Jeff LaSala wrote:
But then, truthfully, they're not that oldschool—only go back as far as 2nd edition, don't they?
Sorry, young grasshopper ... you're too young to remember old school.
Psionics were indeed included in 1st edition AD&D. There were a completely disjointed mess compared to the rules used today, though. I seem to remember hearing that Gygax hated the whole concept, but somebody else (Dave Arneson, maybe?) liked them, so they were shoved in the very end of the Player's Handbook almost as an afterthought.
They certainly didn't fit in very well with the rest of the game; that's probably why I've never really liked psionics very much - too many bad memories from 1st edition. I keep meaning to give the 3.5 version of psionics a serious try, but still haven't gotten around to it. Yet.
I was also never a big psionics fan simply because it just seemed like an alternative magic system - not enough differentiation between the end results of most "regular" magic spells and psionic abilities for my taste. Has that changed with 3.5?