paizo.com Recent Reviews of Psionics Augmented, Volume 1 (PFRPG)paizo.com Recent Reviews of Psionics Augmented, Volume 1 (PFRPG)2023-09-28T21:32:17Z2023-09-28T21:32:17ZPsionics Augmented, Volume 1 (PFRPG): An Endzeitgeist.com review of the revised edition (4 stars)Endzeitgeisthttps://paizo.com/products/btpy92i3?Psionics-Augmented-Volume-12013-12-11T10:13:06Z<p><b>Psionics Augmented, Volume 1 (PFRPG)</b></p><p>In a display of superb customer-service, Dreamscarred Press offers the bonus-content scored from the Ultimate Psionics-hardcover-compilation-book as its own pdf, so let's take a look, shall we? This pdf is 78 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with a whopping 75 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?</p>
<p>We kick off this supplement with new races, first of which would be the Forgeborn - Half-constructs (the type is reprinted from the ARG) that have been engineered from people blended with what seem to be mineralized growths - thankfully setting them distinctly apart from the huge array of different construct races already available for PFRPG. They get their own (Forgeborn)-subtype and attribute-wise +2 to Str and Int, -4 to Cha, get +2 to saves against fear, +1 natural AC, may be resurrected (unlike other half-constructs), may get a power point as a favored class option and get wild talent (or psionic talent when starting as a psionic base class) at first level. They also get the "Slow but steady" 20 ft. base speed, but are not impeded by armor or encumbrance. Solid race with a unique fluff that is rather reminiscent of the Elan (regarding their mysterious creation) - Nothing to complain.</p>
<p>The second race herein would be the Noral - who as a race have forged a symbiotic relationship with beings called Erliss (or dreamscar - namedrop!) and are rather enlightened, neutral diplomats and savants of other cultures - an interesting take indeed that also aesthetically should have some scifi-buffs out there smile. Plus 2 nerd-credibility points from me if you can deduce the imo obvious inspirations for the race. But back to their qualities - the Noral are Humanoid (Noral) subtype-wise, get +2 Con and Wis, -2 Dex, +2 to saves versus diseases and mind-influencing effects, may 1/day exhaust their symbiote to add 1d6 to one d20-roll prior to rolling, can manifest 1/day mind thrust at 1/2 character level at a DC of 10 + power level + cha-mod. They also get +1 to Bluff and Diplomacy and learn +1 language per rank in linguistics, may opt for power points as favored class options, get low light vision and gets either wild talent or psionic talent for free. The race comes with information for those who reject the symbiote and thankfully, both forgeborn and noral feature the all-too-often forgotten age, height & weight-table. The Noral overall feel a tad bit strong to me, but not to the point where I'd start complaining. It should be noted that thankfully, now both new races come with favored class options.</p>
<p>After this, it's archetypes - archetypes, archetypes and even more, you guessed it, archetypes. I'll try to be brief with them to keep this review from blowing the 10-page mark, okay? Right, so first we have the Blues: These psionic goblinoids may opt to become Annihilator Aegis that allows the blue to count as medium when in suit, may burn power points for boosts to str and con and later even absorb critical hits - however, no augmenting or cannibalizing the suit for these aegis! Telepath blues may opt to become Dominators, who have an easier time controlling and manifesting versus those that have failed against their mind-influencing effects. They also have an easier time keeping tabs on their thralls. Alchemist Blue may opt to become Mutators, who have more volatile (i.e. random - you roll dice) mutagens and also mutagens that penalize melee attacks with 1d6 fire damage. Finally, mutators may enlarge or reduce person via his mutagen.</p>
<p>Next up would be the Dromites, who get the Empty Caste Ninja - bred as executors of the Queen, these dromites may select their elemental affinity and they can circle it/switch it. They may expend this racial ability to charge weapons with elemental damage and use ki in turn to replenish their racial ray and also learn cloud mind later as a ninja trick. A rather powerful archetype. Dromite Tacticians may become Swarmers: Not only do these make flanking even deadlier, they also learn a strategy that allows them to sync two creatures so they may occupy the same space - awesome idea there! Dromite Cavaliers may become Vermin riders - riding giant wasps, scorpions or mantis into battle and may share minds, enhance their mounts by expending their psionic focus and at high levels, even share hit points, potentially preventing death.</p>
