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EquilibriumBear
2019-04-07, 12:04 AM
Hello, first time poster at the behest of a friend(whom I think is tired of my constant questioning whether something is "okay" or not). I'm currently working on a Rogue-esk Psychic Warrior type creation that I've revised in a number of ways to make it more suitable for play in the game I'm playing in currently.

Here is the class in question: https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Psychic_Stalker_(3.5e_Class)

And here are my custom revisions. I've yet to get started on the specifics of what powers they should be able to manifest, so please disregard what has been listed as their spell list, as I'm almost certain I'm just going to use Psychic Warrior's list, or work on a power list for the future.

From what I can gather, this class is supposedly a Lurk(CP) rendition.

Psychic Stalker Changelog

HD changed from d6 to d8

Gain the ability to use "Talents," the equivilent of a 0 level power. The Psychic Stalker gains 3, drawn from the Psion/Wilder 0 level power list.
(A standard for Psionic manifesting classes.)

Change Power Points to Psychic Warrior's progression.
(Being able to use 2 powers, fully augmented, at-will, for free is pretty intense. I feel this change is needed.)

Change the Maximum Power Level Known to the Psychic Warriors progression.
(Having 7th level powers didn't make sense thematically, or balance wise for the class.)

"Psychic Stealth" now reads as "The Psychic Stalker may add their Wisdom bonus to Stealth. At 5th level, you gain the Darkstalker feat from Lords of Madness."

Added the ability "One with the Shadow" at 2nd level. "One with the Shadow" allows the user to mark a location with a ritual of conveyance to bestow blessings of silence and subtly to the user. The user gains a +1 to Bluff, Stealth, and Sleight of Hand checks while within this region. The area extends to the very edges of the city or village they have marked. If they instead choose to mark a location that doesn't have an apparent boundary, the range becomes Long(400ft+40ft for every class level), and has a area of effect of Burst. Marking a area takes a full-round action. The bonus to this effect increases by +1 for every other level after they obtain it(+2 at 4th, +3 at 6th, etc). A Psychic Stalker may only have a number of areas marked in this way up to 1/2 their class level+Wisdom Mod.

Mental Assault: Your Mind Thrust, and Recall Agony powers now cost nothing, but are still treated as if having spent the point for the purposes of augmentation. Cannot be used if you have no power points in reserve.

Psychic Augments: You can make any number of augmentations to your attacks, but are limited to your manifesting level for the amount you can spend in any one round. Making changes where appropriate to the Augments themselves. If the augment calls for a save, use 10+1/2CL+Wis Mod. Psychic Augments are only active for the round you activate them on. Psychic Augments are treated as a separate effect when determining the augmentation of powers, meaning you can fully augment a power, and fully augment a psychic augment to your maximum level in the same round. You must choose to use these before making an attack.

1st level: Guided Weapons: You may spend 1 power point to add a +1 as a bonus to your attack, CMB, and damage rolls. This applies to all your attacks in the round. Every 4 class levels(4th, 8th, etc) this bonus increases by an additional 1.

1st level: Ravage: You may spend 1 power point to add 1d6 to the damage you roll on an attack, for every additional 2 power points you spend, you may add another 1d6 to the damage rolled. This applies to all successful hits on a flat-footed target for the round. This damage is not multiplied on a critical hit, neither is it treated as precision damage.

1st level: Unbalancing Strike: You may expend your psionic focus to cause a struck opponent to become flat-footed until the end of your next turn.

3rd level: Telekinetic Attack: You may spend 3 power points to gain the ability to shove your opponent 10ft in a direction of your choosing, and then knock them prone on a failed Reflex save. For every additional 2 power points you spend, the distance is increased by an additional 10ft. Alternatively, if the target collides with an obstacle(wall, enemy, etc) they take an additional 1d6 points of damage for every 10ft of movement left in the movement and are not knocked prone. The obstacle halts further movement of this ability.

5th level: Crippling Attack: You may spend 5 power points to attempt to stagger your opponent for 1 round on a failed Fortitude save. On a successful save they do not become staggered. For every additional 2 power points you spend, increase the DC of the save by 1. If you spend 4 additional power points augmenting this ability, they instead become stunned on a failed save.

7th level: Mindflay: You may spend 7 power points to deal 2 points of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage to a struck creature on a failed Will save. For every 2 additional points, the damage and the DC increases by 1.

9th level: Essence Reaver: You may spend your psionic focus to reave the energy from a creature, you gain 50% of the damage dealt as a temporary bonus to your power points. These temporary power points last until the end of your next turn.

11th level: Prism of Disaster: You may spend 11 power points in order to change the damage of your attack to any base element such as Fire/Electricity/Cold. For an additional 2 power points you may instead change it to Acid/Sonic. For an additional 4 power points you may instead change it to Force.

13th level: Stygian Strike: You may spend 13 power points to deal 1d4 negative levels to a creature struck. For every 2 additional power points spent, the amount of negative levels is increased by +1(1d4+1, 1d4+2, etc).

15th level: Synaptic Disconnect: You may spend 15 power points to cause your opponent to be unable to access their magical ability for 1 round on a failed Will save. You can spend 2 additional power points to increase the DC and duration by 1.

17th level: Eject: You may spend 17 power points to force the opponent into the plane of Shadow on a failed Reflex save. The user can choose to return whoever has been sent away back to their originating plane.

19th level: Greater Essence Reave: You may expend your psionic focus to tear a greater amount of power points from your target. You now gain a temporary amount of power points equal to the damage you have dealt, these power points last until the end of your next turn.

