The Complete Psionics Handbook

Rating:
Summary: Complete Psionicist Handbook has it all, almost.....
Review: After reading the Complete Psionicist Hanbook, I was impressed by its indepth study and creation of a playable character class that has incredible potential. However, as a person who has been studying the field of psychic ability for years, some of the powers and abilities are not well defined and lack coherency. I do feel however, that it fills that gap which was created in the PHB 1st edition where psi abilities were an addition and not a player class. Overall this new class can add quite a touch to fill out those places in campaings where mages and clerics don't exactly fit. Say for examples, monasteries and nuneries where priest abilities are not used (ie. devoid of a religion).

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Summary: Magic is a waste of time compared to psionics!
Review: Every fantasy RPG out there and half of the modern ones have magic in them, foks it's grown cliche. Psionics is a more believable system with better written and more down to earth powers. I won't play in a game that doesn't have psionics in it, nor will I run without it. This handbook is a great place to start if you haven't used psionics in your game yet, or if you're a player wanting to make your first psionic character. It's also worth noting that this is the only in print publication (that I know of) that has a concentration of psionic powers. A must have for anyone who wants to use psionics.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea, poor execution
Review: First off, I will say that this book is not necessary for a campaign; psionics is something you can take or leave. The book introduces the Psionicist as a character class and offers up psionic powers for use in the D&D game. The powers are organized well and are diverse, interesting and useful. Better yet, you are allowed to choose the powers you want, allowing you to custom tailor your psionicist. This allows you to create an interesting character more versatile than even a mage. The big problem with this book is that while psionics are fascinating abilities, the text of the powers are, for the most part, vague and confusingly written. My D&D group spent too much time trying to puzzle over how certain powers work in certain situations(example: what can hurt a character in ectoplasmic form?). This can really bog down game time as we spent too much time trying to come up with house rules and then later struggled to remember them. The whole issue of telepathic tangets and telepathic attack/defense modes got really confusing and overly complex, too. While it is better than the poor "revision" for psionics in Player's Option: Skills & Powers, vague and insufficient wording is a major flaw of the Complete Psionics Handbook.

Rating:
Summary: Useful-to an extent.
Review: I don't know and don't care about psi-using characters. I run campaigns in my own copyrighted world, so I have a fairly unbiased opinion. So:

1. From the beginning it was obvious that a fantasy world, no matter how cliche it is, relies on MAGIC. Psionics belong in space games, modern superhero games, and such.

2. But since they already put the psionics into the game, the Handbook kind of becomes necessary to own if you want to play through all of the game's aspects.

3. Especially since at least 1/3 of the monsters can use psionics, and, as the monster manuals state, it kills the game if you take the powers out of the description.

4. Also some PC's don't really care about your no-psionics opinion and will continually request you to run a game with Psi-powers.

5. Unless you are a fluent learner, you will naturally be much less sure about the use of psionics than magic, as the latter appears much more frequently in the everyday world. This leads to unbalanced characters, monsters, and gaming sessions.

6. So, for the synopsis, if you don't feel too sure, prohibit psionics and be happy. If you feel gutsy, allow for Psi-PC's and buy the book as it is the only complete source on them.

Rating:
Summary: Overburdens an already top-heavy game system
Review: I find the very nature of psionics to be a bit alien in a fantasy game that already has "normal" AND "priestly" magic. Also, while the original game concentrated on making the magic system as far from spell-point system as possible, this is exactly what psionics is: a point-based system of magic - you get a numbered rating of exactly how much psionic havoc you can unleash.

While the book is undoubtedly well-done and very professional in appearance, some of the powers seem to be a bit too powerful for the game's balance. The class of psionicists itself is perhaps the most powerful class at the high end of the clasial spectrum, and unlike its wizardly counterpart, who start out with barely any power (yes, I am comparing wizards to psionicists), mindpower users begin with an already considerable arsenal. I fear that the wells of creativity at TSR are getting a bit dry.

Rating:
Summary: Should not be a PC Class
Review: I got this book because a player of mine wanted me to allow him to play a psionic character. After reading the book I know why he wanted to play one, they are very powerful, and throw off the game balance. This book should be a supliment for the DM for when he/she needs to know how to run a psionic monster or villian, not for the players. The only part of this book I would recomend allowing players to use would be the wild talent section.

Rating:
Summary: Should not be a PC Class
Review: I got this book because a player of mine wanted me to allow him to play a psionic character. After reading the book I know why he wanted to play one, they are very powerful, and throw off the game balance. This book should be a supliment for the DM for when he/she needs to know how to run a psionic monster or villian, not for the players. The only part of this book I would recomend allowing players to use would be the wild talent section.

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I have always been amazed bu starwars "the force". This book makes it a AD&D idea. It is cryptic and hard to understand but so are most of the other books made

Rating:
Summary: Terrific expansion, but incomplete
Review: Psionics can serve to expand a campaign tremendously; they provide just one more big twist that players can use to their advantage, and that a clever DM can turn back around on them. Being non-magical, they provide an effective counter-attack on magicians and priests alike, but PC's are obviously not the only ones with access to Psionics, and as always, any fight that a player wants to pick, the DM can win. Dueregar, Illithid, Tanar'ri, assorted Powers, just about everything on Athas, and innumerable other monsters everywhere, use psionic powers at the DM's discretion. So, if I'm such a big fan of psionics, why did I only rate the CPH three stars? The game mechanics offered in the CPH are awkward and antiquainted. Dark Sun started off with these rules, and later went on to use what are now refferred to as "Players' Options" rules, changing it from an odd sort of proficiency system to a more streamlined and sensible combat system with mental THAC0's and Mental Armor Class. Unfortunately, anyone wanting to use these improved rules who is unfamiliar with the brutal Dark Sun campaign is forced to buy the otherwise excrutiatingly useless Skills & Powers book, or look everything up on the CR2 CD-Rom. What is really needed is a Revised Complete Psionicist Handbook with a comprehensive list of powers and a handful of well thought-out kits. Great Concept, Poor Execution.

Rating:
Summary: Well, it's better than the 1st Edition...
Review: Psionics: The system TSR can't get right. The First Edition's psionics system was cryptic and confusing. The CPH version isn't a whole lot better, the power descriptions being on the whole vague and the systems being unnecessarily complex. There's also the problem of power.

You see, the CPH makes a big deal about psionics not being magic. That's fine until you realize that most AD&D monsters with high magic resistance are completely vulnerable to psionics. Your nonpsionicist has only one defense against psionic attack -- stopping everything he's doing and concentrating. This makes high magic resistance, anti-magic shells, and the like a joke.

Anyway, the CPH is like an early alpha release of an operating system -- it doesn't work very well. Maybe TSR can finally fix psionics in the Third Edition.

Maybe not. What am I, a mind reader?