|
I was thinking about psionics, and I had an idea.
I know the current methodology of having a certain number of “power points” used throughout the day is something TPTB find problematic. And I largely agree, as at times could make the psionics overpowered as they could really pour a ton of points into a single battle. Plus it just kind of feels like caster by another name rather than the completely different concept it really is.
So I was thinking about what psionics really is, that being controlling innate psychic powers through learning to focus them. Unlike casters, in my mind it isn’t so much pulling arcane magic from external as it is controlling internal wells of power and focusing them on techniques.
So what if rather than a large pool that could be used throughout a day, we went another way with psionics. What if instead of a pool you “spend” in the course of a day, it became a much smaller pool of “Focus” points that you have access to at all times, where the amount of “focus” you are able have at a given level is equal to the amount you would need to activate (and maintain) a spell.
What if, as a result of training their innate psionic abilities, they are able to learn specialized techniques (spells) which can be listed as you would in any spell list. However in order to use these techniques, they would need to focus on using the technique using points equal to the level of the spell in order both to activate it, and to maintain it. And when I say maintain, I mean the focus points required by the spell must continue to remain devoted for as long as you want the spell to stay active, replacing spell duration.
Example a Level 1 Technique, such as endure elements, would require one point of focus be used to activate it. But, that one point of focus must keep being used each round for it to remain active.
So let us say that level one you only have one focus point. If you wanted to do use a level one technique like endure elements, you would have to use your one and only point every round in order to keep it active, and in order to cast anything else, would have to stop using that focus point on endure elements to have the point available for something else.
Level 0 cantrips could be just that, or they could be could be considered something like 1/2 a focus point. You could even add that in order to move normally, a psionic would have at least one focus point available. A psionic with only half a focus point available able could maybe complete a standard, but not a move action. Similar things could be done with completing more complicated move actions or provoking attacks of opportunity.
Level progression could be similar to a sorcerer, where you learning new techniques at each level, but are only being able to learn techniques up to a certain level following normal spell progression. Obviously available spells would have to be selected carefully, and some would need to be re-leveled given this style, but it would create a whole new style of player.
The psionic would gain the ability to not run out of spells as normal casters do, at the expense of not being able to have as many spells active at once. Battle psionics could focus on defensive and boosting spells they activate to charge into combat. Artillery could do serious damage from the back without burning spells as normal casters do, with the trade of being they will be far more vulnerable since they can’t have defensive spells active if all their points are spent on that blast.
I’m sure there are a ton of issues to work out, but I figured I would post this to start a discussion and get feedback on the idea.
|
I think you have a great idea developing. If I understand you right...
I might be playing a Psion and I might have 8 'psychic technique points' available in my pool at whatever level I am. 2 of my points are tied up in self-buffs, we'll say for 3 points and 1 point respectively, leaving me with 4 points still available. That means I can lob powers at enemies IF the powers in question require a 4 point pool or less - and I don't lose those points because they're now a ceiling rather than a currency.
Is that an accurate example of your idea?
|
|
I think you have a great idea developing. If I understand you right...
I might be playing a Psion and I might have 8 'psychic technique points' available in my pool at whatever level I am. 2 of my points are tied up in self-buffs, we'll say for 3 points and 1 point respectively, leaving me with 4 points still available. That means I can lob powers at enemies IF the powers in question require a 4 point pool or less - and I don't lose those points because they're now a ceiling rather than a currency.
Is that an accurate example of your idea?
Yes. You would have to be careful of the spells you choose to make available, but I think it could work nicely.
That's a good idea and does fit in with the idea of Psionic casters. I don't know if people who like Psionics would want to change the system though. It would a sweet idea for an entirely new type of magic/psionic user though.
|
|
As Frogboy said, this is a really intriguing idea, but I'm not sure if it is best to tinker with core Psionics at this point.
I like the idea of the character having a fixed pool of power, and having to reach into that pool round by round to either hurl some of it as damaging forces, or put up defensive effects, or perform some utility function. It almost makes the character seem like a Green Lantern or something.
Warlocks already work in a similar manner, but their invocations works purely on an action economy. They can't blast while using another invocation, but once the invocation (chilling tentacles, for instance) is out there, they can continue blasting. Using the Warlock as a base, this sort of caster would have to choose to only put a limited amount of his concentration pool into maintaining fell flight (perhaps only being able to levitate this round), to invoke other effects, such as eldritch blasts, and, to get his strongest eldritch blast out there, he would have to cancel all of his other maintained effects and 'channel all power to phasers,' so to speak.
Very neat idea!
|
|
I agree with the other posters here that have suggested you might not want to go designing a system to rewrite or replace psionics.
I'd recommend instead trying to create an alternative class feature for psions, or possibly all psionic classes (that replaces their traditional ability to use psychic powers).
Regardless of what you come up with, the trick is going to be getting the math right. Just imagine how imbalanced a system like this -- one without point expenditures -- could get without dedicated effort in the design.
It's an interesting idea, but probably very prone to abuse. Here's an example, based on some assumptions I made.
It sounds like a 5th-level caster in this system would have 5 focus points. On the first round, he could activate a levitate spell on himself (2 focus points). On every round thereafter, he could activate a fireball spell (3 focus points). (Or the psionic equivalent, of course). On every round, he would thus have five focus points activated at a time.
Or if a 5th-level caster had 3 focus points (because he could effectively cast a 3rd-level spell), that's still a fireball every round, or a levitate/magic missile every round.
It's probably workable if the caster had ~very~ slow power progression, more like a psychic warrior. Psions would then probably look elsewhere.
It does seem like it would tend toward repetitive play. "What's the best power I can access right now? OK, I'll do that until the combat is over." It'd be like a sorcerer, but even more so. A sixth level sorcerer eventually runs out of fireballs.
