Psionics Embodied (PFRPG)

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Add some psionic character to your campaign!

Whether your campaign is all-psionic or simply allows psionics for use, adding some psionic characters can add an extra dimension of intrigue for players who are used to NPCs always being the standard classes. The NPCs found in Psionics Embodied can serve as allies or enemies depending on the needs of the campaign, or even as an extra member of the adventuring group to help round out the party.

Psionics Embodied takes care of the time of character building for support characters so you can focus on the campaign and get back to playing the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game!

Psionic Embodied includes:

  • Psionic NPCs for all ten psionic classes from Ultimate Psionics
  • NPCs of all the psionic races plus the core races
  • At least two NPCs for each class
  • Backround information and how to use each NPC as an ally or as an enemy
  • Stat blocks for use throughout the life of the campaign
  • Rules used to create the different NPCs
  • And more!
Psionics Embodied references material found in Ultimate Psionics.

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Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

DRS2610B


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An Endzeitgeist.com review

5/5

This book clocks in at 69 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 64 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

So, we've all been there - suddenly, mid-adventure, a PC bites the dust and the player has no time to make a new character for now, requiring the temporary use of an NPC. Or, more often, one sits on the DM's side of the screen and makes *yet another* NPC-build. I know I do that and it is an annoying bottleneck. There are certain tricks and combos one stumbles across and then re-uses them time and again. The issue becomes more pronounced if your campaign is like mine and sports a vast array of different 3pp materials. Paizo only has the CORE-classes covered with the codex and beyond that, I may point towards Rite Publishing's superb Faces of the Tarnished Souk-series, Frog god Games' Unusual Suspects and LPJr Design's Usual Suspects...and beyond these, good NPC-books become scarce, with only a couple of Legendary Games-books coming to mind. This was particularly annoying, at least for me, when it came to psionics (and some other subsystems I regularly use) - I had to make too many of these guys from scratch and at some point, tunnel-vision starts to set in.

Introducing this book, psionics now receive an array of NPCs for your perusal to insert into your campaign. The numerous characters herein are crafted with the heroic attribute-array and appropriate WBL and each character comes with 3 builds - one for level 5, one for level 10 and one for level 15. Now I am not going to go into the details for every NPC herein - for every creature herein comes with a full-blown background story as well as advice on how to use the NPC as both an ally or villain - and yes, this means that these guys and gals are full-blown, developed personalities, not just statblocks. From radiant heroes to plague-doctor elans gone full-blown insane evil, the characters herein take the base classes in different directions, with tacticians, dreads, marksmen, etc. all receiving their due. Some of the specialists of the psion-class receive no representation, though. Blues, forgeborn and similar psionic races are well-integrated into the builds within these pages.

In fact, the characters herein work exceedingly well as both allies and adversaries and, more often than not, offer some deviations from tired and true character tropes, thus coming to life in a surprising captivating manner. From the honorable, yet brash Desh to the ruthless, but well-situated Count Malbor, the diverse NPCs in this book do a nice job of running the gamut from cool allies to despicable adversaries, with the builds themselves doing a neat job of representing the particulars of the NPC and their ideology in the crunch they provide.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good - apart from some rare glitches like an incorrect CR and similar minor glitches, the pdf can be considered well off in that regard. Layout adheres to Dreamscarred Press' beautiful 2-column full-color standard and each and every NPC in this book receives a gorgeous full-color artwork - kudos! The pdf comes fully bookmarked as well as with a more printer-friendly version with a white background.

Jeremy Smith, Andreas Rönnqvist and Matt Medeiros have crafted a damn useful NPC-collection - finally, an array of psionic NPCs, all ready for use, with just the flick of a finger. I *love* books like this, simply because they allow a DM to focus on cool storylines, preparing a module etc. - or simply add a spark of psionics into another-wise non-psionics module. The NPCs are diverse, their writing is neat, the builds solid - so there is not much to complain in that regard.

That being said, there are some minor nitpicks I can field against this book, the first of which would simply be scope - I would have loved this to be a NPC-Codex-sized, massive book of diverse builds, covering all psion-specialists etc. Now I can't hold the scope of the book against it, but still - a bigger book would have been awesome. Similarly, some people may have wanted scaling suggestions to bring these NPCs down to less powerful builds, but once again, I consider that not the book's fault. My only true gripe with this book would be the following - unlike the NPC Codex, this book presents rounded characters and the builds, for that, feel very much linear. While some archetype'd combos can be found, you won't find any nasty multiclass combos in this book and for named NPCs, I would have expected one or two or these. Note that this does not make the book bad in any way - it's just that making linear characters is much easier and less time-consuming than making complex, archetype'd multiclass characters.

But in the end, ladies and gentlemen, this is just me being a complaining nitpicker at a high level. The characters herein deserve to be called "characters" - they range from nice to inspired and some rather beg to be used, which is a neat accomplishment in my book - this collection is still a permanent addition to my DM-toolkit and well worth a final verdict of 5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.


Webstore Gninja Minion

Now available!

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

Huzzah!

Thanks!

