[Dreamscarred Press] Psionics Augmented: Psychic Warrior Playtest Thread!

[ErrantX]

Hello and welcome everyone to the opening of the Psionics Augmented Playtest thread!

Forrestfire and myself (I swear guys, I'm not dead and/or fired, despite rumors) are going to be running and administrating this effort.

Here's a breakdown of the playtest document which can be found - HERE (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dX4UYdtwTQKhY71Q45IHLtcu193zq1ZO5jHQ5_PnTl8/edit?usp=sharing)

Chapter 1 details four new archetypes available for the psychic warrior:

The Halo Knight—This psychic warrior has found his psychic essence bound up with the unstable forces of animus, allowing him to use its fluctuating flows to aid in battle.
The Pain Sculptor—A warrior whose body is in constant overdrive, healing her back from the brink of death.
The Reaver—A stealthy, deadly warrior who has learned how to hone his killing instinct to destroy the pattern of a chosen individual.
The Silhouette—A warrior who, in his quest for martial perfection, created the perfect sparring partner: himself.


Additionally, three new psychic warrior paths are found in this section: the psychic scar of the Hungering path, the unpredictable Anomalous path which deals with the unstable force of animus, and the Outrider path, a mounted combatant riding their psionic power into battle.

Chapter 2 delves into new feats for your psychic warrior, giving new options for animus use for psychic characters as well as new tricks using previously established feats as a base.

Chapter 3 details several new items and powers available to psychic warriors and detail their usage.

Please check it out and leave us feedback, questions, comments, concerns, emotional outbursts, and/or funny noises.

Playtest document will remain open until the playtest has concluded and the product has been released - as always, thank you very much for your time and support!

[wooper]

Hi,

I'm looking forward to the finished product, some interesting concepts in there. Aside from that, what's been bothering me by looking at it is mostly the Reaver archetype.
Is it meant to be just a 'sneaky Psychic Warrior'? Because that's fine, but as is, I think it's a little plain, and some of the stuff feels like a misfit to me.
To start with,
"When a reaver learns a new psionic power on even-numbered class levels, he may choose his power from the cryptic power list in addition to the psychic warrior power list." feels odd to me. What is the purpose of limiting it to only even-numbered class levels, to not have the player stock up on only Cryptic powers? If so, I feel like this is a bit of an unelegant solution to something that's not actually an issue. Cryptics don't have an amazing amount of powers PsyWars don't get in the first place. Furthermore I don't feel like they'd want to only have Cryptic powers considering they'd really want some stuff that would actually make them better at fighting. Even if they did, is that actually a problem?

Aside from that, I feel like some stuff is not as interesting as it should be considering the concept. The archetype is about 'pattern reaving', but how does this translate to actual in-game effects? As is, for a considerable stretch of time (arguably till Level 18), it's just a boost to attack and damage (and a minor boost to tracking) which is not very exciting and underwhelms me a little; it's akin to a Guide Ranger's Ranger Focus or a Cavalier's Challenge. I don't see anything that strikes me as 'pattern reaving' till Level 18, which actually has an interesting class feature. I'd just like to see more of class features like that, and coming online earlier. Like Cryptic already can do. The concept of "pattern breaking" to me should be more than a boost to stats.

That aside, I dislike the wording on Halo Knight's Wisdom bonus.
he is surrounded by a luminous field which grants 1 point of Wisdom bonus (if any) per halo knight level as a shield bonus to his AC
The actual mechanics behind this are fine, but the wording itself sounds very wrong to me.
Also, I think Adrenal Overchannel needs clearer wording as well.

Still, as I said, some interesting concepts, and I'm looking forward to seeing if I can get a chance to actually playtest stuff!

[Seerow]

Posting so this is tagged and I can take a closer look when I am in front of a computer

[khadgar567]

love the silhouette especially perfect double talent and i wish we have a vigilante archetype with psionic powers

[Doomeye56]

oh boy!

Tagged, tagged, tagged

been looking forward to this.

Edit:Pain Sculptor is a bit weird in how its presented. Its fluff and Pain Sculpting ability come off as tank-like master of pain while all the rest of its abilities are control poison master.

[Extra Anchovies]

so whadda we got

The Halo Knight—This psychic warrior has found his psychic essence bound up with the unstable forces of animus, allowing him to use its fluctuating flows to aid in battle.
sailor moon,

The Pain Sculptor—A warrior whose body is in constant overdrive, healing her back from the brink of death.
deadpool,

The Reaver—A stealthy, deadly warrior who has learned how to hone his killing instinct to destroy the pattern of a chosen individual.
shadow the hedgehog,

The Silhouette—A warrior who, in his quest for martial perfection, created the perfect sparring partner: himself.
and peter pan

A+

Now that that's out of the way, on to the more serious commentary.

Halo Knight
Incompatible with Pathwalker, which is an interesting design choice, and probably a good one. It is worth noting, though, that Martial Training is a thing; animus numbers should take that into account. As it is, the cheap PP->Animus conversion and bonus Animus from manifesting means a Martial Training-equipped Halo Knight would have an easy time fully augmenting all of their Elemental Flux maneuvers. I think it's just a touch too efficient; shifting the direct PP->Animus from 1:1 down to 2:1 seems like it would be a good idea, but I haven't done any in-depth number crunching.

Tap Animus in the PoW:E documents has a sentence that sets an Animus cap at 5+initiation modifier, which the PA:PW document Tap Animus lacks. The lack of an initiation modifier for the Halo Knight or any other non-initiator who takes Tap Animus is a good reason to add a clause to Tap Animus for those cases, and for multiclass initiators.

It's probably worth putting in a line that they don't get the various Anomalous Path benefits and abilities if they also take an archetype that replaces the Warrior's Path feature.

Durable Halo is, well... it's something. The earliest ways I know of getting DR 5/— are eight levels in Invulnerable Rager with the Increased Damage Reduction rage power or eight levels of Aegis with the Improved Damage Reduction customization. Durable Halo can get it at 2nd. I think it should be changed to 1/2 class level, minimum 1.

Does Empowered Halation provide energy resistance if you don't yet have Improved Psychic Halo?

I think needing to spend two feat-equivalents on Kinetic Halo and Anima Flare isn't a good trade, especially because ranged energy damage isn't the PsyWar's forté so there's not much other support for it. Lumping them together into one anima skill would make them appealing but still not one of the best options. I also think 2 ML per Animus is pretty poor scaling; 1 Animus to manifest, plus 2 PP worth of augmentation per extra Animus spent, would put it at a decent place in terms of cost. Implementing both suggestions would make it worth taking and nice to have, but still not one of the best ones to pick - those would be Animus Empowerment, Durable Halo, and Empowered Halation.

I like that there is not an Extra Anima Skill feat - these are all stronger than most feats, enough so that being able to stack them all on in short order by spending feats on them would be too much.

Improved Psychic Halo should, I think, have a specific time when it flicks on, for completeness's and clarity's sakes. Maybe as part of rolling initiative? That'd put it before the start of the first round (including the surprise round if any), which is a good spot.

A 15th-level PsyWar almost certainly has at least a 20 or 22 Wisdom, so Blazing Halation's 3+Wis uses per day might as well be once per encounter. I think it should just be 3/day given how strong it is. Also, I'm always annoyed by an effect aura that deals damage when you get hit but that doesn't do anything when you hit other people - in both cases you're pretty much the same distance from each other, so it should at least do something. Since the damage when struck is 5d6, maybe the first time in each round that a particular creature is hit by a Blazing Halation-using Halo Knight, they take an extra 1d6 damage?

Psionic Halation Endurance is definitely not as good as eternal warrior; the halo starts up before surprise rounds anyway, so there's not many situations you'd need it to be active in which it isn't already active. I'm also personally not a fan of the name.

Overall? I love it. This is a really cool archetype, both conceptually and (for the most part) mechanically.

Feedback on the others will come at some later time.

[Forrestfire]

Tap Animus in the PoW:E documents has a sentence that sets an Animus cap at 5+initiation modifier, which the PA:PW document Tap Animus lacks. The lack of an initiation modifier for the Halo Knight or any other non-initiator who takes Tap Animus is a good reason to add a clause to Tap Animus for those cases, and for multiclass initiators.

I don't have the time to do anything right now but thank you for taking a look and pick a minor nit, but the PoW: E documents are out of date and have been so for months. The release version of Tap Animus (on page 80 of Path of War: Expanded) matches the version in here.

[calyst]

What is the benefit for the Pain Sculptor of taking the Regenerative alteration?

[Forrestfire]

It gets the refreshing pillow of temporary hit points, but has neither an immunity nor a weakness. So if you expect enemies to always have the damage type to bypass your temporary hit points from pain sculpting, it might sometimes be worth picking up so that no attacks will do that.

[calyst]

As written it gets that without taking an alteration, which is why I asked. Maybe change the wording to may take an alteration...and remove regenerative since it does nothing which is weird to pick something that does nothing.

[Forrestfire]

Yeah, that's true. It's a relic of the original wording. Good catch, I've altered the wording.

[calyst]

Also there should totally be a multi class feat that does cool things for multi-classing Pain-Sculptor and Medic's Sanguinist to allow them to mix and match poisons and diseases through their strange internal body chemistry.

[Seerow]

I found myself really disappointed in Pain Sculptor.

I read the description and was expecting a serious tank archetype, someone who takes a ton of punishment and keeps on going. The juggernaut.


Instead what I got is an archetype that actually makes you squishier than normal and makes you some sort of weird gore machine out of a horror-stylized anime. I mean the flavor is definitely there... it is just not at all the flavor I was expecting when I went into reading it. Seriously you sell it in the description as someone who shapes the pain to heal from the brink of death... then almost every ability you get is focused on using your internal blood and gore to attack enemies. You get to bleed on people as a reaction, as a ranged attack, as an area, as a zone, and then make your gore sentient. I mean what?

And yes, I realize that the Pain Sculptor does get the ability to refresh temporary HP... but at the cost of being much lower on overall HP that's going to be a losing game. Let's look at it from your best case scenario, we're a level 10 Pain Sculptor with 20 Con (a pretty heavy investment at this level). You have a base of 98 hp. We're still averaging only 9-10hp per level, so we can convert up to 97 hp over and have 1 normal HP remaining. Our max HP is now 1 with 72 temporary hit points. If you decided to opt for an alteration, anything from your weakness will kill you; while anything else is basically treating you as though you had dropped your con down to 14. Or you can just not pick up a weakness, and still get treated as though your hp is much lower.