<p>Duergar Vitalists may become Lifemongers, who may deal non-lethal damage as a touch to members of their collective, healing themselves and gaining additional temporary hit points. Furthermore, they may influence the sleeping and even instill temporary madness at higher levels. Duergar Cryptics can become Ravagers, who are particularly efficient versus intelligent foes, but pitifully weak versus non-intelligent adversaries. They also have a wis-damage causing reflexive array of abilities protecting them versus mind-influencing effects. Perhaps the weirdest of the Duergar-archetypes herein would be the Sleeper's Guardian, a paladin-archetype (!!!) that learns to manifest powers, instead of detect evil, acts as a foil versus chaos and gets an aura that automatically penalizes foes within 10 ft of the paladin by WIS-MOD to attacks and damage. Yes. Ouch. While this replaces divine grace, the distinct lack of saves or SR makes this ability easily exploitable and one in need of proper revision.</p>
<p>Elans may opt to become ascended psions, replacing their discipline's power-list with a custom list and making them, alongside their other abilities, rather predisposed for the role of secret agent - hiding from spells/powers and improved disguise help a lot here. They also are masters of telekinetic force. The Menteur-rogue is a con-man and as such, gets superb bonuses to bluff (and is also adept at disguising) - rather excessively powerful is the 6th level ability, which allows you to determine a location and 1/day as a standard action teleport there with up to one additional creature touching him/her - sans provoking an AoO. Rather powerful. They may also learn a type of minor metamorphosis as a rogue talent, but sans enhancements the power usually conveys.</p>
<p>Cryptic Elans may now become Pattern Wielders: These beings may transfer tattoos to their weapon, henceforth getting int-mod to damage. Not a fan since stacking two attributes to atk or damage always ends up offering a tad bit too much of an edge for the character in question. They may also temporarily lock powers to empower their powers or fling tattoos as ranged short-range touch attacks.</p>
<p>Forgeborn get a new cavalier-archetype, the Forgesteed Rider. Their mounts are like their riders, requiring neither sleep nor sustenance and the riders may share their challenge-bonuses with their steed and their steed can also be temporarily enhanced. At 8th level, the archetype gets rather powerful: As long as either rider or steed have more than 1 hp, the other being takes the excessive damage. Forgeborn Fighters may become Ironborn (unfortunate nomenclature - that's Rite Publishing's construct-PC-race) - the archetype gets less armor check penalty as his form bonds with armor and also a slam-attack as well as even limited DR while wearing armor. Forgeborn Tacticians may become Unifiers - and these guys are intriguing: The Unifier can replace a part of their own and their ally's flesh in a modified version of their collective-ability - allies thus joined in may benefit temporarily from basic Aegis-enhancements. Neat blending of abilities! The Unifier may also telekinetically create an aura on him/herself that makes terrain difficult - per se cool - the field can be used 3+Int-mod times per day and lasts for int-mod rounds.</p>
<p>Half Giants may opt to become Kinslayers - as the name suggests, that means they're specialists in slaying giants and they replace spellcasting with a fixed array of powers. They also may share their favored enemy bonuses with their companions. Okay, I guess, but overall rather bland. The second archetype would be the Thunderjarl for the Psychic Warrior class - and this one is actually rather cool - taking a cue from the boisterous viking that charges with bellowing laughter into battle and can shake the very earth, this archetype works exceedingly well on a fluff level, combining good uses of stomp and a specialization on the psionic weapon-feat. More defensively-minded Half-Giants may opt to become the War Hulk Aegis-archetype that is limited to the juggernaut-form and gets devastating smash attacks and deadly ranged ectoplasmic throws.</p>
