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I'd certainly give the choice to the player between paying a Focus Point or increasing their curse level when they cast a Cursebound Focus Spell. It solves the issue for some Mysteries but not all of them.

Anyway, the Oracle needs a deeper rebuild of Mysteries to work fine. I don't know if Paizo will take this time, time will tell (3 months, that's not much).

I personally haven't tried this in a game, but I have seen it suggested more and more as a temporary homebrew and/or an actual change ever since the focus point changes.

Agreed that it doesn't solve everything, but I do love that it solves the big and annoying issue of the curse locking oracles into one cursebound focus spell after the first encounter from level 1 to 10. And I think it does it in a clean and fun way. The resource management in choosing between paying a focus point or advancing your curse is so my jam. I like how it also plays nicely with how each mystery mostly have different preferred curse levels.

It is steadily becoming my favorite new Oracle wishlist change, just behind a built-in Divine Access class feature.

Little quibbles with edge cases aside (they exist but that's for another thread), the new state of condition removal spells is SO much better, I am livin' as a Life Oracle who can feasibly (albeit with some effort!) cover all of that now. Turning 8 condition-clearing spells (Remove Fear, Remove Paralysis, Restoration, Restore Senses, Remove Disease, Neutralize Poison, Remove Curse, and Stone to Flesh) into 4 (Sure Footing, Sound Body, Clear Mind, and Cleanse Affliction) that address everything the old ones did and way more, and do it more practically for combat, is nothing short of blessed. ~w~

Being able to officially remove those conditions from undead PCs with those spells is really nice too since they're all non-vitality healing effects! Well, except Sound Body.

Pour one out for Plant Form.

It lost the Shambler battle form option. It only has Arboreal and Flytrap now.

Also, I know this was in the preview but Entangling Flora (previously Entangle) not requiring existing plants or fungi is much appreciated. It's now great for setting up effects that do need existing plants or fungi like Nature's Reprisal.

The number of spells and abilities which makes trees are steadily growing.

I’m excited to build my Arbourmancer!

I really can’t express how thankful I am for all the love Paizo has given to plant and now wood options in this game. They already had me with Leshies, but I never expected the ever-expanding garden of 2e to grow this big and often.

I constantly fall in the cycle of forgetting and getting reminded of Daze having a duration entry. I'd love for that to be addressed, and hopefully clarified in general for other things.

Oracle is a mess of good ideas that for me don't quite work. Maybe I am not getting it but the burden of the curse seems to high? I loved oracles in PF1, loved the detriment of 1st level that got benefits to work around/overcome it later. Now the curse/mystery forces a certain kind of playstyle great in theory but unless the optimum moment for your mystery/curse to shine present itself you are playing at a disadvantage for using your classes core mechanic the rest of the time.

Imo Cosmos is the only mystery that nets positive on the overall risk/reward. Not so much that the curse bonuses are powerful and morseo that the penalties are easy to mitigate and manage. Its decent focus spells and amazing mystery benefit are what pushes it above the threshold.

Everything else just breaks even or is worse off for playing with their curse. Life has great bonuses offset by very risky penalties. Bones has middling bonuses that almost perfectly cancels its penalties. Flame and Tempest are held back by the divine spell list more than anything. Battle's penalties are more significant than its benefits, while Time is the opposite, with its benefits lacking compared to its penalties. Ancestors is intrinsically rough due to its gimmick, but at least its a gimmick. Lore is too tragic to talk about. I haven't played Ash.

I'm pretty high on the Bones Oracle more than most, but I do think it has the worst Mystery Benefit in terms of design and deserves a second look.

It's an on daily prep decision to gain negative healing. It's too situational, both in effect and application, compared to the others it often feels like you have no Mystery Benefit to work with at all most of the time. I wish it was something you can do more on the fly instead. Maybe not exactly combat useable but at least as a 10 minute activity once per day.

