Bonus Feat: Humans select one extra feat at 1st level.
Detect Thoughts (Sp): At 2nd level, a psychic can use detect thoughts as a spell-like ability once per day. She can also expend any unused spell slot of 1st level or higher to cast detect thoughts. If she does so, she uses the level of the spell slot expended to determine the Will save DC. When a psychic gains this ability, if she knows detect thoughts, she can learn a different 1st-level spell in place of detect thoughts, losing the old spell in exchange for the new one.
Mnemonic Esoterica (Ex): By reaching into the recesses of your past lives, you gain knowledge beyond that of most psychics. Select a single additional spellcasting class. Once per day when you prepare your spells, you can add one spell from this class’s spell list to your spells known and class spell list for 24 hours. This spell must be 1 level lower than the highest-level spell you can cast, and you cast it as if it were psychic magic.
You can decide to change the spellcasting class from which you draw this spell each time you gain a new level.
Past-Life Memories (Ex): You add a bonus equal to half your psychic level (minimum 1) to all Knowledge checks and can attempt all Knowledge skill checks untrained.
Phrenic Amplifications: A psychic develops particular techniques to empower her spellcasting, called phrenic amplifications. The psychic can activate a phrenic amplification only while casting a spell using psychic magic, and the amplification modifies either the spell’s effects or the process of casting it. The spell being cast is called the linked spell. The psychic can activate only one amplification each time she casts a spell, and doing so is part of the action used to cast the spell. She can use any amplification she knows with any psychic spell, unless the amplification’s description states that it can be linked only to certain types of spells. A psychic learns one phrenic amplification at 1st level, selected from the list below. At 3rd level and every 4 levels thereafter, the psychic learns a new phrenic amplification.
A phrenic amplification can’t be selected more than once.
Once a phrenic amplification has been selected, it can’t be changed. Phrenic amplifications require the psychic to expend 1 or more points from her phrenic pool to function.
Focused Force (Su): When casting a force spell, the psychic can increase the spell’s damage by spending 1 point from her phrenic pool. Increase the die size for the spell’s damage by one step (from 1d4 to 1d6, 1d6 to 1d8, 1d8 to 1d10, or 1d10 to 1d12). This increases the size of each die rolled, so a spell that dealt 4d6+3 points of force damage would deal 4d8+3 points of force damage instead. This amplification can be linked only to spells that deal force damage, and only if that damage includes a die value. A spell that already uses d12s for damage can’t be amplified in this way.
Phrenic Pool (Su): A psychic has a pool of supernatural mental energy that she can draw upon to manipulate psychic spells as she casts them. The maximum number of points in a psychic’s phrenic pool is equal to 1/2 her psychic level + her Wisdom or Charisma modifier, as determined by her psychic discipline. The phrenic pool is replenished each morning after 8 hours of rest or meditation; these hours don’t need to be consecutive. The psychic might be able to recharge points in her phrenic pool in additional circumstances dictated by her psychic discipline. Points gained in excess of the pool’s maximum are lost.
Psychic Discipline (Ex or Sp): Each psychic accesses and improves her mental powers through a particular method, such as rigorous study or attaining a particular mental state.
This is called her psychic discipline. She gains additional spells known based on her selected discipline. The choice of discipline must be made at 1st level; once made, it can’t be changed. Each psychic discipline gives the psychic a number of discipline powers (at 1st, 5th, and 13th levels), and grants her additional spells known. In addition, the discipline determines which ability score the psychic uses for her phrenic pool and phrenic amplifications abilities. The DC of a saving throw against a psychic discipline ability equals 10 + 1/2 the psychic’s level + the psychic’s Intelligence modifier.
At 1st level, a psychic learns an additional spell determined by her discipline. She learns another additional spell at 4th level and every 2 levels thereafter, until learning the final one at 18th level. These spells are in addition to the number of spells given. Spells learned from a discipline can’t be exchanged for different spells at higher levels.
Skilled: Humans gain an additional skill rank at first level and one additional rank whenever they gain a level.
