Psionics coming to Pathfinder!


Product Discussion

351 to 400 of 540 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | next > last >>

Imbicatus wrote:
DrDeth wrote:
So, it's now your turn name five fantastic series where the casters use points.istress the word points, not just energy, since I have read many books where the caster got tired yes, but not run at 100% then out.

Dresden Files. Harry ran himself dry in the second book.

Wheel of Time. Nynaeve after ** spoiler omitted **.

The Hollows. Any ley line witch/demon.

Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series.

Codex Alera. Constant Furycraft tires all casters, but the stronger you are the longer you can last.

He ran dry, yes, but not of "points". He got tired,ran out of energy. I have never read any book where the caster talked about having "so many points" or "I ran out of points". It personal energy, never points.

Same with Versus and Alera. They could just as well be considered spontaneous Vancian.


6 people marked this as a favorite.

. . . . .


Albatoonoe wrote:
I would disagree with power points be accurate, too. Casters in fiction don't really just "run out of energy". They can either go all day, as long as they can intone their spells or whatever, or they physically exhaust themselves. I've never seen a mage expend all of his magic, as powerpoints or vancian represents.

Right. There are a number of Vancian and many

"Getting tired" and more "seem to have no real limits" but I hvae never seen anything that comes close to "points".


6 people marked this as a favorite.
DrDeth wrote:
Imbicatus wrote:
DrDeth wrote:
So, it's now your turn name five fantastic series where the casters use points.istress the word points, not just energy, since I have read many books where the caster got tired yes, but not run at 100% then out.

Dresden Files. Harry ran himself dry in the second book.

Wheel of Time. Nynaeve after ** spoiler omitted **.

The Hollows. Any ley line witch/demon.

Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series.

Codex Alera. Constant Furycraft tires all casters, but the stronger you are the longer you can last.

He ran dry, yes, but not of "points". He got tired,ran out of energy. I have never read any book where the caster talked about having "so many points" or "I ran out of points". It personal energy, never points.

Because "points" are a game abstraction to represent personal energy. You're never going to EVER find a book series that refers to "points" because that's a meta term to represent a well of personal energy in-game; a fantasy reality where characters draw on that well will refer to it in in-character terms, such as "energy" or "mana" or "arcana" or "power". If you're only going to accept someone referring to their power in "point values" your request is beyond ridiculous.


10 people marked this as a favorite.
DrDeth wrote:
Imbicatus wrote:
DrDeth wrote:
So, it's now your turn name five fantastic series where the casters use points.istress the word points, not just energy, since I have read many books where the caster got tired yes, but not run at 100% then out.

Dresden Files. Harry ran himself dry in the second book.

Wheel of Time. Nynaeve after ** spoiler omitted **.

The Hollows. Any ley line witch/demon.

Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series.

Codex Alera. Constant Furycraft tires all casters, but the stronger you are the longer you can last.

He ran dry, yes, but not of "points". He got tired,ran out of energy. I have never read any book where the caster talked about having "so many points" or "I ran out of points". It personal energy, never points.

Which is why your argument is nonsensical. DnD Fiction hardly ever if it ever has it's casters talking about slots. You're trying to obfuscate the argument by demanding a circumstance that is against the desired effect/intention of what Power Points is/are trying to represent.

PP represent the amount of energy you can formulate into spells. So the fictional character whose abilities begin to get less potent as he expends energy is represented far better by Power Points than he is by Vancian Casting which puts out the same Magic Missile for a Meteor Swarm sacrificed.

It's not about the character in question speaking directly about the mechanics of the matter but how those mechanics feel and effect the world and are perceived by the reader.

Spells Prepared, across a vast fictional library, is almost never reflected in anything beyond DnD related paraphernalia. Casters in fiction incredibly rarely have to plan out what magic they'll be able to cast before getting to the situations where they need to cast.

Power Points and Spells Known reflect fiction far better.

Fiction magic users by a far greater majority know so and so many spells and can often(Read as almost always) pump more power into making a specific spell stronger.

