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NeoSeraphi
2012-01-12, 03:10 PM
The Alternate Psion

Alignment: Any
HD: d4
Class Skills: The psion's class skills are Concentration, Craft, Knowledge (All skills, taken individually), Profession and Psicraft. Psions also gain class skills based on their chosen discipline.
Skill Points Per Level: 2+Int modifier

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Powers Known|Psionic Focuses Per Day

1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Wild Talent, Discipline, Natural Psychic |3|1

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3||4|1

3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3||5|1

4th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Quick Recovery 1/day|6|2

5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Bonus Feat|7|2

6th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Psychic Retraining|8|3

7th|+3|+2|+2|+5||9|3

8th|+4|+2|+2|+6|Quick Recovery 2/day|10|4

9th|+4|+3|+3|+6||11|4

10th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Bonus Feat|12|5

11th|+5|+3|+3|+7||13|5

12th|+6/+1|+4|+4|+8|Quick Recovery 3/day|14|6

13th|+6/+1|+4|+4|+8||15|6

14th|+7/+2|+4|+4|+9||16|7

15th|+7/+2|+5|+5|+9|Bonus Feat|17|7

16th|+8/+3|+5|+5|+10|Quick Recovery 4/day|18|8

17th|+8/+3|+5|+5|+10||19|8

18th|+9/+4|+6|+6|+11||20|9

19th|+9/+4|+6|+6|+11||21|9

20th|+10/+5|+6|+6|+12|Bonus Feat, Quick Recovery 5/day|22|10
[/table]

Class Feature:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Psions are proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, quarterstaff, and shortspear. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield.

Discipline: Every psion must decide at 1st level which psionic discipline he will specialize in. Choosing a discipline provides a psion with access to the class skills associated with that discipline, as well as the powers restricted to that discipline. However, choosing a discipline also means that the psion cannot learn powers that are restricted to other disciplines. He can’t even use such powers by employing psionic items.

Powers Known: A psion begins play with knowledge of 3 1st level powers. At each level after that, he learns one additional power, of any level that his class would allow him to manifest. This alternate psion has a maximum level of powers known equivalent to the SRD psion. To learn a power, a psion needs a minimum Intelligence score of 10+the power level.

At 4th level, and every even level after that, a psion may exchange one of his powers known for any other power that he has access to. For example, a 12th level psion could lose the ability to manifest vigor, and instead learn the 6th level power psionic overland flight.

Wild Talent (Ex): At 1st level, a psion gains the Wild Talent feat as a bonus feat.

Natural Psychic (Ps): A psion is not a manifester. Instead, he is able to study and learn psychic techniques, and then mimic them with his psionic focus. In addition to the single psionic focus that any character with power points can have, a psion can take on additional psionic foca during the day. The number of additional foca the psion can have is listed in the table above. Once per day per additional foca, the psion may fill one of his foca with knowledge of any power he knows, and for the rest of the day, the psion may expend that focus to manifest that power as a psi-like ability, with a manifester level equal to his class level.

Recovering the focus does not use up one of his daily training abilities, but that focus comes back with the same power it had originally, until the psion retrains it the next day. Recovering one of these special foca is different than recovering a normal psionic focus, it requires only a swift action on the psion's part and does not require a Concentration check or provoke an attack of opportunity.

The psion must wait one round per level of the power he manifested in order to attempt recovering that focus (for example, if the psion manifested reality revision as a psi-like ability, he would need to wait 9 rounds before he could attempt to recover the focus that held reality revision).

A psion may not prepare the same power in more than one of his extra foca. He may not use his normal psionic focus to store a psionic power. The DC for the psion's psi-like abilities is 10+the power's level+the psion's Intelligence modifier. As with all psi-like abilities, the psion's psi-like abilities will augment themselves as much as they can automatically, as high as his manifester level will allow without requiring any extra power points.

There is a limit on the number of powers of the same level a psion may prepare per day, in addition to the number of foca he has. That limit is the highest power level the psion is able to learn+1-the power's level. (So an 18th level psion could prepare up to 9 different 1st level powers, up to 8 different 2nd level powers, up to 7 different 3rd level powers, and so on, and up to 1 9th level power, while a 4th level psion could have 1 2nd level power and 1 1st level power, or 2 1st level powers). He is still limited to the number of foca he has available)

A psion may not manifest psi-like abilities with the (Creation) subschool, nor may he manifest psi-like abilities with an expensive material component cost. A psion who wishes to manifest a psi-like ability with an XP cost must pay the full XP cost every time he manifests the psi-like ability.

After 8 hours of rest, a psion's foca are all emptied and he may prepare new powers in them (or the same ones he had before, if he wishes). Preparing powers in foca requires no Concentration check (he automatically becomes focused the first time for each focus, each day) and takes one hour of uninterrupted concentration, no matter how many foca he has.

