New Psionic item: Memory Crystal (Peach) [Archive] - Wizards Community

New Psionic item: Memory Crystal (Peach) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
ElyasRavenwood
05-27-07, 11:44 AM It seems to me that with the psionic classes, the psion is similar to the sorcerer and the erudite is similar to the wizard. erudites, like wizards actively seek out knowledge and are capable of accumulating a much wider variety of powers then a psion is. If erudites want to accumulate knowledge, they might also want to transmit their knowledge (if the erudite is good or neutrally aligned). From what I understand, an erudite needs to make mental contact, with a power stone, or with another psionic individual. The individual must be willing. Then they could enter the process of understanding powers through psi-craft rolls, and committing their powers to their repertoires as described in the Complete Psionic. At first glance this seems like a very efficient means of transmitting knowledge.
How then do they pass this knowledge on to their apprentices, if they have them, or to posterity? Or if an erudite has defeated an enemy how then does he learn of the powers of his defeated opponent? From what I understand, the opponent must be kept alive but unconscious. Then he is considered willing, and the Erudite, can establish mental contact and then begin taking powers. This process however will take days. I suppose an opponent can be dominated into giving access to his powers.
Wizards on the other hand rely on written media, scrolls and spell books to transmit their knowledge. At first glance this might seem much more inefficient. The spell book after all is vulnerable to many dangers, not the least being the party’s illiterate barbarian’s midnight need for toilet paper while on watch. However a spell book is a very efficient means of transmitting knowledge. With a read magic and some good spell craft rolls, a wizard can quickly amass lots of magical knowledge. Indeed in my old party, by default, the party’s generalist wizard, came to posses more necromancy spells then spells from any other schools, because of the numbers of evil necromancer wizards they faced.
I was looking through Untapped Potential and I noticed they expanded the things you could make with some of the item creation feats.

I had an idea for a new psionic item. Lets call it a memory crystal. An erudite or Psion can use the imprint power stone feat to create one. A memory crystal serves as a repository for a Psion or erudite's accumulated knowledge. In order to deposit a power on a memory crystal, one has to use the imprint power stone feat, and encode the crystal in an identical way. The Psion or erudite retain knowledge of their power; however once they have deposited a power on a memory crystal, it will be accessible to other Psion through addressing the memory stone. This is the same process as addressing a power stone. When an erudite or Psion address the memory stone, they gain comprehension of all of the powers within. Then they can begin to add these powers to their repertoire through the process described in the description of the erudite. psions can only do this through normal level advancement. Once an erudite has added a power from a memory stone the power is not flushed. It remains. The powers on a memory stone also cannot be triggered, or manifested from.

I have been toying with the idea of letting psions use a memory stone to expand their pool of powers by letting them “manifest powers from sources other then their own knowledge” , but I suspect his might be too powerful.

Well there we are. Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated. This is just a rough draft an idea. Thanks.
Melayl
05-27-07, 02:33 PM The spell book after all is vulnerable to many dangers, not the least being the party’s illiterate barbarian’s midnight need for toilet paper while on watch. :rofl:

Overall, it looks fine. It certainly doesn't seem too powerful, especially since you can't manifest from the crystal. I'd go ahead and let other classes use them, too.

However, you didn't really address your other thought:
Or if an erudite has defeated an enemy how then does he learn of the powers of his defeated opponent? From what I understand, the opponent must be kept alive but unconscious. Then he is considered willing, and the Erudite, can establish mental contact and then begin taking powers. This process however will take days. I suppose an opponent can be dominated into giving access to his powers.

Were you thinking of a way to use this to take knowledge from defeated opponents (in a more reasonable time period), or were you planning on having your opponents have these crystals already made (probably not reasonable for a BBEE to create such things -- might give underlings ideas...).
Bacris
05-27-07, 03:35 PM Elyas,

Not sure if this helps, but I was working on a similar concept, also named Memory Crystals (http://dreamscarredpress.com/main/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=28&func=view&id=1209&catid=19).