I can't recall how many times I've read some form of

And then Mage Tim grit his teeth as his ward buckled against the awesome power wielded against him, concentrating, he forced more power into his ward! After his master's fury relented, he felt drained. He was barely able to muster a coin's breadth of a ward.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Orthos wrote:
DrDeth wrote:
He ran dry, yes, but not of "points". He got tired,ran out of energy. I have never read any book where the caster talked about having "so many points" or "I ran out of points". It personal energy, never points.
Because "points" are a game abstraction to represent personal energy. You're never going to EVER find a book series that refers to "points" because that's a meta term to represent a well of personal energy in-game; a fantasy reality where characters draw on that well will refer to it in in-character terms, such as "energy" or "mana" or "arcana" or "power". If you're only going to accept someone referring to their power in "point values" your request is beyond ridiculous.

Silly Orthos... Don't you know?

If it acts like power points, works like power points, looks like power points... But is never specifically called "points", then it's a completely different thing.

Meanwhile, anything with prepared spells is vancian, even if they never use the word "vancian" or even "spell slots".

That's obviously fair and unbiased logic.

...Kinda like claiming that an archer Bard having Dex higher than 14 is "cheating" in a comparison between bows and crossbows (where the crossbowman spent more money on his weapon and ammo, had full BAB and Dex 18).


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Imbicatus wrote:
DrDeth wrote:
So, it's now your turn name five fantastic series where the casters use points.istress the word points, not just energy, since I have read many books where the caster got tired yes, but not run at 100% then out.

Dresden Files. Harry ran himself dry in the second book.

Wheel of Time. Nynaeve after ** spoiler omitted **.

The Hollows. Any ley line witch/demon.

Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series.

Codex Alera. Constant Furycraft tires all casters, but the stronger you are the longer you can last.

I'll name a couple more since I haven't read Alex Verus or The Hollows.

I'll toss in Obsidian again. It represents all 3 kinds of magic, Prepared casting (High magic), Divine casting (Wild magic), and Power Points (Elven magic).

The Night Angel Trilogy. All the mages in that have a pool of energy they need to draw from to do magic (even the seemingly unlimited evil mage guys apparently just draw from a nearly infinite pool of a goddess' energy as I recall was the explanation). When you're out, you can't cast any more. May not even leave you physically tired exactly. Also, you're Solar Powered.

Scarab Sages

Dragon78 wrote:
I am just happy that we will finally have rules for psychic magic. It will open up many doors like Castrovel, Vudra, Dominion of the Black, Victorian style occultism, etc..

I would be very happy if the AP released around the same time as this book was set in Vudra and/or Jalmaray.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

This is coming out next year I believe, the nearby APs are Giantslayer in spring and Hell's Rebels in fall. Maybe one of the 2016 ones? Probably not a bad idea to space it a bit ahead - gives them some time to get the kinks out.


Orthos wrote:
This is coming out next year I believe, the nearby APs are Giantslayer in spring and Hell's Rebels in fall. Maybe one of the 2016 ones? Probably not a bad idea to space it a bit ahead - gives them some time to get the kinks out.

Indeed, they probably learned from Mythic not to develop the system and the AP at the same time. Well, hopefully they did.


Rynjin wrote:

I'll name a couple more since I haven't read Alex Verus or The Hollows.

I'll toss in Obsidian again. It represents all 3 kinds of magic, Prepared casting (High magic), Divine casting (Wild magic), and Power Points (Elven magic).

The Night Angel Trilogy. All the mages in that have a pool of energy they need to draw from to do magic (even the seemingly unlimited evil mage guys apparently just draw from a nearly infinite pool of a goddess' energy as I recall was the explanation). When you're out, you can't cast any more. May not even leave you physically tired exactly. Also, you're Solar Powered

Are we going to count Star Wars as fantasy because The Force is definitely points/energy based.


Scavion wrote:
DrDeth wrote:
Imbicatus wrote:
DrDeth wrote:
So, it's now your turn name five fantastic series where the casters use points.istress the word points, not just energy, since I have read many books where the caster got tired yes, but not run at 100% then out.

Dresden Files. Harry ran himself dry in the second book.

