Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Krumpstah 08-01-07, 02:46 PM	Where can I find information out about 'research' option for learning powers? Is it the same as Expanded Knowledge? I'm pretty sure its not..
InkBlot 08-01-07, 03:34 PM	Page 64 of the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Researching a new power is different from Expanded Knowledge in a few key ways. Research costs XP and time, rather than a feat slot. Research allows you to learn a new power of any level you can manifest. Expanded Knowledge increases the number of powers you know, while research does not. Research can be rendered irrelevant by your DM, while Expanded Knowledge is a fundamental part of the psionics system. Research can allow you to learn entirely new powers, which don't appear in any book.
Tedronai 08-02-07, 12:33 AM	I have incredibly difficulty understanding the concepts and justifications behind the research systems of both psionics and magic. Wilders, for instance, do no research in order to gain the powers available in the EPH, or CompPsi, why would they ever think to research a power not available from those books. Any power they do not know, whether in a book or not yet defined anywhere is just as alien to them as the next. Psions, on the other hand, engage in intellectual experimentation on a regular basis to develop the powers available in the books. Why should powers not in those books be more difficult to discover? (similar can be said about the Sorceror or the Wizard) The only conceivable explanation that I can think of as to why these rules exist is to DISCOURAGE THEIR USE. Whether you are using these rules or not, the DM is the final arbiter of whether, A) they will allow new powers into the game, and B) whether any potential new power suggested is feasible. If you're going to allow new powers into the game, don't make the players pay an exorbitant cost to access them. Set limits, certainly, and exercise your judgement as to whether any particular power will be allowed, but don't punish them for their creativity.
AntiDjinn 08-02-07, 12:33 AM	Oddly, if a psion spends time and XP to create an entirely new power, another could use Expanded Knowledge to learn it. There is no requirement that someone teach you a power, only that it be on some class list somewhere. A reasonable DM would require you to have seen the power in action or at least have some way of knowing it is available as an option. This would be up to each DM to allow or disallow because it could seriously tick off a player who put character resources into creating a new and unique effect. Then again, consider how Mordenkainen felt after he spent weeks researching Magnificent Mansion and Disjunction only to have sorcerers everywhere simply wake up knowing them.
Tedronai 08-02-07, 12:56 AM	That's exactly the problem. There is no cost to learn a power not in a book, only a cost to be the FIRST to learn it. Why? Do you have to convince the universe (represented by the DM) that the power works? The universe is at your beck and call, and you have to ask it's PERMISSION (spend XP) to do something new? You can create tapestries of adamantine thread from nothing but your own imagination (Psionic True Creation, with an impressive Craft(metalworking and/or weaving) check), and have them spring into being from nothingness, but you have to ask the universe's permission before you can learn how to, say...open a portal between two locations on the same plane, or create a lasting link between the minds of two individuals
AntiDjinn 08-02-07, 03:46 AM	If you like your psionics to have a pseudo-scientific veneer (i.e., to work based on the laws of a fantasy setting, but have some fancy words thrown on top) then this can be explained by the theory of morphic fields. This theory holds that forms and structures have an easier time existing if they have existed before. So the first time something is created, formed, or simply willed into being, it is difficult; the universe itself resists the novel. But each additional time that object, substance, creature, or whatnot, is created it gets easier and more stable. This applies even if someone making a copy has not seen the previous and is not even aware of it. In some variants of this theory, this principle even extends to concepts; it is easier to imagine what has been imagined before. Long-gone ideologies might re-enter the public arena because they are preeminent "thought forms" from the collective consciousness (if you care to mush Jung and the concept of Akashic memory in there too. Heck, when creating fantasy mysticism it only has to sound like you have a plan). So, in short, it may be possible that the first time a power thesis is formulated, it is a lot of work. Once created, the form becomes an archetype. Anyone who later wants similar results will find the going easier because their efforts will tend to naturally fall into patterns that have existed before. Also, creating something with True Creation is fairly simple (it costs XP, so the universe does charge a fee for bending its laws) but the act of originally creating the True Creation power, itself, was not. Once, presumably, one being first manifest the power, others either independently researched it or unlocked its secret in other ways, and eventually the power entered the akashic consciousness and so is available for anyone who can learn a 9th level Shaper power. Now, Shapers don't have to do research or spend a feat to learn this power; they can discover it within themselves because the morphic field of Creation powers is shared by their collective consciousness.
CrimsonDeath 08-02-07, 04:00 AM	tapestries of adamantine thread I like this idea. I would've been glad to be a part of it.