I do not mind at all! =D
If I recall correctly (off the top of my head), they failed to provide the information on psionic displays.
As such, when I included those powers in the Master Psionic List, I provided my own suggestions for which displays should be used, based on the previously provided spell school to psionic discipline conversion list that appears in other material.
That actually touches on some of the reasons for my strong anti-magic stance, especially within the context of Dark Sun. Based on what little of the lore I do know, magic is scarce, secretive, actively hunted and shunned, and has been that way for hundreds of years, with the notable exceptions of the SKs and whomever they deign to protect - which works because they are seen as too powerful (in most cases).
Psionics on the other hand have been open, accepted, encouraged, and integrated into society. Therefore, sheer generational adaptive pressure alone dictates that psionics should be widespread and commonly used for everyday things in Athasian society.
Psionics has been made closer in power (if still slightly weaker overall) to magic in 3e, and even learned from the mistakes the magic system made in 3.5, thus resulting in a noticeably superior psionics system compared to the still unfixed magic system. Even restricting to core books, magic alone can easily break most stories and campaigns without ever needing a 9th level spell. (I’m looking at you, Candle of Invocation!) Do note that the psionics system still has not addressed ALL the issues from the magic system, so it still has problems. (But at least it finally completely ditched that Vancian methodology!.
2nd edition magic had up to 12 level spells (including such gems as Apothesis which allows one to ascend to Godhood - didn’t Rajat want that? - and Lock/Unlock Crystal Sphere which does exactly what it says - and implies that someone did exactly that to Athas).
And while epic magic could theoretically match up to some of the individual spells, there are a few 2e spells which basically cannot be reconstructed with even epic level magic. So the step down in overall power level of magic from 2e to 3e is definitely a thing.
I think that honestly, only the criminal, insane, power-hungry, and/or stupid should use magic in Dark Sun. It should not be available to PCs at all, unless you toady up to a templar - ergo as a DM option. The entire bulk of material on magic from the Core book should be moved out of that book, and a DSDMG should be made containing all the How to Play various ages, Lore-history-setting stuff needed for backgrounds, and the magic stuff, in addition to the regular DMG type offerings.
I think that there should be a psionic only version of that heal defilement effect.
Illusions in psionics are super limited and tend to be single target and mostly internal only.
There is a way to become a psionic undead, but other than severing/destroying undead and their connection to their energy source, there does not appear to be much existing mechanics about raising the dead via psionic means.
CoughWilderCough
Why do it? Unless I am mistaken you just brushed and put aside a cornerstone of the Dark Sun setting.
That part of DS is an allegory of the real world. We actually destroy our world despite knowing we are destroying it.
Sorcery as practiced by defilers, specifically, is exactly like Earth’s consumerism and non-eco friendly expansion into wild ecosystems.
We like confort, wealth, and so do defilers, despite knowing the consequences. Sadira believed that defiling once was excusable to save a thousand lives, after all.
Spell “Karsus’s avatar” for Forgotten Realms was source, why in next ages higher level of magic was locked by Mystryl/Mystra. This goddess have power to limitation possibility of magic cuz she controll a Weave. IDK do similar event had place in other worlds with classical magic, but most of them have similar mechanism “how magic work” (transfer and transformation energy from astral, ethernal and other spheres), so maybe only actions of Mystryl/Mystra can have influence on whole standard multiversum.
BUT because in Athas we have other mechanism “how magic work” (steal energy from plants and other living functions) in theory possible should be creating spells of 40 level. Main problem would be only “do I will have neccessary num of plants”. I can image, that great defilers can escape from Athas and use whole flore from forest-planet to create spell greater, than a Weave can give.
I’d argue not. Different crystal spheres (ie: campaign settings for the most part) have different rules for magic - Oerth, Toril and Eberron all have an inherent magical Weave that you draw upon by default. Krynn is (or tends to be) governed by the 3 gods of magic. Aebrynis (Birthright) requires a portion of divine or elven blood to use anything powerful. Just because magic works off life force on Athas doesn’t mean you can use that same force on a different world if the laws of magic function differently there.
On this board @redking gave a great example of how Dregoth encountered the differing magical power sources during his sojourn among the Outer Planes (it was his short stories about Dregoth on the PLanes…I forget the thread title).
Right. You have to ask why magical energy is stolen from plants on Athas. All the other settings have some mystical source of magical energy that mages can draw upon and rules created from on high, as you mentioned.
