By now, you've probably already heard the hype. "Oh, psionics in 3e are much better than in 1st or 2nd!" "I love the new Psionic Handbook."
Well, you're probably about to hear it all again. :-)
This reviewer is constantly surprised by the niftiness of the latest 3e products (some of the stuff from Sword and the Fist aside, of course). I was also one of the biggest anti-D&D peeps out there, at least until I started getting into 3e. And I was a Wall of Iron when it came to not using psionics in fantasy games. I was immovable. People asked, I said no. I refused. When I had been playing and running 2nd edition, the psionics characters totally walked over everyone else.
Then, I read through my copy of the Psionics Handbook, and I immediatly said "Oh my! This could work!!!"
In general, I find the new rules to be about on par with, say, a sorcerer. Sure, some of the powers are a bit weaker, but there's a bit more flexibility with psionic characters than even with sorcerers. Plus, some of the powers can combine into ugly combinations (but, then, so can many of the sorcerer's spells. Improved Invisibility-->Bull's Strength-->Haste anyone?).
I've tried to create psionic characters that can break the game. Believe me, I've tried (and I'm the worlds nastiest munchkin. I admit it. I can milk every last drop of nastiness from a rule system. That's a major reason I'm always the GM).
At any rate, that's enough of my rambling. Now on to the review itself!
Chapter One gives us the lowdown on the Psionic Classes. While there are two of them listed, one of them, the Psion, is really six different classes (complete with different class skills and everything).
Psions are equivalent to sorcerers, basically. They concentrate heavily on their powers and are pretty darned weak at hand to hand combat. There has been some concern about Psions needing good scores in all of their abilities (each different type of psionic power is based on a different ability). While this is not necessarily untrue, I don't see it being a big problem. You just have to think ahead when creating the Psion character, and place your stats very carefully. Psions also can create psicrystals, which are like familiars. They're crystals that you put a bit of your personality into. This is, I think, a very neat idea.
Psionic Warriors could be best described as Fighters that gain psionic powers. They get Bonus Feats, have a wide array of weapons and armor they can use and get Weapon Specialization (albeit at 6th level) like fighters, but they also get psionic powers (mostly Psychometabolism powers that boost their combat abilities) although nowhere near the number that Psions get.
Chapter Two details new skills. Some of these, like Concentration and Psicraft, are merely rewrites of old skills with psionic characters in mind. Others are new ones completely, like autohypnosis and stabalize self. If I were to claim that any skill was imbalanced, it would be autohypnosis. With it, the psionic character (and only psions and psychic warriors can take it; something else I have a slight issue with) can gain a 4 bonus to resist fear, memorize large bits of info, ignore caltrop wounds, gain a 4 bonus to resist poison and keep making attacks without taking damage at 0 hit points. Ah, but Bards and Rogues, never fear! There's a skill exclusively for these classes..."Use Psionic Device." Okay, it's basically "Use Magic Item," but for psionic devices.
Chapter Three has a ton of feats for psionic characters. At first read-through, some of them seem nasty, like Deep Impact (your next melee attack is resolved as if it were a touch attack), but then you realize that they either require you to put some of your precious (especially for the Psychic Warrior) power points in reserve and not use them, or you have to spend your power points to use them (Deep Impact costs 5 power points, equivalent to a 3rd level power..). Either way, if you want to use some of your Psionic Feats, you have to cut down on the number of powers you use per day. This seems to be pretty balanced. Again, a lot of the Feats are cut and pasted metamagic or item creation feats, with references to psionic powers pasted in.
Chapter Four details how powers work. Unlike spells, who have components, powers have manifestations. Stuff like glowing eyes, or audible bells...things like that. Kinda comic bookish, yes, but not necessarily a bad thing. The interesting psionic combat is also discussed here. Psionic characters and monsters can attack each others' attributes. Non-psionics don't lose attribute points if attacked with psionic combat, they are merely stunned. Plus, the DC of the saving throw to avoid being stunned can be much lower than a psionics (down to a -9). Thus, psionic combat is not as kick-ass as it used to be, but it makes sense. Nonpsionic characters are protected from psionic combat while psionic characters have a big risk of getting their attributes dropped.
Chapter Five is the huge powers list. There are 63 pages in this chapter, the biggest in the whole book. The powers are divided into levels 0 through 9, just like spells. This is a GREAT balancing factor that old-edition psionics didn't seem to have. In fact, psionics are treated just like spells....no more power checks. The powers are, generally speaking, on the same power level as a spell of the same level, though there are some exceptions (compare vampire claws to vampiric touch). Again, many of the powers are just cut-and-pasted spells, with psionic info added in.
Chapter Six details mostly psionic prestige classes. Detailed are the metamind ("I seek more power), the pyrokineticist (fire! FIRE!), the slayer ("I hate illithids"), and the soulknife (easily the coolest of the bunch...think Psylocke from the X-men comics). Most of the prestige classes have low entrance requirements (a 3rd level psion could qualify for the metamind, for example). The chapter is rounded out with some quick-reference NPC psionic characters.
Chapter Seven has lots of psionic equipment. There are some neat items here (I particularly like the psionic tattoos and some of the weapon abilities). Again, lots of stuff seems to be cut-and-pasted magic item info with psionic info thrown in.
Chapter Eight contains a bunch of psionic monsters (and even more, like gem dragons and thri-kreen are available for free on WotC's website as a web enhancement), and a "psionic template" that can be added to any creature (imagine a psionic hydra...). Creatures from the MM that have psionics listed in their description are assumed to have this template already applied to them. One note of caution here, and this is the worst case of possible imbalance in the book; psionic creatures can use their powers and psionic combat modes without paying power points. While this is not a big deal for the psionic powers (how many creatures in the MM get spell-like powers useable at will? Lots, and no one whines about them), a psionic monster could whittle away at a psionic character with psionic attacks all day and not pay a single point for it. Yes, I don't really see that happening, but it's something to watch out for. And, yes, githerzai and githyanki are detailed within.
The book is wrapped up with an index, which is pretty standard fare, and a character sheet that's as ugly as the "standard" D&D character sheet.
Artwork-wise, this book was generally good overall. I can't think of a single piece of artwork that I didn't like.
In this review, you have noticed me talking a lot about powers or feats being cut and pasted. This makes the book seem a bit repetitive when read side by side with, say, the Player's Handbook, but it's not as bad as it might seem. When you're in the middle of a gaming session, it's actually more helpful to have the Charm Person power reprinted than for it to say "See the Charm Person spell in the PHB." The fewer books you have to whip out during play, the better, IMHO.
One big sticking point a lot of people have with this book is it's price. It's expensive, yes, at 158 pages for 27 bucks (US currency, of course). However, it contains more information and more useful stuff than most books at the same cost. I don't think many people would feel ripped off or cheated even with the low page count to high cost ratio.
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