Psionics Expanded: Mind Over Body (PFRPG) PDF

And the first part of Psionics Expanded is available!

We're also working on getting a way for folks to buy into the whole project for the $9.95 cover price of the final PDF, but that's still in the works.

Sounds good! Will there be a print edition, too?

I'll be subscribing as soon as you get the option added, or at least after my first paycheck comes in once you get the subscription added.

Sounds good! Will there be a print edition, too?

Yup.

Once we have a better idea on the final page count, we'll likely start preorders for the print edition like we did for Psionics Unleashed. The page count is fluctuating so much right now, we can't really get an idea of the final print cost.

Thanks, that's good to hear!

We're also working on getting a way for folks to buy into the whole project for the $9.95 cover price of the final PDF, but that's still in the works.

Can we subscribe to this on the Paizo Site yet?

And the first part of Psionics Expanded is available!

I just downloaded mine. Did the subsciption thing thru rpgnow

Will try to do a review once I have read it.

One weired thing - the links in the bookmarks don't work. It is underlined like a normal link - but when you click on it it does nothing.

Tod - yeah, I'm guessing a setting got turned off in the export and bookmarks didn't get exported properly. I'll be fixing that tonight and we'll hopefully have it updated across all sites tomorrow.

KaeYoss - Not yet. I'm waiting for word from the good folks here at Paizo about the subscription option.

Tod - yeah, I'm guessing a setting got turned off in the export and bookmarks didn't get exported properly. I'll be fixing that tonight and we'll hopefully have it updated across all sites tomorrow.

KaeYoss - Not yet. I'm waiting for word from the good folks here at Paizo about the subscription option.

Not a biggee. Thought it might just be me :)

Cool!

Two questions:
First, is this the class that was being called Chirurgeon?

Second, how long is the $9.95 offer for? Will it still be available next week when I get paid?

Cool!

Two questions:
First, is this the class that was being called Chirurgeon?

Second, how long is the $9.95 offer for? Will it still be available next week when I get paid?

Yes. Ultimate Magic came out with a Chirurgeon Alchemist. To avoid confusion, we renamed the Chirurgeon to Vitalist.

And 9.95 will be available... as long as we have PDFs for sale. That's what the final book is going to go for, so we're offering it as the up-front price now so you can get all the small PDFs and the final PDF without having to pay multiple times.

Spiral_Ninja wrote:

Cool!

Two questions:
First, is this the class that was being called Chirurgeon?

Second, how long is the $9.95 offer for? Will it still be available next week when I get paid?

Yes. Ultimate Magic came out with a Chirurgeon Alchemist. To avoid confusion, we renamed the Chirurgeon to Vitalist.

And 9.95 will be available... as long as we have PDFs for sale. That's what the final book is going to go for, so we're offering it as the up-front price now so you can get all the small PDFs and the final PDF without having to pay multiple times.

So, is that 9.95 price available here? I want to get the PDFs for this since I bought the main Psion book, but if I buy the 3.99 one from here, would I end up buying all the sections of the Expanded separately?

So, is that 9.95 price available here? I want to get the PDFs for this since I bought the main Psion book, but if I buy the 3.99 one from here, would I end up buying all the sections of the Expanded separately?

Not yet. I'm waiting for the good folks at Paizo to set up a pseudo-subscription product. Unfortunately, I do not have any direct control on that, as it's a special request and something they normally don't offer for third party publishers.

We're trying to get it available here. Currently, $9.95 to get everything is available at RPGNow, DriveThruRPG, and Dreamscarred Press.

Subscription option is now available here!

A discount option for folks who already bought the first product is being looked into. :)

Two minor bits of errata:

Vitalist Knacks - add the following:
Unless otherwise specified, knacks that require a ranged touch attack have a range of 30 ft.

Vitalist Power List
Bend Reality should be 7th level, not 8th.

This is just a minor bit of Errata I believe you missed.

The Vitalist Ability Knacks, is currently listed as talents in the chart - Table: The Vitalist.

Now, A couple of questions.

1.) When manifesting a power through a member of a Collective, do you treat them as the source of the spell? (i.e. you determine range from them) Or does the spell have to target them?

2.) When manifesting a power through a member of a Collective, do you need line of sight/line of effect to that member? (i.e one of your collective members, is behind a brick wall or a Wall of Force.)

3.) Am I correct in the knowledge that, as of this book, only 4 powers have the 'Network' Descriptor?

The 4 being:
Old Powers: Dimension Swap, Empathic Transfer, and Sense Link
New Power: Psychic Bodyguard

This is just a minor bit of Errata I believe you missed.

