Random DM nagging.

[Anastasia]

So far I have:

1. Cor's light stuff.
2. Newspaper.
3. More bardic musics through feats.
4. Epic bardic magic item.
5. THAT FOG SPELL.
6. Druid class.

[Yuthirin]

Psionics stuff if you're bored. I am available to consult.

[Yuthirin]

Clarification: I'm looking to create powers and feats and/or items to keep up with the magic systems constant and consistent attempts to one-up itself. Psionics scales in some ways, but it's not as versatile as magic. Looking for new ways to express my inner self.

[Anastasia]

Clarification: I'm looking to create powers and feats and/or items to keep up with the magic systems constant and consistent attempts to one-up itself. Psionics scales in some ways, but it's not as versatile as magic. Looking for new ways to express my inner self.

Okay, cool. What paths are you looking at here? What do you need to keep up with?

[Yuthirin]

Ideas I've had:
1. Clinging Darkness, the power I sort of got the idea from you for in chat the other day
2. Paralyze Astral Links, a foray into epic psionics that I'd like your opinion on
3. I recall mentioning to you a feat that would double the capped damage dice on some powers
4. Discussion on the familiar boosting we talked about a month or two ago

I'll put up more in the morning.

[Yuthirin]

This is all incredibly rough and yeah.

Paralyze Astral Links
Psychoportation
Level: Psion 15? 20?
Manifesting Time: 1 day
Range: 1 Plane
Effect: Special
Duration: 24 hours
Saving Throw: None
Power Resistance: No

Upon manifestation of this power, a series of discordant waves emanate from the manifestor out across the astral plane. As a result, the local astral links of a given prime material plane fluctuate heavily, causing an effective paralysis of said links. This has a number of effects on the plane and its sub-planes.

Prime: Teleportation, Divination, and Conjuration spells all fail without a save. Any conjuration spells (summons, etc) in progress are immediately ended, and any summoned creatures or objects are ejected from the plane without a save. Called creatures and objects are not affected by this ejection, but do find that any racial ability to summon creatures or aid will likewise fail.

Ethereal Plane: All creatures on the ethereal plane must make a Will save or be forced from the ethereal plane and into either the Prime Material or the Astral (50% chance for each). Success means the creature is confined to the Ethereal plane for the duration of the event.

Astral: All portals leading to and from the Astral to the affected Prime are disrupted and refuse to operate. The portals become hazy and transparent, and cannot be used. Creatures currently traversing the Astral via teleportation or other means of astral travel are immediately ejected back onto the plane at whatever position they were at in relation to that plane. If this places them within a physical object, the affected creature is shunted to the nearest open space. The creature takes 1d6 points of lethal damage per 10 feet of space it is moved.

The power required to manifest this power is incredibly draining. Upon manifestation, the manifestor is instantly struck insensate, and remains unconscious for 8d6+24 hours. Note that use of this power may carry repercussions not listed here.

[Yuthirin]

Have another, because.

Whirling Darkness
Metacreativity
Level: Psion 3
Manifesting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: 1 Medium or smaller creature or object
Duration: 5 rounds
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Partial
Power Points: 5

You draw forth a glob of ectoplasmic goo from a point where the Astral Plane and the Plane of Shadows meet. You immediately throw it as a ranged touch attack at any creature in range. On a successful hit, the glob expands rapidly to a 20 foot diameter, enclosing everything within in inky darkness. All creatures within are treated as though blind and gain total concealment. The goo evaporates at the end of the power's duration.

Augment

You can augment this power in one or more of the following ways.

• If you spend 4 additional power points, this power also creates a disorienting effect. Every creature or object within the power's area of effect is forcibly turned 1d4*45 degrees to their left. Creatures entering the area of effect after this power is manifested are immediately affected by this augmentation. Though this turning cannot be resisted, a Will save allows an affected creature to know that they have been affected. Resisting this power via PR/SR negates this additional feature, though not the blindness caused by the base power.
• If you spend an additional 6 power points, the shadowy aspect of this power is extended, blocking all means of magical or supernatural sight from penetrating the sphere.
• For every 2 additional power points you spend, this power can affect an additional target. Any additional target cannot be more than 15 feet from another target of the power.
• If you spend 1 additional power point, this power's duration is 1 hour rather than 5 rounds. If you spend 2 additional power points, this power's duration is 1 day rather than 5 rounds. If you spend 4 additional power points, this power's duration is 1 day per manifester level rather than 5 rounds.

