Last post got me thinking about how Psionics could be balanced so as not to be too overpowering in comparison with other magic types.
The first limiter, of course, is that the "casting stat" for Psionics is a derived stat, so to have a comparable amount of power to draw on you need to have multiple base stats which are high enough to average to another high or moderately-high stat. With a system where there are only three base stats, admittedly, that is not necessarily as difficult as some, and yet it also means one low score can remove it as a viable option.
Something else to consider is what can affect, or is affected by, what.
Physical can affect physical things. That's... pretty much it.
Magic can affect physical things, and it can affect magical things. It can also bypass physical, depending on the spell.
Psionics can affect physical things (though this may or may not be more difficult), and it can affect mental/psionic things. It can easily (depending on the setting, nearly by default) bypass physical.
But magic does not (at least typically) affect psionics, and likewise psionics do not affect magic.
So where's the problem?
Generally, magic does physical damage. Even when it bypasses physical armor, it does physical damage or has some physical effect. Psionics do mental damage, the grand majority of the time. So a psionicist can easily bypass not only physical armor, but any form of resistance to physical damage, and is therefore even more effective against physical-based characters than a magically-trained character. In addition, since magic doesn't affect psionics, a psion can bypass magical defenses as well, and is only slightly deterred by the better mental stats of a spellcaster vs. a fighter.
On the other hand, a psion can't block a non-physical magic attack, either. Hmm.
Ok, so really, where's the problem?
Even if I permit a magic-user to affect psionics, and psions to affect magic (at an increased power cost for either) all I'm doing is making attack and defense types more accessible. Which would mean mages and psions could actually have a chance of resisting each other rather than being glass cannons.
Maybe it isn't as intrinsically overpowered as I thought.
1 comment:
The original psionic system was seriously flawed in that the only limiter placed upon it was rarity. It was hard to get a psion, but once you did it could quickly overpower the game. This led to the introduction of monsters that could easily drain you dry while you sleep - in other words, a deathtrap with the sole purpose of removing such characters from the game.
I prefer your method of balance.
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