From: smt0@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (STEFAN M. THIEME)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re:yet more on the Psionics Class (was dragon psionic's class)
Date: 22 Jan 93 21:33:14 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

In article <1993Jan21.184626.24036@sfu.ca>, akostur@fraser.sfu.ca (Andre John Ko
stur) writes:
>In article <1993Jan21.030208.10265@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu> smt0@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (S
TEFAN M. THIEME) writes:
>>In article <20JAN199312363535@udel.edu>, jdelisle@udel.edu (J. G. Delisle) wri
te
>>s:
>>
>>Despite the fact that this very same arguement raged through here only a
>>couple months ago, I feel it necessary to throw my own 2 cents in.
>>>
>>>       Yeah, godlike... but mid-level psi's can only do disintegrate once or
>>>twice per day. A mage of the same level can cut loose with 2-3 fireballs,
>>>snowball swarms, (name your favorite area effect and/or heavy damage spell),
>>>etc. It only affects one target, uses up a lot of PSP's, and is fairly failur
e
>>>prone (after all, any monster over about 10 hit dice has a 50-50 chance of
>>>surviving, without any other bonuses).
>>>
>>
>>Listen to what you said. "mid level psi's can only do disintergrate once or
>>twice per day." Which means, your mid-level psi (8th level, let's say) can on
a
>>lucky day kill TWO DRAGONS in one day. He won't be mid-level for long, then,
>>will he? All the dragon has to do is fail one saving throw.
>> On the otherhand, look at the wizard. First he needs to have the proper spell
s
>>memorized. He needs to have the reagents. (he also needs concentration, but so
>>does the psion, so I leave it out). He casts a spell against a dragon he first
s
>>has to get around the MR, and then the saving throw. Plus, a mid level wizard
>>probably will not be able to kill the dragon with one spell.
>>
>
>Let's look again at the psion vs mage:
>  Mage            Psion
>Needs spell       Needs devotion
>Needs reagents    Needs sufficient PSPs
>Needs Concentr.   ditto
>Overcome MR       Needs Power Check
>Dragon gets save  ditto
>Unable to kill    ditto (but more proabable... see below)
>  with one spell
>
>However, if the mage's spell fails for some reason... he just loses the spell,
>if the psion fails, most of the time he just loses some PSP, if he fails by
>rolling a 20, he needs to make a save vs. disinto (at +5... true) or the
>psion just disintoed himself!
>
>And regarding a mage being unable to kill a dragon with a disinto spell...
>the mage's spell disintoes a 10' cubical area.  If this doesn't kill the dragon
>why would a 2' cubical (the area affected by a psion disinto) area kill the
>dragon any easier? (The mage affects 125 times the area that the psion does!)

Agreed, a mage's disintergrate can kill a dragon too, but we are talking mid-
level wizards and psions here. And IMHO, no midlevel PC should have easy
access to disintergrate. As for the powercheck vs MR, IMHO it is usually easier
to succeed in the 'chechk then the MR (especially vs dragons).

Also if I remeber correctly psionics can disrupt magic butt not the other way
around (I don't have the book here, so no flames if I am wrong. 'Course, if
you do flame, I got red-dragon scale underwear so I won't get burnt)

I like psionics. I grew up with Jean Grey and the Marvel mutants, Cat in Joan
D. Vinge's Alien Blood series, and the Pliocene exile . I even like the way
the 2nd ed. psionics work. In fact, I think that without magic, psionics and
the ADnD system would be great together. I just felt that WITH the magic
psionics are too poweful.




(of course, truth be told, I am a little biased toward dnd psionics. one of my
first dm's -a rather inexperienced gamer, but then so was I- always used to
save our pc butts with a godlike psionic half-elf fighter mage. Since then I
view psionics as a cheat worse than spam spam spam humbug <---
                                                             |
warm fuzzy to everybody who know what this is all about------| :^)


>And as a question... which dragons have magic resistance?
>
Hey, a dragon is the ultimate PC killing device. They get every possible
advantage.
 The answer is....
 All of them, of course.
>      ^
>     ' `
>  **'   `**         Andre Kostur
> ***  _  ***
>  *''***``*         akostur@sfu.ca
>   `     '
>
Bye
Stefan T.