Psionic questions

[zmasterofjersey]

I have never used psionics ever, so I have a few questions.

Is just having the SRD enough to play effectively?

Isn't it overpowered, if you sunk almost all your pp into a single attack you could potentially kill anything.

Is a psion basically a wizard that uses points instead of spells/day.

Is psychic warrior good, or am I missing something that makes it bad.

Also, I am interested in playing a psion or psychic warrior, I do not have alot of books, I only have.. (Phb.MM1,MM2,DMG,CArc,CDiv,CWar,CAdv.) can I be good without additional books?

[NEO|Phyte]

Isn't it overpowered, if you sunk almost all your pp into a single attack you could potentially kill anything.

Can't do that. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicPowersOverview.htm#powerPointLimit)

[Glimbur]

SRD is enough. Arguably the SRD version of the Slayer is better than the Illithid Slayer, or at least easier to enter.


Isn't it overpowered, if you sunk almost all your pp into a single attack you could potentially kill anything.

you can’t spend more power points on a power than your manifester level
Source (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicPowersOverview.htm#manifesterLevel). This is probably the most common misapprehension about psionics, so it is important to repeat: you cannot (normally) spend more PP on a power than your ML. There are exceptions.

A psion is like a wizard in many ways, but does not need to prepare powers ahead of time so they are a little spontaneous too.

Psy War is generally regarded as good. Expansion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/expansion.htm) in particular is helpful for battlefield control by making you larger.

[Yuki Akuma]

I have never used psionics ever, so I have a few questions.

Is just having the SRD enough to play effectively?

Without complete Psionic, you can play any psionic class effectively, except the Soulknife.


Isn't it overpowered, if you sunk almost all your pp into a single attack you could potentially kill anything.

You can't spend more power points than your manifester level.


Is a psion basically a wizard that uses points instead of spells/day.

He's more like a sorcerer.


Is psychic warrior good, or am I missing something that makes it bad.

Psychic Warrior is about as good as the Rogue, so it's pretty good.


Also, I am interested in playing a psion or psychic warrior, I do not have alot of books, I only have.. (Phb.MM1,MM2,DMG,CArc,CDiv,CWar,CAdv.) can I be good without additional books?

Those books are fine. There's not much psionic stuff in other books - there's some, but the best powers are in the SRD anyway.

[Vizzerdrix]

Also, Wizards has some free stuff for Psionic classes on the web site. You'll have to dig a bit in the old archives, but its worth it.

[Douglas]

Has anyone mentioned that you can't spend more power points than your manifester level on a single manifestation of a power?:smalltongue:

Seriously, that is a commonly missed rule in psionics, and missing it is the single most major cause of perceptions of psionics being overpowered. Enforce that rule, and psionics is significantly more balanced than normal magic. Leave that rule out, and psionics becomes the haven of broken supernova blasters that reduce BBEGs to craters in one action - and then tell the rest of the party to find a good resting spot if they want him to be useful again.

[erikun]

I have never used psionics ever, so I have a few questions.

Is just having the SRD enough to play effectively?
Yes. You might want to have access to the Practiced Manifester feat, which grants up to +4 to your manifester level, to a maximum of your character level. This doesn't give you additional spells, just a higher Manifester Level. The usefulness of this will become apparent with the next question.


Isn't it overpowered, if you sunk almost all your pp into a single attack you could potentially kill anything.
You can only spend PP less than or equal to your manifester level. Your ML is generally your character level, or frequently less if you are multiclassing. Thus, a 20th level Psion has a ML 20 and can only spend 20 PP on any one power. A 10th level Psion/10th level Fighter has a ML 10. A 10th level Psion/10th level Fighter with Practiced Manifester has a ML 14. You can see why the feat is useful for multiclassed characters.


Is a psion basically a wizard that uses points instead of spells/day.
It's more like a sorcerer, but is the same idea. If anything, psionics is more multiclass-friendly than spellcasting.


Is psychic warrior good, or am I missing something that makes it bad.
The Psychic Warrior is good. You will be spending your PP to be effective, typically on stuff like Vigor, Expansion, and Psionic's Lion's Charge. They're roughly as good as the Barbarian or Tome of Battle classes in power and versatility.


Also, I am interested in playing a psion or psychic warrior, I do not have alot of books, I only have.. (Phb.MM1,MM2,DMG,CArc,CDiv,CWar,CAdv.) can I be good without additional books?
Mind's Eye Archive (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/psi) is a nice collection of official variants, powers, classes, monsters, and so on. Just be aware that some of it is 3.0e, which is a bit different than 3.5e (especially for psionics).

