paizo.com Recent Posts in Mind Over Matter, Book 1: Psion and Soulknife (PFRPG) PDF Discussionpaizo.com Recent Posts in Mind Over Matter, Book 1: Psion and Soulknife (PFRPG) PDF Discussion2015-05-05T18:32:48Z2015-05-05T18:32:48ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Mind Over Matter, Book 1: Psion and Soulknife (PFRPG) PDFEndzeitgeisthttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93xu/discuss?Mind-Over-Matter-Book-1-Psion-and-Soulknife#92014-08-21T09:10:14Z2014-08-21T09:10:14Z<p>Part II of my review:</p>
<p>As a bonus, we get content for Mythic Adventures as well with the medium path - every tier in it increases hp by 4 and at 1st tier, one of 2 aptitudes needs to be selected. The first lets you expend mythic power to mitigate expenditure of a psionic focus and power point cost of a manifestation of a power. Additionally, it lets you roll twice to overcome power resistance and forces targets to take the lower of two saves when hit by said power. Per se cool, but what about augmentation? Does the use of mythic power also cover augmentation power points used or just the base power points expended? Metyphysical Strike is insane - use 1 mythic power to attack at full BAB as a swift action in addition to other attacks. Additionally, you have to spend 2xML in power points and gain said point spent as bonus to atk. Additionally, said attack deals 2d6/manifester level "psychic" (damage type does not exist) AND base damage ignores all DR. For a level 1 path aptitude, this is rather extreme and too strong. Additionally, the focus on power points and manifester levels means that the poor soulknife can't take it either - the path has no aptitude for it. The capstone tier-10-ability nets you hp equal to your attacker's HD and you may ignore 10 points of "psychic resistance" - which, as an ability, is codified as SR equal to class level+10 in Ultimate Psionics. So does that mean the abiliyt works only against those with said psychic resistance quality? Or does it refer to spellresistance? Or ANY type of energy resistance? I don't know.</p>
<p>Regaining mythic power whenever a foe fails to save against you is also broken (bag o' kittens extreme) - and yes, i know - tier 10, say goodbye to balance. This still breaks too many design-tenets to work. Unless I've miscounted, we also get 24 path abilities that include an incorporeal familiar, faster item creation, more customization points for Aegis astral suits, a tier + int-mod-based flash of light that can destroy objects within 5 feet, spend mythic power to automatically regain your focus, auto-identify powers (with a weird a caveat that lets you "learn" them - which does not happen in psionic classes; vitalists may rotate them, for example -don't get how that part was supposed to work - as written, it does nothing unless a manifester has deliberately refused to learn a power - which makes no sense...) and cast said powers via mythic power for a select duration (which directly seems to contradict aforementioned caveat...). Balance is wonky here - detect thoughts in a slightly improved fashion is not a great choice for investing mythic power, whereas other are imho a tad too strong: Never being flat-footed except via mythic abilities and immunity to non-mythic sneak attacks and mythic power to negate extra damage from a crit or sneak attack feels like too powerful when compared to the abilities granted by all regular mythic paths...Granted, this may be due to lacking the distinction between 1st, 3rd and 6th tier abilities within this pdf - as written, ALL of these are 1st tier... and their balance is all over the place. (And yes, I'm aware that further content can be found in Vol.2 of the series, but still...)</p>
<p>This mythic path is unfortunately quite a mess - if your base choice already excludes part of the target demographic from getting any benefits (and yes, the path has soulknife-exclusive path abilities), then you're into trouble. The path's issue here being, beyond the tier-glitch (Or is it one??), that it tries to be too general - one path for all psionic classes is just too thin a stretch to cover them all properly, which is a shame, for generally, the abilities feel solid.</p>
<p>Conclusion:</p>
<p>Editing and formatting are very good on a FORMAL level; regarding rules-editing, there are a lot of issues - too many. Layout adheres to an elegant two-column full-color standard, with thematically-fitting art/stock art. The pdf comes fully hyperlinked and bookmarked for your convenience.</p>
