The Psychic Armsmaster 2.0 (Soulknife Fix, a bit long)

[Realms of Chaos]

Basic Introduction: It’s no secret that the soulknife is the least impressive class in the book it is written in. It’s also the one psionic base class in all of existence that doesn’t gain access to even a single power (even the divine mind gets some). The class is often overlooked and it’s for a pretty good reason.

Simply put, all that the class does is give you a psionic weapon and let you use it. Don’t get me wrong, now. The ability to dismiss and create your weapon at will has certain advantages. It gives your mindblade resistance to or immunity from being dispelled, being rusted, being sundered, being stolen, being lost or left behind, being peacebound, being detected (via all mundane and most magical means), and being disarmed. It even gains special resistance against null psionics fields.

The problem with this is that most of these matters generally won’t come up in general unless your DM is incredibly sadistic, meaning that these benefits are ignored and you are left with a “free” weapon that cost entire levels of advancement to obtain and is likely inferior to what the rest of your party uses.

I’ve seen a few fixes up on these boards (including one or two that basically make turn a soulknife into a jedi, one that combines the class with a soulborn, and a recent one that went for a rather shadowy flavor) so I decided to take a whack at it as well awhile back. With an apparent renewed interest in the soulknife in the past couple of weeks, I was inspired to look back on my old work and I felt that it wasn’t quite completed. As such, I’ve redone this class and changed/added quite a bit. My basic principles while creating the class were more or less the following:

1. If all that a class does is make magical items, the total value of the items should be beyond what your WBL at all points so that no ally can render you irrelevant with a trip to a theoretical or actual magic item store.
2. Psionic classes should have some ability to manifest powers. There’s no reason to have a single class that breaks this tradition when having a bit of psionic power can grant some needed versatility to this otherwise straightforward martial class.
3. A class actually expected to take the front lines in combat (rather than hiding and skirmishing) should receive some sort of defense to rely upon.
4. There should be some level of true customizability that sets different characters of the same class apart from each other in ways that can’t be changed within 24 hours.
5. Even if the soulknife’s weapon is what makes them who they are and serves as the focal point for their strength, just giving out a good weapon isn’t quite enough.
6. I honestly think that it’s better to hit the high end of the power curve and know how to tone down a class rather than underpower it and have no clue how to upgrade it.

The Psychic Armsmaster

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d10

Class Skills
The Psychic Armsmaster’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) ×4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.


Psychic Armsmaster
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+1|
+0|
+2|
+2|Mental Armory, Tap Potential

2nd|
+2|
+0|
+3|
+3|Cerebral Infusion I, Psychic Augmentation

3rd|
+3|
+1|
+3|
+3|Armsmaster Talent

4th|
+4|
+1|
+4|
+4|Bonus Feat

5th|
+5|
+1|
+4|
+4|Armsmaster Talent

6th|
+6/+1|
+2|
+5|
+5|Quick Augmentation (move action)

7th|
+7/+2|
+2|
+5|
+5|Armsmaster Talent

8th|
+8/+3|
+2|
+6|
+6|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9/+4|
+3|
+6|
+6|Armsmaster Talent

10th|
+10/+5|
+3|
+7|
+7|Cerebral Infusion II

11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+3|
+7|
+7|Armsmaster Talent

12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+4|
+8|
+8|Bonus Feat

13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+4|
+8|
+8|Armsmaster Talent

14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+4|
+9|
+9|Quick Augmentation (swift action)

15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+5|
+9|
+9|Armsmaster Talent

16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+5|
+10|
+10|Bonus Feat

17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+5|
+10|
+10|Armsmaster Talent

18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+6|
+11|
+11|Cerebral Infusion III

19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+6|
+11|
+11|Armsmaster Talent

20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+6|
+12|
+12|Bonus Feat, Master of the Armory[/table]

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: You gain proficiency with all simple and martial weapons and with light armor and shields (except tower shields).

Mental Armory (Su): As a swift action, you can create up to two semisolid weapons (or one double weapon) and/or a suit of armor, all of which are composed of psychic energy distilled from your own mind. Created items function identically to any chosen weaponry and armor with which you possess proficiency, sized appropriately for you. It’s physical appearance, however, is drawn directly from your mind and may not look practical or even feasible. You may choose to create a different sort of weapon or armor each time this ability is used but you may not possess more than two weapons and one suit of armor at a time. Gauntlets created automatically with some forms of armor do not count towards this limit and are otherwise unaffected by this ability.

Equipment created in this way cannot be disarmed or sundered but can be otherwise destroyed as normal equipment (formed from normal materials). In such a situation, however, you can always create replacements with another swift action. All ranged weapons created generate their own mundane ammunition when used. Such ammunition and all weapons thrown last until the end of the attack before dissipating. Otherwise, any created item dissipates the moment it leaves your person, you lose consciousness, or you dismiss it as a free action. Weapons created in this way are treated as magical weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

You can use feats such as power attack or combat expertise in conjunction with the created weaponry just as if it were a normal weapon. You may also choose mental armory for feats requiring a specific weapon or armor choice, such as weapon specialization or armor specialization. Powers or spells that upgrade weapons or armor can be used on appropriate items created.

Your equipment gains power as you gain levels. At 1st level, weapons you create possess a +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls while armor and shields you create grants an equal enhancement bonus to your AC. These enhancement bonuses increase by +1 every odd level afterwards. While you possess two weapons or a double weapon, the enhancement bonus of both weapons are halved, rounded down. Similarly, while you possess both armor and a shield, the enhancement bonus of both are halved, rounded down. Weaponry, armor, and shields without enhancement bonuses are still considered to be of masterwork quality.

Even in places where psionic and/or supernatural effects do not normally function (such as within a Null psionics field), you can attempt to sustain all created items by making a DC 20 Will save. On a successful save, you maintain all generated items for a number of rounds equal to your class level before you need to check again. On an unsuccessful attempt, all such items vanish and you may make a new Will save in the next round to rematerialize your weapon and/or armor while you remain within the psionics or supernatural ability negating effect.

Any prestige class that would increase your manifester level also increases your psychic armsmaster level for the purposes of this ability and your psychic augmentation class feature (see below).

Tap Potential: Though most of your psionic power manifests itself through your armory, you can draw forth power from your armory to gain more traditional forms of psionic power. You gain 1 power point. Furthermore, as a full-round action, you may reduce the enhancement bonus of your mental armory by 1 (to a minimum of +0) to select a power from the Psychic Warrior power list of a level up to 1 + 1/5 class levels. You gain the selected power as a power known and gain power points equal to half of your level (minimum 1). The power known and reduction in enhancement bonus both last until you next receive at least 8 hours of rest. The power points last equally long or until spent, whichever comes first.

You may only select or manifest a power if your Wisdom score is equal to at least 10 + the power’s level and you may not possess more than two powers of a given level at any time. The Save DC of your powers is 10 + the power’s level + your Wisdom modifier. While you possess at least one power known in this way, you gain bonus power points if you possess a high Wisdom score and you gain a manifester level equal to your class level.