<p>Maenad Wilders may elect for the Banshee-archetype - they may select additional elemental powers, but use them with the sonic-damage-type exclusively and also emit screams as their surge blasts, which may daze opponents. Relatively cool energy-type specialist archetype here! Disciples of the raging Sea are a type of Monk - one cool one: While benefitting from their racial outbreak, they actually may use rage powers, which they can gain in lieu of monk bonus feats. Rather damn cool archetype here! Maenads of the Reaving Raiders, a career for rogues, learns to channel the racial outburst into bull rushes and even making foes temporarily flat-footed. Two thumbs up for this uncommon take on the seafaring archetype!</p>
<p>The Norals may choose to pursue the path of being a pacifist, a sub-type of Vitalist who can deal non-lethal damage via a touch and even make hostile foes pause for parlay; Cool to see in an often rather bloodthirsty array of classes one that could quite conceivably be held to the highest ideals of goodness. Peacekeeper Telepaths may use their psionic focus to deal non-lethal damage as well and they learn special augmentations to daze and stun adversaries. They also require will-saves to be successfully attacked at 8th level - the save being rather high. Not sure whether I like that particular ability, since it heavily penalizes some foes. Still, I do enjoy the fact that via the expenditure of the psionic focus that maintains the ability, the Peacekeeper may extend said protection to allies for 1 round. The last of the archetypes for the Noral would be the Shadow Hunter, an Inquisitor archetype that is particularly perceptive and may mindlink quite often. Furthermore, they can recharge their mind thrust via the burning of spells -which means that they can SPAM mind thrust like crazy. I'm not sold on this final ability - doing instead of almost unlimited mind thrusts something with the lost solo tactics or teamwork feats would have been a more prudent (and fun) playing experience, I think. This way, it feels much like a one-trick-pony.</p>
<p>Ophiduan Egotists may opt for the path of Fleshbinder - they get a familiar that gets psicrystal-like abilities, heal the familiar by merging it into his/her body and DOUBLE the duration of psychometabolism powers s/he casts on allies by expending his/her focus. Wait, what? Come again? Nah, not gonna happen in my game. They may also have a power lie dormant in a target and then trigger it by expending their focus - now thankfully with properly worded range. Also rather sick - the Fleshbinder may enter bonds at high levels with allies to offer them select benefits like his/her familiar, but at the cost of permanent con-damage while the bond is maintained. Especially share spells (powers) is VERY strong even at 14th level and I'm rather positive that my players WILL find a way to break this ability hard-core. Psychic Warriors may become Scaled Riders - they get one of the reptilian Karaan as mount. She/He also gets a permanent bond with the mount and the mount gets its own focus at higher levels, one usable by the rider - while this may seem boring on paper, from experience I can tell you that additional psionic foci can be an insanely useful asset. So yeah, a good trade for the weakened access to warrior's paths. The final archetype for the Ophiduans would be the Serpent Lord druid - even though it uses psionics, it's YET ANOTHER serpent-themed druid. LAME.</p>
<p>The Xeph-race has Clan Warden inquisitors - one boring archetype to defend communities sans any intriguing options - mostly what you'd expect: better class features when defending community etc. Also, one of the abilities has not a properly bold-printed name. The second archetype would be the mobile knife for the marksman - an archetype that makes throwing knives and daggers more valid, offering bonus damage as momentum is used for additional damage. The archetype also learns to have knives return etc. - as lame as the first one was, this archetype is rather cool, also thanks to properly upgrading/expanding the xeph's mobility. The final racial archetype would be the Xephyr, a specialist soulknife that may form a xephyr knife soulknife and also expands movement, but requires kinetic powers (i.e. to have moved) to utilize psychic strike to its maximum usefulness. Nice tactician's (not the class) archetype. Also kudos: Information on combining the archetype with the Gifted Blade archetype is given.</p>
