145 of 149 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good expansion, but be careful of typos and excessive power, July 19, 2004
This review is from: Expanded Psionics Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement) (Hardcover)
Psionics has regularly been an unbalanced feature of D&D since the first edition 20-odd years ago. Originally, it was simply an overpowered "gimme" that you'd get when rolling up a character. If you got a psionic power set, you were superior to all other players and monsters.
Second edition improved that a bit, turning the psionicist into its own class, so that one was no longer just a standard class with imbalancing psionic powers. However, the levels at which the powers came in were generally far too soon. A teleporter could easily have clairvoyance to see into an unseen room, teleport in, steal stuff, and teleport out to get away cleanly, all at 6th level. I am not kidding. Now, this could not be done often each day, but it was doable. A wizard would have to be 9th level to gain access to spells that would simulate this.
3rd edition cleaned up a lot of this. Now powers came in at levels commensurate with similar wizard spells. Unfortunately, however, this turned the psion into the party's utility box. Need a teleport? Need an invis? Need a stoneskin equivalent? Need instant mental communication with the rest of the party? The psion has plenty of power points to supply all of these needs. And absolutely no worthwhile combat power outside of mind control. 3rd edition also introduced a new class, the Psychic Warrior, which was probably its best contribution, combining nifty fighter abilities with a good power list of psionic buff-ups. The prestige classes in this edition were poorly designed, and no one would trade the poor power-point progessions in these for the next level in psion.
Now what about the book in question, the expanded rules for 3.5? Well, I discuss the prior editions to introduce perspective, because the whole history of psionics rulebooks in D&D has been a sequence of drastic alterations of rules because the prior rules were horribly imbalanced.
Not anymore.
Yes, this ruleset rehashes much of what was in 3.0, but what -has- changed is significant. Psions are no longer toolboxes: invisibility is gone, as is the free "stoneskin". Fly and Teleport require that the psion specialize in psychoportation OR spend a feat to gain the power. The basic powers have a good general rule: each power point does 1 die of damage, and you can spend up to one power point per level. So it doesn't matter what level you get the power at, so much as how many points you spend. This has an interesting implication: to get the equivalent of, say, the wizard's lightning bolt cast at 10th level, the psion spends 10 power points -- that is, effectively spends 2 3rd-level spell equivalents. At 20th level, sure, the psion can do 20d6 damage, no problem, but has just spent 4 3rd-level spells to do so, and any psion casting regularly at maximum power will run out of power points after 10-15 uses.
The result is amazingly balanced. More raw, up-front power than the sorcerer, and more flexibility than the sorcerer, BUT the sorcerer can go for much longer, and can do much more damage in the long run. For example, a psion might be able to do 10 10d6 "lightning bolts" in a row, but the 10th-level sorcerer can do 17 of these, 4 of which can be Empowered to the equivalent of 15d6 damage. Don't be too quick to say that the psion surpasses the sorcerer in this respect -- I'd favor a sorcerer against a psion in a psionic-magic duel anytime. The psion's advantage is a better tactical versatility than the sorcerer (which is saying a lot, since til now, the sorcerer was the most tactically versatile class), at the cost of running out of power -very- quickly should the fit hit the shan.
As for the rest, the prestige classes are much better than before, BUT the metamind needs serious rethinking. Even at 15th level, with all 10 levels of metamind, a psion has more power points (by almost 100), and the metamind has a single minute of infinite power-point spending (i.e., once a day, he can use powers without deducting points for 10 rounds, all sequential). The psychic warrior, well-designed last edition, is even better in this edition, removing things that should be fighter-unique, and adding more capability for psionic fun.
There remain some imbalances, but it is unclear whether they are typos or poor design. For example, Energy Missiles get +1 DC and +1d6 damage for each extra point (so you get 5 20d6 electro-missiles, for example, spending 20 points at 20th level). This should probably be per 2 points, not one point, since the DC becomes horrific in this case. As a general rule of thumb, if the result is too good to be true, it's either a typo or a broken rule, and in either case should be remedied or disallowed.
There's more to it, of course, but my space is limited. Suffice it to say that you need to keep an eye out for the occasional overpowered rule, but otherwise, this is the best designed and balanced official ruleset for D&D psionics to have been published to date.
The author, Bruce Cordell, is in my estimation among the best d20 rules designers in the business. I find that he and Monte Cook write the best source material for 3.0 and 3.5 that is out there, with an eye to optimizing fun without destroying the balance of the game, so keep an eye out for future work by either of these two game designers. This rulebook is no exception.
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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Sum Totality of D&D's Psionic Might!, June 18, 2004
This review is from: Expanded Psionics Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement) (Hardcover)
So, back in 2001, WotC released the Psionics Handbook, which was the D&D Third Edition manual on psionics. It was reasonably good; I, personally enjoyed it. However, with the revision to D&D 3.5, and several years of play, it became apparent that the psionics rules need revision. Thus, we have the Expanded Psionics Handbook (often acronymed XPH).
And I like it.
This expansion/revision changes quite a bit, and adds, too. Gone are the psions who had to have high scores in every attribute. Psychic warriors make more sense now, and the soulknife was expanded to a core (20-level) class, which is rather nifty.
Powers are different, too. Psionic combat is GONE, and good riddance. Instead, the combat modes have been rebuilt as powers and seeded into the power list. The number of powers needed has dwindled, as many powers now scale based on the resources you devote to them. For example, many direct damage powers allow you to spend more power points to increase the damage inflicted. Psionic characters are now the kings of flexibility, and leave sorcerers sitting in the dust.
There are many more prestige classes, too. I rather like the elocator, which floats off the ground and specializes in movement, as well as the Pyrokineticist, which does what you might expect; one of their entry requirements is "Must have set a building on fire just to watch it burn."
There are many more psionic and even regular feats in here. One of the new limiting factors is psionic focus, which is used as a replacement for the minimum PSP balance (which discouraged people from using their resources). Some feats require you to keep this focus to use their benefits, and others require you to expend it. It's a neat feat, and gives the player a lot of power, tempered with the need to use it wisely.
Psionic items are mostly the same, though there are a few updates. Amusingly enough, psionic weapons do breach n/magic DR, though that's easy enough to change if you like. They've revised and expanded the creatures. I like the Unbodied, a race of incorporeal shapeshifting telepathic brains.
I'm getting a lot of use out of this book, and I highly recommend it.
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47 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I'd give it 4 3/4ths stars if that was an option., April 16, 2004
This review is from: Expanded Psionics Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement) (Hardcover)
The book is very good. It's a revamp of an earlier book I liked, and for once I feel like I wasn't ripped off spending the money on it. The expanded classes are a good fit (Soulknife and Wilder) as well as the section on psionic races (with old favorites like the Duergar, Githyanki and the return of Half-giants from Dark Sun, as well as new races like the Elan, Xeph and Dromites, who I have to resist calling Dolemites because I'm that kind of person) and the powers seem balanced, although I haven't had the chance to really give them a full-fledged shakedown cruise as yet.
The reason it's not five stars: well, it is a revamp of an earlier book, and that means I did already have some of it. Not a huge crisis... like I said, I'd give it a 4 3/4ths rating if Amazon let me... but that, the fact that Psionic attack and defense modes were left out (I totally understand why, it's just something I personally miss, but these things happen and you have to take all that good with a very little bad) and the fact that the book left me feeling angry at myself for not having the ability to immediately start something like five campaigns using it means it gets a 4. And 3/4ths, at least in my own head.
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