Psionic-Oriental Hybrid

[Sintanan]

I'm in need of a psionic-aligned land set in an oriental setting. Basically I want to nix out arcane and divine for psionics. Only problem is I haven't had a chance to glance through the Oriental Adventures book yet, and haven't read through the Expanded Psionics Handbook (but I do have the 3rd edition version).

Since both books are on the way via air-mail, I would like some assistance getting a rough idea of where to start. I mean, I am aware of the Psion (which can replace the Wizard/Sorcerer-styled classes) and the Psychic Warrior (which can be tweaked to be the Samurai (possibly through fluff more than crunch). But that's as far as I can go without the sources.

So, I guess what I'm asking for is some ideas on how to merge them. I can handle all the details, but some nudging of what to do would be greatly appreciated.

[Lord Iames Osari]

psychic power = ki/qi/chi/however you wanna spell it.

[Finerty]

Possible ways to graft psionics onto the oriental (gosh, love that word) theme:

• Soulknives, a PrC from 3E psionics that was made into a base class for 3.5, would make excellent ninjas, I feel. See Psylocke from the Marvel Universe for my reasoning. The lurk class (introduced in Complete Psionic*) is also a viable ninja parallel, but I would adapt that for a more subterfuge-y, dark courtesan role. Ninjas, I feel, are fairly athletic, silent, light types that attack quickly in the night with sharp knives. While I feel that might be doable by the lurk (which has sneak attack, after all), there's definitely an Asian archetype of the Dark Courtesan, playing nobles against each other, avoiding direct conflict, and controlling unto him or herself whole legions of the more direct, martial ninja types.
• The psions can probably fill the role of sages or incantation-type: The ones who don't do much swordfighting or martial arts, but are fuelled by spirits or are close to enlightenment. I mean, the mythology for every culture makes allowances for most of the spell-casting roles: The clairsentience folks are the blind seers of Asian philosophy, throwing the I Ching and consulting lucky diagrams based on the stars. The nomads can have, well, a nomadic flavour, perhaps something involving the wind and horses, thematically. The kineticists can be emperor-sorcerers, capable of bringing nature's wrath down in the form of elemental blasts. The egoists are a little harder to place... perhaps apothecaries with an insane control of acupuncture and ki control, able to mystically augment themselves?
• Psychic Warriors would make great samurai.
• I would suggest wilders might fit the demon-warrior kind of folk; wilderness types, steeped in superstition, possessed of wild spirit power that's not always in control. Prone to rashness, but the progenitors of warlords and heroes.

This list, of course, assumes that you are using nothing BUT psionic classes. There are, of course, non-magic types in Oriental Adventures - perhaps you want samurai for samurai. But I think that you could pull it off with JUST psionics, especially because psionic classes don't all have that distinct caster flavour. The psionics system isn't even split into divine and arcane, per se - sure, Complete Psionic* does have some specifically 'divine' manifesting classes, but the beauty of psionics is that you can make it come from everywhere. Just say that the I Ching clairsentients are monks who seek enlightenment, the wilders draw their power from their (demon)spirit-based superstition, the sorcerer-mages have lung ancestors who grant them access to the powers of the elements themselves - it can be study of the Heavenly Kingdom, or study of the Kami, or study of the oni, or internal study for enlightenment or ki control or whatever.

*Complete Psionic: Ok, CP. Widely reviled across the world, and every DnD player that's ever visited outside of Earth probably felt disgruntled about it too. I do like some of the stuff, though, like the base classes presented, and some of the PrCs. But there's a lot of unsavoury nerfs, terrible feats, and a lot of fluff that didn't sit well with many. So you MIGHT want to take a look at it, but I'd skip buying it for keeps.

[Lord Iames Osari]

I think you meant Complete Psionic, bot COmplete Divine, there.

[Sintanan]

Here's what I got for the classes so far (Thanks Finerty). I grabbed pdf versions of XPH and OA (Technically I do own copies of them now):

BASE CLASS LISTS

Spoiler

Show

CORE CLASS LIST
* Barbarian : Wilder/Sohei pick up the slack for playstyle.
* Bard : Dropped for O.A. fluff reasoning.
* Cleric : Dropped in favor of Psion.
* Druid : Dropped in favor of Psion.
* Fighter
* Monk
* Paladin : Sohei pick up the slack for fluff.
* Ranger
* Rogue
* Sorcerer : Dropped in favor of Wilder.
* Wizard : Dropped in favor of Psion.

O.A. ADDITIONS
* Samurai : Dropped in favor of Soulknife.
* Shaman : It's a druid... sort of.
* Shugenja : It's a cleric... sort of.
* Sohei
* Wu Jen : It's a wizard.

X.P.H. CLASSES
* Psion
* Psychic Warrior
* Soulknife
* Wilder

HYBRID CLASS LIST
* Fighter
* Monk : O.A. version.
* Ranger : Spell-less variant.
* Rogue
* Sohei : With psychic oriented fluff.
* Psion
* Psychic Warrior : With Samurai-ish fluff.
* Soulknife
* Wilder : With "Bad-guy"/Exile/Outcast oriented fluff.

Nine classes (Well, 13 if you count the Psion Disciplines separately) allows good enough versatility; considering Core D&D only has 11, and this hybrid list allows for the different clans from O.A.

[NakedCelt]

Hmmm. Which psionic discipline do healing spells fall into when they become powers?

Contemplating a vaguely similar idea myself one time, I found myself completely changing the psion by dividing it into three disciplines, not six: the Mentalist, who controls or influences others' minds and enhances her own (telepathy, enchantment, divination); the Bionicist, who manipulates living flesh and life force (necromancy, healing, anything that creates, destroys, or alters living matter); and the Fabricator or possibly Energist, who throws around matter, energy, time and space (evocation, conjuration, non-mind-affecting illusions, anything that can affect inanimate objects). I'm not sure which would go with which ability score, though.

The Mentalist seems to fit quite nicely into an oriental flavour; the Bionicist and Energist, not so much — although, if you're throwing out divine magic, you need something like the Bionicist to heal your grunts from time to time.