I believe you can also find the Soulbow prestige class online, which is the best way to make the Soulknife effective.

[Greenish]

Without complete Psionic, you can play any psionic class effectively, except the Soulknife.Luckily the Soulbow is available from the free excerpt of Complete Psionic (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060403a&page=2).
Psychic Warrior is about as good as the Rogue, so it's pretty good.I'd almost say better, especially with metamorphosis (which admittedly is cheese).

[Otherworld Odd]

Besides what everyone else has said, I'd like to recommend the psionic class. It was the first class I ever played in any serious game, and I've been hooked. (I can rarely find a class I'm happy to continue playing for extended periods of time without wanting to kill my character and play something new.) I could always find something fun to do on my psion, but I'm sure psionic warrior is awesome as well. (Come on... psionic lion's charge?)

Psionics kind of works like certain role playing games that utilize mana points. You have a set amount of point you can spend during a game-day and each manifestation costs a certain amount of PP (power points). There's feats and races that give you extra PP as well.

[Yuki Akuma]

Why do so many people call it the "psionic warrior"? A psionic warrior would be a Warrior who took Hidden Talent.

It's Psychic Warrior.

[classy one]

I would say psionics is broken because it breaks action economy rather early. Schism is only a lvl 4 power and it let's you do two standard actions. Then there's linked power, a feat you take lvl 1 that let's you cast two powers and one manifests the next turn. As you can see, using both of these can let you get up to 4 castings in one turn, all by level 7!

Practised manifester also breaks the limitiation on schism by making it only -2 ML rather than -6 like it was intended. And it can be selected early as well.

[Starbuck_II]

I would say psionics is broken because it breaks action economy rather early. Schism is only a lvl 4 power and it let's you do two standard actions. Then there's linked power, a feat you take lvl 1 that let's you cast two powers and one manifests the next turn. As you can see, using both of these can let you get up to 4 castings in one turn, all by level 7!

Practised manifester also breaks the limitiation on schism by making it only -2 ML rather than -6 like it was intended. And it can be selected early as well.

Yeah and Wizards are laughing at that being a issue. Wizards can stack metamagic in ways a Psion can't even dream. And those stackings make it more viable in alot of ways.

Remember, Psionics has the Focus issue. Even with feat tax of Psionic Mediation (focus as move action) you still are limited in scope of number of focuses (yours and Psicrystal Containment are only ones I remember).

[CoffeeIncluded]

Why do so many people call it the "psionic warrior"? A psionic warrior would be a Warrior who took Hidden Talent.

It's Psychic Warrior.

What does the Hidden Talent feat do again?

[Terazul]

Gain the Psionic Subtype, a single power point, and a first level power.

Or that's Wild Talent. Either way one of them is basically the other except better.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Gain the Psionic Subtype, a single power point, and a first level power.

Or that's Wild Talent. Either way one of them is basically the other except better.

Thanks. Could you please quote them? I saw it once but I can't find it again. :smallannoyed:

Never mind, I found it. It's Wild Talent. Thanks!

[Wubs]

Hidden talent gives +2 pp, and its effects stack.

Its also expanded more in the actual Psionics Book for a psionics campaign to let you manifest a 1st lvl power.

One common thing to do at low levels, is to use Psionic Body + Hidden talents for all your other feats, you get a bucket load of power points, then later on you can psychic reformation them away.

[dextercorvia]

What does the Hidden Talent feat do again?

It's a replacement for Wild Talent. 2pp and pick a 1st level power from any list. It's in a sidebar/footnote on page 67? of the XPH.

[dextercorvia]

Hidden talent gives +2 pp, and its effects stack.

Its also expanded more in the actual Psionics Book for a psionics campaign to let you manifest a 1st lvl power.

One common thing to do at low levels, is to use Psionic Body + Hidden talents for all your other feats, you get a bucket load of power points, then later on you can psychic reformation them away.

That's actually Psionic Body + Psionic Talent.

Psionic Talent gives you 2+#previousPT's in Power Points. Psionic Body gives you 2hp/Psionic Feat.

[Bogardan_Mage]

Also, Wizards has some free stuff for Psionic classes on the web site. You'll have to dig a bit in the old archives, but its worth it.
Watch out, though, because most of it is 3.0 and psionics changed substantially in 3.5

[Greenish]

Watch out, though, because most of it is 3.0 and psionics changed substantially in 3.5Isn't Mind's Eye mostly 3.5?