominent, and that may ask for a story arc (which different DMs can choose to follow or not), to explain. Maybe someone should beat the storyline coordinator into writing something up... er, what? OK, scratch that last sentence.

 

[Zweischneid]

So anyone can now just set up a Psionic Character?

Or there still some restrictions?

 

[Knight Otu]

Psionic classes are ok. On the psionic races, while the elan, maenads and xeph are technically ok, I'm personally iffy about the elan - not quite sure if they're overpowered for no Level Adjustment.
Also, the psionic races need a bit of a place in the world. It's ok if a player wants to provide such a place - and I really think he should do so if he plans to play one of these races.

So, not a simple "He's a maenad." but a "Many of the maenads life on a group of islands in northwestern Enworld, near the Tower of Water. At least, that's what he's been told."