This one. I’ve got to get around to finishing it.
In “Uncaged: Faces of Sigil” we have person “Jemorille the Exile”. He claims many things about magic in other worlds, eg to have counseled Rajaat about magic. Even if he lied about this (this is probably - his stories look as impossible) - I think, that he should know defiling and using this. He know Rajaat, that he is connected with creation of magic in Athas and his motivation (restore the world to his forsake brethren). This isn’t common knowadle in Sigil or multiversum - faction Harmonium know title “Champions of Rajaat” but think that this were “bunch of bashers” and they have wanted “eliminate chaos and bring peace”. Great organization (with influences in whole multiversum) have wrong infos about great event in isolated world, but random non-athasian know more and deeper? Something should be…
Jemorille knows too much to be just a coincidence. But this is still “circumstantial, imprecise evidence” not unquestionable evidence. Therefore I think, that also in other worlds athasian wizards should have options to defiling.
I don’t remember, do in official books about DS were notes about travels to other worlds for wizards. Maybe some other?
Whether or not that would work in somewhere like Oerth or Eberron, it wouldn’t work on Toril - Mystra has absolute control over the Weave and can bar other forms of magic (as she did with 10th, 11th and 12th level spells after Karsus stupidly assumed Mystryl’s power). Neither the post-Netheril Mystra, nor the ascended MIdnight, is going to let some offworlder defiler start lying waste to Toril. You get magical power through Mystra’s Weave, or Shar’s Shadow Weave.
Nor would it work on Aebrynis because an Athasian defiler simply doesn’t have the connection to the land that would let them use ‘True Magic’ and access Mebhaighl. You might be able to access the schools Magicians do - illusion and diviniation, but that would be the absolute stretch.
The Planescape boxed set also says that lower plane fiends respect Athasian defilers because their magic is so destructive, or something along those lines. Despite this, I find defiling elsewhere to be implausible.
The same publication more or less calls Dragonlance Order of High Sorcery mages losers. I think you have to take it with a grain of salt.
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I’m pretty sure that whole section is supposed to be tongue in cheek, like an easter egg in a video game and not supposed to be taken seriously at all.
If you take it at face value, Rajaat didn’t invent magic (on Athas), he is a monstrous fraud that was taught magic by someone else.
Here is a write-up of this section from another website.
Jemorille the Exile
A rilmani of the Spire, a being of no little Power – and no little Modesty.Jemorille the Exile is an argenach rilmani, one of the metal-themed planar beings representing Neutrality in the Planescape cosmos. His entry begins thus: “The Lady of Pain does not keep the peace in Sigil. I do.”
Yes, this entry is from Jemorille’s own in-character perspective and that’s a bit of an issue, as it’s not clear how much of an unreliable narrator he’s supposed to be. Anyway, he wastes no time talking about how he’s the one who shapes the fate of Sigil and protects it, and how the Lady basically does what he wants because he only even lets her see the problems he chooses.
“You don’t believe me. I can see it in your thoughts; such is my power.” Odd comment, given that reading minds is scarcely a rare capability in the planes, and it’s a low-level arcane spell for spellcasters to boot.
He talks about how he brings Balance in the Cage and beyond. He also mentions he’s “known to some” as the Exile and that this is really a poor choice of moniker because he’s not an exile at all, dontchaknow, but here of his own will.
Jemorille talks about his record on the Prime Material Plane, which is a who’s who of the other major settings of the time along with accompanying serious fuck-ups that are totally not his fault, guys. He claims he’s responsible for the Temple of Elemental Evil, Dark Sun’s planet Athas going kaboom (due to teaching Rajaat magic), and the really racist Mongol Horde analogue in the Forgotten Realms. Each is pitched as a marvel of his manipulation plus a denial of the bad bits being his responsibility. It’s not clear whether any of this is actually true.
How did he end up where he is now? The aurumachs, rulers of the rilmani, sent him after taking note of his accomplishments.
Anyway, he influences the kriegstanz to control the factions and thus the whole city. The Lady is basically his tool as he manipulates people to get her attention (or not); he also claims to be the puppet-master of Shemeshka the Marauder, as he changes himself to appear as Colcook, one of her bodyguards. He hunts he takes many other roles in the city as well.
He even says the “fiendish conflict known as the Blood War is another of my fancies”, claiming he keeps it going to keep the two sides balanced, and hence justifying slipping a cross-entry reference to the celestial conspiracy in the book into this entry.
