Psionic Only World

[Erts]

Well, once again, title says it all.
I'm interested in playing in a world like this, and I thought I should ask.
GITP, what is your experience playing in only psionic worlds, no Vancian Magic?

[Bad Situation]

In my mind Psionics = Jedi.

So reflavor everything by adding laser to preexisting equipment and cheddar monk it up.

[Glimbur]

I once ran a short campaign with no vancian magic. Psionics, ToB, incarnum, warlocks, etc were fine, but no bards wizards sorcererers clerics paladins rangers etc.

Ended up with a totemist, a rogue, and a warlock. I threw them a plot hook to get a healing spirit so they didn't have to UMD a wand of lesser vigor (the warlock was pretty new). They took over a town and ended up all getting killed by a dinosaur/storm elemental. Good times.

So, in answer to your query, it's a fine idea but warn the PC's to avoid dinosaurs.

[Terazul]

Not really different, given psionics pretty much represents how magic works in alot of fantasy settings. No fancy hand gestures (unless you want to, for dramatic effect!), but the power looks like whatever you want it to, and is as strong as however much effort you put into it.

That is to say, it's an effective replacement. The only things you'll probably miss are Illusions, and Necromancy (I think), compared to the Arcane and Divine counterparts.

[InkEyes]

No magic whatsoever outside of Psionics? The biggest difficulty will be finding effective ways to heal. Being able to reliably identify magic items will also be a bit of a chore; there's a psionic equivalent of Identify for both psions and wilders, but you can only identify one magic item per day. Those are the only two things I can think of right now.

[Eldariel]

Write Psionic equivalent for Vigor-line along with maybe Cures and Heal (toss them to e.g. Ardent in some Mantle; say "Healing") to enable Dorjes of Lesser Vigor, Dorjes of CLW and Scrolls of Heal; voila, you're fine. Resurrection would need to be added somehow too, but hey, that's all pretty trivial.

Beyond that, it'd be more balanced, that's for sure. It should also be somewhat more interesting since Psionics are more modular and offer more choices and so on. In short, it would be friggin' awesome.

[Lycanthromancer]

In my mind Psionics = Jedi.

So reflavor everything by adding laser to preexisting equipment and cheddar monk it up.

...No.

It's magic. It just doesn't require bat crap and homemade television sets.

[Erts]

...No.

It's magic. It just doesn't require bat crap and homemade television sets.

Yeah, a lot of people are turned off at first glance by the world "Psi" and the tentacled alien looking monsters, it gives off a Science Fiction feel (at just first glance, nothing more) that isn't really what Psionics is about.

[TurtleKing]

If you want some comic/ manga inspiration about all psionics then check out Psyren.

[Zaq]

I once ran a short campaign with no vancian magic. Psionics, ToB, incarnum, warlocks, etc were fine, but no bards wizards sorcererers clerics paladins rangers etc.

Ended up with a totemist, a rogue, and a warlock. I threw them a plot hook to get a healing spirit so they didn't have to UMD a wand of lesser vigor (the warlock was pretty new). They took over a town and ended up all getting killed by a dinosaur/storm elemental. Good times.

So, in answer to your query, it's a fine idea but warn the PC's to avoid dinosaurs.

I ran a campaign like this. Vancian magic wasn't gone (though PCs were forbidden to use it), though... it's just that using it caused really bad things to happen to the world around you (really bad. A 6th level spell ended up rewriting the map and creating mountains and stuff out of nowhere.), so it was heavily illegal. The PCs were a band of special forces who basically went around cleaning up the horrific backlash that lawbreaking mages caused.

[Erts]

I ran a campaign like this. Vancian magic wasn't gone (though PCs were forbidden to use it), though... it's just that using it caused really bad things to happen to the world around you (really bad. A 6th level spell ended up rewriting the map and creating mountains and stuff out of nowhere.), so it was heavily illegal. The PCs were a band of special forces who basically went around cleaning up the horrific backlash that lawbreaking mages caused.

Oh? How did it go?

[Kaulesh]

Oh? How did it go?

I suppose you could say the campaign was somewhat moving. Perhaps even earth-shattering.

That was almost too much for me to utter.


More seriously, I'm quite interested about how it turned out as well. I'm pondering running a game such as that when I get back to college this fall.

[Optimystik]

...No.

It's magic. It just doesn't require bat crap and homemade television sets.

If you want some comic/ manga inspiration about all psionics then check out Psyren.

These +25.

Also, you'll really want 3rd-party to pull this off, because WotC did a terrible job of supporting psionics (though still better than some of their other systems, e.g. Incarnum.) I would start with the Dreamscarred Press material (they have an SRD!) and also nab Hyperconscious by Bruce Cordell.

[taltamir]

psionics is regarded as much more balanced then core magic (which is broken as hell). (although psionics still has a few broken things).
it is a smoother easier system.

As others have said:
It is plain magic, none of that sci-fa(ntasy) stuff

[Radar]

"A rose by another name would smell the same."
Psionics is just a differently named magic. Crunch is solid, fluff is good as well - if it isn't, that's the easiest thing to change.

In my mind Psionics = Jedi.

So reflavor everything by adding laser to preexisting equipment and cheddar monk it up.

And end up with ten foot laser poles?