The Vitalist Ability Knacks, is currently listed as talents in the chart - Table: The Vitalist.

Yup, that's a typo. They were originally called Talents, but as we're making a 0th level Talent system, they were renamed to Knacks to try to avoid confusion.

Now, A couple of questions.

1.) When manifesting a power through a member of a Collective, do you treat them as the source of the spell? (i.e. you determine range from them) Or does the spell have to target them?

2.) When manifesting a power through a member of a Collective, do you need line of sight/line of effect to that member? (i.e one of your collective members, is behind a brick wall or a Wall of Force.)

3.) Am I correct in the knowledge that, as of this book, only 4 powers have the 'Network' Descriptor?

The 4 being:
Old Powers: Dimension Swap, Empathic Transfer, and Sense Link
New Power: Psychic Bodyguard

1) It's important to note that the Collective and Spirit of Many class features specify the power is manifested ON the member of the collective, not THROUGH them. It's not so much using the collective member as a jumping point instead you're using the collective to get to the collective member.

2) No. It looks like that was overlooked during Alpha / Beta. As long as they are in the collective, the Vitalist can manifest an eligible power on that member, regardless of line of effect. Essentially, the Collective acts as line of effect for the purposes of network powers and "a vitalist power specifies one or more willing targets (or is harmless) and has a range greater than personal"

3) Yes. More are coming as part of the Tactician release, which works heavily with the Network feature and introduces about a dozen Network powers. The Vitalist adds the Network descriptor to certain powers (covered in Medic Powers), but they don't retroactively gain it to minimize cross-pollination of abilities, so to speak.

OK, I preordered through PayPal (the Paypal account is in my husband's name)...so, how do I get the PDF?

[tries to look like she knows what she's doing]

OK, I preordered through PayPal (the Paypal account is in my husband's name)...so, how do I get the PDF?

[tries to look like she knows what she's doing]

Download here

Should show as a free download for preorders. :)

Ah. got it now. I just didn't realize I had to go back and see the new free download.

Interesting stuff.

Ah. got it now. I just didn't realize I had to go back and see the new free download.

Interesting stuff.

Unfortunately, our web store isn't as advanced as some of the others... The downside to being a small company.

*raises hand* Questions..

I'm aware these things have been playtested, but That doesn't mean these questions aren't valid. Even with playtesting things get missed.. also, who knows, maybe these have been addressed and I'll get the answer.

1.) Collective Healing states:
** The vitalist may choose to redirect any or all of that healing to one or more other willing members of the collective as a free action. This can transfer instantaneous healing (such as a body adjustment power), healing from ongoing healing effects, such as fast healing, and even hit points gained from rest (in which case, a member of the collective would rest for a period of time as normal, and the amount of hit points and ability damage healed would go to another).**

So does this mean you can use it unlimited times a round (a.k.a Free Action useable even when it isn't your turn).
Or is there some limit? (a.k.a. Should it be an Immediate Action?)

Or should it be an Immediate Action if you are using it off turn, and a Free Action if you are using it during your turn?

2.) Knacks state they are Psi-Like (Assuming that is what Ps stands for) Abilities.
Shouldn't there be a times per day for them?

3.) Pulse
Isn't it a little 'powerful' to be a free action for 1 power point? I mean, you're able to give this ability to all your Collective Members, regardless of distance from you.

Also, Compared to the Guardian Pulse and Soulthief Pulse, Mender's Pulse seems a bit weak.

Guardian's Pulse: DR 2/- for one round.
Mender's Pulse: fast healing 1 for one round.
Soulthief's Pulse: Any successful damaging attack made with an attack roll made by a member of the collective heals the attacker for the damage dealt, up to 2 hit points of damage. (for 1 round)

Guardian's Pulse can potentially stave off a lot of damage, Soultheif's Pulse can potentially give a lot of health (Depending on number of attacks a person has/Attacks of Opportunity).
Mender's Pulse however, gives a single hit point (And they have to wait for their turn to get it).

Collective Healing is a free action usable at any time. It doesn't take an Immediate Action.

Basically, the Vitalist gives up a fair bit of the oomph in healing the Cleric gets, but he gets significantly more finesse with doling out the healing to who needs it.

Knacks are usable at will.

Just like Discipline Talents of Psions, Path Powers of Psychic Warriors, cantrips, orisons, etc.

Pulse might seem strong, but consider that it does take up daily resources (1 power point), it does consume an action (swift action), and it does have a short duration (1 round).

Also, you need to factor in that the Mender's Pulse is actually 1 hp / collective member... and combined with Collective Healing, that can mean (at 20th level), 20 hp of healing to one person.

