Avatar: The Psionist [Archive] - Wizards Community

Avatar: The Psionist [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Lycanthromancer
08-31-07, 04:20 PM I've recently gotten rather addicted to Avatar: The Last Airbender. (http://www11.alluc.org/alluc/anime.html?action=getviewcategory&category_uid=984) Awesome show on many levels.

It's very stylish, and uses elemental fighting moves that could easily be psionic in nature (martial arts moves notwithstanding).

I figured that most of the bending moves could be transmogrified from existing psionic powers, such as stomp (earthbending), catfall, telekinetic force, telekinetic thrust, and of course control air (airbending), and so on. Many of the powers can simply be reflavored for the four different bending techniques, but there are some oddball maneuvers in the show that I'm not quite sure how to emulate by using psionics. In those cases, I'm writing some new and interesting powers for my XPH powers revision. :)

Anyway, mostly I just wanted to pimp the show as a possible inspiration for new characters, as well as a refutation for the 'psionics is sci-fi' crap I keep hearing.

I do wish, however, that D&D could inspire the same feelings of wuxia awesomeness that the battles in the show do, but I guess I can't have everything.

Enjoy the show.
InkBlot
08-31-07, 04:35 PM Tome Of Battle: The Book Of Nine Swords can cover the wuxia awesomeness (and the firebending). To a lesser extent, so can feats like Up The Walls and Mental Leap, and powers like Body Equilibrium.

Emulating Bending with psionics is a stretch. It can be done, but it would be a huge project. There's already a lot of good original Avatar material in the D20 Anime forum (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=837870). I suggest using that. It's also a point-based system.

Even if you're hell-bent on doing this yourself, it would be better to start with Zerian's system as a base to build upon, then to use the XPH.
Lycanthromancer
08-31-07, 04:43 PM Hmm. Let's just say that since I'm revamping the powers anyway, and since I have lots of holes to cover in the powers list, I might as well use Avatar as inspiration.

Still, psionic wuxianess would kick arse.
sijigs
09-04-07, 07:47 PM Avatar does kick butt.

Look forward to power revisions/emulations. :D
kyeudo
09-05-07, 12:27 PM Alright, now I have to go hit YouTube and watch all the action just so I can understand what your talking about.
Scion of Coldshard
09-05-07, 01:27 PM new powers work, slight modifications on existing powers also works.

You could also go a route sortof like the reserve feats. You would need to know a power of a certain type, then 'charge' the feat for the day (put in a certain amount of pp up to your normal manifester threshold, maybe even allow overchannel to work but the damage is unhealable until the pp is removed from the feat), and then get a lesser effect useable at will (or something similar) for the rest of the day. I would suggest letting someone 'discharge' the feat by using the stored up pp on the power that was used as the charge but after that the feat is no longer charged and so cannot be used.

It is a bit clunky perhaps, but workable. A little of column A and a little of column B can cover a whole lot of ground quickly though. ;)
Lycanthromancer
09-06-07, 02:37 PM Alright, now I have to go hit YouTube and watch all the action just so I can understand what your talking about.Check the link in my original post...
InkBlot
09-06-07, 03:28 PM "Did I ever tell you how I got the nickname, the Dragon of the West?" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km-8mC0BpEo)
All Desert Wind adepts in any game I play in, even if I'm not the DM, are Fire Benders. No exceptions.

If you beefed up Stone Dragon then it could be earthbending.

JOTUNN BAILEY
Stone Dragon
Level: Swordsage 4
Prerequisite: One Stone Dragon Maneuver
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: 15 feet
Area: Five 5-ft squares (S); see text
Duration: 1 round
Saving Throw: Reflex partial; see text

You channel your ki into the earth with a stomp worthy of a mighty giant, bending the earth and stone up into a jutting wall.

In order to initiate this maneuver, you must be standing on a stone surface. You cause a stone bailey - a defensive wall - to jut out of any other part of the stone surface within 15 feet. The wall is five feet high, five feet wide, and 25 feet long. Any creature standing in a space where the bailey forms must make a Reflex save DC 14 + your Wisdom modifier. On a successful save he can choose to stand on either side of the wall, or on top of it. On a failed reflex save he lands prone on the far side of the bailey (the side facing away from you). The bailey collapses after one round.

This maneuver is a supernatural ability.

I don't think any single school comes close enough to air and water bending. For those you would have to steal maneuvers from other schools, and also write a handful of new supernatural maneuvers.
sijigs
09-06-07, 07:14 PM General Ihro kicks arse. :D
Aryxbez
09-06-07, 08:53 PM I would say just to use the Benders by Zerian the keeper (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=837870)

However do what you wish otherwise. Also yes, Iroh is the coolest character there. Sad what happened to him last season. Also, there is going to be new episodes sept 21st I believe.
Endarrion
09-07-07, 08:10 AM I'd say with the martial nature of the fire nation, making them Martial Adepts focusing on the Desert Wind school makes a lot of sense. Also, as InkBlot said, a little amping up of the Stone Dragon discipline makes Earth Benders pretty accurately. I think that psionics would probably fit the Air and Water benders rather nicely.

