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Mindscapes is a d20 product published by Malhavoc Press. It’s meant for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition. (Specifically, version 3.0; upgrading its contents to version 3.5, however, is trivial as it can be done piecemeal—as needed, in other words—and with ease.) You’ll also need a copy of the Psionics Handbook; If Thoughts Could Kill isn’t necessary—anything that references that book is reprinted—but it doesn’t hurt. The book’s purpose is to provide useful alternative rules, additional options and useful information to a Game Master when he decides to allow the use of psionic powers and creatures into his campaign.

Mindscapes separates its content into six chapters, preceded by an Introduction and followed by the required inclusion of the Open Game Licence. The first chapter presents an alternative psionic combat system, the second presents a slew of new prestige classes designed for use with psionic characters, the third presents new and revised feats, the fourth presents new powers, the fifth presents new items and the sixth presents new monsters. All of this content ought to be useful after the publication of the Expanded Psionics Handbook by Wizards of the Coast in a few months from now.

Okay, now that I’ve done the objective description I’ll get to my opinions about it.

Mindscapes is a book with an audience that’s notable in its devotion and size, so it’s no surprise to me that it gets the attention that it does. I like the concept of the mindscape—a mental-only plane that comes into existence only when two psionic beings come into close proximity and will it into being, usually for combat—and the alternate combat system that revolves around it, even though I know that I won’t use it much (if at all) in actual play anytime soon. Yeah, you’ve got to swap about the original psion and psychic warrior psionic power characters with those in the book, but that’s not a big deal; as it is, the contents of Mindscapes (and If Thoughts Could Kill) are de facto revisions of the official D&D system anyway so you might as well make the switch and get something that’s know to be better. I like the idea that the results of the mental combat round has effects on the physical combat round, and that different mental terrains have different effects upon psionic combat powers. I would hope that something like this appears in the upcoming Expanded Psionics Handbook.

The prestige classes in the second chapter didn’t strike me as horribly overpowered. The classes take the specialist approach, focusing on the development of a specific aspect of a psionic character’s capabilities at the cost of developing others. Notable ones are those of the hybrid type—the Cerebral Rager (barbarian/psion), the Innate Pretender (rogue/psion) and the Lucid Cenobite (monk/psion)—as well as specialists such as the Chakra Savant (gains powers from activation of power centers in the body) and Chronorebel (gains power over time) and transhumanist classes like the Crystal Proseltye (becomes a crystalline being over time). There is an honest trade for the powers gained; no classes offer full manifester progression, and some grant few manifester levels due to the powers gained in exchange. None of these are obvious choices or non-choices; this makes it appear to me that Mr. Cordell got it right, which I’m always glad to see.

The feats in the book are either logical variants of existing feats or logical extensions of existing feats. Psychic warriors ought to find a good use for Psychic Specialization, and they may want to look into Inertial Armor Redux and any psionic being that wants to avoid mindscape combat ought to get Suppress Avatar. The others are find, though some require a reserve of power points in the double digits to make useful and others won’t be useful for all psionic characters. There are no worthless feats, though some shall become more commonly used than others.

The powers listed here include the attack/defense modes, represented as standard powers. Some of the represented modes have new names, but otherwise are the same. This move to integrate the modes into the standard list should be appreciated by all users of the rules for psionics, as it simplifies their use by way of standardization of gameplay. Nothing else seems out of line to my eyes, though I may’ve missed something.

The new items are welcome additions to the corpus of existing psionic items. The new staves—also a new item category—are good (and logical) parallels to the magical ones, and I like that they have sub-item category tied to them: setting stones and companion stones (the former are in the staff, the latter orbit the former like ioun stones). The synaptic masks are a neat concept: a mask that—when a shard or meld stone rests in it—confers effects to its wearer. These multi-component items are comparable to their arcane and divine counterparts, granting significant—but not over or underpowered benefits—to their users that most players will find worthwhile. (A +6 competence bonus to Use Magic (and, I would expect, Psionic) Device checks is nothing to laugh at.)

The monsters range from a Challenge Rating of 1 to 20, and there are 18 of them. A few are templates: Fungiform Ego- a fungal lifeform that infests others, destroys their higher minds and then seizes control of the decaying corpse; Psimech- a crystalline cyborg (the saurian is the sample creature); and the Idlock- a creature who’s beastial mind-aspects are unleashed and transform it into a predatory monster (the Idbeast is the sample creature). The monster designs here are clean, and their inclusion—in whole or on a case-by-case basis—is easy to execute, depending upon the needs of the game master. As with the rest of the playable content in this book, the monsters land in that sweet spot between too weak and too strong for their intended level.

Honestly, I couldn’t find a bloody thing wrong with Mindscapes. Maybe there’s some errata that I missed, but that doesn’t change my verdict: it’s a good book that’s worth having, and it’s vital for those playing in campaigns that put psionics front and center. Mr. Cordell (and Malhavoc) again make good on their reputations for producing the high-quality products that gamers want. It’s well worth the money.