The alternate effect, if you have negative healing already, isn't any better. Specifically since its improved recovery check doesn't stack with Toughness unlike Mountain's Stoutness. It's also disappointingly redundant with the major curse.

These are quite specific so I'm not holding my breath, but the general idea is giving some Sorcerer and Oracle focus spells another look. The few that live rent free in my head:

For Alchemists, I'd appreciate Double Brew and Alchemical Alacrity become more practical. Quick Alchemy brews lasting until the end of your next turn instead of the start would be nice (essentially free Enduring Alchemy), but I wouldn't mind even more of a push than that.

Oracles should at least get their Divine Access feat bumped down to level 1.

Then there's debate between just straight up giving each mystery a spell list like the Sorcerer and Psychic or giving the class one free instance of the Divine Access feat. I personally like the latter because it highlights a very unique class feat to players from the very beginning. You get a few thematic spells, but further investment isn't pushed. I also like that everything else is already built-in for it. It just needs to be stated you get it, saving some text space in comparison to a spell list.

Other than that, I think all Oracles really need is another balance pass on each mystery's curse risk-reward ratio. This ideally also takes into consideration the strength of the passive mystery benefits and focus spells, which vary quite significantly. I'm fine with the more even risk-reward curses like Bones and Life, but I've gradually preferred wanting a more noticeable lean toward a clearly rewarding like Cosmos. A popular concern I've noticed from those new/unfamiliar with the class is that the minor curse only dishes out penalties. I can see how that feature is a frequent focal point. While I don't think the minor curse needs to grant benefits, I do feel the curse boons need to be more pronounced in spite of the curse penalties (although a few curse penalties are truly just too harsh/limiting as is). At minimum, the moderate curse would need to have eye-catching benefits that make it feel worth pain of being cursed.

Is being stunned on your turn is still up in the air? There was recent errata that touched on stunned in general, but I don't remember if it actually addressed that specific timing.

The big 2 for me are already mentioned. Recall Knowledge. Negative healing/undead trait rules, specifically the undead trait entailing immunity to healing effects. I do believe that's the final loose end of those rules and removing it cleans everything else up.

Additionally, I think the removal of the word "mitigate" to convey what you can and can't do to circumvent Oracle curses would go a long way. I think every other word used (reduce, remove, negate, and ignore) is comprehensive and clear enough, and mitigate just muddies this.

Life Oracles are set up to have a neat and unique healing playstyle in combat.

What you lack in free Heal spellslots, you make up for with damage redistribution with Life Link. Gradually mitigating damage from your party makes for efficient 3-action AoE heals. Your natural d12 Heals under moderate curse makes for great burst heals, which is perfect for your personal Heals since you redirect a lot of damage to yourself.

Often this means you are the one in the most need of healing, which seems horrible due to minor curse. But since this leaves the rest of your party generally healthier, you can actually save up on actions and Heal spells. You don't have to chase allies down too much, they go down less from the HP buffer you provide, and maybe you burst Heal yourself once per encounter. Sometimes not even since with Battle Medicine, on top of everything else, you're pretty good at keeping everyone standing by the end of the encounter. Maybe not topped off on HP but standing. And at that point, you can Treat Wounds your problems away.

This becomes more serviceable at higher levels when Life Link gains more targets. A bit dependent on party size too as Life Link's heightened scaling is awkward.

1 psychic refocus

This and eidolons using mundane items I'm super curious about.

With the influx of Summoners and Psychics at tables I've played at recently, I've noticed GMs are pretty 50/50 on how they rule these two. We even had a long but fun quibble on the psychic refocus trick with one table. Hilariously, the Psychic player wasn't even the one who brought it up.

Healer’s Blessing, in particular, does take the penalty separately because it is an additional healing instance to the triggering heal. If it was simply a bonus to a heal, like Undeath’s Blessing, there would be only one instance of healing to penalize.

I'm not sure that Divine Access is a must take, I'm currently playing a cosmos oracle with pretty much no intention of taking it, although that might be the exception to the rule.

