Hey again, thanks for your reply - some comments on each point:
- Regarding mages) Fair point, and I agree with that reasoning. No antimagic does pose an interesting challenge. The self-buffs may be sufficient to enable the psion to survive a magic attack. There are two important exceptions though, which for me at least posed problems: magic energy attacks (magic missile, or especially abi dhalzims horrid wilting) and (ironically) mind affecting spells.
For the magic energy spells, all other classes have high enough hp to allow them to survive an attack, or in case of thieves, means to avoiding targetting. Psions have neither. This could maybe be adressed by giving the energy absorbtion spells an extra option to absorb "magic energy" in addition to electricity, cold or fire. It wouldn´t break the feel of the class or the spell imo, but would make the psion less prone to insta-death in key fights.
For the mind affecting spells, again other classes generally survive by toughing it out until the spell wears off. The psion generally dies to arrows or or magic missiles or some such while wandering around confused. I know that mind protecting spells become available at high levels, but they will not be avaiable until halfway through BG2. Adding a lower level option of enhancing saving throws versus mind affecting spells, or a protection against confusion would help. From an rp perspective it would also make a lot of sense.
2) The single target save vs spells: I think lowering saving throws by level would be a very sensible solution. Most of the other such spells in the game are aoe (chaos, emotion, confusion, hold person etc) and many of them already have saving throw penalties. As it is, the psionic crowd control powers are notably weaker than anything a mage can use. Making the psions single target spells harder to resist would definitely not overpower them by comparison, but maybe make them a little more on par.
3) some weak spells (not just because of single target save-vs-spell:
serenity: Useless when you already have psionic charm.
psionic dominate: except for longer duration which is rarely needed, its again weaker than psionic charm.
Insanity: way inferior to low level mage alternatives such as confusion or chaos. The permanent duration is basically never relevant.
psychic surgery: dispel magic or remove curse usually suffice for these purposes, and have casting times allowing for use in combat.
mental rage, brain lock and id insinuation: anything requiring your psion to stand still in the middle of a flock of enemies is a death sentence. Mental rage is mainly useful against kobolds, but since these guys shoot arrows at you, your psion never actually survives. The other two can be useful if you are facing one single tough opponent with low saving throws, but in practice this never happens.
4) The HLAs: In my opinion it would be very gratifying to complete a full run-through with a psion. I´m sure I won´t be the only one, once the mod is finished. The HLAs I mentioned accomplish an important thing - they change the feel of playing each class at very high levels. This significantly alters the way the game is played towards the end-stages, adding up to a completely new set of tactics to be employed in ToB. Not giving the psion any such end-game options would in my opinion be a pity, as it is one of the main things making ToB worth playing through despite its somewhat lackluster storytelling. I agree that you shouldn´t just add major damage aoe spells, just to keep the psion on par with mages. But some uniqe twist to employ that are not available to any of the other classes would be a very cool addition to an already great mod. Examples could be stuff such as single round mass charm or single round psionic blast with no save. Or a "confusion field" requiring save vs spell to stay focused as long as you are inside, or an ectoplasmatic cage working like the ectoplasmatic barrier but with much higher hp. Or a quadruble psionic clone. Don´t know, I´m sure you are better at coming up with this stuff than I am.
5) items: good point. For a unique psionic item, something to lower casting times would be extremely useful. Else, it could simply be something to penalize saving throws, or improve the saving throws of the psion?
6) a couple of other things I noticed:
- the psion lacks a way to attack into a crowd without damaging your own team. Maybe this is by design? In any case, the single target damage spells are quite weak, and the powerful damage dealers all hurt your own people. Some intermediate option for crowded situations would be very useful.
- the ectoplasmatic barrier is a very fun option, but feels a bit weird due to AI mechanics. Enemies tend to target it with spells, or attack it even if the way to party members is actually open. On the other hand, the hit points of a single spike are so low, that it wouldn´t really constitute a barrier if the AI didn´t insist on taking all of them down before proceeding. Maybe this can be fixed, but I don´t know how difficult it would be.
Thats all. Hope it is helpful!
Maybe Elemental Ball like 3.0 epic spell dealing 10d of each type of energy? Still, it's weaker because in 2.0 there is no sound damage. I think it wouldn't be op for T4 as most enemies in ToB are immune to certain elements. Progression through this HLA could focus on improving dice (d4, d6, d8) for this spell and saving throws to half the damage.
