How do you like to handle psionics?
>>97054340... normally?
>>97054340with my mind.
>>97054340Any attempt to form a connection with another living being can and will be met by the psychic force of the affected individual reacting, often in a way white blood cells react to foreign matter in the body. It takes considerable skill of the psychic and the trust, or incapacitation, of the affected individual to reduce the reactive response which can harm and even kill both individuals.
>>97054448People who are trusted as Healers have to master a form of emotional control so as to prevent their psychic energy from being perceived as "hostile" along with the willingness of the individual they are affecting. The level of connection allows a healer to connect themselves with the bodies of their affected target to get an extremely intimate feel for what is going on with them, using their medical knowledge and other tests to determine diagnosis or apply their own energy to affect changes in the body. This is done sparingly to prevent a form of addiction to the presence of outside psychic energy to the body akin to pain killers.
Psionics does not mean psychic powers.Psionics means a combination/augmentation of pyschic abilities with electronics.
I like how 3.5 does it :)
>>97054340The inherent power of the Soul, which can be cultivated and used as a means to do supernatural things (most common example is "Magic Kung Fu").It is different from spells, which are rituals and incantations to tap into powers that are not your own (God, Demons, Angels, The Weave, Whatever).To the observer, both are just "magic" and referred to as such.
>>97054340I like to handle psionics by making them psychic powers without electronic augmentation or combination, because psionic is a cool word and psionics/psychic powers don't exist, therefore are a fantasy concept therefore I can call them whatever the fuck I want for my own games.
>>97054340Doesn't exist. Alternatively, never a player option.
I wouldn't know, D&D keeps rebooting before it gets to psionics.
All humans in my setting are those who died during the bubonic plague, and were reborn on another world because of interstellar divine dick fuckery. Earth's magic/noosphere is inherently different to the fantasy world the human's now live on, but a part of it remains with each of their souls. When they are reincarnated, some later awaken to their past memories on Earth as a late middle ages peasant. Those who do learn to harness the remnants of earth's noosphere that is bound to their soul. Only pure humans in my setting can be psionics, though psionic types of magic still exist.Some more powerful psionics will continually be reborn and remember their past lives, with some having lived dozens of lives they can remember vividly. These psionics eventually formed a secret society they use to manipulate world events, in particular human kingdoms. Basically an immortal illuminati whose ultimate goal is to find a way to remove all humans from this alien world and return them back to Earth (though Earth at this point is like 2200AD).
>>97054340I started working on my own version of psionics for my OSR-ish shitbrew.I nicked some ideas from Caves of Qud and came up with these to make sure it wasn't just another Vancian system:>Point-based with skill-roll casting>There is a plane of pure thought called the Mass Mind>Every living thing has a "psychic glimmer" which is detectable through the Mass Mind>Psionicists have brighter psychic glimmers than normal which get brighter as they get more powerful>Trained psionicists can even draw power from the Mass Mind, but this makes their psychic glimmer brighter>If psychic glimmer is bright enough it will start being seen by monsters known as psychic horrors which will start hunting the individual's physical body>The only way to reduce psychic glimmer is via brain damage or becoming an esper>Espers are psychic horrors who steal the bodies of psionicists with duller psychic glimmers by taking over their mindsThen I stopped because I had to start writing up powers and core parts of my shitbrew needed more attention
>>97054340>Unit lost...
>>97054661>Psionics does not mean psychic powers.>Psionics means a combination/augmentation of pyschic abilities with electronics.This is something I've been debating myself.For now, I've been using "Mind" to describe the category and phenomena of using 'mental magic', both in and out of the game. Any other alternative names to this 'mental magic' (Mind) that more clearly distinguishes it from 'mental tech' (psionics), with it sounding more fantasy-like and less like a technical term?
>>97054340You first.
>>97054340it's like regular magic but purple, and it comes from your brain instead of a wand.
>>97054340Psionics are more suitable for sci-fi settings. In fantasy settings they are just mind magic with another name.
>open ended question that OP doesn't answer himselfMod thread.
>>97057062>Psionics are more suitable for sci-fi settings.How so?>In fantasy settings they are just mind magic with another name.Not if the acquisition, use of, cost, and consequences of use are different from what the game in question establishes for magic, and especially not if one power specifically cancels out the other or is anathema to it.
>>97056482"Psionics" already sound plenty fantasy-like, because they don't exist.
>>97054661Well. Not really. Psionics is the entire field / combination of study of psychic powers, technology that interacts with those powers, and the metaphysical understanding of the implications of the existence of such things in relation with everything else in reality.What you're talking about is "psychotronics". Like "electronics". Psychotronics are devices and technologies that interact with psychic phenomena.
