The latest release in the series is now available! Over 40 pages of material added to the growing size of Psionics Expanded!
Downloaded and reading now! I don't remember liking the Deadly Fist archetype when I saw it originally, but it's looking good now!
I do have a question though. Can they use Psychokinetic Discharge to make a full attack or is it a single attack only ability?
As it replaces Throw Mind Blade, it would be intended to be single attack unless you have the Multiple Throw blade skill, in which case it could be a full attack.
Gave this a download, and I'm loving most of the content. I have some concerns about the elemental blade skills for the soulknife, though.
Wouldn't it be overpowered to have all of your physical attacks completely deal fire, cold, electric, or (especially) sonic damage?
I can't see any reason for a soulknife to NOT take Thunder Blade, since most damage comes from modifiers other than the weapon's damage dice (which is the only drawback I see). You'd be able to bypass damage reduction at level 2 by taking it, and the secondary effect potentially allows for stunlocking with a DC that increase with your BAB. The only other class feature I know of off-hand that comes close are the fighter feats "Penetrating Strike" (req lvl 12) and "Greater Penetrating Strike" (req lvl 16) for DR bypassing, and maybe... Stunning Fist for stunlocking, but you can't do that forever like you can regain focus and keep using Thunder Blade.
Am I missing something that doesn't make the elemental blade skills completely amazing (particularly Thunder Blade)? My gut feeling is that any soulknife that has it available and doesn't take it is much weaker than one that does take it.
BetaSprite - I've opened a thread on it over at the Dreamscarred forums.
Those blade skills have been available for playtesting (and I'm not exaggerating) for about 15 months, and the biggest issue that was brought up was Thunder Blade - which was why it reduces the damage of the weapon to compensate.
But I'm not against reevaluating, and I personally don't have a lot of soulknife / melee experience, although I've found that at low levels, damage reduction is fairly rare, and that at higher levels when it's more common, energy resistance / immunity is also more common...
I do not have an account on the dreamscarred forums, so I'll be posting here. I am the GM of BetaSprite though...
Just went through the bestiaries and tabulated the number of resistances of each type:
Acid: 187
Cold: 238
Electricity: 126
Fire: 224
Sonic: 28
Number of creatures with Damage Reduction of any sort: 729
My issues with those elemental blade skills are the following:
It completely bypasses all DR when using it, which is *amazing* for a full BAB martial. To the point where it's a 16th level feat available to only one class (barring archetypes) just to ignore 10. And you are much more likely to find a critter with DR than with energy resistance to the blade skill you chose. DR is the "Great Equalizer" of the high damage that martials can put out. This bypasses that completely.
The sonic blade skill has the issue, with the move-action re-focus feat, to stunlock an enemy forever.
Sonic is resisted by 28 creatures. From all of the bestiaries.
Some creatures are vulnerable to the energy types, meaning they'll take 1.5x the normal damage, giving a huge advantage against them.
If you *do* come against a creature with energy resistances, nothing has stopped you from taking a second energy blade to get past DR and that resistance.
And you can use these an unlimited number of times per day. And you can turn the energy blade off in the rare case where it's better to do so.
Plus the DCs are weird. But I recognize that's due to the original class not having any explicit attribute dependency. Suffice to say, after level 7 or so, you'll have higher DCs than other non-spell abilities with no effort on your part.
Suggestions: Make the weapon's base damage dice only elemental. This means that all the bonuses to damage, which are the much larger portion, are still the normal type. In addition, add a level requirement. I would follow the precedent of Penetrating Strike, or at least in that ballpark. Also, make the sonic blade skill nauseated, or just restrict them to one move action. Then they aren't really stunlocked.
This is probably not possible at this point, but make them choose a mental ability stat to base the DCs of all their abilities off of, and follow the usual progression. I find it slightly odd that a psionic character that's all about using the mind doesn't have any relation to mental ability scores.
Suggestions: Make the weapon's base damage dice only elemental. This means that all the bonuses to damage, which are the much larger portion, are still the normal type. In addition, add a level requirement. I would follow the precedent of Penetrating Strike, or at least in that ballpark. Also, make the sonic blade skill nauseated, or just restrict them to one move action. Then they aren't really stunlocked.
That doesn't sound unreasonable - but I try to avoid knee-jerk reactions. :) I'll post this over at the Dreamscarred forum as well to give some additional input into the discussion and I'll continue to monitor this thread.
The base damage only turning to elemental sounds like a decent way to go. I missed the part where it said all damage changes. Makes me want to go back and re-think a character idea.
Maybe sonic could deafen on a crit for a number of rounds equal to the crit mod(2 rounds for a longsword, 4 for a pick) of the weapon.
The base damage only turning to elemental sounds like a decent way to go. I missed the part where it said all damage changes. Makes me want to go back and re-think a character idea.
Maybe sonic could deafen on a crit for a number of rounds equal to the crit mod(2 rounds for a longsword, 4 for a pick) of the weapon.