And factor in the level at which it is gained - 6th level. By that level, the vitalist could instead use Biofeedback - a 1st level Vitalist power - to give all 6 members of his collective Biofeedback for 6 rounds. I.e. almost identical to the Guardian ability...

And factor in that the soulthief's pulse doesn't grant any healing from weak opponents (at that level, lower than 3rd level), or against a variety of creatures (undead, constructs, etc).

:)

I've caught a typo and have a concern about the Wilder Surge Option: Healing Surge.

The Improved Surge Bond states that: "At 5th, 9th, 13th and 17th level the healing wilder may gains the Expanded Knowledge feat, but must choose a power of the Healing subdiscipline.

First, the "may" between "wilder" and "gains" shouldn't be there.

Now, my concern:

At 5th level, a wilder taking Expanded Knowledge can only choose a 1st level power (as it must be one level below their maximum power level known, which for a 5th level wilder is only 2nd). As the Surge Bond for the healing wilder is "natural healing", the wilder already has the ONLY 1st level spell of the Healing subdiscipline. Trust me, I even searched all three parts of the Psionics Expanded books.

As written, the healing wilder would gain a feat at 5th level that he/she couldn't use...

At 5th level, a wilder taking Expanded Knowledge can only choose a 1st level power (as it must be one level below their maximum power level known, which for a 5th level wilder is only 2nd). As the Surge Bond for the healing wilder is "natural healing", the wilder already has the ONLY 1st level spell of the Healing subdiscipline. Trust me, I even searched all three parts of the Psionics Expanded books.

As written, the healing wilder would gain a feat at 5th level that he/she couldn't use...

Well that is an unfortunate oversight...

I'll see about getting an appropriate errata issued.

Before I start yapping I would Like to say that I love all of your work, this book included. I am super happy about the vitalist. The finesse(as you put it) he has with healing is wonderful. I have been playtesting one for a couple weeks. I have to say, he seems super powerful. You mentioned he looses some of the healing punch the cleric has, but I do not think that is the case.

First, Unless I'm reading it wrong the menders pulse is fast healing 5 at level 20. Meaning its not 20hp to one target with one pulse using collective healing, its 100. Now I know its level 20 but that's a free action. Combine this with all members being able to request healing as swifts, and sure the power points are flying, but my vitalist has 443 of them. I would go so far as to say the mender's pulse is by far the strongest as it doesn't require an attack roll at you or by you, and it synergies so well with collective healing. Perhaps removing pulse use with the collective healing is appropriate?

Second, Through the use of Expanded Knowledge and some nasty network powers, my vitalist is buffing like a cleric wishes he could. 7 points, average party gets +4 con(animal affinity). 20 points, 4 people(average sized party) get 80 temp hitpoints each(vigor)(a cleric is channeling for 10d6 max 60 each, but it only works on injured people). 15 points,quickened haste for the party(physical acceleration). 13 points, the whole party grows 2 sizes and it lasts for 200 minutes(expansion)(quickened 19 points). Ok so I just spent 61 PP in 2 rounds. I still have 382 left. For the rest of this battle I can lounge and watch TV, pulse every round, and if things get bad I can throw some more PP at the party.

Third, Unwilling Participant is an at will save or die. I took dimension swap through Expanded Knowledge. at level 17(I know its high level this trick is still nasty at low level with good tactics) I have a friend locked in a cell with capitol city guards watching him, oh hes in my collective. I walk up to the Big Bad. He attempts a will save. if he fails next round hes in the cell and my friend and I are highfiveing(a free action). No save, no SR.

Finally, I think I love this class. I realize I have just been pointing out things that I think are wrong, but the entire concept and execution are wonderful. If you are not concerned with the ridiculous cosmic power the vitalist gains(especially level 17) then leave it how it is. My results may just be because he is high level.

Here he is. Sorry if my formatting is hard to read.

Edit:that is from when I was making him hence his incompletness. His character sheet is not with me or I would fill it in.

Hrm.

What you're describing with the Mender's Pulse is a result of quite a bit of feedback from playtesters that not allowing Fast Healing to work through Collective Healing was unnecessary.

However, I could see making Pulse only work on a limited range... I'll think on it before issuing an errata, because it's not a quick and easy ruling either on if anything needs to change, and if so, what to change.

My own playtest only got up to the mid-levels, so my experience with it was on a smaller scale.

Now, as for buffing (which the Vitalist is actually supposed to be good at), let's take a look here.

Animal Affinity - 4th level power. I'm OK with this one.