<p>No, we're not done with archetypes yet - we've only covered the RACIAL archetypes - next up are the class-based ones, so let's get pumping: The first archetype, the Arcane Mind is interesting concept-wise - they require verbal and somatic components, suffer from arcane spell failure...and for that, their abilities are harder to identify and they can surpass resistances easier. Ähem...why would anyone take this? The benefits gained are rather paltry and the penalties significant. Perhaps it’s majorly intended for DMs who want psionics to work more like arcane magic. The Cannoneer marksman can essentially be described as a gunslinger/marksman-crossover - don't expect any grit, though. The Contemplative Wilder loses surge bond etc., but may rotate powers they may use in a limited way. This is one of my favorite archetypes herein so far, since it modifies the base class to an extent that results in a completely different playing experience.</p>
<p>The Aegis may learn to fuse his/her psicrystal with his/her armor, and the crystal actually may use its actions to dish out ranged attacks and we also get 5 new customizations! Cool archetype! Fearmonger Dreads use wis instead of cha for intimidate, powers etc. - okay minor variation on the dread. The Feral Heart soulknife archetype is rather intriguing -allowing for less customization and claws instead that upgrade over the levels, they also get a scaling barbarian rage-like ability and to offset the lost flexibility, the Feral Heart may choose unique blade-skills: Rend, Pounce and similar killer abilities among them -awesome, especially when opting for a psionic wild child-style character/savage warrior. Two thumbs up! The Vitalist of the Intercessor Method is a savant of social skills and may get telempathic projection as a bonus power and may superbly influence those healed by him/her. Additionally, these vitalists get some bardic abilities à la inspire competence etc. Again, a solid archetype. Lost Minds are Cryptics that have been driven insane by the power they have glimpsed at beyond the patterns of reality - with mad defense (haha) against mind-influencing effects, the option to duplicate symbols and 6 unique insights that are focused on dazing and hindering foes (even including a gaze attack), this archetype can be considered rather flavorful and well-made.</p>
<p>The Metanexus Tactician learns at 5th level to treat allies of his collective as origins for powers other than touch-range and even pool racial traits! And high-jack the senses (And line of sight!) of collective members - this DESERVES being called a Tactician's archetype - smart and extremely cool! The Psychic Warrior gets the new Pathmaster archetype, essentially a psychic warrior that focuses excessively on one path to the exclusion of others. Okay, I guess.</p>
<p>Part II of my review in the product discussion.</p><p><b>Psionics Augmented, Volume 1 (PFRPG)</b></p><p>In a display of superb customer-service, Dreamscarred Press offers the bonus-content scored from the Ultimate Psionics-hardcover-compilation-book as its own pdf, so let's take a look, shall we? This pdf is 78 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with a whopping 75 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?</p>
<p>We kick off this supplement with new races, first of which would be the Forgeborn - Half-constructs (the type is reprinted from the ARG) that have been engineered from people blended with what seem to be mineralized growths - thankfully setting them distinctly apart from the huge array of different construct races already available for PFRPG. They get their own (Forgeborn)-subtype and attribute-wise +2 to Str and Int, -4 to Cha, get +2 to saves against fear, +1 natural AC, may be resurrected (unlike other half-constructs), may get a power point as a favored class option and get wild talent (or psionic talent when starting as a psionic base class) at first level. They also get the "Slow but steady" 20 ft. base speed, but are not impeded by armor or encumbrance. Solid race with a unique fluff that is rather reminiscent of the Elan (regarding their mysterious creation) - Nothing to complain.</p>
<p>The second race herein would be the Noral - who as a race have forged a symbiotic relationship with beings called Erliss (or dreamscar - namedrop!) and are rather enlightened, neutral diplomats and savants of other cultures - an interesting take indeed that also aesthetically should have some scifi-buffs out there smile. Plus 2 nerd-credibility points from me if you can deduce the imo obvious inspirations for the race. But back to their qualities - the Noral are Humanoid (Noral) subtype-wise, get +2 Con and Wis, -2 Dex, +2 to saves versus diseases and mind-influencing effects, may 1/day exhaust their symbiote to add 1d6 to one d20-roll prior to rolling, can manifest 1/day mind thrust at 1/2 character level at a DC of 10 + power level + cha-mod. They also get +1 to Bluff and Diplomacy and learn +1 language per rank in linguistics, may opt for power points as favored class options, get low light vision and gets either wild talent or psionic talent for free. The race comes with information for those who reject the symbiote and thankfully, both forgeborn and noral feature the all-too-often forgotten age, height & weight-table. The Noral overall feel a tad bit strong to me, but not to the point where I'd start complaining. It should be noted that thankfully, now both new races come with favored class options.</p>