I never fully finished it, but feel free to use it.
ElyasRavenwood
05-28-07, 01:28 AM “The spell book after all is vulnerable to many dangers, not the least being the party’s illiterate barbarian’s midnight need for toilet paper while on watch.”

Melaydil about ten years ago, I was playing that illiterate barbarian on watch. The guy playing the wizard was a—shall we use the more family friendly term—a donkey. I did it.
The other player immedialty said, “ I wake up and blast him”
Back then in 2nd edition, there was no barbarian, so I was a ranger. My character made his move silently roll, and the DM ruled, that I was quiet enough to get the book out and walk away from the camp. When asked what pages I was grabbing. I replied, “The first ones I can find. That boiled Rothe we ate is giving me the runs”. The wizard lost sleep shield charm person and magic missile in one sitting so to speak. I left the nicely packaged toilet paper on the log and I woke the thief next who was on watch, and told him “ crap paper out back” and went to sleep.
The wizard’s player was fuming, packing up his bags and getting ready to leave. The DM asked me if I really did that. I said no, I just went for some leaves. The Wizard’s never lost anything, the player never forgave me, but the look on his face was priceless.

“Or if an erudite has defeated an enemy how then does he learn of the powers of his defeated opponent? From what I understand, the opponent must be kept alive but unconscious. Then he is considered willing, and the Erudite, can establish mental contact and then begin taking powers. This process however will take days. I suppose an opponent can be dominated into giving access to his powers.”

I have to admit, I have no idea what is the easy way around this. I currently have an Erudite, 11, Uncarnate 5 he is a 16 level character with 14 level caster level. The wide array of abilities makes an Erudite very effective against other psions.
I learned when dealing with a telepath, sit behind a Tower of Iron will, and beat him with your astral construct.

I also found that I had a great deal of incentive not to kill my opponents, just to try and render them unconscious so I could root around in their minds to see what powers they knew. I found that imprinting power stones was a little bit of a short cut, and I could then learn the powers at my leisure. There simply wasn’t the time always.

Bracis thank you. I liked the write up, and the stuff about storing memories stealing memories and false memories.

