Psionics in SCAP


Shackled City Adventure Path


I'm just getting ready to start a group in SCAP, and one of my players is playing a soulknife/psychic warrior. I was wondering if any of you other DMs have psionics player characters in your game, and if so, what changes did you make in the campaign to make psionics more prevalent?

I'd appreciate any tips or pointers.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

Well, no one in my campaign played a psion, but I expected someone to. Anyhow, I switched the goblin adepts in Drakthar's Way to blues (my party just went up against a couple of them today, and were rudely awakened to the power of psionics). After that encounter, a couple of players are considering playing psionicists in the future if their characters die. In addition to the blues in Drakthar's Way, I plan on switching all references to Yaun-ti to Mind Flayers. It will entail a little work, but the evill overmind flavor will stay fairly similar. Had any of my players started as psionicists, I would have switched Felian Shard and Maavu both to psionic classes, to give the PC's an ally in their field, and changed Jil to a soulknfe to give them a long term adversary.
Hope that helps a little.


I haven't done too much but so far I've changed one thing.

Meerthan is a Cerebremancer (Psion[Seer] 3 - Wizard 3 - Cerebremancer 8 to be precise).

I've also changed the Striders (since I don't use the default deities) to a more general group of people who watch the region for events that may cause major changes. When they find such an event they see what they can learn about it then take a side.

I fully plan on making other changes. in my world magic and psioncis are about equal in use so I want to reflect that in the campaign. I just haven't gotten that far. Of course my group is only just into Jzardirune so I have time.


It depends on how much you want to use it, but I'm making a point of including some psionics into there. I turned one of the goblin adepts into a blue psion, have turned Thearynn into a full blown psion, and will be including the occasional psionic monsters here and there (crebreliths on Occipitus, some mindphwooping underdark gribblies etc. I'm trying to keep it a bit rare through, as while psionics exist, it's not as *big* a part of the world as magic.

Liberty's Edge

The Shining Fool wrote:
I plan on switching all references to Yaun-ti to Mind Flayers.

Ah... you don't have to do that. Just grab the XPH and look up Yuan-Ti. They're a psionic race, just like the mind flayers (well, the mind flayers are more primally psionic, but the Yuan-Ti are just as much a psionic race as the Elan or the Durgar.

You might want to give "Venom's Taste" a read. This is a Forgotten Realms book that deals with the Yuan-Ti and their psionics. I have not read it, but I think that I might before I run any of the chapters containing Yuan-Ti. I'm running in Greyhawk, but I still think it might be useful to get me in the right mindset.


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

While I'm not the DM in my group, I am playing a psion (telepath) in our Shackled City game. So far, my group hasn't had any real problems incorporating psionics into the game. (we just finished the sixth game last week, so we're about halfway through.) My DM has included a few psionic monsters here and there, and goes with the 'same but different' rule, so SR can still be a problem to overcome at times, and still makes my character vulnerable to dispel magic/antimagic field effects (though at a higher DC). I haven't had much of an oppurtinity to buy psionic items, but I'm doing just fine with the 'normal' magic itmes out of the DMG. So all in all, I don't think including psionics would pose that much of a problem.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Well, as Tiferet's DM, I can say that having a psionic character is not too big a problem. If anything, I think it improves the players chances, mostly against things with elemental resistances. Most of the city thinks he's a sorcerer, so the city treats him just like the others. The only psionic monster I have included, thus far, was a mind flayer during the fouth game. But now that I've read all of these ideas I'm almost sorry that I added so little. Still, I have half of the SCAP to do. I am playing in the FR, so I think I'll take ajs at his word and give the Yuan-ti a revamp.


Well, I will be running SCAP in Eberron and I plan on converting about 1/4 of the beasties to a psionic type. Plus, I am hoping that someone plays one of the psionic classes. ~WEG~ Of course, when they get some of the psi diseases, they just might regret those choices, but what can I say.


One thing we've done to accomodate psionics is make sure every creature with Spell Resistance is also granted some Psionic Resistance. Otherwise a psionic party would simply slap a dragon around. Give the dragon a similar PR as it has SR and it manages to be the correct CR again...

Creatures without SR don't need to be adjusted since a bolt of energy to the head is still a bolt of energy to the head, no matter how it was conjured.


Oath wrote:

One thing we've done to accomodate psionics is make sure every creature with Spell Resistance is also granted some Psionic Resistance. Otherwise a psionic party would simply slap a dragon around. Give the dragon a similar PR as it has SR and it manages to be the correct CR again...

That's not really an issue in my campaign, since I'm definitely playing with the magic/psionics transparency rule. The alternative would require way too much work on my part to keep things balanced. So psionics is just another form of magic, and SR and PR are essentially the same thing.


This has been discussed at length on the D&D General Discussion board. I had a player that used psionics in SCAP. If youre willing to take the time to make some NPCs and monsters they encounter psionic, as mentioned above, then it could work. A single PC psion will completely unbalance the game, likewise if no one in your group's party is a psionicist.

In the end the player recognized how unbalancing his character made the game and was willing to remake it.

Liberty's Edge

I don't have any actual Psionic players, but since Psionics is pretty prevalent in my homebrew world I replaced the Striders of Farlaghn with a Psionic organization. I like them better as I think I've developed their motives better.

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