And what do you gain in return for nerfing your own con by 6 points effectively? The ability to heal 36 damage as a move action, by blowing your psionic focus. Yes, it's effectively at will, but the action economy there is pretty awful (unless gaining focus became a free action in PF and I was not aware). For comparison as an in-combat heal, a Paladin can heal himself for an average of 17 hp as a swift action at this level, with the added benefit of being able to heal other people, remove status effects, and not drop 25% of his max HP.



Um, anyway now that I'm done ranting, a few takeaways
-Seriously consider rewriting your basic description of the Archetype. Make it something about using his own body fluids as a weapon or something.

-The whole immunity/weakness thing needs to be reconsidered. If getting hit with a sword makes your bulletproof guy instantly fall over dead, nobody is going to pick bulletproof. They are all going to pass up on the mutation thing. Or if they do take the mutation, will use far less pain sculpting, to the point where the in combat healing aspect is basically worthless. (and if that was the intent you may as well just save the space on the sheet and get rid of it)

-Consider splitting it off into two separate archetypes? One that is constantly self healing, and one that is constantly inflicting pain on himself to trigger the gore effects. If you are sticking with just one archetype though, I definitely recommend at least pushing the Pain Sculptor more into a role where it accepts pain and/or inflicts it on themselves to get these crazy gore effects.

[ATalsen]

Halo Knight
Incompatible with Pathwalker, which is an interesting design choice, and probably a good one.

Wait, what? I know I just browsed it, and I'm sure your right that its incompatible, but wow, I assumed it was intended to be compatible with the whole boxed text about Anomalous Pathwalkers taking Elemental Flux.

I mean, Animus is a PoW Elemental Flux-empowering energy. Halo Knight NOT being able to get native access to Elemental Flux just blows my mind.

If its a balance issue, what would Halo Knight need to give up to be compatible?

[ErrantX]

Wait, what? I know I just browsed it, and I'm sure your right that its incompatible, but wow, I assumed it was intended to be compatible with the whole boxed text about Anomalous Pathwalkers taking Elemental Flux.

I mean, Animus is a PoW Elemental Flux-empowering energy. Halo Knight NOT being able to get native access to Elemental Flux just blows my mind.

If its a balance issue, what would Halo Knight need to give up to be compatible?

The idea was to create a more broad role for animus within DSP's wheelhouse, so it's not JUST a mystic mechanic. Paizo for example, has a hundred and one little power pools that most of which could be condensed into one form or another (Panache and Grit, I'm looking at you right now). This was also written as a way to show animus in a different form and function, the psionic medium, and show that it can be a versatile power source for potential future classes and abilities.

To make Halo Knight compatible, would essentially mean we'd have to strip the halo entirely, and maybe more. Not much archetype left after that. Pathwalker, frankly, is kinda OP (which we will address in upcoming errata file) and making it work with this would make it too efficient. That said, Pathwalkers can take anomalous path as the Elemental Flux path and gain animus benefits without having to go full Halo Knight, OR they can go Halo Knight to get new animus abilities and martial training if they're feeling frisky for it.

-X

[Extra Anchovies]

Is there going to be anything addressing the PsyWar's dirt-poor skills? A martial class with partial Wisdom dependency doesn't really have room to get more than the base of 2 :s

My first thought is an ACF that replaces the Path Skills bonuses with the ability to use your ML in place of ranks for one skill from of each of your two paths (gaining the second skill at 9th), but Path Skills seems to be common archetype fodder.


Wait, what? I know I just browsed it, and I'm sure your right that its incompatible, but wow, I assumed it was intended to be compatible with the whole boxed text about Anomalous Pathwalkers taking Elemental Flux.

Maneuvers replaces (among other things) the path skills at 7th and 13th, and Animus Manifestation replaces all of the path skills.


The idea was to create a more broad role for animus within DSP's wheelhouse, so it's not JUST a mystic mechanic. Paizo for example, has a hundred and one little power pools that most of which could be condensed into one form or another (Panache and Grit, I'm looking at you right now). This was also written as a way to show animus in a different form and function, the psionic medium, and show that it can be a versatile power source for potential future classes and abilities.

Yeah, it's a really cool mechanic. Good to see that it's being expanded to other classes. Now I want to see a Guru or Vizier archetype that has an Animus-like pool that fills by using veil non-passive abilities and that can be used as temporary bonus essence. Where's Ssalarn when you need him? :smalltongue:

[Galacktic]

I agree with the blurb for pain sculptor being entirely misleading. The name is nice for what the path does, but the blurb brought a barbarian like being to mind for me, who gained new strength as their bodies fell. Constant fast healing, taking damage to perform superhuman feats, etc. Not bloody mc blood blood and the amazing blood the wonder dog.

[ErrantX]

Is there going to be anything addressing the PsyWar's dirt-poor skills? A martial class with partial Wisdom dependency doesn't really have room to get more than the base of 2 :s

My first thought is an ACF that replaces the Path Skills bonuses with the ability to use your ML in place of ranks for one skill from of each of your two paths (gaining the second skill at 9th), but Path Skills seems to be common archetype fodder.

Annoying relic from 3.5 - not a whole lot I can do with that without creating an archetype and we get into give and take then. I'll percolate on it. I'm open to suggestions though!


Yeah, it's a really cool mechanic. Good to see that it's being expanded to other classes. Now I want to see a Guru or Vizier archetype that has an Animus-like pool that fills by using veil non-passive abilities and that can be used as temporary bonus essence. Where's Ssalarn when you need him? :smalltongue:

Seriously. Ssalarn? Where you at, brah? Let's make this do! :smallcool:

But honestly, this gives me some ideas so I'm gonna file this away into the "should do this soon" folder!

-X

[Extra Anchovies]

Annoying relic from 3.5 - not a whole lot I can do with that without creating an archetype and we get into give and take then. I'll percolate on it. I'm open to suggestions though!

Hm. Another idea is a feat, requiring Warrior's Path, that allows you to use your manifester level from class levels in place of ranks for one of your path's three skills, and that can be selected a second time if you have a secondary path, to extend the benefit to one of your secondary path's skills. There's a mechanically equivalent Paizo-published ability for the Fighter in Advanced Armor Training (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter#TOC-Weapon-Mastery-Ex-)'s Adaptable Training (first entry in the linked list), which might be a good thing to crib some wording from. Maybe call it Path Skill Mastery.


But honestly, this gives me some ideas so I'm gonna file this away into the "should do this soon" folder!

Glad to have helped! I'm a huge fan of small resource pools with recovery mechanics, so I'd be all over a project dedicated to exploring the potential of Animus and similar mechanical subsystems.

tangent: Personally, I think the Barbarian's rage mechanic should function somewhat like grit. Maybe a Rage pool that starts each day with [1/2 level + Con] rounds, and they regain a round whenever they reduce an enemy to negative HP or confirm a critical hit (2 rounds for confirming an x3 crit, 3 rounds for an x4 crit, etc). Being able to regain rage by performing well in combat would be so much more fitting for a berserker than the current method of carefully managing your rage so it lasts the whole day.

[ErrantX]

Playtest document has been updated.

Halo Knight- Changes to several of the anima skills, tweaks with psychic halo and subsequent class features in regards to uses per day.

Reaver - Big changes, skill points increased, Reaver Insights added, stealth training folded in as a Reaver insight

These two are Forrest's babies so I'm only going to mark roughly what I know changed.

Pain Scultpor - Multiple rules fixes with regards to wording on pain sculpting, healing from such.

Silhouette - Some alterations to shadow attacks, wording fixes.

Advanced Path feats, a new psionic power (Mental Semblance).

Check it out!

-X

[ErrantX]

Hm. Another idea is a feat, requiring Warrior's Path, that allows you to use your manifester level from class levels in place of ranks for one of your path's three skills, and that can be selected a second time if you have a secondary path, to extend the benefit to one of your secondary path's skills. There's a mechanically equivalent Paizo-published ability for the Fighter in Advanced Armor Training (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter#TOC-Weapon-Mastery-Ex-)'s Adaptable Training (first entry in the linked list), which might be a good thing to crib some wording from. Maybe call it Path Skill Mastery.

Hmmm... that's a pretty cool idea! I'll see if I can write something up on this.


Glad to have helped! I'm a huge fan of small resource pools with recovery mechanics, so I'd be all over a project dedicated to exploring the potential of Animus and similar mechanical subsystems.

tangent: Personally, I think the Barbarian's rage mechanic should function somewhat like grit. Maybe a Rage pool that starts each day with [1/2 level + Con] rounds, and they regain a round whenever they reduce an enemy to negative HP or confirm a critical hit (2 rounds for confirming an x3 crit, 3 rounds for an x4 crit, etc). Being able to regain rage by performing well in combat would be so much more fitting for a berserker than the current method of carefully managing your rage so it lasts the whole day.

I definitely want to do more with animus as a resource, and see what things we can do with it. I had a vague notion of an animus-based caster-like class that spends animus to power his abilities.

I agree 100% - there is a problem with it though, it's something Endzeitgeist has nailed me on several times - the god-forsaken bag of cats. What's to stop the Orphan Puncher from carrying around a bag full of felines and rodents to stomp on when the rage fires burn low? Therein lies the problem with a kill regen system. I dislike the argument because no DM worth their salt in my humble opinion would allow it, but there are some that would and there are many that would argue that if they can do it, they should do it.

-X

[Extra Anchovies]

Hmmm... that's a pretty cool idea! I'll see if I can write something up on this.

:biggrin:


I definitely want to do more with animus as a resource, and see what things we can do with it. I had a vague notion of an animus-based caster-like class that spends animus to power his abilities.

Ooh, I like this. Maybe something Warlock-ish where their powers are decently useful at-will, but in combat they have an Animus pool which they spend to power up their attacks?

...wait wait wait, oh my gosh. Animus-powered Kineticist.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPleY9fh3YE

Instead of directly taking burn to use talents, they can take one point of burn to generate an Animus pool which can then be spent to cover burn costs on non-utility talents and they gain one point of Animus whenever they use a talent or kinetic blast that successfully affects an enemy. I guess it would need to replace some stuff (maybe they give up Internal Buffer and only get Infusion Specialization at levels 3/8/13/18?), but there could be a "consider letting your players have it for free" sidebar á la Gifted Blade.