<p>Author Peter K. Ullmann ALMOST gets it right; Alas and alack, this extends to almost every single component within this pdf. The psion-archetypes are interesting in their focus on discipline powers and even in concepts, though flawed in execution. The soulknife archetypes are simply bad choices, with quit a bunch of design-flaws to boot. The bonus content is a mixed bag, with feats often failing to be precise enough and only 1 blade skill worth picking. The new powers and insanities show promise, though the former also suffer from less than optimal choices here and there. The mythic path tries to cater to too many types of classes and also has several wording-issues - I won't start with the balance-problems.</p>
<p>Writing this one was, I won't lie, a rather somber affair for me - on one hand, the designer is close to getting even complex abilities right - and then fails over some wording ambiguity, forgets the final dot to make the ability work. This is one of the pdfs, where everything almost makes sense and then...doesn't Mind you, this one does have a bunch of cool ideas, valid concepts, but their implementation is flawed. The page count is also on the low end of the spectrum, though, seeing you can get this as a bonus for shopping at d20pfsrd.com's shop somewhat mitigates that. Still, this one has so many issues in almost every component, I can't recommend it. The amount of things that work is far eclipsed by very weak, unbalanced or simply, not properly working content, that I'm forced to rate this, in spite of its promise, as 1.5 stars, rounded down to 1 for the purpose of this platform.</p>
<p>Reviewed first on Endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here and on d20pfsrd.com's shop.</p>
<p>Endzeitgeist out.</p>Part II of my review:
As a bonus, we get content for Mythic Adventures as well with the medium path - every tier in it increases hp by 4 and at 1st tier, one of 2 aptitudes needs to be selected. The first lets you expend mythic power to mitigate expenditure of a psionic focus and power point cost of a manifestation of a power. Additionally, it lets you roll twice to overcome power resistance and forces targets to take the lower of two saves when hit by said power. Per se cool, but what about...Endzeitgeist2014-08-21T09:10:14ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Mind Over Matter, Book 1: Psion and Soulknife (PFRPG) PDFd20pfsrd.com (alias of jreyst)https://paizo.com/products/btpy93xu/discuss?Mind-Over-Matter-Book-1-Psion-and-Soulknife#82014-03-25T01:23:50Z2014-03-25T01:23:50Z<p>Thanks for your post Malwing! I appreciate you taking the time to look at it.</p>Thanks for your post Malwing! I appreciate you taking the time to look at it.d20pfsrd.com (alias of jreyst)2014-03-25T01:23:50ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Mind Over Matter, Book 1: Psion and Soulknife (PFRPG) PDFMalwinghttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93xu/discuss?Mind-Over-Matter-Book-1-Psion-and-Soulknife#72014-03-24T20:14:21Z2014-03-24T20:14:21Z<p>I have twice lost a big post so this will be brief. </p>
<p>I'm not all that familiar with Psionics so I made a post instead of a review.</p>
<p>With both classes I disliked one archetype and disliked the other. </p>
<p>I disliked Locus. The disturbed space ability seemed unusable at 1/2 BAB and a d6 hit die. I was unsure as to how the Phantom Sighting ability worked. </p>
<p>I disliked Manic Magpie for being too niche for a product with only 4 archetypes. </p>
<p>I questioned the Thousand Cutting Cranes power for being self scaling(as far as I can tell powers are not normally self scaling)</p>
<p>Two Soulblade feats had icons that the rest of the feats do not have. </p>
<p>Found the amount of parenthesis weird. Particularly since the second Mind over Matter pdf did not have as much parenthesis use. </p>
<p>Did not read the mythic stuff because I am less familiar with Mythic Adventures despite owning it longer. Nice to know that it exists.</p>
<p>Overall, since two of the four archetypes seem bad, and by extension the related feats, the whole thing felt like there was a lack of content for the price. Aside from some confusion with how Locus' Phantom Sighting ability works it seems glitch-free. Layout looks good. </p>
<p>If the Mythic stuff is good, that boosts the pdf's usefulness way higher but I'd need someone else to judge that part.</p>I have twice lost a big post so this will be brief.
I'm not all that familiar with Psionics so I made a post instead of a review.
With both classes I disliked one archetype and disliked the other.
I disliked Locus. The disturbed space ability seemed unusable at 1/2 BAB and a d6 hit die. I was unsure as to how the Phantom Sighting ability worked.
I disliked Manic Magpie for being too niche for a product with only 4 archetypes.