A mind blade's crit range always starts at 19-20/x2, and can later be blade skilled to 19-20/x3. I'd rather have it be based on something else, such as 1d4 or Wis mod.
Actually, given that Gifted Blade is based on Wis, couldn't soulknife DCs be made to be based on 1/2 class level and Wis? I might houserule that for balance purposes, such as with Wing Clip.
I loooooooooove the Dread and the Telekinetic Weaponmaster. The shadow twin ability is very, very cool. The art in this release is awesome, but it seems the bookmarks don't work.
A mind blade's crit range always starts at 19-20/x2, and can later be blade skilled to 19-20/x3. I'd rather have it be based on something else, such as 1d4 or Wis mod.
There is a blade skill in the same pdf as the Aegis that let's a mind blade emulate a Martial or Exotic weapon. Maybe requiring that blade skill as a prereq is a decent idea?
I loooooooooove the Dread and the Telekinetic Weaponmaster. The shadow twin ability is very, very cool. The art in this release is awesome, but it seems the bookmarks don't work.
Yeah, that was brought up on our forums - I've posted an updated copy at the Dreamscarred Press site for validation before I send it out to everyone else.
I may hold off in the case that we decide to issue an errata on the blade skills... but if that causes any pagination shifts, then all bets are off ;)
And the artwork was exclusively done by Rick Hershey of Empty Room Studios, whom I highly recommend. :)
In the Shielded Blade's class features, on page 9, the Form Mind Shield mentions a table of enhancements that you can put on the shield, but I can't find the table. Is it the same as the Armored Blade's table or the one found in Psionics Unleashed?
Now THAT is an unfortunate oversight that got missed even in the fully detailed write-up...
The table should be this - and once I get confirmation on the bookmarks working, I'll get it sent out.
Shield Special Ability Enhancement Bonus Value Required Level
Arrow Catching +1 5
Bashing +1 5
Blinding +1 5
Fortification, Light +1 5
Arrow Deflection +2 7
Spell Resistance (13) +2 7
Energy Resistance +3 9
Ghost Touch +3 9
Fortification, Moderate +3 9
Spell Resistance (15) +3 9
Energy Resistance, Improved +4 12
Spell Resistance (17) +4 12
Fortification, Heavy +5 15
Spell Resistance (19) +5 15
Energy Resistance, Greater +5 15
I'm working on the updated download now. The biggest change is the Shield table + bookmarks + cost on the Crystal Grips.
I really like the weapon and armor items. A brilliant idea that the original soulknife was sorely lacking.
...Any idea yet on the pagecount and price for the eventual super-combo hardback?
...Any idea yet on the pagecount and price for the eventual super-combo hardback?
Given the current page count of Psionics Expanded, plus the likely 30-40 pages of Hidden Intentions, it's likely to be in the realm of 350-400 pages in size.
For cost, probably in the range of $40-50.
All of this is estimates, as we're pretty much focused on projects at hand and have done little work on the combo, as that is likely not going to be released until 2013 (May-June for Hidden Intentions, July-August for Psionics Expanded final, then combining everything and getting proofs).
Alrighty, an updated PDF with the Shield table, the Crystal Grip pricing, and corrected bookmarks has been uploaded. Once it's approved, folks can download the update and my apologies for the oversight!
Updated PDF now available.
I bought the Psionics Expanded pdf bundle and downloaded it again last Monday, the 2nd, in order to update it with the new releases. The bookmarks don't work for Master the Battle.
I'm uploading a corrected version to the subscription download now. The joys of managing the files in two places. :)
Thanks.
It should be fixed now. :)
Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!
Excellent review Endzeitgeist!
Thank you very much, KTFish7!
Great review, End,
Although, I'm confused on the critique of the Psionic Fighter.
This is what I have:
"Psionic Feats: The psionic fighter gains Wild Talent and his choice of Psionic Fist, Psionic Shot, or Psionic Weapon as bonus feats at first level. He must meet any applicable prerequisite for the feat selected. Subsequent bonus feats the fighter gains can be selected from Combat feats or Psionic feats. This ability replaces the 1st level bonus feat."
Doesn't that cover the mechanical bit you were confused about?
Good call-out on the descriptive text, that is a definite oversight on my part.
I'm sure someone's asked this already, but I'm far too lazy to go hunting for it. Do you have plans to include this new material on http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ before it's released in book form? I'd love to check out the new classes and such, but my gaming budget is extremely limited and I often don't have the cash for the new .pdfs.
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We've given the d20pfsrd guys a subscription to Psionics Expanded, although their normal process is to wait until the book has been out so as to avoid eating into sales too much.
That being said, all the Alpha and Beta threads from playtesting are still available if you want to take a look at the initial versions of the classes. :)
OMG, I seem to have tomatoes on my eyes. O.o
Rectified here and on DTRPG! But I noticed while looking it up that the bookmark for the archetype doesn't work.
If you'd like to give specifics, we've issued errata for problem items, but everything in this was playtested - and not just by our design team.