Using both ToB and XPH together might not be a bad idea here.
Sysane
09-07-07, 08:34 AM You could always use the ardent and create elemental aligned mantles. I feel that best represents the bender types on Avatar. I'd suggest looking to the expanded elemental domains created by athas.org for a better idea of what I'm suggesting for the mantles.

Thats my two cents.
Ryuu_Tenshi
09-07-07, 09:25 AM I don't think any single school comes close enough to air and water bending. For those you would have to steal maneuvers from other schools, and also write a handful of new supernatural maneuvers.

Given the style, I'd say that Diamond Mind is probably closest to Air, whilst Setting Sun is water. Yes, Setting Sun.

When I used to take Taijutsu, we seperated techniques by element. Water was mostly throws and redirection of the enemy's movement; air was evasion, misdirection, focus, and very quick movement; earth was stability and ground techniques; fire was all speed and hurtin'. If any of the Sublime Way is Water, it's absolutely Setting Sun. Just watch the show and how the Waterbenders are the ones always using their opponent's strengths against 'em and you'll see what I mean.

Re-name the style to Rising Moon and perhaps you'll have a better name, but the thought remains ;)
InkBlot
09-07-07, 12:27 PM The thing with using ToB mechanics is that it would allow us to keep certain bender's dependancy on their elements being at hand, while making sure they're not gimped in situations where they can't access their element. For example, Toph could still kick your butt if you fought her on a wooden boat in the middle of an ocean.

I would say just to use the Benders by Zerian the keeper
I agree. No need to reinvent the wheel. That's why I linked to Zerian's work in my first post in this thread. If I were running an Avatar: TLA game tomorrow, I'd use Zerian's work.