I questioned the Thousand Cutting Cranes power for being self...Malwing2014-03-24T20:14:21ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Mind Over Matter, Book 1: Psion and Soulknife (PFRPG) PDFd20pfsrd.com (alias of jreyst)https://paizo.com/products/btpy93xu/discuss?Mind-Over-Matter-Book-1-Psion-and-Soulknife#62014-01-23T16:21:32Z2014-01-23T16:21:32Z<p>Just wanted to let everyone know we're having great success with this book thus far and have gotten great reviews on other sites.</p>
<p>Just an FYI also, if you pick up <a href="http://http://shop.d20pfsrd.com/collections/dreamscarred-press/products/ultimate-psionics" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Ultimate Psionics at the d20pfsrd.com store</a> before end of this month you get a PDF copy of <a href="http://shop.d20pfsrd.com/collections/d20pfsrd-com-publishing/products/mind-over-matter-psion-and-soulknife" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Mind over Matter: Psion and Soulknife</a> at no extra charge!</p>Just wanted to let everyone know we're having great success with this book thus far and have gotten great reviews on other sites.
Just an FYI also, if you pick up Ultimate Psionics at the d20pfsrd.com store before end of this month you get a PDF copy of Mind over Matter: Psion and Soulknife at no extra charge!d20pfsrd.com (alias of jreyst)2014-01-23T16:21:32ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Mind Over Matter, Book 1: Psion and Soulknife (PFRPG) PDFd20pfsrd.com (alias of jreyst)https://paizo.com/products/btpy93xu/discuss?Mind-Over-Matter-Book-1-Psion-and-Soulknife#52014-01-22T03:35:56Z2014-01-22T03:35:56Z<p>Woot! Thanks Arkady. Please do let us know what you think.</p>Woot! Thanks Arkady. Please do let us know what you think.d20pfsrd.com (alias of jreyst)2014-01-22T03:35:56ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Mind Over Matter, Book 1: Psion and Soulknife (PFRPG) PDFArkady Zelenkahttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93xu/discuss?Mind-Over-Matter-Book-1-Psion-and-Soulknife#42014-01-21T01:15:09Z2014-01-21T01:15:09Z<p>This looks really good. I use to play a Soul Knife back when it was still a prestige class. I'm going to have to talk to the wife about making my Paizo order soon and I'm definitely adding this to my cart.</p>This looks really good. I use to play a Soul Knife back when it was still a prestige class. I'm going to have to talk to the wife about making my Paizo order soon and I'm definitely adding this to my cart.Arkady Zelenka2014-01-21T01:15:09ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Mind Over Matter, Book 1: Psion and Soulknife (PFRPG) PDFd20pfsrd.com (alias of jreyst)https://paizo.com/products/btpy93xu/discuss?Mind-Over-Matter-Book-1-Psion-and-Soulknife#32014-01-23T16:22:58Z2014-01-17T17:05:54Z<p>Note!</p>
<p>If you post a review either on Paizo, RPGNow, or the d20pfsrd.com store before January 31 2014, you will receive a coupon for the purchase price of this product at the d20pfsrd.com store.</p>
<p>All you have to do is be honest in your review and let us know where you posted the review (along with an email address to hook you up with the coupon)!</p>Note!
If you post a review either on Paizo, RPGNow, or the d20pfsrd.com store before January 31 2014, you will receive a coupon for the purchase price of this product at the d20pfsrd.com store.
All you have to do is be honest in your review and let us know where you posted the review (along with an email address to hook you up with the coupon)!d20pfsrd.com (alias of jreyst)2014-01-17T17:05:54ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Mind Over Matter, Book 1: Psion and Soulknife (PFRPG) PDFd20pfsrd.com (alias of jreyst)https://paizo.com/products/btpy93xu/discuss?Mind-Over-Matter-Book-1-Psion-and-Soulknife#22014-01-17T00:54:17Z2014-01-17T00:54:17Z<p>And that makes a 2-for-1 day! (two releases in the same day that is!)</p>And that makes a 2-for-1 day! (two releases in the same day that is!)d20pfsrd.com (alias of jreyst)2014-01-17T00:54:17ZForums: Product Discussion: Mind Over Matter, Book 1: Psion and Soulknife (PFRPG) PDFLiz Courts (Contributor)https://paizo.com/products/btpy93xu/discuss?Mind-Over-Matter-Book-1-Psion-and-Soulknife#12014-01-17T00:07:31Z2014-01-17T00:07:31Z<p>Now available!</p>Now available!Liz Courts (Contributor)2014-01-17T00:07:31Z