<p>After this, it's archetypes - archetypes, archetypes and even more, you guessed it, archetypes. I'll try to be brief with them to keep this review from blowing the 10-page mark, okay? Right, so first we have the Blues: These psionic goblinoids may opt to become Annihilator Aegis that allows the blue to count as medium when in suit, may burn power points for boosts to str and con and later even absorb critical hits - however, no augmenting or cannibalizing the suit for these aegis! Telepath blues may opt to become Dominators, who have an easier time controlling and manifesting versus those that have failed against their mind-influencing effects. They also have an easier time keeping tabs on their thralls. Alchemist Blue may opt to become Mutators, who have more volatile (i.e. random - you roll dice) mutagens and also mutagens that penalize melee attacks with 1d6 fire damage. Finally, mutators may enlarge or reduce person via his mutagen.</p>
<p>Next up would be the Dromites, who get the Empty Caste Ninja - bred as executors of the Queen, these dromites may select their elemental affinity and they can circle it/switch it. They may expend this racial ability to charge weapons with elemental damage and use ki in turn to replenish their racial ray and also learn cloud mind later as a ninja trick. A rather powerful archetype. Dromite Tacticians may become Swarmers: Not only do these make flanking even deadlier, they also learn a strategy that allows them to sync two creatures so they may occupy the same space - awesome idea there! Dromite Cavaliers may become Vermin riders - riding giant wasps, scorpions or mantis into battle and may share minds, enhance their mounts by expending their psionic focus and at high levels, even share hit points, potentially preventing death.</p>
<p>Duergar Vitalists may become Lifemongers, who may deal non-lethal damage as a touch to members of their collective, healing themselves and gaining additional temporary hit points. Furthermore, they may influence the sleeping and even instill temporary madness at higher levels. Duergar Cryptics can become Ravagers, who are particularly efficient versus intelligent foes, but pitifully weak versus non-intelligent adversaries. They also have a wis-damage causing reflexive array of abilities protecting them versus mind-influencing effects. Perhaps the weirdest of the Duergar-archetypes herein would be the Sleeper's Guardian, a paladin-archetype (!!!) that learns to manifest powers, instead of detect evil, acts as a foil versus chaos and gets an aura that automatically penalizes foes within 10 ft of the paladin by WIS-MOD to attacks and damage. Yes. Ouch. While this replaces divine grace, the distinct lack of saves or SR makes this ability easily exploitable and one in need of proper revision.</p>
<p>Elans may opt to become ascended psions, replacing their discipline's power-list with a custom list and making them, alongside their other abilities, rather predisposed for the role of secret agent - hiding from spells/powers and improved disguise help a lot here. They also are masters of telekinetic force. The Menteur-rogue is a con-man and as such, gets superb bonuses to bluff (and is also adept at disguising) - rather excessively powerful is the 6th level ability, which allows you to determine a location and 1/day as a standard action teleport there with up to one additional creature touching him/her - sans provoking an AoO. Rather powerful. They may also learn a type of minor metamorphosis as a rogue talent, but sans enhancements the power usually conveys.</p>
<p>Cryptic Elans may now become Pattern Wielders: These beings may transfer tattoos to their weapon, henceforth getting int-mod to damage. Not a fan since stacking two attributes to atk or damage always ends up offering a tad bit too much of an edge for the character in question. They may also temporarily lock powers to empower their powers or fling tattoos as ranged short-range touch attacks.</p>