Cerebral Infusion (Su): In many ways, a psychic armsmaster is truly one with their weapon. While in combat, every strike that you make with your mental armory strikes loose mental energy from their foes, energy that that you can siphon to empower your armory further. Starting at 2nd level, whenever you successfully damage a sentient foe using a weapon from your mental armory, you may select one of the benefits below. Starting at 10th level, you may instead select two of the benefits below. Starting at 18th level, you may select three of the benefits below.

You may possess a number of abilities at a given time up to your class level or up to twice the enhancement bonus of your mental armory, whichever is less. You may not select a single ability twice. If you would exceed your maximum number of infusions, you may replace previously gained infusions. All abilities selected last until the end of the encounter or for 5 rounds, whichever comes last. A number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1), you can spend a full-round action to gain a number of benefits as if you had just struck a foe. If a single ability affects both armor and shields from your mental armory, you do not gain extra benefits for possessing both unless explicitly stated to the contrary.

Infusions:
Absolute Destruction: The weaponry that you create can through almost anything, finding weak points where none should rightfully exist. When using weaponry from your mental armory, you can score critical hits against any creature (this does not allow you to use sneak attack or similar abilities against such creatures).

Aquatic Adaptation: Armor from your mental armor helps to sustain you and help you move around while in water. You add twice the enhancement bonus of such armor to all swim checks you make. Furthermore, you may breathe water and air with equal ease.

Atemporal Wounds: Weaponry from your mental armory spreads quintessence through the wounds it inflicts, preventing outside influence from patching it up. Wounds inflicted through such weapons can’t be healed (whether through fast healing, regeneration, natural healing, magical healing, or other forms of healing) for 1 hour/point of enhancement bonus that the weapon possesses.

Augmentation Shards: When gaining this ability, you may select a weapon, armor, or shield augmentation crystal worth up to 500 gp/level and apply it to an appropriate item from your mental armory. As a swift action, you can replace this crystal with a new one, following the same limitations. Normal restrictions of augmentation crystals still apply.

Cloaked Armor: Armor from your mental armory conceals you from the senses. You add the enhancement bonus of such armor to all Hide and Move silently checks you make. Furthermore, such armor grants you concealment. Whenever you attack or take another aggressive action, you lose access to this concealment for 1 round.

Destructive Armory: Weaponry from your mental armory ignores hardness up to twice its enhancement bonus and deals double damage against objects.

Destructive Aura: Armor and shields from your mental armory let out waves of destructive energy. Other creatures within 5 feet/2 points of enhancement bonus your mental armory levels (minimum 5 feet) take 1d4 damage/2 points of enhancement bonus (minimum 1d4) at the start of their turn.

Dimensional Rift: Armor and shields from your mental armory can create small rifts in space, allowing you to teleport. As a move action, you can teleport up to 5 feet/2 points of enhancement bonus that your armor or shield possesses.

Echoing Blows: Your weaponry creates a ghostly echo or shockwave in its wake as it moves, a wake that can harm foes. The first time each round that you miss with an attack roll using weaponry from your mental armory, you may reroll that attack roll. If the reroll hits, the target is hit but only takes nonlethal damage.

Empathic Assault: You can send your wounds to your enemies through your weapons, keeping yourself healing. Whenever you damage a sentient foe with weaponry from your mental armory, you heal damage equal to your weapon’s enhancement bonus or equal to the damage that the opponent took from the attack, whichever is less.

Empathic Feedback: Armor and shields from your mental armory return the pain that others deal you back to them. Whenever a sentient creature damage you, that creature takes damage equal to the enhancement bonus of your armor or shield or equal to the damage that you took, whichever is less. This damage is empathic in nature and thus ignores damage reduction and regeneration.

Energy Containment:{/b] Armor and shields from your mental armory act to absorb excess energy in the world around you. As a result, you gain energy resistance against all elements equal to twice the enhancement bonus of your armor and/or shield. This energy resistance stacks with any that the armor or shield may grant you through special qualities.

[b]Extended Ward: The protection offered to you by armor and shields from your mental armory extends in part to allies nearby. Allies within 10 feet gain a deflection bonus equal to half of your armor or shield’s enhancement bonus to their AC.

Extensive Weapon: The reach of weaponry from your mental armory extends by +5 feet/2 points of enhancement bonus it possesses (minimum +5 feet) and the range increments of such weaponry increases by +10 feet/point of enhancement bonus (minimum +10 feet). This does not allow you to threaten squares around you if a given weapon was previously incapable of doing so.

Generate Obstruction: Armor from your mental armory sends out a massive disruptive field of psychic energy, obstructing the area around you. All squares threatened by you are filled with difficult terrain that doesn’t affect you and all tumble checks made to pass through such squares take a penalty equal to the enhancement bonus of such armor. Even if not threatening an area, this obstruction extends into all squares adjacent to you.

Goliath Weapon: The size category of weaponry from your mental armory increases by one/2 points of enhancement bonus it possesses (minimum 1 category, maximum colossal). You may wield such weaponry without difficulty regardless of size.

Impenetrable Defense: Armor from your mental armory partially fuses into your body, protecting you from harm. You gain Damage Reduction X/Adamantine, where X is the enhancement bonus of your armor.

Insubstantial Guard: Armor from your mental armory becomes partially insubstantial, clings fluidly to your flesh like an psychoactive skin, or is reduced to only (visibly) protect your vital areas. Either way, the armor offers full protection while allowing you to ignore any speed penalty and reducing the armor check penalty and increasing your maximum Dex bonus by the armor’s enhancement bonus (the armor check penalty can’t be reduced below –0).

Mental Marksman: When making ranged attacks using weaponry from your mental armory, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity. Furthermore, you may make full attacks with such projectile weapons as they reload themselves effortlessly.

Nightmarish Arms: Your weaponry shifts into a more horrific form and subtly alters the thoughts of others to breed fear. While holding weaponry from your mental armory, you gain a bonus to Intimidate checks equal to its enhancement bonus and any creature that you hit using such weaponry is shaken for a number of rounds equal to half of your weapon’s enhancement bonus (this is a mind-affecting fear effect).

Panmateria: When gaining this ability, you may grant the weaponry and/or armor from your mental armory the benefits of being made from any material so long as the item is normally capable of being formed from such a substance and it increases the price of the item by no more than +500 gp/level. You may change the material of weaponry and/or armor from your mental armory as a swift action, following the same restrictions.

Pierce Defenses: Weaponry from your mental armory ignores common defenses. While using such weaponry, you ignore a number of points of natural armor and of damage reduction each equal to your weapon’s enhancement bonus. If your weaponry would deal elemental damage (such as if it gains the shocking property), it ignores an equal amount of energy resistance against each form of energy.

Psychokinetic Protection: Armor and shields from your mental armory is transmuted into force that acts to deny contact with you. You add the full AC bonus of your armor and/or shield to your AC against all touch attacks. Unlike other abilities, the benefits that this ability grants you for possessing a shield and for possessing armor stack with each other.

