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Hopefully this is a simple question:

The Card Caster states:
[Arcane Pool Focus]
A card caster’s arcane pool can be used to augment only ranged weapons. At 5th level, a card caster can use his arcane pool to add the following weapon special abilities to ranged weapons: brilliant energy, distance, flaming, flaming burst, frost, icy burst, returning, seeking, shock, shocking burst, and speed. He can use his arcane pool to augment an entire harrow deck as if it were ammunition. All cards from a deck enhanced with a special ability, such as flaming, must share the same bonus. This ability modifies arcane pool.

Does a Magus with the paired Card Caster/Staff Magus Archetypes retain any ability to use its Arcane Pool to enhance melee weapons?

How many means, official and 'as close to official as likely to get', are there for a character to lose Psionic Focus?

On page 27 of the Ultimate Psionics book, the Psionic Focus entry, it states that,
"When you are psionically focused, you can expend your focus on any single concentration check you make thereafter. When you expend your focus in this manner, your concentration check is treated as if you rolled a 15. It’s like taking 10, except that the number you add to your concentration modifier is 15. You can also expend your focus to gain the benefit of a psionic feat — many psionic feats are activated in this way.
Once you are psionically focused, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep (or enter a meditative trance, in cases such as elans or elves).
You may still gain psionic focus even if you have depleted all of your power points.
Expending your psionic focus to power a feat, class feature, or any other ability only powers a single effect. You cannot gain the benefit of multiple abilities that require expending focus by expending your psionic focus once; each effect requires its own instance of expending psionic focus."

Now, I am of the mind that once a character has Psionic Focus, he/she has and maintains it until it is used or character looses unconsciousness. However, another declares that the character looses it from additional methods, namely; Being Dominated, Taking a Critical Hit, Taking Damage Exceeding 1/2 Character HPs, Failing Concentration Check Due To Failed Concentration While Manifesting

Of the new and alleged potentials, I can logically understand one as having a possible effect on Psionic Focus - Being Dominated, as it alters, to some degree, a character's mental state, though should definitely allow a Concentration Check in order to retain Psionic Focus.

So in a nutshell after all that, the basic question is as mentioned at the beginning:

What are the means/ways that a character can loose his/her Psionic Focus?

While looking at the Reaver Archetype for the Psychic Warrior, and the class features of the Psychic Warrior, I noticed something:

The Reaver replaces Warrior's Path with Killer's Claim, which effectively prevents a Reaver from gaining all benefits of a Warrior's Path.

Most 'sub'-features of a Warrior's Path are replaced by other abilities.

However, the 6th level PsyWar feature Martial Power is not replaced.

Martial Power allows the following:
"At 6th level, if the psychic warrior makes an attack (but not a ranged touch attack), he can manifest one of his path powers as part of that attack action. The power takes effect immediately after the attack has been finished. Touch range powers are transmitted through the melee attack to the attacked target. You gain the benefits of the power on the attack made, even if the power is what grants the weapon to make the attack. You may only activate a path power in this fashion once per round."

Without a Warrior's Path and its Path Powers, the Martial Power feature is essentially unusable by a Reaver.

My question is thus: What does the Reaver receive, if anything, in place of Martial Power?

I am setting up a Soulknife (Soulbolt)/Marksman [Sniper Style] character.

I've spent sometime already searching various forums and either I haven't phrased my query the right way, or I haven't delved far enough into my results

I am curious if the following methods of range modification stack?
*Empowered Shot (Psionic Feat)
*Enhanced Range (Blade Skill)
*Distance (Magical Weapon Property)

Psionics Augmented Compilation 2 lists a variety of new psicrystals when a character takes the Superior Psicrystal feat.

Do the special abilities from the various tables of the new types stack with the abilities of a basic psicrystal?

For example:
A standard psicrystal of a 7th level manifest possesses the following
*Natural Armor Adjustment: +3
*Intelligence Adjustment: +3
*Special: Alertness, improved evasion, personality, self propulsion, share powers, sighted, telepathic link, deliver touch powers, and telepathic speech

Now were the character to choose the psicrystal weapon aspect, would the following be in addition to the above, or would they replace?
*Hardness: +3
*Special: Alertness, weapon bond, telepathic link, deliver touch powers, material mastery, and deep crystal

A Soulknife receives the feat Wild Talent feat at 1st level as it "provides the psionic power needed to manifest a Soulknife's mindblade"

Now, the Wild Talent feat states that should a character with the Wild Talent feat gain levels in a manifesting class, he exchanges it for the Psionic Talent feat.