That’s the beauty of it all. Cosmos is the most independant mystery from Divine Access because of its small deity list, solid focus spells, and its favorable curse balance.

Every Oracle getting a free Divine Access feat would appropriately help many of the other mysteries without overimproving an already solid one.

Two changes that are constantly at the forefront of my mind:

1) Enduring Alchemy should be removed as a feat. Quick Alchemy's last sentence should then be changed from "it remains potent only until the start of your next turn" to "it remains potent only until the end of your next turn."

At the very least, it's a courtesy to Double Brew and especially Alchemical Alacrity. I think it's perfectly appropriate to expect those class features to function effectively without having to take a separate feat. Alchemical_Genius already touched on this, but I think it's worth reiterating for much it smooths out for such a tiny change.

2) Oracles should get one Divine Access feat for free at 1st level. Divine Access should also at least be a level 2 feat.

With the clamor for Oracles getting more spells to better support each mystery, utilizing the already established Divine Access seems to make the most sense. I especially like how it showcases early on how integral and unique the Divine Access feat is to the class, even if some mysteries are more thirsty for it than others.

The ones I’ve got down currently are forestall curse, reach spell, then 16 and 20 are Necromancer’s visage (mostly a flavour choice) and oracular providence.

Reach spell for any caster with good 1-action spells is always nice when you can get it. An extra 10th level spell is always welcome. Ironically, I don't think I've played a Bones Oracle after the release of Book of the Dead so I've never even read Necromancer's Visage. It seems really fun in the right campaign so I hope it serves you well.

Unfortunately from a character perspective I don’t think there’s any way for this particular bones oracle to get the things you’re talking about through divine access. She worships Pharasma.

Thankfully, you don't need to worship the deity you choose for Divine Access at all, so you should be good. You can take Divine Access multiple times after all.

I went the diplomacy, Bon Mot route, but intimidate would be better. Strictly combat wise at least.

Both are great in different ways, so it's all preference imo. Frightened is just more universal being able to improve all of your save spells while Bon Mot and Evangelize are specialized for Will save spells, which is a lot of what the Divine and Occult lists have to offer. So Frightened will help out your non-Will save spells like Soul Siphon, but inflicting Frightened is usually a Will save anyway like with the Fear spell.

Solid spell list too by the way. Those spells are exactly what a lot of Oracle players look for when considering Divine Access support options. You should be fine.

What did you spend your feats on out of interest?

I've had a few Bones Oracles, but all have either had Blessed One or Medic as early as level 2. Blessed One is great since Lay on Hands bypasses your minor curse, but a little clunky if you have negative healing active often. Medic is the opposite with Battle Medicine not caring about your negative healing state but takes a huge blow from your minor curse. It's campaign dependent imo, but healing is healing and Bones literally lives and dies by it. With free archetype games, I often end up taking both.

Debilitating Dichotomy, Mysterious Repertoire and Forestall Curse are the must have Oracle feats for me personally. Divine Access too but if you're multiclassing anyways, you might not need it as much. I take Nhimbaloth for Cloudkill if I'm going for that gimmick. Otherwise, I go for what Gortle already pointed out with Shax, one of the best deities for Bones last I checked. Not going for the additional revelation spells really opens up a lot of class feat space so that's great for your multiclass or any other archetypes.

I started prioritizing Canny Acumen over Diehard early on to help avoid going down in the first place. I've learned that Diehard is more for later levels, specifically as the extreme curse safety net.

For skills, I'm all in on the Medicine and feats that improve Treat Wounds, but I also go hard with Intimidation and feats that improves Demoralize. More ways to set up Frightened is really good, especially for increasing Soul Siphon's success rate. Demoralize into Soul Siphon is a common turn for me, and that's only two of your actions. For my Cloudkill build, I additionally focus on Stealth for the Sneak feats.

One thing to note about Soul Siphon is that the temporary HP it grants has no duration. So it's something you can keep from encounter to encounter, which covers the Drained HP reduction from your curse really well.