Spell Casting: A psychic casts psychic spells drawn from the psychic class’s spell list. She can cast any spell she knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a psychic must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a psychic’s spell is equal to 10 + the spell’s level + the psychic’s Intelligence modifier.
A psychic can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Psychic. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Intelligence score.
The psychic’s selection of spells is limited. A psychic begins play knowing four 0-level spells and two 1st-level spells of the psychic’s choice. At each new psychic level, she learns one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Psychic Spells Known. Unlike a psychic’s spells per day, the number of spells a psychic knows isn’t affected by her Intelligence score.
At 4th level and every even-numbered level thereafter (6th, 8th, and so on), a psychic can choose to learn a single new spell in place of one she already knows. In effect, the psychic loses the old spell in exchange for the new one.
The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least 1 level lower than the highest-level spell from the psychic’s class list that the psychic can cast. A psychic can swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that she gains new spells known for the level.
A psychic need not prepare her spells in advance. She can cast any psychic spell she knows at any time, assuming she has not yet used up her allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level.
An amnesiac’s ability to cast psychic spells is the same as that of the psychic class, with the following exceptions.
An amnesiac’s faulty memory makes remembering and casting spells difficult, but the increased flexibility can be a great benefit. Instead of choosing a number of spells known from Table 1–8: Psychic Spells Known, an amnesiac accesses spells she knew the previous day from the recesses of her mind. This requires 1 hour of meditation. Each day, for each spell level the amnesiac can cast, she retains a number of spells known equal to half the number listed on Table 1–8, rounded up. These spells must be selected from spells the amnesiac knew the previous day (including any spells she remembered using spell recollection; see below). The remainder of her spells known (half the number on Table 1–8, rounded down) become amnesia slots, which the amnesiac can use with her spell recollection ability (see below). To determine the spells she knows on the day when she first takes this archetype, the amnesiac picks any one 1st-level spell from the psychic spell list.
This change to spells doesn’t apply to knacks (0-level spells) or discipline spells, which function the same way they do for a normal psychic. When the amnesiac gains access to 3rd-level spells, she gains full recall of her 1st-level spells and no longer gains 1st-level amnesia slots, instead gaining the full number of 1st-level spells known from Table 1–8 and casting them as a normal psychic. When this happens, the amnesiac can select any level-appropriate spells from the psychic spell list as her spells known, even if they were never among the spells she prepared or recalled; once selected, these spells can no longer be changed, as with a normal psychic. Each time the psychic gains access to a new level of spells, she gains full memory of spells 2 levels lower in the same way (gaining full memory and permanently selecting her 2nd-level spells when she gains access to 4th level spells, and so on).
This ability alters spellcasting.
Spell Recollection (Ex): Once per hour as a swift action, an amnesiac can attempt to remember any spell from the psychic spell list of her choice from either of the 2 highest spell levels she can cast. When she does, she rolls on Table 2–1: Spell Recollection to determine the result. Because the mental stress of combat brings memories to the surface more easily, the amnesiac adds 1d10 to this roll’s result if she’s in combat when she attempts to recall a spell. Regardless of the result, the amnesiac expends an amnesia slot of the appropriate level for the spell she is attempting to remember; she must cast the spell remembered (if any) using that amnesia slot during the same round, or the spell slot is lost without effect.
Once a spell has been remembered in this way, the amnesiac can cast it as one of her spells known for the rest of the day (even if she failed to cast the spell during the round in which she remembered it), unless spell recollection allowed her to cast a spell of a higher level than she would normally be able to cast.
Table: Spell Recollection d% Result 1–10 The amnesiac is unable to cast spells this round.
11–35 The amnesiac can’t remember the new spell (but can still cast spells this round).
36–95 The amnesiac remembers and can cast the new spell.
96+ The amnesiac can choose to treat this result as 36–95. Alternatively, once per day, she can instead temporarily recall any spell from the psychic spell list that’s 1 level higher than the spell she’s attempting to remember. When she does, her caster level counts as the minimum caster level required to cast the higher level spell, and she forgets the spell after it’s cast.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A psychic is proficient with all simple weapons, but not with any type of armor or shield.
