Martial Archetype: Psychic Warrior [WIP, PEACH]

[UristMcRandom]

“Manifesting is a lot like making a cake. The things needed are supplied by you, the mixing is done by your mind and the baking is done in the oven of the universe.”
― Stephen Richards

Hey, everyone. I've been debating trying to make my own take on psionic classes for 5e, but I wasn't really sure where to start when it came to base classes (I'm still rather new to homebrew in general). Eventually, I decided I'd start small with an archetype. Some of this material (i.e. the way talents and psionic Focus work) are/will be adapted from Pathfinder, as I personally prefer Dreamscarred Press' psionics to WOTC's, and I've completely omitted anything 4th Edition added or changed (as I've never played 4e). Please note that this is far from finished. For now, assume that the core mechanics of psionics are ported straight from Pathfinder. I'll hammer out the specifics soon. Anyway, without further ado, I present the Psychic Warrior:

Psychic Warrior
Combining combat prowess with psionic ability, the Psychic Warrior is both martial master and student of the mind. Unlike a Psion, however, who channels his power to alter the world around him, a Psychic Warrior focuses inwardly, using his powers to augment his physical form and become deadly in his chosen path.

Psychic Warrior Manifesting

Fighter Level	Talents Known	Power Points	Powers Known	Maximum Power Level Known
3rd	2	4	3	1st
4th	2	6	4	2nd
5th	2	8	5	2nd
6th	2	12	6	2nd
7th	2	16	7	3rd
8th	2	20	8	3rd
9th	2	24	9	3rd
10th	3	28	10	4th
11th	3	36	11	4th
12th	3	44	12	4th
13th	3	52	13	5th
14th	3	60	14	5th
15th	3	68	15	5th
16th	3	80	16	6th
17th	3	92	17	6th
18th	3	104	18	6th
19th	3	116	19	6th
20th	3	128	20	6th

Manifesting
When you reach 3rd level, you augment your martial prowess with the ability to manifest psionic powers.

Spoiler: Sidebar: Psionics Overview

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To be added.

Talents. You know two psionic talents of your choice. You learn an additional talent of your choice at 10th level.
Power Points. Your ability to manifest powers is limited by a pool of power points. Your allotment of power points is shown on the Psychic Warrior Manifesting table. You regain all expended power points when you finish a Long Rest.
Powers Known. You know three Psychic Warrior powers of your choice. The Powers Known column of the Psychic Warrior Manifesting table shows when you learn more powers. If a power is listed as having prerequisites, you cannot learn it unless you meet those requirements. Whenever you gain a level in this class you may replace one power you know with another power of your choice. The new power must be of a level you can manifest.
Manifesting Ability. Wisdom is your manifesting ability, since your power is derived from introspection into the secrets of your own mind. You use your Wisdom whenever a power refers to your manifesting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a power you manifest and when making an attack roll with one.

Power save DC - 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
Power attack modifier - your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Psionic Strike
At 3rd level, you can channel your mental discipline to gain exceptional accuracy in battle. By expending your psionic focus as a bonus action, you gain advantage on all attack rolls you make in that round.

War Psionics
Beginning at 7th level, whenever you use your action to manifest a talent, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

Enduring Body
At 10th level, you learn to channel your mental discipline to improve your body. As a bonus action, you may expend your psionic focus to add your proficiency bonus to your Strength or Constitution score. This ability allows you to bypass your normal attribute maximum. You can switch this bonus from one score to the other as a bonus action during this duration. While in this state, you also gain the ability to shrug off a certain amount of damage. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage by an amount equal to your Constitution modifier This effect costs 1 power point to maintain for every round after the first, and requires concentration (as though you were concentrating on a spell). Once you've used this class feature, you can't use it again until you complete a long rest.

Psionic Smite
At 15th level you can infuse your attacks with psionic energy to deal extra damage to opponents. When you hit an opponent with an attack, you can expend power points to deal Psychic damage to the target in addition to the attack's normal damage. The extra damage is 1d6 for each additional power point you spend to a maximum of 5d6.

Improved War Psionics
At 17th level, whenever you use your action to manifest a power, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

[UristMcRandom]

Reserved for power lists.

[UristMcRandom]

Reserved for safety.

[Xethik]

It looks like your powers known and psi point pools got tangled up a little bit.

As for balance, I really can't say before seeing powers but the max manifested spell level, psi points, and powers known seems high when compared to something like Eldritch Knight, the closest equivalent. The Action Surge augment seems way too strong if you ask me. I personally think one bonus action per turn should be a consistent limit and getting three full actions is pretty crazy! I would consider granting a psi point cost reduction during an Action Surge or maybe benefit from a Haste effect, but even that seems powerful.