<p>Forgeborn get a new cavalier-archetype, the Forgesteed Rider. Their mounts are like their riders, requiring neither sleep nor sustenance and the riders may share their challenge-bonuses with their steed and their steed can also be temporarily enhanced. At 8th level, the archetype gets rather powerful: As long as either rider or steed have more than 1 hp, the other being takes the excessive damage. Forgeborn Fighters may become Ironborn (unfortunate nomenclature - that's Rite Publishing's construct-PC-race) - the archetype gets less armor check penalty as his form bonds with armor and also a slam-attack as well as even limited DR while wearing armor. Forgeborn Tacticians may become Unifiers - and these guys are intriguing: The Unifier can replace a part of their own and their ally's flesh in a modified version of their collective-ability - allies thus joined in may benefit temporarily from basic Aegis-enhancements. Neat blending of abilities! The Unifier may also telekinetically create an aura on him/herself that makes terrain difficult - per se cool - the field can be used 3+Int-mod times per day and lasts for int-mod rounds.</p>
<p>Half Giants may opt to become Kinslayers - as the name suggests, that means they're specialists in slaying giants and they replace spellcasting with a fixed array of powers. They also may share their favored enemy bonuses with their companions. Okay, I guess, but overall rather bland. The second archetype would be the Thunderjarl for the Psychic Warrior class - and this one is actually rather cool - taking a cue from the boisterous viking that charges with bellowing laughter into battle and can shake the very earth, this archetype works exceedingly well on a fluff level, combining good uses of stomp and a specialization on the psionic weapon-feat. More defensively-minded Half-Giants may opt to become the War Hulk Aegis-archetype that is limited to the juggernaut-form and gets devastating smash attacks and deadly ranged ectoplasmic throws.</p>
<p>Maenad Wilders may elect for the Banshee-archetype - they may select additional elemental powers, but use them with the sonic-damage-type exclusively and also emit screams as their surge blasts, which may daze opponents. Relatively cool energy-type specialist archetype here! Disciples of the raging Sea are a type of Monk - one cool one: While benefitting from their racial outbreak, they actually may use rage powers, which they can gain in lieu of monk bonus feats. Rather damn cool archetype here! Maenads of the Reaving Raiders, a career for rogues, learns to channel the racial outburst into bull rushes and even making foes temporarily flat-footed. Two thumbs up for this uncommon take on the seafaring archetype!</p>
<p>The Norals may choose to pursue the path of being a pacifist, a sub-type of Vitalist who can deal non-lethal damage via a touch and even make hostile foes pause for parlay; Cool to see in an often rather bloodthirsty array of classes one that could quite conceivably be held to the highest ideals of goodness. Peacekeeper Telepaths may use their psionic focus to deal non-lethal damage as well and they learn special augmentations to daze and stun adversaries. They also require will-saves to be successfully attacked at 8th level - the save being rather high. Not sure whether I like that particular ability, since it heavily penalizes some foes. Still, I do enjoy the fact that via the expenditure of the psionic focus that maintains the ability, the Peacekeeper may extend said protection to allies for 1 round. The last of the archetypes for the Noral would be the Shadow Hunter, an Inquisitor archetype that is particularly perceptive and may mindlink quite often. Furthermore, they can recharge their mind thrust via the burning of spells -which means that they can SPAM mind thrust like crazy. I'm not sold on this final ability - doing instead of almost unlimited mind thrusts something with the lost solo tactics or teamwork feats would have been a more prudent (and fun) playing experience, I think. This way, it feels much like a one-trick-pony.</p>