Personally, I think Bones is one the mysteries that's pretty peachy with it's curse up at max at all times. I used to think the opposite because Drained and Wounded spooked me, but in practice, the benefits from your curse helped mitigate a lot of my worries. That and Soul Siphon's temp HP. I basically spam that whenever my temp HP goes down to keep it up as much as possible. Just be wary of your targets for the best temp HP efficiency; getting those crit fails on low fort enemies will feel very good.

Imo, it's only the extreme curse at high levels that you actually have to be mindful of. You can also just have Diehard or keep a Regenerate spell handy in case of emergencies.

Armor of Bones is okay and can work, but I've preferred Soul Siphon over it lately for both damage mitigation and focus spell usage. I second Debilitating Dichotomy though, if you do want another cursebound spell.

A mostly for fun interaction with your curse I like to shill is with the Cloudkill spell. Under moderate and/or major curse, you can stand in a Cloudkill with little risk. You can redirect its movement easier this way too.

Not the most pressing but I’d appreciate any clarification on the intent of what “mitigate” means for Oracle curses.

More than anything though, I want Life Link to have its heightening improved. It’s primed to neatly heighten +2 instead of awkwardly heightening at 3rd then at 6th and 9th. I’m biased though. Life Oracle is my favorite single entity in the game.

Compare flame oracles options with spells to what tempest has.

This issue here is twofold. Fire spells are more ubiquitous in the CRB, and deities don't update their spells with new releases.

We got some new air and water spells in SoM, but I don't think any have appeared in any new deities since. It's just the waiting game at the moment, unfortunately. Although I do hope for a custom deity ruleset, similar to personal staves, that would easily squash this issue.

Excited for Wood Kineticists? You'll have them in August.

Absolutely! I just don’t know which plant ancestry I’ll pair it with first.

I’ve been pretty spoiled by 2e when it comes to plant options. At this point, the only thing I could really ask for is more options that give the plantmancer vibe through subclasses. The Druid has never filled this hole for me, even outside 2e The Plant Summoner does though, and I love it. I wouldn’t mind more of that.

I don’t even care which classes get a plant-themed subclass. I’d take as many as I can. Sorcerer and Oracle would probably be the most likely out of the casters; I’m really fishing for cool low level plant focus spells. Maybe Alchemist and Barbarian for the martials?

I just want voluntary flaw system to land stayed the same.

In fact I'd like to hear why they changed it.

Did they feel that extra +2 was overpowered?

I often utilized it to make a weird build work. Now I don't have that option by raw

I feel you. The new universal ++ option is a godsend for me with how much certain +s or -s would put me off toward certain ancestries. The removal of the old voluntary system does surprise me considering how well it worked across different players and tables. The people who used it loved it and the ones that didn’t showed no hate. This is all anecdotal though.

It’s still a net gain for me, personally, even if I’m a bigger fan of the +++- spread. You won’t see me complaining if the old voluntary flaw system just suddenly came back though.

The clarification section is something I've longed for. I love it and can't wait for more! It's already answered a bunch of longstanding questions in my groups.

The fungi inclusion is something I didn't know I needed until now. Thanks Paizo!

What cavernshark proposed is a nice middle ground to test before fully swapping lists. Essentially, you allow your Oracles to get one Divine Access feat for free from the get go while still allowing them to take it additional times in the future. You can even give them extra free Divine Access feats at certain levels, almost like a class feature, if one isn't enough. This seems like the least disruptive change since it's just repurposing a feat the Oracle already has.

From there, if you still feel it's lacking, you can then make custom deity spell lists like Gortle said. I'd look through the Elemental spell list, personal stave rules, and the appropriate traits for those particular mysteries (fire for Flames and water/air for Tempest) for inspiration and guidelines.

On a similar note, do sustained 1 minute spells qualify as well?