Wheel of Time. Nynaeve after ** spoiler omitted **.

The Hollows. Any ley line witch/demon.

Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series.

Codex Alera. Constant Furycraft tires all casters, but the stronger you are the longer you can last.

He ran dry, yes, but not of "points". He got tired,ran out of energy. I have never read any book where the caster talked about having "so many points" or "I ran out of points". It personal energy, never points.

Which is why your argument is nonsensical. DnD Fiction hardly ever if it ever has it's casters talking about slots. You're trying to obfuscate the argument by demanding a circumstance that is against the desired effect/intention of what Power Points is/are trying to represent.

PP represent the amount of energy you can formulate into spells. So the fictional character whose abilities begin to get less potent as he expends energy is represented far better by Power Points than he is by Vancian Casting which puts out the same Magic Missile for a Meteor Swarm sacrificed.

It's not about the character in question speaking directly about the mechanics of the matter but how those mechanics feel and effect the world and are perceived by the reader.

Spells Prepared, across a vast fictional library, is almost never reflected in anything beyond DnD related paraphernalia. Casters in fiction incredibly rarely have to plan out what magic they'll be able to cast before getting to the situations where they need to cast.

Power Points and Spells Known reflect fiction far better.

Fiction magic users by a far greater majority know so and so many spells and can often(Read as almost always) pump more power into making a...

I gave a half dozen plus examples of well known fantas authors using Vancian. No one has given even one of spell points.

Sure, we have "running out" but that could equally apply to spontaneous Vancian.


Tels wrote:
Orthos wrote:
This is coming out next year I believe, the nearby APs are Giantslayer in spring and Hell's Rebels in fall. Maybe one of the 2016 ones? Probably not a bad idea to space it a bit ahead - gives them some time to get the kinks out.
Indeed, they probably learned from Mythic not to develop the system and the AP at the same time. Well, hopefully they did.

In this case though they are't actually developing a system, they are copy/pasting a system that is 14 years old. While the mythic rules needed more playtesting before they put out an adventure, these rules have been 'play-tested' for a long time already.


6 people marked this as a favorite.
DrDeth wrote:

I gave a half dozen plus examples of well known fantas authors using Vancian. No one has given even one of spell points.

Sure, we have "running out" but that could equally apply to spontaneous Vancian.

None of those examples uses the word "vancian", so according to your logic, they don't include vancian casting.


7 people marked this as a favorite.
DrDeth wrote:
Albatoonoe wrote:
I would disagree with power points be accurate, too. Casters in fiction don't really just "run out of energy". They can either go all day, as long as they can intone their spells or whatever, or they physically exhaust themselves. I've never seen a mage expend all of his magic, as powerpoints or vancian represents.

Right. There are a number of Vancian and many

"Getting tired" and more "seem to have no real limits" but I hvae never seen anything that comes close to "points".

If there was a minus button I'd press it.

Paizo Employee Publisher, Chief Creative Officer

6 people marked this as a favorite.
brad2411 wrote:
So when is the Playtest going to start?

Some time in the second half of October. The preliminary classes are all done and are currently being reviewed/fiddled with by the team of talented freelancers we have working on this book. When that's done, they go to editing and layout, and then they come to you.


Squirrel_Dude wrote:
Rynjin wrote:

I'll name a couple more since I haven't read Alex Verus or The Hollows.

I'll toss in Obsidian again. It represents all 3 kinds of magic, Prepared casting (High magic), Divine casting (Wild magic), and Power Points (Elven magic).

The Night Angel Trilogy. All the mages in that have a pool of energy they need to draw from to do magic (even the seemingly unlimited evil mage guys apparently just draw from a nearly infinite pool of a goddess' energy as I recall was the explanation). When you're out, you can't cast any more. May not even leave you physically tired exactly. Also, you're Solar Powered

Are we going to count Star Wars as fantasy because The Force is definitely points/energy based.

I would certainly count it as fantasy, but I wouldn't necessarily say that it was definitely points/energy based just going off of movies. Primarily in regards to running out since there aren't any occasions that come to mind where it is apparent a character runs out of force power.

