[PF] Psionic Stuff. What you think?

[Chained Birds]

Psionics Stuff (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/psionics-unleashed)

So, new Archetypes, powers, and some racial alternatives are being added from the other PF Psionic book. I bring this up because I want to know what people think of the new stuff.

What Tier is the Aegis?

Who got the best new toys?

And anything you thought was interesting that came out.

Edit: Note that not everything has been released at this time, but should there is a few days or less.

[subject42]

I'd put the Aegis at tier 4. It is a solid melee fighter (Capable of doing one thing quite well), with few utility abilities outside of crafting and what is essentially a cantrip (mending/astral repair). I still like it, though.

I think the soulknife got the best new toys. The archetypes include things like a purely dex-focused melee combatant, a partial caster archetype that retains full BAB, and a ranged archetype.

I also really like the metamorph prestige class.

[Psyren]

Overall I'd say Soulknife got the best toys The other classes got nice stuff but pretty much stayed in their tier. Soulknife went from T5 to T4 in Psionics Unleashed, and then to T3 in Psionics Expanded from Gifted Blade and Soulbolt.

(ninja'd by subject42)


As for tiers:

Vitalist is T3 - see my handbook for reasons.

Aegis and Tactician I haven't read enough yet to really pinpoint their tier, though I'm inclined to put Aegis at T3 rather than 4 - they're "melee with options" but get enough utility to put them over a Barbarian (with things like flight, ranged attacks and blindsight.) Tactician is probably closer to T2; they have a better mix of offense and defense than Vitalists do, as well as potential gamebreakers like Wish (RR) and Affinity Field.

Cryptic is T3 - lots of options, enough power to make them work. Slightly more powerful than Psychic Rogues, so that's a good benchmark.

Dread is T3 - about on par with Psychic Warriors. They're combat focused, with a few more social applications from all the fearmongering and Cha.

[subject42]

Aegis and Tactician I haven't read enough yet to really pinpoint their tier, though I'm inclined to put Aegis at T3 rather than 4 - they're "melee with options" but get enough utility to put them over a Barbarian (with things like flight, ranged attacks and blindsight.)

Can't the PF barbarian get all of those things via rage powers, and aren't they still considered T4?

Tactician is T2/T3. I haven't decided which yet, but 9th level powers from a better list than the Vitalist imply T2.

[subject42]

Additionally, Psionics Expanded is the source of my new favorite power: Foxhole. It allows you to psionically dig a hole in the ground, with augments that let you dig deeper, wider, or faster. You can also ignore hardness.

It's nice to reach a barrier and just be able to scream ¡HOLE!, then find the problem solved.

[Psyren]

Can't the PF barbarian get all of those things via rage powers, and aren't they still considered T4?

Sort of. It's a lot more restricted - for example, a barbarian who wants to fly under her own power must be dragon totem and must select an entire chain of prerequisite powers. Not to mention all the restrictions on raging itself e.g. concerning item use. I don't know of any rage power that grants blindsight or tremorsense either.

The main hallmark of T3 is versatility - a Barbarian has plenty of options before it picks its rage powers, but once chosen they're pretty locked-in to a given style. An Aegis meanwhile can reconfigure its entire build with a night's rest, going from colossal bruiser to stealthy skirmisher or ranged flyer in just a few hours, for instance.

Speaking of which - the Aegis makes a devastating grappler, able to increase its own size and gain powerful build. Not really related but I do think it's cool.

[subject42]

I don't know of any rage power that grants blindsight or tremorsense either.

Looking back, you're right. Barbarian only gets scent, which is better than nothing, but not blindsight.

[Chained Birds]

I personally like the Deadly Fist archetype for Soulknifes. Now I can spam Hadokens at people just like in Steet Fighter. :smallsmile:

[Corlindale]

Does anyone know when/if they're going to put up the rest of the book? I'd love to take a closer look at the Cryptic and the Dread, but it seems like just the Aegis has been added, along with a bunch of new powers and archetypes.

[Starbuck_II]

Sort of. It's a lot more restricted - for example, a barbarian who wants to fly under her own power must be dragon totem and must select an entire chain of prerequisite powers. Not to mention all the restrictions on raging itself e.g. concerning item use. I don't know of any rage power that grants blindsight or tremorsense either.


Even worse, the recently nerfed totem Warrior archetype to do nothing: so you can only have one totem: dragon, Beast, etc.

Before you could be a Dragon and beast so have pounce and flight.

[Larkas]

Which book is that? Psionics Expanded? Or is all of that in Unleashed?

[subject42]

Does anyone know when/if they're going to put up the rest of the book? I'd love to take a closer look at the Cryptic and the Dread, but it seems like just the Aegis has been added, along with a bunch of new powers and archetypes.

It should happen sooner or later. I did the bulk of the Vitalist transcription, and let me tell you, it's really time consuming to do Psionics stuff because most of the automated scripts don't work.



Even worse, the recently nerfed totem Warrior archetype to do nothing: so you can only have one totem: dragon, Beast, etc.


Augh! Do you have a link for that?

[Novawurmson]

This reminds me: Psyren and I were doing a big "intro to Psionics Expanded guide" a while back. If Psyren is OK with it, I'll post the link here to the unfinished work.

For my money, the class that got the best new toys is the Soulknife - unarmed archetype that's actually viable, a Rogue-like archetype, tons of blade skills, a ranged archetype, several prestige classes that synchronize well with it, an archetype that gets limited manifesting...for my money, you can build almost any kind of melee or ranged character with a Soulknife now.

Aegis is tier 3-4, depending on how much WBL-mancy you want to get into (they can do some wonderful things with shards and power stones).

You can actually have a psionic healer now.

The psychic warrior "advanced path" feats are excellent.

The wilder can function as a secondary melee with several different surge types.

Telekinetic Weaponmaster can give you reach for a one-level dip.

The Metaforge (Aegis/Soulknife) can accurately represent SO MANY popular characters (Megaman, Samus, Kamen Rider, etc.).

- - - - -

As a sidenote, I'm pretty sure the bit about Totem Warrior (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/barbarian/archetypes/paizo---barbarian-archetypes/totem-warrior) is wrong, unless there was clarifying errata: Totem Warrior gives no benefits, removes no class features, and only has recommended rage powers.

Edit: I was wrong (http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5ldw0?The-FAQ-That-Time-Forgot).


Ultimate Combat seems to imply that the Totem Warrior archetype (from the Advanced Player's Guide) allows you to take more than one type of totem rage powers. Is this an erratum for the Totem Warrior archetype?

No, the line in Ultimate Combat is in error. We will get that fixed in the next printing. Until then, the restriction on only taking totem rage powers from one group remains in place.

The comments also imply that the line in Ultimate Combat was specifically there to state that Barbarians are not intended to take multiple totem lines. In my opinion, this is complete auroch doody, and I will not be enforcing it in my games. The RAW is pretty clear, though.

Further Edit: Isn't the core image of a totem pole a bunch of different faces (http://otoole3.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/60176351.jpg)? Seriously.

[Starbuck_II]

It should happen sooner or later. I did the bulk of the Vitalist transcription, and let me tell you, it's really time consuming to do Psionics stuff because most of the automated scripts don't work.



Augh! Do you have a link for that?
http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5ldw0?The-FAQ-That-Time-Forgot