BACKGROUND:
"One thousand eyes - staring, blinking! I cannot bear it!”
Leira Fenix grew up as a good and intelligent child in a stable home in Talingarde. It was not until she witnessed her sister Mari’s murder at the hands of an intruder--a child predator-- that her world turned upside down. As she rested her dying sister’s head in her lap, her thoughts reached out in empathy and their minds linked. Leira remembered a superstition in her religion that she needed to open the window so her sister’s soul might escape and rest in peace, but the trauma of their linked minds caused Leira to fall unconscious before she reached the window.
The linking of her mind with her dying sister left Leira comatose, during which she envisioned Mari speaking with her. Mari told Leira that because she was unable to escape from the window, she had decided to stay with her. Leira was unconscious for a period of time and didn’t have any memory of what people said or did around her. She woke up several days later in her own bed, her concerned parents at her side.
After this event, Leira began to experience paranormal events. She could move things with telekinesis. She had strange dreams. At other times, her dead sister Mari would talk with her as if she were still living. Occasionally, Leira startled her family by speaking with the voice and persona of Mari. After these brief episodes, she returned to her normal self, not remembering what had happened. Any mention of these things greatly alarmed Leira, who just wanted to be good.
These episodes increased in frequency, with Leira taking on the voice and persona of not just Mari, but others. Her eyes sometimes glowed with an eerie light. Her distraught parents did what they could, but circumstances eventually forced Leira’s treatment in an asylum when she was 16 years old. But when her parents tried to institutionalize her in the asylum, the doctors could find nothing; Leira acted completely normal around anyone treating her, and she was discharged.
Leira seemed to have a mental block about some of the things that were happening. Her struggle to control her psychic magic led to wild and unpredictable results. When she was 18, Talingarde authorities arrested a suspect in her sister Mari’s murder. However, though there was strong circumstantial evidence, the man was released from prison.
The next day, the man was murdered in his bed. Evidence and suspicion led the law to Leira. Though she insisted she had been asleep, she had blood on the skirts of her nightgown. She had been speaking with Mari’s voice and persona the night before. She vehemently denied any involvement, but the magistrate sentenced her to death for the man’s murder. She awaits her sentence in Branderscar Prison, mostly crying and wondering why she is there. Other times, Mari’s voice revels in the death of her abuser.
Appearance: Leira is thin and pretty, with ebony skin and dark eyes. When manifesting her powers, her eyes glow with the bright light of the paranormal, and her wild black hair constantly moves around her face as if it had a life of its own. Her hands tremor with psychic power.
Personality: Leira is a kind girl, but is confused by events happening to her. But other times, something sinister seems to overtake her and she speaks with a different voice and persona. This voice is utterly insane and seeks more and more psychic power, believing it is the way for her to discover the secret to immortality.
“You are naught but dust, and like dust you shall be scattered!”
1. Background
a. Conflict
b. Challenges
c. Mystery
d. Passion
e. Birthplace
f. Family
g. Professions and Crafts
h. Significant Past Events
i. Family-related events
ii. Personal events
iii. Notable individuals
i. Mysteries
j. Existing Conflicts
k. What triggered adventuring?
l. Initial possessions
m. Bound duties
n. Quests
2. Primary Motivators - Understanding and Power
3. Emotion and Core Traits
a. Emotional Disposition and Moodiness - Curious, Labile
b. Core Traits -
i. Outlook: Pessimistic;
ii. Integrity: Unscrupulous;
iii. Impulsiveness: Spontaneous;
iv. Boldness: Intrepid;
v. Agreeableness: Disagreeable;
vi. Interactivity: Engaging;
vii. Conformity: Heterodox
4. Secondary Personality Traits
a. Sense of Humor
b. Favorite Topics of Conversation
c. Group Affiliations
d. Religion and Spirituality
e. Quirks, Habits, and Oddities
f. Hobbies and Enjoyments
g. Mental Disorders
h. Barks
