[Jack Simth]

Much of the stuff you object to on ethical grounds changes as soon as the psi has permission (as you noticed on the rider); If I obtain permission from you beforehand about borrowing your medical skills every now and then so there will be a doctor nearby, perhaps paying you for the priviledge, then borrowing your medical skills hurts nothing. Ditto for learning a skill in such a manner; it then becomes similar to paying an instructor, but less time consuming for both. Further, it allows for multigenerational preservation of knoweledge, much like writing.

As for those that are unethical under virtually any circumstances, well, some things are forbidden, and only criminals do them. That is one of the primary functions of the psionics guild - enforcing such rules for the protection of those who can't defend themselves, much as modern police enforce 'don't shoot people unless in self-defense' for the protection of those who don't carry guns. It might be interesting to be hired by the guild to help track down a psi in violation. Can you imagine how hard it would be to track down a mindswapper, or a rider who routinely uses possesion? You'd need a police rider with you to scan potential victims.

As for things that are cliche, well, yes, a lot of things are. It's tricky to come up with something that is both new and widely useful. Sure, you can have a geokenetic, who can controls earthquakes, but that is pretty much just destructive, and wide area. About the only thing you can do with it is destroy things, perhaps prevent earthquakes. Great for blackmailing the local nobility and merchants, but that's about it; you can't really risk being caught in your own earthquake.

As for the rock-paper-scissors balance, simply make anything that would be unbalancing as a difficult task limited to the most skilled. For instance, we've already established that enough energy will penetrate damping dust - highly skilled/powerful magic can beat standard alchemy. Jack's mention of the origins of burning lead on his own plane imply that a highly skilled alchemist can indirectly cast spells - perhaps the magical mind block. By psionically projecting, a skilled psi can get past magical mind shielding on an area. Thus, a highly skilled psi can beat a standard mage, a highly skilled mage can beat a standard alchemist, and a highly skilled alchemist can beat a standard psi. The rock/paper/scissors only applies when the skill is about even. A highly skilled alchemist can make a mind block potion, sure, but a highly skilled psi can project in under that defense. However, when a highly skilled psi tries that on a highly skilled mage, the psi discovers that the mage gridded the psi defenses, rather than making it a stationary bubble, so that even after the psi has projected inside, the psi can't do anything as the psi is limited to effects that operate in litttle one inch cubes. A highly skilled mage can overload damping dust, but a highly skilled alchemist can make damping dust that can't be overloaded nearly as easily. At high skill levels, the balance is again restored.

Oh, and a psi could always telekenetically throw stuff around at random to mess up an alchemist. Imagine what happens to the poor alchemist who doesn't have defenses against psionics but maintains exploding potions.