Expanded Psionics Handbook

Alright for any of you peoples afraid to include psionics into you DnD 3.5 campaign setting, you should not fret. I picked up the book read through it. The psionic powers are not really psychic powers. They are simply magic cast with the mind instead of from a book. In stead of spell slots like a sorcerer or wizard, the psion uses magic points.

Here has been my beef with using psionics and DnD. DMs have been afraid to put psionics in their game because Psionics in the past have always unbalanced the campaign setting. Introducing a new element that is sort of magical, but not really has caused much of the trouble.

Not true with the Expanded Psionics Handbook. If you are a fan of psychic abilities in role playing games, you might be disappointed in this book. However, if you look at it from the point of view of DnDs design, you will see that making a psionic character is simply making another spell caster with the flavor of mental powers.

Some of the powers included in the book include things such as the ability to create matter. What kind of psychic ability allows someone to create matter? None. That is not really a psychic ability, but in this book, it is. In fact, there are may examples of psionic spell casting.

This has had one unfortunate side effect. People unfamiliar with psychic abilities in role playing games will take away with them the sense that psychic abilities are magical. This books warps the idea of psychic abilities, but does so in a way that makes it simply a new type of spell caster.

For instance, antimagic spells or spells that neutralize magic have the added benefit of neutralizing psychic abilities in this book. Why is this? Well, the answer for DnD is simple. Game Balance. Unless you are a fully prepared DM who can handle psychic abilities that can bypass magical effects, you are in for a tough time unless you make psychic abilities like they are in the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

Seriously, if you are afraid to include psionics in you game world of magic, do not be. This book takes the worry out of including an unbalanced element to your game.