Using the optional "high psionics" rule from Psionics Augmented Compilation 2, page 28, which suggests allowing all Soulknives access to power manifesting as per the Gifted Blade Archetype.

My question is: Would Soulknives under the "high psionics" rule still start with the Wild Talent feat at level 1, and then exchange it for the Psionic Talent feat at 3rd level when he gains actual manifestation ability?

According the DSP's Psionics Augmented Compilation 2 (page 22), the Augmented Blade Soulknife Archetype gains the Blade Skill/Feat of Psicrystal Affinity, and the Class Feature of Psicrystal Augment. Combined, they allow the Augmented to accomplish following:

"the augmented blade learns how to attach her psicrystal to a weapon and
cause it to bond to the item as a move action (reclaiming the psicrystal is a free action). Some weapons become covered in a thin sheen of crystal, for other augmented blades the entire weapon becomes psychic energy - the result is the same regardless of the cosmetic appearance.
Once bonded, this psicrystal augmentation allows for the bonded weapon to be used with blade skills and is treated as a masterwork item when augmented."

I'm curious, were an Augmented Blade to taken the Superior Psicrystal feat [Psionics Augmented: Psicrystals Expanded, page 11], and select the Psicyrstal Weapon aspect, which states the following on page 8:

"A psicrystal weapon can either grow into any kind of melee weapon, albeit of a crystalline nature, or be bonded to an existing weapon, covering it with crystals."

My question is - Would an Augmented Blade still be able to bond his psicrystal to another weapon as per the Psicrystal Augment feature, remove it should he have to surrender his weapons for one reason or another, stash his psicrystal on his person, then reform/resize it into a "pure" Psicrystal Weapon at a more opportunistic time?

As stated the Scale and Skin feat improves a character's natural AC when subjected to a spell or spell-like ability:

"When you are changed by magic, your skin also toughens.
Prerequisite: Con 13.
Benefit: Whenever a transmutation spell or spell-like ability affects you, your natural armor bonus increases by 1. If you have no natural armor bonus to Armor Class, treat your natural armor bonus as 0 for the purposes of this feat. The bonus to your natural armor bonus increases by 2 if the caster level of the effect is 10th or higher."

I am curious if the aforementioned bonus would come into play were the character wearing/using a wondrous item that essentially replicates a spell or spell-like ability of the transmutation school or possesses a transmutation aura - Eyes of the Owl or Boots of Friendly Terrain for example, since both require a transmutation spell in their creation (Beast Shape 1 for Eyes of the Owl and Pass Without Trace for the Boots)?

I'm debating multi-classing my current character into the new Slayer Class, and since he's a ranged weapon specialist (crossbow), the Sniper Archetype has some appeal, however looking thru the adjustments made to the base class, specifically the Deadly Range Talent/"Class Ability", a problem formed...

As written the Talent is thus:

Deadly Range (Ex): A slayer with this talent increases the range at which he can deal sneak attack damage by 10 feet. A slayer can select this talent more than once; its effects stack. A slayer must be at least 4th level before selecting this talent.

While the Class Ability states the following:

At 2nd level, a sniper increases the range at which he can apply his sneak attack damage by 10 feet. Whenever the sniper is able to select a new slayer talent, he can instead choose to increase this range by an additional 5 feet.

Now while the initial range increase is identical, the enhancement for choosing the same skill twice in halved for the sniper. Seems all well and good when taking into consideration that the actual talent cannot be chosen until 4th level. However, IF a Slayer chooses the talent twice his range is increased by 20' total at level 6, while the Sniper only gets a 15' enhancement at level 4, and 20' at level 6, which effectively costs him 3 "talents", for as a Class Skill it replaces the Talent gained at 2nd level.

Why would a "Class Ability" be essentially weaker/less advantageous than a "Talent"? Most Class Abilities improve automatically every so many levels (qv. Studied Target Class Ability), why is the Sniper's Deadly Range Class Ability an apparent exception to this guideline?