-PaulyB: Thanks! I hope they are reading it (the Telekinesis Skill Tree) too.
Since this thread is a Plea for Lucid and Familiar Psionics, I think the next step is to cover the chakra. I've noticed some Anime have a lot of Ninja characters who make use of the idea of Chakra to power their supernatural abilities. It seems logical since many people familiar with psychic/new age stuff are also familiar with Chakras, or disks along the center of the spine/head, that discussing it might take us back to the roots of Psionics.
From my basic understanding, each of the 7+ points represent different aspects, powers, or levels. Sort of like a Feat chain, where you go from the bottom red one to the top violet one, the green one being in the middle.
The two coolest definitions for Chakra are Vortex and The deadly vorpal Disc used by Krishna in the Indian Epic, the Mahabharata. So every humanoid character has 7 'energy vortex' disks of power. Apparently, by balancing these different levels, a character can heal physical and psychic damage, store energy, overcome diseases, poisons, ailments, and so on.
There are apparently lesser chakra with more specific attributes and abilities, numbering in the hundreds, but most focus on the main 7. I'd wager these others, being un named, could represent the many Talents on a talent tree to represent Psionic powers, or less interestingly, pressure points used in martial arts and qi gong.
These chakra have english translations and sanskrit proper names. They also come with what appear to be dice and flower shapes. The most important thing is that there's 7 of them and they have different colors rising from red near the tailbone up to violet-white around the crown of the skull, and the 6th is often associated with the 3rd eye. That aspect is huge.
I'm thinking of making this my signature or putting it on the front page. Psionics =/= Magic. Whenever it does, you end up with Wizard schools that are barred to Mind Mages, and you have Psionicists Casting spells once per day, encounter, or round with durations and everything, which is antithetical to Psionics. I noticed in 3e you end up with rules like Duration: 10 minutes/level, which means that Psionics became magic.
Here's a way to think about it...
You are working out at the gym. You are bench pressing 250 lbs and doing reps. You get up and walk away to use the bathroom. According to magic psionics, your 250 lbs continues going up and down whether or not you are thinking about it. In 3e, you have both a duration based on level and Concentration required.
If concentration is required, why have a duration? If you have a strength pool, why have duration AND concentration? This is paradoxical, even stupid. Want more stupid? Here ya go:
18th level psionicist can move 450 lbs for up to 1 minute, 48 seconds. 18th level psionicist can move 9000 lbs for up to 180 minutes.
Wait, WTF?
You would think moving heavier weights would have a lower duration. That's what a pure concentration system would do. More duration = harder concentration DC. More weight = harder concentration DC.
Pathos - Charisma based Psyche; appeal to emotions; useful for empathic abilities, creating sympathy, or identifying with Mercy.
Logos - Intelligence based Psyche; appeal to logic; appealing to technicalities, legalities, and reason. This approach works better for highly intelligent characters. Justice and Mercy are irrelevent.
Ethos - Wisdom based Psyche; appeal to virtue or authority from character: works best for dealing with alignment, court figures, and people in positions of power. Typically effective when appealing to Justice. Four specialized approaches are listed below.
The 'arete', or 'good' of a man (as vague as 'Kungfu' in Mandarin), in Greek Terms for purposes of Debate (or Telepathic Control), can be compared with the four aspects of Roman character, namely dignitas, gravitas, and virtus.
Dignitas - The dignity of a man, his status and social prestige, rank and honors Gravitas - the weight or significance of a man's seriousness and depth Virtus - the virtue of a man; courage, excellence, worth, etc. Pietas - the Peity of a man; his religiousity, but also duty toward parents
These concepts present an additional way to specialize in Telepathic combat, particularly when using Speech and words, rather than Harbingers. Skills such as Leadership, Persuasion, and Oratory, and if it exists, Rhetoric, all apply as severe bonuses towards Telepathic Manipulation. Other skills that might apply include proficiency in Religion, History, Ancient History, Foreign Languages, the Philosophical specialties of Ethics and Logic.
