Psionic Power: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement [ハードカバー]

I'll be honest - I've never really loved psionics in any edition of D&D. In 1e, they were a confusing add-on, and its charts took up a lot of valuable DMG and DM Screen space. In 2e, they were pretty intensely broken. In 3e, they didn't work because of the crazy attribute requirements. In 3.5, they worked actually pretty well, but I didn't have too much interest.

In 4e, I still think the psionics system is flawed, but I'm slowly warming up to it. My concerns are mostly with the ability to spam low-level powers over and over again at high levels... Ardents and Psions both have powers at 1st level which are so good, I don't know why they'd ever trade them out, much less pay triple the points to enhance a higher-level power. Both the Ardent and the Battlemind seemed like space-filler classes - just psionic versions of Warlords and Fighters. The only one I really loved right from the outset is the monk.

Well, that's changed, after seeing some in play. I still have concerns re: those troublesome 1st-level powers; I still don't fully understand the logic behind upgrading your At-Wills; and I'm still thinking the power point system could have been much, much better. However, one of my players completely sold me on Ardents, and another impressed me with a Battlemind, so I'm warming to all of them. I see them as their own classes now, rather than psionic versions of the stuff we already have.

At any rate, this is quite a good splatbook. Like Primal Power, it has a large amount of flavor text; it's not all just powers, feats, and paragon paths. It gives you a better idea of what Ardents, Battleminds, Monks, and Psions do in the world - something pretty well missing from PHB3. Battleminds, despite all my expectations, are becoming one of my favorite classes.

There are some real gems here. Did you want your psion to light stuff on fire? We got you covered. Did you want your Battlemind to be able to duplicate himself and be two places at once? We got that, too. Did you want your Psion to have an at-will that teleports things? It's here! Did you want a Monk build that gives you perks for using weapons? Iron Soul has what you want. Did you want your Ardent to have a reason to trade out Disheartening Strike and Energizing Strike? Well... maybe not, but it sure tries.

I picked this up only because I'll be running Dark Sun soon, but now that I've read much of it, I'm glad I did. I recommend this to anyone who's not quite sold on the psionic classes yet, and to anyone who's running one now.

Since play-testing the fourth edition core rule books, I've run the gamut with the 4th edition game. I loved it, I hated it, I felt nostalgia for the old system, I saw the brilliance of the balance and then I grumbled as the "splat books" tore the whole thing apart again. The Psionics books feels good.
Important notes:

1. The Battlemind is a solid class, but be prepared to have the same level of detail the core books granted the old classes. A Psionics Book 2 will probably come along, but the core class has some flexibility, especially if like me you plan on using this in DarkSun.

2. The Monk is a joy, but one of the weaker classes for Paragon paths. I felt the 6 paths were weak and failed to encompass the Eastern and Western flavors the Monk really could have diverged into. Basilisk's Fury Adept for example seems a focused one-off not really able to blend into any of the storybooks many players try to crib their system from. While the Monk like the Battlemind can flow nicely into a DarkSun game, there's no clean analog to the Drunken Master or Tattoo'd monk or even Sacred Fist that fit so well into some of the 3.5 campaigns. These paragon paths were the weakest portion of the book, but can be fixed with other material or creative campaign actions moving forward.

3. The Psion is a pure joy to read and I can't wait to see it in play. Unlike the Monk, the paragon paths have exciting role-play opportunities and bring out ranges from other classes from 3.5. My favorite is the Alienist, an absolute show winner for me and after careful examination, my favorite paragon class to date. Not because of power, but because of the care and craft used to insert it into this class and give it an honest home. Definitely an Athasian twist on it will be well rewarded.

4. Psionic Bloodlines are fun. The 3.5 Elan were boorish uber-monstrosities bound for min-maxing splat characters. Here they're a fun story twist with minimal abuse.

5. Feats are well planned for the most part. Nothing overly impressive so far, but I liked Bolstering Wind(page 135), a power that's just one more of those pick me up healing deals, that seemed to have a very cinematic position.

6. The organization stuff was interesting, but probably not as much for my style of game.

7. Epic Destinies.. one stood out. Grand Master of Flowers. While it didn't really make my memories of the Bloodstone modules come stepping out in a flurry of blows, it was a well placed nostalgia item I appreciated. Not perfect, not really great, but with a bit of detail well worth a player aspiring for that path.

In all, a solid book for 4th edition. I still feel sometimes like I'm getting an Excel printout of some of these books, where the items released are merely the teasers for the second and third books, and the balance is purposefully a little slanted towards the DM when the first book comes out(roping me in and letting me bring players in, only to face some monstrous imperfections in the system when the 2nd or 3rd book comes out, but this book looks solid and some minor improvements here and there, primarily for the Monk, will be welcomed.

The purpose of a review is to help potential buyers decide whether to buy a product or not.

I love role-playing games, and I generally support Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast/TSR and their line of D&D products.

If you want to introduce psionics into your campaign then buy the Player's Handbook III (PHB III, 4th Edition).

The PHB III has 95%+ of the material you need to run a psionic character, and the PHB III has other material as well.

While the options presented in this book are balanced, thoughtful, etc. and all of the nice adjectives used in other reviews, for $30, this book adds little substance compared to the other D&D 4e. supplements. At the time I am writing this, the book is going for $20; it would probably be a reasonable buy at $10. So, if you see it on e-bay or in the discount rack for $10, pick it up.

Again, this is not a bad product, I would just spend my money on other Hasbro/WotC/TSR products (the PHB III) in particular.

In service,

Rich