Psionics Reloaded-the Psion and Psychic Warrior; ALL DISCIPLINES NOW COMPLETE (PEACH)

[Theoboldi]

A little bit, yeah. <Shrug> I've been looking mostly at the Warlock as a baseline, and they also have three things (spell slots, cantrips, and invocations, vs disciplines, focuses, and talents).

Yeah, it's not too bad for now, especially since warlock is one of the more popular classes from what I've seen. Just something to keep in mind.

Right now that's an artifact of the PsyWar being long-rest and the Psion being short. Initially they were both short rest classes, but a playtest of the PsyWar at level 5 found that they didn't feel like they had enough points to do anything interesting. Then again, the short rest was initially part of a balancing mechanic to keep you from throwing all your points at one encounter, but between the rebalanced powers and the rewritten psi limit, maybe that's not necessary? I'm still going back and forth on this one, though with psi dice in the mix the PsyWar can probably stick to the short rest model.

Oh right, completely forgot that the psion is short rest based. Makes sense, really, what with it being balanced like the warlock.

They all needed a psi die roll for resource tracking purposes, because that is how you track it-- you roll and see if it gets bigger and smaller. Though... now that you mention it, I guess I could use the "reduce your die size one step" mechanic from the UA instead-- would that be better, do you think?

Hrm. I dunno if it's quite worth an automatic die reduction, though, since this is the kind of ability that will be used mainly for flavor. And rolling the die for the sake of it being rolled leaves open the possibility of just using this Talent again and again until you get lucky and get a die of a size you like.

That said, you already have a use for the Psi Die in this, in the cases where you require an ability check. Why not stick with just that?

Talents are meant to be a little stronger than cantrips, since the Psion isn't quite a full caster, but fair-- distance reduced.

Thanks for pointing that out, actually. It's good to know the design intent behind any given feature. That said, this looks far more reasonable.

I put Meditation in with the previous draft so that they'd have something going on at first level-- the half caster pattern is a ribbon at first and the real class feature at second. Psychic Talent is probably enough on its own, though.

Hrm, I do see the issue there. How about adding a lesser version of Psionic Resilience? Maybe some level of temporary hit points that recharge after each short rest through your meditating?

Mmm... maybe if it's just using your Wisdom score, but only getting proficiency if you were already proficient in that type of save? Or specifically rolling a Wisdom check?

The thing is, I am actually really not sure if it needs to be nerfed. Your first suggestion is probably best in case you have to nerf it, but I'd get feedback on it from others first. Being really good at saves seems to be this Psychic Warrior's thing, and I don't want to throw that out the window necessarily.

It's the language from the Changeling. <Shrug> I agree with your interpretation, though.

Heh. Write that down as me not having read their racial stuff cause I'm not all that interested in changelings of the D&D variety.

There shouldn't be any reason for them to need a psi die? Focuses are all passive.

You're quite right there, I misread some of the Discipline descriptions.

Mmm... that's probably an argument for using "drop one die size" for powers like this. Good questions though-- language added clarifying

That does look better now. Honestly, with it being noticeable, I think you can keep the psi die rolling. Even if the "drop one die size" thing gives extra control over a mechanic that I do criticize for lacking player control, I also am of the opinion that if you have a unifying mechanic, it should actually work the same across the board. For the powers, at least.

That said.....

Talents have to be active, to distinguish them from Focuses. But... another point in favor or auto-die-size-drops.

Yeah, I cannot justify anything but an auto-die-drop for Feed the Mind in exchange for making it last the whole day. It's really the only one where I think it needs to be that way.

Sorry to be a bit wishy-washy on this, it's a bit of a conflict of interests for me.

Normal rules about rerolling ability checks?

My worry was that a player might have very reasonably asked why he can't try and delve through somebody else's mind to gather more information so he can try the check again. Maybe it's just a wording thing?

Like, from what I gather the intent is that you can make a check to remember things as though you had the memories of [p] people within reach, but only if they fail their Intelligence save? It does read like it's a very focused, lesser version of Detect Thoughts, though.

For example, let's say a player has captured an enemy commander who was present for an important tactical discussion, which the players were not there for. Can he make an intelligence check to try and remember that event, in the hopes that the enemy commander will fail his save and give access to his memories? What DC should that intelligence check even have? What if he has another enemy commander in the other room to try it on next? How do you see this Talent being used in practice?

<shrug> I figure that there are enough options in-class alone to make it worth it.

That's fair enough. I don't recall any races that give more than one Resistance off the top of my head, anyways.

... butts. That was not intended; I typed "Elemental Apocalypse" into the table, then forgot to actually write an ability before I copied stuff to Homebrewery. I like your idea of subclass-specific capstones better, though.

Kinda curious to see that initial idea now, though.

Clarified that you can only use them against stuff like Hold Person with a "new save at the end of each round" clause.

That's better, albeit still strong. Certainly I would argue it's still the Psychic Warrior's strongest Talent, though probably within acceptable bounds now. Especially since talents are supposed to be stronger overall than cantrips.