Psychokinetic Weaponry: Weaponry from your mental armory is transmuted into raw force. As such, your weaponry can’t be damaged or broken by most means and you can hit both ethereal and incorporeal targets with ease. Furthermore, such weaponry transfers its force into attacks made, doubling its enhancement bonus to damage rolls when charging.

Souring Soul: Armor from your mental armory helps to keep you up in the air, either sprouting wings of ectoplasm (the precise design of which is left to the players) or suspending them in the air with telekinetic force. You add the enhancement bonus of such armor to all Jump checks and take no damage from falls. Furthermore, if such armor possesses at least a +2 enhancement bonus, you gain a fly speed equal to your highest movement speed with average maneuverability. For every four points of enhancement bonus that such armor possesses beyond +2, your maneuverability increases by one step (up to a maximum of perfect maneuverability).

Temporal Buffer: Armor and shields from your mental armory prevent harm from reaching you for a short time. Whenever you would take damage while using such armor or such a shield, you may delay taking that damage by 1 round + 1 round/5 points of enhancement bonus that the armor or shield possesses. Secondary effects of such attacks are not prevented, however, and effects that don’t damage you can’t be delayed.

Temporal Flux: Weaponry from your mental armory constantly seeks to acquire more time, time that it steals from those it strikes. Whenever you hit a creature with such a weapon, your initiative score increases by half of the weapon’s enhancement bonus (minimum 1) and your target’s initiative score decreases by an equal amount.

Tricky Offensive: weaponry from your mental armory allows you to initiate a trip attempt, disarm attempt, or sunder attempt as a free action when you make a successful attack with them. You add the weapon’s enhancement bonus to all opposed rolls made in this way. Such attempts do not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Uncanny Awareness: You extend your senses through armor from your mental armory, allowing you sense things that you’d otherwise be unaware of. You gain blindsense out to 5 feet per point of enhancement bonus that the armor possesses.

Unseen Armory: Weapons from your mental armory are now impossible to see, making it easier to catch foes off guard. When making a feint attempt while using such weaponry, you add the enhancement bonus of the weapon to your bluff check. In addition, the first time that you attack an opponent with such an invisible weapon in an encounter, they lose their Dexterity bonus to AC. None of these benefits apply against foes who can see invisible objects and creatures. Any effect that would suppress invisibility suppresses this ability for 1d4 rounds.

Versatile Weaponry: Your weaponry adapts to any situation, constantly reshaping itself to best match your means. Weaponry from your mental armory ignores all cover level than total cover and all concealment less than total concealment. While using such weaponry, all other bonuses to AC that opponents gain and/or penalties to attack rolls and/or damage rolls that you would take due through nonmagical environmental factors (such as attacking while squeezing through a tight space or firing a ranged weapon in strong wind) are decreased by its enhancement bonus (to a minimum of +0 or –0).

Wound Removal: Being drawn from your mind and soul, armor from your mental armory can fuse partially into your body to help seal up serious injuries. While at half of your maximum hit points or less, such armor grants you fast healing equal to half of its enhancement bonus.

Psychic Augmentation (Su): Starting at 2nd level, you can augment the power of the psychic weaponry and armor you create. You may select special abilities with bonuses adding up to half of your class level for two separate weapons (or a double weapon), for a shield, and for your armor. Alternately, you may choose to replace any number of these bonuses with other magical properties (such as glamored, slick, or prismatic burst) worth up to the number of surrendered bonuses squared x 1,000 gp.

Whenever you create a weapon or armor using your mental armory class feature, the created weapon gains all applicable chosen abilities. If creating a weapon, you select which set of abilities it gets. If creating two weapons or a double weapon, you select which weapon (or side of the weapon) gains which set of abilities. As a standard action, you may alter which abilities you have selected. If an ability has limited uses per day, that limit applies to all items you create with that ability within that day.

While maintaining such items in places where psionic and/or supernatural effects do not normally function, the items retain their benefits from this class feature but you may not modify the chosen abilities. You may select no ability with a bonus greater than 1/4 of your class level (minimum +1).

Special:If an item property gives an item charges, all items made using this property share the same pool of charges. They are not renewed unless the charges of such an item normally renew themselves.
If an item property requires a specific decision (such as the bane property), the decision cannot be changed for 24 hours after granting that property to an item.

Armsmaster Talent (Su): At 3rd level and every odd level afterwards, you learn a trick of your trade, gaining more options as a psychic armsmaster. You may select one of the following abilities at each such level. No ability may be selected more than once.

Talents:
Armor Embodied: While you possess armor created through your mental armory class feature, you gain some properties of the construct type. You may select up to one of the following abilities for each point of enhancement bonus that your armor possesses. With one hour of meditation, you may alter which abilities you have selected:
Low-light vision*
Darkvision 60 ft.**
Immunity to Sleep Effects.
Immunity to Paralysis
You need not eat or drink.
Immunity to Disease. Requires level 5.
Immunity to Poison. Requires level 5.
Immunity to Nonlethal Damage ***. Requires level 5.
Immunity to Fatigue and Exhaustion. Requires level 5.
You need not breathe. Requires level 7.
* if you already possess low-light vision, you gain superior low-light vision instead.
** if you already possess darkvision, the range of your darkvision is extended by 60 feet.
*** nonlethal damage gained due to regeneration, lack of sleep, lack of water, lack of food, forced marches, and hot or cold environments still apply.

Bodily Renewal: Within your armory, you possess incredible stores of endurance. At the start of each day, you gain a number of points equal to twice your class level. As a standard action, you may spend any number of these points to heal yourself or a touched creature of an equal number of hit points. As a full-round action, you may reduce the enhancement bonus of your mental armory by 1 (to a minimum of +0) until you next gain 8 hours of rest to regain all lost points.

Channel Psionics: Whenever you hit an opponent with a weapon created through your mental armory class feature, you may spend an immediate action to manifest a power that targets a single creature, targeting the creature you have hit. Any touch attack that the power may require is treated as having automatically succeeded.

Cognitive Blitz: As a full-round action, you can grant yourself a +10 foot enhancement bonus to your speed in all forms of movement and reduce the enhancement bonus of your mental armory by 1 (to a minimum of +0) until you next rest for 8 hours. This ability can be used multiple times and its effects stack with itself. For each +10 foot bonus that this ability grants you, you may ignore a single square of difficult terrain with each move action and you may make a single 90-degree turn when charging.

Cognizance Wave: You can expend your psionic focus and harness the mental power you expend. When you succeed on an attack roll, you may expend your psionic focus and reduce the enhancement bonus of your mental armory by any amount until the end of the encounter (minimum +0). For each point of enhancement bonus sacrificed, you can deal the target one point of Inelligence, Wisdom, and/or Charisma damage in any combination, though no ability score may be reduced below 1 in this way.

Alternately, when you or an adjacent ally fails a Will save, you may expend your psionic focus and reduce the enhancement bonus of your mental armory by any amount until the end of the encounter (minimum +0). The target of this ability may reroll their Will save with a bonus equal to the reduction of your armory’s enhancement bonus. If the target succeeds on this save and the effect would normally possess partial effects on a successful Will save, the target suffers no effect.

