Of note: The organization in the psionicist class chapter of the original Complete Psionics Handbook is pretty bad. For instance, psionic strength points are described as a function of the class, but wild talent characters have PSPs too and need to know how to use them, but if you aren't playing a member of the class you wouldn't know to look there for how PSPs work, yet the wild talent description tells you how many PSPs you get without telling you what they are or how to use them.
I'll probably organize the wiki pages slightly differently, so for instance PSPs will be on their own page so that everyone can reference those rules without having to dig into the psionicist class. Actual text will remain unchanged except for incorporationg errata.
Oh my heavens, YES.
While we're here makin' characters, DM, can I use one of the ones I made for your prior game?
Go for it!
Aight, bringing this character back down to level 3 and starting over! :D
Welcome back. :)
Okay, given that we already have one Psionicist, and the class is pretty complexed aside from getting accustomed to a system I haven't played in 20 yrs, I'll go with something a little simpler like Gladiator.
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To be honest, I'd be surprised if a DARK SUN campaign didn't include a Gladiator PC. :)
So Mul or Half-Giant?
Muls have unlimited level advancement as gladiators, can work and fight for hours (or even days) at a time, and if you specify that they're advancing in levels as a human, they can even dual-class into any class they meet the requirements for. Compared to half-giants, they don't need to consume double the amount of food and water of an average person and they don't need to pay extra for their specially-sized equipment and gear. However, their bonuses to STR and CON aren't as high as that of a half-giant, and they don't get double their HP roll when they level up.
Half-giants don't have unlimited level advancement as gladiators, but their STR and CON bonuses are considerable and they gain double their rolls for HP whenever they level up. Their imitative natures also make for an interesting roleplay angle. In exchange, their equipment costs twice as much and they need twice as much water and food as a mul.
I mean given the advancement limit for the Gladiator class hits at level 14, it'll be a long time before that comes into play. Double HP for the heavy hitter is pretty awesome. I'm sure the food and water part is gonna hurt at some point, as well as size issues, but leaning toward half-giant.
Stearing ceramic pcs x30=330
Keep in mind with a half-giant that you have to use large weapons, so it’s really hard to get metal or magic weapons. You basically have to find a half-giant enemy with a weapon that you can take, or get a high-level party member to make it.
Just a quick check-in here--how are everyone's characters coming along?
I guess with the scarcity of pretty much everything, and the difficulty finding armor or weapons, Mul would make more sense.
Could go either way. Double hit points counts for a lot. Play what you think will be fun. I just mention it b/c it’s one of those things that doesn’t come up until later in play and then you’re like “Everyone else has magic weapons and armor but me...” :)
x30 = 180 cp
Not a lot of money... but it's more than last game, in which we started as slaves with nothing! :D
Got my starting gear sorted.
More stuff to put on the wiki, yay...
Note that 2nd edition is notoriously bad about giving info on non-combat gear. For instance, a backpack costs 2 ceramic pieces in DARK SUN, but has no weight listed anywhere. And bedrolls aren't listed in any book until the publication of Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog, which is (1) for Forgotten Realms and (2) written as a tongue-in-cheek joke book. (In there a typical thin bedroll lists for what would be the DARK SUN equivalent of 17 ceramic pieces.)
True. I think it might be fun playing the literal heavy hitter, but I don't want to pick something that will likely become completely unviable (cramped dungeon spaces I can never fit into) stuff like that.
Guess I'll go with Half giant and have a back up.
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Working on putting things together.
She looks fierce!
Yeah, that's totally viable and one of the suggested uses of character trees! You switch when you need a different character. :)
I gotta figure out some backups too. I was in a different DS game here in which my initial character died pretty early on, so best to be ready!
Working on putting things together.
Also, I have a template for AD&D characters set up for Paizo profiles. Would you like me to send it your way?
So far, it looks like our party consists of a Ranger/Thief, a Gladiator, and a Psionicist.
Also, I have a template for AD&D characters set up for Paizo profiles. Would you like me to send it your way?Working on putting things together.
Yes please! That would be awesome!!
Currently I am working on a Thri-keen psionicist. I'll work on things more soon as I can but I do have at least a start on it at this point.
