RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
|
Well, my STAP group didn't encounter the Kopru druid so I'm throwing him into the Crimson Fleet attack (FR Kraken Society imc). I'm also giving his plesiosaur an extra head and Large and In Charge, just for kicks.
That's not the point, however. The point is - I am 90% sure I'm going to swap out the Kopru for Mind Flayers - and if you're going to use Mind Flayers, then they should be done properly. Cue the purchase of the Expanded Psionics Handbook.
I've got a week before the next session and I'm trying to oversee the ramifications. I don't want to make psionics too different - otherwise they'll need to learn and research Dispel Psionics etc, not to mention me having to give the whole of Golismorga both Psionic and Spell Resistance. Though if psionics and spells are interchangeable, that means the Spellthief can also steal or suppress psionics.
Fair enough - he will have to get up close to do that, well within mind blast range. I am quite happy with her having a chance to shine in the next chapter - but I'm also nervous.
What am I missing - what are the ramifications of swapping Mind Flayers with Kopru for my game? What are the pitfalls for an inexperienced-with-psionics DM?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: Damn crossposting. I'll let other people discuss this better. Just remember, psionics and magic are assumed to be the same basic sort of thing by default. Spell Resistance blocks a Mind Thrust, you can use Dispel Magic on Entangling Ectoplasm, you get the idea.
Davi pretty much covered it. In most campaigns magic and psionics are relatively equivalent, just for ease of management; some campaigns [like one I'm playing in at the moment, though I'm playing a Binder so it doesn't bug me much ;)] impose a penalty on one dealing with the other and vice versa, but more often it's not. It's really your call as the DM.
EPH specifically says that most creatures that have Spell Resistance have Power Resistance in the same amount, and vice versa. Creatures that have a resistance to certain types of magic will have an equivalent resistance to the equivalent school of psionics (Evocation = Psychokinesis, Divination = Clairsentience, Conjuration = Metacreativity, Enchantment = Telepathy, Transmutation = Psychometabolism). Effects that grant a bonus to saves or AC versus spells also apply versus psionics unless the effect specifically notes it does not, and vice versa (or if the psionic attack states it ignores magical protection or vice versa, though I don't think any do, I could be wrong).
|
as stated above, simple is best. Psionics and Magic become transparent, and anything with SR gets PR and etc.
That being said, the Zigguraut will be much more deadly against a frontal assault, but more susceptible against stealth attacks. If you give anything with Telepathy the Mindsight feat (from Lords of Madness, may be verboten in your game...) there is no sneaking anymore -instant detection within telepathy range.
If your party is weak will-save based, they would have been dominated anyways, so the mindblast will translate well.
Other than that, remember that they are wickedly intelligent, horribly evil, and want to blot out the sun for some reason. They like eating brains and DON'T like Aboleths.
Read through the XPH closely (biggest thing to remember: you can't spend more PP than your Manifester Level in a single turn) and enjoy the purple skinned freaks!
-t
|
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
|
Thanks guys! I think I'll keep that Lords of Madness feat and give it to some bad guys. Let the party figure out some way to screen themselves! Maybe they will have to cash in some favours and get scrolls of Mind Blank ;-)
Choosing aboleth or kopru was tricky since the kopru are basically unknowns. Choosing illithid or aboleth will give them conniptions - especially the Exalted Vow of Poverty druid! I warned the player at the start of the whole campaign that there was a lesser-of-two-evil theme, so he may retire her and go out in a blaze of glory. or destroy both sides somehow!!??!
It's gonna be sweet! I'm sure they'll surprise me ;-)
Yeah, I think it's a good swap - my group also doesn't know what a Kopru is, so when they found out they were going under the island to a city full of creatures like the one they fought on the beach way back, they immediately said, "oh, that mind-flayer kinda thing - scary!" So I may as well have made the Kopru mindflayers and been done with it.
If you want to add psionics to your game, be prepared for at least one player wanting to create a psionic PC at some stage, and be prepared for a few differing opinions from your players - a lot of people don't know much about psionics in 3.5, but that doesn't stop a lot of those same people having an opinion, often along the lines of "psionics is broken". I added a psionic PC to my old 3.5 group a few years ago, and was pleased with the results. A couple of guys were a bit worried they were broken, but at least they let us try it and see. The end result was fine - he had strong mind-control powers, but nothing over the top, the party wizard was still pretty much the most powerful PC. I added a few psionic creatures for flavour, but not many. The biggest thing was probably the psion my guy came up with having telepathy and that mind sight power alluded to above - that meant the PC's became an awesome scouting group (it also had a ninja and scout in the group), so they surprised a lot of my encounters. But really, a psionic PC is really just "sorcerers the way they should have been", i.e. a narrower range of spells than a wizard, but able to use those few powers in a really flexible way.
Lastly, one thing you should be aware of with psionics and mind flayers is that adding levels of psion on top of the basic monster can get pretty nasty pretty quick, so beware of going overboard too quickly.
|
|
if you want to get REALLY mean...don't add manifester levels to your Illithid mooks til after you add melee levels.
Standard MF has 6 or 8 abberation HD, IIRC, so match that with melee levels (PF Fighter, why yes please) and don't max the CR, THEN add in Manifester levels (psion/wilder will stack with the natural psionics in the XPH version) for 1 lvl : 1 CR equivalency.
Also consider the Voidmind template (lords of madness again) and simply more HD for the larger versions -thinking zigguraut here.
finally, a 2-headed Illithid melee machine with reach on his tentacles is brain slurpingly good!
-t