Vigor - an effective 10.5th level power. 80 hit points at 20th level isn't really a whole lot... Consider that Mass Heal (9th level = 17 pp) heals 200 hp per person within 30 ft for an effectively cheaper cost.

Quickened Haste. Haste is normally a 3rd level spell and effects a minimum of 5 people by default. Quicken it and it's a 7th level spell. 7th level spells are comparable to 13 pp in psionics - and now it would effect up to 13 people. In this case, the Vitalist is spending more than a magic caster to get the same effect. :)

Quickened Augmented Expansion - Again, this is effectively a 10th level power. I'm not sure your party's non-melee will want this power, in all fairness... Casters will take a double penalty on their ranged attack rolls (lowered Dex, size penalty), as well as a double penalty on their AC (lowered Dex, size penalty). So while this is a good option for a melee-centric party, you'd be hurting your casters / ranged.

Now, keep in mind, doing all this has taken you two rounds to do. My games rarely have prep rounds for combat - if they do, it's typically one round. And even with prep rounds, I'd find it hard to believe that a Huge party wouldn't draw some unwanted attention, just on the fact that you're now 15-20 ft. tall, weighing several tons.

All that being said... I'll think on it. :) It might be something as simple as making the augment to add more people increasing in cost - 1 pp for the first person, 2 pp for the second person, etc...

Finally, Unwilling Participant. Actually, it's a two-time save. He gets a save on the adding to the collective. He gets another save against every effect you try to use on him. So for that to happen, he has to fail the first Will save. Then when you try to swap, he has to save again. If he makes EITHER save, your idea didn't work. :) That being said, this one likely needs the "Mind-Affecting" descriptor added to it.

And to put it into perspective - my Beta playtest Nomad used Invisibility (from a party spellcaster), then Dimension Swap on a jailed prisoner, then Nomad's Step, to do a jail break ;) One spell, one power, one class feature... at about level 6.

An errata has been issued on the Mender's Pulse.

It is now no longer valid for use with Collective Healing.

Hey man, thanks for the reply to my previous post as well as this newest errata. You make many good points, and I appreciate how well you've obviously though about this class. My group of gamers consists of three diehard fans of your books as well as two new converts. They realized that Dreamscarred psionics was the Ish after they both rolled xeph on our custom reincarnation sheet.

I will be informing them all of this new ruling as we are all deep in a dungeon networked to my high level vitalist. He had been using a herd of animals to finesse some serious healing on the cheap. However now we will have to rely on the equally awesome, but more expensive, vigor to get the job done. I can't properly say how much I appreciate your work. Keep up the good work. I'm excited for the next Expanded chapter.

Weren Wu Jen wrote:

At 5th level, a wilder taking Expanded Knowledge can only choose a 1st level power (as it must be one level below their maximum power level known, which for a 5th level wilder is only 2nd). As the Surge Bond for the healing wilder is "natural healing", the wilder already has the ONLY 1st level spell of the Healing subdiscipline. Trust me, I even searched all three parts of the Psionics Expanded books.

As written, the healing wilder would gain a feat at 5th level that he/she couldn't use...

Well that is an unfortunate oversight...

I'll see about getting an appropriate errata issued.

Howdy Jeremy!

I don't know if you've had a chance to work on this, but I have a suggestion. Instead of giving them Expanded Knowledge at 5th level, just do something like this:

At 5th level, a wilder may select one of the following powers as a bonus power: empathic transfer, body adjustment, or body purification.

(I know that empathic transfer is not of the healing subdiscipline, but it's appropriate for the concept.)

Reviewed here and sent to GMS magazine. More to come next week! Cheers!

Thanks, End! Especially for catching that typo on knacks vs talents - we'll be converting them all to the 0-level talents for the compilation, which should avoid the confusion. The vitalist was done before talents, hence the name confusion.

The vitalist isn't for anyone, but I appreciate the honest feedback despite not liking the concept! I'll take a class with solid mechanics that isn't everyone's cup of tea over a good idea that nobody can play because it was designed poorly any day of the week.

Yeah, my main point was that, while the class is not especially dear to me and I found some things I would have loved to see/implemented design-wise and didn't find, the vitalist is still a good design. If you change the knack/talent-hickup, even better! I am so looking forward to Psionics Expanded!

And now also reviewed on DTRPG. Cheers!

I think I actually prefer the 3.5 Worldthought Medic to the Vitalist even though they're practically the same. I would have much rather seen the Vitalist and Tactician as one class with different paths rather than two distinct classes. After all, the original Worldthought Medic was really only a relatively small modification of the Society Mind (which is I guess where the Tactician draws inspiration).