I'm leaning towards Clairsentient or Psychokinetic as a starting discipline or possibly Psychometabolic. Don't know enough about them to choose one just yet.
Clairsentience lets you do stuff like see things far away, predict the future with limited accuracy, see magic auras, and have danger sense. Note that in this edition clairsentience has very little in the way of combat powers, so it's useful as a utility discipline but not if you plan to fight a lot.
Psychokinesis is all telekinetic stuff: Flinging objects, telekinetic manipulation, levitating and flying, deflection fields, etc. It's got the most direct damage of all the disciplines, and if you build for it you can have disintegration around level 6 (but it's so expensive that you'll use it once and then be done for the day).
Psychometabolism lets you do self-healing, boost your physical ability scores, secrete acid or poison, and adapt to hostile environments. Combined with a thri-kreen's natural attacks, it can make you a very formidable fighter, as you boost your strength, increase your speed to take extra actions, and reduce incoming damage.
Of note, psionic powers in 2nd edition don't scale well. A psychokinetic ballistic attack does 1d6 damage if you're a first level psionicist, but if you're 20th level, it does... 1d6 damage. The expectation is that at mid levels you move into powers that potentially end the fight if the enemy fails a save, like disintegrate or domination.
Hmmm, I think Psychometabolism might be the best starting point then, maybe pick up Clairsentient later on.
Psychometabolism is a really versatile discipline.
Remember that since we start at 3rd level (or 2nd/2nd for multiclassed characters), you'll already have access to two disciplines. One is your primary discipline, and you must always have more powers in that discipline than in any other.
The biggest hurdle with psychometabolism is spinning up your powers. Activating a power takes your action for the round, so if you are trying to enhance ability, accelerate, and activate flesh armor all at the same time, it's going to take you three rounds just to be ready to fight. (Same problem as clerics and their buffing spells...)
There is a workaround, which is the splice power, which allows you to fire multiple powers simultaneously. But, it's metapsionic, so you can't even learn it until 6th level, and it's hideously expensive in terms of psionic strength cost. Still, might be worthwhile.
I've finished up the entry for the psionicist class, though there will be a few minor edits (linking the various nonweapon proficiency descriptions, for instance).
If you want psychic powers but you're worried about also being a strong fighter, you might consider multiclassing as a fighter/psionicist or ranger/psionicist. (The gladiator class can't multiclass.)
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Every PC (except psionicists) gets a random wild talent!
Wild talents are minor, untrained psychic powers. Many of them are functionally useless. Sometimes you get lucky and get something that you can work into play.
Roll 1d100 to figure out what kind of talent you get (Table 1), then roll 1d100 again to see which specific talent. If you roll really high you might get multiple talents or a really powerful talent. Any talent with an asterisk (*) means it has prerequisites, and you automatically get those, too.
Go ahead and roll talents and I'll prioritize putting up pages for the powers that you roll, so that you know what you can do!
Actually, the wild talent you rolled was Clairvoyance.
Yeah, sorry if that wasn't clear: devotions are minor powers, and sciences are major powers. Your initial roll gives you a science, which is on the last table. Clairvoyance is pretty dang good!
I'll get a page up for the power posthaste.
EDIT: Clairvoyance power page is up!
Since you got this as a wild talent, you get a number of psionic strength points equal to:
* Enough to activate it once (7 points)
* Enough to maintain it for four rounds (4 points per round = 16 points)
* +4 per level beyond 1st (4 points)
Total = 27 psionic strength points.
The ranger and thief classes are now up and linked on the wiki
As with psionic strength points, I broke out "thief skills" into its own page, since bards and traders use those skills too.
The class pages should include all of the relevant tables like spells, experience points per level, hit dice, etc.
@TheNine: Since you're a multi-classed character, you gain all of the abilities of a level 2 ranger and a level 2 thief. That means you can learn to use any weapon and any armor, but many of your abilities are strictly curtailied if you wear armor heavier than leather.
You start with proficiency in 4 weapons of your choice. Since you're an elf, I'd recommend the long bow as one of these: You get a +1 bonus to attack rolls when using a long sword or long bow made by your elf tribe. The sword is too expensive to start with, so...