Although I do feel power points work better for the Force more than Vancian because specific power preparation doesn't feel right for Force (although I would think spontaneous slots work just as well as power points in this instance).

Contributor

2 people marked this as a favorite.
137ben wrote:
In this case though they are't actually developing a system, they are copy/pasting a system that is 14 years old. While the mythic rules needed more playtesting before they put out an adventure, these rules have been 'play-tested' for a long time already.

If you have paid the *least* of attention to any single announcement regarding this book, then you'll realize how blatantly mistaken this comment is.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

@DrDeth - I can't say that I have ever run across an argument as poor as that one.


137ben wrote:
In this case though they are't actually developing a system, they are copy/pasting a system that is 14 years old.

What makes you think this?


Blazej wrote:
Squirrel_Dude wrote:
Rynjin wrote:

I'll name a couple more since I haven't read Alex Verus or The Hollows.

I'll toss in Obsidian again. It represents all 3 kinds of magic, Prepared casting (High magic), Divine casting (Wild magic), and Power Points (Elven magic).

The Night Angel Trilogy. All the mages in that have a pool of energy they need to draw from to do magic (even the seemingly unlimited evil mage guys apparently just draw from a nearly infinite pool of a goddess' energy as I recall was the explanation). When you're out, you can't cast any more. May not even leave you physically tired exactly. Also, you're Solar Powered

Are we going to count Star Wars as fantasy because The Force is definitely points/energy based.

I would certainly count it as fantasy, but I wouldn't necessarily say that it was definitely points/energy based just going off of movies. Primarily in regards to running out since there aren't any occasions that come to mind where it is apparent a character runs out of force power.

Although I do feel power points work better for the Force more than Vancian because specific power preparation doesn't feel right for Force (although I would think spontaneous slots work just as well as power points in this instance).

Once we're working from the definition of infinite uses, then either one would certainly be fine. Requiring characters to take higher level version of powers might work better to represent a force user focusing on a certain set of powers than augmentation of powers does.


That... doesn't sound like the way the force is used at all.

They clearly put more or less "effort" into using the exact same ability that they have at any given time.

Or were you still working with the "infinite uses" idea? Because, if so... how can one be presumed to augment what is infinite? If there's a connection I'm missing, I'm sorry.


Tacticslion wrote:

That... doesn't sound like the way the force is used at all.

They clearly put more or less "effort" into using the exact same ability that they have at any given time.

Or were you still working with the "infinite uses" idea? Because, if so... how can one be presumed to augment what is infinite? If there's a connection I'm missing, I'm sorry.

Eh, one second though infinite powers/spell per day means no casting mechanic will probably have any meaningful differences in play between each other.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Ah.

Under an infinite paradigm, you'd be correct: neither of the given mechanics make sense.

I'd actually probably crib a bit of 4E's psionics for Force users, myself - 'power points' that regenerate on a 'per-encounter' basis with a few minimal 'at will' effects.

If I was going really deep, I'd actually suggest a combination of two different power-point systems: power points per day, and power points per encounter. You run out of points per encounter, you're done for that encounter.

The daily part has two methods of interpretation: either you can then start digging "deep" into your daily reserves, or the amount available per encounter actually comes from your daily reserves later.

Based on the movies, I'd suggest the latter, with some exceptional force users able to - under specific, limited circumstances - ignore the 'per encounter' limit (such as the Emperor summoning a Force Storm to devastate a planet-side in the Darkhorse comics).

In the movies, I'd definitely suggest the latter: notice how the force users are usually quite sparing in their specific "flashy" uses of force at any given time... and, when they're not young and restless, as soon as they have the option, they take some time to center themselves again.

(Of course, this is attempting to make workable mechanics from movies after the fact - coming up with a reason for the mechanics to imitate narrative.)

But that's mostly me just coming up with something now.

Shadow Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
DrDeth wrote:
Albatoonoe wrote:
I would disagree with power points be accurate, too. Casters in fiction don't really just "run out of energy". They can either go all day, as long as they can intone their spells or whatever, or they physically exhaust themselves. I've never seen a mage expend all of his magic, as powerpoints or vancian represents.