Emulate Heroism: As a full-round action, you may select a single bonus fighter feat that you meet all prerequisites for. You gain the benefits of that feat until you select a new feat. Each time that you alter the selected feat, the enhancement bonus of your mental armory is reduced by 1 (minimum +0) until you next get 8 hours of rest.

Focused Armory: Whenever you gain psionic focus, you may choose to also gain either defensive focus or offensive focus until you expend your psionic focus. While you possess defensive focus, you add half of your armory’s enhancement bonus (rounded up) to saving throws. While you possess offensive focus, you add half of your armory’s enhancement bonus (rounded up) to Strength-, Constitution-, and Dexterity-based skill checks and ability checks.

Guardians of the Armory: As a full-round action, you may summon an astral construct anywhere within 100 feet that can support it. The astral construct is under your telepathic control and lasts until the end of the encounter or for 5 rounds, whichever comes first. You may possess multiple astral constructs at any given time but the total level of all astral constructs controlled in this way may not exceed the enhancement bonus of your mental armory.

Incredible Foresight: You seem to be aware of danger before it can occur. You may add the enhancement bonus of your mental armory to initiative checks, to saving throws and AC against traps, and to AC while flat-footed (up to a maximum of your normal AC). A number of times each day up to the enhancement bonus of your mental armory, you can ready an action as a move action instead of a standard action. If you do not end up taking such a readied action, it does not count towards your limit.

Mental Engagement: As a move action, you may challenge a sentient foe within 100 feet to a literal battle of wits against you. Both you and the target add your highest mental ability score modifiers to attack and damage rolls against each other and to AC against the attacks of the other in place of whatever ability modifiers would normally be used for this purpose. Furthermore, both you and the target gain a 20% miss chance against attacks made from creatures other than each other and suffer a similar miss chance when attacking such creatures. This engagement lasts until the end of the encounter, until you use this ability on a new target, or until either you or your target is either rendered non-sentient, unconscious, or dead. The target of your mental challenge may take a swift action to make an opposed Will save against you, ending the ability prematurely and gaining immunity to further uses for 24 hours if they succeed.

Psionic Surge: Requires Focused Armory. While you possess either defensive focus or offensive focus, you may expend your psionic focus as an immediate benefit to gain an additional benefit. If you possessed defensive focus, you may reduce all damage taken from a single source by 1d10 damage per 2 points of enhancement bonus your armory possesses (to a minimum of 0 damage). If you possessed offensive focus, one successful attack that you make deals an equal amount of extra damage.

Rend Psionics: Your armory tends to take apart other psionic effects around you. Whenever you damage a creature or item with a weapon created through your mental armory class feature, you may make a dispel check (1d20+class level) against each power manifested on the target (DC 11 + manifester level).

Furthermore, while wearing armor created through your mental armory class feature, you may spend a full-round action to make dispel checks against all powers within 20 feet that have created areas or non-instantaneous effects.

Once you have failed to dispel a power, you may not attempt to dispel the same manifesting of that power in this way for 24 hours.

Shard Storm: As a standard action, you may shatter a weapon that you have created through your mental armory class feature to make a single attack roll against any number of creatures within 5 feet per point of enhancement bonus that the weapon possesses. Alternatively, you may shatter armor that you have crafted through your mental armory class feature as a standard action to ward any number of creatures within 5 feet per point of enhancement bonus that the armor possesses, granting each one a deflection bonus to AC equal to half of the armor’s enhancement bonus for 1d4 rounds. Whenever you use this ability, the enhancement bonus of your mental armory is reduced by 2 (minimum +0) until the end of the encounter.

Split-Second Armory: You may use your mental armory class feature as an immediate action rather than a swift action. Your mental armory cannot be suppressed by effects that suppress supernatural abilities. Lastly, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls with weapons from your mental armory and gain a +1 bonus to AC while wearing armor from your mental armory (these don’t count as enhancement bonuses).

Tricks of the Trade: As a swift action, you can create any solid, nonmagical item as large as medium or as small as diminutive. The item created is formed of raw psionic energy like your mental armory and can’t be composed of many parts (like a music box) or be worth more than 10 gp/level. Items created in this way lose all properties specific to their composition (such as raw limbo or shapesand) and last until it loses physical contact with your body. You may only possess a single such item at a given time.

Bonus Feat: At 4th level, and every 4 levels afterwards, you gain a bonus feat. The feat chosen must either be Medium Armor Proficiency, Heavy Armor Proficiency, Tower Shield Proficiency, A bonus fighter feat, or a psionic feat.

Quick Augmentation: Starting at 6th level, you begin to truly master the weaponry and armor that you create, altering its enchantments with but a moment’s notice. You can alter the special abilities granted via your Psychic augmentation class feature as a move action rather than a standard action. At 14th level, you may instead alter them as a swift action if desired.

Master of the Armory: At 20th level, there are nearly no limits to your armory. As a swift action, you may select a specific weapon worth up to 200,000 gp or a specific shield or suit of armor worth up to 100,000 gp. If you possess an item from your mental armory of the appropriate type, it gains all abilities of the selected item other than its enhancement bonus and special qualities. If some or all of the item’s abilities are reliant upon its form or special qualities, only equipment with the proper form or qualities gain such abilities. If a specific item has charges, they are refreshed at a normal rate (if at all) regardless of how many times the item is imitated. If you select a weapon and possess two applicable weapons, only one is empowered in this way. At any given time, you may only possess a single selected item, though you can replace it with a new one as another swift action.

[Xzoltar]

I really like what you did with the class and we will playtest it in a couples of days, I will give you more feedback later on how it went.

In my campaign we all use computer and we write macro or program to manage every time consumming or lot of choice giving options, so this probably won't be a problem, but you give lot and lot of options and things the player have to choose every round and keep track of, so for most campaign this may be problematic.

Cloaked Armor: Concealment of what 20%, 50%, 100% ?
Destructive Aura : Not nice to damage your allies

[Realms of Chaos]

I really like what you did with the class and we will playtest it in a couples of days, I will give you more feedback later on how it went.

Thanks and I look forward to any data you could provide.


In my campaign we all use computer and we write macro or program to manage every time consumming or lot of choice giving options, so this probably won't be a problem, but you give lot and lot of options and things the player have to choose every round and keep track of, so for most campaign this may be problematic.

Ah, this was one of my concerns. It may not be as bad as it first looks, however.

Apart from psionics, you have cerebral infusions (which most players won't continue changing after they meet their maximum and which will generally last for the same duration), psychic augmentation (which most players will alter only once or twice a combat, realistically), and armsmaster talents (which I'd liken to the barbarian/rogue talents from pathfinder).

That said, keeping track of what augmentations, what infusions, and what powers you have, not to mention the size of your enhancement bonus, may be a bit much to handle. Does anyone have any ideas on how to simplify this class a bit?


Cloaked Armor: Concealment of what 20%, 50%, 100% ?

To my knowledge, concealment always means a 20% miss chance (as opposed to the 50% miss chance from total concealment). Other degrees of concealment aren't really used any more.


