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#1 Haldrik Jul 05, 2010 17:13:15	Wait. What? Spirit? I accidentally discovered the following while sorting thru the Online Compendium glossary. These are all (!) the currently existing power sources: `Arcane `Divine `Martial `Primal `Shadow `Spirit Notice, the 'Psionic power source' doesnt appear. The 'Spirit power source' does. Instead? The Compendium lists the Players Handbook 2 as being the first book to introduce this power source. While its possible this is an error, its difficult to explain which typical 'scribal error' could have produced this textual garble. At first glance, it seems the Psionic power source has been renamed as the Spirit power source. But there is no other evidence to suggest this. 'Psionic' powers continue to be called just that. The Players Handbook 2 uses the technical term 'Spirit' to refer to the Shaman class. The Shaman enjoys communion with 'nature spirits', called 'primal spirits', and especially with the personal combat ally, the 'spirit companion', whose power keyword is 'Spirit', also counted as an accessory like weapons and implements. The following quotes flavor this technical term 'Spirit' as nature spirits: 'Some primal powers are more overtly magical than others, but they all draw on the spirits of nature that pervade the world and, to some extent, the echo plane known as the Feywild. .. These primal spirits are beyond number, ranging from spirits too weak to have proper names to the mightiest incarnations of nature’s power. .. As the people of the [middle] world have come to know these primal spirits and live in harmony with them, some mortal spirits have joined their number after death, just as some mortal souls pass to the dominions of their gods. .. The world of spirit that exists alongside the physical world is as real to you as your own body; you perceive and move in both realms at the same time.' Thus it is clear, the primal spirit is an aspect of the Primal power source, thus listing a Spirit power source in the Compendium is redundant. But stray uses of the word 'spirit' also occur: ` 'A fey spirit of such power.' ` 'Devas are a new race of reincarnated immortal spirits striving for the perfection of their souls. .. Immortal Origin: Your spirit is native to the Astral Sea, so you are considered an immortal creature for the purpose of effects that relate to creature origin. Devas were spirits who chose to bind themselves to the [middle] world in mortal flesh.' ` 'A spirit resembling one of your past incarnations steps out of your body, bows briefly, and moves as you direct. .. You strike your foe in an eruption of searing radiance, creating a bond between your spirits. .. You insert a fragment of your spirit into your enemy’s mind.' ` 'You invoke the symbol of life, a gleaming icon of gold that pulls your allies’ spirits back to their mortal shells, even as death tries to draw them away.' These stray uses of the term 'spirit' - in the sense of a 'soul' including conscious being, mindforce, lifeforce, bodily aura of ki force, and psyche of memory, selfidentity, and confidence - are exactly appropriate for the Psionic power source. Referring to the Psionic power source as the Spirit power source makes sense. In sum, it seems the addition of a 'Spirit power source' and the omission of the 'Psionic power source' are probably a coincidental scribal error. But perhaps a telling one.
#2 celticmutt Jul 05, 2010 18:53:10	It's a simple error.  The compendium is full of them.
#3 Neutronium_Dragon Jul 05, 2010 23:28:06	> The Compendium lists the Players Handbook 2 as being > the first book to introduce this power source. Psionics were introduced in the PHB3. It looks to me more like a categorization problem; the entry for "spirit" is defining the power keyword rather than a power source.