He finishes with a commentary about the game of chess, and how he feels an affinity for its depiction of “lords waging subtle war through the strategic manipulation of lesser beings”, finishing with addressing the reader to make their next move, because the last move is always his.
Quick chant, well, he’s an argenach; no surprises in his stat block. Strong, laden with a massive armoury of spell-like abilities, can fire neem-beams of silvery light. Apparently he can be found all across Sigil in any guise but his claims of being Colcook are indeed legit, so he’s often doing that. “He tries to manipulate others with subtlety, but he’s sometimes more obvious than he realizes.”
In a surprise to no-one, he doesn’t go in for fighting much as he thinks it’s beneath him, and uses his lesser powers of suggestion or illusion rather than reveal his more potent abilities.
Impressions: The problem with Jemorille is that the write-up isn’t clear as to what’s actually going on, and because there are several possibilities, it doesn’t support any of them with enough material. Is Jemorille telling the truth? Is he delusional? Is it somewhere in between?
I have an enormous problem with Jemorille as presented, if you take his claims to be true; he’s an enormous fuck-you to all the different settings referenced, and to two key elements of Planescape, basically making them the shitty diversions of one arsehole who now hangs around a pub in Sigil. Hahah, yeah, you all thought there were cool setting elements in your games but really they’re a bored argenach puppeteering you all for no discernible purpose, and he’s not even an interesting villain with a cool agenda. What a disappointment.
I think it’s fairly evident that things are not as presented, but purely getting Jemorille’s viewpoint makes it hard to use. Chances are that all the things he references are either nothing to do with him, or places he made fuck-ups, and the aurumachs called him back then genuinely exiled him because they’re tired of him screwing up. Thing is, ‘exiled rilmani’ should be a cool story hook, but Jemorille’s just not really doing anything interesting with it. He’s dicking about pretending to be Shemeshka’s minion—and that’s really his core role in this book’s networks and plot maps, being a guy who passes on info about Shemeshka, and it’s totally unnecessary because they could have had Colcook be treacherous but not a random rilmani.
Jemorille as a lunatic who has retreated into delusions about his past achievements and his present could work, but he needs a meaningful driving agenda, and some good reasons to actually interact with PCs. As-is, he’s only ever someone else in passing, trying to manipulate folks for… nebulous reasons of Balance, so you’re not likely to even have a meaningful scene with him. Imagine if he was a rilmani exiled for, well, what would get a rilmani taken off the Xmas card list? Becoming too extreme ? Taking interesting non-Balance views and agendas? Just losing his mind over constantly trying to keep all the plates spinning in perfect Neutrality only for the forces of existence to constantly knock them off. I dunno, he needs something . Right now he’s a non-entity.
Except for the part where he’s for some reason telling all this shit to a random guy in a pub, including the fact he’s Colcook, which makes no sense and basically compromises what little conspiracy stuff he’s got going on. So, I guess that’s another solid mark against ‘actual mastermind’ and for ‘delusional cretin’.
Long quote but well worth the read.
Not only 
Eg. pluma and hishna work without Weave or Shadow Weave in times, when Maztica was isolated from rest of Toril (eg. prayers of dwarves didn’t come to they gods, so after years they were cultists of maztican gods) this types of magic is connected with mattery. IDK how magic from Zakhara work.
These Maztican magics still rely on the weave, even though they are a different tradition to wizardry/sorcerery. A dead magic area renders hishna/pluma inactive.
I’m not sure how that happened, but maybe those dwarves were abandoned by their gods for some reason. Regardless, on Toril even divine magic is reliant on the weave for energy. See Prince of Lies, where Mystra denies magic to Cyric, and even threatens to do the same to his followers.
Areas dead magic work with every form of super-natural powers, IDK how this work for lord AO, but also powers and magic from of outside god-like-beings and general outsiders (here even lord AO cannot interact) don’t work in ares dead magic.
By lore - pluma and hishna use powers of matter, closed in feathers, teeths, claws, flowers etc. Here lack transfer energy from other planes and transformation this to goals of spellcaster, and main mechanism of magic work in this style. Divine magic work in style, that source of magic is from divine realms of target god and this energy have to transfered to material world by Weave.
Magic still work during Spellplague, when Weave was damage (or destructed - I don’t remember cuz I dont read too much about this period in FR).
From novels.
