D&D Shenanigans

[tacticslion]

Originally Posted by krogothwolf

Psionic users always seem to be useless or die in the games I've been involved in with them.

That Wild Table is freakin sweet though!

Ok, see, here's the thing. I generally hear that 'psionics is over-powered', 'psionics is underpowered', 'psionics is broken', etc.

This ISN'T TRUE. It's magic that's broken, but psionics - specifically 3.5 psionics, because its the latest thing - is constantly compared to a system of magic that works but is unbalanced, depending at your spectrum of play. Compare the 'martial' (that is non-magical) classes to the magical classes and the psionic classes. The system pretty much runs on the following curves:
Magic - weak front-game, powerful (virtually necessary) late-game
Martial - powerful (virtually necessary) front-game, weak late-game
Psionics - versatile (but not overwhelming) front and late games

Exceptions: bards (good throughout, weaker end), monks (stronger middle), and rogues (just wow)

Part of the problem is that pre-3.5 psionics kind of sucked, I admit. In 3.0 it was both over powered and under powered, sometimes simultaneously, as it was heavily situational (you suck, ya freakin' mindless pieces of crap! ... not that I'm bitter). In earlier editions (2nd and before) it seems that psionics (if they existed in a given setting) were kind of like having a template: you gain special abilities and brain-blasting power that remains constant regardless of your level. This simply isn't true anymore with 3.5 psionics. Really, unless your psionicists do stupid things, they should be about as safe as a wizard, bard, or rogue - which means they need to be moderately protected by the meat shield and they should do fine. Anyhoo, I'll get to work on my series more, but that's the gist for now.

Also: that wild magic table is, indeed, freakin' sweet.

*I've been working of a series of articles called "In defense of..." and so, yeah. This one wasn't planned until later.

Edit: it's also highly worth saying, that, the most awesome Wild Magic table I've seen aside, krylo's and krogoth's moms both go to college! Ooh! Burn! (also, I'm not really trying to start a "chillaxed flame war" here, per se, but I like that line and have been wanting to use it for a while! So, yeah, I'm walkin' into this knowin' that I've got worse rebuttles comin'.)

EDIT TWO: Double Posts are for Losers and Chumps... like me!
Sorry. I'd forgotten which place I'd posted in last and my message is the only one on the other page... I just kind of checked the bottom, it wasn't mine, and posted. My bad. ANYway, here's what I was writing:
Avoidance Behavior
Now to respond to things I wanted to, but forgot to.

Originally Posted by Meister

...but once a player gets six of them he's got to know he has it coming.

I think it depends entirely upon how much restraint the player uses. Really (by the rules) Wishes aren't the broken spell: Miracles are.

Originally Posted by Meister

My two wishes of awesome.

I love your first wish. Creative and tasteful. Your second probably should never have been granted in a 3.X era, but, hey, I'd roll with it too at that point (a game was finished and would never be referenced again). Also, I want your sword. Mechanically, duskblades effectively get one spell of up to the highest spell they can cast per class level. They max out at fifth spell level - not just their list, but that's the highest level you could normally access. So that leaves us with some basic options (each presumes stacking from the previous unless noted).

LITERAL AND LIMITED
Rules: either the new spells follow their own rules or duskblade rules; but using one of these options, probably the duskblade rules
~ Literal and mean: you can now learn from other classes instead of just yours.
~ Literal and minimalist: you can retrain your current ones to equal or lower levels from other arcane lists
~ Literal and benevolent: you can now replace your currently learned spells with any from any arcane spell list of your highest spell level or lower.
~ Literal and highly generous: you can now replace/learn any arcane spell of any class so you don't exceed the limit of your known spells (15 plus your intelligence modifier, I believe at 15th level)

GAME BENDING
Rules: either the new spells follow their own rules or duskblade rules; but using one of these options, probably their own class' rules
~ Bending and basic: Each time you gain a duskblade spell you can choose another arcane spell of the same level or lower from any list - you can use one or the other in a given day/encounter/round
~ Bending and highly generous: you gain one additional spell from a non-duskblade spell list for each duskblade spell you have of an equal level.
~ Bending and extreme: you gain a number of spells from any arcane spell list equal to the maximum number of spells you can gain.

BROKEN
Rules: it's broken.
~ Rather Broken: You gain all spells from all spell lists and follow their own rules.
~ Totally Broken: You gain all spells from all spell lists and they all follow duskblade spell rules.

So yeah, I'd guess that's about your options (though I might have missed something). I know you didn't ask, but I thought I'd do it for fun and to let you think about it and see how it might work? Anyhoo...

Originally Posted by BitVyper

Next time on D&D: epic romance. I like big buuu... I mean women. I like big women.

You are going to update us on this at some point, yes? I'd be immensly curious to hear how it goes. The same with you EVILness! Keep us updated!

Originally Posted by Krylo

D100 is a necessary component.

Also: my understanding is that a d% is necessary (effectively two d10s), but I thought sync was talking about an actual d100 - a 100-sided dice would be completely crazy. Thus my reaction.