Right. There are a number of Vancian and many

"Getting tired" and more "seem to have no real limits" but I hvae never seen anything that comes close to "points".

Ok, then all of your examples are discounted unless they specifically talk about the game mechanics as well. Spell levels, preperation, spell slots....the works.

Hmm, 0-0. Tie game.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Rynjin wrote:
Imbicatus wrote:
DrDeth wrote:
So, it's now your turn name five fantastic series where the casters use points.istress the word points, not just energy, since I have read many books where the caster got tired yes, but not run at 100% then out.

Dresden Files. Harry ran himself dry in the second book.

Wheel of Time. Nynaeve after ** spoiler omitted **.

The Hollows. Any ley line witch/demon.

Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series.

Codex Alera. Constant Furycraft tires all casters, but the stronger you are the longer you can last.

I'll name a couple more since I haven't read Alex Verus or The Hollows.

I'll toss in Obsidian again. It represents all 3 kinds of magic, Prepared casting (High magic), Divine casting (Wild magic), and Power Points (Elven magic).

The Night Angel Trilogy. All the mages in that have a pool of energy they need to draw from to do magic (even the seemingly unlimited evil mage guys apparently just draw from a nearly infinite pool of a goddess' energy as I recall was the explanation). When you're out, you can't cast any more. May not even leave you physically tired exactly. Also, you're Solar Powered.

Woo. Reminders to re-read some stuff. Particularly the Alex Verus series and the Night Angel trilogy. And yeah, you're pretty spot on with how the magic works in the Night Angel trilogy Rynjin.

How magic works in The Night Angel trilogy. Seriously spoilerific:
Everyone has a reservoir of energy, the Glore Vyrden (Life Magic). The "talented" need to have two further components, a conduit that allows them to tap their Glore Vyrden (can vary in size, be blocked, or even not exist at all, altering how much power the user can draw), and an ability to refill the Glore Vyrden (usually through a photosynthesis like effect, though any strong light will work, doesn't have to be sunlight). Those who can't refuel but have a conduit might use their powers once or twice in times of stress, and never be able to again, while those who can refuel and have a large Glore Vyrden but no conduit are potential Ka'karifers (basically they can gain a conduit by bonding with a very rare form of artifact that gives them other powers on top of allowing the use of their own innate Talent).

Then you've got the evil mages Rynjin mentioned, known as Vir users or Wytches. The Vir itself is a magical parasite that lives within the wytches, appearing on their skin as black vine-like tattoos (the higher their rank, or Shu'ra, the more intricate the tattoos and the more of their body they cover. Starts with the arms, only the Godking can attain the 13th Shu'ra, which appears as a crown of vir bursting out of their skull). Of the vir users, you've got the Meisters, the Vurd'Meisters (more powerful, past the 10th Shu'ra and can summon otherworldly creatures like Pit Wyrms), and the Ursuul family (royal family, extremely powerful, can also remove the vir from their underlings). They draw their magic primarily from a reservoir maintained by their goddess, Khali... which you later find out is actually gathered from every non-vir user that worships her, every time they pray to her she siphons off a portion of their Glore Vyrden. Khali controls the vir and the access to the reservoir, meaning she ultimately decides how strong a Meister or Vurdmeister may be, though she gives even more power to the Ursuuls and lets them control the lower ranks users too. All vir users have to be innately talented (i.e. have a Glore Vyrden, conduit and ability to replenish their power), but the vir parasite actually bores it's way through the wytch's conduit, increasing the power that they can channel, so that they're initially stronger... but it will eventually consume and burn out their talent entirely, leaving them entirely dependent on the Vir. The vir is also semi-sentient, and can act of it's own accord to defend the user (in the case of the Godking, his vir is strong enough to extend several feat from his body in order to parry blows, then grab onto his attackers and crush them).

