The Complete Psionics Handbook: Player's Handbook Rules Supplement, Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Steve Winter (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: TSR; 1st edition (February 20, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560760540
• ISBN-13: 978-1560760542
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #449,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buy it for the list of powers, August 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Psionics Handbook: Player's Handbook Rules Supplement, Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This book is valuable merely for the list of psionic powers it contains. It's a fairly complete list; combined with the revised Dark Sun package and the Player's Option books, it presents a list of powers that needs no further expansion. Use the mechanic from "The Will and the Way" (in the Dark Sun box, or available for free online from TSR) or the Skills & Powers book, though. It makes a lot more sense.

Psionics don't unbalance a game if your DM addresses the issue appropriately. I've played psi characters and found it to be incredibly challenging; I've DMed for psi characters and have had no problem with game balance. The key is that the DM needs to be aware of what psionicists can and cannot do and then plan accordingly. Besides, once your psionicist is out of PSPs for the day, he's not much more effective than a mage who has cast all of his spells for the day.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unorthodox and innovative - careful integration is worth it!, June 9, 2000

By 

Kent David Kelly "Author & Anthologist" (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Psionics Handbook: Player's Handbook Rules Supplement, Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

The PHBR (Player's Handbook Reference) series is one of the most highly-regarded, and yet much-maligned, series of supplements ever created. Each sourcebook takes one of the races or classes of the AD&D game, and adds to it huge amounts of new detail - new equipment, spells, kits (sub-classes), lore, new rules, etc. The problem is that the players love these so much that the DM often feels compelled to buy into the rest of the series - an expensive proposition! Fortunately, these works were "reprinted" in the excellent AD&D Core Rules CD-ROM. This one introduces the powerful and alien class of the Psionicist - if you are not running a Spelljammer or Dark Sun campaign, you will want to think VERY carefully before allowing this class to players! The power and versatility of these characters is amazing. Details of this book include: the Psionicist class and restrictions, a full explanation of psionic powers, disciplines, and advancement, special abilities, the powerful Wild Talents, psionic combat (a great system), the great powers (Clairsentience, Psychokinesis, Psychometabolism, Psychoportation, Telepathy, and Metapsionics), running a psionics campaign, and great monsters! It's a wonderful book - and used carefully, it will add a whole new dimension to your games.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good idea, poor execution, December 14, 1997

By 

Teri Tada ([e-mail]) (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Psionics Handbook: Player's Handbook Rules Supplement, Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

First off, I will say that this book is not necessary for a campaign; psionics is something you can take or leave. The book introduces the Psionicist as a character class and offers up psionic powers for use in the D&D game. The powers are organized well and are diverse, interesting and useful. Better yet, you are allowed to choose the powers you want, allowing you to custom tailor your psionicist. This allows you to create an interesting character more versatile than even a mage. The big problem with this book is that while psionics are fascinating abilities, the text of the powers are, for the most part, vague and confusingly written. My D&D group spent too much time trying to puzzle over how certain powers work in certain situations(example: what can hurt a character in ectoplasmic form?). This can really bog down game time as we spent too much time trying to come up with house rules and then later struggled to remember them. The whole issue of telepathic tangets and telepathic attack/defense modes got really confusing and overly complex, too. While it is better than the poor "revision" for psionics in Player's Option: Skills & Powers, vague and insufficient wording is a major flaw of the Complete Psionics Handbook.