I've been subconsciously discounting them just because fully sustaining a spell for 10 minutes doesn't seem prudent. But who knows, it could open up a bunch of interesting possibilities if so.

I didn't consider battle forms before, so that's fun. Just to make sure, do the self-casted spells (like battle forms) still count toward the "single target" prerequisite of the spell? Even though they don't technically target?

And yeah, I'm not too worried using it regularly for combat although the pre-casting possibilities are a unique aspect to look out for during play. It does seem it would shine better with spells that are also beneficial outside combat, but 1 minute spells geared for out of combat aren't exactly the most prolific by design. But to be fair, I have yet to look into SoM and books after for spells for this specific interaction.

I've played several Imperial Sorcerers, but I've never got the chance to pick up Extend Spell. I'm considering taking it this time around. What are some good or cool spells to use with it?

The most obvious one is 4th level Invisibility. Otherwise, I guess it's good for pre-buffing with spells you usually can't pre-buff with, but if we're talking combat, just having Arcane Countermeasures locked and loaded has always served me well already.

Just because you have focus spells and reaction doesn't always mean you are using them. There are plently of Oracles that have focus spells to burn - like a Psychic they get preferential class treatment - but really don't want to advance their curse until they have to. Probably half of the Oracles never really want to go to their major curse. Example Lore or Bones. I actually like the Oracle with a side of Pyschic.

Too true. The extra control you get over your curse while still able to make use of your focus points is super handy. That's why Blessed One is a particularly popular archetype Oracles dip into. One feat for one non-cursebound focus spell is a great deal.

Oracles having lackluster class feats also makes the dedication lock more bearable. Sad but convenient in this context, like a curse, if you will.

You gain a 1st-level psi cantrip for a conscious mind other than your own; this can be either the unique surface cantrip or one of the common cantrips and the accompanying amp.

Surface cantrips are specifically the 1st level psi cantrips unique to your conscious mind so it should just be limited to those. The ones you get at 6th level are called deeper psi cantrips, and the ones you get at 10th level are called deepest psi cantrips.

I had a group comp similar to this, but instead of a Champion, we had a Barbarian and everyone heavily built for Intimidation. I kept the theme going by building an Intimidation Imperial Sorcerer, but I didn’t boost any other CHA skill. The others covered deception, diplomacy, and performance, while I just did my best impression of a Wizard. Oh, and I was also the medic. It was fun time.

I think an INT class in general would be great for your party, but if you wanted to stick with a spontaneous caster, Sorcerer is your best bet. The Imperial bloodline in particular can feel very Wizard-like being already trained in Arcana and your first bloodline spell covering any other skills you’re missing on-demand. Boost WIS for your medical needs or INT for even more skills. You shouldn’t have to worry about upstaging the other charismatic characters as long as you avoid the CHA skills that they already cover. You even have the luxury of easily avoiding performance, unlike the Bard.

Isn't a little underpowered on a demon eidoon which is by default chaotic evil?

I could understand choosing alignment damage on an angel eidolon to deal good damage ( dealing zero damage against neutral beings, but also zero damage on your allies), but unless being evildoers against the forces of good I can hardly see evil/chaotic damage as useful on any AP.

Oh, I should've specified I was considering it for an upcoming evil campaign I'm going to play in.

I find the Dragon Eidolon to be uninspiring. It's abilities are mostly meh. The breath is ridiculous. And the 3 attacks for 2 actions are hardly strong.

For an AoE-based Eidolon, I find the Angel Eidolon with Eidolon's Wrath to be so much stronger. Sure, it's a focus spell, but it only affects enemies (unless you have some evil doer in the party, but it's uncommon) and it triggers one of the most common weakness.

Yeah, I've never been a fan of most two-action abilities Eidolons get, especially the exclusively damage-based ones like the Dragon's. I'd rather use those actions on a utility or support spell from a Fey Eidolon.

Although, I've never considered using Eidolon's Wrath with alignment damage to avoid the friendly fire. I always avoided it because of the friendly fire, but I might try this out on a Demon Eidolon now.