It's actually a pretty fascinating magic system, while I can't say they're the best fantasy novels I've ever read, they're definitely worth the read. Brent Weeks' second series (can't remember the name right now, but the first book was called The Black Prism) has a really interesting system as well, based on drawing power from colours, with a user's rank being based on how many strands they can draw from, as well as how well they can use the colours they can access.

As for the actual discussion... I think I'll stay out of the way of it. I love DSP's Ultimate Psionics, but I'm very keen to see where Paizo go as well. I think there's room for both in my games.

Shadow Lodge

Most fictional magic works on "whatever serves the plot best".


Really? A 3pp already transferred psionics over nearly perfectly.
I'll probably ignore this in favor of them.

Contributor

2 people marked this as a favorite.

*facepalm*

Reading comprehension, folks. It truly is an invaluable skill.


Brandon Hodge wrote:

*facepalm*

Reading comprehension, folks. It truly is an invaluable skill.

You know, if you specify who you're talking to, this may be much more useful. Maybe with a little less... Pseudo-hostility.


Lightbringer's (the other Brent Weeks series) magic is indeed pretty interesting.


icehawk333 wrote:

Really? A 3pp already transferred psionics over nearly perfectly.

I'll probably ignore this in favor of them.

It's not psionics as it exists in 3.5 with Power Points and Augmentation. It's Psychic Magic, which operates off the Vancian casting system and Spontaneous Spells Known system of the Wizard and Sorcerer.

In all likeliness, you will have something similar to spells known and a number of spells of each level you can cast, withe each class having a psychic twist on them.

We already know that the Kineticist will be an 'all day caster' and will be capable of shooting fire every round, all day, with no break. Based off Mark Seifter's teaser, it's also possible the Kineticist will be able to appear to have powers like those found in the movie Chronicle; things like the ability to fly, levitate, throw, push, move, and crush objects, even creating telekinetic barriers around the body to ward off harm.

Psychic Magic will *not* be Psionics. If you want Psionics, then buy Dreamscarred Press's books.

Contributor

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Sorry, Icehawk--you're just the second poster on this page alone that's jumped to the mistaken conclusion that this book is a "transfer" or "copy/paste" (see here) of 3.5/DSP psionic rules. Which, to be fair, started with this thread's mistaken assumption in its title.

You can catch up on the actual content of this book in any number of announcement threads. (EDIT: or review Tels' ninja'ed overview, above)

Or even kick in your own ideas of what you'd like to see!


Rynjin wrote:
Lightbringer's (the other Brent Weeks series) magic is indeed pretty interesting.

Awesome, knew the name had something to do with light but just couldn't remember. Haven't finished the first book yet, so I've got some catching up to do.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
DrDeth wrote:
Sure, we have "running out" but that could equally apply to spontaneous Vancian.

Spontaneous Vancian is a nonsensical statement as Spontaneous/Spells Known is not Vancian. It's already a departure from Vancian magic. A byproduct of that is that Spontaneous/Spells Known is immediately more recognizable in fiction. It's not an excellent translation like Power Points is, but it comes admirably close. You can't push your power and you're still throwing full power spells till you run out of slots whereas the Power Point caster is more recognizably diminishing in strength as he runs out of Power Points.


Tels wrote:
icehawk333 wrote:

Really? A 3pp already transferred psionics over nearly perfectly.

I'll probably ignore this in favor of them.

It's not psionics as it exists in 3.5 with Power Points and Augmentation. It's Psychic Magic, which operates off the Vancian casting system and Spontaneous Spells Known system of the Wizard and Sorcerer.

In all likeliness, you will have something similar to spells known and a number of spells of each level you can cast, withe each class having a psychic twist on them.

We already know that the Kineticist will be an 'all day caster' and will be capable of shooting fire every round, all day, with no break. Based off Mark Seifter's teaser, it's also possible the Kineticist will be able to appear to have powers like those found in the movie Chronicle; things like the ability to fly, levitate, throw, push, move, and crush objects, even creating telekinetic barriers around the body to ward off harm.

Psychic Magic will *not* be Psionics. If you want Psionics, then buy Dreamscarred Press's books.

That was indeed who I was talking about. Though, I'd hardly call it a "copy-paste". The enhancements are quite nice, they fixed a lot of things, and made new classes.