Destructive Aura : Not nice to damage your allies

True but this is a cerebral infusion, meaning that you have the option of when to activate it (rather than having it as a permanent ability). Ideally, you wouldn't want to activate this when near allies.

[Gideon Falcon]

This is as good, if not better, than the Ascetic class given in the latest Base Class Challenge. If the two fixes could be meshed in some way, at least keeping the power-points-for-customization and damage die progression from the ascetic, then we would have the most awesome fix ever.

In any case, the capstone seems a little underwhelming at first, just allowing you to emulate specific weapons and armor? Then you remember luck blades. In fact, a willing DM will allow you to make specific weapons and armor that can do anything within the price range.

As a side note, do the abilities from the specific weapon or armor cost enhancement bonus, or is it in addition to the enhancement bonus? If it's in addition, I can see some cheese with getting a +1 specific weapon with specific abilities all the way up to the 200,000 mark.

[Gideon Falcon]

okay, my mistake. Looking at just the cerebral infusions more closely, this already has practically all the class features from the Ascetic that I was so impressed with. This is awesome.

[Elfstone]

Thank you, I now want to make one. Now I just need a way to get my DM let me play one. =)

This is great.

[Benly]

It's too bad you can't take Emulate Heroism more than once. I love the idea of someone who has an entire feat chain's worth of floating bonus feats to go with his everchanging weapons - an archer one day, a charger the next, a tripper the next.

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Wonder: Revived under consent.

[Pale Wolf]

Well, this seems an old thread and honestly I have no idea whether or not anyone's going to see this, but I figure, you gave me a class, so I owe you a playtest.

Quick rundown. We're using the Pathfinder system, with optional taint mechanics from Heroes of Horror, and optional Hero Point rules (basically, hard-limited points that you can burn for various 'cinematic' effects, including rerolls, bonuses on rolls to make sure they work, etc). We also received a minor trait bonus for free - the characters' origins were such that they all got 'free proficiency in longbow, and Craft Bowmaking at a level equal to your character level'. Party is currently at level 7.

Setting is basically 'magic is viewed as evil, and you're screwed because you just awoke to magical powers, kiddo'. Therefore, it's a caster-heavy party. I was originally going to run as a Psychic Warrior or Wilder, but being a caster party, a tank was required, so I went with the Psionics Unleashed variant of the Soulknife. Just recently switched to this one, very much enjoying it.

Sheet and progression picks are essentially:
Human. Bought Str/Dex/Con/Wis at 14 each, put the +2 human stat bonus into Str. As a house rule we switched the Fort and Reflex saves, primarily because I was sort of functioning as the party tank, we had so few, so we needed someone with good Fort to tank all those effects. Skills, maxed out Perception, Survival, Craft (Weapon), Craft (Armour), and Autohypnosis, plus the Craft (Bowmaking) bonus.
Feats are Combat Reflexes (I was the sole party wall for a good while, and it seems to have worked best if, as a wall, I could cut down any idiots that tried passing me to the squishies). Power Attack (bit of a given - if you're not familiar with Pathfinder, this is altered a bit from 3.5, it can't be optimized as high as 3.5 Power Attack, but is far more useful right out of the box without careful optimization, -1 to attacks for +2 to damage, +3 with two-handers, and scaling up to another -1/+2 with every 4 points of BAB). Point Blank Shot (aiming for ranged proficiency as well just to have good flexibility). Medium Armour Proficiency (the uses are probably obvious). Craft Magic Arms and Armour (given the setting, magic marts are nonexistent, so if we want magic gear, we've gotta make it ourselves). And Vital Strike (Pathfinder-only feat, basically if you're only doing one attack in a round, double the damage dice - thus allowing me to not totally bone myself when not standing in place and full-attacking).
Currently at the +4 enhancement bonus level. Psychic Augmentations are Quickness on the armour, and Keen and Merciful on the weapons.
Armsmaster Talents are Focused Armoury, Psionic Surge (I basically wanted to have something to do if everyone was taking their time to buff up - I usually keep it on defensive focus), and Rend Psionics (just because the mental image of cutting spells in half is bloody awesome).
Items: Masterwork longspear and longbow (need to have physical weapons on hand so we don't get eviscerated for using blatantly magical abilities when we fight in public), +1 chainmail armour (mostly an artifact of the prior class build, which didn't make its own armour - I'll probably buff this up into Celestial Chain and hand it off to someone else, I know the bard was thinking of it), Featherfall ring, +1 Cloak of Resistance, +1 amulet of natural armour (minor curse on it, the bard flubbed his craft check and it changed my hair colour), +1 Ring of Protection, Merciful Touch (special item, lets me Lay On Hands as lv 8 paladin, 3/day), Merciful Bounty (also special item, acts as a +2 belt of Str, and also gives a +1 untyped bonus to attack rolls - which brings my Str to 19 currently), a handful of potions, and some miscellaneous items (pennant that grants bonuses on social-fu skills, slippers of spiderclimb, box that makes a lot of noise on a command delay).
Broadly, my build is, well, party tank, using a reach weapon and Combat Reflexes to cover the squishies with breastplate protection, switching to light armour if I need to move, greatsword when something needs pounding, and archery if we can't or don't want to approach.

The other party members, for comparison and evaluation, are:
Sorceror, Stormborn Bloodline (for those unfamiliar with Pathfinder, that means a handful of minor-useful lightning-associated abilities - she's configured as buffs and blasting).

Warlock, imported and Pathfinderized from 3.5, configured for close combat with Hideous Blow - I don't know a whole lot about what this guy can do, because his player's got a bushel of medical issues and doesn't manage to show up too often.

Bard, with Magician archetype to better-support the party (basically trades out Inspire Courage for 'bonus on caster level checks, concentration, and attack rolls with spells and spell-likes', trades Bardic Knowledge for similar bonus on Knowledge Arcana, Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device, Countersong for Improved Counterspell, gains a few spells added to his spell list from any arcane class).
GM allowed him to trade out the bow expertise for 'dwarven weapons expertise', so he's running around hitting things with a dwarven waraxe. Caster support, and support in close combat. Either he, the warlock, or the oracle is our #3 in damage. I don't actually know which.

Oracle, Haunted Curse, Ancestor Mystery. (For those who don't know Pathfinder, it's a spontaneous-casting, Charisma-based divine full caster.
Haunted Curse means he's dicked around with by ghosts and poltergeists, direct mechanical effects are that he can't draw items quickly since the ghosts are hiding whatever he's got, and he gets some free spells to his spell list along the 'poltergeist' theme - mage hand, ghost sound, levitate, minor image, telekinesis, reverse gravity.
Ancestor Mystery gives him a variety of combat buffs on the basis of 'his ancestors were so awesome that they made him awesome' - he's got a summonable magic weapon, a move-action morale bonus buff, and a 'bombard the area with ghostly spirits' blast that does 1d8/2 levels, or 1d8/level against undead.)
He's configured for party support with healing, and long-range archery empowered by his self-buffs.