Dark Archive

Print copy somewhere down the road?

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

Yes, should be ready in November.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

PDF/SC bundle be available in November?

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

Gullyble Dwarf - Lvl 7 DM wrote:
PDF/SC bundle be available in November?

I'll ask if we can get the bundle up for preorders now. :)

Webstore Gninja Minion

Preorder options up!

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.

So, NPC Codex for Ultimate Psionics?

Lantern Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

*shrieking fan-girl cries*

Liberty's Edge

4 people marked this as a favorite.

For some reason I read the title as "Psionics Embiggened" and that made it more appealing.

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

Justin Sluder wrote:
So, NPC Codex for Ultimate Psionics?

Yep!

President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

Its up! Coolness! added to my wishlist to grab later.


To what degree would you say these NPCs are optimized? Do they use archetypes and PrCs? How many pages per NPC are devoted to backstory and reactionary info?

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

Insain Dragoon wrote:
To what degree would you say these NPCs are optimized? Do they use archetypes and PrCs? How many pages per NPC are devoted to backstory and reactionary info?

I did not overly optimize the character builds, although I did pick thematically appropriate choices. So they're decently built, but room for tweaking to make extremely optimized. Gear choices were fairly optimized, though, given the low gp value for building npcs.

Each npc has 1 and a half pages of back story, personality, and reaction information.


I just want to say that I really enjoyed this book. In particular, I really like Bass Munroe. He's one of the last people you'd ever want to meet in a dark alley, and it's safe to say that he follows the "Munroe Doctrine": speak softly and kill people with psionic powers. His history and relationship with Mayles is really cool, as is the fact that he has a legitimate reason for being evil that's consistent with his history and worldview that goes beyond the "LE" in his statblock.

Also, aside from all the actual finished NPCs, I feel like I now have the capability to write Psionic statblocks with a better understanding of how their powers work, what they spend their gp on, et cetera. So the book, in that regard, is the gift that keeps on giving.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

A propos Bass Munroe...


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Oh. Print available. Would it be possible to upgrade my PDF order to the bundle somehow?

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

Axial wrote:
I just want to say that I really enjoyed this book.

I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for the praise!

Zaister - I can ask the Paizo staff once they get back on Monday.


Picked up the PDF over the weekend and have been digging through it for goodies to add to my campaign. Bass Munroe and Gorak-Gro Romak caught my eye first for worthy adversaries to throw at my PCs.

Thanks, Dreamscarred!


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Jeremy Smith wrote:
Zaister - I can ask the Paizo staff once they get back on Monday.

Thanks, that would be great!

Webstore Gninja Minion

Zaister wrote:
Jeremy Smith wrote:
Zaister - I can ask the Paizo staff once they get back on Monday.
Thanks, that would be great!

Zaister, please email Customer Service and they should be able to get that sorted out for you.

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

Liz Courts wrote:
Zaister wrote:
Jeremy Smith wrote:
Zaister - I can ask the Paizo staff once they get back on Monday.
Thanks, that would be great!
Zaister, please email Customer Service and they should be able to get that sorted out for you.

Thanks, Liz!


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Jeremy Smith wrote:
Liz Courts wrote:
Zaister wrote:
Jeremy Smith wrote:
Zaister - I can ask the Paizo staff once they get back on Monday.
Thanks, that would be great!
Zaister, please email Customer Service and they should be able to get that sorted out for you.
Thanks, Liz!

Thanks, Liz and Jeremy. I will do that.


Hello,

Reposting this here as I did not get a response at the forums at dreamscarredpress.com..

First, thanks for a nice product!

That said, I wanted to bring to attention two things that I noticed:

The 15th level stat block for Xander the Invisible blade, seems to be identical to the 10th level one (except for the text "Halfling soulknife 15" and the XP row).

Is this fixed in a later version of the pdf?

Also, "NPCs of all the psionic races plus the core races" does not seem to be entirely correct - I couldn't find a Maenad NPC at all, or am I just missing anything?

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

Hi Wavestone - yes, those are oversights.

Unfortunately, it looks like the first printing of Psionics Embodied has Xander with the same 10th level and 15th level stat blocks... That will be updated in the next printing and the PDF will also need to be udpated.

Evan was supposed to be a maenad (hence his hair in the image,) but he somehow morphed into a half-elf during the character development... I'm honestly not sure how that happened.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Pugwampis or intellect devourers. Yep, pretty much always dem.


Reviewed first on endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.

Dark Archive

Hi just. A quick question I have had a pending order for a physical copy since November is this now shipping?


I am in the same position as Mine all Mine. I ordered the print/pdf combo on November 3rd, and it was supposed to be shipped with Pathfinder Adventure Path #92: The Hill Giant's Pledge (Giantslayer 2 of 6) (PFRPG). It still has not shipped.

Please look into this problem.

Customer Service Representative

Mine all Mine and Svzurich, I think I've gotten both of you taken care of through other requests. If either of you still need help, please post on the Customer Service messageboards or send us an email. Thanks!

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

Thanks, Sharaya!


Thank you, Sharaya! :D

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