Dark Archive

I'm mostly annoyed by the use of Kineticist. A kineticist is a psion that specializes in the discipline of Psychokinesis.
Otherwise, I'm looking forward to it.


I still don't understand why they are using the term "Occult" when the book is about psionics.

Dark Archive

pickin_grinnin wrote:
I still don't understand why they are using the term "Occult" when the book is about psionics.

Because psychic abilties played a pretty big part in occult societies.

Scarab Sages

I'm waiting to see where they go with this but speaking personally I've always preferred a points/power system over Vancian magic. I just feel more comfortable with "Mage channels more power into their attack trying to overwhelm the dark wizards defenses or Sarah channeled power into a simple light spell as they ventured into the darknesss of the cave." X power points for X damage increase or another X power points to sustain a spell on an ongoing basis over I cast light again as I've run out for my first spell or I cast burning hands a second time. Still that's just me.

I like the idea of a mage has . . .

A power core: Magic stat that acts a buffer and determines how powerful they are and a well of power (pp) that they can use to create spells, extend them, strengthen them pretty much at will as long as they have the energy.

Night Angel is interesting particular given the mage who created the Kakafirs is still alive and locked in combat with an evil/alternate personality millenia after creating them in the first place.


Jadeite wrote:
pickin_grinnin wrote:
I still don't understand why they are using the term "Occult" when the book is about psionics.
Because psychic abilties played a pretty big part in occult societies.

Hermetic ritual magic played a bigger part in most occult societies.

Dark Archive

pickin_grinnin wrote:
Jadeite wrote:
pickin_grinnin wrote:
I still don't understand why they are using the term "Occult" when the book is about psionics.
Because psychic abilties played a pretty big part in occult societies.
Hermetic ritual magic played a bigger part in most occult societies.

I'd say that depends on what you count as an occult society.

Psychic abilities are part of the occult, ritual magic is another one. No reason not to include both. I always liked the incantation system of UA.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

So Mr Hodge is there any chance of you and maybe Misters, Pett, Logue, and Jacobs doing a Alternate Earth Edwardian/Diesel Punk setting...?

With mesmerists, clairvoyants, hermetic orders, strange cults, Airships, Dreadnoughts, Colonial Wars, Queen Victoria, The Great Game - Downton Abbey, meets the X files, the LXG, REH and Lovecraft?


3 people marked this as a favorite.
The 8th Dwarf wrote:

So Mr Hodge is there any chance of you and maybe Misters, Pett, Logue, and Jacobs doing a Alternate Earth Edwardian/Diesel Punk setting...?

With mesmerists, clairvoyants, hermetic orders, strange cults, Airships, Dreadnoughts, Colonial Wars, Queen Victoria, The Great Game - Downton Abbey, meets the X files, the LXG, REH and Lovecraft?

This brings to mind Cthulhu with a top hat and monocle asking for 3 sugars in his tea...

I took san damage, didn't I?

Contributor

5 people marked this as a favorite.
pickin_grinnin wrote:
I still don't understand why they are using the term "Occult" when the book is about psionics.

It's because the book isn't about "psionics." I invite you and others to read my previous post on the historical use of that term and why what we're doing isn't that.

In short, this book is drawing from a different wellspring of inspiration, particularly the Victorian occult revival as embodied by the Golden Dawn, Theosophy, Freemasonry, A∴A∴, Hermeticism, and Modern Spiritualism. As you'll find on the other side of that link,"psionics" is a loaded term with the baggage of not only a later 20th-century age more characterized by the New Age movement, Neo-paganism, and period sci-fi, but also the 3.5 era of living crystals, blurred disciplines, and other themes that just didn't strike us as the sorts of topics we wanted to tackle in this book. And another publisher already did a stand-up job adapting material using those themes, so we're opening up entirely new realms of possibilities here.