I think I might use it. Thanks.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ElyasRavenwood 05-27-07, 11:44 AM	It seems to me that with the psionic classes, the psion is similar to the sorcerer and the erudite is similar to the wizard. erudites, like wizards actively seek out knowledge and are capable of accumulating a much wider variety of powers then a psion is. If erudites want to accumulate knowledge, they might also want to transmit their knowledge (if the erudite is good or neutrally aligned). From what I understand, an erudite needs to make mental contact, with a power stone, or with another psionic individual. The individual must be willing. Then they could enter the process of understanding powers through psi-craft rolls, and committing their powers to their repertoires as described in the Complete Psionic. At first glance this seems like a very efficient means of transmitting knowledge. How then do they pass this knowledge on to their apprentices, if they have them, or to posterity? Or if an erudite has defeated an enemy how then does he learn of the powers of his defeated opponent? From what I understand, the opponent must be kept alive but unconscious. Then he is considered willing, and the Erudite, can establish mental contact and then begin taking powers. This process however will take days. I suppose an opponent can be dominated into giving access to his powers. Wizards on the other hand rely on written media, scrolls and spell books to transmit their knowledge. At first glance this might seem much more inefficient. The spell book after all is vulnerable to many dangers, not the least being the party’s illiterate barbarian’s midnight need for toilet paper while on watch. However a spell book is a very efficient means of transmitting knowledge. With a read magic and some good spell craft rolls, a wizard can quickly amass lots of magical knowledge. Indeed in my old party, by default, the party’s generalist wizard, came to posses more necromancy spells then spells from any other schools, because of the numbers of evil necromancer wizards they faced. I was looking through Untapped Potential and I noticed they expanded the things you could make with some of the item creation feats. I had an idea for a new psionic item. Lets call it a memory crystal. An erudite or Psion can use the imprint power stone feat to create one. A memory crystal serves as a repository for a Psion or erudite's accumulated knowledge. In order to deposit a power on a memory crystal, one has to use the imprint power stone feat, and encode the crystal in an identical way. The Psion or erudite retain knowledge of their power; however once they have deposited a power on a memory crystal, it will be accessible to other Psion through addressing the memory stone. This is the same process as addressing a power stone. When an erudite or Psion address the memory stone, they gain comprehension of all of the powers within. Then they can begin to add these powers to their repertoire through the process described in the description of the erudite. psions can only do this through normal level advancement. Once an erudite has added a power from a memory stone the power is not flushed. It remains. The powers on a memory stone also cannot be triggered, or manifested from. I have been toying with the idea of letting psions use a memory stone to expand their pool of powers by letting them “manifest powers from sources other then their own knowledge” , but I suspect his might be too powerful. Well there we are. Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated. This is just a rough draft an idea. Thanks.
Melayl 05-27-07, 02:33 PM	The spell book after all is vulnerable to many dangers, not the least being the party’s illiterate barbarian’s midnight need for toilet paper while on watch. :rofl: Overall, it looks fine. It certainly doesn't seem too powerful, especially since you can't manifest from the crystal. I'd go ahead and let other classes use them, too. However, you didn't really address your other thought: Or if an erudite has defeated an enemy how then does he learn of the powers of his defeated opponent? From what I understand, the opponent must be kept alive but unconscious. Then he is considered willing, and the Erudite, can establish mental contact and then begin taking powers. This process however will take days. I suppose an opponent can be dominated into giving access to his powers. Were you thinking of a way to use this to take knowledge from defeated opponents (in a more reasonable time period), or were you planning on having your opponents have these crystals already made (probably not reasonable for a BBEE to create such things -- might give underlings ideas...).
Bacris 05-27-07, 03:35 PM	Elyas, Not sure if this helps, but I was working on a similar concept, also named Memory Crystals (http://dreamscarredpress.com/main/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=28&func=view&id=1209&catid=19). I never fully finished it, but feel free to use it.
ElyasRavenwood 05-28-07, 01:28 AM	“The spell book after all is vulnerable to many dangers, not the least being the party’s illiterate barbarian’s midnight need for toilet paper while on watch.” Melaydil about ten years ago, I was playing that illiterate barbarian on watch. The guy playing the wizard was a—shall we use the more family friendly term—a donkey. I did it. The other player immedialty said, “ I wake up and blast him” Back then in 2nd edition, there was no barbarian, so I was a ranger. My character made his move silently roll, and the DM ruled, that I was quiet enough to get the book out and walk away from the camp. When asked what pages I was grabbing. I replied, “The first ones I can find. That boiled Rothe we ate is giving me the runs”. The wizard lost sleep shield charm person and magic missile in one sitting so to speak. I left the nicely packaged toilet paper on the log and I woke the thief next who was on watch, and told him “ crap paper out back” and went to sleep. The wizard’s player was fuming, packing up his bags and getting ready to leave. The DM asked me if I really did that. I said no, I just went for some leaves. The Wizard’s never lost anything, the player never forgave me, but the look on his face was priceless. “Or if an erudite has defeated an enemy how then does he learn of the powers of his defeated opponent? From what I understand, the opponent must be kept alive but unconscious. Then he is considered willing, and the Erudite, can establish mental contact and then begin taking powers. This process however will take days. I suppose an opponent can be dominated into giving access to his powers.” I have to admit, I have no idea what is the easy way around this. I currently have an Erudite, 11, Uncarnate 5 he is a 16 level character with 14 level caster level. The wide array of abilities makes an Erudite very effective against other psions. I learned when dealing with a telepath, sit behind a Tower of Iron will, and beat him with your astral construct. I also found that I had a great deal of incentive not to kill my opponents, just to try and render them unconscious so I could root around in their minds to see what powers they knew. I found that imprinting power stones was a little bit of a short cut, and I could then learn the powers at my leisure. There simply wasn’t the time always. Bracis thank you. I liked the write up, and the stuff about storing memories stealing memories and false memories. I think I might use it. Thanks.