When I used to take Taijutsu, we seperated techniques by element.
All the bending arts are modeled after real martial arts (most of them take inspiration from several different realworld arts). I know Katara's Water Bending uses Tai Chi, and Toph's Earth Bending uses Southern Mantis style Kung Fu. I forget if any of the bending arts use Taijutsu. Wikipedia would know.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lycanthromancer 08-31-07, 04:20 PM	I've recently gotten rather addicted to Avatar: The Last Airbender. (http://www11.alluc.org/alluc/anime.html?action=getviewcategory&category_uid=984) Awesome show on many levels. It's very stylish, and uses elemental fighting moves that could easily be psionic in nature (martial arts moves notwithstanding). I figured that most of the bending moves could be transmogrified from existing psionic powers, such as stomp (earthbending), catfall, telekinetic force, telekinetic thrust, and of course control air (airbending), and so on. Many of the powers can simply be reflavored for the four different bending techniques, but there are some oddball maneuvers in the show that I'm not quite sure how to emulate by using psionics. In those cases, I'm writing some new and interesting powers for my XPH powers revision. :) Anyway, mostly I just wanted to pimp the show as a possible inspiration for new characters, as well as a refutation for the 'psionics is sci-fi' crap I keep hearing. I do wish, however, that D&D could inspire the same feelings of wuxia awesomeness that the battles in the show do, but I guess I can't have everything. Enjoy the show.
InkBlot 08-31-07, 04:35 PM	Tome Of Battle: The Book Of Nine Swords can cover the wuxia awesomeness (and the firebending). To a lesser extent, so can feats like Up The Walls and Mental Leap, and powers like Body Equilibrium. Emulating Bending with psionics is a stretch. It can be done, but it would be a huge project. There's already a lot of good original Avatar material in the D20 Anime forum (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=837870). I suggest using that. It's also a point-based system. Even if you're hell-bent on doing this yourself, it would be better to start with Zerian's system as a base to build upon, then to use the XPH.
Lycanthromancer 08-31-07, 04:43 PM	Hmm. Let's just say that since I'm revamping the powers anyway, and since I have lots of holes to cover in the powers list, I might as well use Avatar as inspiration. Still, psionic wuxianess would kick arse.
sijigs 09-04-07, 07:47 PM	Avatar does kick butt. Look forward to power revisions/emulations. :D
kyeudo 09-05-07, 12:27 PM	Alright, now I have to go hit YouTube and watch all the action just so I can understand what your talking about.
Scion of Coldshard 09-05-07, 01:27 PM	new powers work, slight modifications on existing powers also works. You could also go a route sortof like the reserve feats. You would need to know a power of a certain type, then 'charge' the feat for the day (put in a certain amount of pp up to your normal manifester threshold, maybe even allow overchannel to work but the damage is unhealable until the pp is removed from the feat), and then get a lesser effect useable at will (or something similar) for the rest of the day. I would suggest letting someone 'discharge' the feat by using the stored up pp on the power that was used as the charge but after that the feat is no longer charged and so cannot be used. It is a bit clunky perhaps, but workable. A little of column A and a little of column B can cover a whole lot of ground quickly though. ;)
Lycanthromancer 09-06-07, 02:37 PM	Alright, now I have to go hit YouTube and watch all the action just so I can understand what your talking about.Check the link in my original post...
InkBlot 09-06-07, 03:28 PM	"Did I ever tell you how I got the nickname, the Dragon of the West?" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km-8mC0BpEo) All Desert Wind adepts in any game I play in, even if I'm not the DM, are Fire Benders. No exceptions. If you beefed up Stone Dragon then it could be earthbending. JOTUNN BAILEY Stone Dragon Level: Swordsage 4 Prerequisite: One Stone Dragon Maneuver Initiation Action: 1 standard action Range: 15 feet Area: Five 5-ft squares (S); see text Duration: 1 round Saving Throw: Reflex partial; see text You channel your ki into the earth with a stomp worthy of a mighty giant, bending the earth and stone up into a jutting wall. In order to initiate this maneuver, you must be standing on a stone surface. You cause a stone bailey - a defensive wall - to jut out of any other part of the stone surface within 15 feet. The wall is five feet high, five feet wide, and 25 feet long. Any creature standing in a space where the bailey forms must make a Reflex save DC 14 + your Wisdom modifier. On a successful save he can choose to stand on either side of the wall, or on top of it. On a failed reflex save he lands prone on the far side of the bailey (the side facing away from you). The bailey collapses after one round. This maneuver is a supernatural ability. I don't think any single school comes close enough to air and water bending. For those you would have to steal maneuvers from other schools, and also write a handful of new supernatural maneuvers.
sijigs 09-06-07, 07:14 PM	General Ihro kicks arse. :D
Aryxbez 09-06-07, 08:53 PM	I would say just to use the Benders by Zerian the keeper (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=837870) However do what you wish otherwise. Also yes, Iroh is the coolest character there. Sad what happened to him last season. Also, there is going to be new episodes sept 21st I believe.
Endarrion 09-07-07, 08:10 AM	I'd say with the martial nature of the fire nation, making them Martial Adepts focusing on the Desert Wind school makes a lot of sense. Also, as InkBlot said, a little amping up of the Stone Dragon discipline makes Earth Benders pretty accurately. I think that psionics would probably fit the Air and Water benders rather nicely. Using both ToB and XPH together might not be a bad idea here.
Sysane 09-07-07, 08:34 AM	You could always use the ardent and create elemental aligned mantles. I feel that best represents the bender types on Avatar. I'd suggest looking to the expanded elemental domains created by athas.org for a better idea of what I'm suggesting for the mantles. Thats my two cents.
Ryuu_Tenshi 09-07-07, 09:25 AM	I don't think any single school comes close enough to air and water bending. For those you would have to steal maneuvers from other schools, and also write a handful of new supernatural maneuvers. Given the style, I'd say that Diamond Mind is probably closest to Air, whilst Setting Sun is water. Yes, Setting Sun. When I used to take Taijutsu, we seperated techniques by element. Water was mostly throws and redirection of the enemy's movement; air was evasion, misdirection, focus, and very quick movement; earth was stability and ground techniques; fire was all speed and hurtin'. If any of the Sublime Way is Water, it's absolutely Setting Sun. Just watch the show and how the Waterbenders are the ones always using their opponent's strengths against 'em and you'll see what I mean. Re-name the style to Rising Moon and perhaps you'll have a better name, but the thought remains ;)
InkBlot 09-07-07, 12:27 PM	The thing with using ToB mechanics is that it would allow us to keep certain bender's dependancy on their elements being at hand, while making sure they're not gimped in situations where they can't access their element. For example, Toph could still kick your butt if you fought her on a wooden boat in the middle of an ocean. I would say just to use the Benders by Zerian the keeper I agree. No need to reinvent the wheel. That's why I linked to Zerian's work in my first post in this thread. If I were running an Avatar: TLA game tomorrow, I'd use Zerian's work. When I used to take Taijutsu, we seperated techniques by element. All the bending arts are modeled after real martial arts (most of them take inspiration from several different realworld arts). I know Katara's Water Bending uses Tai Chi, and Toph's Earth Bending uses Southern Mantis style Kung Fu. I forget if any of the bending arts use Taijutsu. Wikipedia would know.