In addition, for every 2 additional power points you spend, this power can affect a target one size category larger.

[Anastasia]

Okay, lets take a look at your first power.

Range is absolutely crazy.

Okay, let's review what astral links are. They're the links between plains to the Astral Plane. They're natural and what teleportation relies on to work. Since distance is largely irrelevant on the Astral Plane, you can use these to shortcut across distances on planes where it does matter. Severing them - there's a 15th level spell that can do this, which I think is where you got the title of this power - prevents teleportation and dimensional magic from working. That doesn't impact divination or conjurations.

A creature forced from the Ethereal would likely go to the Prime or the Deep Ethereal, not the Astral.

To be fair, something that affected an entire plane did happen in B3's backstory. Abigor's appearance on Lifasa killed every plant there, as you may recall. While I've never worked out all the fine details of that ritual, it would look something like this.

1. The effect wouldn't be doing it itself, but amplifying the spiritual wound Abigor caused to Lifasa, as well as channeling it in a specific direction. It's boosting something already there rather than trying to do the hard lifting itself.

2. It would be a ritual, ala Unearthed Arcana. The DCs would all be 90. K:N, K:A and K:P would be involved. Due to the time and preparation, you can imagine the devils did this with lots of long duration boosters and skill boosting items.

3. Failure would've resulted in massive damage to all the participants in the ritual, including Abigor. He'd survive it, the others might not.

4. Even then, it does it by essentially stabbing Lifasa and ripping its metaphysical essence wide open. By any magical standard, it's as savage and horrible as a well polished spell is elegant and smooth. It works but in the most grisly way possible.

5. Finally, something affecting a single Prime is far more viable than affecting any other plane (barring a demiplane) because they're all infinite, not to mention they have planar lords and deities who are going to feel that and react appropriately.

So let's pare this down a bit. Rather than worrying about precision here, let's get to the basics. What are you aiming for here? An anti teleportation measure? Something that messes up divinations? A conjurer's worst nightmare?  What's the roots of this idea?

[Yuthirin]

Okay, lets take a look at your first power.

Range is absolutely crazy.

It's not, really, if you consider the scope of the power.

Okay, let's review what astral links are. They're the links between plains to the Astral Plane. They're natural and what teleportation relies on to work. Since distance is largely irrelevant on the Astral Plane, you can use these to shortcut across distances on planes where it does matter. Severing them - there's a 15th level spell that can do this, which I think is where you got the title of this power - prevents teleportation and dimensional magic from working.

Yeah, that is where the idea came from. I don't want to sever them though, just disable them for a short period. So maybe 13th level. The title isn't exactly creative, I know. I did mention this is rough.

That doesn't impact divination or conjurations.

Noted on divination, but if conjurations don't use the Astral to transport the conjured stuff, how's it get there?

A creature forced from the Ethereal would likely go to the Prime or the Deep Ethereal, not the Astral.

Noted.

To be fair, something that affected an entire plane did happen in B3's backstory. Abigor's appearance on Lifasa killed every plant there, as you may recall. While I've never worked out all the fine details of that ritual, it would look something like this. (1-4 Condensed.)

I'm not looking for permanency. The thing that happened to Lifasa was WAY MORE INVOLVED than what I'm writing up here. I'm not sending the plane anywhere. Not attaching it to somewhere else, or adding an alignment or anything like that. Any comparisons between what happened to Lifasa and this power can only be made at the highest level, in that they affect an entire plane.

My idea: A red car braking to a stop at a stop sign.

Your idea: A red car taken to a recycling plant, re-purposed and rebuilt into a pick-up truck, which is then painted blue.

They're, at their heart, the same thing. They both affect the car (the plane). The difference is that in the first example, the car pulls away from the stop sign after a moment. Your example results in the car no longer being a car, but now permanently something else.

5. Finally, something affecting a single Prime is far more viable than affecting any other plane (barring a demiplane) because they're all infinite, not to mention they have planar lords and deities who are going to feel that and react appropriately.

Yeah, that was my thinking, too. Primes tend not to have resident major powers because they can't handle it. Any major power could undo this in a moment.

