OutsideNormal: Psionics Transcended: The Power of Ki: Psionics Transceded: The Power of Ki is a psionics supplement compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game which can be downloaded here...
My View on the Psionic or Psychic abilities and their place in the game can be sumed up by a character named Set in the Pathfinder forums at Paizo.com-
Take it away Set -
"The only 'problem' I have with psionics is that it's a new word for stuff that's been a staple of fantasy for ages, like 'the sight' and 'scrying' and whatever.
Anything worth taking from psionics has already been stolen by the D&D magic system, from telepathy (detect thoughts) to clairvoyance to telekinesis to teleportation. Since the magic system has already shamelessly poached pretty much anything that would fit with a psychic system, fantasy psionics end up looking like rip-offs of the magic system that already stole their lunchboxes, and alternate ways of doing the exact same things.
As a result of that, 3.X psionics, IMO, felt like just another means of doing the exact same stuff, and with the levels and 'spells' just felt like a slightly different sorcerer build, instead of something like Green Ronin's Psychic or the GURPS or Trinity Psionics rules, which felt more 'psychic' than the 3.X system."
And
"Since editing or deleting the above post to add this seems impossible at the moment; here's the rest of that thought;
As for the fantasy vs. science fiction distinction, that's always seemed a bit bizarre for me, since psychic phenomena (clairvoyance, poltergeist activity, foresight, suggestion, etc.) has always seemed *far* more thematic and 'magical' than the coldly methodical scientific fire-and-forget 'magic' of D&D, with its extradimensional spaces and bat-guano-powered 33,000 cubic foot fireballs and amber-and-fur generated lightning bolts and matter-annhilating mini-black holes and spells that generate human clones and whatnot.
D&D 'magic' is all about laser beams and 12th dimensional physics and shunting forces between alternate planes of reality.
And yet, when we see 'magic' on TV (or read about it in ancient myths and folklore), it's often portrayed as pyrokinesis or telekinesis or teleportation or telepathy or clairvoyance or precognition or object reading, things that fit more into the bailiwick of psychic phenomena."
- Set
Thank you Set :) I think that sums it up well.
Also Luminiere Solas has a great perspective on Psionics that fits well with how I feel on the subject also :) And it fits well with what Set says...
Take it away Luminiere Solas -
"here is how i visualize arcane magic and psionics.
there is an electrical current that flows everywhere. some have learned to tap in the current, see, and manipulate it's flow, thus providing supernatural effects. there might be other names for these electrical energies. Mana, Chi, and Ki are 3 known examples. manipulating these currents is mentally taxing on the vessel used to control them.
positive and negative energy are just oppositual electrical charges.
this justifies transperancy.
if you want to justify divine magic with this, i reccomend you remove the deity out of the equation and come up with something similar along these lines. as an example. through the power of pious belief, you have subconsciously learned to manipulate these currents. learning to mimic the miracles of the powerful entity you venerate so deeply."
Thanks Luminiere :)
Ki, Chi, Qi, Mana, Prana, Ka, and such magical or magickal practices as Yoga, Tai Chi, Meditation, Zen, and many other words for magic in the "Real" world ;)