I agree 100% - there is a problem with it though, it's something Endzeitgeist has nailed me on several times - the god-forsaken bag of cats. What's to stop the Orphan Puncher from carrying around a bag full of felines and rodents to stomp on when the rage fires burn low? Therein lies the problem with a kill regen system. I dislike the argument because no DM worth their salt in my humble opinion would allow it, but there are some that would and there are many that would argue that if they can do it, they should do it.

"Whenever a [class] reduces to negative HP an enemy whose CR is no less than X below your character level, or confirms a critical hit against such an enemy, they regain one point of [resource]. Characters with levels in [class] who enter combat with an enemy they can regain [resource] from know that they are facing a suitable opponent." Thoughts?

[Axebird]

Reaver - Big changes, skill points increased, Reaver Insights added, stealth training folded in as a Reaver insight

How many are they supposed to have? The playtest document is typo'd saying they get 4 per level, which is the same amount a normal psychic warrior gets.

[Extra Anchovies]

How many are they supposed to have? The playtest document is typo'd saying they get 4 per level, which is the same amount a normal psychic warrior gets.

Huh. I could've sworn DSP's update had kept the 2+Int from 3.5, but Ultimate Psionics says 4+Int. They're still not able to focus on Int at all, but it's better than I thought they had.

[Sayt]

So, first things first: any chance of an Advanced Gladiator Path feat. I see that anomalous, hungering and outrider get Advanced path feats, but I believe Gladiator missed out in UPsi? Perhaps counting as a more favourable size, or tacking CMs onto attacks times per round?

Also adrenal overchandle is conceptually cool, but at the level you get it, its Weaponfocus and Spec that only turns on when you hurt yourself, for the same number of feats. Obviously, it gets better as you lever, but you're also taking more damage. This feat doesn't actually break even in terms of average damage taken verses damage granted unless you're getting extra attacks. Obviously natural attack PsyWars can do this easily, especially with claws of the vampire, and volley archers can leverage it, but on most other builds, the feat honestly seems more like a detriment than an advantage?

My current 2c.

Edit: Oh, that we the other thing: I think psychic halo would raff better as: "...luminous field which grants a shield bonus to AC equal to his Wisdom modifier. " the only place I've seen PF user the "1 point per" IA when it eases in as you level. hurfdurf, I can read, I swear.

[Extra Anchovies]

As it is, Halo Knights who want to go sword-and-board are kinda hosed. Perhaps the Psychic Halo feature could stack with bonuses provided by physical shields, but not from other magical shield-bonus-granting effects?


Edit: Oh, that we the other thing: I think psychic halo would raff better as: "...luminous field which grants a shield bonus to AC equal to his Wisdom modifier. " the only place I've seen PF user the "1 point per" IA when it eases in as you level.

A one-level dip for an armor-compatible Wis to AC would be a very bad thing to introduce to the game. I for one quite like "one point per level, up to [stat] modifier" as a mechanic - it allows for things like Wis to AC or Int to attack rolls to be (at least partially) accessible from 1st level without making for unbalancing dip fodder.

[Sayt]

As it is, Halo Knights who want to go sword-and-board are kinda hosed. Perhaps the Psychic Halo feature could stack with bonuses provided by physical shields, but not from other magical shield-bonus-granting effects?

A one-level dip for an armor-compatible Wis to AC would be a very bad thing to introduce to the game. I for one quite like "one point per level, up to [stat] modifier" as a mechanic - it allows for things like Wis to AC or Int to attack rolls to be (at least partially) accessible from 1st level without making for unbalancing dip fodder.

Oh, WHOOPS, it is per level scaling. No, that ideas good, I like that.

On the subject of bonus type... I'd make it deflection, honestly. Shield to AC is usually from either weapons, shields, or force imitations thereof. Mystical energy/force of will feels better as a deflection bonus, and it takes pressure off a big six item.

And yeah, It hoses sword and boarders. That said sword and board isn't hugely supported by PsyWar (apart from iron tortoise pathwalkers, and I can't remember if IT is a valid choice for them - away from books)

Edit: a few more thoughts on the halo knight:
Empowered Halation: Says that it increases the Psychic halo's enervy resistance by 10, but the halo neither has nor grants energy resistance, that I can tell?
Durable Halo is a lot of DR, matched only by the invulnerable rager
Palisade Wall: at level 3 all this offers is +1 AC and the tower shield's cover. And that's assuming a 16 in wisdom. Seems kinda pointless? I don't imagine taking this over hardened halo....ever.

[Slider Eclipse]

...wait wait wait, oh my gosh. Animus-powered Kineticist.

Instead of directly taking burn to use talents, they can take one point of burn to generate an Animus pool which can then be spent to cover burn costs on non-utility talents and they gain one point of Animus whenever they use a talent or kinetic blast that successfully affects an enemy. I guess it would need to replace some stuff (maybe they give up Internal Buffer and only get Infusion Specialization at levels 3/8/13/18?), but there could be a "consider letting your players have it for free" sidebar á la Gifted Blade.


I like this, but perhaps it should just straight out replace Burn? May need some tweaking for balance but it shouldn't be too much stronger compared to the default Kineticist (as the Overwhelming Soul Proves). Probably would need to replace Burn, Elemental Overflow, Gather Power, Internal Buffer & Supercharge with similarly functional Animus features and maybe replace Elemental Defense with the Mystic's Glyph that matches its Element? would certainly be an interesting change of playstyle for a Kineticist at the very least.

[calyst]

The vigor power from Pain Sculpting should be replaced with another power as vigor doesn't stack with the temp hp from the archetype class features.

[Forrestfire]

Temporary hit points stack with each other as long as they're from different sources. (http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9r43)

[ErrantX]

A few small wording tweaks with some things in Halo Knight, chiefly that the Psychic Halo is now deflection bonus to AC instead of Shield, Palisade Wall is clarified more and Empower Halo is clarified more.

Added in a new feat, Advanced Gladiator Path (yes, finally!).

Please let us know what you think!

-X

[MilleniaAntares]

Huzzah, new DSP stuff! Hopefully the psicrystal and other stuff will be posted here soon.

For Psionic Sense, does the blindsense only work on the Killer's Target? In fact, instead of having a target-specific blindsense, why not have it act more like a claim? Admittedly it does reduce the diversity of mechanics, but it also grants compatibility with all the claim feats from PoW:E.

For the pain sculptor, is it a good idea to have the temporary HP be 3/4ths of the sacrificed HP? It may perhaps be better balanced if it's equal to sacrificed HP.

If having immunity to one damage type and having the weakness type inflict damage versus regular HP is too much, perhaps you can merely have them take 1/2 damage from one damage type, and be vulnerable to the other.

[ErrantX]

Made some updates to Halo Knight
-They now get psychic warrior standard weapon and armor proficiency.
-fixed some wording mistakes.
-Psychic Halo is a force effect.
-removed the reliance on metapsionics to focus more on the fighting in this class, combat feats are restored to bonus feat list.
-Updated all of the halo skills.
--Anima Flare is clarified a bit more on how it works.
--Animus Empowerment adds a ghost touch effect
--Empowered halation does a 20 point increase on energy resistance with a level req of 9th.
-Animus manifestation reflects change in focus, you may now mix and match animus with power points but you treat animus as power points to determine your manifester limits per round.
-Improved Halo now does 20 energy resist to your active energy type.
-Animus overchannel died.
-Blazing Halation starts at 12th now 1/day, getting additional uses at 15 and 18. Clarified damage type.


Made some updates to Reaver

-Fixed wording on Reaver Insights
--Psionic Scent is now Psionic Senses, improved its function. It works when you have a Killer's Target. Considering stealing some wording from Harbi Claiming to make this work better on the Killer's Target front. Feedback on that would be appreciated!
--Fixed wording on Pattern Dislocate for saving throw.
--Cleared up wording on Trapbreaker and on Stealth Training.



Hope that helps! Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming!

-X

[tynansdtm]

Minor text error: The Outrider's maneuver says "(and by extension himcan" with no closing parenthesis. Keep up the good work, you guys.

[MilleniaAntares]

--Psionic Scent is now Psionic Senses, improved its function. It works when you have a Killer's Target. Considering stealing some wording from Harbi Claiming to make this work better on the Killer's Target front. Feedback on that would be appreciated!
I highly recommend taking wording from harbinger, or at least narrowing down the blindsense... because at the moment "sense danger" seems to be rather fuzzy. At its broadest it would be indistinguishable from "blindsense while in combat" or just plain "blindsense", and its narrowest would be better off just defined as getting the Detect Hostility (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YcE6T2piHuQYSVcF3BUPkF0eWwvtAS_heH8ZcOQHUHI/edit#heading=h.vzqolve567b5) feat without prereqs and use per day limitations.

[ATalsen]

The idea was to create a more broad role for animus within DSP's wheelhouse, so it's not JUST a mystic mechanic. Paizo for example, has a hundred and one little power pools that most of which could be condensed into one form or another (Panache and Grit, I'm looking at you right now). This was also written as a way to show animus in a different form and function, the psionic medium, and show that it can be a versatile power source for potential future classes and abilities.

I can totally get behind the idea of consolidating and/or re-using ‘pool types’ instead of just inventing more like Paizo does; I think that’s a great idea.

BUT… I think maybe Animus has an inherent design that makes it less suitable for general use: its only available in combat. And I don’t *think* DSP will be opening it up for non-combat availability.

So the issue I see is linked to why I like Animus in PoW: Animus boosts Electable Flux attacks, which are pretty much an ‘only useful in combat’ set of maneuvers. And since the maneuvers are only needed in combat, and Animus is only available in combat, there is agreement. But it looks like DSP is heading down the path of expanding to things that would be useful *outside* of combat, but not *available* outside combat (such as spending Animus in place of power points). Since combat being treated differently than ‘non-combat’ is an obviously-artificial game creation where the borders between combat and non-combat encounters are ill-defined and flexible, and the temptation becomes wanting to ‘enter combat’ in order to gain access to those combat abilities for use in otherwise non-combat scenes.

I’ve played video games where you can voluntarily enter combat mode, and I kind of see things that way here; as long as there is no temptation to enter combat mode when there’s no opponents, the system works fine, but when you get some sort of bonus in combat mode that you don’t normally and that bonus is useful outside combat, why would you not enter combat, if you can? And that seems like a headache for the DM to either allow OR disallow.


