> While I can see all this is possible, I'm a little> at a loss as to why anyone would want to do> it. Can you explain your motives?
In the movie "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" there is a scene with the goblin king (one of the few scenes very close to the book) where he uses ego whip on Thorin Oakenshield.
Goblin King: "Thorin Oakenshield. King! Under the mountain. Only ... You don't have a mountain. And you're not a king. Which makes you ... nothing ... really."
And his eyes gleam with pleasure as he looks for defeat in the face of Thorin. In my estimation this is not a spell. Also Thorin himself, through all three movies, seems to use psionics more than his dexterity. In dealing with rulers.
Thorn strikes me as someone who has not gained a level, or at least doesn't feel it is right to gain a level, since he lost his Mountain Home. He is a Dwarf, perpetually stuck at level 8 (level 9 being the title level for fighters. Becoming 'lord' and gaining a stronghold.) So Thorin has spent decades gaining exp, without cashing in.
He weathers the psionic ego whip quite well.
But as to my motive... well... that is a longer story.
Back when Gary Gygax passed away many of us old timers gathered at the dragonsfoot.org forums to pay tribute and reminisce. There I found an ongoing Q&A with Tim Kask, the editor of "Eldritch Wizardry."
He said that he had just returned from Vietnam, and was the only vet on staff at TSR inc. Further that we could blame him for adding Psionics to the game.
here is a link to his confession...
and a link to his Q&A thread
Now from the beginning, psionic did overlap a few spells but mostly were designed to represent Dr Strange, and to be very alien... like... Cthulhu alien.
here is a direct quote from Tim Kask
/ begin quote
I use psionics with the very rare otherwordly bad guy. We mixed them with the Mindflayer and Brain Mole right at the beginning; I just expanded them a bunch.
/ end quote
So the answer to "what motive" is tribute to the past, and the giants of our industry who have passed. But more than that. They are just neat. Here are some of the disciplines from Eldritch wizardry.
Body Equilibrium
Molecular Rearrangement
Aura Alteration
Precognition
Telempathic ProjectionDimension Walking
Astral Projection
Mass Domination
Probability Travel
Sure, there is a spell or two that overlap, but most are so different as to be alien.
My motive was to show how powerful TFT is, unmodified, to include all worlds and all game systems.
Consider it this way. This potential has been there all along, and no one used it. Just like Psionic potential itself.
Thank you for reading.
David Michael Grouchy II