Psionics explanation wanted!

[Jimlad]

Okay, so I have a game I'm making, and I have an idea for a different type of magic, and I just want to know if what I'm making is at all like psionics, as I've never heard any explanation on what psionics is/the science of it.

[xkaliburr]

Well, essentially psionics is telekinetics and telepathy roled into one. It all involves the power of the mind.

Is there a certain system you are using? For instance, in d20, you have a pool of points that you can use for any psionic ability you know. That pool increases as you level up, just like anything else, and resets everyday.

[Yitzi]

Describe what you've got, and we might be better able to figure out how it is like and unlike psionics, both in crunch and fluff.

[Jimlad]

Okay, I'm planing on a 3.5E game, and the magic I'm making is a form of mana, in which you collect mana in your mind, (might make it that you need to find a way to implant an organ in your brain to collect the mana.) and, well, everything must be observed for it to exist, so what I'm planning is that the God is observing it all, plus some, so it all has some extra energy, and your mind/organ can collect this from an area, and bundles it together. As you grow in level, you can store more of it faster. (uses a mix of wis and int for how much and how fast. It can be regained in combat at a slow rate.) You can then use mana to make spell like abilities, such as a smaller fireball, or opening a lock, and the more you know/understand the science of what you're doing, the more effective it is. (we'll assume the characters know as much as the players, with how I'm changing normal magic.) So, if you're making a fireball, the more you know on it has different stages. "It's a fire" "It's the chemical reaction of fire" "I'm making the molecules move at a faster rate, making heat, I'm then adding a magic fuel to it, and forcing the magic fire out from that point." the last one uses less mana, so if you want, it could be more powerful. It uses less mana as you're not leaving anything for the spell to make up in an inefficient way.

That help?

[Yitzi]

Okay, I'm planing on a 3.5E game, and the magic I'm making is a form of mana, in which you collect mana in your mind, (might make it that you need to find a way to implant an organ in your brain to collect the mana.)

Could just say that it's naturally there.

and, well, everything must be observed for it to exist

I hope you know that's not real physics. It's perfectly fine if you want your game's cosmology to have that, just know that it's one of the ways it's fantasy and not reality.

so what I'm planning is that the God is observing it all, plus some, so it all has some extra energy, and your mind/organ can collect this from an area, and bundles it together. As you grow in level, you can store more of it faster. (uses a mix of wis and int for how much and how fast. It can be regained in combat at a slow rate.) You can then use mana to make spell like abilities, such as a smaller fireball, or opening a lock, and the more you know/understand the science of what you're doing, the more effective it is. (we'll assume the characters know as much as the players, with how I'm changing normal magic.) So, if you're making a fireball, the more you know on it has different stages. "It's a fire" "It's the chemical reaction of fire" "I'm making the molecules move at a faster rate, making heat, I'm then adding a magic fuel to it, and forcing the magic fire out from that point." the last one uses less mana, so if you want, it could be more powerful. It uses less mana as you're not leaving anything for the spell to make up in an inefficient way.

That help?

Yes. Fluff-wise, it's not at all psionics; psionics comes from you, not gathered from another source. Mechanically, you'll probably end up using a spellpoints-like system, which is very much like D&D psionics.

The ability to be more effective as you understand it more is an interesting touch, though having it based on player knowledge will give a substantial advantage based on OOC knowledge, so think very carefully whether you want that. (You could allow it based on relevant knowledge ranks, though, though if you do you may want to redo the knowledge skills.)

Also be aware that if greater knowledge of how the physics works affects how well magic works, that will affect the society, and there will be notable effects even in nonmagical matters; expect various scientific revolutions to happen earlier and faster. Again, nothing wrong with that, and it makes for an interesting setting, but make sure that's what you want.

[Thunderfist12]

Here: it would be easier for the character to make a Knowledge (arcana) check, DC 15+(spell level x2, minimum 1) for levels 1-5, DC 20+(same formula) for levels 6-9, to use the spell at its normal cost. For every 5 over you score, it costs a mana point less. For every 5 under you score, it costs a mana point more.

Or they could do the same thing, but replace increased/decreased mana cost with decreased/increased caster level, respectively.

