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Psionics are very screwy to me. I love the idea that there is a way to tap into the magic of the Self. While Arcane effects are drawn for the magic of the world itself, and the Divine from faith, Psionic magic is entirely personal. As it seems to me, it's a way to tap into magic energy that excisits only within yourself.
The problem is the rules. I HATE psionic powers. They are clunky, problematic, and require an entirely new rulebook for the classes, and a huge effort on the DM to convert the psionic monsters. Worse, since all psionic monsters outside of the Psionic sourcebooks are given with arcane spell-like abilites, the DM can go crazy with the bookeeping.
Has anyone considered altering the psionics system by using the current spell lists? As in, when you use the power Teleport, it functions like the spell, with a few differences, perhaps, but in essence, the rules for the arcane\divine spell works for the psionic spell.
While adjustments would have to be made, particularly for Augmentations, it would be a much easier to use, and prevent all the re-writes, extra powers, and headaches that the past systems have always caused.
I'm planning on making a "spell list" conversion for the psionic powers, and I'll post when it's done. In the meantime, does anybody have any suggestions?
I'm confused. One of my biggest headaches is that they already did that. As in, if there's a psionic ability that mirrors a magical one, the power description reads something along the lines of functions as the spell. Which means I now need to look it up in another book to get my questions answered. One of the reasons why in most cases I avoid powers that overlap magical abilities like the plague. Well, that and that I think they should be different.
I used and allowed psionics quite often and never had to convert any psionic critters.
If you don't want to bother with psionic rules but still want to have psionic flavour, consider making it a feat. Eliminate all components (except material components that have a listed price).
To compensate, maybe let spells occupy a spellslot one higher than normal, or make spells require the expenditure of the psionic focus.
Of course, you will lose augment in the process (Unless you have Arcane Unearthed/Evolved and use Diminished/Heightened effects).
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I used and allowed psionics quite often and never had to convert any psionic critters.
If you don't want to bother with psionic rules but still want to have psionic flavour, consider making it a feat. Eliminate all components (except material components that have a listed price).
To compensate, maybe let spells occupy a spellslot one higher than normal, or make spells require the expenditure of the psionic focus.
Of course, you will lose augment in the process (Unless you have Arcane Unearthed/Evolved and use Diminished/Heightened effects).
I had all sorts of problems with the system and converting monsters over, even when they had a lot of the powers listed for psionic beings. Maybe part of it is a matter of taste- it's stuck in a seperate rulebook, and there's a lot of powers to memorize. I prefer to be able to look up things as fast as possible. Plus, a lot of similar effects had totally different names. Ugh- like I said, it's probably a matter of taste.
Spells/Psionics
For now our plan is to stay with the 3.5 spell system @ least until August and probably (due to amount of material in 3.5) longer, the way it looks.
One of the new ideas were trying, due to our overwhelming enjoyment of Psionics is divide Arcane magic, Divine magic and Psionics into their own entities.
Now don’t get upset yet, please keep reading and see what you think.
Do to all that talk about Psionics as of late we decided to put together our own little system that @ the end of the day could easily add other types of energies without any problems.
We wanted to show in game mechanics as well as in flavour that there could be some differences yet for the most part nothing would change, here are some examples on either side.
Any type of detect invisibility or anything that is focused on one thing works exactly the same between all 3. Thus a Psions invisibility is seen by a Mages detect invisibility spell.
Areas that were dead magic or null psionic zones become “DEAD ZONES” and none of the three energies work within. The same is to be said with Anti-magic spell and Null psionic field none of the three works within them and you can call these “ANTI ENERGY AREAS’.
DISPELLING EFFECTS-Now, with dispelling of two of the same types of energy Arcane vs. Arcane for example, the rules stay the same as in the handbooks, that being the DC check is 11 + spells caster level. When the difference occurs is when you mix say psionics with either of the magic types (arcane, divine) or one magic type against the other @ which point the DC check becomes 13 + spells/powers caster/manifester level, thus raising the DC of any two different energies mixed together by 2. This is due to the two different energies, which are their own entities colliding with one another and seeing which one will prevail (feats could bring down these effects).
SPELL/POWER RESISTANCE & SAVINGS THROWS-There is no spell/power resistance anymore it is now “PERSONAL or BODY RESISTANCE. Due to your body wanting too fend off certain energies that mean to cause you harm, your body automatically tries to fight off these energies. For this reason Body Resistance works equally well against all three energies directed @ it.
There is no change to savings throws what so ever.
DETECT SPELLS/POWERS-the detect magic/psionics spells/powers detect what ever type of the 3 energies are in place. All other aspects of the spell/power work as stated in the descriptor.
These are some ideas of how we are trying to integrate all aspects of spells/psionics together.