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Apr 8, 2010 -- 6:08AM, Kletian999 wrote:

What did you "want" it to do, kill you instantly because it threw out your brain?

No. But how about something like the Mind Flayer where it has a high-damage "burrowing" attack, which if it reduces a character to 0hp allows the devourer to use Body Thief. Body Thief itself could trigger off being adjacent to a creature reduced to 0hp and allow it to ride the body using it as a meat shield for a few rounds.

As it's written it's the definition of un-fun. You're already stunned (likely by an ID attack) and it attacks your will. Then you're dominated for at least a round with a penalty on the save. Then, when you do save, you're dazed. It takes your character away for 2+ turns and then gives you partial actions when you can act.

Apr 9, 2010 -- 10:13PM, Haldrik wrote:

My feeling: unfortunately the tradition of fringe mechanics continues into 4e. The decision to use power points in 4e is probably a mistake, and the Psionic power source will probably suffer for it. Tho I hope to be wrong on this point.

No arguments there.  As the only source to use power points the psionic source is an outsider among the other sources, and as the only psionic class to not use power points the the monk is an outsider to its own source.  Both of these elements could be fixed in time, by the edition of more standard classes to the psionic source and by the addition of non-psionic power point based classes.  All that said, the way power points are used in 4e seems an unnecessary holdover from previous editions that only serves to hinder the source's integration into main-line D&D.

Apr 9, 2010 -- 10:13PM, Haldrik wrote:

So all origins can be true simultaneously ...

1. Psionics is mind over mater, the influence of an individuals own conscious being and bodily aura.

2. The Farrealms, being utterly alien to the multiverse, interracts with the multiverse at the fundamental level of conscious being, thus influences the multiverse Psionically.

3. Psionics is a natural response to threats from the Farrealm. If Farrealms is the disease, Psionics is the cosmic immune system. Tho Psionics has always been potentially present within the multiverse via conscious creatures, its becoming a key to survival favors the development and evolution of Psionic powers, adapting to the new threat.

Well said.

Exactly where psionic powers originate is something of a convoluted inter-relational mash-up, and that's probably for the best, as it allows each DM (and maybe even player) to put there own personal spin on the theme.