Maybe the issue you got with your Summoner came from your Eidolon looking more powerful than it should have. That's why I dislike all the size increases abilities on the Eidolon, they push enemies to attack it when it's not exactly a tank.

This has been an interesting dilemma for me. Even for the Plant Eidolon that wants the reach, I’ve come to not like having my Eidolon be such a big target at the start of combat. I’m starting to prefer enlarging with Evolution Surge once I’m already positioned to my liking despite the extra setup. The Shrink Down feat would’ve been nice here if it wasn’t another feat slot I can barely afford if I’m also getting the size increasing feats already.

A common grievance I still hear about is how being two targets is a huge liability for the class. I think too often that weakness is overexaggerated while the benefits that come with it are largely undersold.

In actual play, the advantage in the large area you threaten on the battlefield by being two separate bodies has been quite impressive. The ability to impact two completely different points on the field, often possible in a single turn, is huge. Being two target points for healing makes range limitations a rare issue and surprisingly comes up more than I expected. Being two bodies also bypasses key immunities to allow double-dipping with things like being healed by Battle Medicine or using Demoralize on the same target.

Yeah, it’s funny going from Oracles with my mouth watering at the sight of every non-cursebound focus spells I could get for cheap through archetypes to avoiding focus spells altogether as a Psychic. At the same time, they’re both the most focus point heavy classes we have so far. It’s also amusing that the Psychic dedication is one of the best in terms of class compatibility while the Oracle dedication is one of the worst.

I think the current state actually pushes you to multiclass to get focus spells

I haven't played a Psychic with a multiclass focus spell yet tbf, but does it really push you that much? Even with the amp + refocus 2 trick, the reduced refocus feels like a decent deterrent. The time to do the trick isn't nothing.

If a Sorcerer, no focus feat, and a Psychic, using at least 1 multiclass focus spell, uses all 3 focus points in an encounter, they both refocus to 1 for 10 minutes. If they both have an extra 10 minutes, they can use 1 good out-of-combat focus spell, let's say they both have Lay on Hands, and then they both refocus back to 1. If the Psychic wanted to go back to 2, they would've needed to amp a psi cantrip instead, most of which have no out-of-combat application. They gave up a Lay on Hands casting, or anything else useful really, to go back to 2 so they have a slight focus point advantage on the next encounter.

But if the Psychic only amped psi cantrips that encounter, they could refocus all the way up to 3 in those 20 minutes. That's a bigger focus point advantage on the next encounter but at the cost of being limited to psi cantrips for both the encounter and after combat recovery period and exclusively refocusing. The Sorcerer, on the other hand, is free to do anything in their second 10 minutes. It feels like an even trade-off between getting the focus point advantage for the next encounter and the freedom to do more than just refocusing. To me, the balance here seems to be working properly.

As a Psychic, you would need 30 minutes to have full focus spell freedom during combat if you want to be able to refocus back to 3. Of course, you're stuck refocusing the entire time. The Sorcerer would still have only 1 focus point next encounter but now they have 20 minutes to do anything they want. So I guess it all depends how much time your GM consistently gives you between encounters to recover consequence-free.

I may have to try a Psychic with a multiclass focus spell just to see this firsthand.

Same. That’s how we play it, but I thought I’d ask to be sure. The range seems only natural to update with the heightened effect, but I’m a bit unsure on the responses. The no line of effect/sight benefit states it applies to cast Message. I just don’t know if that’s enough to cover the response options since it’s not you casting Message at that instance. My gut says it should though just for simplicity’s sake.

The passive benefit on the Silent Whisper's Message allows you to not need a straight line of effect when casting it. That doesn't also apply to the reaction/free action the target can take to respond, does it?

At 3rd level, Message heightens to 500ft range. Is it fair to assume the Psychic passive benefit applies with that 500ft range or is that benefit limited to 120ft range?