So let's pare this down a bit. Rather than worrying about precision here, let's get to the basics. What are you aiming for here? An anti teleportation measure? Something that messes up divinations? A conjurer's worst nightmare?  What's the roots of this idea?

I was bored and looking for a Dimensional Anchor power on steroids. And the other stuff, too. That, and the chaos it would cause would be glorious.

[Anastasia]

Have another, because.

Spell Resistance: Partial

It should be power resistance, not spell resistance. That being said, it's either yes or no, with a the following if more information is needed: ; see text. So that should be Yes; see text.

You draw forth a glob of ectoplasmic goo from a point where the Astral Plane and the Plane of Shadows meet. You immediately throw it as a ranged touch attack at any creature in range. On a successful hit, the glob expands rapidly to a 20 foot diameter, enclosing everything within in inky darkness. All creatures within are treated as though blind and gain total concealment. The goo evaporates at the end of the power's duration.

How's the base power compare to other things psionics and spells can do that's similar?

Augment

You can augment this power in one or more of the following ways.

• If you spend 4 additional power points, this power also creates a disorienting effect. Every creature or object within the power's area of effect is forcibly turned 1d4*45 degrees to their left. Creatures entering the area of effect after this power is manifested are immediately affected by this augmentation. Though this turning cannot be resisted, a Will save allows an affected creature to know that they have been affected. Resisting this power via PR/SR negates this additional feature, though not the blindness caused by the base power.
• If you spend an additional 6 power points, the shadowy aspect of this power is extended, blocking all means of magical or supernatural sight from penetrating the sphere.
• For every 2 additional power points you spend, this power can affect an additional target. Any additional target cannot be more than 15 feet from another target of the power.
• If you spend 1 additional power point, this power's duration is 1 hour rather than 5 rounds. If you spend 2 additional power points, this power's duration is 1 day rather than 5 rounds. If you spend 4 additional power points, this power's duration is 1 day per manifester level rather than 5 rounds.

In addition, for every 2 additional power points you spend, this power can affect a target one size category larger.

My instincts are that the augmentations may be overswinging, but I'll get back to you on that since I need to do homework there.

[Yuthirin]

How's the base power compare to other things psionics and spells can do that's similar?

It's worded very closely to Entangling Ectoplasm, it just does something else.

My instincts are that the augmentations may be overswinging, but I'll get back to you on that since I need to do homework there.

Maybe!

[Anastasia]

It's not, really, if you consider the scope of the power.

Nah. See, the biggest spell for area of effect that I've posted is 1 mile/level. Unless you're dealing with a small demiplane or tiny Prime, any plane is going to be much bigger than that. That's an increase at least a few exponentials above that area of effect.

Noted on divination, but if conjurations don't use the Astral to transport the conjured stuff, how's it get there?

It depends on the subschool.

Healing relies on multiple potential methods. All channel positive energy to heal injuries, though where that positive energy comes varies. The most common spells safely tap a tiny bit of energy from the positive energy plane, though this isn't universal. Some use energy in the environment*, from nearby living creatures or simply generating it on the spot. If D&D was a game to get into that level of granularity, it would mess with the most common healing traditions, but more unorthodox or unusual ones would get around it, as would a caster who has sufficient time to prepare counter measures in spell preparation. However, D&D doesn't and none of those spells are noted as affecting healing spells, so this won't change that trend.

Teleportation is obviously affected by this, as astral links are how those spells work.

Creation spells create them ex nihilo. They come from nothing and if not permanent, return to nothing when the spell expires. Teleportation doesn't come into it at all so astral links are irrelevant to them.

Summoning and calling spells, surprisingly, work in spite of things like dimensional anchor or dimensional lock. Flavorwise, there's a strong case for calling spells being blocked by this sort of thing, though they aren't mechanically. Summoning's a little shakier, depending on how precisely you fluff out the summoning working. How summoned creatures work in Balmuria is a little complicated, but in short it's something like this.

A typical summoned creature is a copy of a generic example of that creature type. It may be a specific one of that creature you know (to no mechanical change) or one you don't, it doesn't matter. The summoned creature is aware of what happens in the summoning and suffers no penalties after the summoning is over. A summoned creature can even be slain and appear back where it was afterwards, hale and whole.

*As a side note, I believe something like this made Dark Sun the mess it is. I think it was magic in general rather than healing spells in particular, but the concept's been there since at least 2nd edition.

