And the second release of Psionics Expanded is now available!
Thanks for the review, neceros!
We may have to investigate ranged options for the base soulknife, too (possibly in the form of blade skills), but no promises!
However, part of the open design process of Psionics Expanded has allowed fans to contribute ideas and content. If you'd like to contribute some ranged soulknife ideas, you are more than welcome to in our thread here at the Paizo forums!
There's still room in the final Psionics Expanded: Advanced Psionics Guide to include material not in these releases. :)
Why doesn't the Soulbolt have Ghost touch on it's list of weapon qualities?
Why doesn't the Soulbolt have Ghost touch on it's list of weapon qualities?
Honestly? Because when I was getting the list of abilities for the soulbolt, I went off the ranged weapon abilities in the charts of the PRD, APG, and Psionics Unleashed... and just noticed that Ghost Touch is not on the chart from the core rulebook.
It should be an option and I'll add it in for the final book.
Huzzah, thank you, and do you have an idea on when the final book will be out?
Additionally do have any advice on how to convince folk who say psionics has inherent balance issues to let it into their games? Or at the very least let Soulknife and by extension Soulbolt into their games?
Huzzah, thank you, and do you have an idea on when the final book will be out?
Additionally do have any advice on how to convince folk who say psionics has inherent balance issues to let it into their games? Or at the very least let Soulknife and by extension Soulbolt into their games?
I would usually argue to give it a try since this is a new edition of Psionics, and specify that you just want to start with the Soulknife, which doesn't have any manifesting, so you don't have to worry about psionic powers, only the psionic class and feats, and show specifically which material you're wanting to use so they can evaluate that.
I'd also explain that the entire system went through a completely public Alpha and Beta playtest (and the soulknife actually got two rounds of Beta playtesting in addition to its round of Alpha playtesting) before it was published.
In response to time line for the final book: right now, we're shooting for end of the year. We have four parts and around 100-150 pages to go. :)
At this stage, is there any chance of seeing a prestige version of the soulbolt like the old soulbow from 3.5? Archtypes are fine at the start of a game, but most of my players prefer prestige classes for tinkering with their characters once things are rolling.
At this stage, is there any chance of seeing a prestige version of the soulbolt like the old soulbow from 3.5? Archtypes are fine at the start of a game, but most of my players prefer prestige classes for tinkering with their characters once things are rolling.
There's definitely a chance. I'm not sure about having it directly in Psionics Expanded - we're trying to avoid essentially reproducing 3.5 material (it's why the Marksman is really the only update from 3.5 classes and just about everything else is brand new), but I've been considering it as a free web enhancement.
Reviewed here and sent to GMS magazine. I'm doing the whole series, btw.! ^^
Cheers!
Great review, End!
A soulbolt-PrC is something I've been bandying back and forth over doing, and you're not the first person to bring it up... I'd expect to see it in the final release, to be quite honest.
As for the gunslinger - you're absolutely right that UC wasn't out yet... that being said, a gun-wielding marksman I think is something we absolutely need to do.
YES! If we get a gunslinging marksman, this is going to be AWESOME when final! (Though I still think some talents/options within the paths of the marksman would be nice...)
My reviews of these component-pdfs of PE take some time, because I really try HARD to nitpick it apart in order to make the final book better (and potentially a 5 star+seal). I'm looking forward to doing the others!
By the way, End, I'm curious about your concerns with Deadly Throw.
You're exchanging STR for DEX. It's not additive, it's replacing and making the character a bit less MAD at the cost of a feat.
Sorry for taking so long to answer, my computer died on Thursday and I had to fix it. :( With regards to deadly throw - ranged weapons have an inherent advantage over meleee by having...well. RANGE. When exchanging STR for DEX, you, depending on the build, eliminate one necessary attribute from the equation (Dex has a LOT of useful skills and a save attached to it...STR? Not so much.) - replacing one attribute with another, generally, is in my experience cool for certain builds, but also open to abuse/power-gaming.
Another problem I see:
The factors like range/need focus would usually limit the benefits of Deadly Throw, but it is not entirely clear, whether it is possible to use Deadly Throw with Psionic Shot or not - and this combo means a nice slew of extra damage. Clarification would help here, as I'm not sure whether the two feats can be used in conjunction - how do "maintain psionic focus" and "expend psionic focus"-feats interact? Are combos like this viable?
You can't get the benefit of maintain focus and expend focus at the same time unless you have some second source of focus like Psicrystal Containment.
Similarly, you can't get the benefit of two expend focus effects unless you have an extra source of focus.
You can, however, gain unlimited "maintain focus" abilities at the same time.
So no, you can't expend focus on Psionic Shot and gain the benefit of Deadly Throw - because you are no longer maintaining psionic focus.
Interesting. Thank you for the clarification, it eliminated one of my two gripes here and was enlightening indeed! :)
Now also reviewed on DTRPG - thanks for providing the option to do so, Jeremy.
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Is the soulbolt's bolt a thrown weapon (all the text says you "throw" when shooting/launching it, but it's never called out as a thrown weapon specifically) or a projectile (aside from Str to damage on short-range one, it behaves much more in-line with a projectile weapon). I'm asking because there are feats that may specify they only work with throwing weapons rather than all ranged weapons. Should these work with all forms of soulbolt, just the short-range one, or none?
It's intended to be treated as a projectile, which is why it's explicitly stated that it always has 10 range increments.