Is The Star Wars Force Powers Equivalent To Psionic Powers?

[tomandtish]

They're definitely not 3.5 psionics as limitations for use seem to be more per encounter than per day and a lot of it seems to be at will

I know we've seen characters who COULDN'T do something (Luke lifting the X-Wing in Empire for example). But (in the movies at least) have we ever seen an example of someone unable to do something because they were tapped out?

[KillianHawkeye]

The Force maps to standard magic as well as psionic magic, is my understanding of that. Which I agree with.

Sure, but I never said it didn't, so I was confused why I was being replied to there.

It was only because you had the Psionic disciplines listed in your post. And Bartmanhomer confirmed that it was that Psionics system he was thinking of when he made this thread.

And yes, it was to further illustrate my point that arcane magic and psionics in D&D are very similar and both cover usages of The Force pretty well.

I think most people wouldn't count a limited ability to see the future so that it's combat effective, ala Spiderman's 'Spidey-sense'-esque, as proper precognition.

Well, it IS limited precognition. But Jedi can also legit see into the future, like when Luke sees Han and Leia getting captured by the Empire in Cloud City, or when Anakin sees visions of Padme and his mother dying.

[EggKookoo]

I know we've seen characters who COULDN'T do something (Luke lifting the X-Wing in Empire for example). But (in the movies at least) have we ever seen an example of someone unable to do something because they were tapped out?

Depending on how you view it, there could be plenty of cases where characters in the movies "run out of resources." Examples abound.

During the Vader/Luke fight in ESB, imagine each of them has some resource or equivalent of maneuvers or "force spell slots" they use. Maybe, like a paladin in 5e, they can burn force slots to get special lightsaber maneuvers. At the start of the fight in the carbonite chamber, they both probably make use of some resources, but I imagine Luke burns through his more quickly. He aggressively attacks Vader and does a Force jumpy thing to get up out of the pit. Sure, Vader flips the switch with the Force but that's probably a cantrip-level "mage hand" kind of thing.

Later, when they meet back up, Vader (who surely has more resources to begin with) starts using the Force to batter Luke with crates and stuff. Luke, running low on his own "force points" or whatever, conserves them and is unable to protect himself from the assault. He likely burns something when the window is broken and he's pulled out, in order to make some kind of leap to the catwalk and avoid being pulled to his death.

When they come together on the catwalk, Luke is pretty clearly out of fuel, while Vader still has quite a bit left. Vader dominates the fight now, knowing Luke is not only out of whatever Force-based resources he might have, but is also pretty low on hit points. In fact, taking Luke's hand off probably reduced Luke to 0 HP, and it's possible he burned whatever remaining Force resource he had to prevent himself from dying or going unconscious or whatever the mechanic would be. He's basically dead man walking when he crawls out onto the antenna/probe thing, and only survives being ejected from the underside of the city by some crazy lucky rolls. His Force-based communication with Leia had as much to do with her Force resources (few as she would have at that point) as anything he would still have.

In the end it depends on the viewer to interpret it. The movies aren't written with game mechanics in mind. There's nothing like that underpinning what the characters do in the script. You have to invent it yourself on the viewer side.

[Fyraltari]

The Force maps to standard magic as well as psionic magic, is my understanding of that. Which I agree with.

Well, it's not like there is any functionnal difference between "magic" and "psychic powers" anyway.