I loved this book. It was quirky and mechanically cumbersome but it was one of the most flavorful D&D books ever. It personified the plug and play nature of the game for the first half of the lifespan of the game. Psionics could have easily been modeled by slightly modifying the Magic-user but adding totally new rules was the answer for ‘improving’ gameplay back then. Need a dungeon delving thief class? Here’s a totally arbitrary skill system! Need to make Fighters more powerful to keep up with other classes? Here’s another skill system of weapon proficiencies and non-weapon proficiencies that don’t seem arbitrary at all! Not that 3rd, 4th and 5th, or even BECMI were all that different in that regard, since there’s always new classes, new spells, and power creep, but at least there was the attempt to unify ability scores and resolution mechanics. Anyway, psionics is fun and belongs in D&D just as much anything else like the Cleric or Barbarian, some very non-real world interpretations of real world concepts. Psionics can be the super-powered version of fortune tellers, fakirs and other mystics that claim connections to spirit world or abilities honed through self discipline and their own life force. That fits just as well in a world where people can read a book and then make others fall asleep or shoot glowing arrows out of their hands.
Had so much fun with this book, mainly from it's integration into the Dark Sun setting, made that world feel different and interesting fan more than the other settings like Ravenloft, Dragonlance, etc. It added so much to the game, love it to bits.
Great book, I've used it for years. But it wasn't really "complete" and it had many bugs and balance issues. Most of those where corrected in the Player's Options: Skills and Powers book. Also, the book that covered the lack of powers within some disciplines was Dark Sun's expansion book The Will and the Way, which had tons of extra powers.
It was definitely interesting, and it did get a bunch of use from my group when playing Dark Sun, and I seem to remember a Psionicist player character at some point, but I don't think he lasted more than a few sessions (we had a player who swapped out characters often because he wanted to try different things).
I'm pretty sure that TSR did their best to wreck D&D long before WotC came on the scene, by the end it was a real mess with so many books, players options, complete books, etc that there wasn't even a hint of balance. That said, this was a great book among a lot of dross.
But in 2e do riches really mean anything? I remember my character funding the entire police force of the country we controlled from his personal money.
@@ironangel667 My point isn't the reality of it all. But the fact that if when your character got rich they retired from adventuring, that most characters would retire at a really low level.
@@RPGGamerthat sounds like an argument for a low powered world in a ‘realistic’ campaign, and aligns well with the Gygaxian worldview seen in AD&D first edition. Only the insane or evil zealots would continue to adventure amass personal power just to be….powerful. Most player characters are murder hobos so that checks with how they never stop going up in level despite every reason to retire and live comfortably before something truly horrible happens to them.
@@russellharrell2747 Have to admit I've never played in a campaign like that. I've been lucky enough to have GM's who map out campaigns, so our characters were "saving the world", and retiring would lead to the deaths of those they love. Hence why I had a character fund a police force from his own money, he wasn't in it for the cash, it was totally pointless to him.
The description of psionics in the book is the ability to manipulate reality with the power of your mind. That's literally anything...including teleporting and i loved the tone the artwork gave.
I just felt that Psionics should be something different, and it just came across as another form of magic. Yes it can be justified, I just wanted it to be something new and different.
@RPGGamer you were disappointed because it was only 95% different? The only similarities between 2ed psionics and magic are they share a very few powers/spells. And even some of those work somewhat differently.
@@ironangel667 Many of the powers even share names with Spells, hard to see the difference between Psionics and Magic when they even use the same names.
@RPGGamer really? I can think of 3 off the top of my head out of over a hundred. Not to mention a completely different system is used. Telekinesis, teleport, claireaudiance/clairvoyance, disintegrate...that's all i can think of. You're hyperfocused on a small handful of powers while ignoring everything else.
I love psionics (and Dark Sun). It was 80% of what I played back in the 1990s. But I hated (and still hate) the Pink Floyd photos in the CPH. (Despite the fact that I also love Pink Floyd.) The 5e sorcerer seems to me to be the mechanical descendant of the 2e psionicist.