Quick Recovery (Su): Beginning at 4th level, once per day, a psion may immediately recover an expended psionic focus as a swift action. When using this ability, the psion may ignore the normal cooldown time of his powers, allowing him to instantly recover them regardless of their power level. A psion may use the Quick Recovery feature one additional time per day at 8th level, and every 4 levels after, to a maximum of 5 times per day at 20th level.

Bonus Feat (Ex): At 5th level, and every 5 levels afterward, a psion gains a bonus feat. This must be a psionic feat or the Skill Focus (Concentration) feat. A psion must meet all prerequisites for his bonus feats.

Psychic Retraining (Su): Starting at 6th level, once per day a psion may spend 10 minutes in quiet reflection and may empty all of his psionic foca, then replace them with whatever powers he knows, following the same rules as if he had just woken up from 8 hours of rest. This ability requires a DC 30 Concentration check, and if the psion fails, he resets his foca to contain the powers they held before he attempted, and he may not try again. If the psion takes damage or fails a saving throw against an ability with the [sonic] descriptor during these 10 minutes, he automatically loses concentration and it is treated as if he failed his check (he gets his old powers back and may not try again until tomorrow)

Arctura42
2012-01-12, 04:37 PM
I very much like this idea, its an interesting change to the psion that lets him be effective at all times, but makes it more difficult to cast spells. I very much like that direction as it levels the playing field slightly.

It would be nice if there were a feat or a class ability that let him spend some time to retrain one of his foci to a different power without resting, and perhaps a more advanced ability that let him do the same thing, but 1/day and as a swift action (though rather unnecessary really - just something to enable retraining a couple times per day would be more than sufficient).

Bestow power may or may not be an issue, particularly with psionic allies who actually use power points as they won't run out and your role in the party basically devolves into recharging their batteries, which, while optimal, is rather boring. Temporal acceleration may be problematic considering the waiting mechanic. Metaconcert could be an issue - though if you simply don't supply any power points (or just the 2 you start with from wild talent) then most of the issues go away assuming the metaconcert entity uses power points.

Also wanted to know why there's a limit on powers/power level equal to 10-power level and not equal to "highest power you can cast+1" - power level. The former is not felt before 11th at all, but with the powers known progression, the latter would make learning, say, a second 5th level power worse than learning a second 4th level power at that level as you would be able to use it more often, and then could trade it out for something else at a later level.

That's all I've got to say for the time being. Looks great thus far!

NeoSeraphi
2012-01-12, 04:48 PM
True. Highest Power Level +1 is better than 10. I'll change it.

Well, I guess there's nothing wrong with adding Retraining to the actual class, seeing as the bonus feats no longer give you psionic item creation or metapsionic options.

The psion does not gain any power points from this class other than the 2 from Wild Talent, so metaconcert would be pretty useless, it would only serve to give your powers known to the other manifesters, since you can't manifest powers you haven't prepared and you don't use power points.

Bestow power could be useful, but you can only manifest it once every 3 rounds (2 rounds wait time, then a full-round action to recover psionic focus), making it helpful out of combat and useful in a pinch once per encounter. Still, that's assuming you're playing a game where you're using an alternate psion and someone else is using a normal psionic character (In which case, your DM would most likely ban bestow power for you)

NeoSeraphi
2012-01-12, 04:57 PM
Added Quick Recovery and Psychic Retraining.

Seerow
2012-01-12, 05:01 PM
1) I feel like the class could use a much faster powers known progression than the traditional psion, given that it has to prepare its powers in advance.

2) How are augmentations handled? When you say 3rd level power, do you mean 5pp power, or an actual 3rd level power? If you mean 5pp, does this mean that a power can never be prepared as more than 17pp? If you mean 3rd level, then why have the restriction on levels at all, given that a 20pp 1st level power is in theory the same as a 20pp 9th level power? This whole section feels like it was written with wizard style spells in mind rather than psionic powers, and definitely needs more clarification and polish

3) How do you handle metapsionic feats? Do you have to prepare them as a part of the focus, or do you do it spontaneously? Do you have to expend a second psionic focus to make the metapsionic feats work, or is that restriction waived for this class?

4) Can the Psion get something to make recovering a psionic focus faster? Particularly at low level, this class will get 1 action, then have to spend a full round doing nothing to get a second action. It isn't until about 6th level that you don't feel like you have to spend half the combat doing nothing but recharging. You already have the longer cooldown before you can recharge higher level spells. But a psion should be able to have something like a level 1 energy blast power he can spam while waiting on other stuff to come available.



edit: Got ninjad several times over apparently.

Edit2: Okay the Quick Recovery is a bit weaker than what I was thinking. Things still suck for 4 levels, and it's a /day ability rather than at will. The psion's going to be spending a lot of time doing nothing even with that.

Edit3: And Psychic Retraining does remove my argument for extra powers known. It only needs/can use more powers known if it gets locked in for the day. With the ability to change out powers, a smaller number of powers is more appropriate.

NeoSeraphi
2012-01-12, 05:08 PM
1) I feel like the class could use a much faster powers known progression than the traditional psion, given that it has to prepare its powers in advance.

