Forums of the Megaverse®

I think that the lack of increasing psi-strength is intentional, as an attempt to balance out the fact that psionics can be used as many times per round as you have attacks, and that in many cases, nobody will know where the attack comes from.

The save seems to consider psionics something that attack the mind directly, and it's the wiring of the brain, rather than experience, that adjusts the save (non-psi, minor, major).

I certainly understand the desire to make a 10th level Psionic harder to resist than a 1st level, and wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of people who house-rule that. I think it works as is, however, simply as a matter of balance. Psionics are pretty powerful, and making them moreso would draw a lot of complaints.

Dumb Dwarf wrote:Hello everyone, I was looking into Psionics for a campaign I was about to start, and something didn't seem logical to me. As far as I am aware, it does not get harder to resist more experienced Psionicists. I would imagine that a level 1 trying hypnotic suggestion on a thug, would not have nearly the success rate that a level 10 would.
So the question I have, is there something in the wide megaverse that I am missing?
Would it be acceptable to implement a system like the spell strength, or would that totally unbalance the game?
Thanks from a Dumb Dwarf who is looking at the most unused sections of his books

You arn't missing anything. Psionics have a flat save unrelated to the user.

Would it unbalance the game? definatly.

average nonpsychics have only a 25% chance of resisting in the first. maybe slightly better with an extraordinary ME. any higher than that and they would practically never fail. not much challange in a game where the mind melter can just paralize everyone willy-nilly.

FWIW, I rewrite psionics to use magic-like saves (i.e. base save of 12, with strength bonuses based on your experience and PCC)

I've modified the PPE Channeling rules to work with Psionics, and part of what a Psychic character can do with their channeled ISP is boost the TN to save vs. their psionic powers. I also changed the base so that's it's 10+ME bonus+1,2,4 depending on whether the Psionic is Minor, Major or Master.

Part of modifying the channeling rules also meant changing how every psionic power worked. You could do it pretty easily pretty straight up like detailed in the Rifter, but I wanted to give psionics a different feel than magic casting.

I'd be interested to see those too.

I do agree that it's really easy to block out psionics compared to magic. All the more so now that Magic got a massive (And I generally feel, unneeded) boost in the arm with RUE.

Even non Psi characters can rack up some impressive resistance to Psi. It's all the worse when they are even minor psionics themselves. It gets considerably worse if they happen to roll an exceptional ME. I recall one character who was like that. The guy was effectively immune to any psionic attack that actually could be saved against.

I also feel mindblock is seriously lacking and need some sort of proper combat system to counter. Thats one thing I kinda like about SR's magic system. It has this whole sort of sub combat system for mage vs mage and getting around resistances/spells etc. It would be nice to see something similar (But perhaps far more simple) for psionics in PB.

Lets look at some of the good things about psionics
-No gesture or signals needed, so you never know whos a psychic
-Cannot be interupted, like the spell caster can
-Generally a low I.S.P. cost for abilitys

Ya thats about it, no wonder I perfer mages.

Semisonic9 wrote:Interesting. Maybe you should post the rules?

~Semi

well once I get them typed up, I'll PM a copy to whomever wants one