I loved this book. It was quirky and mechanically cumbersome but it was one of the most flavorful D&D books ever. It personified the plug and play nature of the game for the first half of the lifespan of the game. Psionics could have easily been modeled by slightly modifying the Magic-user but adding totally new rules was the answer for ‘improving’ gameplay back then. Need a dungeon delving thief class? Here’s a totally arbitrary skill system! Need to make Fighters more powerful to keep up with other classes? Here’s another skill system of weapon proficiencies and non-weapon proficiencies that don’t seem arbitrary at all!
Not that 3rd, 4th and 5th, or even BECMI were all that different in that regard, since there’s always new classes, new spells, and power creep, but at least there was the attempt to unify ability scores and resolution mechanics.
Anyway, psionics is fun and belongs in D&D just as much anything else like the Cleric or Barbarian, some very non-real world interpretations of real world concepts. Psionics can be the super-powered version of fortune tellers, fakirs and other mystics that claim connections to spirit world or abilities honed through self discipline and their own life force. That fits just as well in a world where people can read a book and then make others fall asleep or shoot glowing arrows out of their hands.
Had so much fun with this book, mainly from it's integration into the Dark Sun setting, made that world feel different and interesting fan more than the other settings like Ravenloft, Dragonlance, etc. It added so much to the game, love it to bits.
Great book, I've used it for years.
But it wasn't really "complete" and it had many bugs and balance issues. Most of those where corrected in the Player's Options: Skills and Powers book. Also, the book that covered the lack of powers within some disciplines was Dark Sun's expansion book The Will and the Way, which had tons of extra powers.
It was definitely interesting, and it did get a bunch of use from my group when playing Dark Sun, and I seem to remember a Psionicist player character at some point, but I don't think he lasted more than a few sessions (we had a player who swapped out characters often because he wanted to try different things).
A great book with loads of material to offer even today. WoTc can eat my shorts; they can wreck D&D but they can't take our game~
I'm pretty sure that TSR did their best to wreck D&D long before WotC came on the scene, by the end it was a real mess with so many books, players options, complete books, etc that there wasn't even a hint of balance.
That said, this was a great book among a lot of dross.
@@RPGGamer I do agree on that. I've noticed that happens with most game systems that change owners.
No psionacist ever need go beyond lvl5. Telekinesis, create object, molecular rearrangement, gem cutting, power manipulation= instant riches
But in 2e do riches really mean anything? I remember my character funding the entire police force of the country we controlled from his personal money.
@RPGGamer none of it really means anything--> its make believe lol
The point i was making is a psionacist could retire after they got that combo.
@@ironangel667 My point isn't the reality of it all. But the fact that if when your character got rich they retired from adventuring, that most characters would retire at a really low level.
@@RPGGamerthat sounds like an argument for a low powered world in a ‘realistic’ campaign, and aligns well with the Gygaxian worldview seen in AD&D first edition. Only the insane or evil zealots would continue to adventure amass personal power just to be….powerful. Most player characters are murder hobos so that checks with how they never stop going up in level despite every reason to retire and live comfortably before something truly horrible happens to them.
@@russellharrell2747 Have to admit I've never played in a campaign like that. I've been lucky enough to have GM's who map out campaigns, so our characters were "saving the world", and retiring would lead to the deaths of those they love. Hence why I had a character fund a police force from his own money, he wasn't in it for the cash, it was totally pointless to him.
The description of psionics in the book is the ability to manipulate reality with the power of your mind. That's literally anything...including teleporting and i loved the tone the artwork gave.
I just felt that Psionics should be something different, and it just came across as another form of magic. Yes it can be justified, I just wanted it to be something new and different.
@RPGGamer you were disappointed because it was only 95% different? The only similarities between 2ed psionics and magic are they share a very few powers/spells. And even some of those work somewhat differently.
@@ironangel667 Many of the powers even share names with Spells, hard to see the difference between Psionics and Magic when they even use the same names.
@RPGGamer really? I can think of 3 off the top of my head out of over a hundred. Not to mention a completely different system is used. Telekinesis, teleport, claireaudiance/clairvoyance, disintegrate...that's all i can think of. You're hyperfocused on a small handful of powers while ignoring everything else.
I love psionics (and Dark Sun). It was 80% of what I played back in the 1990s. But I hated (and still hate) the Pink Floyd photos in the CPH. (Despite the fact that I also love Pink Floyd.) The 5e sorcerer seems to me to be the mechanical descendant of the 2e psionicist.