Why? This class is a lot like the spirit shaman from Complete Divine, and that class doesn't get faster progression than a druid.



2) How are augmentations handled? When you say 3rd level power, do you mean 5pp power, or an actual 3rd level power? If you mean 5pp, does this mean that a power can never be prepared as more than 17pp? If you mean 3rd level, then why have the restriction on levels at all, given that a 20pp 1st level power is in theory the same as a 20pp 9th level power? This whole section feels like it was written with wizard style spells in mind rather than psionic powers, and definitely needs more clarification and polish


A psi-like ability is automatically augmented as high as the manifester level would allow, meaning that a 1st level psi-like ability spends as many as 20 "pp" on the power if it is manifested by a 20th level manifester.

You do have a point about the restrictions on levels, but there is still certainly a difference between a 20d6 energy ray and greater metamorphosis. Higher level powers are still stronger than augmented lower level powers.


3) How do you handle metapsionic feats? Do you have to prepare them as a part of the focus, or do you do it spontaneously? Do you have to expend a second psionic focus to make the metapsionic feats work, or is that restriction waived for this class?

Metapsionic feats do not apply to psi-like abilities. This psion is completely incapable of utilizing metapsionic feats.


4) Can the Psion get something to make recovering a psionic focus faster? Particularly at low level, this class will get 1 action, then have to spend a full round doing nothing to get a second action. It isn't until about 6th level that you don't feel like you have to spend half the combat doing nothing but recharging. You already have the longer cooldown before you can recharge higher level spells. But a psion should be able to have something like a level 1 energy blast power he can spam while waiting on other stuff to come available.

I added the Quick Recovery feature, and there is the Psionic Meditation feat of course, but since all your powers are automatically augmented, a 1st level power is still close to a 7th level power, you can just recharge it faster.

Seerow
2012-01-12, 05:17 PM
Why? This class is a lot like the spirit shaman from Complete Divine, and that class doesn't get faster progression than a druid.


First, see my edit. You added the ability to swap out powers known, and that's good enough.

Second, I'm not familiar with spirit shaman, but Druid knows its whole spell list, and can have many more different spells prepared than this class has focuses.



A psi-like ability is automatically augmented as high as the manifester level would allow, meaning that a 1st level psi-like ability spends as many as 20 "pp" on the power if it is manifested by a 20th level manifester.

You do have a point about the restrictions on levels, but there is still certainly a difference between a 20d6 energy ray and greater metamorphosis. Higher level powers are still stronger than augmented lower level powers.


Okay, I wasn't aware of/missed that. The cooldown limit still seems harsh, but it's not too terrible. Also applies to the Meta-feats


I added the Quick Recovery feature, and there is the Psionic Meditation feat of course, but since all your powers are automatically augmented, a 1st level power is still close to a 7th level power, you can just recharge it faster.


Maybe give Psionic Meditation as a 1st level bonus feat? It just seems like a faster than full round action recharge time is necessary to play this class, especially at low level. Also if that happens I'd suggest making the swift action thing higher level and either at will or encounter based. Since the psion gets no access to quicken power, he has almost no uses for swift actions.

NeoSeraphi
2012-01-12, 05:41 PM
I went ahead and changed the entire recovery mechanic so it's always a swift action, thereby lessening the wait time to use a power again from 1+power level to just power level, and the Quick Recovery feature lets you completely ignore the wait time for the power level a few times per day.

Seerow
2012-01-12, 05:41 PM
I went ahead and changed the entire recovery mechanic so it's always a swift action, thereby lessening the wait time to use a power again from 1+power level to just power level, and the Quick Recovery feature lets you completely ignore the wait time for the power level a few times per day.

Sounds good.

Amechra
2012-01-13, 12:55 AM
I rather like this; NeoSeraphi, you have done it again.

The restrictions are a rather good idea; kudos.

So... if it isn't too much to ask...

Which Elder God do you sacrifice to to get the speed and skill you use for these 'brews?

NeoSeraphi
2012-01-13, 12:58 AM
I rather like this; NeoSeraphi, you have done it again.

The restrictions are a rather good idea; kudos.

So... if it isn't too much to ask...

Which Elder God do you sacrifice to to get the speed and skill you use for these 'brews?

I'm glad you liked it! And it wasn't really that skillful, I mean, you outlined everything you wanted in your request. Multiple foca. Manifest them at will. It was pretty easy to pick it up from there, using invocations and martial maneuvers (the two systems that currently allow at-will abilities and recharge mechanics) as a springboard. :smallsmile:

Tacitus
2012-01-13, 10:43 PM
Isn't the plural of Focus spelled Foci, not Foca (or focuses)?

Edit: Hah, almost forgot the rest of my post in my little grammar spaz moment. >.<

I'm digging the concept, as I have always had a soft spot for at-will things in D&D. I'm sure there is at least one power somewhere that will slip through on the broken scale that isn't Creation or costly, but as is it seems great.

Amechra
2012-01-13, 11:15 PM
Foca is the plural in Latin; infuriatingly, focus changes gender in the plural.