Standard Mana Costs:

Spoiler

Show

This is what I would do.
0 costs 0 mana.
1 costs 1 mana.
2 costs 3 mana.
3 costs 5 mana.
4 costs 7 mana.
5 costs 9 mana.
6 costs 11 mana.
7 costs 13 mana.
8 costs 15 mana.
9 costs 17 mana.

Edit: Someone posted something pretty similar before me...

[Yora]

From everything I can tell, psionics in D&D is just magic. The only thing people ever mentioned as an argument for psionics being something else, is that psionics comes from the psions mind.
So it's magic where the mana is produced by the mind itself rather than being provided by a deity (for clerics)?

That's still magic. There is no real difference.

[Jimlad]

Could just say that it's naturally there.



Yes. Fluff-wise, it's not at all psionics; psionics comes from you, not gathered from another source. Mechanically, you'll probably end up using a spellpoints-like system, which is very much like D&D psionics.

The ability to be more effective as you understand it more is an interesting touch, though having it based on player knowledge will give a substantial advantage based on OOC knowledge, so think very carefully whether you want that. (You could allow it based on relevant knowledge ranks, though, though if you do you may want to redo the knowledge skills.)

Also be aware that if greater knowledge of how the physics works affects how well magic works, that will affect the society, and there will be notable effects even in nonmagical matters; expect various scientific revolutions to happen earlier and faster. Again, nothing wrong with that, and it makes for an interesting setting, but make sure that's what you want.

Okay, I'm planning on the players traveling from universe to universe, and trying to get back to your homeworld, your homeworld won't have any knowledge of mana, that's why I might want it to be an organ that you need to get in, I'm planning on changing the normal magic so that you need to know the physics to make spell, so everyone knows a fair amount of physics. (about as much as we know in our time. just in a more medieval setting.) And also, with the traveling from world to world, if they learn things OOC then they could just claim they learned it from studying in a university in some, let's say space age world. I was sort of planning on using the greater knowledge of how physics works so that it's not a knowledge roll, just so it's easier to keep track of what the characters know.

[Yitzi]

This is what I would do.
0 costs 0 mana.
1 costs 1 mana.
3 costs 3 mana.
4 costs 5 mana.
5 costs 7 mana.
6 costs 9 mana.
7 costs 11 mana.
8 costs 13 mana.
9 costs 15 mana.

You forgot 2.

Okay, I'm planning on the players traveling from universe to universe, and trying to get back to your homeworld, your homeworld won't have any knowledge of mana, that's why I might want it to be an organ that you need to get in, I'm planning on changing the normal magic so that you need to know the physics to make spell, so everyone knows a fair amount of physics. (about as much as we know in our time. just in a more medieval setting.)

If they know as much as we do, plus have magic, you'll have an extremely difficult time justifying a medieval setting.

And also, with the traveling from world to world, if they learn things OOC then they could just claim they learned it from studying in a university in some, let's say space age world. I was sort of planning on using the greater knowledge of how physics works so that it's not a knowledge roll, just so it's easier to keep track of what the characters know.

It does still give in-game advantages for OOC knowledge, which is something that tends to make balance impossible.

[Thunderfist12]

Thanks for the correction. Edited.

[Knaight]

From everything I can tell, psionics in D&D is just magic. The only thing people ever mentioned as an argument for psionics being something else, is that psionics comes from the psions mind.
So it's magic where the mana is produced by the mind itself rather than being provided by a deity (for clerics)?

That's still magic. There is no real difference.

Psionics everywhere is just magic. It's just a different term, which usually implies there being a whole bunch of other different terms for things and a slightly different focus than is implied with other words for magic.

[erikun]

Psionics is magic, basically, or psionic effects are magical effects for basically all practical purposes.

What you are describing is not psionics by the D&D book, although they could still be psionic effects. The biggest concern with the "Is it psionics?" question is how it interacts with other parts of the D&D system. If they get a PP pool to use psionic feats, how it works with Psibane weapons, and so on.

Other than that, it really doesn't matter mechnically if your system is psionic, magic, arcane, divine, or some other magical source providing the powers.