>>97054667Which is mostly compatible with PF1e, especially due to Dreamscarred Press's update. But fair warning: many of DSP's new classes are not balanced and you should not use them. Vitalist and Dread specifically. Don't use those.
>>97055316Uhhh psionics has been in every edition since 2nd where it gained a bad reputation because it was poorly done in that edition. It was good in 3.5 and they existed in 4e.The 3.5 incarnation was definitely the best way of doing things, but in those days twenty years ago there was a burden of its legacy in 2e which caused a reactionary backlash stigmatizing it in 3.5 even though it was perfectly fine. The martial / caster flamewars were in fever pitch at the time, and just sooooo much charop forum bullshit poisoned the community. Therefore, psionics in 3.5 never got a fair look by the playerbase before 4e came along and distracted everyone with an entirely new set of drama.As an aside, just look at the book cover, jesus christ that shit was awesome.
>>97054661Those aren't psions, they're ESPers.
Spooky traumatized little girls.
>>97054340>How do you like to handle psionics?arcane magic, divine magic, mental magic aka psionics and so onjust magic equivalent, Power Resistance/Spell Resistance/Magic Resistance is the same thingwild magic areas, dead magic areas and items, spells, creatures, effects etc like spell reflection all effect it like magic as it is magic.
>>97059270
>>97054340It's just magic, but scifiAnd RIP to a legend>>97057168Anon just wanted to pay respects to Udo Kier
>>97054340>Yuri, are you done eating?>No, Comrade Premier, I have only begun...
>>97054340It's like a bell curve meme.>dumb ape: psionics is the same as magic, just reflavored >mentalist: actually psionics is fundamentally different from magic, here's 3 threads and 40 pages of mechanics that explain my thought process in detail>transcendent being: when you look at it deeply enough, psionics IS basically the same thing as magic.
>>97054340dice+6d20Let's see
>>97054661Nope, usage is meaning.
obligatory also rip yuri
/thread.
>>97058026No edition of D&D has ever featured the best way of doing anything.
>>97054340"Poorly", according to my players. Whenever they invite anyone over to my house and they end up being psionic I give them a firm mental warning to quickly leave my house and that I don't want them in my head. If they keep ignoring my mental warnings then I obviously don't want them to fuck with my head at all, then to counteract their psionics I go for a complete surprise attack, lunge across the table. Psionics read your mind, but I've trained myself to control my thoughts, and they're usually so close any reaction would be pointless anyway. These fuckers like to think they're so much better than everyone else so it's really easy to get them in close range.Some of the people they've invited to my table were fine, it was just a few who were psionically "gifted". One of them really freaked out when I lept on the guy (because that's what psions do, they make you sympathetic to them) and said he'd stop playing, but he still comes around, I don't think he wised up against them, I think it's just that no one else wanted to be a GM.Fuck you, you telepathic-kinetic bastards. I know my dice are perfectly balanced, so I know when you've turned them in your favor, I know the game notes I've written, you can't control the session.
>>97061944I should clarify, the 3.5 version of psionics was the best version of D&D's psionics...You're welcome to provide an example of a game that does psionics better or best, by the way.And as much as I like GURPS, we need to make sure no one accidentally mentions its way of doing psionics as anything but an abysmal failure.
>>97054340Depends. If i have to pull it in D&D (or in any other game that makes this thematic divide) i treat "psionics" as the mechanic for "innate powers" (throwing in the trashcan any other convoluted permutation of bloodline magic like sorcery, in this case it's mutually exclusive), so any creature with innate supernatural capabilities gets tagged as psionic, with due thematic exceptions, for example dragons in this case became "wizards" using arcane magic.
>>97058026Psionics showed up way back in OD&D. It is the reason every single powerful monster in the 1e monster books has every single psionic offense and defense mode.
>>97058026IIRC psionics made sense in the context of Dark Sun, where they first(?) appeared, because whole magic system of that place was fucked sideways.
>>97061944The best way to suck, maybe.
>>97059654Psionics exist?