Honestly, I think that line is only there and deliberately refers to your initial 2 focus pool is because recovering 2 focus points is not something you normally have to worry about at 1st level. No other class can recover 2 that early, but getting your focus pool to 2 or 3 is pretty normal by comparison.

I think it's a good small clarification to have for a unique 1st level feature. I do agree it could be clearer to make sure that "maximum of 2" isn't misconstrued as a separate entity from your focus pool, which can and will increase to 3.

However your GM rules it, keep in mind that the mitigation clause goes both ways. As in, both negative and positive effects can't be negated, removed, etc. For our group, it's the best way to check if an effect mitigating a curse is too good or too bad to be true since we have both sides to equally consider. Since the ruling should be applied consistently across the board, it works out for both the players and the GM.

This has lead to us to only disallowing direct mitigation, similar to the book's given example on the Flame's concealed curse vs True Strike. Stat bonuses/penalties and similar contrary effects are all allowed to coexist since they are indirect mitigation. This avoids crazy game-breaking scenarios like the AC penalty mitigation breithauptclan pointed out above or damage over time effects counting as mitigation for your Fast Healing.

Signature items likely feel a little out of place because they were added to the alchemist with an errata pass to help with their low-level resource scarcity.

I also think something cool could be done with them, though. A little feat support could help a lot.

Yeah, that's exactly why I want it to get another pass since I think it was a cool idea. Instead of just increasing their resource directly, they came up with a neat little bonus mechanic. But like you said, it's just there to patch the lower levels, so it sadly and awkwardly just fades into nothing when its purpose was met. Fair, but it does feel out of place as a consequence.

Even with just the removal of this one line restriction allows it to supplement Field Discovery instead of overlapping with it.

This new signature item must be on your research field's list of possible signature items.

As relatively minute as that bonus might be, having signature items relevant at all levels just feels nice.

I’d love for the Alchemist’s signature items to be revisited. Currently, it becomes redundant and forgotten once you get Field Discovery, but I feel there’s so much untouched potential of having it be a relevant feature past that point.

Purifying Icicle has a fortitude save entry that isn't clear what it applies too.

It stumped us during a game the other day so we just played it like a regular spell attack. Are we missing something here? It reminded me of very similar spells, Searing Light and Chilling Darkness, that I looked back to for clues, but no luck.

Silent Whisper's 6th level granted spell, Sending, is not a 6th level spell at all. Sending a 5th level spell.

For Silent Whisper, I personally get my fix for subtle mind manipulation with the many thematic conditions it can naturally cause like stupefied, frightened, and stunned without spell slots. The rest of the more direct mind manipulation aspects can easily be filled with the occult spell list. Although I do see what you mean. Other than Forbidden Thought, it is lacking local options that offer that direct mind manipulation vibe.

I can’t complain having access to Shatter Mind though, and Contagious Idea seems fun and versatile (just one more level before I get to actually use it).

I've only dabbled with the Psychic so far and it has been a wonderful experience. The freedom it has at early levels because with its amps and cantrips compared to other casters is a big boon.

I'm also a huge fan of playstyles that get boosts at risky costs so Unleash Psyche really scratches that itch. There are a few feats that push this dynamic even further, but Strain Mind is what really captured me. It's a feat I wish Oracles had an equivalent. It's also all very thematic to many psychic tropes, so I appreciate that.

Speaking of, the one I'm having the most fun with right now is my Silent Whisper Psychic. It shocked me how I can fully commit to the telepath trope and still perform very well. I'm offensively useless against the many mindless enemies in our campaign for but the party support it provides outside wrecking the mindful makes it barely an inconvenience. My party was a bunch of naysayers so it's been a joy proving them wrong.

Speaking of the divine list, more spells that are true neutral deity friendly moving forward would be appreciated. Some SoM spells, like Deity's Strike and Divine Armageddon, do this already. Sure, both spells are less powerful when used with a true neutral deity, but it was nice they worked at all unlike some of the CRB divine spells.