I'm not looking for permanency. The thing that happened to Lifasa was WAY MORE INVOLVED than what I'm writing up here. I'm not sending the plane anywhere. Not attaching it to somewhere else, or adding an alignment or anything like that. Any comparisons between what happened to Lifasa and this power can only be made at the highest level, in that they affect an entire plane.

It's not a question of permanency, and yeah, using this as a comparison since affecting an entire plane is extremely powerful stuff. It's the domain of deities, exceedingly complex rituals and other such things.

Let's put it another way. Let's say you need to flip a lightswitch. No big effort, barely any at all. Say you need to flip an entire house's lightswitches. That's a bit more work but it's feasible. What about an entire office building's? Sure, but that's getting into a large amount of work and effort. An entire city? That's a task of weeks and weeks, assuming you know where they all are. A nation's? Good luck. An entire world's? Yeaaaaaaah.

Moreover, there's no one big switch that controls planar access like that. It's why the sever astral links spell works like it does, because astral links are numerous and all over. It's not just a few big conduits like a ley line, they're everywhere. There's no real, easy shortcut like a central grid to manipulate them.

I was bored and looking for a Dimensional Anchor power on steroids. And the other stuff, too. That, and the chaos it would cause would be glorious.

There's a few in the Spell Collection already. Lemme paste a few to give you a frame of reference. I'd suggest starting from there, Jaela's teleport block even nails summons and called creatures.

Jaela's Teleport Block
Abjuration
Level: Clr 10, Sor/Wiz 10
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 50ft/level
Area: 50ft/level radius emanation centered on you
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This spell blocks all dimensional travel within its radius. Teleport, plane shift, gate, shadow walk and similar spells all fail, as does travel from the Astral Plane, Ethereal Plane, Plane of Shadow and so forth. Ethereal creatures are unable to enter the area and creatures cannot become ethereal within it (though ethereal creatures already within the area of the spell are not affected). Summoning and calling spells and effects are likewise blocked, though existing called or summoned creatures are not affected, including vanishing when the effects summoning them expire.

Sever Astral Links
Abjuration
Level: Sor/Wiz 15
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 1 round
Range: Short (25ft + 5ft 2/levels)
Area: 1 100ft cube/level
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This spell severs an area's connection to the Astral Plane. Doing so prevents teleportation and dimensional magics from working in the area affected. An area affected can only be restored by a restore astral links spell or a deity using alter reality.

Severing astral links can be dangerous. While there is little risk if done in most locations, doing so on an outer plane or in a deity's divine realm will attract the attention of the deity or planar lord who rules there. This usually provokes the deity to send powerful servants or even an avatar to ascertain the situation and punish the spell caster. A deity and her avatars are capable of teleportation in their own divine realm, even if the astral links are severed, so this spell offers no defense against that happening.

Focus

A silver knife stained with the blood of an astral dreadnought.

[Yuthirin]

Sever Astral Links
Abjuration
Level: Sor/Wiz 15
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 1 round
Range: Short (25ft + 5ft 2/levels)
Area: 1 100ft cube/level
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This spell severs an area's connection to the Astral Plane. Doing so prevents teleportation and dimensional magics from working in the area affected. An area affected can only be restored by a restore astral links spell or a deity using alter reality.

Severing astral links can be dangerous. While there is little risk if done in most locations, doing so on an outer plane or in a deity's divine realm will attract the attention of the deity or planar lord who rules there. This usually provokes the deity to send powerful servants or even an avatar to ascertain the situation and punish the spell caster. A deity and her avatars are capable of teleportation in their own divine realm, even if the astral links are severed, so this spell offers no defense against that happening.

Focus

A silver knife stained with the blood of an astral dreadnought.

Whooooooops that's not plane-wide. That's a very local area. That changes tons. It's not Psion 15. It'd be Psion 30 at least. Probably 40. Just outrageously powerful. My sphere of understanding has been enhanced.

[Anastasia]

Did...you think it was plane wide? That would explain a lot.

Incidentally, besides that spell, severing astral links is something done with a deity's alter reality ability. They can do it on whatever scale they want to, so long as its on the plane or divine realm they control. That may be the mixup. The spell's much more localized, since deities have massive levels of control over their realms.

[Yuthirin]

Did...you think it was plane wide? That would explain a lot.

I really did!