If DSP does find some way to allow Animus use outside combat, then I’d be happier about it, but I’m thinking that probably not the direction that its intended to go.

[ErrantX]

Thank you so much for the feedback on animus use, ATalsen. I see where you're coming from, so in response to that - what this is partly in experiment as well while we have it in playtesting. If we can get some people testing it out to see how it pans out against a normal psiwarrior then we can see if it's too strong, too weak, or just too unwieldy or cumbersome for the class.

If it turns out that you're right, we will absolutely change our stance on the matter and reformat away from that direction. Animus was designed for use with the maneuver-chassis, and it works very well in that medium. I want to see if we can do more with that system and see if it can be used in other mediums successfully. Your feedback is well thought out and very helpful to that process!

The only point I would argue is that animus does clearly state when it activates, in the initiative cycle, so unless you're rolling initiative, you won't have animus to back you up without other abilities allowing it outside of combat. Right now that's intentionally limited because the intent is that this is a combat resource, but there are ways around that. Unlike a video game, a DM can simply say, "No." when the combat mode, as it were, is not available because combat isn't actually happening. Some DMs may be more lenient than others and be like, whatever man, you can generate animus while brushing your teeth as you attack the gum disease GINGIVITIS but I don't make the rules at those tables :smallbiggrin:

Again, just looking for playtesters to provide some feedback on that data. Sadly, I'm not in a game of my own at this time and I haven't had the ability to do some sims on it yet. I think getting sims done by outside parties and feedback from the actual players is more important than the fishbowl of my own game group and my own sims though.

Again, really thankful for the great feedback. Please keep it coming!

-X

P.S. I'm going to cross post it to the Paizo board to get some other opinions on it. :)

[Sayt]

Well, when I'm DMing, I'd probably pin Animus generation to the fight or flight reflex.

Anyway, looks like a clause escaped deletion in Anima Skills "halo knight can choose combat feats or psionic feats with his psychic warrior bonus feats, but cannot gain combat feats with this ability"

Anima Flare: does the power manifested with this ability have augments if your manifester level would have been sufficient to allow you to spend power points on this power? What about metapsionic powers, would that require a second focus expenditure?

Also, regarding Psychic Halo, I had An Idea. So light and darkness spells counter each other, so souls the Halo Knight be in some way challenged by supernatural darkness? Obviously they shouldn't be shut down by superdark, and light also counters darkness spells. How about a Halo Knight needs to make an ML check of 15+power level to spend animus in an area of Supernatural Darkness, but when improved psychic halo kicks in the Daylight counts as being a spell/power of the highest level she can manifest for the purpose of dispelling and countering darkness?

Also, because halos and glimmering eyes, how about an anima skill that turns your halo into wings and grants the ability to fly? Just spitballing.

On to the Reaver, which I had initially ignored because I assumed it was based on the Cryptic, more fool me, it actually seems to owe just as much to the Slayer, which I adore. On that note, should Killer's target grant a damage bonus equal to it's other boni? I can't see it mentioned, except in bloody instincts.

Ah, I see, the damage is in a separate ability. Replacing the path skill with damage is elegant, but I kind of feel it should be rolled into Killer's target, as it feels like the same ability?

Also, mental semblance's bonus of +30 seems way too high. Yeah, glibness has s similar bonus, but it's still just ridonkulous. a +30 bonus is basically saying "don't even bother rolling the dice" to most encounters you're up against.there are holes and restrictions on the spell, yes (inquiries after facts nor know, smell, body shape, mine effecting, etc), but +30-47 is still absurd. I'd personally revise it down to, say, +10, scaling at +3 skill/+1 DC per 2pp augment. I'd also have a higher level Mass version of this power, so that it can be used more in cooperative situations, and the player who has invested in social skills cam be amplified, rather than infringed on or obsoleted?

Edit: Cleaned up post, as I wrote it on smartphone at first

[khadgar567]

For anima points why not use special breat exercice costing full round action this allows out of combat animus usege

[ATalsen]

Again, really thankful for the great feedback. Please keep it coming!

Glad I can help!
I’m not in a game where I can playtest a PsyWar PC in any way; the only PsyWar in the game is actually my Vitalist who took PsyWar mainly for the heavy Armor proficiency and the bonus psionic feat. :)

Since I can’t really playtest anything, all I can do is some theorycrafting. But I’m willing to give that a go to see if it helps.



The only point I would argue is that animus does clearly state when it activates, in the initiative cycle, so unless you're rolling initiative, you won't have animus to back you up without other abilities allowing it outside of combat.

I totally agree that it’s absolutely clear when it activates. I’m just in favor of trying to find ways to make Animus only useful in combat situations, so there’s no temptation to artificially create combats just for some benefit that is of use outside combat. DMs are absolutly in a position to say no, but might also have to explain what does constitute a combat for their game. Does sparing between PCs roll initiative? Attacking a summoned creature? Striking down a bag full of rats? Etc. Ensue potential headache for the DM.

However, if the bonuses granted are really only of use IN combat, then no one is going to push those boundaries.


That said, here is my take on Halo Knight as it is right now

Halo Knight

EDIT - ADDED INFO

Archetype Compatibility: Halo Knight it not compatible with any other PsiWar archetype, existing or new to this doc.

Class Features lost: this is the list of what a base PsiWar gives up to take this archetype

Psychic Proficiency
Warrior's Path
Bonus Feats: 1st
Path Skill: All
Secondary Path: All
Twisting Path
Pathweaving: All
Eternal Warrior



EDIT - END


Psionic Animus – provides the class with animus. If a Halo-PsyWar is added to a more casting focused psionic class, it can generate a ton of animus, but I’m not seeing too many ways to abuse that as yet, since it takes higher levels of PsyWar to start spending that animus like power points.


Psychic Halo – Incremental deflection bonus so no dipping; it’s a force effect, but I can’t think of a time that makes a difference for Deflection bonuses. Typical PsyWar may have 1 to 3 points of Wis bonus, so, it’s a nice boost in a low wealth game, probably break even in a mid-wealth game and a detriment for high wealth games (because deflection items will be more available which are active even during surprise, and the class could, in theory, have given some other bonus instead).

Light as the light spell (0th level) is worth less than the 50gp a Continual Flame (2nd level) item costs, is not available when you’re not in combat, and if you are interested in ‘going dark’ in combat, the class feature is a detriment due to the DC 15 perception check to notice a Halo-PsyWar in an otherwise dark room.


Anima Skills

Anima Flare - Seems like it’s a really good way to go blaster with a PsiWar. Too good maybe? Psi-Like powers are auto-augmented to max for their caster level, so spending 3 anima for an energy attack that does level in d6’s sounds tasty.

Being able to pick from ANY of the listed energy attacks, especially the ones not known via a DC 15+ spellcraft check seems very powerful – what Wilder wouldn’t be envious of the massive selection, free augmenting, and lack of requiring power points?

Animus Empowerment – makes your weapon magical or ghost touch; the rest is not all that impressive. If you need ghost touch, then this is a way to get it; if you need magical weapons, it’s better for a PsiWar to pick up a power that does that. Ambiguous as to whether it works for natural weapons – if so, its potentially a nice boost for them, but I’m not sure that natural weapon PsiWars need more help.

Durable Halo – Seems nice; for a strait PsyWar this seems like a solid boost.

Empowered Halation (Su): Improves DR by 5 which is nice, but it’s an immediate action, so it might interfere with other actions; still that part is solid.

Boosts the Energy Resist from 20 to 40 (which requires the 9th level PsiWar Imp. Halo). Is 20 more points of an energy you are already resisting really all that good? I’m not sure. I’d like it if you could either pick another energy type to apply those bonus 20 points to, or if you could also switch energy types (switch you active energy type) as part of the immediate action, so if you got surprised with a new energy type you could react – that seems like what a nice feat equivalent would be worth.


Kinetic Halo - This forms the base of Anima Flare, and by itself is solid average ability. It adds one power known, which makes it equivalent to Expanded Knowledge. Adding powers to your class list might come up way late in the game for a Psi-Crown, so ok for that, but otherwise the added power aspect is not really useful as they aren’t powers you tend to see on items.

Palisade Wall –Tower shields tend to suck, but you don’t take the penalty for them, it doesn’t cost a hand, and you get some free scaling, so this one is probably ok.

Not impressive by itself, but if you know you’re going this route you can grab a +1 buckler with non-plus armor/shield enhancements on it, and have the ‘tower shield’ provide the AC while the bucker provides special abilities. Of note for game balance, Paizo deliberately tried to do away with this kind of layering by limiting their Bracers of Armor to prevent it, so know your deliberately opening that up somewhat.

Restorative Halo:
Typo “creates a burst of restorative from his psychic halo” … looks like a noun is missing; restorative what?

It’s a free action, so there’s that, but it’s a feat-equivalent that grants everyone about 15 HP. Situationally useful. I wouldn’t put this on the chopping block, but I’d be hard pressed to find a use for it in any optimized build.


Animus Manifestation – this is the bread and butter of Halo Knight manifesting. If I were optimizing, I’d take HaloKnight 4, Mystic 1, then go into Awakened Blade (prereqs might be tough, but seem doable) using swift action maneuvers to increase Animus generation, buff quickly with the free power points and quickened power, and kick butt with the abilities provided by Anima Flare – those of which use an attack roll potentially boosted by Elemental Flux stuff. Sounds like I’d have energy attacks all day long… yeah now I have an NPC concept I want to try out…

Improved Psychic Halo – actives halo stuff at the start of combat, so your deflection bonus at this point is almost as good as having an item. Can be stymied by combat-like situations that do not roll initiate, like a pressure plate attack-trap. If its intended to be up all the time, I’d just say so, and move it to being continuously available. Energy Resist (only in combat) to your active energy type (which means no Acid resist). Uncanny Dodge looks solid.

It’s a nice upgrade, but has that trap-hole that I don’t think players will remember to enforce on themselves.

It gives you Daylight (only when in combat), which has special interactions with darkness spells. I’d rather just have the halo count as a higher level spell (so it auto-defeats darkness) than have to go through the special darkness/Daylight cancelation interactions to figure out what the light level is.


Blazing Halation – the only 1/day thing in the class. “1 additional animus is generated during power manifestation” I assume is a flat amount – so if you spend 4 power points you would get 3 Animus. Not sure how I’d make that clearer, though.