>>97063504Psionics can make sense in just about any setting where there's any kind of supernatural anything.What people actually complain about is the stylistic clash. If your story is about classic fairy tales, knights and dragons, lords and peasants, that kind of thing, then introducing something that has a more science-like vibe will clash with the artistic style of your story.In most kitchen sink settings, though, there's all kinds of weird and wacky shit, and psionics is not the most bizarre. If you have gnomes inventing crazy flying machines, psionics is not too science-y. If you have eldritch aliens from beyond time and space coming back from the future to eat brains and grow their empire that will one day conquer the stars, psionics is not too weird. If you have magical crystals of spiritual energies and mystical powers, then storing minds or memories within their crystal lattice structure is not dissimilar. If you have alternative planes of existence where demons and gods dwell, then dreamscapes and astral travel are not dissimilar. If you have mages throwing fireballs with a gesture and scrying upon people to watch them masturbate, then mind-reading and teleportation aren't too much (and spells already do those things too).Indeed, the hard part of including psionics is justifying its reason to exist as anything distinct. If it isn't just magic, how is it not like magic? If it is just another kind of magic, why should anyone call it anything different? In terms of narrative construction, psionics is just magic. In terms of the people within the story, they can have all kinds of feelings and perceptions about the distinctions between different ways of doing things. An invoker is definitely not a necromancer. A priest's miracle of resurrection is definitely not like a secular alchemist's animation of a golem.And a psion's direct imposition of his will upon reality is not like a mage's fucking around with incantations to beg the cosmic forces for favors
>>97064319Well said. I greatly like the idea of psionics being 'cheating' or just pure brute force of will, rather than something 'native' to the world, like magic. Psionics comes from a strange place that follows none of the rules of the universe they are brought out into. That makes them fearsome, but also a danger to themselves.
>>970619443.x set the tone for psionic's identity in my opinion and I prefer the idea of psionic dice versus power points (which I think should be something the sorcerer should use if we need to insist on its continued existence).I suppose the final deal is to reconcile psionics as a "power source" as I've always hated psionics being its own thing and never understood why it isn't just a subset of the regular magic wizards use.
>>97054340The Dark Sun way.
I personally prefer a strong distinction between magic and psionics, both in terms of flavor and in terms of mechanics. While game balance will generally require that the effects generated fall within similar constraints, the resources used, the manner in which they are used, and the manner in which powers are gained can and should all differ between one and the other.In games I run, "magic" is the achievement of output through metaphysical inputs, as contrasted with physical inputs. But there are metaphysical laws to the universe, just as there are physical ones, and it is a viable area of study--even though academics must occasionally throw up their hands and say that things work that way because the spirits want them to.Psionics, by contrast, amount more to cheating the system than anything else. The universe isn't perfect and the physical and metaphysical laws that govern it have...flaws. In a mathematical sense, one might call them rounding errors. One who has seen the underlying structure of the universe can come to understand how to identify and exploit those flaws in the universe through sheer force of mental effort. Doing so always produces a visual display--a broken, colorful mandala around the manifestor's head--as their mental effort produces strain on the fabric of reality itself.
>>97059270This, Especially if she grows up to become a pregnant undead hag
>>97064319>something that has a more science-like vibeD&D psionics uses words with Latinate roots (historically spoken by British nobles) when the rest of the game words with Germanic roots (historically spoken by British peasants). That's it, that's the sciencey part. Pic related, it's Atomic Theory with all the Latinate words switched for their Germanic equivalents.Incidentally 4e didn't bother sticking to Germanic naming conventions, and as a result everyone thinks its names sound stupid.
>>97065915Better pic
>>97062214Didn't read the thread? lol. >>97061920
>>97058013DarksydePhil's new classes?
>>97054340Kick out anyone that asks to play one.
>>97065915>it's Atomic Theory with all the Latinate words switched for their Germanic equivalents.got me worried there for a moment I might have a stroke
>>97066785I don't remember the authors' names. I think DSP was like two guys? One in Dallas and one in Europe somewhere? And whichever classes they made up for their custom no-magic-psionics-only setting had just some absolutely insane game breaking features. Like Dreads being able to achieve a DC 60+ save to inflict panic on victims (meaning they cower helplessly in fear, making them valid for coup de grace, for example) as an at-will intimidate skill check. Fucking insane. Or Vitalists being able to freely allocate all hit points as a free / immediate action basically meaning that the entire party just has a single shared hit point pool so no one dies until everyone dies. And this gets insane when you allow Vitalist with any of the original classes like Cleric, because when they channel energy to heal, the vitalist can reallocate all those hit points to apply to a single party member if they want, or just redistribute the hit points to perfectly match whatever missing hp anyone has. Oh it's not the vitalist's turn but someone needs healing? Suddenly everyone has unlimited Reach on their healing effects. Potion? Scroll? Self-healing? Doesn't matter, any hit points coming in, the vitalist can move to whoever needs it so action economy and distance don't fucking matter anymore. Broken shit like that.The original Psion class from WotC's 3.5e is mostly untouched, and most of the powers are just copy-pasted under the OGL from their 3.5 version, so in terms of actual psionic Powers (spells), psionics is still pretty underpowered and weak compared to magic. It's the new DSP classes and their class features that are broken, not the Powers.Of course you can just use the spellpoints variant from 3.5 Unearthed Arcana if you want. That's mechanically what 3.5 psionics is. There aren't that many uniquely-psionic powers.
