Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lamorake 03-15-07, 01:00 PM	Independent Research: A psion also can research a power independently, duplicating an existing power or creating an entirely new one. If characters are allowed to develop new powers, use these guidelines to handle the situation. Any kind of manifester can create a new power. The research involved requires access to a retreat conducive to uninterrupted meditation. Research involves an expenditure of 200 XP per week and takes one week per level of the power. At the end of that time, the character makes a Psicraft check (DC 10 + spell level). If that check succeeds, the character learns the new power if her research produced a viable power. If the check fails, the character must go through the research process again if she wants to keep trying. Do people use this often? I was wondering how balanced it is to use if your group uses the 5gp/1xp conversion method... seems like it might be slightly overpowered way to gain extra powers. Basically, it's be like getting an extra 9th lvl power for 9 weeks of research and 9,000gp (as opposed to 1,800 exp) which looks very appealing. Any thoughts or opinions on this?
Lycanthromancer 03-15-07, 01:14 PM	My groups never, ever, ever have time for anything like research or item creation. The characters never have down-time, and it's always rush-rush-rush to save the world. It'd be nice if we could try a game that has a bit slower of a pace, maybe focusing mostly on exploration and such, but it's not going to happen anytime soon...
crizhII 03-15-07, 01:30 PM	My groups never, ever, ever have time for anything like research or item creation. The characters never have down-time, and it's always rush-rush-rush to save the world. It'd be nice if we could try a game that has a bit slower of a pace, maybe focusing mostly on exploration and such, but it's not going to happen anytime soon... Our current campaign is the second one with the same DM that's exactly like that. Down-time? Never heard of it. Fortunately, this time around, he's been persuaded to add a house rule that permits a shorter work day. So long as you can find at least 3 hours you can do at least some work on an item. I can't remember what the table looks like but its a sliding scale, 3 hours nets you 100gp (or so) whereas 7 hours nets you about 750gp. It takes ages to get anything done but at least you get something done while your rushing blindly from one catastrophe to the next.
InkBlot 03-15-07, 04:53 PM	I've never played a game that lets one sub gold for XP when researching, but I have used the independant research rules. I was playing a 14th level Monk/ 2nd level Psion. Before expanding his mind, he was focused almost purely on physical combat and grappling. The Psion levels gave him a couple useful self-buffs (he had taken a vow of poverty, but didn't have the feat yet, so that inertial armor came in real handy), but otherwise sucketh mightily. He was essentialy a 14th level monk in a party with 17th level characters. So I begged my DM to let me research Grip Of Iron, and he allowed it as a 2nd level power. I still wish I had taken Psychic Warrior instead (Ardent might have been better, but CPsi wasn't out yet).
Lamorake 03-15-07, 06:04 PM	I've never played a game that lets one sub gold for XP when researching Well, I understand that if you use experience for leveling, then I'd 100% agree with that. The only problem is, the campaigns we play aren't truly based off of experience - it's based off of the amount of adventure time / adventures played per level. We use the gold variant for things such as scribing scrolls or spells that require experience (although we haven't made it high enough level to run into the problem of Miracle/Wish with that yet). I looked at the independent research and I like the idea of being able to add powers for a cost, but the only thing is, I would never be able to do it via the exp path. Perhaps increasing the amount of gold/exp ratio would start to work, but it'd have to be a considerable enough hit.