Your hit points are the average from the two classes. Since we start with max hit points, that puts you at (ranger: 10 + 10, thief: 6 + 6, total: 32, average: 16) 16 hit points, plus whatever bonus you gain from a high Constitution score (i.e. if you have a Constitution of 15, you gain +1 hit point per level; 16, +2 per level; and so on, as shown on the Constitution table on the wiki).
Your THAC0 and saving throws use the best values from each class.
Your nonweapon proficiencies use the highest totals, so you start with 3 nonweapon proficiencies + the number alloted for your Intelligence score (see the Intelligence table in the wiki), and you gain a new nonweapon proficiency every 3 ranger levels. You can choose from warrior, wizard, rogue, or general nonweapon proficiency groups without paying a surcharge; you spend an extra "slot" if you choose something that appears only on the priest or psionicist group. You also get Tracking for free from being a ranger.
Note that you gain the ability to Move Silently and Hide in Shadows both from your ranger class and from your thief class. Your choice whether to just use the ranger skills for those (keeping in mind that they're halved while indoors) and spend your thief points elsewhere, or pump some of your thief points into them so that you can be really good at 'em. You do not add your thief points on top of the ranger skill ratings— you use whichever one is higher. Ranger goes up automatically as you gain levels; thief only goes up if you spend points on it.
You get 90 points to increase your rogue skills. See the Rogue skills page on the wiki. You get 60 of these from first level and 30 from second level, and you'll gain 30 more every time you gain another thief level. You can put no more than half of the points into any one skill. (This is for the special rogue skills of pick pockets, open locks, find/remove traps, move silently, hide in shadows, climb walls, detect noise, and read languages.)
You gain the thief's backstab ability, which is nice when you attack from surprise or while hiding.
Gladiator page is up. Note that there are a variety of gladiator kits, which are like PF archetypes. I will try to get those up (or at least short descriptions) so that you can see in case you want to take one.
For gladiators, you take no penalty for using a weapon with which you aren't proficient, but it still costs you 2 proficiency slots to specialize in a weapon (3 for a bow). This means you still need to keep track of your weapon proficiencies (5, if you're a level 3 gladiator).
EDIT: Added the list of kits to the class page for gladiators. If one of them strikes your fancy, let me know and I'll type it up.
EDIT TO EDIT: While I was there, added a kits list to psionicists. Same deal: Lemme know if one interests you and I'll add a page for it.
Remember that except for certain very special kits, you can only take a kit if you're single classed.
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OMG that is sooo gooood!
Short version: You make yourself completely and utterly invisible to one or more people. You make no noise, no smell, no sound--but the invisibility can be broken if you attack the affected person.
And you got all the prerequisite powers for it, too. :D
I'll add it to the wiki tomorrow.
Basically, you telepathically cause people to not realize that you're there. Disguises you from vision, sound, and scent, though you can still be touched.
In addition, because you got this, you get all of the prerequisites: contact, mindlink, and invisibility. This means you have a power that lets you contact other minds if they aren't defended (contact), and you can establish a link that lets you have two-way communication with them over any distance (mindlink), and you can use a less-powerful version that just makes it so people can't see you (but can still hear you).
There are some limits. It's expensive to do against multiple people; you have to pay for each person whose mind you trick. And you have no way to "break in" to a mind that has defenses. But against your typical man-on-the-street or monster without psionic defenses, it's devastating.
Honestly, you'll probably get a lot more utility out of mindlink! It lets you make two-way telepathic contact with someone. That means you can message party members over long distances, or even NPCs that you've met and established a rapport with.
Telepath
Roll one power on this table, and then roll a second wild talent from Table I again. Ignore rolls of 88 or better.
Sight Link
Psychokinesis
Molecular Bonding
Looks like everyone's rolling really well for wild talents!
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That's an interesting pair of powers. Sight link lets you see through someone else's eyes. Obviously useful if you can get into the head of an unsuspecting guard or random person in some place where you wanna know what's happening inside. Also could be used to ride along with a party member. Sight link also gives you mindlink as a prerequisite, so you will also have that long-range mental conversation ability.