>>97064319Psionics isn't scientific at all.
>>97064319A psion's direct imposition of his will on reality is exactly like a mage's direct imposition of his will on reality.
>>97066917Give us your usernames so we can avoid you.
>>97067225I didn't say that. I said it was styled as science-like. You are discovering a concept called "aesthetics". Art Nouveau is not actually whimsical plants and graceful flowers. It's paintings depicting things in a stylized manner. Of course it's not real. It's art.You fucking idiot.
>>97067236Then he's deceiving himself.Fucking around with all the incantations and finger-wiggling is the long detour, though. The psion doesn't need crutches and sing-song nursery rhymes to remind him how to politely ask mommy for a cookie. He simply is, and the universe obeys.It's the difference between a guy running around with a sword and heavy metal armor to conduct combat... and the martial artist who destroys foes with nothing but bare hands and a naked body. They're killing their enemies. One of them just needs a lot of external, artificial contrivance to keep up.
>>97067251science-like means scientific. psionics is not. moron.
>>97067268Nope, you lose, sorry.
>>97054340Just do this.
>>97054340When we played Dark Sun, one of our group actually rolled Disintegration as his wild type psionic power. He could literally one shot anything and couldn't be held captive. We had to curb it after the first campaign.
Wow, what a terrible system.
>>97067599I like the two desultory punches at the end.
Has anyone in here read the WoD game aberrant? Came out 2 years before 3.0 psionics and was a major influence on them. Pulp adventurerers, supers and quantum sci-fi in this game's DNA. >>97066785I find concussive onslaught to be a build warping new power from DSP. I am fond of the dread's first level power that makes the opponent check will to attack you too, on other builds. Agree about the Vitalist, though I'm not familar with dread charop. I got panopoly of blades nerfed lol. >>97063504Psionics have been in DnD exactly as long as their sworn enemies, the Druids. Psionics predate darksun.
>>97054661???no it doesn't
>>97061808Supernatural phenomenon brought by using energy outside of one's body is Magic. When brought by Mental energies from one's own mind it's Psionic, similarly when the outside energy is replaced by soul's energy it's called Ki. >Ki - soul energy >Psi - mind energy >Magic - energy outside body
>>97054340In my d100 system, I have three core types of magic, based in different logic; Arcane, Divine, and Psionic.Arcane magic is classic vancian. You perform advanced rituals, memorize incredibly intricate triggers, and facet your mindscape to facilitate increasingly more intricate algorithms. When triggered, the collective wave functions collapse and that facet of the mind is cleared.Divine magic involves learning specific, exacting prayers or simple-but-precise rituals, and the acting as a conduit for aligned higher (or lower) extraplanar powers. So you learn specific "spells" individually and then "cast" them spontaneously; lower-ranked powers can be pooled to instead channel higher ones, but if you try to push more than you can handle you risk burning out from the inside out.Psionic magic is about the imposition of will on creation and the power of your soul, and is handled entirely with a points-based system. Techniques are internalized by practice and discipline, and when you are mentally fatigued, you're simply going to be running on empty. You can go beyond your mental limit, but you'll suffer increasing penalties and tests until you collapse from exhaustion. Truly severe cases may result in stroking out.>>97054661Shut the fuck up, autist.
>>97069071My preference for ki as a type of magic is the manipulation of the flow of one’s soul through the body to create a difference in (for lack of a precise term this early in the morning) “pressure” or “charge” with the surrounding external energies. This difference either allows the individual to do seemingly-impossible things because they have changed themself or causes the external energies to attempt to correct the difference in a way that produces a desired effect.
>>97069071I do not see a difference beyond trivial details.
>>97061908/thread
>>97061920/thread.
>>97069946There's more kinds of psions than just telepaths... Ialdabode being a telepath is beside the point. Also dude had no right to be so ripped on a pure int half-bab class, but he was hot as fuck anyway.
>>97067576And that's still not what was being said. Moron. You can't even punctuate or capitalize correctly. No surprise your reading comprehension is too low to play a mind class.
yeah it was retard lmao
>>97054404https://youtu.be/-ZQk3ig-i_s?t=60
>>97069123Please share said system?