Also, have you seen the Mystic playtest doc for 5e? WotC is taking psionics in a different direction for this edition. I'd link but I'm on mobile; should be a quick Google search away. That being said, having a character that emulates PFinder/3.5 psionics is totally legit. I just wasn't sure if you had seen it.

[UristMcRandom]

Hey! Thanks for the feedback!

It looks like your powers known and psi point pools got tangled up a little bit.

Huh. Alright, yeah, that's embarrassing. I'll get that fixed.

As for balance, I really can't say before seeing powers but the max manifested spell level, psi points, and powers known seems high when compared to something like Eldritch Knight, the closest equivalent.

That was mostly a tentative thing, my plan is to get a decent power list converted and then compare it to the EK. If it seems too powerful then, I'll cut the 5th and 6th levels and trim down the power points pool. Right now those numbers are ported straight from d20pfsrd.org.

The Action Surge augment seems way too strong if you ask me. I personally think one bonus action per turn should be a consistent limit and getting three full actions is pretty crazy! I would consider granting a psi point cost reduction during an Action Surge or maybe benefit from a Haste effect, but even that seems powerful.

Really? I was worried about the Enduring Body more than I was that. Though I guess in tandem they could turn a PsyWar into an overly deadly combatant (proficiency to Str, then just go slashing talent-hit combos with a two-handed weapon using your reactions to take next to no damage... alright, I see now. I like the power point cost reduction, that's a good idea.

Also, have you seen the Mystic playtest doc for 5e? WotC is taking psionics in a different direction for this edition. I'd link but I'm on mobile; should be a quick Google search away. That being said, having a character that emulates PFinder/3.5 psionics is totally legit. I just wasn't sure if you had seen it.

I've seen it, though I hadn't bothered to read it in detail until just now. The way I see it, they didn't really change too much, mostly they just changed how Disciplines work. You pick an Order (old Psion disciplines/old psionic classes). Each Order has three disciplines (new term, though not entirely unlike the Pathfinder PsyWar's Paths) to choose from. Each discipline comes with a Concentration ability (psionic focus), and three abilities with a psi point (power point) cost (powers). Come to think of it, it probably wouldn't be too hard to convert this guy over to that system. Still, for now I'm going to stick with the 3.5/3.P-esque system.

[Xethik]

Hey! Thanks for the feedback!

Really? I was worried about the Enduring Body more than I was that. Though I guess in tandem they could turn a PsyWar into an overly deadly combatant (proficiency to Str, then just go slashing talent-hit combos with a two-handed weapon using your reactions to take next to no damage... alright, I see now. I like the power point cost reduction, that's a good idea.

I was going to bring that one up to but it really depends on if the ability allows you to bypass the normal attribute max of 20. I think it is definitely on the strong-side, but how strong is in the details. I guess I've just seen so much crazy damage from an Action Surge, a double Action Surge just scares me, heh.

I've seen it, though I hadn't bothered to read it in detail until just now. The way I see it, they didn't really change too much, mostly they just changed how Disciplines work. You pick an Order (old Psion disciplines/old psionic classes). Each Order has three disciplines (new term, though not entirely unlike the Pathfinder PsyWar's Paths) to choose from. Each discipline comes with a Concentration ability (psionic focus), and three abilities with a psi point (power point) cost (powers). Come to think of it, it probably wouldn't be too hard to convert this guy over to that system. Still, for now I'm going to stick with the 3.5/3.P-esque system.

Yeah the new system has a lot of similarities, but just a bit less spell-like than the 3.X system.

[UristMcRandom]

I was going to bring that one up to but it really depends on if the ability allows you to bypass the normal attribute max of 20. I think it is definitely on the strong-side, but how strong is in the details. I guess I've just seen so much crazy damage from an Action Surge, a double Action Surge just scares me, heh.

My plan was to allow it to bypass the attribute max. Should I make its duration scale based on fighter level (i.e. 1 round per 2 fighter levels, so it reaches a maximum of 1 minute at 20th) to prevent a 10th-level PsyWar from becoming an unstoppable killing machine?

[UristMcRandom]

Changelog 1/28/2016
- Replaced "Psionic Surge" with Psionic Smite. Currently allows 1d6 damage per power point spent up to a maximum of 5d6. Considering changing the damage die to a d4, depending on how it balances with similar "extra damage" abilities (Divine Smite, Sneak Attack). Current overabundance of power points relative to this ability will be toned down once I have the psionics overview completed.
- Power Point values are now absolute, there are no bonus power points for your Wisdom score.
- Enduring Body now allows you to bypass the attribute max, but now costs 1 PP per round and requires concentration.
- Not much else. Working on an early draft psionics overview, stay tuned.