5d6 retribution but only once per round per opponent; it’s something, but it’s the extra animus generation that looks like the reason to turn this ability on for an encounter. I can see why its limited on a per-day schedule, but that seems out of place for a class that is otherwise all about constant generation of its resources.

Psionic Halation Endurance – capstone power that is fluffy but not a must-have in any way. I really can’t have an opinion on level 20 capstones; they are all over the place in utility and most character never get there anyway, so I don’t’ think they matter. Given that, this seems fine.



Take away:
I think a Halo Knight could make a better blaster than a Wilder, and sustain it longer. I love the idea, but I think it’s probably not intentional and if not overpowering, then overshadowing another of your own character classes seems bad form.

The deflection bonus is ok. I’d say something should be done about the light though –being an in-combat-only light source only seems more of a drawback.

The core of the class is Animus and Animus generation; however, the prime outlet path I see for all this animus is the Anima Flare option, which seems better than the Animus for Power Points option. Other options pale in comparison. Without playtest I can’t really say how much Animus you will actually have on hand, so maybe there just isn’t that much to spend, but I feel like the class needs some other build path option that uses animus to do something.

I think that something may be speeding up self-buffing.
The whole point of Animus is as an in-combat resource, but taking time to buff in combat is very poor optimization (but PsiWar have some good buffing power options), so a new Anima Skill to, say, spend 3 animus to make any self-targeted power an immediate action would make buffing faster and more reactive (and thus engaging). No temptation to use such a benefit out of combat because you already have plenty of time out of combat.

[Powerdork]

When it comes to power sources and pools, I'd just like to note that grit and panache are mechanically identical down to qualifying with either for content designed for the other, and stack with each other the same way two grit pools would, even though they are suggested to be two different things in the fluff.


Characters with both grit and panache class features combine the two resources together into a larger pool of both grit points and panache points.
For purposes of feat prerequisites, a character with the panache class feature satisfies the prerequisites as if she were a grit user, and vice versa. For feats, magic items, and other effects, a panache user can spend and gain panache points in place of grit points, and vice versa.

A more apt comparison would be magus arcane pool and arcanist arcane reservoir, which share what little fluff they have even if they don't share uses.

[ATalsen]

Reaver
Reaver is the rogue-equivalent archetype (meshing PsiWar with Cryptic). I’m not a fan of either Rogues or Cryptics, I haven’t done much research into optimizing their abilities, so it will be harder for me to evaluate this fairly.

Archetype Compatibility: Reaver is not compatible with any other PsiWar archetype, existing or new to this doc.

Recommendation: Add a compatibility section in the playtest doc that lists what other archetypes the new archetypes are supposed to be compatible with. I assume that the authors already know this info when designing the new archetypes, so why make each playtester do that research for themselves? i know that info won't be in the finished product, but I think it would help with this phase.


Class Features lost: this is the list of what a base PsiWar gives up to take this archetype:

Class Skills (Changed, not lost)
Weapon & Armor (Changed, not lost)



Warrior's Path
Expanded Path
Path Skill: All
Path Skill: All
Secondary Path: All
Twisting Path
Pathweaving: All
Eternal Warrior


Class Skills: added rogue skills with the notable exception of Disable Device, which is important later as you can pick up Trapfinding, but not Disable Device in class. Increases skills so you can actually do the job of a rogue/skillmonkey.

Recommended: Add Disable Device as a class skill, or add it as a class skill if they pick up Trapbreaker.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Great selection of weapons; I love the addition of oriental ones. Drops armor down to light only, no shields, which is par for the course as a rogue-equivalent.

Encrypted Mind: There are a few Cryptic-only powers that might be useful (and are not already on the PsiWar list); I too see no reason why this needs to be limited to every other level - mostly the crypic only powers the PsiWar doesn’t already have access to are non-combat ones anyway, and a PsiWar simply doesn’t have the power points to over-utilize anything.

Best deal here seems to be picking up Metamorphosis, Minor for the disguise bonus, size increase or +2 to the stat of your choice for 1 power point.

Killer’s Target - Claim-like mechanic where you get a bonus to attack the target, but a penalty to attack others. You don’t break even on the bonus/penalty till 5th level (+2/-2), and it’s an insight bonus, so it’s a bonus type that PsiWars already have access to through powers.

Seems like this is meant to be the core of the class, but its weak and it cannot even be upgraded significantly via its selectable options (Reaver Insights). This needs something more to it, and it probably needs to drop the penalty.

Recommendation: If it were an actual ‘claim’ mechanic, then it could benefit from existing feats that buff claim mechanics (from PoW2), and that might make it worth-while.

Reaver Insights
Selectable options to customize your PsiWar.

Assume Pattern: As the psionic power mental semblance, so +30 to Disguise Checks to disguise yourself, but you cannot disguise yourself as any other creature type, even one that looks basically the same as you do. No duration limit, but costs focus and cannot regain focus while active.

HOWEVER, all you have to do is touch the target’s face, so cutting the head off a target or just the face flesh can get you a portable option to re-disguise yourself if you have to break the disguise at some point due to needing to use your focus or being discovered, etc.

Only useful in an infiltration-focused game; otherwise get/use Minor Metamorphoses for the +10 with only 1pp cost.


Bloody Instincts (Su): Upgrade to Killer’s Target, but a minor one at best. Since Fast healing, even fast healing 5 is not a big deal in combat, neither is bleed damage. It’s a minor extra damage boost that works better against PCs that tend to survive encounters and thus have to deal with the ongoing bleeding than on NPCs that usually die in their encounters.

Cryptic Insight: There looks to be some nice Cryptic insights available, so this could be really cool.

This has issues: “He treats his reaver level -4 as his cryptic level for qualifying for insights.”

The above specifies qualifying, but not using, so any insight that uses cryptic class level in it is severely hampered. I suggest amending this to something like “He treats his reaver level -4 as his cryptic level for insights selected this way, including selection level requirements.”

Cryptic insights access seems like a reason you would take this archetype, so I’d consider lowing the level penaltiy to -2.


Mass Murdering Instinct: Upgrade to Killer’s Target, but another minor one. You can ‘claim’ additional targets, so at least you can more successfully try to avoid taking that -2 penalty. Still since the base effect isn’t all that great, I’d say this is not worth a feat.

Not entirely clear if you can ‘cleanse’ just one target, or if you have to cleans all your selected targets at once; could use some clarification there.

Pattern Dislocate: Crit-based power, so only useful for crit-fisher builds. Bascially At the cost of your Psifocus, you can maybe (they get a fort save!) give the opponent a -2 to stuff for one round after you crit them. Even with a crit fisher build you probably have better things to do with your focus, and a feat.

Psionic Senses: has some implied limits that are not actually spelled out mechanically. I assume that “reaver’s senses with regards to his target” is intended to mean that they can ONLY use Scent and Blindsense against a killer’s target, but that’s not the rules-as-written that I actually get from the way the ability is described now. If its not intended that those senses only work on killer’s target, then it needs to be re-written away from that ambiguity as well.

If you get scent and blindsence free and clear, it’s a good class ability. If its limited to targets its probably not worth the feat slot, as very few targets ever get away (and if you could see them to select them, then they are not likely to be invisible or otherwise require blindsence).

Stealth Combat Training: Solid bonus to Bluff, Disguise, and Stealth checks while psionically focused. If you use these skills (i.e. an infiltration based campaign) and need the boost, it’s a good choice.

Trapbreaker: Solid choice for fulfilling the role of rogue. Trapfinding is not a very exciting or powerful ability, but its given good bonuses here, so for games that it will be useful in, this is a viable choice.

I think the wording here could use some revision to clarify how things do work. What I get from it is:

Trapfinding – Can disable magic traps. I assume it uses PsiWar levels and not rogue levels here for the skill bonuses, though its not specified.
Wisdom to Open Lock/Disable Traps
Disable Device vs lock or trap as full round action, for normal results of the skill. Normal skill use takes 1 round so this is generally not an improvement.
Disable Device as a standard action vs trap or lock by spending your Psionic Focus, breaking the trap or lock (whatever that means for a trap).
Does not require the use of tools (bonus); seems like it’s not allowed to use tools in conjunction with the specified options (If you don’t use this ability, the character can just use tools like normal, but they take the normal time too).
Cannot use the ‘standard action’ option to just open a lock, it has to break.


I’d make the breaking option, optional instead – its really nice to open a lock as a standard action, but it ruins covert operations to destroy it, and this class seems all about covert operations. Basically as it is, destroying seems like a drawback, or at least not in any way superior to just disarming/unlocking.

If Disable Device is not added as a class skill, add it as a class skill when you take this option.



Acrobatic Defense – AC and reflex save bonuses. Useful for a lighter armored character; doesn’t require the PC to stay in light armor, though, so a cross-trained PC can still wear heavy armor if desired. Reasonable ability, but not exciting.

Killer’s Instinct – Not very impressive. Minor bonus damage: +2 @ 4th to +12 @ 19th. Spend Focus to get +2d4 to +12d4.

Reaving Euphoria – Comes online at 9th level; regain focus by killing your target, but limited number of times per day? I don’t’ see a reason its limited in number of times per day. As a wisdom based class with lots of bonus feats this seems strictly inferior to just grabbing Psionic Meditation and calling it good – since it’s a limited resource its not available as a build-point for a character design, and if you wanted focus recovery, for your build you probably want it well before 9th level.

Corrupt Pattern – 18th level ability - sort of like gaining access to vile damage from 3.5.This is one of those abilities that benefits NPCs when they use it on PCs much more than PCs when they use it on NPCs, so I’m not really in favor of it. That said, its 18th level so the counters are readily available. This adds almost nothing to the combat ability of a PC; opponents that would come back still can. Healing is stymied, but aside from the vitalist in-combat healing isn’t all that great, and out of combat you can assume an NPC will be fixed up given the level this comes online.

Pattern Breaker – 20th level capstone. As before, I don’t see capstones as anything really important to evaluate.


Take Away:
Feels like the Archetype is designed to allow for a bounty hunter / tracker-assassin type, which is a great concept for an NPC, but for which PCs gain very little benefits (very few NPC opponents survive conflict with the PCs, and of those that do they have to be ones that the player wants to track down afterward).

It seems like it can fulfill the ‘rogue’ slot (without sneak attack, but with psionic powers instead, which is a fair trade), and I think it does this well. The skills and weapon/armor selection fit the theme very well.

