Psionics / magic transparency house rules

From AJS.COM

These psionics / magic transparency house rules for Dungeons & Dragons present an alternate way of running psionics in a way that mixes both without completely eliminating their unique flavor, and offering some interesting benefits and challenges to each.

Contents 1 Current rules 2 Physics of magic 3 Physics of psionics 4 Mechanics of the house rule 4.1 Feats 4.1.1 Mystical Intuitive 4.1.2 Mystical Savant 4.1.3 Mystical Prophet

Current rules

According to the SRD ("Combining Psionic And Magical Effects"), the default mechanic for psionics and magic is to interact as if they are the same in every respect. That is, powers are essentially just spells. These rules outline something that's not quite that transparent, but it's close. Let's digress for a bit, and we'll come back to the mechanic at hand....

Physics of magic

There is a theory that magic is dying. This theory says that even Boccob, master of all magics, doesn't know for sure why this is happening, but ever so slowly, magic is leaving Oerth and perhaps even the planes that surround it.

The difficulty in being sure about this stems from the fact that the origin of magic is not well understood. The prevailing thought is that the positive and negative material planes interact with the elemental planes through an infinite number of demi-planes, and that the resulting swirl of forces are a sort of living energy, which can be tapped into by mages and psionics alike. No one has yet discovered any of these demi-planes however.

This energy is sentient in an abstract sense. It can be commanded to perform highly complex actions, but it seems to require a mind to focus through. In many cases, a physical pattern may also be required. This is why material components are used in so many spells.

Physics of psionics

In the case of psionics, the energy that mages work is focused through the lens of their mind alone. This uses the same energies as magic, and affects the world in the same way, but the nature of psionics is fundamentally different. To illuminate the difference, let's look at two devices in the real world: calculators and flashlights. They both take their power from batteries. They both interact with the world through photons. However, knowing how to use a flashlight probably doesn't tell you anything about how to use a calculator.

The same is true for psionics. A psionicist might manifest a power that does exactly the same thing as a wizard's spell, but the wizard would not understand exactly how it was done, nor would the psionicist understand the wizard's equivelent spell. However, because they both use and manipulate the same forces, there is some limited understanding of the whole process that both will havel.

Mechanics of the house rule

Because of the differences, there are sharp mechanical contrasts between magic and psionics. This makes many tasks more difficult when mixing the two. As a result, the following limitations are placed on their interaction:

• All skill checks based on Spellcraft or Psicraft are made at -2 when dealing with psioncs or magic respectively.
  • Spellcraft/psicraft checks made with Detect Psionics/Magic to determine detail such as discipline or school are made at -5 instead of -2. This is the same penalty as a specialist wizard suffers with respect to prohibited schools.
  • This penalty is reduced back to -2 if the character has ranks in both psicraft and spellcraft.
• Spell resistance opposes powers and power resistance opposes spells, but not as well as normal. Caster level checks to overcome the opposite type of resistance are made at +2
• The strongest spells and powers can be immune to tampering except by their associated magics.
  • Spells of 9th level cannot be affected (e.g. dispelled, counterspelled, etc.), but can be detected by the use of psionics. Power resistance functions against such spells, but the caster level check is made at +4.
  • Powers of 9th level cannot be affected (e.g. dispelled, counterspelled, etc.), but can be detected by the use of spells. Spell resistance functions against such powers, but the manifester level check is made at +4.
• Powers and spells cannot combine their effects in a single item, though an item with multiple distinct "parts" can be enchanted with magic and psioncs in distinct areas (e.g. multi-headed weapons).
• Stacking rules apply as normal.
• Use Psionic Device and Use Magic Device are different skills.
  • A character with a non-zero power point pool can use use psionic device on a magic item at a -5 penalty.
  • A character with access to divine or arcane spells can use use magic device on a psionic item at a -5 penalty.
• Any class which has the trapfinding class special ability may detect and disable magical or psionic traps. By default, such classes specialize in magic, and suffer a -2 penalty when attempting to find or disable a psionic trap. When selecting the class, however, the character may specialize in psionic traps and suffer a penalty to magical traps instead.

Feats

A special feat progression exists for overcoming these restrictions: