[PF] Mental Medicine: a Vitalist Handbook

[Psyren]

Mental Medicine: Psionic Healing through the Vitalist
(Updated 9/18/2012)

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/eb_gallery/82091.jpg

(Pictured: the dreamiest looking WotC psionic art I could find.)


Introduction
Psionics Expanded is here, and with it, brand new options (classes, feats, powers etc.) to enhance the quality of your psionics-friendly campaigns. This guide will discuss the Vitalist (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/vitalist), a full-manifesting class with a healing focus.



What is Psionics Expanded?

You can consider Psionics Expanded to be the APG for psionics, or the (much, much better) “Complete Psionic “for Pathfinder. Psionics Unleashed covered the core rules, and focused primarily on updating the Psionics section of the 3.5 SRD. Expanded instead focuses almost exclusively on brand-new content, and it is wonderful.

Contents:


- Why the Vitalist?
-- The Vitalist’s Tier
-Class Features
-- Chassis
-- Abilities
-- Manifesting
-- Method
-- Collective
-- Medic Powers
-- Knacks
-- Transfer Wounds
-- Spirit of Many
-- Steal Health
-- Steal Life
-- Expanded Knowledge
-Methods & Archetypes
--Guardian
--Mender
--Soulthief
--Life Leech
--Miasmic
--Sadist
-Powers
--Vitalist Powers
--Non-Vitalist Powers
-Feats
-Items
-Appendix - The Curative Conundrum

Rating System

I’ll use the same rating system as that used in my favorite handbook, Saeomon’s No-Nonsense Guise to Psions.

Purple: Must-haves - these will take your Vitalist above and beyond.
Blue: Very strong choices, choose among these for your build as well.
Green: Good choices, but may not play to the strengths of the class.
Black: You won’t be hurting or helping yourself with these picks.
Orange: Unless you have a specific build in mind, don’t select one of these.
Red: Next!



Why the Vitalist?

At first blush, a psionic healer may seem to many to be a strange concept. Healing has never been psionics' strong suit; though better at the job than arcane magic (generally speaking, anyway), psionics’ focus has tended to be around improving the self, rather than caring for a team. Even those powers that do restore others’ hit points or repair their ability scores have tended to be much weaker than their divine counterparts.

This state of affairs is tolerable for a psion (or wilder), whose access to restorative powers must of necessity be limited - and therefore balanced - against their more arcane-style offensive layout. But for those psionicists who wanted to specialize in a healing/support role instead - or just as importantly, for those DMs who wanted a capable healing class for their exclusively-psionic worlds - there was precious little support for such avenues of study. At least, until now.

Now we have the Vitalist - a class that approaches healing differently than most any class to come before it. This class fills a much-needed niche in the Psionics system; approaching psionic healing from this angle provides a restorative experience that is at once on par with anything a cleric can manage, yet remains clearly distinct from divine healing.

I have read through this class in detail and can confidently say it totally blows the Healer, Egoist, even the Ardent and Sangehirn out of the water (at least as far as healing is concerned.) However, it still maintains an acceptable balance point for most campaigns.


The Vitalist's Tier

With thanks to JaronK (whose tier system was largely unchanged by Pathfinder), I classify Vitalists as Tier 3: "Capable of doing one thing quite well, while still being useful when that one thing is inappropriate." The thing in this instance, of course, is healing - both in and out of combat.

Combat healing has - rightfully - gotten a bad rap in 3.x for various reasons (see the Appendix for more on this); however, it is a role that still attracts many players and designers. As you will see after going through the Vitalist’s class features, the Vitalist is able to address the major problems with 3.x healing, as well as positively contributing to a fight, social situation etc. when healing is not required. Best of all, it can do this without needing specific items or DM assistance.

Out of combat healing is even more important. Nobody wants to wake up the next morning (or not wake up, as the case may be!) having failed several saves overnight due to a nasty debuff and now possess an ability score south of pointless. Negative levels are less scary in PF, but no less fatal, whether directly or indirectly. Last but definitely not least, Curses tend to be very sticky and troublesome to deal with without outside help. Curative NPCs may not always be at hand either.

Vitalists do not quite have the power built-in to achieve T2 status. They are capable of feats no other healing class (and few casters in general) can match, and a few applications of Expanded Knowledge/Psychic Chirurgery can get you access to many of the Psion’s tricks. However, there isn't very much intrinsic to the class that spells trouble for most campaigns. (Well, other than Affinity Field, but that's 9th-level anyway.) Their offensive power is also very low without Expanded Knowledge/Unlocked Talent, though Soulthieves can somewhat hold their own in this regard.

[Psyren]

Races

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Due to their reliance on only (or at least mostly) two stats, choosing a race for Vitalists is quite easy. With Psionics Expanded's full release, there are now some favored class bonuses and alternate racial traits to factor in, but few real game-changers - I've updated the below rankings to account for these.

For a pure Vitalist, stat priority is: Wis -> Con -> Dex -> Int = Str ---> Cha. (Who cares if nobody likes you? They’ll suck up to you anyway, you’re the healer.) If you plan to be a gish, theurge or other multiclass-build, adjust your priorities accordingly.


Psionic Races

This is your first stop. You’re a manifester, and psionic races effectively give you free spell slots in addition to their other racial benefits. Combine the Psionic Talent racial they all possess with the favored class bonus (we are all Kalashtar!), and psionic races get a huge, huge leg up over the competition.

Don't forget: Though I haven't listed it below, all Psionic races get an extra favored class bonus - they can choose to gain a power point each level instead of a hit point or skill point. Needless to say, this is generally the option you want. (Remember, a power point is worth 3, 5, even 10 HP depending on the metric you use. So unless your Con is in the toilet - and it really shouldn't be - take the ammunition.)

Blue: The Dex boost, small size and full speed are all excellent for a class that has no business being in melee. More Int is never bad to have, and their penalty is to a dump stat. Furthermore, Blue Vitalists have Stealth as a class skill - if you stay in cover and suppress your displays, you can wreak considerable havoc as the party’s unseen medic (since your Collective doesn't need line of sight/effect.) A very strong contender despite having no Wis bonus. If Stealth isn't a problem for you (i.e. your party is good at keeping the heat off you) feel free to grab the Psionic Prodigy trait instead for more psionic oomph, but be sure to get some rations from the party once you do. Self Reliant is also a nice trait for a Wis-focused class to take.

Dromite: Despite being a shoo-in for the Vitalist’s spiritual predecessor (Society Mind) the laser-bug men fall a bit... short here. (rimshot.) The dex boost and NA are good, but Cha doesn’t do as much for them as Int does for the Blues, and they are slower to boot. However, being a Wis-based class with Scent can make you very hard to get past or sneak up on. Favored Class: Dromites can get an extra collective member every 2 levels, making them a useful choice for a very low-level game since they can fit the entire party into the collective (including summons/pets) faster than other races can. However, the errataed rules for a Vitalist's collective (see the Class Features section) lessens this advantage, as most Vitalists will be able to fit the whole party into the network right off the bat, making this bonus less useful. If your game goes to mid-levels or higher, this advantage falls off completely - and their other racials are too lackluster to make up for it (at least imo.)

Duergar: Now we’re talking. You’ve got the big two (Con and Wis.) You’ve got your penalty safely tucked away in your dump stat. You’ve got the poison save boost (useful for a class that can cure poison by leeching it out of someone else.) You’ve got psionic aptitude and darkvision. Unfortunately, you’ve also got mediocre PLAs, light sensitivity and a 20ft. move, but Duergar are still a solid choice. Be sure to dump Duergar Psionics - both of them are nigh-useless for Vitalists - and grab either the Waking Dreamer trait or the Whispers of Insanity trait to replace it. The slow speed and light sensitivity suck, but your Collective compensates for both drawbacks nicely. Favored Class: you can transfer more wounds (see the Class Features section) faster than other vitalists. Combined with your Con boost, you'll be much more effective using this ability than other Vitalists. Combined with the new racial traits given above, I was confident upgrading the Duergar's rating.

Elan: Having claimed their rightful place as the psionic human (similar to Azurin, Silverbrow, Asherati etc.), these immortal enigmas have come to Pathfinder to kick - or cure, in this case - serious ass. The synergy between the Vitalist’s healing style and the Elan’s suite of protective racials is unmatched - they’re thus as good at being Vitalists as they are at every other psionic class, and it shows. Drop the +2 in Wis and you can’t go wrong. The Reconstruction trait is golden for Elan Vitalists, allowing you to continue to heal even while unconscious and making a huge portion of your list more powerful than normal; the other traits are lackluster.

Half-Giant: The Wis bonus and PP are welcome but that’s unfortunately where the synergy ends. Str and Powerful Build are useless to you, the Dex penalty hurts, and their Stomp is keyed off a dump stat. It’s still an okay choice, but doesn’t quite shine as much as its colleagues at the Vitalist role. If you plan on being a gish however, its racials gain additional relevance and you could feasibly bump it up a notch. If you do want to go this route, consider getting the Flame of Freedom trait and grabbing a fire power to contribute to combat with, but even this option is pretty bland. Favored Class: You get an untyped bonus (up to half your level) on Heal checks. Heal sucks, so stick with Psionic Aptitude's bonus instead. Honestly, there is so little synergy here that I have a hard time recommending them even with the Wis bonus. Be a gish or psywar for best results.

Maenad: Much better. Like Half-Giants, they can get a Wis bonus and free PP but not much else. I've given them an upgrade thanks to the Crystallized Skin trait, which lets you toss out their crappy Outburst for something much more useful (untyped bonus to NA.) Combined with a Wis bonus, they're now on par with Blues. If that option is not on the table however, downgrade to green. Lack of a penalties (especially Dex) makes me rate them above HG in any event.

Ophiduan: A fantastic choice! Bonus to two useful stats, penalty to a dump stat, Darkvision, AC bonus, and poison resistance if you need to leech a teammate. Ranks right up there with the Elan. The Metabolist trait synergizes excellently with the Vitalist's healing style (note that this bonus applies even to powers over the Collective), while Scholar and Slippery Hide are also solid choices.

Xeph: The Dex bonus is welcome, and the speed boost can help keep you out of trouble. The full release of Psionics Expanded has improved their synergy, bumping them up above lesser choices. Favored Class bonus: You get a bonus to concentration checks while manifesting Vitalist powers; this is extremely handy if archers, enemy casters and other such nasties start to pay attention to your healing. Explorer and Windweaver are helpful (though minor) boosts.

Non-Psionic Races

Due to lacking Psionic Aptitude and Psionic Talent, these races need a lot of advantages to keep pace with the psionic options. I would only use them if you can’t or don’t want to pick a psionic race for whatever reason, myself.

If psionic races are not allowed in your game, upgrade each of these a step (since there's no Psionic Aptitude to compare them to.) Generally, you'll want to take the HP option as your FC bonus for these.

Dwarf: Like Duergar, but they trade the psionic goodies away to not be light-sensitive. Worth it? Not really. Favored Class: Same as Duergar.

Elf: Avoid Con penalties with a Vitalist - your HD is small, and your healing style puts you in a lot of danger even before the enemies figure out you’re the one keeping everybody up. There's very little synergy here. Favored Class: you get more uses of Transfer Wounds, which would be nice except for the aforementioned Con penalty which discourages you from using it too often.

Gnome: In addition to the Con bonus, the favored class bonus can come in handy depending on your Method/Archetype. Favored Class: You get a modest boost to your Vitalist's Touch. However, this does encourage you to stay near the front line so you can use it.

Half-Elf: Can be nice if you multiclass, but for straight Vitalists is pretty blah.

Half-Orc: Ferocity is very useful for a class that can heal this easily, plus you can get a Wis bonus. A decent pick.

Halfling: Neither good nor bad. The racials don’t do much. If you want a sneaky vitalist, Blues blow them away. Favored Class: You get a bonus talent (cantrip) per level. Blah.

Human: The quintessential everyman race remains good at everything. The feat makes up for the lack of psionic aptitude, and the extra skill point means you can drop Int a little lower than other races (presumably reallocating the points to Dex or Con.). Heart of the Wildnerness and Heart of the Streets are excellent traits for you to swap in also, synergizing very well with Vitalist abilities. This is the one mundane class that can stand toe-to-toe with the psionic options. Favored Class: A bonus power known every 3 levels; these can't be "swapped out" (see the Class Features section) so choose wisely, but even so this is still phenomenal, equivalent to 6(!) extra feats over the course of your career. Even without the psionic bonuses, humans kick ass yet again.

[Psyren]

Class Features
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Now that the class table is available online I've cleaned this section up a bit (e.g. removing the level indicators from each ability.)

Chassis
Vitalists have d6 HD, good Fort and Will saves, and use the poor BAB progression. They are proficient with simple weapons and light armor.

Skills (2+ Int): Autohypnosis, Bluff, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Intimidate, Know (History, Local, Psionics), Linguistics, Perception, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Survival. Key choices are in bold. You get all the face skills, but Cha is a dump stat and you're skill-starved as it is, so let someone else play that role. I have no idea why they get Perform.

Vitalists can be any alignment - which is a bigger deal than usual since most strong healing classes are pigeonholed into Good. Yay, psionics!


Abilities
The most important ability to the Vitalist is Wisdom, as it determines the highest level power they can manifest, boosts the save DCs of their offensive powers and abilities, and drives the amount of bonus PP they are given. Constitution is nearly as crucial - both for the innate protection it provides, and the fact that a lot of psionic healing involves transferring the wounds of others to yourself. Your hit die is as small as it gets, so you'll need to be somewhat sturdy to survive tending to your comrades, particularly those with more maximum HP than you. Don’t sacrifice Wisdom to pump this though, as you can get far more effective HP from power points than you can from Constitution with the right power choices.

Vitalists can dump Charisma, and Strength to a lesser extent. (It’s okay if your character is dour, shy or even snobby - the party will love you regardless. But don't be a jerk!)

Manifesting (20/20)
Vitalists are full manifesters, and can manifest powers up to 9th level from the Vitalist list (see the “Powers” section.) They use the Psion progression for power level and PP.

Vitalists have a unique powers known mechanic, which functions most similarly to a spell point Wizard, or perhaps a "reverse Erudite." Spirit Shaman players from 3.5 will also find it familiar. To elaborate - they have access to a main list, but must choose a subset of that list to be "powers known" every morning, much in the manner that a Spirit Shaman knows the entire Druid list, but must send their spirit to select certain spells from it each day for use.

Once the smaller sublist has been "prepared", the Vitalist may then manifest spontaneously from it. Thus, while their class table only shows 11 powers known at 20, they can swap out some or all of those 11 powers each day for any others on their list. Vitalists are therefore much less restricted than, say, a Wilder of equal level. The exception to this is extra powers learned (e.g. through Expanded Knowledge, Psychic Chirurgery or similar) - these cannot be swapped out, but they also don't count against the Vitalist's maximum powers known.

The Vitalist list primarily consists of healing and protection-focused powers, primarily psychometabolism- and telepathy-based. However, they do get some buff/utility powers thrown in, such as Hustle, Physical Acceleration (Haste), Trigger Power (Contingency), Incarnate (Permanency), Psychic Reformation, Bend Reality (Limited Wish), etc. Furthermore, they also get a limited selection of offensive powers: e.g. Collapse, Fuse Flesh, Crisis of Life, Hostile Empathic Transfer, Forced Share Pain, and Wither.

The Vitalist list is extremely weak offensively, particularly early on. However, the advantage of the psionics system is that they aren't limited to their own list - feats like Unlocked Talent and Expanded Knowledge (see the Feats section) give them plenty of opportunity to grab an offensive option or two. Powers also scale better due to augmentation; A Vitalist could, for instance, pick up a low level attack power like Astral Construct, Energy Ray/Push or Crystal Shard very early on in his career and have it stay relevant in almost every fight as they level. You can even change which EK power(s) you've picked up via Psychic Reformation.

Method
A Vitalist's "Method" is a collection of related abilities that focus it in a certain direction - similar to a Psion's Discipline, Wilder's Surge, Oracle's Mystery, Sorcerer's Bloodline etc. Each one also gives you a bonus power that does not count against your maximum powers known (i.e. it stays on your “prepared” list each day.)

As you gain levels, your Method grants you additional abilities. as noted in the abilities “Vitalist’s Touch,” “Pulse,” “Swift Aid,” “Vitalist’s Expertise,” and your capstone “Master Vitalist.”

Vitalist’s Touch: A Vitalist’s choice of method lets him modify his Transfer Wounds ability in some way. See the Transfer Wounds description for the base ability and the Method section for the method-specific modifications.

Pulse: As a free action, Vitalists can send a wave of energy to members of their collective, resulting in every member getting a short-duration (1 round) buff. See the Collective description and the Method section for details on this technique by method.

Swift Aid: As an immediate action, a Vitalist can provide a benefit to a member of her collective related to her Method by expending psionic focus.

Vitalist’s Expertise: A Vitalist’s choice of method gives her a unique or improved way of manifesting a certain thematic power.

Master Vitalist: The Vitalist capstone is dependent on their choice of method - typically, a powerful ability that costs no power points to activate (but requires a full-round action and expending focus.) See the Method section for details.

Detailed analysis of each method (as well as its component abilities) will follow further below.

[Psyren]

Class Features (cont'd)

NOTE: As of this writing, there are differences between the PFSRD Vitalist entry (from Mind Over Body) and the final version that made it into Psionics Expanded. I am using the latter in all cases and expect the SRD to be updated to reflect it at some point.

Collective (Su)
This is the class's signature ability. Vitalists form a psychic network of willing participants (each must have a Wisdom score of at least 1), and may then utilize this network to provide powerful group-based benefits - typically by sharing powers/healing amongst the group. The maximum size of your collective is equal to your Wis modifier or half your Vitalist level, whichever is higher. Vitalists are always considered members of their own collective and do not count towards this limit. (Vitalists will thus typically start the game with a collective of 3-5 members + themselves.)

Adding members to your collective requires line of sight (up to Medium range) and a standard action; however, you can add as many willing members to your collective with that action as you wish, subject to the collective size limit mentioned above. A member can choose to leave the collective as a free action on their turn, and you can remove a member as a free action on your turn as well. Dropping below 1 Wis or leaving the range of the collective will also remove you from it. A Vitalist can always tell if a given character is a member of their collective or not.

Maintaining a collective confers many benefits, summarized below:


Vitalists can manifest certain powers through their collective, regardless of the actual range on the powers. These include: All harmless or "willing target" Vitalist powers with a range other than personal, all powers with the [Network] descriptor (more on this later), and all harmless/willing target spells or powers from any other class/source they possess with a range greater than touch. The full list of criteria for eligible powers is discussed in the Powers section.

The ability to redistribute magical healing among members of the collective as you please. This includes both hit point damage recovery and ability damage recovery, and can even transfer periodic effects (like Fast Healing), or healing gained naturally from rest. The original recipient of the healing must be willing. Note: this does not change the type of healing - for example, transferring the healing gained from a Cure Light Wounds potion to a Warforged companion would still heal only half hit points. (Collective Healing)

The ability to measure damage taken by individual collective members, and check for the presence of poison or disease that the members may not be aware of. As the Vitalist gains levels, she can also make Heal checks over the collective to treat these conditions remotely. (Health Sense)

The collective members all gain the ability to communicate with each other telepathically, even without a common language. Furthermore, manifesters in the collective can manifest powers from each others' (willing) minds as though they were making physical contact with each other. The Vitalist can turn this ability on or off at will as a swift action. (Telepathy)

Members of the collective can request aid from the Vitalist as a standard action - this allows the Vitalist to heal them out of turn by spending power points on a 1:3 basis. This ability has limited uses/day. Note that it is supernatural and therefore does not provoke AoOs, allowing a wounded party member to more safely seek assistance than they would by drinking a potion or casting a spell of their own. The Vitalist can also activate this ability herself on her own turn, without waiting for it to be asked of her. There is also a feat that lets both your party members and yourself use this ability as a swift action, elevating it from merely good to phenomenal. (Request Aid)

The Vitalist can pulse psionic energy to the members of the collective as a free action. What this does depends on the Vitalist's Method; detailed analysis will therefore follow in the Methods section. (Pulse)

The Vitalist can immediately provide a benefit to a member of the collective, typically by expending psionic focus. What this does depends on the Vitalist's Method, and will be discussed in the Methods section. (Swift Aid)



The collective starts out at Medium range (100ft. +10ft./level) before becoming anywhere on the same plane at 15, and then anywhere in the multiverse at 19 (i.e. crossing planar boundaries.)

There are a couple of caveats to the Collective. Any member that dies while connected to the network forces the Vitalist to make a fort save, or lose power points and be sickened. A member's connection to the collective is also suppressed while in an NPF or dead psionics zone. Unconscious or dying members stay in the collective (thus allowing you to save them), but dead characters drop out automatically.

Medic Powers
Certain powers gain the [Network] descriptor when manifested by a Vitalist. (This includes manifesting them from items or from the repertoires of other manifesters.) The [Network] descriptor allows a power to be manifested over the collective, and confers additional benefits as well (see “Spirit of Many” below.)

These powers include: all (Healing) powers, animal affinity, biofeedback, body of iron, endorphin surge, expansion, oak body, physical acceleration, sustenance, suspend life, timeless body, and vigor.

Knacks (Ps)
Knacks are the Vitalist's Talents (minor at-will abilities - think cantrips/orisons). Vitalists can use these free of cost as long as they are psionically focused. They cannot be used against creatures without a Con score unless specified. Vitalists gain two general knacks, plus one specific to their method, for a total of 3. Knacks will be discussed in detail in the Powers section.

Transfer Wounds (Su)
By touching a target, a Vitalist can heal some of its wounds (taking an equal amount of nonlethal damage in the process.) This can be done 3+Wis per day, and starts off at 1d6 per usage, growing by +1d6 every 3 levels thereafter (to a maximum of 7d6 at 19). This is primarily a quick way to patch someone up without worrying about Heal checks, power points, adding them to your collective/lowering SR etc. It also gains a benefit from your Vitalist's Touch ability, depending on your Method. Just keep an eye on your own hp when you do this; don't go nuts with it.

Spirit of Many (Su)
As previously discussed, Vitalists can manifest all [Network] powers using the range of their collective instead of the power's normal range. Some powers have this descriptor built in, while some specially gain it when manifested by a Vitalist (see "Medic Powers" above.) Regardless of how the power acquires the [Network] descriptor, Spirit of Many confers additional benefits to these powers besides casting them through the collective:

- [Network] powers ignore the target's immunities so long as they are part of the Vitalist's network. (For instance, you could manifest a mind-affecting power on a construct or undead, so long as he is a member of your network.)

- [Network] powers bypass Spell/Power Resistance (as though they were PR: No) and lose any primary saving throws they may have had. Secondary saving throws remain. (For instance, if your monk friend has SR and is part of your network, he does not have to lower it for you to heal him.)

- [Network] powers manifest by the Vitalist gain an additional augment, allowing you to add a target for every additional power point spent, so long as these targets are also part of the collective. This for instance lets you manifest “Mass Vigor” or “Mass Expansion” - provided you pay an extra PP for each additional target to be affected, and those targets are members of your collective at the time of manifestation.

The second bullet is what makes Spirit of Many especially useful; you can more easily buff and heal targets that other healers cannot. For a Vitalist-led party, Spell/Power Resistance becomes a useful defense rather than a pain in the neck - and it’s on your class list as well. And the third bullet is really nice for mass-buffing and mass-healing.

The more devious among you may note from the first two bullets that Spirit of Many can potentially be used offensively as well; in point of fact, there is a feat that lets you force unwilling participants into your collective. (More on this later.)

Steal Health (Su)
All Vitalists gain a touch attack that they can use to steal health from enemies and either heal themselves, or divide among their collective (even if the Vitalist herself is ineligible or at full health.) This is usable at-will, but cannot be used to heal unless the target has at least half as many HD as you have Vitalist levels. (So no poking anthills, chickens or summoned badgers to heal the party to full.) The maximum health you can steal with this per use is Vitalist level + Wis mod or the creature's current HP, whichever is less. At 7th level, you can use this ability from 30ft away with a ranged touch attack.

Steal Life (Su)
Powerful Vitalists can attempt to snuff out the lives of their enemies. Once every 10 minutes, the Vitalist can touch a target with 140 hp or less and expend psionic focus, causing them to make a fort save - failure means the target is instantly slain (this is a death effect.) If the target dies, his stolen life force is transferred to the collective; the Vitalist gains 5 HP per hit die the target had possessed to distribute through the network.

Targets must have a Con score and cannot be in the Vitalist’s collective.

Expanded Knowledge
At level 9 and again at 18, Vitalists gain Expanded Knowledge as a bonus feat. This is best used to round out their repertoire, adding more offense or utility as needed.

[Psyren]

Methods and Archetypes
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Methods

As previously discussed, a Vitalist’s “method” is its choice of focus - i.e. the factor that would make two Vitalists play differently from one another. The three Methods released so far in Psionics Expanded are: Discipline, Holy and Shadow (just kidding :smallwink:. Ahem): Guardian, Mender and Soulthief. Which one you choose will of course depend on your own playstyle, the nature of your campaign and the capabilities of your fellows.

Guardian Method
Guardians are capable healers, but focus more on preventing/mitigating damage before it hits their collective, than on reactive healing. This is makes them an attractive choice for high-initiative Vitalists, since it means you'll always have something to do in the first round. I personally think this is the weakest of the three Methods though.
Guardian Power: Biofeedback
Guardian’s Touch: When a Guardian uses his Transfer Wounds ability, the target also gains temporary HP = your class level for a few rounds. They don’t stack with any other source and they don’t last long, but they’re free and automatic.
Guardian’s Pulse: Spend a PP and the entire collective gets DR for 1 round similar to Biofeedback. The difference is that this automatically scales (albeit slowly) as you gain levels rather than needing augmentation, and of course it’s a free action.
Swift Aid: As an immediate action, you can expend focus to give any member of your collective a small insight bonus to either AC or saves until the beginning of your next turn.
Guardian’s Expertise: Guardians are skilled at manifesting Empathic Feedback. You get two additional augments with it: the ability to take reduced damage for 4 PP (reduced by damage dealt to attacker), and the ability to manifest it as an immediate action for 6 PP. The power itself is lackluster in PF (Will negates, mind-affecting, and subject to PR) but these augments do make it more useful. Note that if you augment it by 10 points - 4 for the reduction and 6 for 100% damage transfer - you or someone else becomes immune to melee damage from a single target, provided that attacker fails its will saves.
Master Guardian: The Guardian capstone provides a comprehensive protection ability -or at least, that's its intent. Take a full-round action and expend your focus to give one member of the collective a protective bubble; this grants DR/6-, PR 27, Resist 20 against fire, acid, cold, sonic and electricity, and +6 deflection to AC... for one minute, with a 10-minute cooldown. For a 20th-level ability I expected much better, but at least its free, undispellable, and likely to last for a whole combat. A Foresight effect would have been much better in my opinion though, especially for a full-round action. And your party is likely to have these defenses (DR, PR, energy resist, deflection AC) long before level 20 too.

Mender Method
As their name suggests, Menders are the more traditional healer type of Vitalist. Fluff-wise, they are also the most common variety. This is a good choice for low-initiative Vitalists, since by the time your turn rolls around someone should be in need of your ministrations, though of course you can just as easily win initiative and delay/ready instead.
Mender Power: Natural Healing
Mender’s Touch: When a Mender uses his Transfer Wounds ability, the target is healed additional HP = your class level; this additional healing is not transferred as damage to you. If you don't have Vigor up on the party, then the Guardian’s Touch can be superior in combat (as there is much less chance of overhealing) but the Mender’s touch is real healing and thus more useful out of combat. Remember that you can reallocate anyone's healing at will so long as they consent, so if you're at risk of overhealing someone, feel free to send the excess healing to someone else in your collective who may need it.
Mender’s Pulse: Spend a PP and the entire collective gets Fast Healing 1 for 1 round. This scales slowly as you gain levels. (Fast Healing 2 at 4, Fast Healing 3 at 7 etc.) What's really nice about this is that you can reallocate it, concentrating it on one member; thus the bigger your collective gets, the more efficient this becomes. (e.g. if you have 6 people in your collective and are at Fast Healing 3, you can send out a pulse, then immediately focus all that healing one person - granting them 18 HP for 1 PP, then take all your turn's actions normally!)
Swift Aid: As an immediate action, you can expend focus to transfer wounds from a member of your collective as though you had touched them. Not only does this let you Transfer Wounds at range, it also lets you keep using Transfer Wounds after your daily uses are up, and your Mender’s Touch still applies to it.
Mender’s Expertise: Menders are very skilled at manifesting Psionic Revivify., getting a longer window to use it in before either party suffers repercussions (1+Wis rounds instead of just 1.) In addition, Menders have additional expertise with all [Healing] powers, bestowing +50% extra HP from each one - effectively getting their heals Empowered for free. Few classes in Pathfinder (and none in 3.5) can match a Mender Vitalist for raw healing output.
Master Mender: The Mender capstone is a giant reset button (almost) for one member of your collective - healing them to full, removing all ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, and curing all poisons/diseases. It costs only your focus and a full-round action (no PP), and has a 10-minute cooldown. In effect, if you have an hour or two of downtime you can top up the entire party for free; now that’s a capstone. (Did I mention that the healing from this ability can be reallocated too?)

Soulthief Method
Soulthieves are the offensive healer archetype - a great choice for evil Vitalists, or for folks that want to heal and do damage. If healing your allies is good, and killing your enemies is better, surely doing both at once is best of all.
Soulthief Power: Collapse (This is a new power in PsE - see the Powers section for details.)
Soulthief’s Touch: A Soulthief can use Transfer Wounds offensively, effectively turning into another Steal Health, only you get it a level earlier and without the ranged option. They can still use it the normal way if desired. At mid-high levels, this is likely to do much more damage than Steal Health (as the damage dealt is equal to Transfer Wounds+level rather than Wis+level.) You cannot drain anyone in your collective.
Soulthief’s Pulse: Spend a PP and the entire collective gains the ability to drain health from enemies they hit for 1 round. The healing is small, but scales automatically as you level; furthermore, it’s per attack, so party members with lots of attacks can rack up healing pretty quickly (which the Soulthief can then distribute to the slower hitters via the Collective.)
Swift Aid: As an immediate action, you can expend focus to attempt to transfer wounds from a member of your collective to an enemy near them. The enemy gets a fort save to negate. Because it targets based on your ally’s position rather than your own, you can pull off some neat tricks, such as attacking someone without being in the same room (or city, or plane!) with them.
Soulthief’s Expertise: Soulthieves are very skilled at manifesting Hostile Empathic Transfer. They can choose to manifest it at range (requires RTA) instead of melee, and they get more HP transferred per PP spent than other manifesters do, plus a higher cap per manifestation (85 instead of 70.) As if all that weren’t enough, Expert Soulthieves can leech 50% HP from all damaging powers they manifest; Energy Ray, Crystal Swarm, Mind Thrust, you name it. They can then share this stolen health through the collective. This encourages Soulthieves to blast away at their enemies, keeping the party healthy and ending battles all the more quickly.
Master Soulthief: The Soulthief capstone is a massive life-leech effect on one target. You start draining life from them for one minute, doing 12d6 points of damage per round (120d6 total). Any overhealing is converted into temporary HP which lasts for 10 minutes. There are downsides, however; It costs your focus and a full-round action to initiate, and has a 10-minute cooldown; in addition, you must concentrate to get the full duration out of it, and the target gets to make a will save every round to break the connection. Finally, you can’t get more HP than the target possesses, so no melting chickens or ants down for 12d6 each. It IS supernatural though, so have fun siphoning dragons and demons (or angels.)

Archetypes

Psionics Expanded gave us some bonafide archetypes for the Vitalist. Here's the rundown:

Life Leech
This archetype focuses on transferring wounds and debuffs from one member of the Collective to another. This is a great candidate for Unwilling Participant, which they get for free (why transfer bad stuff to a party member when there's perfectly acceptable enemy targets begging for them?) but you can always "keep it in the family" in a pinch. You can also redirect incoming damage on the fly from one member of the collective to another.
Loses: Transfer Wounds, Steal Health, Expanded Knowledge 1.

Miasmic
This archetype focuses on disease and poison - gaining immunity to such conditions, as well as gaining the power to afflict, sicken and nauseate targets with a touch, as well as the ability to suppress such conditions in collective members. If these are a big part of your campaign, this could be the archetype for you.
Loses: Knacks, Transfer Wounds, Steal Health, Request Aid

Sadist
Sadists are... weird. You gain PP when your collective members die (and suffer none of the regular penalties), can empower your heals by hurting someone in your collective, and deal additional damage with your damaging powers. If this sounds to you like another great fit for Unwilling Participant, you'd be absolutely right - and as luck would have it, the Sadist and Life Leech archetypes can be combined. That first ability is a strong reason to do so - converting the drawback of an enemy dying while linked to your mind into a benefit, as well as being able to siphon their health to empower your manifestations for the rest of the party. This combination offers great flavor to an evil Vitalist.
Loses: Knacks, 3rd-level power known, Request Aid.

[Psyren]

Powers
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/eb_gallery/82933.jpg

(As with the class features section, there are discrepancies between this list as presented on the SRD and the final print version in Psionics Expanded. Psionics Expanded once again takes precedence, as the SRD information comes from the Mind Over Body serialized release rather than the final sourcebook. My information will therefore be taken from the sourcebook.)


The Vitalist list, though limited, does contain a number of useful powers. Rating the Vitalist list is slightly different from rating the psion/wilder list - as you'll recall from above, any Vitalist can really access any of these powers if/when needed; he just needs downtime to swap in any that he doesn't have in his active set. This also means that, during downtime on adventures, he can swap in some more situational powers, use them to craft items (e.g. stones and dorjes), then swap back to a more standard loadout for adventuring purposes and thus have access to both.

Vitalist powers will be briefly discussed in the first subsection. In addition, a number of non-Vitalist powers - and even spells! - can also be manifested/cast through the Vitalist’s collective, despite not having the [Network] descriptor. These will be discussed in the second and third subsections, respectively.

As a reminder, the requirements for a power to be a manifest over the Collective are as follows:
- Has the [Network] descriptor;
- Has the (Healing) subschool/descriptor (automatically gains [Network] descriptor from Spirit of Many);
- Is one of the specific Medic Powers (see “Medic Powers” in the Class Features section);
- Harmless Vitalist power, or Vitalist power with willing targets, with range greater than personal;
- Harmless non-Vitalist power, or non-Vitalist power with willing targets, range greater than Touch.

Powers that meet at least one of these criteria can be manifest over the range of the collective or their stated range (Vitalist’s choice.) These will be marked with (C).
The first three bullets are also eligible for the Spirit of Many ability, which grants additional benefits (see “Spirit of Many” in the Class Features section.) These will get (S).
Finally, brand new powers (other than Knacks) will be marked with (N).

A Brief Note on Knacks (Talents)

Psionics Expanded reintroduced Talents (i.e. 0th-level powers, similar to cantrips/orisons), which were dropped from the D&D psionics system during the transition from 3.0 to 3.5. Special rules apply to Talents: these are summarized below.


- Talents are usable at-will (so long as you maintain psionic focus.) They otherwise cost no PP to activate.

- You must maintain psionic focus to manifest Talents. If you expend or otherwise lose your focus, you must regain it before you can manifest talents again.

- If a talent has a duration other than instantaneous, you can only have one active at a time. Using a second talent while another is active will cause the first to immediately end.

- Talents cannot normally be augmented. However, by spending 1 power point (in addition to any the augmentation would require) this restriction can be lifted for that particular manifestation and the power can be augmented normally.



Vitalist List Powers

0th level (Knacks)


Dazzle: As the name suggests, dazzle foes with a ranged touch attack for 1 round. Even for a Talent this is horrible; go with Hinder instead for the same effect, only longer duration and with more utility.
Detect Psionics: (Newly added) The most useful talent in the game, Vitalists finally got this in the latest release. Useful at all levels. Spending PP on it lets you augment it into Identify.
Disruptive Touch: Stagger an enemy with your touch for 3 rounds, fort negates. Stagger is a great debuff and this lasts long enough to make it relevant, but the need to be in melee really hurts this one.
Fatigue: (Soulthief only) Fatigue someone at range. Fatigue shuts down charging and running (also handy for keeping unwilling victims in your collective) but pretty much everything that would charge you also has a good fort save, sharply limiting the usefulness of this talent. If you could stack this to exhausted it would be worth spamming, but as-is it's mediocre.
Fortify, Lesser: (C) (Guardian only) Basically the resistance cantrip. Weak of course, but hey, 0th-level. Before you get a cloak of resistance, consider spamming it out of combat.
Halt Death: (N) (Mender only) Psionic Stabilize. This is much better though because you can use it at range thanks to your collective, giving you plenty of time to triage dying teammates. Consider quickening this later as well.
Hinder: Succeed on a ranged touch attack and your target’s next save, attack, or skill check (your choice) takes a -1 penalty, no save. Wears off after a minute or is discharged. If you have nothing better to do in a fight, feel free to spam this.
Induce Pain: 1d3 damage with a successful ranged touch attack. This isn’t great for anyone, but at least it bypasses DR and is a RTA, so it might actually be handy in a situation where the crossbow wouldn't. Soulthieves should skip it since Siphon is strictly better.
Sense Poison: You're the royal food taster! Depending on the campaign, this could come in pretty handy. Note that the Wis check is merely to identify the specific poison, not the know if there's poison there at all. If your DM doesn't use poison/intrigue, feel free to skip.
Sicken Body: Sicken a target at range for one round unless they fail a will save. Sicken is a great debuff early on (effectively, -2 to everything) and being a will save makes it useful against the kind of enemies you wouldn’t want near you anyway. If it lasted longer than a round I'd be more charitable towad it.
Siphon: (Soulthief only) As Induce Pain, except you or someone in your collective gains a temporary hit point for 10 rounds. Still underwhelming, but free hp is free...
Toughen: (Guardian only) +1 to NA for 10 rounds. Great early on, falls off in usefulness as better buffs emerge.
Vim: Basically Virtue, and every bit as pointless.

1st level

Biofeedback (C,S): Gain smallish DR/-. Like Psywars, you get this at first level (when it could actually be useful) and you can share it with the party to boot. This makes BF far more useful for Vitalists than for other manifesters.
Collapse (N): Target makes a fort save or is knocked prone. Can be augmented for a longer-lasting debuff (fatigued, sickened or staggered, or augmented again for nauseated.) Stagger is probably the best with this because they use up a full-round action just getting up from prone, and provoke AoO doing it to boot.
Detect Compulsion (N): You can automatically tell when people are being compelled. You’re a Wis-based caster with Sense Motive in-class, so chances are you won’t need this at all, but just in case your DM is being really cagey with the rolls or an NPC is acting very strangely this is a sure-fire (i.e. no save, no PR) option to be sure.
Detect Psionics: Very useful, but someone else in the party may already have it and you don’t have much room to prepare it. Try to fill in gaps the others aren’t covering. This does pull double-duty as Identify if nobody else has that either, though.
Elfsight: There are much more useful powers you could be using even at this level, and it can’t even be shared. Skip.
Missive: Has its uses early on, but once you get Telepathy and have the whole party in your collective this will likely gather dust. (Unless you’re in the habit of one-way e-mailing NPCs anyway.)
Natural Healing (C,S): This is the self-only healing power introduced with PsU (though Vitalists can heal others with it.) 3HP for 1PP isn’t great, but it beats Touch of Fail from CPsi at least.
Sense Link (C,S): Now you can split the party! (Sort of.) This is a nice way to keep tabs on your collective beyond the information Health Sense provides. Check with your DM to see if your collective’s interplanar clause overrides the “not across planes” clause in this power, but since that won’t even be a factor until very late in the game it shouldn’t matter anyway.
Suppress Compulsion (N): The poor cousin of Protection from Evil. You can turn off compulsions… for one round (albeit more with augmentation.) You must also succeed at a ML check vs. the compulsion's originator. On the plus side: it's a swift, and you can still potentially have the "silver bullet effect" of a 1st-level spell/power defeating one that is much higher (e.g. Hold Monster or Dominate Person.) It's extremely situational though, so your best bet is rely on items for this (or better yet, just dispel) unless your DM enjoys such effects. Even then, this will likely gather dust once you get Aura Alteration.
Synesthete: For a first-level power, you get a lot of immunities out of this. Blindness, deafness, gaze attacks, and you can even share it with your party members via Sense Link if you're nearby (augmented to let them use your senses.) You probably won't need to prepare it every day, but for the days when you do need it you'll be glad you have it.
Thicken Skin: As written it appears to stack with your existing natural armor if you have any (compare the wording on this to e.g. Barkskin.) For that reason, it is very nice at all levels and can stay in your repertoire. The only downside is that it can’t be shared with the collective.
Vigor (C,S): As in 3.5, a fantastic power - and it's even better for Vitalists, who can spread it to the entire party for cheap. Prepare this daily!

2nd level

Animal Affinity (C,S): 6 spells in one power - and you can share them all with the party, at range no less. Beat that! The only downside is the low duration, but this one is a keeper nonetheless.
Body Adjustment (C,S): The Vitalist's bonuses are not enough to make this power good. An investment of 17PP (the equivalent of a 9th-level spell: 3 base +14 augment) gets you 8d12, or 8-96 hp of healing (avg. 52). That's right, you have the potential to heal 8hp with a 9th-level power. Yuck! Compare to Heal, which gets you a flat 110 as a 6th-level spell, or even its psionic equivalent Heal Injuries (further below), and it's easy to see why you shouldn't bother with this. If you want low-level healing that isn't Vigor, either stick with Natural Healing (same average, 1 level lower), or rely on your class abilities.
Body Equilibrium: You can walk on liquid surfaces like water, quicksand, or even semisolids like webs. This is very situational but could potentially be useful in, say, an aquatic campaign, if you have no items. (Note that unlike Water Walk, this does not take you up to the surface when manifested.)
Delay Poison (?): [Not found in MoB/PsU]
Empathic Condition Relief (C,S): You shorten the duration of conditions like dazed, stunned, nauseated, confused or shaken by 1d2+1 rounds. Alternatively, you can create a window of clarity in such conditions that will let the subject act freely. The key to this power is the "and" - meaning that you can relieve all of these conditions at once. This makes it fantastic with Contingency (Trigger Power) so that you can keep doing your job if a monster or savvy spellcaster knocks you out of commission - and because you can share it with the whole network, you can set up a trigger to unstun the entire party at once. This is one is great.
Empathic Transfer (C,S): A very versatile power - not only can you heal others with it, you can also transfer poison, disease and even ability damage. The downside of course is that now you have to deal with these effects, including subsequent secondary saves from the poison and disease. But if someone’s Con has taken a beating from one of these and you don’t have time to tend to them properly, taking it onto yourself can be a good idea (particularly since your own Con is likely to be high.) If you have the time to spare on a Heal check though, that’s almost always the better option.
Specified Energy Adaptation: Grants you auto-scaling energy resistance (up to 30) for a single type. Perhaps the largest downside is that it matches your active energy type, which means it takes a move action to change (full-round if you didn’t grab the PM feat). Another issue is that enemies that deal a particular element of damage tend to also resist or be immune to it, so matching your active energy type to theirs can cut down of your offensive options. (e.g. going up against fire elementals, this power would want your active type to be Fire, but the various blasting powers like Energy Ray would want it to be Cold.) You may be better off holding out for the more all-purpose Energy Adaptation one power level up.
Psychic Bodyguard (C,S,N): You make one will save for your ally (augmentable to more). A successful save discharges it, though a second augment prevents that too. Will is a strong save for you and you’re Wis-based, so your will saves stand a good chance of being the best in the group. In addition, this one lasts a long time, so it’s great to manifest on the weak-willed members of your party in the morning (e.g. the barbarian and rogue.) Note that Spirit of Many removes the Mind-Affecting tag, letting your protect the saves of even immune party members.
Resist Toxin (C,S,N): Delay Poison, Remove Disease and Neutralize Poison all in one power; and you can share it all with the collective. Excellent! The one downside is that it requires a ML check to work.
Secure Life (?): [Not found in MoB/PsU]
Share Pain (C): Split damage you receive with someone else. This still combos very well with Vigor, and Vitalists can manifest it at a distance thanks to their collective, giving you much more freedom ovver who shares damage during an unpredictable fight. Like Vigor, keep this one available.
Sustenance (C,S): You don’t have to eat/drink each day that you manifest this. Sharing it with the party means no rations and no hunting; great for long trips through hostile locales. Perhaps make a dorje of it that you can use every morning, and let the party literally make their own breakfast while you move.

3rd level

Battlesense (N): This is pretty cool - you emit an aura which gives every ally withi a HUD that helps them fight more effectively. Imagine having the party members know, in-character, how much HP they have left or how many squares they are from each other. :smallbiggrin:

Humorous fluff aside, the crunch benefits are quite solid. First off, you gain your choice of one of the following:
- +1 circumstance bonus to attack rolls
- +1 circumstance bonus to AC
- +2 circumstance bonus to damage
- +5 circumstance bonus to speed

But the kicker that makes this power great - all allies within range gain the ability to Aid Another as an immediate action. This means that the whole party (if within range) can all aid one member out of turn without using up their standard action, and the bonuses stack. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Aid-Another)

Finally, the power can be augmented cheaply to either let you pick multiple choices from the list, or stack an existing choice (to a total of 5x.) The only downside I see to this is the small range, but the buffs stay on the party even if they move out of it.

Body Purification (C,S): You can cure ability damage (but not drain.) It’s weaker than lesser restoration while simultaneously costing more, but the upside is that you can share/AoE it.
Danger Sense: Traps? As the healer, you shouldn’t be walking in front anyway, and there are better ways (e.g. Vigor+Share Pain) to protect yourself from rogues and their burst damage until the other party members can protect you. You also can’t share it. Skip.
Empathic Adaptation (?): [Not found in MoB/PsU]
Hostile Empathic Transfer: Your second attack power! :smalltongue:
Soulthieves get a sizeable buff to this (see “Soulthief Method”) making it quite useful for them, but the [Mind-Affecting] tag and the touch range make it less attractive to other Vitalists.
Endorphin Surge (N, C, S): You or others rage like a barbarian. Manifesting this on yourself is usually a bad idea (you can’t manifest any powers while raging, which means no healing!) but this is a Medic Power, meaning you can grant rage to the real martialists - without even fatiguing therm afterwards. Sweet buff.
Guarded Sleep (?): [Not found in MoB/PsU]
Hustle: Useful for every manifester, if only for regaining your focus as a swift action, and you don’t even have to spend a feat on it. Learn it, love it, live it.
Mend Body (?): [Not found in MoB/PsU]
Forced Share Pain: FSP is similar to HET but has several advantages, such as lack of mind-affecting and being a passive buff rather than an active attack. Fort negates, so save it for lightweights like archers and casters (all HP damage is transferred, including from spells.)

4th level



Empathic Feedback: You damage creatures that attack you (this seems to be a running theme.) The advantage this has over FSP/HET is that it applies to anyone who attacks you (in melee) rather than a specific creature. It’s also a will save, so you can put some serious hurt on an unwary bruiser.
Guardians are especially handy with this one, as noted in Guardian’s Expertise. Note also that the will save is applied per attack, and the attacker succeeding at it will not end the power, merely protect them from the damage.
Energy Adaptation: You absorb energy attacks. As this power avoids the problem of sacrificing attack for defense via your Active Energy Type, this is useful in a wider variety of situations. In addition. this is more useful against enemies that deal multiple energy types.
Evade Burst: Gain evasion (augmentable to Imp. Evasion) vs. bursts. Extend this to lines and cones and we’ll talk, but reflex is still your weakest save. Vigor+SP will likely prevent as much damage while being more useful overall.
Immovability: You become nearly unmoveable and gain DR 15/-. This is quite handy for Vitalists since they rarely need to move around to heal people anyway. The glaring downside is the need to concentrate, so pass this off to your psicrystal if you want to cast other things.
Incite Passion: This is a pretty hefty debuff. Your target takes a penalty on Int-based skill checks, prevents them from both taking 10, taking 20 , and fighting defensively, and also gives them a penalty to attack rolls and armor class. Mind-Affecting and Will Negates; in all honesty, if you can land a MA power at this level then there are probably more potent mental attacks you or someone else can use instead.
Inertial Barrier: Gain DR 5/– which can’t be augmented. Biofeedback is better, especially for Vitalists, so skip this.
Physical Acceleration (C,S,N): Psionic Haste, basically. It’s a level late but you can quicken it too, and sharing it with the party is always welcome. Keep this one on tap.
Psychic Drain: Mana burn, fort negates. You can drain quite a few points with this but are generally better off ending the fight some other way.
Psychic Reformation: Retrain yourself and your party. This power is solid gold for every manifester, and you don’t even need to burn a feat. Prepare it only when you need it.
Wither (N): Decent Str damage, fort half. This would be great if it weren’t for the touch range restriction, but is still good vs. certain enemies, especially since it still does something on a save.

[Psyren]

Powers (cont'd)

5th level

Adapt Body: Survive almost anywhere. This would be more useful if you could share it, but it’s there if you need it.
Incarnate: Psionic Permanency. From the default list, Detect Psionics is very useful and can be done as soon as you learn this.
Leech Field: Leech power points each time you make a saving throw. Your saves will likely be pretty high (well, except reflex) so this is something to consider. Combos quite nicely with Psychic Bodyguard.
Power Resistance (C): Grant PR/SR equal to 12 + level. This is a far more useful defense for you than any other manifester - since it is harmless and touch, you can cast it over your collective and thus grant PR to the entire party, and thanks to Spirit of Many, you can still heal everyone without having to overcome or lower their SR first. Now you can enjoy the benefit of SR with much less of a drawback. Definitely give this one a second look, and remember to boost your ML as much as possible before manifesting it.
Psionic Revivify: Free rez, if you’re fast enough. Menders are quite adept with this one (see “Mender Method”.) Note that the target has to be dead, so this is sadly one of the few [Healing] powers that won’t quite work over your collective :-P
Psychofeedback: Effectively, you can reallocate your ability scores to either Str, Dex or Con by damaging them. The latter is obviously of most use to you, but there are few scenarios when simply repairing them wouldn’t be better. If you’re getting Con drained though, this can help in the short term, I guess.
Restore Extremity: Repair or reattach a limb. This is useful to fix a corpse (and thus avoid needing resurrection for a particularly nasty killing), but otherwise rules on chopping off extermities are pretty rare. You probably won’t need this at most tables.
Tower of Iron Will: While still not stellar, this power is slightly more useful for Vitalists than other manifesters, for most of the same reasons as Power Resistance. The limited application, duration and range are pretty big limiters, but the immediate action casting time could come in handy in the right scenario. I’d leave this one as a power stone or other item though.

6th level

Aura Alteration (C): Switch off charms/compulsions, disguise levels and alignments, and remove curses and geases. As if this weren’t useful enough, you can manifest it over the collective.
Brutalize Wounds (N): If your target makes his save, this acts like reverse DR - adding 1 point of damage to every weapon hit they take. If they fail their save, they take max damage from all weapon attacks (i.e. no need to roll for damage.) It all seems too round-about to me.
Cleanse Spirit (C,S): Basically, Psionic Restoration, augmentable to Greater Restoration. It’s sad that Vitalists have to wait as long as Egoists to get this - but on the plus side, you can manifest it at range and even zap multiple party members at once with Spirit of Many. You likely won’t need this every day, but it’s mandatory for any dedicated healer.
Defer Fatality (N): Lesser Timeless Body? I guess? Manifest this to avoid death until you get healed, but you can’t do much else (including both regular and subconscious powers.) The wording is kind of wonky (what happens if I manifest this when I’m not about to die? Can I end the effect voluntarily?) and a CDG can still kill you, as can removing your head... yeah, I may have to say skip.

Note: There is an interesting combo with this and Forced Share Pain - no matter how much damage your body takes, you won't die as long as your head stays attached to your torso. So if you successfully establish the connection with an enemy and then defer your fatality, your allies can beat the tar out of you and totally ruin the enemy's day no matter how high his AC or other defenses may be. A crude trick, but brutal nonetheless.
Fuse Flesh: Fort save or suck/die. Failing the first save cuts off regular casting, failing the second shuts off everything else, including mental actions (such as SLAs. Sus, and powers.) Aside Touch range is a problem though.
Heal Injuries (C,S,N): Now that’s a Heal; 10 HP per PP is as good as it gets, rivaling the big guns on the divine side, and you can either burst it in a radius or selectively target members of your collective. You don’t get all the awesome debuff cleansing the divine casters get, but unlike them you can manifest this at range and automatically bypass your team’s SR.
Suspend Life (C,S): Other than hiding from stormtroopers or waiting for the plot to advance, I don’t really see a use for this; does anyone else? You certainly won’t need to prepare this daily. For whatever reason, you can put the entire party in stasis, but if you want to re-enact FF6 that badly just plane-shift somewhere with fast time instead.
Trigger Power: Contingency, which never hurts to have. Empathic Condition Relief and Cleanse Spirit are great to combo with this, among others.

7th level

Barred Mind, Personal: Personal Mind Blank. Not as powerful as it was in 3.5 but still a great buff; begin every day with it on.
Crisis of Life: Fort save or die. Why oh why don’t Vitalists also get Crisis of Breath?
Energy Conversion: As Energy Adaptation, but you can launch ray attacks with the energy you store up. One strategy is to grab Energy Wall for the omglazors combo, stand in it and store energy while healing, then fire off beams when your ministrations aren’t needed; this will also help keep melee creatures at a safe distance, or at least help you kill them if they don’t. A combo like this does mess around with your powers known.
Oak Body (C,S): You get a laundry list of immunities and defenses out of this, and can share it with the party. .If you expect the status conditions it prevents to be an issue, consider it.

8th level

Barred Mind (C): Manifestable over the collective. Extend this and prepare it every other day. Have the other manifesters in the party refund your PP too!
Bend Reality: Limited Wish = awesome! 8th-level = boo. Too versatile to pass up though.
Body of Iron (C,S): Another laundry list of immunities and significant physical power, that you can share with the party. The melee and possibly even the divine casters (well, maybe not the druid) will love you for this. Manifest it after initiative though. that ACP is a pain.
True Metabolism (C,S): Psionic Regeneration, basically. Fast Healing 10 is pretty handy, especially since you can cheaply spread the loving around via Collective Healing.

9th level

Affinity Field: Broken tricks aside, this might not be such a good idea. You spend a lot of time healing and this power does not discriminate friend from foe like your collective does. If you can keep enemies out of range and would rather not break the game, less egregious uses are things like sharing Hustle, Specified Energy Adaptation, Thicken Skin and Synesthete.
Assimilate: Certainly a flashy way to kill someone. Sadly, you only learn powers from completely absorbed individuals. The ability score bonuses are untyped, which is nice.
Fusion (C): Fuse - across your collective. At this level, your network is already planewide and getting close to interplanar, which could have some interesting implications for this power. (e.g.: where does the fused being appear?) Thus, this could be used as a form of precise teleportation or even interplanar travel. I expect errata on this one.
Anyway, for the power itself - the power you gain from pooling powers and PP can be potentially offset by the actions you give up, so be sure you have a good reason for using it.
Psychic Chirurgery: You repair psychic damage or impart knowledge of new powers. The first use is pretty similar to Cleanse Spirit,+Aura Alteration so you may want to use one of those instead.
The second use is more interesting - you can teach others powers that you know, even if those powers aren’t on their list. Watch the ability burn though, as it really makes this painful and locks you out of repeating that trick for awhile.
Regenerative Aura (N): This one’s a bit confusing. Fast Healing 25 for everyone standing near you is very good. (Strangely, the summary blurb states it’s capped at 250 while the text does not.) This one is also inexplicably lacking the Healing descriptor.
Timeless Body (C,S): Now this is a 9th; you can make the entire party almost completely invincible in 1.5-round bursts. It’s pricey to get this on the whole party in one go, but very worth it - say, when you’re all standing around filing your nails in the middle of a shadow dragon’s breath cone.

Non-Vitalist Powers (Under Construction)
Some powers work over your collective despite not being on your list. These are therefore potentially useful choices for Expanded Knowledge or Chirurgery and will be listed below. I’ll also list any powers that are just a good idea for Vitalists to spring for in general.

Astral Construct: ACs have wisdom scores, meaning they can be added to your collective. ACs are formidable teammates for a Vitalist; you can buff them (even several of them at once) in ways that no other manifester, not even a Shaper, is capable of, and their power scales with yours. Healing them requires some creativity on your part (e.g. you may have to be pre-emptive with temp HP, or rely on Fast Healing-style effects); even if you can't manage to do so efficiently, however, you can always remake them (or learn the appropriate power to repair them.)
Conceal Thoughts (C): Make someone more resistant to Sense Motive and mind-reading effects. It lasts a long time, so if you’re in that kind of campaign you can boost the face with it. Circumstance bonus, meaning it stacks with almost everything.
Dimension Swap (C,S): This is a must for every Vitalist. You have a longer range with it than any other class in the game, even able to swap across planes at higher levels.
Expansion (C,S): We all know how good this is, and you can share it with the party (though you’re probably better off just sharing it with the meatshields.)
Metaconcert (C): I could probably write a whole guide on this power but I’ll keep it short. Vitalists, again, have a much longer range with this than other manifesters do; whether the beams of light connecting you also travel that distance is up to the DM, but since the display can’t be hidden you could theoretically light a city up with this :smalltongue:. Anyway, one of the key benefits of this move (besides becoming a walking power artillery weapon) is the ability to distribute incoming damage among the concert members, which dovetails very nicely with the Vitalist’s ability to redistribute healing.
Mindlink (C): Handy right up until you get Telepathy, then pretty useless. If you do pick this up for some reason, reform it away once you no longer need it.
Time Hop, Mass (C): Has a thousand uses - the only real limit is your imagination. This is a great way to save someone from certain death too, as being shunted outside of time is one of the few ways to truly become untouchable in D&D. Just mind the long


Spells (Under Construction)
Lastly, there are a small number of spells that work over the collective. (As a reminder: must be willing/harmless, and greater than touch range.) For multiclass or gestalt vitalists, here they are:

Animal Shapes
Conceal Thoughts
Dweomer of Transference
Levitate
Rage
Telepathic Bond
Signifier’s Rally
Blood Rage
Bard’s Escape
Coordinated Effort
Getaway
Marionette Posession
Forest Friend
Litany of Escape
Telekinetic Charge

[Psyren]

Feats and Equipment

WIP

[Psyren]

Appendix

The Curative Conundrum (aka why Healing gets a bad rap in 3.x)

There exist numerous guides and discussions (this one (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871786/A_Players_Guide_to_Healing_%28And,_why_you_will_be _Just_Fine_without_a_Cleric_to_heal%29) is a notable example, but there are others) detailing the place of dedicated combat healing in 3.x. The general conclusion is that, barring emergencies, combat healing doesn’t really have a place in the group - or at least, that an entire class in the party is not needed to carry out this role. Worse, the 3.x system is structured such that having a dedicated healer can actually be detrimental to a party, primarily because it’s a role that can be done nearly as well with items.

Essentially, I identify three main reasons why healing classes typically don't work in 3.P: I’ll refer to them as Reach, Scale, and Tempo.

Reach:

“Reach” means the difficulty of actually landing a heal on your ally in need. The big problem here is that most heals (particularly the iconic “Cure X” line, but even powerhouses like Heal) are touch-range. Baseline, this means that you need to be close to your target to deliver timely succor - this could entail crossing the battlefield, dealing with terrain and crowd control (both your enemies’ and your allies’) and even if you managed not to provoke AoOs doing that, you still have to worry about casting the spell unmolested once you get there. Worse, if your ally is truly in danger chances are he can’t even disengage to come to you or meet you halfway - e.g he is grappled, unconscious, or simply might provoke a fatal AoO for attempting to leave his enemy’s threat range. There are ways to mitigate this problem - ranging from metamagic like Reach Spell, to protective spells like Sanctuary/Invisibility, to having proxies (e.g. a familiar) deliver the spells for you, and even short-range teleportation - but each of these options consumes resources that have an opportunity cost. For instance, Heal + Reach Spell consumes an 8th-level slot (9th if you’re a druid!), which are obviously very valuable, plus one of your limited feats. The utility you get from that heal would thus have to be at least equal to casting an 8th-level spell to be worthwhile.

I consider this the most minor issue of the three, but is still an issue. Having to move to land your heals presents an additional problem as well (see “Tempo” below.)

Scale:

This is the ability of healing to keep pace with incoming damage. In 3.x, damage scales much, much faster than HP; this is due to several reasons, such as precision/bonus damage, more boosts for damage than for healing (ability score modifier, weapon enhancement bonuses, feat-based increases like Power Attack and metamagic, etc.) and of course multiple/iterative attacks. Unfortunately for the healer, damage scales much faster than most curative magic too, particularly AoE damage. In addition, damage can crit while healing cannot, resulting in spikes that make the healer fall even further behind. Your allies should and do have other defenses, such as AC, miss chances and DR, but when your allies roll poorly or the DM rolls well they’ll often need some help to stay on their feet.

Very few heals provide power that is worth the expense of casting them. By “expense” I refer both to the monetary cost of storing these heals in item form (e.g. a healing potion), as well as the spell slot/PP cost of casting them directly.

Tempo:

As anyone reading this knows, D&D is a turn-based game. No matter what character class you play or what it can do, every class has a limited resource - time, which is represented in 3.x by actions. Success in D&D comes from making the most of the few actions you are given before the enemy’s turn comes around again.

How does this affect healing? Simply put, every action you spend curing someone is an action not spent killing the opponent. Neutralizing enemies ends encounters and prevents further loss of life/resources, whereas healing allies does not. This ties in to both the Reach and Scale problems - getting into position to land heals costs more actions, and the weakness of healing often means multiple actions spent keeping someone - or multiple someones - alive, vs. the relatively fewer action expenditure of ending the threat offensively.

Tempo is the primary reason that healing classes do not function well in 3.x; because most healing spells are so impractical to get off (and so ineffective even when you do get them off), the action that you spend casting them is often inferior to that same action had you used it to attack the enemy. All three weaknesses point to this one conclusion.

This is not to say that combat healing is not useful. Damage spikes happen; so do debuffs that must be removed for your party to function as they should. And while PCs are frequently inhuman, their players are not and thus make mistakes. Even the DM can make mistakes - pitting the players against something that is out of their league and/or has a special attack/defense that targets glaring weaknesses in the party (e.g. pitting a Shadow against a low-level party with no magic weapons.) Even mundane errors, like miscalculating the bad guy’s threat range, or granting an undeserved flanking bonus/AoO, can put the party in danger.

What can be done?
In order to circumvent the issues above, optimized parties often emphasize healing items, rather than healing classes, as being the primary source of relief. Items, after all, invalidate the Reach problem (I am always within range of myself) and assist with the Tempo problem (by using my own actions to heal myself, I’m freeing up the casters to keep summoning/fighting - this is often a better use of their powers than healing, particularly for T1 healers like Clerics and Druids.) And realistically, the opportunity cost of healing myself is minimal (provided the heal is effective), because the same action I use to pop a heal I would have lost anyway by being rendered unconscious.

However, even items are a minefield of traps that are in many cases far more expensive than the benefit they provide; this includes the vast majority of scrolls and potions, which provoke AoOs in addition to simply being overpriced. But even among parties that know the wonders of truly useful healing items like CLW wands, Healing Belts, Blessed Bandages and Amulets of Retributive Healing, you still have to contend with whether or not such items are available in your DM’s campaign world, or whether you will have the wealth to acquire them.

Even more importantly, however - relying on item-based healing does not account for the notion that some players quite simply enjoy being the healer. To those players, a formerly-wounded ally’s “thanks, you saved my bacon!” provides as much satisfaction as the rogue rolling all 6s, the Barbarian dissecting a cluster of goblins with one greataxe swing, or the wizard dominating the BBEG’s pet war troll. When the other players are crowing about confirming criticals or breaking the cult’s basement door down, the healer’s player is patiently asking that they not end up as pincushions this time, or could they kindly avoid inhaling gas from the bloated corpse in the corner of the room…

In short, healing is fun - so long as you aren’t forced into it by a group that doesn’t know any better, and thinks they need you to do it. But even if you DO have a group of friends like that, and are unable to convince them of the very salient points listed above - you may as well pick a class that is good at the job, and fun to boot.

So what makes a good healer? In a nutshell, it's a class that has ways to mitigate or eliminate the above issues. It needs a way to heal at range and/or move about the battlefield easily; it needs healing powers that can keep pace with incoming damage, and/or prevent further damage from landing, and it needs as many ways to heal outside of needing a standard or full-round action as possible, so as to maximize the group’s offensive impact. It needs to be able to heal with minimal impact on the party’s pocketbook, because if a class can heal well but is costly, this is little better than the party buying their own items and taking more offense. And naturally, it needs to be able to deal with various debuffs and status effects, through both mundane and magical means if possible. Good healers - like the Vitalist - have answers to the above problems built right into the class.

[Psyren]

Version History
11/11/11: Guide posted and renamed.
11/12/11: Various formatting improvements for readability. Guide renamed.
12/25/11: Updated intro and added ratings key.
01/06/12: Races section added.

[Curious]

Any news as to when PsiEx is going to be added to the SRD?

[Psyren]

Any news as to when PsiEx is going to be added to the SRD?

Not a clue, but I did include a link to the RPGnow preview in the first post so that you guys can follow along. (The whole thing is OGL anyway.)

It's possible they're waiting on all 6 serialized releases to be finished before uploading any of it. But if you don't want to wait, feel free to pre-order the whole book, it's definitely worth it :smallsmile: (You'll get the remaining three releases for no extra charge.)

[Fax Celestis]

Any news as to when PsiEx is going to be added to the SRD?

Generally, it's two weeks to a month after the release date. I dunno how quickly (if at all) it'll go onto DSP's own wiki.

[Curious]

Ah, thank you both then. My currency is a little restricted, so I think I'll just wait for a free release. :smallredface:

[Psyren]

Going to leave the office and finish uploading these at home.

[deuxhero]

Add "Handbook" (and/or "guide") to the title for ease of search/notice. I didn't realize it was one till I opened. If you can't edit the title, ask a mod.

[Psyren]

Add "Handbook" (and/or "guide") to the title for ease of search/notice. I didn't realize it was one till I opened. If you can't edit the title, ask a mod.

Didn't think of that to be honest... done.

I think all that's left are the sections that I could use suggestions for. (Items, feats, builds.) I'll probably throw some color coding into the power list too, though most of it is situational.

[deuxhero]

"Fuse - across your collective. At this level, your network is already planewide and getting close to interplanar, which could have some interesting implications for this power. (e.g.: where does the fused being appear?) Thus, this could be used as a form of precise teleportation or even interplanar travel. I expect errata on this one. "

Hmm... sounds like a cool BBEG trick.

[Kantolin]

Awesome, thank you for doing this! Although in the interest of ease of searching, you might want to change the title to this:



[PF] Mental Medicine: Psionic Healing through the Vitalist. (Vitalist Handbook)

Rather than 'A' handbook. ^_^

Still, this is already a handy resource - I'm building a couple vitalists and find your opinions on the matter invaluable. I'm also looking forward to feats - a few seem awesome (Swift Request Aid), but a few I'm up in the air about (Efficient request aid).

*Bookmarks*

[Psyren]

"Fuse - across your collective. At this level, your network is already planewide and getting close to interplanar, which could have some interesting implications for this power. (e.g.: where does the fused being appear?) Thus, this could be used as a form of precise teleportation or even interplanar travel. I expect errata on this one. "

Hmm... sounds like a cool BBEG trick.

Yes - and Vitalists, unlike most healing-focused classes, can easily be evil too.


Awesome, thank you for doing this!

You're welcome :smallsmile: and I changed the title again, hopefully this one is clearer.


Still, this is already a handy resource - I'm building a couple vitalists and find your opinions on the matter invaluable. I'm also looking forward to feats - a few seem awesome (Swift Request Aid), but a few I'm up in the air about (Efficient request aid).

Fast Aid is fantastic, especially if you have classes in the party (e.g. martial classes) that don't yet have a use for their swift action. Efficient is meh, though it does elevate RA beyond both Natural Healing and Body Adjustment in terms of PP/HP gained (unless you're a Mender that is.) But there are definitely far more important feats you should get before that one, like metapsionics.

I'm still working on the feats and items, but I'm definitely open to suggestions.

[Fax Celestis]

Does Mender's Expertise call out "as if modified by the Empower Power feat", or can you basically double-empower [Healing] powers with the Mender?

[Psyren]

Does Mender's Expertise call out "as if modified by the Empower Power feat", or can you basically double-empower [Healing] powers with the Mender?

Menders can indeed double-empower their heals by RAW. (It says +50% without mentioning EP at all.)

It seems to be RAI as well judging from Jeremy's posts. (He's mentioned the 50% that Menders get, but appears to have no plan to errata it.)

[Fax Celestis]

I just hope they do dromite racial subs for it the way they did for the society mind. Dromites are the best thought networkers.

[Psyren]

I just hope they do dromite racial subs for it the way they did for the society mind. Dromites are the best thought networkers.

Are there racial subs in Pathfinder? I think that's what the "Favored Class bonus" bit was meant to replace.

Anyway, they did :smallsmile: In Unlimited Possibilities, Vitalist is a favored class for Dromites - their Collective class feature progresses at 150% speed (+1/2 every level). This means that they can add more members more quickly, they get the plane-wide collective at 10 instead of 15 and the extraplanar collective at 13 instead of 19. I'm not sure if this applies to Telepathy and Health Sense though, and of course you have to give up the +1HP/PP/skill point to get it.

[Fax Celestis]

That is close enough. I ♥ me some dromites.

droooooooomiiiiiiiiiiiiites

[CommodoreCrunch]

Reading this guide has made me actually want to play a healer.

A while back I served as a semi-healer to my party. I was a Psion (telepath) and took EK for Empathic Transfer. When someone got in trouble, I'd transfer their hurt to me, then use the Hostile version of that power to shunt it into some mook. I quickly ended up being a tank, relying almost entirely on ETH for my damage output. It was, combined with the telepath mind-****ery, the most fun I've ever had as a psionic character.

Vitalist looks like it would be even more fun, especially soulthief. Tank the hell out of combats, healing where needed and shunting pain when low on heath. So I must thank you for making this guide. I probably would not have known about this book if I hadn't seen this.

[deuxhero]

snip

Looks like you messed up quoting...

[Akal Saris]

Thanks for making this Psyren! Very nicely designed like your last guide, and Vitalist looks like a lot of fun to play =)

[Psyren]

Looks like you messed up quoting...

Apologies


Thanks for making this Psyren! Very nicely designed like your last guide, and Vitalist looks like a lot of fun to play =)

You're welcome :smallsmile:

I'm still open to feat and item suggestions, especially stuff that hasn't been updated to PF yet. multiclass and PrC suggestions are welcome as well. (It's hard for me to justify giving up that planar collective for anything though.)

[Akal Saris]

I'll poke around and see if I can find anything worthwhile for vitalists. Offhand I suspect the Magic Item Compendium would be a good place to start, since PF has a ways to go before its magic items list is extensive enough to find good bargains in every slot.

As for multiclassing, I think a lot depends on the length of the game and the nature of the campaign. Planar Collective is awesome, but only if you ever get to L19, and most games don't. Ditto if the game for some reason doesn't have much planar travel or the party never splits up across planes.

Thrallherd would probably be a really fun pick - you'd gain X new members to your collective, and can eventally sense various things related to them anywhere in the world.

Weird build: Vitalist 1/Druid 19, summoning focused. Use lots of network-affected buffs and heals to make your animal growth'd horde tear through opponents even more effectively than ever!

[APersonAmI]

Thanks for this guide! The Vitalist is a class I, myself, am very interested in, partly because of how fun healing can be if it is any good, but mostly because it's a PF manifesting class Duergars are good, nay, excellent at. I like Duergars. Especially with that alternate racial feature that means they don't sleep, and spend literally all their time singing lullabies for That Which Lies Beneath. Vitalisty even gives Telepathy, which means my Duergar will never have to interrupt his chanting!

Power I consider worth spending a feat on:
Intellect Fortress. Seriously. I was really disappointed when I realized this wasn't on the Vitalist power list. I love this thing.

[talanhawke]

I know you've already been thanked, but I would like to add my enthusiastic praise into the mix. This is EXACTLY what I needed to convert my 4E psionic healer (game mechanic-wise, he was "posing" as a cleric) into Pathfinder. You rock :)

[Roxxy]

Do you know when the print version of PsyEx comes out?

[Psyren]

Do you know when the print version of PsyEx comes out?

No, but there are only two sub-releases left (the skillmonkey book and the leader one that has auras.) So it shouldn't be too much longer.

[sreservoir]

so basically like spirit shaman mechanism for powers known? less spells than an equivalent-level spontaneous caster (ignoring that wilder PK kind of really sucks!), but changed daily?

[Psyren]

so basically like spirit shaman mechanism for powers known? less spells than an equivalent-level spontaneous caster (ignoring that wilder PK kind of really sucks!), but changed daily?

You know, I had forgotten that mechanic. Yes, it's a lot like the Spirit Shaman's spell retrieval - you can access your whole list but only know a portion of it each day. I may update that section with the closer analogy to make it a bit clearer to grasp for newer players.


However, there are still key differences:

- Spirit Shamans cannot apply metamagic on the fly (they must retrieve a metamagicked version of the spells by applying the feat(s) in advance, adjusting the slot they use to call it accordingly.) Meanwhile, Vitalists can retrieve a power and then choose which metapsionics to apply to it when they manifest it, just as a Psion can.

- Spirit Shaman spells retrieved are very compartmentalized: At level X, you can retrieve Y spells of level A, Z spells of level B etc. Vitalists meanwhile have a lot more freedom. A 17th-level vitalist could, if she wanted, fill all 10 "slots" with 9th-level powers and have no lower-level ones.

- Vitalists, like all manifesters, get a lot more mileage out of low-level powers than casters do out of low-level spells. Augmentation means that certain effects which are spread out in magic, get consolidated in psionics. For instance, a Spirit Shaman who wanted different levels of curing and restoration would have to spend spend multiple slots getting all the versions he wanted (Mass Cure Light Wounds, Lesser Restoration etc.) while the Vitalist would only need two, and even be able to rely on his collective to provide "Mass" versions of many spells.

[sreservoir]

and spirit shamans get up to 3/spell level, vitalists get closer to 1/spell level! with augmentation and metaeffects, it comes out to about the same ;)

[rcsob657]

I do not know if you have posted about it yet, but the best part of the Vitalist is the non-wasted healing and group buffs.


I asked and was told on Dreamscarred Press' forums by the book author that as an example, if you were a 5th lvl vitalist in a group/party of 6. Your cleric channeled positive energy to heal, and all 6 of you happened to be BOTH in the area to get healing AND in the Vitalist's collective, then you as that vitalist could take all the healing from the 6 of you that no one needs and pump that into whomever does need the healing.

In other words. You have 1 fighter who is at 1/70 HP. He is the only one wounded (or the only one you want healed in the party). You cleric channels and rolls a 10 on his dice. Instead of that fighter getting healed to 11 and all other party members getting 10 wasted because they are at max HP, you as a vitalist as a free action (and with your party's permission) can transfer via the collective ALL 60 HP of that into that fighter to get him to 60/70 HP. That imo is the single most powerful thing the Vitalist has going for it, and that is what made me want to play a battle healer. I have always played (in 3.5) the battle cleric/killing-spellcasting machine and hated in combat healing because it was less efficient than killing the monsters first or preventing damage all together.

Another question I asked for clarification and was told again by the author of the book.

As an example, a 5th lvl vitalist uses 1 PP to cast vigor on himself. He can take that temp hp or spend 1 PP per person to give himself AND those other collective members temp hp. This ALSO works as (and I was specific about asking this) if that same vitalist spends 4 pp manifesting the augmented Vigor, he can spend the remaining 1 PP he can legally spend with that power and give that same 4th ML vigor temp hp to one other person, or ANY other combination of the two as long as he does not go over the PP per manifestation limit.




I wish to the mighty imaginary Pelor himself that this class was in core Pathfinder. I would be playing it nearly exclusively.

[Roncorps]

@rcsob657

And would that work if let's say the Vitalist is not in the cleric channeling and one of the character is not too ?

Ex. Cleric heal 3 characters for 10 each, but another is 50 feet away and don't receive any healing. Could the Vitalist be used like a "link" and use is collective ability (range 100ft +10 ft per level) to heal the one not in the range of the channeling ?


Cleric -- X1/X2/X3 -------------- Vitalist (too far) ------------------- X4

[CTrees]

Sanity check here...

Take a vitalist with a psicrystal. The vitalists collective includes his party and his psicrystal. Vitalist manifests Natural Healing, sharing with his psicrystal. Can the vitalist really then redirect both of those instances of healing somewhere else in the collective, effectively doubling his hp healed per pp spent?

Granted Spirit of the Many makes the increase in efficiency a little less extreme, but that still seems like a decent trick for the healing powers.

[rcsob657]

Yes, that vitalist can skip it to the last guy in the line of your example. Obviously he will only get the HP from valid targets, meaning the cleric and the people within range from the channel.

[JoeYounger]

Sanity check here...

Take a vitalist with a psicrystal. The vitalists collective includes his party and his psicrystal. Vitalist manifests Natural Healing, sharing with his psicrystal. Can the vitalist really then redirect both of those instances of healing somewhere else in the collective, effectively doubling his hp healed per pp spent?

Granted Spirit of the Many makes the increase in efficiency a little less extreme, but that still seems like a decent trick for the healing powers.

Yes, he could, but that's not too impressive. It's still only 6 hp per pp spent. What gets cra-cray is when you're sharing a Heal Injuries with your lil pal and now you're getting 20 hp/1 pp spent. Either way, I don't expect it to be much of a difference except in saving a lil bit of resources and a lil bit of time. The vitalist is more than capable of keeping people up thru a fight unless they're taking huge spike dmg.

[Bacris]

Hey folks - was checking this forum as I occasionally do and saw this awesome thread.

I also saw a few folks ask about the full / print version of PsiEx.

First - the full PDF is due out next month. There's roughly 20 pages left to finish out of 216.

Second - the print version is due out in August, ideally in time for GenCon and available for purchase there.

Otherwise, love what I'm seeing in this thread! Having played a vitalist (mender method), they're a lot more fun than the healer clerics I've played in the past.

[Bacris]

Yes, he could, but that's not too impressive. It's still only 6 hp per pp spent. What gets cra-cray is when you're sharing a Heal Injuries with your lil pal and now you're getting 20 hp/1 pp spent. Either way, I don't expect it to be much of a difference except in saving a lil bit of resources and a lil bit of time. The vitalist is more than capable of keeping people up thru a fight unless they're taking huge spike dmg.

RAW, I'm not sure this works.

Unlike Vigor / Share Pain, this is trying to actively share healing. Psicrystals are constructs, which usually cannot be affected by healing.

I'll have to think more on it.

[Psyren]

Hey folks - was checking this forum as I occasionally do and saw this awesome thread.

I also saw a few folks ask about the full / print version of PsiEx.

First - the full PDF is due out next month. There's roughly 20 pages left to finish out of 216.

Second - the print version is due out in August, ideally in time for GenCon and available for purchase there.

Otherwise, love what I'm seeing in this thread! Having played a vitalist (mender method), they're a lot more fun than the healer clerics I've played in the past.

Thanks for popping in again Jeremy - if there's any errata I missed in the guide, please feel free to let me know.

And I'll definitely be picking up the full PsiEx PDF :smallsmile:

[JoeYounger]

RAW, I'm not sure this works.

Unlike Vigor / Share Pain, this is trying to actively share healing. Psicrystals are constructs, which usually cannot be affected by healing.

I'll have to think more on it.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I was thinking that constructs being able to be healed was a 3.5 thing.


A construct possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry).
• No Constitution score. Any DCs or other statistics that rely on a Constitution score treat a construct as having a score of 10 (no bonus or penalty).
• Low-light vision.
• Darkvision 60 feet.
• Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
• Immunity to bleed, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.
• Cannot heal damage on its own, but often can be repaired via exposure to a certain kind of effect (see the creature's description for details) or through the use of the Craft Construct feat. Constructs can also be healed through spells such as make whole. A construct with the fast healing special quality still benefits from that quality.
• Not subject to ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, or nonlethal damage.
• Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
• Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
• A construct cannot be raised or resurrected.
• A construct is hard to destroy, and gains bonus hit points based on size, as shown on the following table.
• Proficient with its natural weapons only, unless generally humanoid in form, in which case proficient with any weapon mentioned in its entry.
• Proficient with no armor.
• Constructs do not breathe, eat, or sleep.

It looks like it was constructs immunity to magic that made them immune to heal, not the fact that they were constructs.

The more I've been thinking about it, I think this might be a bit much. It just seems silly for any class to be able to invest in two feats to literally double their effectiveness at their primary job.

EDIT disregard, the psicrystal specifically states that it cannot be healed. =/ I'm not doing well this morning. lol

[Taenia]

I was curious about why psycrystals cannot be healed. I know under psycrystal it says "It cannot heal damage, but it can be repaired." Does that mean it can't heal damage AT ALL? or heal damage naturally? I wasn't sure on this myself.

Also I am getting to try this class out for the first time in a campaign. I made my vitalist a warforged. There is nothing like a robot asking if you want to join his collective to spawn humor.

[Taenia]

I was also curious what feats do you recommend. I think fast aid at 7th is really nice (we are starting at 6th). I took weapon finesse because he has a higher dex than str. I grabbed a psycrystal but thats it for now. I imagine EK to be a great one too,

[Belkar Disciple]

At 7th level grab Expanded Knowledge(Metamorphosis) so you can have Fast Healing 2 for seven minutes. During those seven minutes, move the healing from yourself to you party if they need it. :smallsmile:

[Kantolin]

I must say that I'm sad about the new dromite favored ability, as I agree with you - it definitely seems less than useful in most cases. I guess you could build a party that was numerous enough to merit it, but the early access to planar and interplanar effects was really the gem of the favored class option. Now, I'd almost certainly go for the power points instead. Poor bug-men.

Mend body and some of the others are existent now, though. I'm particularly curious about that one's overall worth (particularly to a mender with their +50%).

Also! It may help to list some neat powers that are interesting with unwilling participant - such as fusion. :P

[Psyren]

I must say that I'm sad about the new dromite favored ability, as I agree with you - it definitely seems less than useful in most cases. I guess you could build a party that was numerous enough to merit it, but the early access to planar and interplanar effects was really the gem of the favored class option. Now, I'd almost certainly go for the power points instead. Poor bug-men.

Mend body and some of the others are existent now, though. I'm particularly curious about that one's overall worth (particularly to a mender with their +50%).

Also! It may help to list some neat powers that are interesting with unwilling participant - such as fusion. :P

Shhhhhh! This wasn't supposed to be bumped yet, I'm still updating!

*Runs through the building throwing up construction signs*

EDIT: Mend Body is okay (and far, far better than the horribad Body Adjustment), but Heal Injuries still gives the greatest output per PP.

[stack]

Combo suggestion - using ectoplasmic cocoon in conjunction with unwilling participant and life leech. You can still drain them even without line of effect, so an enemy turns into an HP battery.

When you do the feat section, redirect power (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/feats/redirect-power-metapsionic)is worth a mention too. The extra chance to knock SOMETHING prone/staggered/nauseous at the cost of your focus is nice. Same for any other save negates power. I like it over burns focus and a feat for +1 dc (psionic endowment).

[stack]

Also, for sadists getting temp PP, bestow power seems like a good choice for expanded knowledge to recharge real PP that might expire before the next fight.

(I can also see a high-level villain having a bunch of high-HD creatures kept in its collective on the brink of death, safely stowed far away, to be killed by minions to recharge him in a big fight :smallbiggrin: Obviously requires the network range = plane ability)

[Person_Man]

Query: Doesn't the presence of Psychic Reformation, Bend Reality, and the Expanded Knowledge Feat (which allows them to access any psionic power) push them up to Tier 2? Or was every Tier 1-2 Pathfinder Psionic Power brought down to Tier 3 range?

[Psyren]

@ stack: I do have several updates planned for the guide. But with Ultimate Psionics dropping in the next 30 days or so, my plan is to wait for that (as it contains errata and all kinds of lovely new toys) and then do larger updates to both this and my Soulknife guide when that happens. As such, my focus right now is my Occultist handbook.

@ Person_Man: That's a tough question. Psions themselves are just barely hanging onto T2 (thanks largely to action economy) but only by a fingernail - many of their old tricks, loops and exploits were excised from the new system, and many more didn't carry over at all. Vitalists have an even harder time accessing the little that remains. And Psionics of course still has the same limitations of no summoning, no illusions, no necromancy etc. JaronK may use different criteria but what I can see pegs them at T3.

Bend Reality is powerful but I don't think it can make a class T2 by itself, and they get it two levels late besides.

[shukuga]

Do you think it's worthwhile to network inevitable strike? It's a bit steep on the overall cost:
2 feats (Expanded knowledge: inevitable strike, Network power)
5+extra targets pp
Standard action and focus (or swift and focus)

For +20 to hit on each target's next attack and ignore concealment (or +5 to hit using a swift/focus cost) for multiple collective members. It could be used by level 5 without overchannel.

[JusticeZero]

I haven't really seen any Miasmist builds yet, but it seems as though there should be some really interesting things that one can do. Have you heard of any other builds besides the usual Mender or Sadist/Lifeleech/Soulthief ones?

[The Random NPC]

Since it's kind of big, I wanted to point out that the Mender's pulse is no longer eligible for redirection. Now the only method that can redirect its healing is the Soulthief, and that requires you to hit your opponent.

[Phlinn]

I think you overlooked the single most abusive factor in spirit of many, the ability to copy any network power onto additional targets.

Consider natural healing manifested by a 9th level vitalist. Spend 5 points on the base power for 15 points of healing, then mender tricks to spread it to 4 addtional targets for a total of 5. That's 75 points of healing, for 9 power points, which you can actually assign however you want to members of your collective. It gets worse from there. Dues to the multiplicative augments, natural healing is very difficult to beat with later heals. At level 11, heal injuries can't complete. Heal injuries pulls ahead after a couple of levels, due to better base scaling.

Similarly, giving all melee collective members animal affinity and expansion makes for some rediculously effective buffing.

[pensworth]

I have a question? Because of the wording does the soulthief's swift aid ability for the life leech not work? Because it says "A soulthief of 8th level may, as an immediate action and by expending his psionic focus, transfer the wounds of a member of his collective to an enemy within 15 ft. of the ally for an amount of damage equal to the soulthief's transfer wounds ability. A successful Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Wisdom modifier) negates the effect."

[deuxhero]

So what exactly stops you from adding a Augur, Ceru, Arbiter, Cacodaemon, Imp, Mephit, Nycar, Quasit, Shikigami, Spirit Oni, Tripurasura or Voidworm familiar to your collective, whack it with a sap and healing up everyone before letting it fully recover? Augur explicitly likes carnage and even practices self mutilation (!) so its an out if the GM adds consequences to "abusing" a familiar (though you need to be evil...).

This can actually be combined with another dirty familiar trick: Take one with regeneration (Augur and Arbiter) and give it a wand of Shield Other. Not only does any target of the spell (and you can use multiple charge) take half damage, the rest go to a bottomless pool of the undying familiar (you can stop it from getting hit by putting it in something, it doesn't need to breath and if its your gear it can still target you) which then lets its fast healing part kick in and you can redirect that to whoever took the damage. Since you have to have Psionics in play to be a vitalist you can take it further and potentially even get a psychic reformation on an Augur to change its 2 feats into Endurance (or extra traits+adopted+boar resilience+whatever, however little sense that makes)+Diehard and have it keep using wands on you when its at negative infinity HP

Neither of these require it be your familiar (though it's certainly possible to afford a trait that gives a scaling SLA, skill focus, Eldritch Heritage and Improved Familiar as a vitalist), but its clearly worth noting

[JusticeZero]

That was actually brought up awhile back. The ways to prevent that are a bit arcane, and furthermore, it's hazy exactly why out of combat healing being available free is even a major issue; it's a relatively minor GP sink to replace, after all.

[deuxhero]

Alright. I think Paizo agrees, as I forgot there were the Boots of the Earth now too.

Question:

Soulthief's Soulthief's Expertise says

In addition, any time a soulthief manifests a power or psi-like ability that deals hit point damage

Does this mean that the recovery is once per manifesting, or is Energy Current able to heal a buttload?

[Psyren]

It would probably continue to heal as long as you're doing damage, but only based on the target that took the most.

It sounds like a lot (and it's certainly efficient from a PP standpoint) but there are ways to burst heal much higher.

[deuxhero]

How about on the damage (particularly when paired with Solicit Psycrystal)? Are there better blasting options?

[Psyren]

How about on the damage (particularly when paired with Solicit Psycrystal)? Are there better blasting options?

It does d6/level each round, much like any other blast you could be doing. The DPM is great since you don't have to keep spending power points, but like I said, you can burst higher if taking something down fast is more important.

With Solicit it works great, but with the range so short and your psicrystal unable to move, you will have to stay pretty close to the enemies to keep it going, which could be dangerous for both of you (though VSP tricks minimize that risk.) This is indeed a good power for solicit though.

Another trick is for you to manifest it on yourself, have your psicrystal take over control of it, and use Energy Conversion (shared with your psicrystal to protect it from the radius) to zap enemies with lasers. This way you can shoot enemies every round without the associated saving throws.

[Flesh_Engine]

Your mention of the Astral Construct being able to partake in the Collective got me thinking;
Vitalist Sadist + Expanded Knowledge(Astral Construct), put the AC in your collective then when it dies you'll regain a portion of its cost as temp PP (TPP), breaking even at ML 13 and making a 'profit' from there (2 Tpp at most).

Apart from that, they can be used as fuel for Empowered in Pain, and provide some additional healing since they can take Fast Healing 2 as a Menu option at ML 7 (which could take the edge off using Overchannel to crank up your ML and save a feat).

If you use Echoing Power you could gain some TPP to (re)fill your Cognizance Crystals. (Starting lvl 13 you can Echo Astract Construct for 13 PP, creating a lvl 5 AC with 7 HD, gaining you 14 tPP in total, which you pump into the Crystals, netting a +1 each time)
This effectively means that you can replenish your Cognizance Crystals for free each day by standing around while healing the party through the AC's Fast Healing. Keep in mind that the Crystal's capacity also dictates what power you could manifest by paying from it's pool. (due to the partial paying rule) If the tPP would fade too fast due to reduced wisdom or whatever, just dismiss the AC the round after you summoned it, "killing" it and reaping the succulent tPP :)
If you use Overchannel and/or Akashic Augmentation then you could do it earlier...

The downsides are that manifesting AC takes a round and then you'd still need to add them in the collective( and you'll need large expensive Cognizance Crystals to make the most of it) and you'll need some way apart from healing to unload the 400+ PP you'll be moving around each day...

The feat "Akashic Augmentation" from Akashic Mysteries (DSP) can shave off 1 PP from each augmented power, which could end up saving a lot of PP for the Vitalist over the course of one day, regardless his focus.

[talonos]

Question:


Whenever a willing member of the vitalist's collective could regain lost hit points or ability damage, the vitalist may choose to redirect any or all of that healing to one or more other willing members of the collective as a free action.

Nothing that I have read suggests that you can take any free actions besides speaking when it is not your turn.

Does this mean a vitalist cannot use collective healing to transfer other people's healing effects? Like, if I drink a potion, I can transfer the healing to my friends because it's my turn and I can therefore use free actions, but if my friend drinks a potion I cannot assign it to me without having either him or I delay an action to do so?

I just noticed this yesterday. It kinda breaks the vitalist for me if it's true. :(

[Psyren]

Question:



Nothing that I have read suggests that you can take any free actions besides speaking when it is not your turn.

Does this mean a vitalist cannot use collective healing to transfer other people's healing effects? Like, if I drink a potion, I can transfer the healing to my friends because it's my turn and I can therefore use free actions, but if my friend drinks a potion I cannot assign it to me without having either him or I delay an action to do so?

I just noticed this yesterday. It kinda breaks the vitalist for me if it's true. :(

There's a Dreamscarred FAQ thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?420178-Pathfinder-Dreamscarred-Press-FAQ) where the designers are clarifying their intent on things like this, I'd try asking for a FAQ there.

I will point out that Ultimate Psionics made their intent pretty clear in the example text. Ultimate Psionics 71:


Example: Darius the soulknife is a willing member of Jorus the vitalist’s collective. He drinks a potion of cure light wounds that would normally heal him for 6 hit points, but Jorus decides to redirect 4 of those points to himself. Darius agrees and, as a result, Darius is healed for 2 hit points, and Jorus is healed for 4. If there were more members in Jorus’s collective, Jorus could spread the healing from that potion out even more as long as the sum of hit points healed was no greater than 6.

The example happens during Darius' turn (the soulknife), yet Jorus (the vitalist) is still able to use the redirect ability. So while the wording is wonky, they pretty clearly intended you (the vitalist) to be able to use this when it's not your turn. Show your GM that text and they'll hopefully agree.

[talonos]

The example happens during Darius' turn (the soulknife), yet Jorus (the vitalist) is still able to use the redirect ability. So while the wording is wonky, they pretty clearly intended you (the vitalist) to be able to use this when it's not your turn.

Doip. Clear intent is clear.

Thanks a ton!

[Valerem]

Sorry for the bump, but might I know if there's any plans to update this? Not only is there Ultimate Psionics which has been out for a while, but you have powers missing that are up on the SRD. Not to mention the rather glaring hole of no feats or equipment. Which is pretty important to have in all honestly. Stuff like Boots of Earth, for infinite out of combat healing for everyone in your collective for exactly. As well as what feats can pick up your healing or utility.

Plus, adding in a colour code would make the guide a lot easier to read, at least imo... there's a reason why most guides have one.

[MilleniaAntares]

Here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uxi_aarthA4uR8xjJBsQLElBP03KVblicAC_2jpp0eo/edit#gid=0) is a Google sheet I have begun that shows how much healing a vitalist can do. This is not comprehensive at all, but it should be able to show just the optimal combination to use each power, depending on the amount of power points and targets in the collective.

The cells marked green at the most optimal for that particular power at that amount of PP. Of note is that Natural Healing is better than Body Adjustment and Mend Body in most circumstances, though Body Adjust is superior at particular points when using Maximize Power.

Feedback is appreciated, be it here, in private message, or on the sheet itself!

[Vrath]

Feats and Equipment

WIP

First of all I love your guide, +9000 awesomesauce ... I'm making my first Vitalist now joining a very large in progress game at level 15 and the Shared Power feat just blew my mind with possibilities.