It seems to shine in gaining access to some Cryptic options – a few powers and insights. You can probably build a good character off the insights and extra skills, and just ignore most of the rest of the stuff in this archetype.

It also provides some ‘infiltration’ options, but that’s only good in a handful of campaigns. Not a reason to ditch those abilities, just a note that its very campaign-specific.


There are multiple class abilities that seems too weak or just ignorable. I understand the thematic reason why focusing on a single target grants a penalty, but the bonus type is easily replicated in psionic powers, the penalty seems unnecessary, and the Reaver Insights that upgrade it are weak at best.

I’d rather have access to Rogue Talents or stalker arts or something.

I like Acrobatic Defense, but I’d gladly trade it an every other ability after it (Killer’s Instinct, Reaving Euphoria, Corrupt Pattern, & Pattern Breaker) for adding “pick a rogue talent/stalker art” to the list of pickable Reaver Insights.

I’d also trade in Killer’s Target as well right now, unless it gets some type of buff, but buffing it and making it a more central theme seems like a better design choice for the archetype.

[Mehangel]

Recommendation: Add a compatibility section in the playtest doc that lists what other archetypes the new archetypes are supposed to be compatible with. I assume that the authors already know this info when designing the new archetypes, so why make each playtester do that research for themselves? i know that info won't be in the finished product, but I think it would help with this phase.


I kind of wish that this was suggested for the Psionics Augmented: Soulknife playtest. Having a compatibility table with all the new archetypes would be very useful. I definitely second this for the Psychic Warrior playtest.

[ATalsen]

I kind of wish that this was suggested for the Psionics Augmented: Soulknife playtest. Having a compatibility table with all the new archetypes would be very useful. I definitely second this for the Psychic Warrior playtest.

From my own research it looks like none of the new archetypes are compatible with any other archetype, new or old.

I know DSP is putting in extra text to ensure future compatibility, but the complete lack of current compatibility kind of makes me wonder why the bother - seems clear the intention is to make these ones stand-alone archetypes, and if so, you can save word count by eliminating the extra text.

[ATalsen]

Pain Sculptor
This archetype starts out granting the ability to trade real HP for refreshable temp HP, then goes heavily into poison creation and use, allowing poison use against poison immune creatures.


Archetype Compatibility: Pain Sculptor is not compatible with any other PsiWar archetype, existing or new to this doc.

Pain Sculptor is the one archetype I’d like to see being compatible with several other archetypes. The fact that it gives up a bunch of bonus feats which is something that fewer other archetypes focus on giving up seems like it could be tailored a bit more in what it gives up to be ‘the archetype that give up feats’ making it costly but compatible.

Class Features lost: this is the list of what a base PsiWar gives up to take this archetype:

Psychic Proficiency
Bonus Feats: 1, 2, 5, 8, 11
Path Skill: 1st
Martial Power



This archetype gives up a LOT of bonus feats, so its clas features need to be very good to compete with those lost feats. Out of all the new archetypes, this one gives up the most – even Silhouette, which gives you a sort of new combatant doesn’t give up as much as this archetype does.


Pain Sculpting – The first pillar of the archetype. Basically you trade real HP for temp HP at a rate of
Losing 4 real to get 3 temp. However, the temp HP refresh after 5 minutes (faster at 3rd+ lvl by spending your focus).

This much is at best a break-even in many games. You reduce your effective HP to gain a refreshable pool, but that refreshable pools requires down time to recover and cannot benefit from healing in combat. Down time healing is usually available and plentiful, so if you have the 5 minutes you need to refresh your temp HP, you could have just healed your real HP back up.

Still, it’s a cool concept, and since the amount of HP you swap for temp HP is under your control, you can tailor it to your specific campaign.

Later on when you get the path option to spend your focus as a move action to regain ½ your temp HP pool, it becomes worth it, and the lack of in-combat healing stops being as much of an issue.


weakness and an immunity: this is where I start having an issue with the ability. It consists of three problematic parts:

You MUST pick a damage type (blunt, slashing, piercing) for which half will directly hit your real (untraded HP).
The ability works exactly opposite of every type of DR out there, which to me is just bad design. For example, if you had DR X/Slashing and were hit with a creature bite (which is all 3 base damage types), the DR is bypassed. Instead in this case, this feature is NOT bypassed.
Just OWNING this ability means that ALL your temp hp (from say the Vigor power) follow this rule, so even if you decide not to trade any HP for temp HP, the moment you get temp HP from elsewhere, you have to start worrying about what damage type bypasses those temp HP.



While I get the balance point of the way it works, this turns weapon damage types on its ear in a bad way. It raises questions like how to do just one type of damage with a weapon that does multiple types, and that’s not a question that is satisfactorily answered either by forbidding it or allowing it as a DM. (I get that it’s not allowed by the rules)


I think the trade of HP:Temp is worth the 1st level feat – its an interesting choice – but not with the wonky DR.


Recommendation: Something needs to be done here. The trade of real HP for Temp HP is pretty break even, but the pseudo DR really should just be regular DR, at most, and have no “hit your real hp” effect. There used to be an option to take no immunity and no vulnerability, but I think that was removed because it was the option that most would have selected.

If the vulnerability stays, it needs to NOT interact with temp HP gained from other sources than traded HP.

I’d give up more than 1 feat for this ability, if I could get it without the vulnerability.



The other ‘half’ of this archetype looks to be about poisons. I’m not a fan of poisons, from their alignment issues to their mechanics; however I’ll try to evaluate this based on if the class uses them well.

Synthesize Poison - Bonus to crafting poisons, faster and cheaper poison creation. With the fact that they get access to ectoplasmic creation, only the bonus really matters, but if we are going the poisoner route, a bonus is a good ability to get.


Warrior’s Path - assigns a specific path, the new Pain Sculpting Path. I can see why it’s a mandatory assignment, since parts of the path are woven into the use of other archetype abilities so intrinsically.


Powers: Ectoplasmic creation, Vigor. Poison based PCs take the ecto creation, hands down. Free poisons from then on, assuming a good craft skill.


Trance: You can voluntarily take bleeding damage when struck. This makes little sense until you get to later parts where you see that this is supposed to be the trigger to spray blood at opponents for various effects. However it kind of doesn’t work: See the feat triggers when an OPPONENT deals you bleed damage, but the trance allows you to take bleed damage yourself – not the same thing. I know the trance has this line: “If a pain sculptor is immune to an attack, she may choose to take 1 point of bleed damage from it to trigger her Blood Spurt feat”, but that line doesn’t change how the feat requires an opponent to poses the bleed ability, and if it did, it would still only trigger when the PsiWar was immune to the attack.

Now, you CAN use your Trance to spend a standard action to spurt blood since the trance includes this line: “This counts as a special ability that deals bleed damage for the purpose of voluntarily triggering the Blood Spurt feat.”

You can take more than 1 point of bleed damage if desired, but why you would ever need more than 1 point of bleed, I don’t know, as none of the abilities of this archetype depend on the amount of bleed damage taken.


Recommendation: For Trance, this needs rework if it is to do what I assume the intention is, which is to trigger Blood Spurt when attacked. Simply saying that you can treat an attack as if it dealt bleed damage for the purposes of activating the Blood Spurt feat should do the trick.

My understanding of the Blood Spurt feat is that it activates on getting hit with an attack that deals bleed damage, NOT that it activates each time to take bleed damage, nor does it activate more times or in some improved way if you take multiple points of bleed damage.

Given the above, the section that talks about being able to convert more damage to bleed at 7th needs to go – there is no benefit to taking more bleed. Or there needs to be some type of benefit added, of course.

Maneuver: spend your focus to recover half your temp hp pool. This makes the temp hp pool an effective ability. Anyone going this route will want the psi-meditation feat to get their focus back quickly

Recommendation: Uncouple the temp HP recovery from the path trance (granting it elsewhere), and allow the selection of any path, including this one. What this would do is mean this path is the ‘poison’ path, allowing a player to take this archetype for either the temp HP, OR the poison aspects, but not requiring both. Sure they would still get the other poison related powers other than the path, but without being able to create poisons, really all they do is absorb them when they happen, and that seems alignment-friendly.

Basically, the ‘carrot’ on taking this path for a character that wants to use poison is big enough, that the ‘stick’ of requiring it is unnecessary.





Internal Contagion Engine - Gains Blood Spurt as a bonus feat, so that with the above (potentially reworked) Trance feature you can optionally spray blood when hit to for fort save to temporarily blind and *remove poison immunity* on a foe. DC based on your Con or Wis (your choice).

It’s a fort save, and doesn’t specify objects, so it seems like its safe enough to assume this cannot remove poison immunity from undead and constructs, which is good for game balance and verisimilitude.

Additionally, gain a typeless bonus to save vs poisons of your Wis mod, negating and storing the poison internally if you succeed on its save. Now, since its not just the 1st save (the one that says your affected or not) that allows you to store and negate the poison, even if your effected at first, any subsequent successful save allows you to negate it (assumedly any subsequent saves), and store it.

You can ‘spurt’ a stored poison when you use Blood Spurt, and the poison DC is based on your Con mod or Wis mod, not the real poison DC, so weaker poisons become more effective (and strong poisons probably are weakened).

You get the feat at 2nd level, but nothing says you gain the ability only at second level, so while you cannot spurt poison out at 1st level, you can absorb it from level 1 onward; coupled with the unlimited storage, in a poison heavy campaign you might end up storing quite e a few poisons doing your 1st level of this class, for use later.

Given the current wording of this ability, its clear that you can use any poison with it, such as ingested poisions, not just contact or injury poisons. Ingested poisons are somewhat nastier than others due to the onset and vector restrictions which this ability eliminates.


This ability costs one bonus feat and is a whole lot for that one feat, erring on too much, but its seems ok for the whole lot of bonus feats you give up for the archetype as a whole.

Recommendations: Just grant the whole ability at 2nd level, including the bonus feat. Relies on a fix to Trance to work spontaneously when stuck, as noted in Trance.


Tainted Blades – allows you to apply your Catalyst Rot (removes poison immunity) and a dose of poison to a weapon (or store in a vial). Ok, so a PsiWar is immune their own poison, right, but Catalyst Rot *removes immunity to poison immunity* and the PsiWar does not gain the Poison Use class ability, so they risk poisoning themselves using this ability, and as per Internal Contagion Engine, cannot reabsorb them, so if a PsiWar screws up, they suck up the whole poison routine, at their own DCs…


Recommendation: Clarify the interaction of your own or another PsiWar’s Catalyst Rot with these class abilities. Also, since this is a poisoner class, grant the Poison Use class ability when you pick up Tainted Blades.


High Blood Pressure – squirt blood (along with Catalyst Rot and a dose of poison) at longer ranges. Requires attack roll at longer distances. Seems like a reasonable improvement to the previous abilities.


Bloody Mist – Standard action (& take some bleed damage) to squirt blood in a 15ft cone. Cone length improves by distance. Another reasonable upgrade to the previous abilities.


Contamination – create a 10x10 cloud of Catalyst Rot + poison within short range – longer ranges available as High Blood Pressure increases in range. At 10x10 you’re only going to catch 1 or two opponents to start with, but with a 1 min duration, it can be used as a soft-area denial ability. Nothings says that clouds can’t overlap, so you can make an area more dangerous with more time and doses of poison. Sounds like a good ability.


Creeping Corruption – allows the cloud from Contamination to auto-seek opponents of a particular description, moving 60 ft per round. Creepy, but its an 11th level ability that virtually guarantees an opponent you are fighting stays in the cloud and has to make its save every round.



Take aways:

There seems to be two aspects to this archetypes, the temp HP tradeoff, and the poison-meister

The temp HP portion is (to me) the most interesting and smallest part of the class. I can’t say there’s much more to give it, but maybe at higher levels have a 1:1 ration for HP to temp HP.

I’d like to see it broken up such that you have more of a choice about taking/using the two aspects by separating out the recovery mechanics from the path and allowing other path choices: do you want the temp hp, the poisoning, or both.

I feel like the mechanics for a ‘Catalyst Rot laced poison’ could be condensed from the several locations that it exists (in various forms) in the several class abilities into one section that details it out. I’d give that section a name (or call it its own class ability) and just refer to it from the other abilities. It saves space, requires the reader only read it one time, and could help unify mechanics (don’t; they all do the same thing really: remove poison immunity, use the Blood Spurt DC and cost a dose of poison fi you want to use a poison)


The obvious application for the poison aspect of this archetype is to craft poisons that are easy to save against, so they can be absorbed easily, but which would be devastating on opponents with a higher DC – such as Drow poison (fort save or unconscious; normal DC is only 13 – this is unconscious, not sleeping, so no waking early). Ingested poisons like Oil of taggit are also an option (unconscious for hours). One failed poison save effectively kills an opponent, even ones normally immune to poison. I suppose you can’t take down undead and constructs with this, but I think everything else is fair game.

This archetype gives up a lot, but its ability to use poison to against almost any target, with no onset time, makes it (IMO brokenly too good) worth the cost if you go that route. If you only wanted the refreshable temp HP, its probably more costly than you want to pay.

[ATalsen]

Silhouette
This archetype is about creating an expendable, permanent duration servant construct who has limited ability to attack and limited range from the PsiWar.

Archetype Compatibility: Silhouette may be compatible with Traceur or Pathwalker which overlap it in the Path Skills 1 and 2, but for where Silhouette says that archetypes that replace Path Skills are still compatible.

EDIT: I missed that Silhouette also costs the 2nd bonus feat, making it incompatible with either Traceur or Pathwalker, so this archetype is like the others and not compatible with any other archetype new or old.


Although it gives up remarkably little in the way of class features, it’s still incompatible with most other archetypes.

Class Features lost: this is the list of what a base PsiWar gives up to take this archetype:

Warrior's Path
Bonus Feats: 1, 2
Expanded Path
Path Skill: 1, 2
Martial Power (Changed)


Shadowboxing – The core ability of the Silhouette: create a construct called ‘Your Shadow’ the same size, AC, saves and speed as you, half your HP, with BAB based on your PsiWar levels (so it has full BAB if you take nothing but PsiWar levels), and Str/Dex equal to your Wisdom. It can use any combat or Teamwork feat the PsiWar has (ones requiring attacks are of limited use, but there are some options that free Your Shadow up to attack).

It is limited in range to Close – if it strays farther it reappears at your square; you can use this as a feature instead of a limit with careful positioning, allowing it to move out of range so as to return to you. You do NOT need line of sight or line of effect to Your Shadow.

You get one free at the start of your day, and you can only have one at a time. You can replace it for the cost of 1pp per PsiWar level… which encourages you to take as FEW PsiWar levels as you need to get what you want from ‘Your Shadow’. In fact this appears to be a very dip-able class archetype for certain applications, like just grabbing a flanking buddy.


Your Shadow has a limitation where it generally cannot attack, but it CAN take any non-attack actions that you want it to, and it threatens its area. So it’s a great flanking partner, for example – possibly a 2 level dip into PsiWar for a Sneak Attack class would give a flanker that can be re-created for 2pp if it dies, and can take any non-attack (and unskilled) actions you want. And it’s HP will grow with you PC since it always has half yours.

Now, this isn’t too much more abuseable than simply taking the Unlocked Talent for Astral Construct, but the permanent duration does allow you to provide it equipment (and equipment of your own size, unlike a small 1 power point astral construct), and the ability to see and hear through it allows some legitimately finer manipulation than astral construct.

Although probably not intended it seems like a way to deliver and trigger Explosive Runes next to one or more opponents. The Detonate ability is way more powerful than this, though …

Recommendation: Find some way other than class level to increase the power point cost of the Shadow when you need to recreate it. I’d suggest that each feature (Shadow Talents, Shadow Skills, Martial Power, etc) you give it also have a power point cost increase, and be optional, so that you can choose to create it without the feature for cheaper. You would still get one free shadow with full features at the start of the day.

Typo: “A silhouette is always aware of his shadow’s relative position to him, and can use his see, hear, and otherwise use his senses” Probably intended to say ‘can use his sight and hearing’ or something to that effect.

Shadow Talents - these selectable options improve Your Shadow.


Detonation: Standard Action and spend your focus to deliver 1d6 damage per PsiWar level to a 10 ft radius around your shadow, Ref Save for half. Typeless damage, and it spells out that its not affected by resistance, hardness, etc. Doesn’t actually blow up your shadow, as it just reappears in your space; and if it blows up near you, you are unaffected… So Explosive Runes is kind of already a trick this guy can pull, but with Psi-Meditation you can do this damage Every Round.

I was worried about the Halo Knight being overly blasty, but with this one ability, possibly augmented by the Far-Reaching Shadow option for increased range, this is more damage, cheaper. And don’t forget that he shadow shares your movement speeds so if you can fly, it can fly.

Far-Reaching Shadow: Increase range from short to medium. Allows scouting with the shadow, and having it go to nearby places you just don’t want to.

Follow-up Flurry: Extra attack by the shadow at -5 if ti hits with its follow up ability. Not all the impressive compared to other options.

Follow-up Frenzy: Another limited extra attack,, and at -10; still not impressive.

Free-Range Shadow: Increase range from medium to long. Campaign specific or specific to the (ab)use you plan to put your shadow to, but its here when you need that extra range.

Grasping Shadow: Gain and USE combat reflexes without requiring Limit Break. Build an AoO type PsiWar since you already share your combat feats with your shadow, and you can get twice the AoOs you normally would.

Limit Break: at the cost of a standard action your shadow removes its attacking limit and can do any attack stuff you want, while you do other things with your move action and swift action. Look into the quickened metapsionic to use that swift action for buffing you and it, since it shares your powers.

Perfect Double: The shadow now looks like you and you can talk thru it. This, some range options and Limit break, and you never have to really be in a fight for real if you don’t want to, and no one will know the difference. Go to dangerous meetings unafraid, etc.

Shadow Consumption: you can foist some of your damage off on your shadow. Ok option, but not one of the more creatively abuseable ones.

Share Manifestation: target powers as if in the shadows square. Would be more interesting except PsiWar has limited abilities to capitalize on this. Maybe using Metaconcert with a full manifester class character and some ranged options this could be of use.

Share Training: OH YEAH! Share a ‘type’ of feat with your shadow, including ‘untyped’! You already share your Combat and Teamwork feats, but now you can share others.

Share your Shifting feats (Lords of the Wild) and make a highly mobile and defensive shadow. Share your untyped feats pick up Unlocked Talent for Astral Construct, and now my shadow has access to Astral construct, and like 4 power points to use it, for a bunch more expendable flankers. Or any other 1st level power you might want. And killing/recreating the shadow is going to replace its power point pool, naturally. Pick this up multiple times and many feat-based builds can be effectively doubled. Given the variety of feats, this is THE option to optimize the silhouette archetype from.

Recommendation: untyped feats are usually untyped for a reason. Probably do not allow sharing them.

Split Shadow: Free extra shadow, and extra flanker, but limited pool of actions. Still mostly triples your AoOs if you mix this with an AoO build and Grasping Shadow, even if you count both the shadows AoO pool as one thing, which I don’t think is actually implied.

Recall: Call your shadow back and become focused. Ok I guess, but probably not needed as the shadow can probably either move to you or just move out of range.

Transposition: Allows you to trade places with your shadow. Take Split shadow, and some range options, keep one in a safer place, like close to the healer (heck use that one to help defend the healer) and you and the other go offensive. Then blink back to the healer as needed. Mix with Perfect Double for confusion as to who is who.

Twin Blades: get an extra weapon if you are wielding an extra one, and can use its follow up to attack with both using two weapon fighting rules. Its nice to be able to get both a reach weapon and, say, armor spikes to keep your threatened area unbroken. Potentially useful ability, but not a big deal.


Recommendations: Wow I’m not sure what to say. I like many of the abilities, but I can see a well-built AoO build being the way to kick serious butt right now. The Detonation ability either needs to cost the shadow, or needs to be toned down – it’s effectively a guided missile with the shadow moving to the optimal place each round and then BOOM, while the PsiWar recovers his focus, ready to do it again.



Shadow Skills: At level 7 you can give your shadow a skill you possess. Like use Magic Device! As long as it’s not an attack, your shadow can perform the action freely, so it can summon creatures for you, heal for you, etc. All without taking your action. You can also give it things like Stealth instead so it can scout for you, and in a lower wealth game that can be a better choice.

Martial Power: grab another Shadow Talent or keep your martial power class feature – choice is yours. This will depend on your build but with all the really wicked Shadow Talents its probably going into that.