And 8th Dwarf--while we can never discount the insane scribblings and twisted ambitions of my listed peers, I know of no such plans at the moment for such a setting, though whispered vows would strike me dead if I did, and shared. =-)

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Tels wrote:
The 8th Dwarf wrote:

So Mr Hodge is there any chance of you and maybe Misters, Pett, Logue, and Jacobs doing a Alternate Earth Edwardian/Diesel Punk setting...?

With mesmerists, clairvoyants, hermetic orders, strange cults, Airships, Dreadnoughts, Colonial Wars, Queen Victoria, The Great Game - Downton Abbey, meets the X files, the LXG, REH and Lovecraft?

This brings to mind Cthulhu with a top hat and monocle asking for 3 sugars in his tea...

I took san damage, didn't I?

Just stay away from The misadventures of Hello Cthulu and you'll recover.

I am getting the impression this wont be to my tastes, I'm fine with no living psycristals and the like but I hear psionics and it does bring to mind telepathy, body control, telekinesis, empathy, picking up the psychic residue of an event and the like. Not necessarily firestarter burning an entire secret base to the ground but still there are psychic abilities that are heavily linked to the concept.

That aside however as I said I'm reserving judgment till I can see the finished product and what you do with it.


Senko wrote:
Tels wrote:
The 8th Dwarf wrote:

So Mr Hodge is there any chance of you and maybe Misters, Pett, Logue, and Jacobs doing a Alternate Earth Edwardian/Diesel Punk setting...?

With mesmerists, clairvoyants, hermetic orders, strange cults, Airships, Dreadnoughts, Colonial Wars, Queen Victoria, The Great Game - Downton Abbey, meets the X files, the LXG, REH and Lovecraft?

This brings to mind Cthulhu with a top hat and monocle asking for 3 sugars in his tea...

I took san damage, didn't I?

Just stay away from The misadventures of Hello Cthulu and you'll recover.

I am getting the impression this wont be to my tastes, I'm fine with no living psycristals and the like but I hear psionics and it does bring to mind telepathy, body control, telekinesis, empathy, picking up the psychic residue of an event and the like. Not necessarily firestarter burning an entire secret base to the ground but still there are psychic abilities that are heavily linked to the concept.

That aside however as I said I'm reserving judgment till I can see the finished product and what you do with it.

Which is again why they're calling the book Occult Adventures and referring to the magic type as Pyschic Magic rather than Psionics. They're trying to, if not avoid, then at least not primarily associate it with those abilities. This thread just happened to be named in such a way that quite a few people are missing that.

Also, thanks for the link to Hello Cthulhu. I've had a "No I would hate a cookie" badge on one of my bags for the last 8 years and always thought it was a one off joke someone made. Now I know differently.

Contributor

5 people marked this as a favorite.

I was wrong. It's more of an art than a skill, really.

Think of it this way, folks.

It's as if Paizo announced a book called "Victorian Pulp Adventures," and a thread pops up proclaiming "Steampunk Coming to Pathfinder!"

Despite the designer's best efforts to clarify that the book isn't, in fact, drawing from the steampunk genre: "We won't be doing clockwork men, but you might get Frankenstein. Steam-power and gears won't really be a thing, but vril might! You won't be seeing monocled villains in gear-festoooned top hats and soot-covered goggles with crazy steam cannons in airships, but you might get some From Hell-inspired secret society intrigue!" people still persist:

"So, steampunk, right?"

And no. That would not be accurate. To really push down this yellow brick road, "psionics" are analogous to "steampunk" in this conception (it's a later sci-fi interpretation of a previous historical period's beliefs), and we're going the other way, thanks, and hopscotching one genre to get at the root. *Not that there's anything wrong with steampunk or psionics, mind you.*

Related genres? Yes? Some of the same basic elements, used different ways? Yes. Two different wellsprings of inspiration, even if one is inspired by the other? Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly.

***Please note this is an analogy, and this analogy should not be overly-construed to mean that Occult Adventures is Paizo's "Victorian Pulp" hardcover. It is not. Wellsprings of information translated into fantasy realms, folks. =-)


I for one like psionics. Any idea when the play test will be up?

351 to 400 of 540 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Paizo Products / Product Discussion / Psionics coming to Pathfinder! All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.