These kinds of telepathic control are the consequence of dialog, subliminal suggestion, and are not the same as image dependent attacks. They do not work if you do not know the target's language, but if you know the target's culture, you can use visual symbols through harbingers to communicate more effectively.
This system works well in a low magic urban campaign setting, and as a small list of feats that provide subtle bonuses for specialists in other settings. Note that through Pathos and particularly Ethos, it may be possible to bypass a Paladin's normal mental resistances for some powers, particularly ones related to actions (like fighting for 'justice' or 'love') rather than powers like mind wipe or memory alteration.
Oh please no, the ancient greeks couldn't tell a decent story to save their lives. Dues ex machina everywhere, suicide at the drop of a hat, everyone offing their family left and right, and no tension anywhere because half the stories involve a self fufilling prophecy. Furthermore none of these concepts had any bearing on their mythology, gods got all the power and freedom, everyone else got to piddle around in the dirt, that's the extent of their magic system, I don't think that's a great idea for DnD.
Furthermore wasn't Logos was a theory of matter that stated that matter is composed of small indestructible units that can be molded together and taken apart to form materials? or do the greeks have the same problem as english speakers and have tons of definitions for each word?
Oh please no, the ancient greeks couldn't tell a decent story to save their lives. Dues ex machina everywhere, suicide at the drop of a hat, everyone offing their family left and right, and no tension anywhere because half the stories involve a self fufilling prophecy. Furthermore none of these concepts had any bearing on their mythology, gods got all the power and freedom, everyone else got to piddle around in the dirt, that's the extent of their magic system, I don't think that's a great idea for DnD.
Furthermore wasn't Logos was a theory of matter that stated that matter is composed of small indestructible units that can be molded together and taken apart to form materials? or do the greeks have the same problem as english speakers and have tons of definitions for each word?
Context.
The context I was using is Aristotle.
The context you are using is Parmenides, Democritus, and Heraclitus. Heraclitus is the context used in the opening line of the Gospel of John when he talks about the Word (Logos) being God. If I understand Heraclitus correctly, Logos is the divine Reason. It is very similar to the Akashic Records and collective Unconscious in terms of 'wow that's really awesome mental stuff".
I've been wondering how we could get words like Gnosis and Logos integrated into Psionics. I've been ranting on about Eastern philosophy for a while now and thought we could use a breather and touch on Western Philosophy. Ever heard of Swedenborg or Schopenhauer?
I'm just thinking if we have words that have huge philosophical meanings, they make good titles for the core of feat/talent chains. By that I mean things like Telepathy and Psychokinesis - two extremely vague terms that encompass scores of different powers.
i think at epic levels, fluff often turns into powers or abilities for psionicists. I was thinking about Boddhisattvas as a Prestige class for example.
Meanwhile, Been thinking about -kinesis and Elementals.
Pyrokinesis - Control Fire Elementals Hydrokinesis - Control Water Elementals Cryokinesis - Control Ice Para-Elementals Electrokinesis - Control Lightning Quasi-Elementals Photokinesis - Control Radiance Quasi-Elementals
Maybe even Aerokinesis, Aetherkinesis, or Chronokinesis too?
They might Control Air elementals, Space Dimensionals, and Time Dimensionals, respectively. Wait, what's a Time Dimensional, you might ask? Well that's something from the Chronomancer's Handbook. It's sort of like An Elemental for a Dimension. The idea of a Space Dimensional would be the Parallel of a Time Dimensional, and would have powers like Teleportation, Wormhole, Dimension Door, Dimension Blade, and so on.
Aether was a popular term for material space, it's vaguely close to the concepts of Dark Matter and the Phlogiston of the Spelljammer D&D setting. Aether goes back to Ancient Greeks, variously as a Deity, Space, and an Element, particularly "Quintessence".
