Psychic Magic both in AP, setting, and corebook.


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My psychic senses tell me this might be a good time for PMs...


Conceptually, I think the 'Vancian' system works for Wizards due to the the existence of the spell as this discrete exercise of magical power that comes about through a recital of some kind.

A lot of people don't like the system because they don't like the concept of a Wizard as a caster of spells and are looking for something closer to a being that wields supernatural power almost innately even if some education was involved in honing those abilities. This type of magic has become predominant in fantasy fiction. The D&D Wizard is something of an archaic throwback in that regard, whose closest contemporary fictional analogue is Harry Potter. Personally I like the concept of magic through casting spells (although I still think it could be done a lot better and clearly a lot of the spells don't actually fit inside this thematic box). It also serves the Sorcerer less well, and the class just seems like throwing a bone to people who would rather play Rand Al'thor than Harry Potter without having gone the full distance of coming up with this more innate brand of magic that Sorcerers supposedly wield.

Psychic powers have never been depicted through the casting of spells though, and are almost always depicted as either always on, or at will, or even spontaneous to the point of being out of the control of the psychic. The latter is probably not something that could be emulated very well in the kind of game that Pathfinder is (and imo can not be done well at all, although some would disagree with me). Either way though, the idea of a psychic as a caster of spells is even less thematically appropriate than the Sorcerer as a spellcaster. You would no doubt find fans of such a system were it published but it wouldn't be catering to the people that want to play a psychic character.

This isn't advocating a power point system and over all I never cared for 3.x psionics for various reasons; one of which is the plethora of discrete spell-like powers that poorly replicate psychic powers as reflected in just about any fiction (without going into the weird ectoplasmic nonsense just to be able to 1:1 mimic Conjuration magic and the displays that has psionic characters smelling, and glowing, and beeping from thinking too hard).

Shouldn't the Psychic Friends call you? Well they can only tell your future for 1 minute per caster level and require a telephonic line of effect to target you in the first place. The one case perhaps where "real" psychics might be correctly modeled with these kinds of game mechanics. At the end of the day for me the problem with spell-like powers is that they break the simulationist wall too much in a fashion similar to 4e D&D. Ultimately the reason my preternatural sixth-sense only works a few minutes per day is a narrative one, is what I'll be forced to tell myself. My spidey sense just doesn't tingle some of the time for some reason, which doesn't have any particular consistency or good explanation. I can't swing my sword this way whenever I want because reasons. Even though I know how, and my enemies are lined up perfectly for such a martial coup. Don't think about it too much and all will be well.

For my Wizard I don't have this problem, because he is a caster of spells, and the spell is what is bestowing supernatural powers onto me. Wizardly magic has it's own internal consistency and verisimilitude that just doesn't translate across the board onto all other class concepts. I have all of this magical power, but I can't perform this feat, because I haven' got the correct spell. It's the spells man. It works. Not being able to perform some perfunctory psychic feat but being able to affect the warp and weft of the cosmos with your mind because you've only got your showstoppers left for the day doesn't make any kind of thematic sense without the concept of the spell.

I'd have to echo others in wanting to see psychics in the game with a mastery of a very narrow set of powers that they have at their disposal almost all the time. The telepath doesn't have to activate an ability to read minds (and he doesn't visually display that he is in fact reading minds for the love of good taste) any more than a player has to ask if he can roll Perception to see if he can see something with his eyes.

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