Inquisitor, Preacher archetype, Travel domain. Essentially a divine bard with focus on harm rather than support - 2/3 divine spontaneous casting, 3/4 BAB, some skill-based abilities (bonus on Intimidate and Sense Motive, bonus on tracking), one Cleric domain with the special abilities only and not the bonus spells, init boost, at-will 'Detect Every Alignment', Judgement (basically a 'turn this on for the whole battle' self-buff that grants a +1/3 levels or +1/5 levels sacred bonus to a single one among various traits, switchable as swift action - damage rolls, attack rolls [1/5 levels, so it basically corrects for BAB if this one's up], fast healing, AC, DR, saves, etc), and Bane (basically slaps on a Bane ability to a weapon as a swift action, pick what the bane is targeted at when you initiate it, for 1/level rounds per day).
The Preacher archetype grants a 'few times/day' ability to provide some support to herself, and force enemy to reroll an attack against an ally. (A vanilla inquisitor would instead have a bushel of teamwork feats and the ability to use them whether or not your allies have said feats)
She's configured as a second party tank to help give the party some more relevant combat power, so high Str and comparatively low Wis (in fact, I don't know her exact statline, but her Str is higher than mine).
Also notable is that she's rockin' a +2 Holy quarterstaff - loot levels in this game tend to be pretty irregular, sometimes it's low, sometimes a massive awesome item drops - currently, I think she's leading the pack on that one.

So, report. We have had four encounters since the class switch. All still one 'day', though across multiple sessions (we game in IRC, so we tend to cover ground slowly). I carried over penalties attained before the switch - so during this period, I was slightly below full HP, my uses/day of Merciful Touch were out, and I was suffering one negative level (in Pathfinder, that means -1 to attack rolls, skill checks, saves, ability checks, and -5 max HP) - it's a temporary level, and I made the Fort save to shake it off next day, but we haven't reached the day in question yet.

Context: We're assaulting a manor belonging to a local lord, who is under the thrall of a witch from a far-off land, and they're using it as the centerpiece in some sort of plan relating to a plague of wights - we don't know the exact details, but we know the who, at least, and they kidnapped an NPC child who's been tagging along with the party, so we've got a hostage here. (Not strictly relating to mechanical facets, but worth noting that entry to the manor itself was fairly easy - I just smashed the door down... though it was apparently unlocked to begin with... ^^; )

Encounter #1: Group at this point is me, sorc, and warlock. (Other party members split off to deal with the local authorities, coming in behind us) Minor trap. More of a delay than an assault, it's an illusionary hallway that has a conveyor belt effect hauling you back towards the entrance (so with the illusion, it looks like a neverending hall), with a 'sickened' effect if you fail a Will save. Seems like it had a very high DC, because rolls (after bonus) of 19 and 20 from the other two didn't make it - mine did, partially due to higher bonus (between the cloak of protection, higher Wis, and bonus from Defensive Focus), and partially due to a very high roll. Making the save allowed me to make a second save to see through the illusion which I also nearly critted, and let me lead the other party members out.

Following this, Perception roll and then Wis check to analyze the clues and find the right way to go - Perception was satisfactory, Wis check completely tanked, but I got retries since we had time, and eventually just took a ten on it. I believe this option was available to all of us, but I was the only one who bothered rolling, and I do know I had the highest Wis out of that group, so was best-equipped for it.



Encounter #2: We ran into a... possibly wizard, possibly cleric, who was heading towards the main boss area. He was distracted, so we got the drop on him in positioning - short interrogation, which time he took to stealth-cast a Summon Monster spell to bring out a taint elemental. This gave me the opportunity to hit the crap out of him, knocking him down with nonlethal damage. Class or level was unknown, but, well, he was a squishy and he got caught at close-range with a tank, so the results were obvious.

We then rolled init as far as his summoned monster went (low-level taint elemental). Sorc put a Thunderstaff on my sword (Stormborn class ability, basically turns it into a Shock weapon for 3 rounds), elemental went at me and critfailed its attack, warlock and I went to town on the elemental and brought it down in a round.

Fairly short encounter, I don't think this one was strictly an on-CL encounter to begin with, and we obtained a major positioning advantage before it started. Went very smooth and easy, though.

We then reach the door to the final boss room, which we discern is trapped. We're not quite able to discern in what way it is trapped, though, and none of us really wants to touch it and set it off. Warlock tries a blast to damage it, fails. At this point, we are drawn out to encounter #3 (the Inquisitor and Bard caught up with us and ran into it first).



Encounter #3: Greater Taint Elemental that formed and jumped the Inquisitor and Bard while they were coming up behind us. It bears noting that this is a CR11 opponent against a party that was level 6 at the time, though the GM did some adjudication judo, in such areas as ignoring its DR so we could actually hurt it, and cutting down the amount of nat attacks it was allowed to pull out. While it forms, Inquisitor brings up a Divine Favour, bard attempts to attack it, failing miserably.

First round the two of them are fighting it alone, with perhaps-predictable results - bard loses half his HP in the first round, inquisitor hits it back harder.

Second round, our group arrives. Warlock tanks his RTA to hit it. Bard axes it in the face, and gets bloody well trolled by the dice - he rolls a crit on a creature immune to crits. (His damage-per-hit is about half of mine and the inquisitor's) Sorc puts another Thunderstaff on my sword. I charge it and... miss completely. Elemental and inquisitor trade blows, each hitting about equally hard.

Third round, warlock starts getting proper results with his RTAs, bard slaps a ray of enfeeblement on the critter (it makes its save, but still loses 4 Str, so everyone's most appreciative). Sorc pumps out a Flaming Sphere, but the elemental's constantly making its saves to negate that one. I start running out iteratives, and hit it once, for another nice hard hit. (No infusions up at this point - I was aiming for Goliath and Extensive Weapon, but I preferred the flavour of bringing both up in one go)
Elemental returns the hit to me, again about equally hard, and I make the save its 'become tainted on touch' effect without difficulty (I know the bard has the Pure Soul feat that gives taint immunity, and I didn't see the inquisitor making Fort saves, so I'm guessing she had it too) - I seem to have made every save since the switch, though a large part of this is sheer dicelove, my saves at this point were rolls of 19, 18, 18 (before bonus). Oracle arrives and proceeds to stick an arrow into it. Inquisitor hits it again, about as hard as I did.

Fourth round, warlock hits again, though he tanks the damage roll. Bard slaps on a touch of gracelessness, lowering its AC some. Sorc pegs it with a magic missile (at this point, that was her second-best blast spell, though as of lv 7 she's added Scorching Ray and Lightning Bolt to actually get started on her repertoire). I attack again, and my highest roll is a 4, so totally missed.
Elemental dimension doors away (giving me/inq/bard AoOs, which both I and the inquisitor hit on, inquisitor doing slightly higher damage). Elemental arrives on top of the Oracle, and smacks him in the face (he tanks his fort save, taking max corruption from its touch). Oracle 5 fts away and shoots it... neglecting to take into account that it had 15 ft reach and hit him back with the AoO, scoring a critical. He managed to survive by burning a hero point (it mowed him down to -15), but his arrow also finished off the elemental, and he rolled well enough on the save to negate the taint from the hit.

Bard brings the oracle back up with what the GM referred to as a 'Cure Moderate Wounds Beer Potion'. We spend the rest of this one hitting each other with a CLW wand. Bard uses a Masterpiece to blow the door down, letting us find a 'purification spring' that the bads were apparently using to remove the signs of their illicit activities - this gave us a cure for our Oracle's taint. We have knowledge checks at this point to figure out what's what - I have no option here.

Evaluation: At level 6, before cerebral infusions start coming online, in pure damage, a melee-focused inquisitor is approximately equal in pure whacking - superiour, if she gets her buffs up.
Overall, the inquisitor and the bard were the MVPs this time. In terms of pure power numbers, I was a bit behind the inquisitor even with the Shock property the sorc put on my sword, I couldn't roll for crap, and the bard's debuffs seriously took the edge off what that thing could do to us and reduced its AC to allow us to do more to it. I believe I'd have caught up as infusions started coming out, but I wasn't able to hit reliably enough to actually get them online.



Notation: We levelled in between this period. We did not increase our maximum resources (ie, no increase in current HP or spell slots or etc), but we did gain access to new feats, spells, abilities, etc.



Encounter #4: The boss fight. We break into a banquet hall, ominous latin chanting, etc. Outlay is 20 mook cultists seated along the table, with the local lord in question, and the witch at the center of it all, seated at the head of the table. Matters are complicated since she's got our little kid with her, got a hold of her, and dagger at her throat. We have... negotiations.

In this phase, I'm helpless. There might have been something I could pull off the Psywar list with Tap Potential, but to be honest, I didn't think of it. If I run up, our kid gets shanked. Most of the rest appear to have about the same amount of ideas. Inquisitor might have had an option, I know there are related things on their spell list, but I don't know what she picked, or whether she actually had something she could do. Bard wins this one, hiding behind us and sneak-casting Grease on the dagger - witch tanks her Reflex, and drops it. Naturally, we all immediately move to harm them in this window of opportunity.

Round One: Lord draws a glaive, and moves in front of our witch queen to guard her. Warlock attempts to hit one of the cultists, tanks his attack roll. Cultists draw out scythes, and form thick ranks to block us off from reaching the big bad (and Elric's opponent does some damage to him). Sorc slaps a Haste on the party. Inquisitor moves up, and puts Protection From Evil on herself. Oracle moves up and brings Prayer into effect on pretty much the whole battlefield. I move up alongside the dining table, splashing one of the cultists and bringing up Insubstantial Guard so I can retain full mobility without reducing my protection, while positioning myself to block enemy access to the Oracle (he had to move up to get coverage with his Prayer).
Bard plays Pipes of Haunting, and puts a Frightened effect on pretty much half the remaining cultists. Witch comes up and casts Entangle on our zone of the room to start the whole area control thing. Reflex saves: I successfully make the save, and am on the rim of the effect to begin with. Bard and Sorc make the save, Oracle and Inquisitor fail it. (Warlock gets to avoid this since his player's away) Central flank of the cultists are tangled up as well.

Round Two: Lord readies attack to harm as we approach. Warlock hits his mook again, and doesn't quite nuke him. Frightened cultists run away, provoking from two from me and one from the bard and warlock each. I crit both of them, so the results are both obvious and painful (and this gives me the infusion for Goliath Weapon and Extensive Weapon).
I'm not actually sure what happened with the bard and warlock's targets - GM was ghosting the warlock, and the bard didn't seem to bother to roll. Sorc brings up Mirror Image and moves forward, out of the entangle zone, and trying to move such that she can get into Close range and drop her actual spells on the big bads. Oracle unleashes his Storm of Souls on the mooks - relatively minor damage, but he softens them up so single hits can kill them from there. Inquisitor rolls an Str check to break free of the entangle, and critfails it, so she uses the rest of her action to splatter one of the cultists.
My action at this point, and a quick analysis suggests that the power level of Goliath and Extensive Weapon at this stage (4d6 damage greatsword, 8d6 on a vital strike, and 15 ft reach) might be... questionable. We'd had a bit of short temper at the table at this point and a number of turns going slow due to rules disputes, so I opt to restrict it to 3d6 and 10 ft reach to prevent further trouble.
I get out of the entangled area, and take a single-move up towards the witch - my first assault in the last round had broken a hole in the cultist defensive line, so I was able to slip through (they were frightened and running away, so they didn't AoO me), and thanks to the haste, I was able to make the 55 ft distance and position myself 5 ft from the Lord.
This gave him both his readied attack and his AoO - only the AoO connects, though the guy rolls minimum damage, heralding exactly how this fight will go for him. And it put me, thanks to Extensive Weapon, in reach to hit the witch (Vital Strike, 6d6+10 damage, though I roll nearly minimum).
Roll very high on my Rend Psionics dispel check, shearing off her Mage Armour. Attach infusion: Empathic Assault (so each hit restores 4 HP now).
Bard drops a Drunkard's Breath spell on the central group of cultists (essentially a 30 ft cone version of Stinking Cloud, with no concealment effect) - they fail their saves, and are Nauseated for basically the whole fight. Strictly speaking, by the rules, they can stagger out of the cloud, but I think the GM doesn't want to bother, because they're basically gone for the rest of the night.
Witch starts trying to defensively cast Lesser Geas on me (due to a lucky accident in my positioning which I'd love to take credit for but can't, she simply has no place she can take a 5 ft step to escape my threatened area), but doesn't manage the check, indicating roughly how her night is going to go. (For those who don't go Pathfinder, casting defensively is distinctly harder here - Concentration is caster level + casting stat, and the DC is 15 + 2* spell level - so DC 23) On evaluation, she was actually successful on this check - GM forgot to add the casting stat, and none of us looked hard at the numbers until just now. So, oops.

Round Three: Lord drops his glaive and bull-rushes me away from his witch queen, switching to sword (sorry, my history buff side is refusing to let me call it a longsword). He has Improved Bull Rush, so no AoO. Though his stats seem abnormally low for what I was expecting, so I think the GM may have forgotten to track a few things. Regardless, bull rush moves me out of threatening-witch range.
Warlock critfails his attempt to shoot the lord. Some of the remaining cultists try to attack people, failing miserably. Sorc makes her way up the rest of the range to Close, and slings a Slow on the witch and lord - witch tanks her roll despite a higher bonus, lord aces his roll, so she's slowed, he's not. Oracle casts Divine Favour, and activates his move-action buff, becoming badass.
Inquisitor burns a hero point to access her domain's level 8 ability, allowing her to teleport over to the opposite side of the witch (trapping her between us), and smacking her in the face with her quarterstaff. I just 5 ft back into reach of the witch and start hitting her around the guardian with full-attack - therefore, the reach is turning out exceptionally useful. With the mage armour down, I'm hitting on a 10, for a noteworthy amount (and kicking Merciful back up, because it seems adviseable, in a building consecrated to the goddess of undeath, to minimize the number of corpses). Honestly, I get up to maximum infusions at this point, but I don't have anything I desperately want to attach, so I'm kinda of leaving it blank here.
Bard cuts down another cultist and moves closer. Witch makes another defensive cast that would have succeeded if she had her actual numbers, and fails because we were using the wrong ones. GM was growing somewhat frustrated at his boss's inability to actually do anything, so he had her burn a hero point to have the effect work. (Given it would have worked by the rules anyway, I'm certainly disinclined to complain) She drops a lesser geas on the inquisitor. Given how the night's going for her, naturally, the inquisitor rolls a ridiculously high save and shrugs it off.
Notation: Witch was level 8. Given the sheer pounding, in a straight match of rules, she would have gone down after I hit her. The GM uses what we refer to as 'the Super Robot Wars rule', inflating the boss HP totals separately, rather than making them so high-level they mow down the party.

Round Four: Lord starts cutting into me with his sword. One poor roll, misses. One critical. As I said, his night went horribly, so the inquisitor burns a daily use of her Warning ability to force him to reroll the crit. He rolls a 1. He's talking, at this point, and starts giving hints that he's under control and not doing this of his own will.
Warlock hits the Lord with his blast, doing fairly decent damage. Cultist turn is apparently skipped, but they're not doing a whole lot anyway. Sorc gets to the blasting, bringing out a flaming sphere under the lord, who fails the Reflex save and takes the damage. Oracle puts his bow to use and rolls almost everything near the max (not much difference, no crit, and he'd have hit on a 10). Deals very nice damage even though he rolls rather low on damage. Inquisitor does another Hasted attack, inflicting significant pain. I try to hit the Lord once (aiming to get a dispel on the effect on him) and put the rest of it into the witch - only land one attack, does less damage than the inquisitor, but finishes the witch off. Sets our hostage free.

Round Five: Lord works on cutting me, doesn't manage it. Warlock leaves me to get my dispel up on him, and starts cutting through the cultists, doing it very easily. Cultists take no actions - GM thinks they're all locked down. Sorc directs a flaming sphere onto one cultist, and splits a scorching ray between two more, killing them all. Oracle attempts to do nonlethal damage with his bow to the Lord (we sorta let that one skip by without a 'how', doesn't really matter since he rolled three attacks and not one roll was above a 5). Inquisitor moves up with bane on her fist and starts punching the lord - her damage starts lagging at this point. I start hitting the lord, and rather glad of the Merciful enchantment - I was expecting the dispel to shear off his Lesser Geas, but apparently his geas wasn't the lesser variety, so I went to hitting him all-out instead, for significant damage.
He also had the Super Robot Wars bonus, obviously.
Bard does... something with a wand and finishes off a cultist. Could have been a Magic Missile, I'm honestly not sure.

Round Six: Lord continues to roll painfully badly with his attack rolls. Warlock attempts to continue mowing through cultists, fails. Cultists are now released from the Frightened effect the bard had them on. One grabs some kind of more powerful magical scythe from the witch's throne, the others move towards us to engage (not in range yet). Our hostage reveals that the witch had put her under a Lesser Geas too, and starts trying to shank us. Keyword being 'try', she's a lower-level child sorc, so... well, you can probably guess how good she is with a dagger. Sorc continues with the flaming sphere and scorching ray to massacre cultists (not, perhaps, the most efficient use of the daily resources, but eh, the player's having fun... of course, we do have a stage two of the fight coming up).
Oracle approaches closer, so as to get a Remove Curse to cancel the geas. I think we all forgot that he was entangled at this point - I know I did. Inquisitor continues punching, I take a moment out to disarm the hostage and otherwise continue beating on the lord.
Bard casts Animate Rope, entangling the lord.

Round Seven: Apparently, bondage unleashes the lord's true strength, because he immediately rolls a crit, even entangled. His sword has some form of enchantment effect on it, because I have to roll a will save vs Charisma damage (successful).
Warlock has better luck mowing through cultists this time. Cultists attempt to cut on inquisitor, but generally miss, even the one with the superscythe from the throne. Geased hostage attempts to cast a spell of some form on me, but I make the Will save and shrug it off. Sorc continues her pattern of cultistmurder, clearing a path for the Oracle.
Oracle then uses this path to get to the hostage and drop a Remove Curse on her to cancel the geas - burns a hero point to make sure it works, and then rolls high anyway. Inquisitor and I continue beating on the lord. I roll two crits in the one attack chain, so I think I'm really sure that he goes down.

So, reflections. Probably fair to say that the course of the fight was decided by how quick we got to the witch to prevent her casting - making Haste the absolute game-changer. Neglecting Haste, the Inquisitor wins in terms of mobility, currently.
Offensively, they are very close. The Inquisitor's Bane ability is extremely powerful. It would honestly take a sheet-by-sheet analysis to determine the difference.
Defensively, the Armsmaster wins, with more HP, and the bonus to saves from Defensive Focus. This was the primary reason for their differing performance in the fight - the Inquisitor's one failed save meant I got an extra full attack in on the witch, comparatively.
Another big deal in the fight was the Extensive Weapon infusion. Ten-foot reach meant the witch was completely locked down, with nowhere to escape without having to cast defensively - and I didn't need to fight through the guardian to get at the witch. Had it been the fifteen-foot reach as-written, the story would likely have been similar. I believe a spear would have done essentially the same as the Extensive as I used it, however, if with somewhat lower damage dice.
Rend Psionics performed well - it only worked once, but that once debuffed the primary boss's AC by -4, rendering her much weaker to the ensuing beatdown.

Overall: On the whole, the class is performing well. Solid performance in the 'hitting things' department, with very high resilience (this needs to be highlighted and underlined), and a lot of good tricks so as to get around the various counters the system has against things being hit. A handful of extra tricks (Empathic Assault kept my HP solid - though the boss's inability to roll decently did most of the work there, and Rend Psionics is exceptional as a surprise debuff), but in general, the class itself doesn't grant a great deal outside of 'hitting things'. Performing well in that department, though.
I haven't actually used Tap Potential, to be honest. The potential increase in tricks to pull is useful, but I've been very leery of debuffing myself for the entire day to pull one trick.
The alteration of Psychic Strike (ie, requiring expenditure of Psionic Focus and the numerous other benefits from there) has actually reduced my overall offensive power on the single-action attack. I don't mind it (having something to do other than just roll to-hit is grand), but it's worth noting. Sustained offensive power is about the same (the class itself grants more, but in switching classes, I reduced Str so as to have the Wis to use other features).
The martial weapon proficiency is another big change. Due to the campaign's nature (ie, all casters, and magic is considered too dangerous to be handing off magical weapons to other people), I expect that as time wears on, I will be amassing a rather large collection of weapon loot simply by virtue of 'nobody else is proficient in them'. Probably not an issue in terms of class balance, though - in a game with other martials, this isn't an advantage, and even in this game, a vast amount of lower-quality weapons is not exactly a powerful element.

Some questions have been raised about the balance on a theoretical level, so we're dipping into a sheet-by-sheet analysis to see how it racks up against its fellow tank.