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View Full Version : A world with no magic, only psionics (crunch version)



JustPlayItLoud
2011-09-27, 02:44 PM
There's an idea I've been kicking around in my head for awhile, an all psionics world. A world where magic no longer exists and has been displaced by psionics. I polled a few friends who have been playing regularly just to think about the idea of a psionics only world and give me some feedback. Instead of feedback I got "THAT WOULD BE AWESOME YOU SHOULD RUN THAT" pretty much immediately. I haven't played regularly in five years, but I've been wanting to get back into it for a while now, so I figure now is as good a time as any.

I'm going to split this into two separate threads, one for mechanics and crunch for the homebrew forum, and one for fluff and flavor for the world building forum.

Crunch version:
I'm gonna be running this in 3.5, and all I have as far as mechanics so far are ideas for base classes.

Barbarian - I see no reason at all to change a completely non-magical class for a psionics only world

Bard - I really like a lot of the fluff and crunch of Dark Sun, and the 3.5 version from athas.org has a bard with no spellcasting, so I'll be using that

Cleric - With no magic, the cleric is now a worthless class. It's out

Druid - Axed like cleric, but also see ranger

Fighter - See barbarian

Monk - I think I'm going to leave them unchanged. Some of their abilities function similarly to magic, but I don't think they require magic to function at all

Paladin - With no magic and no link to the upper planes, there's no way in this world for the paladin to exist mechanically. Would there be a specific non-magical class that would fit ideologically and somewhat mechanically also? I originally planned for LG or LN crusaders would replace them in the world, but decided ToB just doesn't fit the world. I might reconsider down the line, but for now it's out

Ranger - I want two rangers. I want to have one that loses spellcasting in favor of getting favored terrain also, as well as maybe some sneak attack perhaps. It would basically be a combination of the regular and urban ranger. I also want a wildshape variant ranger. What does the most popular wild shape variant lose? Is spellcasting enough of a tradeoff, or would they need to sacrifice some other class abilities? I might import the natural weapons combat style from Pathfinder

Rogue - Basically unchanged aside from trading out the now-defunct UMD for UPD instead

Sorceror and Wizard - See cleric

Psionic classes - I'm obviously including these, but in light of how awful they made the 3.5 soulknife, I'll probably reintroduce an updated version of the 3.0 soulknife PrC

What I'm currently struggling with is reintroducing some psionic variants of some of the more popular monsters. Mind flayers and both the races of Gith will feature prominently, but they can't be the only monsters. What monsters translate well to psionics?

Any other cool crunchy ideas?

Howler Dagger
2011-09-27, 04:38 PM
I suggest this (http://http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=216387) mundane paladin as a replacement.

I also want a wildshape variant ranger. What does the most popular wild shape variant lose? Is spellcasting enough of a tradeoff, or would they need to sacrifice some other class abilities? I might import the natural weapons combat style from Pathfinder

They lose there combat styles iirc.

For the Soulknife, try using this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199227) to replace it

Qwertystop
2011-09-27, 04:44 PM
What I'm currently struggling with is reintroducing some psionic variants of some of the more popular monsters. Mind flayers and both the races of Gith will feature prominently, but they can't be the only monsters. What monsters translate well to psionics?

Any other cool crunchy ideas?

Same as for the Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue, and Monk, stuff that has no magic doesn't need to be changed, and stuff that has magic-y abilities that aren't actually spells can be kept as-is.

Howler Dagger
2011-09-27, 06:01 PM
Also, check out the Minds Eye (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/psi&page=1) stuff for some psionic monsters, such as the ectoplasmic dragon.

erikun
2011-09-27, 06:35 PM
Pathfinder Soulknife (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife) in generally considered quite good, at least when talking about non-manifesting melee classes. Mind's Eye Theatre also has the Psychic Rogue (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b), for another option between Lurks and mundane Rogues.

Dragons should be able to operate just fine with Psion/Wilder (or Ardent) manifesting rather than Sorcerer/Cleric spellcasting. A lot of stuff, from ogres to shadows to hydras, don't have spellcasting and would work just fine. The main concern would be no celestial/infernal creatures, specifically no angels or demons, because of no outer planes.

Psionic Monsters (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/psionicMonsters.htm), for your pleasure.

Yitzi
2011-09-28, 11:35 AM
They lose there combat styles iirc.

And ranger combat styles (not counting Pathfinder or homebrew) are totally silly. If you want a martial character Fighter gives far more boosts than ranger, and if you want a hit-and-hide character or sniper you're almost never going to be taking a full attack and will rarely shoot into melee or have to make do with a less-than-perfect shot, so the combat styles are pretty useless.

Sir Swindle89
2011-10-19, 08:18 AM
Paladin - With no magic and no link to the upper planes, there's no way in this world for the paladin to exist mechanically. Would there be a specific non-magical class that would fit ideologically and somewhat mechanically also? I originally planned for LG or LN crusaders would replace them in the world, but decided ToB just doesn't fit the world. I might reconsider down the line, but for now it's out

Divine minds can replace paladins as the useless semidivine class.

To think of it you could say ardents took the place of clerics as religous leaders. they are thematically the very simular.

hiryuu
2011-10-19, 11:29 AM
As far as bards, you could also try looking at the Thoughtsinger (http://www.bossythecow.com/TheThoughtsinger.pdf).

Garryl
2011-10-19, 05:51 PM
If you decide you want psionic versions of the Paladin and Ranger, the Mindknight and Psychic Tracker (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11466) may work for you. Or, if you want Divine Minds as the Paladin alternative/replacement, here's a revamped alternative (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=13118).

Mentalists (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11376) may replace Adepts as the magical psionic NPC class of choice. I've seen a couple other psionic NPC classes around, too.

Here's a whole mess of psionic stuff (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9161.msg309068#msg309068) for your viewing pleasure.

Prime32
2011-10-19, 06:00 PM
Dreamscarred Press (http://dsp-d20-srd.wikidot.com/) are your friends. The stuff on that site is a bit older than what they did for PF though, so you might want to use the latter where there's overlap.