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CockroachTeaParty
2007-02-14, 02:31 AM
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a

Like the PHB II, the WotC site has released these additional rules for the wilder, psy warrior, and soulknife.

Taking a glance at the crunchy bits, I don't really see anything too interesting... The ones that caught my eye were the Psychic Warrior and Wilder gaining access to a psionic mantle, which could grant them some healing ability or other unique twists.

Also, the variant that allows wilders to learn extra powers seems like a better choice than the standard wilder.

What're your thoughts? I wonder what they're gonna do with the psion, ardent, lurk, and divine mind?

Were-Sandwich
2007-02-14, 06:35 AM
I like the soulknife ones. Don't llike wilders anyway. Psychic Warrior one looks...wierd.

Shhalahr Windrider
2007-02-14, 09:37 AM
Haven't actually read it yet, but...

Oh, yeah. I knew they were missing something in PH2!

Enough chicken-counting. I should actually go and find out if it's a worthwhile read. :smalltongue:

[hr]Okay, now I at least skimmed it.

Two things stick out.

Psychic Warrior Theme: Did they have to go and mess up the terminology by calling one of the suggested themes "ki" warriors? Like they're a monk or a ninja now?

Soulknife Hidden Talent: Hidden Talent is meant to be a beefier version of Wild Talent. Additionally, they power it up by letting the feat be taken multiple times. And the only 'sacrifice' is losing the weaker Wild Talent. Can you say "no-brainer"? Sure, I knew you could.

Other than that, looks like some interesting potential.

selfcritical
2007-02-14, 12:57 PM
Hrm, post-ToB, do you think the Psychic warrior is capable of keeping up tankwise with the martial adept classes?

Fax Celestis
2007-02-14, 01:11 PM
Yes. You haven't seen the King of Smack, have you?

Druid
2007-02-14, 06:23 PM
King of smack is one build. That's like saying psionics is broken because of Pun-Pun.

I just want to see what they do with psion. Hopefuly they'll get something better than bonus feats.

The_Snark
2007-02-14, 06:26 PM
Don't underestimate the bonus feats. Those are handy.

And yeah, the soulknife Hidden Talent doesn't seem to have any sort of actual drawback. Not that I object, mind you.

It's interesting that they allowed the psychic warrior to specialize in Call Weaponry now, meaning that if you want a character who creates a signature weapon with his mind, you have sorta a choice between soulknife and psychic warrior. Conversely, the soulknife has a bit of manifesting now...

Bears With Lasers
2007-02-14, 06:32 PM
Hrm, post-ToB, do you think the Psychic warrior is capable of keeping up tankwise with the martial adept classes?

I'd say so, yes. Tome of Battle gives you more leeway for a bad build, but the Psychic Warrior makes a potent tank.

jjpickar
2007-02-14, 09:10 PM
The call weaponry thing is cool...I always liked the fluff fr that power.

Legendary Hero: Now most horrible fiendish dragon, know that I will end your life with my trusted blade that is your bane!

(Weapon Disappears)

Psychic Warrior a thousand universes away: Sweet! Hey guys I'm ready to kill the goblins now.

Fiendish Dragon: Legendary Heroes taste the best.:smallbiggrin:

ShneekeyTheLost
2007-02-14, 09:22 PM
The Mantle is a trap. It only gives you access to the powers in the Mantle... it never says you get them automatically. You have to buy them, and PsiWars are known for their limited number of Powers, assuming they don't already have and might want most of the ones in the mantle in the first place, which is a fairly large assumption.

Now the Soulknife one looks veeeery interesting. Feats are big, in fact it might be big enough to make this a worthwhile class to play again.

Shhalahr Windrider
2007-02-14, 09:58 PM
The Mantle is a trap. It only gives you access to the powers in the Mantle... it never says you get them automatically. You have to buy them, and PsiWars are known for their limited number of Powers, assuming they don't already have and might want most of the ones in the mantle in the first place, which is a fairly large assumption.
The primary draw is actually going to be the mantle's granted power. And now that you have access to those powers, you can also use power stones, dorjes, and psicrowns with those powers. So it's not bad at all, really.

