For curious readers who wish to hone their psychic skills, a plethora of occult tomes, lost scrolls, and even stranger items lie hidden throughout Golarion. From the kaleidoscopic Recursion Tablets to the never-ending Infinity Scroll, Pathfinder Player Companion: Psychic Anthology presents a diverse archive of texts elucidating esoteric ideas and techniques that can benefit any psychic spellcasting class, as well as other spellcasters. Alongside feats, magic items, and spells, this volume unlocks the hidden powers of the mind!
Inside this book, you'll find:
New archetypes for nearly every occult class, including the phantom blade spiritualist and the autohypnotist mesmerist.
Panoplies—collections of occultist implements that harness the power resonating between the items—and numerous kineticist wild talents for all the elements.
A new corruption arising from raw psychic energy that, if left unchecked, could mutate one's form into an all-consuming horror of writhing flesh.
This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-928-8
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
I'm not going to talk about the psychic or mesmerist much here. The psychic gets to be the magic and magic item section, and it's a mixed bag. Mesmerist just isn't a class I much care to play (outside of one archetype), so I haven't spent much time looking at it.
Spiritualists get a nice chunk of stuff, a fun new emotional focus (and rules for using it with older archetypes). Two new archetypes, one bringing in some black blade magus fun, and a phantom animal one. I have intentions of using the phantom blade, the totemist I might if an appropriate campaign comes up. My only real problem with either is they lose emotional focus (something I enjoy about the flavor of the class).
Medium gets a fun new archetype. It doesn't really address any issues with the class, might even make some of them worse (forcing taboo). It get's fun abilities and has cool flavor though. Look for a thematic campaign to use it in.
Kineticist gets a lot of expanded selections. The invocations are a cool idea, and possibly a good tool for the future, but the feat look for most characters is disappointing. More talents, especially for wood and void is nice. Wood's new simple blast is disappointing, and makes for a (mostly) true pacifist if taken as your first. Not practical but interesting choice. More blade abilities make the melee fan happy. Speaking of which the Kinetic Knight is everything I ever wanted for the Kineticist, not just supporting but encouraging a strength based build, nice defensive features. I've already started playing one and it's one of m favorite builds. The lack of form infusions can be limiting somewhat though.
Occultist is another nice package here. The panopolies are great. Between giving you a way to go deeper into your spell list with out giving up too much versatility and some nice new focus powers. the archetype to support them is a nice addition too.
Overall a great book that supported the four psychic classes I care about in fun ways, and inspiring at least 4 new characters I want to play.
A Fantastic Expansion of Occult Options (for the most part)
This is a fantastic companion book for those interested in playing one of the classes in Occult Adventures. And for the most part, it gives these classes a lot of love. In order of how much (and the quality of) the love they receive:
1. (A+): The Spiritualist was originally my least favorite class in Occult Adventures. A class with cool flavor but weak mechanics. This book changes that. It introduces not one, but two archetypes that turn the Spiritualist into a viable and interesting option. The first is essentially a psychic version of the Blackblade Magus, and the second gives you a phantom animal companion (or two!) that's a viable option in combat. And it introduces a new Kindness emotional focus that the Id Rager can take(!). This went from a class I couldn't imagine getting myself to play, to a class I have at least two character ideas for. Fantastic stuff.
2. (A+): The Mesmerist, on the other hand, was one of my favorite classes in Occult Adventures. It's a lot like the alchemist -- a 6th level caster with lots of skill points and a bag of abilities that, though neat, don't obviously fit together (in the case of the alchemist: bombs, mutagens, self-buffing extracts, poison-using abilities and alchemy/potion-oriented abilities, in the case of the mesmerist: stares, tricks, touch treatments and a bevy of mind-affecting spells). In the case of the Alchemist, this was fixed by a bunch of great archetypes and options that allow you to really focus on one of the themes of the Alchemist (e.g., bomb focused alchemists, mutagen + self-buffing alchemists, poison-focused alchemists, etc). But until now the Mesmerist didn't really have the options to do the same.
This book starts to change that. It introduces a trick-focused archetype and a bunch of feats that make the Mesmerist's tricks cool and effective enough to really build a character around. Likewise, there are some great Stare feats that make stares effective enough to build a character around. Add in a cool Possession-focused archetype and a "mind-over-matter"-style archetype which moves away from *just* mind-affecting spells, and there are now a number of interesting and distinct options on the table to focus your Mesmerist around. More great stuff.
3. (A+): The Occultist was originally in the middle of the pack for me -- lots of flavor, and reasonably effective mechanically, but with a couple awkward features that make it hard to develop all of the versions of the class one might like to try (such as the dramatic difference in the power of different schools -- from the virtually obligatory Transmutation to the painfully bad Necromancy and Evocation -- and the strong disincentive to choose a school more than once, essentially locking you into a single spell per school). This book (combined with the incredible Silksworn archetype from the Heroes of the High Court) do a fair bit to change that. By adding panoply options (and the corresponding panoply-focused archetype) you now have a cool and flavorful way of getting multiple spells from a given school, and of spreading out your spell picks a bit more. There's still a few awkward features of the class left over (it's still hard to imagine building an Occultist without Transmutation, or with Necromancy and Evocation), but the class is definitely more fun to play with than before.
4. (A): The Kineticist was a class I liked a lot, and it also gets a lot of love, in the form of the first good Kineticist archetype (a melee-focused armor-wearing kineticist tank) and a big batch of new wild talents which open up the variety of builds to pursue, especially if you want a Wood or Void-focused Kineticist. Granted, a lot of them are high-level abilities which only the DM is likely to get to play with, and it's hard to not to wish there were even more utility Wild Talents and Kinetic Invocation options. (More! More! More!) But this still opens up a lot of interesting options, making this book pretty much a "must-have" for anyone building a Kineticist.