AC Bonus talent renamed to "Anticipation" and changed to "Anticipation: Upon selecting this talent, you gain your wisdom modifier to AC while psionically focused. You may only benefit from this while wearing light armor, or unarmored."
(Change added to fit more in line with how the ability functions in other classes)

Changed "Insightful Dodge" to instead read "While psionically focused you may make a reflex save in place of a fortitude or will save. You may expend your psionic focus to cause an attack that would have hit you to miss. You must be at least 9th level in order to select this Talent."

Changed the ability "Sublime Stalker," so it now becomes "You may only select this talent if you meet the prerequisites. The first time you select this talent you gain Martial Training 1. This talent can be taken up to six times, and each time you do, the level of "Martial Training" is increased to the next tier. When selecting this feature you may only choose from the Disciplines of Riven Hourglass, Sleeping Goddess, or Veiled Moon. You gain Knowledge (Martial) as a class skill after the first time you select this feat. Additionally, you gain a +1 bonus to the associated discipline skill every time you choose this feat. When you have selected this feature three times in total, you gain the feat "Instant Clarity," however, you gain additional uses of Instant Clarity based on the number of times you have selected this feature thereafter. 4/day when you select Sublime Stalker for the fourth time, and 5/day when you select it for the fifth time. The Sixth, and final time you take this feature, you gain Discipline Expertise, Discipline Focus, and Discipline Mastery for your selected discipline."
(Holy ****, I did it.)

Added "Psionic Feat" to the list of available Stalker Talents. This Bonus Feat must be a psionic feat for which she meets the prerequisites.

Added "Stalker Art" to the list of available Stalker Talents. You may only select Alacrity, Combat Art, Combat Precognition, Critical Edge, Critical Training(instead of increasing your deadly strike, this will grant you the ability to use "Focal Point" without spending the initial 1 power point, but are still treated as having spent it for the purposes of augmentation), Fear Monger, Mind Bending, Obfuscation, Precocious Step, and Rogue Talents(same restrictions).

Undetectable Mind: Change progression of acquiring the abilities to "At 2nd level you gain the effects of Conceal Thoughts while psionically focused. At 9th level, you gain the effects of the Nondetection spell while psionically focused. At 15th level you gain the effects of Mind Blank while psionically focused." Also removed reference containing Darkstalker acquisition.

At 13th level, you gain the ability to instantly transport yourself, and others as per the "Psychoport" power to a location that you have previously marked with "One with the Shadow." This ability is a standard action. You use your manifester level for this ability. You may use this once per day at 13th level, and another time per day at 16th, and 19th levels. At 20th level, you may use this ability any number of times per day, and the ability instead functions as "Greater Psychoport."

Shadowmind changed to read as "Your metamorphosis of shadow has henceforth transformed you into a partial shadow creature. At 20th level you can choose to assume this form as a swift action, or as an immediate action if you spend your psionic focus. While you are using this, you may not use Power Points whatsoever(powers, class features, etc), and the power points you do have act as a temporary hp pool. You also gain the effects of Greater Blink, and may expend your psionic focus to overcome effects that would allow creatures to see you, such as True Seeing, or See Invisibility. Additionally, while you are psionically focused, your movement is treated as a quasi-teleportation, as you traverse through the plane of shadow. Your movement ignores difficult terrain, obstacles, and you do not provoke attacks of opportunity. Force effects still prevent your movement, as you are somewhat on the material plane."

Edit: Added "PEACH" to title.

Maat Mons
2019-04-07, 03:21 AM
I feel the class you've chosen to use as your starting point is ... not good. I'd start with Psychic Rogue (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b) instead. Granted, it has its own problems, but it should be a lot easier to fix than Psychic Stalker.

Wisdom seems like the least-appropriate stat for a class like this. Rogues are know for Intelligence and Charisma.

I don't see why there should exist a mechanic for spending power points to improve attacks. Psionic characters can already spend power points to improve their attacks. They just manifest self-buff powers. And if you want to encourage round-to-round variation and make it possible to nova with weapon attacks, just create swift-action self-buffs that last for 1 round.

If you want to give at-will abilities that are like psionic powers, why not give psi-like abilities? If you set the manifester level to 1/2 class level, they should be on par with reserve feats.

sandmote
2019-04-07, 07:34 PM
General Stuff:
I'm going to suggest adding a class table for what you're working on. Makes it a bit easier to follow the class's progression.

Overall, I think the link Maat provided is more usable than the Psychic stalker being used as a base. Keeping sneak attack means you need to write fewer special abilities to compensate for the classes' base strength.

On to actually responding to the homebrew:

The base class has given up the bonus feats and a slight amount of psionic powers (in number and level) compared to a psion, and given up trap finding and sneak attacks from a rogue. And they have basically more skill points (see Psychic Stealth), the better BAB from the base class, both stronger saves, the larger hit die, and the better equipment proficiency.

Definitely agree with the reduction to psionics and nerfing Psychic Stealth. Although I wouldn't increase the size of the hit die above the rogue's.

Ravage and Unbalancing Strike look like a replacement for sneak attack, in which case I would just grant sneak attack. That also means you have less of a need to add later abilities to keep up the damage output.

One with the Shadow looks looks like a knockoff of the Vigilante's Renown social talent. I'm not sure what it is supposed to do.

Telekinetic Attack, Crippling Attack, Mindflay, Prism of Disaster, Stygian Strike, and Synaptic Disconnect should probably be powers, Essence Reaver and Greater Essence Reave I think would work better as feats, and I don't quite follow Eject.

If you want to give stronger powers cheaply, you can probably steal with wording from the Elocater's Transporter ability (which lists two 5th level powers and says they count as and cost the same as 3rd level powers).

I think the basic idea here works fine, I think some of these abilities just need to be rolled into existing features instead of being tacked on as part of the class.