The_Snark
2007-02-14, 10:50 PM
The Mantled wilder has it pretty bad, though- they have to take the mantle powers as soon as possible, which pretty much eats their whole repetoire.

The Expanded Knowledge feats in place of volatile mind strikes me as useful, though, since volatile mind isn't that great.

Bears With Lasers
2007-02-14, 10:52 PM
Yeah, exactly.

And the expanded knowledge feats are actual feats, not just powers known--that's good for feats like Psionic Body (not that I recommend it).

Shhalahr Windrider
2007-02-14, 11:19 PM
And the expanded knowledge feats are actual feats, not just powers known--that's good for feats like Psionic Body (not that I recommend it).
Hey, if you can manage to go your whole career with just psionic feats, including those replacing volatile mind, you do manage to beat out Improved Toughness on the total number of hp gained (+2 for most, +4 for humans at 20th level)... As long as you don't walk into a null psionic field, anyway. :smallwink:

Yeah. It's not really all that good... :smallannoyed:

MeklorIlavator
2007-02-14, 11:28 PM
It's interesting that they allowed the psychic warrior to specialize in Call Weaponry now, meaning that if you want a character who creates a signature weapon with his mind, you have sorta a choice between soulknife and psychic warrior. Conversely, the soulknife has a bit of manifesting now...

To me, actually, it is a bit of Deja vu, seeing this class on the wizards forums <http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=673998> .It was based around the call weaponry power.
The class was fun, but had to be creative against DR enemies, and the adventure was against werewolves.

CockroachTeaParty
2007-02-15, 12:37 AM
The soulbound weapon psychic warrior looks like it would mesh well with the psychic weaponmaster PrC... except that that requires a crystal version of your chosen weapon to do things with...
Would one have to houserule that the summoned weapon from the power qualified as the weapon for the PrC? I suppose you could just summon a specific crystal weapon...

The Glyphstone
2007-02-15, 05:44 AM
Hey, if you can manage to go your whole career with just psionic feats, including those replacing volatile mind, you do manage to beat out Improved Toughness on the total number of hp gained (+2 for most, +4 for humans at 20th level)... As long as you don't walk into a null psionic field, anyway. :smallwink:

Yeah. It's not really all that good... :smallannoyed:

Do you have a source for quoting that you lose your psionic feats when in a null field? According to the Power Description (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/nullPsionicsField.htm), a null field is impervious to psionic effects, psi-like abilities, and supernatural abilities, prevents psionic items or powers from functioning in its area, and suppresses summoned/astral construct creatures. I'm guessing that you consider psionic feats to be "psionic effects"...but that seems a bit harsh. I thought feats were stated as extraordinary abilities somewhere, but that might have been someone's houserule to avoid this ambiguous situation.

Starbuck_II
2007-02-15, 11:49 AM
Do you have a source for quoting that you lose your psionic feats when in a null field? According to the Power Description (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/nullPsionicsField.htm), a null field is impervious to psionic effects, psi-like abilities, and supernatural abilities, prevents psionic items or powers from functioning in its area, and suppresses summoned/astral construct creatures. I'm guessing that you consider psionic feats to be "psionic effects"...but that seems a bit harsh. I thought feats were stated as extraordinary abilities somewhere, but that might have been someone's houserule to avoid this ambiguous situation.
Most feats are extraordinary. But the XPH lists Psionic feats as supernatural.

Josh Inno
2007-02-15, 12:02 PM
o.O In what way is the ability to swap out wild talent for hidden talent not a pure, unmitigated improvement for the class?

Fax Celestis
2007-02-15, 12:07 PM
o.O In what way is the ability to swap out wild talent for hidden talent not a pure, unmitigated improvement for the class?

It is a pure, unmitigated improvement, for a subpar class.

Bears With Lasers
2007-02-15, 12:10 PM
In no way.
But it's a class that desperately needs every improvement it can get, so it's okay.