<p>Ophiduan Egotists may opt for the path of Fleshbinder - they get a familiar that gets psicrystal-like abilities, heal the familiar by merging it into his/her body and DOUBLE the duration of psychometabolism powers s/he casts on allies by expending his/her focus. Wait, what? Come again? Nah, not gonna happen in my game. They may also have a power lie dormant in a target and then trigger it by expending their focus - now thankfully with properly worded range. Also rather sick - the Fleshbinder may enter bonds at high levels with allies to offer them select benefits like his/her familiar, but at the cost of permanent con-damage while the bond is maintained. Especially share spells (powers) is VERY strong even at 14th level and I'm rather positive that my players WILL find a way to break this ability hard-core. Psychic Warriors may become Scaled Riders - they get one of the reptilian Karaan as mount. She/He also gets a permanent bond with the mount and the mount gets its own focus at higher levels, one usable by the rider - while this may seem boring on paper, from experience I can tell you that additional psionic foci can be an insanely useful asset. So yeah, a good trade for the weakened access to warrior's paths. The final archetype for the Ophiduans would be the Serpent Lord druid - even though it uses psionics, it's YET ANOTHER serpent-themed druid. LAME.</p>
<p>The Xeph-race has Clan Warden inquisitors - one boring archetype to defend communities sans any intriguing options - mostly what you'd expect: better class features when defending community etc. Also, one of the abilities has not a properly bold-printed name. The second archetype would be the mobile knife for the marksman - an archetype that makes throwing knives and daggers more valid, offering bonus damage as momentum is used for additional damage. The archetype also learns to have knives return etc. - as lame as the first one was, this archetype is rather cool, also thanks to properly upgrading/expanding the xeph's mobility. The final racial archetype would be the Xephyr, a specialist soulknife that may form a xephyr knife soulknife and also expands movement, but requires kinetic powers (i.e. to have moved) to utilize psychic strike to its maximum usefulness. Nice tactician's (not the class) archetype. Also kudos: Information on combining the archetype with the Gifted Blade archetype is given.</p>
<p>No, we're not done with archetypes yet - we've only covered the RACIAL archetypes - next up are the class-based ones, so let's get pumping: The first archetype, the Arcane Mind is interesting concept-wise - they require verbal and somatic components, suffer from arcane spell failure...and for that, their abilities are harder to identify and they can surpass resistances easier. Ähem...why would anyone take this? The benefits gained are rather paltry and the penalties significant. Perhaps it’s majorly intended for DMs who want psionics to work more like arcane magic. The Cannoneer marksman can essentially be described as a gunslinger/marksman-crossover - don't expect any grit, though. The Contemplative Wilder loses surge bond etc., but may rotate powers they may use in a limited way. This is one of my favorite archetypes herein so far, since it modifies the base class to an extent that results in a completely different playing experience.</p>
<p>The Aegis may learn to fuse his/her psicrystal with his/her armor, and the crystal actually may use its actions to dish out ranged attacks and we also get 5 new customizations! Cool archetype! Fearmonger Dreads use wis instead of cha for intimidate, powers etc. - okay minor variation on the dread. The Feral Heart soulknife archetype is rather intriguing -allowing for less customization and claws instead that upgrade over the levels, they also get a scaling barbarian rage-like ability and to offset the lost flexibility, the Feral Heart may choose unique blade-skills: Rend, Pounce and similar killer abilities among them -awesome, especially when opting for a psionic wild child-style character/savage warrior. Two thumbs up! The Vitalist of the Intercessor Method is a savant of social skills and may get telempathic projection as a bonus power and may superbly influence those healed by him/her. Additionally, these vitalists get some bardic abilities à la inspire competence etc. Again, a solid archetype. Lost Minds are Cryptics that have been driven insane by the power they have glimpsed at beyond the patterns of reality - with mad defense (haha) against mind-influencing effects, the option to duplicate symbols and 6 unique insights that are focused on dazing and hindering foes (even including a gaze attack), this archetype can be considered rather flavorful and well-made.</p>
<p>The Metanexus Tactician learns at 5th level to treat allies of his collective as origins for powers other than touch-range and even pool racial traits! And high-jack the senses (And line of sight!) of collective members - this DESERVES being called a Tactician's archetype - smart and extremely cool! The Psychic Warrior gets the new Pathmaster archetype, essentially a psychic warrior that focuses excessively on one path to the exclusion of others. Okay, I guess.</p>
<p>Part II of my review in the product discussion.</p>Endzeitgeist2013-12-11T10:13:06Z