In some systems, if you take space + time, you get theories about Gravity. Makes sense that if you had some sort of "Time" Kinesis, and a "Space" Kinesis, you would have Gravity in the middle. This is all a bit ironic because Gravity Control and Telekinesis seem really similar to me. What do you think?
Karma - the product of actions. I'm not sure if this is more like Experience Points or Alignment points. What's important is your total Karma lands you somewhere in the wheel of Samsara when you die and reincarnate.
Samsara - this wheel not unlike Planescape's Wheel of Outer planes. Some places are on the Prime Material Plane, others are Heavens or Hells. Ranging from being Beasts of Burden to tortured souls in Hells, to being reborn as Saints, Peasants, Beggers, and so on. Only characters with exceptionally high or low karma end up in the Outer Planes. Enlightened characters seek to, or actually achieve escape from this cycle. When good characters use up their good karma, they get kicked out of the realms of the gods and get reincarnated again. When bad characters are tormented long enough, they burn off their bad karma and get reincarnated again to a less awful place. Some say your Dharma (purpose, and Way of life) determines what kind of Karma you get. For a 19th century Samurai, Bushido is their Dharma.
Five Related Powers Incarnation Awareness - a power attained at mid to low level allowing a Psionicist to call upon previous Life experiences for wisdom, or to fully awaken. Sort of like Self Hypnosis combined with Past Life regression. A 9th level or higher character if previously reincarnated could possibly use this power to get some or all of their levels back from the previous character if played (i.e., if your character was 16th level when you played them, died, and got reincarnated in play, you could become 16th level again).
Lesser Reincarnation - Allows you to reincarnate a deceased character. More powerful users of this ability are able to guide the direction on the Wheel of Samsara to a lesser extent, while the consequences of the victim's actions largely guide the effect. Characters can be reincarnated as humans, humanoids, or animals, usually losing the memories of their previous life.
Reincarnate - (aka Prakya Sadhana) Allows you to reincarnate a deceased character, with considerable options to how they are reincarnated, through personal or ritual sacrifices. You may take on bad Karma of the individual, or bestow some of your Good Karma to bring them closer to the realms of gods. Characters can be reincarnated, possibly with awareness of their previous lives, and upon reaching a certain level of maturity, recall experiences or even character levels.
Choose Birth - A variant of Prakya Sadhana (above), the Psionicist can choose to incarnate in the womb of of a childless or even barren woman. This power is slightly higher level than a telepathic possession, and probably equivalent or a little lower (14th?) than the 3e Mind Seed power.
Pure Land - Allows a boddhisattva or similarly powerful Psionicist to create a Pure Realm or Paradise where Enlightenment through study, teaching, esoteric practices, and meditation can be achieved. A Pure land is like a Heaven or Pocket Dimension beyond the Wheel of Samsara. Inhabitants may continue to progress in Psionic abilities until they become Buddhas or similar Enlightened Beings. Those who progress far enough to become Boddhisattvas may continue on toward Nirvana, create their own Pure Lands and teach, or visit and help mortals in the Prime Material Plane.
I dislike the rule of spending 8 hours to perform a ritual for a psionic ability to work, especially if I need it asap, such as teleporting away from a dragon's breath weapon. Also, only teleporting 20 squares is not helpful in the event that I am damaged physically, but perhaps it would be better for me if I can teleport myself to a place to heal in another city, obviously not something at starting level. (my psionicist didn't even have/attain teleport until about Level 3, so for all of those levels, there was no 20 squares for her) Also, what if I'm from another world, and wish to return home. Why should I have to do some crazy ritual for so many hours if I am high enough level?
Monsters are over-powered if their hitpoints are so high that spending all of my PSP's on my favorite attack (Psionic Blast, which has been around since 1st edition) hardly makes their nose bleed; especially if my party is dying all around me, or already dead. (no more back up for me)
Speaking of which, I actually became so frustrated with how weak Telepathic attacks were, that I ended up spending months iin mediation to make a few better. I believe I spent around 230 days in mediation modifying my powers so they would suck moderately less.
