3PP Release (3rd Party Book Release) Paranormal Power: A Psionics Option for 5e and A5e, written by Steampunkette!

James Gasik said:

It's a fun thing I've seen done in video games, but I get the feeling that it might be hard to set them up in a TTRPG; plus, they'd have to be dramatically powerful, due to the 2:1 action economy. Which I don't mind, but some GM's might find intimidating.

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Steampunkette said:

See... that's the big thing: I wouldn't trade action economy. Just time-economy. Both people would still get their 'attacks' off as if they spent their action. But delaying and working together could give them a secondary benefit. Like turning a lightning bolt around a corner, or ignoring damage resistance.

SOMEONE has to delay, SOMEONE has to be in position, etc.

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Steampunkette said:

Quick poll: Combo Techniques/Dual Techniques. Yay or nay?

Say, for example, a combo where a fighter and a wizard act on the same initiative. The fighter shoots a nonmagical arrow and the wizard casts Fire Bolt. The target is a Red Dragon who takes half damage from fire and half damage from nonmagical weapons. If the arrow hits and the firebolt misses, the firebolt deals half damage (reduced to 1/4) while the arrow is treated as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance. If the firebolt hits but the arrow misses both deal half damage (and the arrow is reduced to 1/4). If both hit, they ignore the dragon's resistance to either attack by combining them and maybe add some cool effect.

Or, say, putting a paladin with a magic shield in the line of a Lightning Bolt spell (or other line effect) to bounce it off the shield and let it do a sharp turn from the Paladin's square instead of going in a straight line.

Or using the Shove maneuver to give someone disadvantage on the dex save for a Fireball spell when you push them into the area of effect.

(I know I'm going hard on the martial+magic at the moment it's just where my hubby and my brains are at)

Would that hold interest?

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Pedantic said:

Kind of reminds me of the Teamwork Benefits from the 3.5 PHB II. They were so small and fiddly as to be pointless, but the idea of a "tactic" as a specific, deployable resource is an interesting one.

I like it a lot, but I don't think there's really a good slot on the existing character chassis to hold them, you're probably looking at just straight adding a new player resource instead of a new way to spend existing resources. I don't think that's necessarily a problem, given that kind of thing is by its very nature situational. Maybe just use proficiency to determine how many a given character can have prepared, and then set up a system to either treat "tactics" as treasure, like magic items or rare spells, or just make it an optional subsystem altogether.

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Pedantic said:

Kind of reminds me of the Teamwork Benefits from the 3.5 PHB II. They were so small and fiddly as to be pointless, but the idea of a "tactic" as a specific, deployable resource is an interesting one.

I like it a lot, but I don't think there's really a good slot on the existing character chassis to hold them, you're probably looking at just straight adding a new player resource instead of a new way to spend existing resources. I don't think that's necessarily a problem, given that kind of thing is by its very nature situational. Maybe just use proficiency to determine how many a given character can have prepared, and then set up a system to either treat "tactics" as treasure, like magic items or rare spells, or just make it an optional subsystem altogether.

Click to expand...

Steampunkette said:

See... that's the big thing: I wouldn't trade action economy. Just time-economy. Both people would still get their 'attacks' off as if they spent their action. But delaying and working together could give them a secondary benefit. Like turning a lightning bolt around a corner, or ignoring damage resistance.

SOMEONE has to delay, SOMEONE has to be in position, etc.

Click to expand...