Molecular bonding lets you fuse two objects together (permanently!). You can force a door shut, weld together two objects, or repair something that was broken cleanly. It affects a small area (6 square inches) but over time you can use it like welding to stitch a long surface together. This gives you telekinesis as a prerequisite, so you also have the ability to move things around with your mind!
Everyone's rolling some really great sets of wild talents. I haven't seen this sort of luck before!
I'll get all of these powers onto the wiki today.
Well, we'll see if that luck holds once the game begins... :)
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Since everyone's getting mindlink, I should probably explain about telepathic contact.
In order to use telepathy powers (like mindlink) on someone, you must make contact with their mind. You do that with the contact power. Contact is literally just making the telepathic bridge between your minds so that you can activate something else. It's a prerequisite for any power that lets you mess with someone's mind, so all of you folks with mindlink as a wild talent also get contact automatically as a free power.
Now, there's a kicker. You can contact anyone who has no psionic defenses (anyone who isn't a member of the psionicist class). Generally there's not much they can do about it. Some will have the Psychic Defense proficiency, and might be able to briefly keep you out.
When you try to contact a psionicist like Laurelin, though, you're dealing with a defended mind. Your contact basically is like knocking on the door. The target (Laurelin, in this example) decides whether to let you in or not. If not, your contact fails and that's that.
Your contact has its own "signature" (this is described in The Will and the Way pp. 51-52, DM), so when you try to contact Laurelin, she knows it's you. Thus she can allow you to contact her by opening her mind when you come knocking. This means that we can use all those mindlinks to be able to telepathically communicate as a team (even over great distances!), since once we've done an initial "contact handshake" everyone will know what everyone else's "mind voice" feels like. Laurelin will know "Oh, that's Zelimah, I should see what she wants to say and let her in." If you wish, though, you don't have to announce yourself (also described in The Will and the Way p. 51). You can try to quietly make contact with an undefended mind. Either you'll slip in unnoticed, or you'll bounce off of their defenses. Thus, you want to knock if you're letting a friend know that you're trying to make contact; you don't if you plan to use a power against an enemy, like invisibility.
There are two ways around this. One, a telepath (like Laurelin) can force contact with telepathic attack modes. If facing another psionicist, Laurelin can attack with her mind thrust power. Each time she succeeds in the power and beats the enemy's defense power roll, she scores a tangent; with three tangents, she batters open their mental defenses and forces contact. Then she's inside their head and can use other telepathy powers, like domination.
Two, there's a power called psychic impersonation (also telepathic). Using this power lets you imitate someone else's "mind voice." So Laurelin might get a mental knock and go "Oh, that's Zelirah, I'll let her in" only to discover that it was actually the sorcerer-king Nibenay pretending to be Zelirah. Once he's in the only way to shut him back out is with the telepathic power: ejection. Laurelin doesn't have that, so...
Anyway, that's kinda the run down. If you're not playing a psionicist, most of this is extraneous to you: You can only use telepathic powers like invisibility on people who don't have mental defenses; you have to contact them first, then use the follow-up power. If you're playing a psionicist like Laurelin, things are more complex, because you have telepathic attacks and defenses to worry about, tangents, forcing contact, etc.
Powers that aren't telepathic, like molecular bonding, ignore all of this!
I may very well post what I have of a character sheet in the alias I plan to use and then get someone to help fill things in. I've got the stats distributed and the two disciplines that I want, but beyond that I will need help with the various proficiencies and power choices to get this finished.
The alias is going to be the one I am posting in this time. The name is still subject to change.
@Tkk'lkkkl'k: As a 3rd level psionicist, you have:
2 disciplines to choose from - sounds like primary is psychometabolism, secondary is clairsentience. You'll gain access to another discipline at level 6.
2 sciences (major powers) - both of them must be psychometabolic, because of this rule: "The first discipline chosen is the character's primary discipline. A character can never learn as many sciences or devotions in another discipline as he currently knows in his primary discipline." If you had 1 clairsentient science, that would be "as many sciences" as your 1 psychometabolic science, so for now both of your big powers must be psychometabolic.
