I was wondering if you all could help me out with this debate as most of you would be very experienced at playing with Psionics in 3.5. I am not sure if this has come up before and I cannot find it anywhere.
My group are having a little trouble with using the Psionics in D&D thing as some of them are against Psionics or at least not quite open to it… (those that haven’t played Dark Sun Before)
one power in particular has disrupted play and that is “Empathic Transfer, Hostile” which even in my own eyes is a Broken power and have nerfed it to Will save for nothing and only half hit points and halved the rest to 25possible and 45 Max 5 per extra point spent etc.
also please let me know if there are any other powers that need to be removed or fixed..

Any psionic/magical effect that lets you change shape (polymorph, shapechange, psionic versions), or gain extra turns (temporal acceleration, timestop) tend to be broken. Also anthing that reduce metamagic/metapsionics costs (Incantrix, Arcane Thesis, Divine Metamagic) or make them free tend to be broken.
Psionics is broken in 3.5 but less broken than magic if that makes any sense.

The big problem with Psionic systems is they are different and unfamiliar. Magic has always been more powerful than non magic because it uses a different system to implement its effects and thus moves on a different power progression. Psionics in 2nd edition were VERY different than magic and thus could easily disrupt the games balance. In 3.0 Psionics are still quite different even though they appear to conform to the level requirements the Power Points distribution vs spells per level is still enough to throw things off. The 3.5 psionics are a cleaning up of the power points system and its integration into the spell levels idea that makes Psionics more evenly powerful throughout the level progression but does not make the class more ‘balanced’ because they are still very front loaded, being able to dump a full day’s worth of power points in 10-15 rounds (usually 2-3 encounters) while a wizard of any level has dozens of spells and sorcerers have 50+ spells and no way to use any but the highest level ones to there full daily allotment without deliberately getting into an extended siege situation, or being in 10 or so combats in a day. In summery yes Psionics are broken, but only for a little while, and any good DM should be able to account for that, the trouble becomes other players feeling marginalized by not being as ‘effective’ in combat, but obviously combat is not the main focus of an RPG so that shouldn’t come up in any extended campaign, once the players grow accustom to having a Psion around, or if you burn the Psion out of power points periodically and the party then realizes its not a one man show.

thanks that is what I needed

Psins who run out of power points often have the equivilent of scrolls and wands to fall back on. I think the big kicker for alot of people is that psions can use their higher level effects more than a spellcaster. They may run out of PPs faster but this may not matter in some games. 3.5 has a tendency to conserve your power by using it up ASAP. Hit someone hard as hard as you can and as soon as you can and in the long run odds are you will conserve resources. If the BBEG dies to a save or die or mind thrust/scrorching ray or energy missile power who cares if it “costs” alot.
Psionics isn’t as broken as magic but may be easier to break for the average player if that makes any sense.

Hostile empathic transfer and some other broken stuff was errata’d, check WotC’s site.

i have found in my experience that psionics are not more powerful. a lot of the illusion of power is in the hands of the dm, and if the dm is unfamiliar with psionics, then it easily gets out of hand. especially if an unscrupulous player is taking advantage of that fact. i play a lot of high level games, so i have gotten used to having to challenge players and characters in novel ways, and getting around all sorts of abilities without taking them away, or always rendering them useless. i’ll poke someone once in a while just to remind them that they aren’t invincible, nor their best tricks infallible.

i have found ways of taking down 16th-20th level characters with a number of 1st-5th level kobolds. my players respect kobolds. ^^ it’s all in how devious the dm can be, and really… how familiar the dm is with the rules. in my case, i study the rules and abuses, and then work out my methods for dealing with players who stumble upon those things as they pop up. but i admit, it is a lot of study and thinking, a lot of work really. but on the plus side, i seldom run into anything that i can’t handle, and that makes for happier gaming. =D