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Thread: Its all crystal clear?
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2007-02-08, 02:15 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2006
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- 3 meters below sea level.
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Its all crystal clear?
I have only had a slight gimps at expanded psionics, and now im wondering, why the heck do they all use crystal weapons? Just wondering.
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You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
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2007-02-08, 02:17 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2005
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- Baator (aka Britain)
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Crystals are psychic love!
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2007-02-08, 02:17 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2006
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- England
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2007-02-08, 02:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2006
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- Fairfield, CA
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Because obsidian is sharper than surgical steel.
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d20r: Spells (I-L) - d20r: Spells (H) - d20r: Spells (G) - d20r: Spells (F) - d20r: Spells (E) - d20r: Spells (D) - d20r: Wizard class
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2007-02-08, 03:46 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2006
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- uk
Re: Its all crystal clear?
don't know and i hate it.
just change it if you don't like it78% of DM's started their first campaign in a tavern. If you're one of the 22% that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature.
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if this thread is a 3.5 thread then play 4e
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2007-02-08, 04:09 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
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- St. Louis (used to be Utah)
Re: Its all crystal clear?
Darn new age hippie psions. I think it is a little weird also I can understand it for psicrystals and the psi wand things but I don't see a reason for the weapons. there are a couple of prestige classes devoted to those weapons though. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827d
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2007-02-08, 04:27 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2006
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Because, deep in thier heart of hearts, the people who designed the psionics system wanted it to be cooler than the magic system. Not to knock psionics, but I'd be willing to bet that they almost wet themselves with joy when they realized they could 1-up the wizard artwork. "Haha!" they said, "Let the wizards have their cheesy combos and smoldering staves, we have sparkly crystal swords! In fact, we have razor-sharp spiny crystal everything! Swords, wands, alternate personalities, mirrors, furniture, clothing, toilet paper..."
Last edited by Jade_Tarem; 2007-02-08 at 04:28 PM.
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2007-02-08, 04:37 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2006
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Crystal toilet paper.
Ouch.
The official explanation is that crystals are naturally resonance points for psionic energy.
The unofficial explanation is that we needed more puns.
"Are we crystal clear on this, generic psychic warrior?"
"No, generic mysterious figure, but my sword is!"
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2007-02-08, 04:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2006
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- Texas
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Suddenly Ialdabode had an epiphany, "OH GODS WHY DIDN'T WE STOP WITH THE WEAPONS? CRYSTAL TOILET PAPER IS A HORRIBLE IDEA!"
The fluff reason is that crystals are psionically resonant so they can channel stuff and act like batteries, etc. The real reason is because even the reality shattering powers of magic are worthless compared to Shiny Things.
Edit: CURSE YOU KHANTALAS!!!Last edited by BCOVertigo; 2007-02-08 at 04:43 PM.
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2007-02-08, 04:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2006
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- 3 meters below sea level.
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Yea, I was aware of the horrible fluffiness, the only cool looking crystal swinger is the warforged on the intro page of sharn.
But are there any powers that actually need a crystal weapons or object?Your Personal Undead
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by dr. bathand, Kpenguin and Fay Graydon
You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
-C. S. Lewis
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2007-02-08, 04:51 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2006
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2007-02-08, 05:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2007
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- is nice, sometimes
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Crystals give psionics some stylistic flair. Without them psionic characters are just normal people standing around that occasionally decide to blow things up, tear apart someone's mind, create new planes, etc. Which is kinda cool but crystals are pretty and shiny. Which makes them more cool I guess.
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2007-02-08, 05:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
There's a prestige class that was on WotCs site that was pretty much a combined Kensai, Weapon Master, and still gave progression on psychic warrior and full BAB. It's pretty sick, but the requirements are steep and include having a crystal masterwork weapon to 'imbue'.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20020927a"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
- Thomas Jefferson
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2007-02-08, 06:14 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2006
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- Alaska
Re: Its all crystal clear?
The profusion of typeless "crystal" (Or the more bad-aasimar version, "deep" crystal) is one of the things that annoys me about the various fluff decisions.
