Editing Psion (section)

==[[AD&D]]==
In 1st edition, psions were normal characters that rolled 99-100 on d100 during chargen, and gained extra spellcasting that didn't require spellbooks nor devotion to a faith. They had their own psionic-only battles that were invisible to non-psionics, and required their own combat matrix (complete with only one always optimal attack and one always optimal defense) on the DM's screen so you could play rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock with the five attacks and five defenses. Only one attack could actually affect non-psionics, and it was less effective than casing ''Feeblemind'' or just punching someone in the jaw. Everyone else would just stand around and watch 10 rounds of an invisible, silent fight between people standing perfectly still for each round of actual combat. Whoop-de-doo.

Can you tell Gygax didn't even want to include it yet?

In 2nd edition, the Complete Book of Psionics introduced the '''Psionicist''' class, which was dedicated to having psychic powers. It was the precursor to the Psion in every way that really matters, but it still relied on the same godawful psychic combat mechanics as 1e. At least in terms of how the engine worked. While clunky and cumbersome to navigate, with the right amount of thought it was possible to use it effectively, you just had to be really REALLY minmaxy about it. A Psion was fully capable of a lot of the other main casting classes abilities like; teleportation, summoning extra-planar creatures, banishing people to pocket dimensions etc. The only thing a Psionicist really couldn't do with their powers, ironically enough, was large amounts of damage. All your basic attack powers did only 1 die of damage regardless of how much you augmented them. Buuut this was a moot point due to one power you could easily obtain early on; Disintegrate. Yep, a save-or-die power in 2nd edition. You could obtain this at level '''3''' if you played your cards right. Sure it would cost most if not all of your points to use it, but that was a small price to pay for an instadeath ability at a time when nobody had saves worth a damn.

However, like a miracle from on above, the Psionics rules were altered in the "Skills and Powers" supplement, which would later be bundled in with the Dark Sun revised box set. Although similar in function to before, the use of powers was streamlined to be really easy and quick to play. What changed? Well, for starters instead of the weird "power score" thing, you now had a target AC for each power, as well as a special THACO used for psionic powers that thankfully ''scaled off your level''. This made using powers far easier than ever before. But the big change it brought on was the change to psionic combat, as thanks to the Mental AC and THACO scores, it just became straight up combat which thankfully didn't drag the battle out. Psionic attack modes and defenses were changed from powers to simple proficiencies that the Psionicist got for free. There was still a little bit of rock-paper-scissors with the different defenses and powers, but it still didn't eat up much time. Once you opened up their mind (drained them of PSPs)the attack modes became powers that did serious damage or slapped the target with an unsavable debuff. Oh and the best part? Your Psionic attack modes were '''more effective against targets without Psionic ability'''.