Another Psychic Warrior Handbook

[Squirrel_Dude]

It's apparently been over 3 years since I last posted. The last time I was meaningfully active I collaborated with other posters to make a proper Psion handbook for Pathfinder. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?472713-Let-s-make-a-DSP-Pathfinder-Psion-Handbook) I think it's pretty solid and pretty complete. Feel free to tell me where I'm wrong. I still tinker with it every so often.

Anyway, I was about to pick up playing Pathfinder again and wanted to play a Psychic Warrior. I decided to look up some of the handbook and was disappointed to see that they were incredibly incomplete and old enough that they were unlikely to ever be updated. So, seeing as I was going to take the time to be reading every option of the class anyway I decided that I would make my own.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wsCSnQJh_tg9fV9PYXd4QAEmQq_g92onanBa9fSLF9c/edit?usp=sharing

I'd love to get some criticism about my ratings and prose and really anything else. Contributions are also appreciated and will be credited.

What's been done so far.
Class Overview (General Advice, Ability Scores, Chassis and Class Feature review)
Paths breakdown
Racial Choice
Class Skills
Archetypes
Traits
Feats
Powers

Prestige Classes

What's left to do
Bloodforge races
Gear and Equipment

I'm making reviews based off of what is written in my copy of Ultimate Psionics. I do not have 7th Path, and haven't looked through it yet.

[burpbot]

Why are Tieflings rated so low? They can get so many favorable stat configurations, and I'm pretty sure they can take an alternate racial trait that makes them count as humans and allows them to take human fav class bonus.

[TiaC]

Looks cool so far. I added ratings for Seventh Path content. I may add more from later psionics books.

[Another Handle]

I noticed a lack of Dirty Fighting, which allows one focused on any maneuvers, not just dirty tricks, to skip that annoying 13 Int and Combat Expertise and other benefits.

[LordCharlemagne]

Looked through it and left some comments in the document. Will probably do more when I have some more time.

[Squirrel_Dude]

Looks cool so far. I added ratings for Seventh Path content. I may add more from later psionics books. Thanks. I'll start going through those, and add a writer credit at the top for you.


Looked through it and left some comments in the document. Will probably do more when I have some more time.I should have responded to all of them at this point. Mostly agreed with your comments and tweaked accordingly.


Why are Tieflings rated so low? They can get so many favorable stat configurations, and I'm pretty sure they can take an alternate racial trait that makes them count as humans and allows them to take human fav class bonus. I actually forgot that they had alternate blood line ability bonuses like Aasimar.

I'd rate Asura, Demodand, and Devil as situationally good. I'd rate Oni, Qlippoth as both good. Oni has the best SLA and the penalty to Cha, so it's probably the best.


I noticed a lack of Dirty Fighting, which allows one focused on any maneuvers, not just dirty tricks, to skip that annoying 13 Int and Combat Expertise and other benefits. I didn't know the book it was in even existed. I'll make a note of it and how it can totally change your build and options. I'll also note that it's an obscure and late run source for the feat which means you need to be upfront GM because you never want to surprise a GM. Other interesting note is that Dirty Fighting can not be used to gain access to the Advanced Interceptor Path feat, but Martial Power can

[Squirrel_Dude]

TiaC and I have disagreed about how to interpret the Metapsionic Animus feat in Psionics Augmented: Compilation 2

"you may spend points of animus equal to twice that metapsionic feat’s normal cost adjustment instead of the power points it would normally cost. This still counts as spending the power points for the purposes of the maximum power points spent on the power."

Manifester Level 7, manifesting extended level 2 power. It's either

A) You use 3 on the power + 4 animus = 7, so the power can no longer be augmented or have PP added to it.

B) 3 on the power +4 animus for extend = 5 so the power can still be augmented by 2 if you so desire.

[TiaC]

I'll repost my comment from the guide.

I'm in camp B, because it says you can replace spending the normal power point cost with spending twice as much animus, but it counts as spending "the power points", which I see as referring to the "power points it would normally cost" mentioned in the previous sentence. Thus, it's the power point cost that counts against the cap, not the animus cost.

[Squirrel_Dude]

No commentary on our disagreement is fine, I'm happy to leave the comments there on the guide for others to see that disagreement.

I've also decided to add a new section as the final section after equipment and armor. Basically a "word to GMs" section. Just want to point out some best practices and possible pain points that the class can cause.

Stuff like

sympathetic drain doesn't often break encounters, but when it does it's in a very unengaging way (no save, just massive damage).

Psionic Focus - Find a way to help yourself and the player track these efficiently as they'll have two or three of them.

Pathwalker Archetype - It has 7000 moving pieces and asks for mastery of two subsystems. It's a lot. Most GMs would probably be better off banning it to save the headache.

[StSword]

For completeness sake, I wish to point out that Legendary Games' Arcforge Gleam of Eternity has a Psychic Warrior archetype that replaces psionic powers with spherecasting from Spheres of Power and access to talents from Spheres of Might- Miracle Soldier.