As a general metaphysicist, I have minor cognitive dissonance with psionics in general, Incarnum's use of chakras, and a few other terms. Most of the time I don't let it interfere with my enjoyment of an interesting system, since they let you do cool things (Even if straight-from-the-box incarnum makes you look like you were dumpster diving at Goodwill), and it was either use something that vaguely corresponds or come up with a new term.
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2007-02-08, 10:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2004
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
It's obviously a nod to various New Age beliefs about crystals having psychic resonance or power or something.
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2007-02-08, 10:32 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2006
Re: Its all crystal clear?
Yeah, dude, it's 'cause the crystals, y'see, are all like... Yeah, so when you focus on your inner... y'know, well, and colors, so... yeah, dude.
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2007-02-08, 10:40 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
That's like asking why wizards have beards.
Or why I have a beard.
Wait...why DO I have a beard?....
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2007-02-08, 10:40 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2006
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- Seattle, USA
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Also consider, gems, most notably diamonds, are extreamly important to magic. Many powerful spells (especially those dealing with a soul) use gems as material components and most magic items incorporate a gem of some sort in their design, perhaps as a sort of magical battery.
Psionics (using the standard magic transparency rules) or more or less just a different way of manipulating magical power. Stylisticly, or perhaps out of efficiency psionic crystals tend to be bigger and more "jagged" shapped then the clean cut smallish gems that mages use, perhaps to show how psionics rather then being a fairly exact and regimented system (like magic), is a little more feral and unpredicatable.
Or perhaps someone just thought that psionic characters needed to look different then normal characters and crystals just look cool.
EDIT: Wizards have beards because most wizards are old and long white beards are a sign of age and wisdom. Unless your a PC, who is always in the 16-20 range, most wizards who are any good have studied for decades and thus are old farts.Last edited by TheOOB; 2007-02-08 at 10:42 PM.
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2007-02-08, 10:43 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2004
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- Finland
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Dave's not here, man.
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2007-02-08, 10:51 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2007
Re: Its all crystal clear?
also if you have a 'deep' crystal weapon, you can spend power points to do more damage.
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2007-02-09, 11:24 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2006
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Oh the Psychic Weapon Master is so good. Its Full BAB, 5/10, Full Kensai Weapon Upgrade, Adds +2 to a weapon threat range if you have improved crit (else you get improved crit), and you can increase the weapon multipler 5xs a day.
How do you like my 17-20 x5 Crystal Scythe?Stupendous Man drawn by Linklele
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2007-02-09, 11:31 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Fairfield, CA
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
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d20r Compilation PDF - last updated 9.11.14
d20r: Spells (I-L) - d20r: Spells (H) - d20r: Spells (G) - d20r: Spells (F) - d20r: Spells (E) - d20r: Spells (D) - d20r: Wizard class
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2007-02-09, 11:40 AM (ISO 8601)
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2007-02-09, 05:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
- Thomas Jefferson
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2007-02-10, 11:53 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
The crystals really kind of annoyed me at first, but there is an actual logical explanation for it. Crystals are already beiing used to store energy and memory in computers. Crystals, if aligned right and this and that done to them could possibly have an neural-like matrix. Crystals tend to follow a fractal pattern, and alot of information can be stored in this way. If tuned to certain frequencies or conditions they are also capable of realigning themselves, which in this case is merely thoughts waves.
Thus one could almost say a psicrystal is a sort of no-tech computer accessible by the psion's mind. Main problem with this though is that it feeds into the whole 'Psionics is only for sci-fi! Waaaaaah!' mentality.
I think of these crystals as more alike to be silicon-based creatures, which are just as likely to exist as carbon-based.Last edited by The Vorpal Tribble; 2007-02-10 at 11:55 AM.
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2007-02-10, 12:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2005
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Chenjesu much?
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2007-02-10, 01:23 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2006
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- Yes.
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
What about Crystal Pepsi?
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2007-02-10, 03:44 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2006
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Frankly, I can't remember the last time I saw psionics in a sci-fi story.
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2007-02-10, 04:27 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2006
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- 3 meters below sea level.
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Re: Its all crystal clear?
Your Personal Undead
Other Avatars:
Spoiler
by dr. bathand, Kpenguin and Fay Graydon
You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
-C. S. Lewis
-
2007-02-10, 04:33 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2006
- Gender