I'm uncertain as to whether or not I would like to continue spending PSP's on every little thing I do, for instance, perhaps if either I have had the ability a long time, and/or I am high enough level... like those At-Will abilities I keep hearing about, but maybe not so specific, but if the difficulty is really low, then I can just up and do it. Isn't that something like what they mentioned in the recent D&D play tests? Sounded interesting.
i used to play a game where you could meditate for several minutes or hours to increase the effectiveness of a single effect, sort of like 'building up a charge" or "entering a deep trance". There's a similar mechanic in Champions. Even as a standard ability, a peson shouldn't have to de-facto spend hours or days preparing to use a single power unless that power vastly outstrips their current abilities.
This 'Preparation' is sort of the Yin to the Yang of Concentration. While Concentration slowly eats at you making things harder, Preparation allows a person to gradually make things easier. It's like Duration in Reverse, even though Psionicists shouldn't have "duration" outside Instant, Concentration, and Permanent.
Walk and Chew bubble Gum In a sense, there's some kind of Concentration involved in Preparation. Let's look at it like Exercise. You work out in the gym to build up muscles, and then over the weeks the maximum amount of weight you can lift, or the time you can run 100 meters/yards improves. But you are preparing for it right? Few people really enjoy all that exercise, but it pays off at the end. On the other hand, people who do stuff a lot get better at tuning it out. You see people listening to music while on the tread mill, or you are watching TV or chatting with other people in the gym while you are lifting weights. This aspect is important in concentration too both as direct concentration (walk and chew bubble gum, or fight while levitating), and for long term preparation. So unlike "round per round" difficulties, perhaps they should scale?
Horrible Evil Math There's 86400 seconds in a day. There's 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day. These figures are all divisible by 12. 60/12 = 5 seconds, probably similar to a round, so 12 rounds. 60/12 = 5 minutes, what used to be half a turn. again, 12 steps. 24/12 = 2 hours, so units of 2 hours.
If you added it all together, you might have a Chart like this:
You might also have a couple of feats, like Extend Power and Persistent Power, but instead of doubling or maxing duration, might allow you to start on the next time slot, so that your 1st penalty begins at 5 minutes, rather than round 2. You might have a series of these extensions, so that you could start gaining penalties in the following units:
Extend I 1,2,3..rounds becomes 5,10,15... minutes Extend II 5,10,15.. minutes becomes 2,4,6... hours
Hours max at 24, which is approximately consistent with the "Persistent Power", aka Extend III, the normal time period used for things like Fasting without food/water and the 2e power Mind over Body. Personally, I would recommend 'Mind over Body' be a power category similar to 'Mind over Matter', rather than a single power. Higher levels of Extended Concentration could be Elaborated, with Weeks, Months, or Years coming up. The heart beat and breathing are good examples of this 'years' extension of concentration, and could be swapped out or used interchangeably with "permanent" or "Subconscious" control, where the duration of using said ability is no longer a factor. I'd recommend 3 levels for regular characters and 3 levels for epic characters, the 3rd level being persistent for the day, the 6th and final level being Permanent.
Extend might cover power categories, such as Mind over Matter, or Mind over Body, or Telepathy. It should neither apply to all powers or one aspect of a power, like "Pyrokinetic Fire Shield" or whatever. If specializing in a single power, you may be able to skip every other Extension level except 6th, thus:
Extend I Extend III (Persistent) Extend V Extend VI (Permanent)
Preparation Should be Optional, not Required If the difficulty to teleport to another world is 50, and my skill total is 25, I could see how Preparation would allow me to bridge that gap. But I should in theory, even if it takes a million+ experience points, be able to reach skill totals of 50, at which point I shouldn't be required any preparation at all.