7 devotions (minor powers) - up to 7 can be psychometabolic, but you can split this between pm and clairsentience up to a maximum of 4 pm/3 cs (because of that same rule above).
2 defense modes - You use these to keep people from opening up your mind with telepathic attacks. There are five modes: mind blank, thought shield, mental barrier, intellect fortress, and tower of iron will. Mind blank is the simplest and cheapest but the least reliable. Intellect fortress and tower of iron will both have a small area effect, so they can protect team members. Ultimately your choice. You gain another one at 5th level and every odd level after that until you have all of them.
I recommend choosing from:
Psychometabolism:
Sciences:
• Life Draining--touch attack that steals a small amount of hp (1d6) and gives them to you. Can be used to heal, or to raise you above your normal HP total (by 10 points over).
• Metamorphosis--Difficult and expensive, but lets you turn into anything with approximately the same mass as your own body. Has a tough power score to activate, though, and also requires a system shock roll or you pass out. If you pull it off, though, you can turn into a rock, a tree, a cactus, or even a monster that you've seen before (as long as its mass is the same as yours).
• Nerve Manipulation (requires you to learn the devotion of double pain)--Touch attack causes horrible pain. Hard to pull off b/c you're a thri-kreen and there's a penalty for using it on any creature that isn't of your species, but you could probably still manage it. Even has a chance to instantly kill the victim (though they get a save).
• Regenerate (requires you to learn cell adjustment devotion)--Lets you regenerate limbs on yourself or someone else you touch.
Devotions:
* Accelerate--Speeds you up like a haste spell. If you're going to fight with psychometabolism, this is your must-have power. Easy to use, expensive to maintain, but can let you double or triple your speed & attack rate.
• Adrenalin Control--Temporarily add 1d6 points (divided as you choose) to your Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.
• Biofeedback--Improves your AC and reduces damage that you take by controlling your body's blood flow. Good if you have time to activate it before a fight.
• Body Control--Lets you survive hostile environments. Doesn't absorb fire or cold damage, but would allow you to (say) survive a sandstorm, or near a volcanic caldera that's super-hot and spewing toxic gases, or in a rainforest where thri-kreen normally would get carapace rot.
• Cause Sleep--Forces a single target to fall asleep. Since it's not telepathic, doesn't require contact or psychic combat! You mess with their body rhythms. This is especially funny b/c thri-kreen don't sleep (but you can use this to force them into a coma-like torpor).
• Cell Adjustment--Lets you cure disease and heal hit points, though healing is very expensive in cost of PSPs.
• Displacement--Makes you appear to be a few feet away from your actual position. Gives you an AC bonus.
• Double Pain--When used on a target, makes that target take double damage from everything for 10 minutes. The doubled portion is "phantom" damage from pain; reducing a foe to 0 hit points with phantom damage makes them pass out but doesn't kill them. (Of course then they're at your mercy.)
• Heightened Senses--Like the power in Vampire: see further, hear better, smell more.
• Mind Over Body--Suppress your need for food, water, and sleep. Kinda not as useful for thri-kreen b/c you need very little water and no sleep, but would keep you from starving for a few days?
• Rigidity--Slowly cause a target to stiffen up so that it has trouble moving and fighting.
Clairsentience:
Devotions:
• Combat Mind--Get a slight bonus to your initiative rolls.
• Danger Sense--Know when a hazard is about to strike. Has a chance to tell you the direction. DM rolls this for you automatically, it's like having trapfinding with a Pathfinder rogue, but it applies to any hazard.
• Poison Sense--Tell if something is poisoned.
• Safe Path (requires Danger Sense)--Know where to step to avoid triggering danger. Lets you blindly avoid traps, pitfalls, weak terrain, etc.
• See Magic--Like detect magic, but you use psionics to do it.
Note that psionic touch attacks require you to forgo your normal thri-kreen attack routine, so if you use Life Draining, you can't do it while clawing someone, but you could use Double Pain, claw someone until they fall unconscious, then use Life Draining to steal their remaining hit points to heal yourself.
Also, just look at the wild talents page, and if anything looks interesting, let me know and I'll tell you how it works.