Psionic Powers Posted

[Killer Shrike]

As the subject line says, got some sample Psionic Powers up.

 

http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/GreyHEROContent/Powers/Psionic/Psionics.asp

[Southern Cross]

Looks great,Killer Shrike.One question-are these psionic powers based on the ones in AD & D,Second Edition,or D & D 3E?

[Killer Shrike]

Originally posted by Southern Cross

Looks great,Killer Shrike.One question-are these psionic powers based on the ones in AD & D,Second Edition,or D & D 3E?

The Psionic System I use is mostly 2nd Edition in general flavor, but is very HERO-centric in its convenient use of a MPP and an END Reserve. This is a slightly improved version of the same Psionic System I used in my AD&D 2nd Edition -> HERO System Conversion years agos and that incarnation saw a lot of play with several PC's using them, so Im confident in its playability. It trades sheer power for flexibility when compared to Spellcasters, consistency for variability when compared to non Spellcasters. I'm happy with the niche the Psionicist fills. Unscrupulous players can take advantage of the system of course, but thats true of anything in the game and IMO is more of a fault of the GM's than a mechanical flaw intrinsic to the HERO System.

 

The individual crop of powers posted now are mostly new. I have a hand-written folio of many Psionic Powers, including conversions of almost all the 2nd Edition Complete Psionics HB powers and many custom ones created by various players for their own characters, but I opted to go with a short list of "starters". Its so easy to make new Psionic Powers, that the 150 I posted are really more for use as examples.

 

 

On a side note, I tend towards concept conversions rather than "hard" or exact conversions. I've converted over 500 databases of various sizes, complexities and formats into completely different architectures over the last 7 years professionally, and thus have a lot of "Source" -> "Target" conversion experience, and one thing Ive learned is that it is better to distill data into what is meaningful or useful in the target system, and know what to leave behind or you'll just get a jumbled mess more often than not.

 

In other words I usually opt to re-express the basic ideas from source materials with a preference to the target (the HERO System in this case), so I tend to slant towards defining things in ways that the HERO System is predisposed towards. My goal is to make a melange of ideas that is most importantly fun to play. All else is secondary to that.

 

For a more hard-line direct conversion mentality see Hierax -- he comes at it from the opposited direction, bending the HERO System to match the source. Neither method is better than the other, its more of a preference thing. And even better than that, its not an either-or -- on many occasions I've been able to grep his work into my style and vice versa. Source-centric is a lot more difficult and time consuming so kudos to Hierax for attempting it -- I'm too lazy and shiftless to go that route

 

 

 

The Default Psionic System I use is described here:

 

 

 

and some GM Style notes can be found here:

[Southern Cross]

I don't have your experience with 3rd Edition psionics,but from what i've seen,I think you're correct.I've also read in Dragon Magazine that WOTC is putting out an updated version of the Psionics Handbook that's supposed to make Psionics more viable.

[Hierax]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

For a more hard-line direct conversion mentality see Hierax -- he comes at it from the opposited direction, bending the HERO System to match the source. Neither method is better than the other, its more of a preference thing. And even better than that, its not an either-or -- on many occasions I've been able to grep his work into my style and vice versa. Source-centric is a lot more difficult and time consuming so kudos to Hierax for attempting it -- I'm too lazy and shiftless to go that route

 

Thanks, Ed!

 

Hard conversion does take a LOT of time, so I only have a wee bit to offer for comparison so far:

 

General PSI Contents Page

http://www.hierax.com/hero/fantasy/grey/psi/

 

Psionic Power Level:

http://www.hierax.com/hero/fantasy/grey/psi/psi-power_level.pdf

 

Basically, I use the formulae of:

PSP/4 = AP or

Psionicist Level x5 = AP

It is interesting to see how the xD&D conversions stack up against Champions Mentalists.

 

Mind Flayer Conversion Example (Draft Only):

http://www.hierax.com/hero/fantasy/grey/monster/illithid.pdf

 

Anyway, thanks to Killer Shrike Psi content will keep flowing and I'll have good things to use while I try to work out a bit more of my own content.