In ancient in Underdark, under Trackless Sea, was war between one dwarfs and drows. During this war had place great catastrophy, and some dwarfs and some drows survived by escaping to the surface through some corridors. Drows finish in Mount Zatal (close to capital of Nexal Empire), dwarfs in desert (House of Tezca), close Sunstone. Both races quickly discovered that their old gods havent connection with this new lands. Drows were happy - end of tyranny of Lolth and feminist supremacy; many blasphemies were tolded in direction to Lolth without revange and transformation to driders or other elements. Drows get to collaboration with Zaltec and Nexalans.
Main point of interest of Zaltec was maintaining isolation of Maztica from rest of worlds. Therefore death Erixitl and few persons from Golden Legion was very important - prophecy would be destroyed.
We have information also from Spelljammer. Travelers couldn’t land in Maztica - something “push” them, even being at (or over) the sea. Only end of events of “Maztica Trilogy” lead to “opening this continent”.
If I good remember - there wasn’t description “why or how Maztica was closed”.
I know this site. But as full easter egg - I don’t believe in this. He have num of words similar like a other persons in this book. He is liar, but have too correct informations for “totally liar” or “only charlatan”.
But cuz Planescape isn’t now expanded by Wizards (maybe this is better…) we cannot be full sure 
“Yay” for WotC pulling a Disney and de-cannonizing everything pre-5th ed. Everything is now unofficial and doesn’t officially exist unless it has shown up in a 5th ed book. 
Spelljammer fascinated and repulsed me in equal measure when I first encountered it.
Its obsession with creating a Krynn Space, a Toril Space, for each setting was terrifying, for in expanding each setting they crossed narrative barriers that should be kept closed off.
As I do not want Dracula on Mars, or Huckleberry Finn in Liliput, or Jason in space (wait, oh, goddamnit), I do not want Elminster on Krynn. Dregoth on Oerth.
Yet…4e and 5e folded the spelljammer ship design into Planescape’s astral ship, and something grandiose was begging to emerge (thank you Eberron for shining the light along the path).
In a sense Planescape never left, but was absorbed into the generic elements of most settings.
I do hope they pull it off with the new Spelljammer book.
What about Elminster, Mordenkainen and Dalamar on Earth? Specifically Ed Greenwood’s home? I always enjoyed the Wizards Three columns. Fun to see the new spells, even more fun to see 3 powerful archmages meeting on ‘neutral ground’ as a sort of cosmic sewing circle.
Frankly, I’ve always mixed every setting as freely as the players like, and have never been a fan of setting purity in any of my homebrew games.
That being said, making some places hard to get to (or some combinations hard to achieve) is kind of required if you want to keep the integrity of the various standard settings alive, but I never like outright saying “that’s impossible” to people who want to use their creativity.
Elminster and Dracula could theoretically meet on Athas in my homebrew, but it would require an EXTREMELY good (and probably universe endangering) reason in the story.
After all, games should be about bringing enjoyment to the table for the players and the DM, not enforcing your highly particular vision of what the world must be onto everyone in attendance.
D&D as a game and as a whole has pretty much ALWAYS been about a distinct LACK of setting purity. Gygax expected each DM to pick and choose and make up new stuff too, just the way he ran his personal game the way he wanted it (I’ll get ride of you psionics, and your little monks too!), regardless of what he allowed to be published in the source books.
Otherwise the Greyhawk campaign setting would never have had starships from their Star Probe/Star Empires campaigns, nor a moon crashing into a distant part of the world, the Chainmail setting, or connections to Boot Hill, MA/GW, and the parallel Oerths (Aerth, Earth, etc).
And what about Dark Sun? They isolate it from the rest of the settings and then promptly ignore the isolation for certain evil outsiders and the gith… among other things.
I discussed something similar here. My conclusion was that as long as it does not warp the setting, then anything goes.
Let’s say you have a player that really wants to play a warforged in Dark Sun. Why not let him? As long as you don’t have the Eberron baggage of a major war in which warforged were used, then a singular warforged out there won’t warp the setting. Maybe this warforged was created by a cleric or wizard with the craft construct feat. The point is that there are many ways to say yes that won’t compromise the vision of the DM or the integrity of the setting.
I’m a big fan of the rule of yes
I recently found these two interesting quotes from second edition, and I’ll paraphrase:
Psionics have been practiced on Athas for thousands of years…
Athasians have been creating psionic items for thousands of years…