I could certainly see it leading to even more novas. If you have 5 points available, what reason is there not to use a 5 point power every round. You might want to consider (probably in addition to what you've proposed) an encounter-based pool that regenerates on a per-round basis.
For example, a 5th level psion might have an encounter pool of ten points that regenerates at 3 points per round. For the first three rounds, she could throw out 5 point powers, but in the fourth round, she'd be limited to a 4 point power. (10 + 3*3 = 19 points available, 15 points spend leaves 4.) And if she uses a 4 point power then, she'd be limited to 3 point powers for the rest of the combat unless she used a lesser power.
This could also help to distinguish psions and psychic warriors. At 10th level, a psion could have 15 focus points and a 20 point encounter pool that regenerates 6/round. A psychic warrior could have 10 focus points and a 12 point encounter pool that regenerates at 4/round.
All the numbers used above are values I came up with as I was writing. The almost certainly need some playtesting to find balanced values.
It'd also take some thought about how it would affect gish builds. If you can precast several low level powers (that traditionally are round/level or minute/level) and start inflicting damage in the first round of combat, that's a noted improvement over many builds that need to spend a few rounds buffing.
|
|
For example, a 5th level psion might have an encounter pool of ten points that regenerates at 3 points per round. For the first three rounds, she could throw out 5 point powers, but in the fourth round, she'd be limited to a 4 point power. (10 + 3*3 = 19 points available, 15 points spend leaves 4.) And if she uses a 4 point power then, she'd be limited to 3 point powers for the rest of the combat unless she used a lesser power.
That's fairly brilliant.
It'd also take some thought about how it would affect gish builds. If you can precast several low level powers (that traditionally are round/level or minute/level) and start inflicting damage in the first round of combat, that's a noted improvement over many builds that need to spend a few rounds buffing.
You could drag 'spells' back into the game here, if you want as well, by having a member of this class normally only able to create one effect in a round (but maintain as many as he can afford), but being able to create linked power-combos, such as '1st level AC buff + 2nd level speed buff' and activate them both at the same time.
Or skip that entirely, and allow the 'gish' with 5 focus points to fire up five different 1st level 'buffs' in a single round and *still get a physical attack!*
|
|
I think you would have to be very careful with the spell list, and perhaps have some inherent balances set up for attack spells. For example as someone said, maybe you could cast a fireball using only 3 power points while doing other things, but if the spell was set up so that each power point used was equal to 1d6 (to a max determined by level) then you would only have a 3d6 fireball unless you sacrifice more points.
At that rate, if it was one point a level, a level 20 could do the full 20d6 of damage only if they did nothing else.
Some of the variations listed are very interesting. Glad this got people thinking and people like the idea.
This system is how WoTC's Magic of Incarnum worked so perhaps a glance at that might be useful.
Also, some of the problem might be resolved if we can come up with what a Psion should and should not be able to do under this kind of system.
One of the things that I didn't like about the Psion in 3.5 is that they were just another type of caster - they had all the same "spells" available. They still cast fireballs and magic missles just... psionically.. and with different names (sometimes not even that).
So what if we take the big, explosive effects out of the Psion's domain? What if they focus on inner body techniques and the like. It might help with the balance issue people have put forth here.
Oh, and I really like this idea BTW, enough to help out however I can.
I was thinking that if you didn't want to same power spammed over and over you could make it have to recharge a few rounds that way more strategy is involved. Also you could make it so self and party buffs you maintain can't be more than your int modifier also you might want to look into how much extra focus you would get from your int modifier.
just my ideas when I read your post.
If you were going to give 1 power point per level then spell levels should probably be based on the minimum caster level needed as opposed to the standard spell level. Fireball should probably cost 5PP as opposed to 3 which, I believe, is what it costs when using Psionics anyway.
I was also thinking as someone just stated that the spells shouldn't auto-scale and should work much the same as in Psionics.
One other drawback for the system is that healing spells need to be pretty much thrown out the door for obvious reasons. Anything that grants a blanket immunity would be dangerous as well unless the level was fairly high.
I came up with a similar system where you got 1MP per level. The major difference was that they recharged (1MP/round) so if you had 5 and threw a fireball, you'd have to wait 5 rounds for it to build back up. The way I solved problems like endless flying and unlimited healing was by making some spells burn a small portion of your MPs (usually 1-3) when cast. These couldn't be restored unless you rested for 8 hours.
Actually,
This isn't a bad idea. Honestly. However, you do need to rebalance damage dealing and Healing abilities with it. I think getting rid of all the 'damage spell' abilities would be better, and make it strictly Psychokenesis for damage.
Then, you can scale Psychokenesis by level. Similar to a Warlock. So, 1d6/two levels. Psychokenesis is a straight force damage ability. Any 'modifications' would be abilities that require pool use. So, turning it into a Pyrokenesis attack (Flame thrower) would say require 1 PP per 2d6 of damage dedicated from the pool. Making your Psychokenesis an area effect might take 1 PP per 2d6 of damage (so a fireball at level 10 would be 10PP's, or everything you have).
So Psychokenesis would be the only way the psionic damages people, so no need to worry about the spells. Then, buffs and such come from the power pool.
I'd get rid of healing completely, except for a 'healer' psionic class, who heals 1d6 per 2 levels. However, it takes a long time (say one hour), but they can heal things like poison, missing limbs, lost statistics, etc at lower levels than a cleric can.
|
|
Healing couldn't be balanced at the point level, but would have to be controlled at the effect level. The healer might be able to pump out X number of healing every round, but the recipient might only be able to receive X amount of healing from thus source each hour or each day or whatever (based on HD + Con mod or something, like an amped up version of natural healing).