Take Aways:
Doubling your presence on the battlefield seems pretty powerful, and this archetype doesn’t give up a whole lot to get that ability. I expect the way that the shadow copies many of the PsiWars stats and abilities will prove to be fertile ground for heavy optimization.

Sharing feats via Share Training also looks to be an optimization playground.

The Shadow Grasp ability not being limited by the shadows attack limit seems open for abuse.

The Detonate ability does your level in d6’s to a 10ft area, and with one extra feat can do it every round. If this stays in, and it turns out that silhouette is compatible with War Soul where Halo Knight is not, then I’m gona be quite disappointed in the balance of the product. I figure DSP will fix things, though.

Looks like there are options that specifically allow the PsiWar to hide out while their shadow does all the fighting, costing them some power points to re-create the shadow if it dies.

[ATalsen]

Ok, that’s it for review of the current state of the new PsiWar archetypes.!

I tried to write it up in a sort of ‘handbook’ style, so as to show what might be (too) optimizable, what might be weaker, etc.

The only other part I’m going to look at right now is one of the powers; I’ll leave the feats and other parts until I see what, if anything is going to change in the archetypes themselves.



New Power: Mental Semblance
This is a telepathy power, that works somewhat identically to the disguise self spell, just with a bigger bonus (+30) and being a higher level power (3rd level).

This is a mind-affecting ability, and doesn’t have the [mind-affecting] tag on the power name – that needs correction

Honestly, for a third level power I’m expecting some more mechanical benefits than just a big bonus – like being able to masquerade as things NOT of my own type.

Heck, the way it is now, it’s actually more limited than disguise self, as disguise self doesn’t have the line of “and must have the same configuration of limbs”, Mental Semblance is mind-affecting so it doesn’t fool lots of creatures that disguise self does, and it requires you touch the target you are going to look like, which disguise self also doesn’t require.

This is a trap power as it is right now; it is severely inferior to a 1st level spell in what it can do; the only benefit is a higher bonus. For utility and safety (not being easily discovered, long term use) it loses hands down to a hat of disguise (an under 2K gp item).

Recommendation: I’d rather see it say “as disguise self, except as noted here”, and be exactly like disguise self, including starting at +10, and being only a 1st level power, and just be augmentable for a higher bonus.

If that route is undesirable, then it should free itself up in what it can imitate – for a 3rd level, [mind affecting] power, that requires you touch the creature to be imitated it should be able to imitate any creature within one size category of you, regardless of type.

[Forrestfire]

While I'm not actively involved in this playtest, there's two things I wanted to weigh in on for the Silhouette:


Good catch on the wonkiness of psychic warrior level pp costs for getting the shadow back. That was not an intended interaction with building, so I've changed it to character level, since the shadow in general scales on your base stats.
You missed that it also gives up the bonus feat at level 2. You must take a shadow talent at 2nd level, breaking compatibility with the Pathwalker archetype and other archetypes that eat that bonus feat. Likewise, it replaces Warrior's Path, which Pathwalker alters, so it wouldn't be able to take that archetype anyway.


Other than that hotfix, I'll let the rest of your feedback be handled by the people in charge of the playtest itself. I just had a moment of spare time and saw this. Thanks again for your feedback and review.

[Extra Anchovies]

I don't have much play experience with the PsyWar, and don't have any actual games to playtest in, but one thing strikes me about the Halo Knight when I look at it again. It seems like they get a fair chunk more than they give up - the only combat ability they lose is their secondary path as far as I can tell. I think that's a fair trade for the later-level HK abilities, but the archetype also brings a bunch of strong early-game stuff. In particular, trading out Psionic Proficiency for Wis deflection to AC looks like a very good deal, as do most of the anima skills. Am I undervaluing Psionic Proficiency and/or the other stuff that Halo Knight gives up?

[ATalsen]

Good catch on the wonkiness of psychic warrior level pp costs for getting the shadow back. That was not an intended interaction with building, so I've changed it to character level, since the shadow in general scales on your base stats.

That makes more sense, and puts almost a hard-stop to dipping: non-psionic class that you mix with won't increase power points, so at some point you will only get the one free shadow per day.



You missed that it also gives up the bonus feat at level 2. You must take a shadow talent at 2nd level, breaking compatibility with the Pathwalker archetype and other archetypes that eat that bonus feat. Likewise, it replaces Warrior's Path, which Pathwalker alters, so it wouldn't be able to take that archetype anyway.


Pathwalker, Warrior's Path (Ex) says this:
"This class feature functions as normal, but the psychic warrior must select from the warrior paths presented below."

Which I take to mean that it is not considered altered for the purposes of Archetypes.

But I *did* somehow miss the use of the 2nd level feat, and that totally does make it incompatible with pathwalker!

[Forrestfire]

Pathwalker, Warrior's Path (Ex) says this:
"This class feature functions as normal, but the psychic warrior must select from the warrior paths presented below."

Which I take to mean that it is not considered altered for the purposes of Archetypes.

But I *did* somehow miss the use of the 2nd level feat, and that does make it incompatible with pathwalker.

While that is true, thanks to the FAQ on archetype stacking, it counts as altering the ability by the rules (just like something adding things to a bonus feat list but not taking anything away does).

[ErrantX]

Made some updates based on feedback to the Halo Knight and to the Reaver.

Halo Knight -
Made some alterations to some of the Anima Skills, adjusted a few things and added a new one to aid in buffing one's self.

Reaver -
Some more significant changes to its mechanics. Killer's Target is now Killer's Claim and uses the Claim mechanics introduced by the Harbinger (also works with Claim feats!). Changed several of the insights as well. Clarified some data on the capstone and killer's instinct.

-X

[ErrantX]

Bumping the thread to see if anyone else has any input on the archetypes, etc within this document.

-X

[ATalsen]

Are there any updates coming for Pain Sculptor, Silhouette or any other items?

[ATalsen]

Looking at the new powers, I was thinking that there were powers to Steal, Transfer and Explode animus, but none to create it!

I thought it might be harder to build one that created animus and still kept it balanced against other options, didn't allow it out of combat, etc, but then I thought - DSP already HAS those rules in the Tap Animus feat, so writing the power would require significantly less word count and re-iteration of rules.

So why not a power that gives the user the Tap Animus feat for a duration?

Say a 2nd or 3rd level power that for 10min/lvl gives the Tap Animus feat (or the increased animus pool feat, if the user already has an animus pool). The player would then be trading a power selection and power points for a specific feat, which would generally be a pretty balanced trade.

Then you could add some cool augment options like potentially an augment to use the power on another character and/or an augment costing say +4pp to add a bonus of 1 Animus to your pool once a round whenever you would normally gain animus.




EDIT (10/1/2016)

For the Silhouette, I gave low marks to the Follow-up Flurry/Follow-up Frenzy selections, but I didn't give a suggestion for a fix. I think the fix is simply combining them.

I think the two 'follow up' selections fall into the trap that many feats do, which is too little for too much (they require 2 feats and activate only on misses), however if it was simply one selection that scaled with the shadow's BAB, that seems like a reasonable choice.

If they auto-scaled, you would not even need the level requirements; the ability could just be written that it gives one extra at shadow BAB 6 and another at shadow BAB 11. that way players could take it early if it fit their build, but it never comes online until 6th+.

[ErrantX]

Thank you for that feedback!

Forrest and I talked it over, we feel that changing the follow up attack skills on Silhouette would be too efficient then. As far a power to generate animus, that breaks the general theme of its an in-combat resource only, so a power would be able to generate it whenever. No go as far as I am concerned.

----

As another note, the Pain Sculptor is getting pulled back for further design work by Forrest to be released at a later time, but all the rest is going to stick around. We'll be sending this one to the printers, so to speak in the PDF world, pretty soon so consider this the 11th hour for any additional feedback!

-X

[ATalsen]

As far a power to generate animus, that breaks the general theme of its an in-combat resource only, so a power would be able to generate it whenever. No go as far as I am concerned.

I figured that making animus available out of combat was a no go, which is why I suggested the power grant the Tap Animus feat for a duration - a feat that only gives animus in combat.

I totally understand if its not something you want to to build, it just seemed like you misunderstood my suggestion!


I see the fluff as something like 'you psychicly build a reservoir within you, ready to hold Animus when you enter combat', or the like.




Forrest and I talked it over, we feel that changing the follow up attack skills on Silhouette would be too efficient then.

Those extra attacks seemed pretty weak to me, so, if you have time, can you offer a bit of your thoughts on why they are good/useful/powerful?

I'm viewing them sort of as a re-roll, so worth about a +2 to hit on average. Maybe I'm just not seeing the way they need to be used. Do you figure the shadow will be buffed enough that even with the penalty they have a significant chance to hit?

[Vhaidara]

I'm viewing them sort of as a re-roll, so worth about a +2 to hit on average. Maybe I'm just not seeing the way they need to be used. Do you figure the shadow will be buffed enough that even with the penalty they have a significant chance to hit?

Just popping in for math: Rerolls are worth about +4.5 on average. Ignoring the decreased chance of a natural one and the increased chance of a natural 20.

[ATalsen]

Just popping in for math: Rerolls are worth about +4.5 on average. Ignoring the decreased chance of a natural one and the increased chance of a natural 20.

My understanding of the math is that the actual bonus a re-roll is equivalent to varies based on where in the bell curve you are. For example a re-roll is worth less if you need a very high number.


Here's a post that gives an example of it being worth a bit more than 3.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18963218&postcount=16

I'm not sure exactly how much it is worth in this case because, while I'm looking at it as if it were a re-roll, the actual mechanics is that it’s a new roll by someone else entirely (your shadow) that could have a different To Hit than you did as well. So... It’s worth is going to vary a lot.

[meemaas]

I know this is a bit delayed for mentioning this, and I hope this isn't considered bumping, since it is actual feedback.

For the Halo Knight, looking at the Anima Skills, namely Anima Infusion and Empowered Halation, I notice that they are marked as being available at levels 6 and 9 respectively, even though the psychic warrior doesn't get anima skills at those levels to begin with. The bonus feats progress every three levels starting at level 2, so the first levels they would be available would be 8 and 11 respectively. Is this intended or an oversight?

[phlidwsn]

Any word on when this might make it to release? I have a new game I'd love to play a silhouette for, but selling 3rd party to the DM is hard enough, I'd never get 3rd party playtest through.

Edit: I got word elsewhere that this will be one of their next releases, they're just putting together the artwork and such for publication.