5. (B): The Medium was one of my least favorite classes in Occult Adventures. It had great flavor, making it a class I very much wanted to play. But mechanically, the only really viable option seems to be building your character around the Champion spirit and making them a kind of psychic-flavored fighter, which didn't fit very well with most of the Medium-style character ideas I wanted to play with.
This book adds some more neat flavor options to the Medium (you can tie yourself to a kind of outsider), with an accompanying archetype, which someone building a Medium might consider. But none of these options make the class feel like it would play very differently, or open up the possibility of making a Medium which isn't basically a psychic fighter. Of course, these demerits of the Medium class aren't this book's fault, and it's a little unfair to expect it to resolve all of the problems facing the Medium. Still, given how much I like the idea behind this class, it would be great to someday see some options for making a viable character focused around one of the non-Champion spirits.
6. (B-): The Psychic was originally another class from Occult Adventures in the middle of the pack for me. The disciplines have lots of flavor, but, much like the sorcerer's bloodlines, most of them don't have enough mechanical "meat" to make them feel like they'd play that differently. The amplifications are kind of neat-ish, but most don't do interesting enough things to be memorable. And the overwhelming focus on mind-affecting spells makes the Psychic feel a bit fragile, usefulness-wise, for a 9th level caster.
This book does a bit to round out the Psychic's spell casting possibilities, and adds in some psychic analogs of arcane spell-related magic items. But the class feels much the same as before (in both good ways and bad) in light of these options, and there's little that seems specific to the Psychic that's on offer. Okay stuff.
All told, if you're mostly interested in the Medium or the Psychic, then while there are some new options in this book, there isn't anything that you really need in this book. But if you're interesting in playing around with Spiritualists, Mesmerists, Occultists or Kineticists, then this is definitely a book you'll want to have.
Lots of great stuff and a little bit of really, really bad
I would strongly recommend you buy this book, but I can't give it more than three stars because it has some really poorly conceived and edited options in here that should be mildly embarrassing to Paizo.
The mesmerist, spiritualist, and occultist options are generally great, a couple of bad archetypes and unclear rules ("holding" panoply occultist implements) aside. As far as I can tell the medium and kineticist stuff is of similar quality, but I don't care about those as much. If you want more options for these classes absolutely buy this book and you won't regret it.
Where the book falls down is the Psychic items and spells section. I can agree that this was arguably more necessary to grow the class than an archetype or more disciplines would have been, but the implementation is pretty poor. Most of the magic items are uninspired psychic retreads of (bad) arcane options that in some cases already worked fine for psychic casters. The spells have some decent options, and a couple of weak options, but the real problem is that there are two absurdly strong options. One allows you to daze lock a creature even on a successful save (at 3rd level!), the other is basically a Moment of Prescience god mode that applies to almost every roll you do for 1 full minute. I think you can easily solo higher threat CR creatures in melee with this spell and a few standard buffs. It's that ugly.
Publishing either of these spells would have been irresponsible, publishing both makes me doubt Paizo takes this line seriously anymore with respect to maintaining the integrity and balance of their game. PFS will ban the hell out of them, but having this sort of awful munchkiness out there as an idea that someone at Paizo thought was ok to publish is troublesome.
My final complaint is that there are a few more than the usual (already disappointing) level of poor editing and rules mistakes that we've come to expect in the Player Companion line. You have an unprecedented casting time of "1 full round action" on some spells (a big problem on Psychic classes that need their move action to add metamagic or center and avoid concentration penalties and not an innovation that should be dropped in without explanation), missing explanations of partial saving throws, and a couple of other minor signs that this needed a better development pass from a responsible adult.
That aside, you should reward Paizo for the good things with your money and put the good options to use responsibly. I just hope the bad things get more attention in future products and don't become a trend.
The fluff and items range from good to alright, but everything else is sorta meh. The new spirits for the Medium are pretty cool, as well as some of the Stare feats/tricks for the Mesmerist, but other than that...
I'll be honest. I wanted more kineticist talents when I bought this book, and I was nothing but disappointed. Oh gee, more ways to melee as a kineticist - as though there weren't a half-dozen archetypes that did pretty much the same thing. Oh look, *more* blasts that expand the use of your kinetic blade! Oh look, *feats*! Like there aren't *enough* feats, and these simply add a few spells as kineticist talents.
It was alright overall, but frankly, I would've saved the 10 bucks.
I pride myself on long detailed reviews, but there is very little to say about this. Uninspired, tending to overly dramatic and "uncontrolled!" type wackiness. Lack of content covered by larger than normal bad magic items section.
Possible preview of something from Psychic Anthology during the Twitch Stream. Mark Seifter will be playing "Dark Yoon, an alternate reality Yoon who found a way to suppress and channel the dark flame curse rather than a way to remove it, also using an as-yet unreleased option or two from future books ;)"
When asked "Psychic Anthology?", he said "Perhaps!"
So be sure to tune in at 5 PST (8 EST) to https://www.twitch.tv/officialpaizo
Possible preview of something from Psychic Anthology during the Twitch Stream. Mark Seifter will be playing "Dark Yoon, an alternate reality Yoon who found a way to suppress and channel the dark flame curse rather than a way to remove it, also using an as-yet unreleased option or two from future books ;)"
When asked "Psychic Anthology?", he said "Perhaps!"
So be sure to tune in at 5 PST (8 EST) to https://www.twitch.tv/officialpaizo
I used at least two things from this book in that livestream. I also had a third one on the character, but it wasn't relevant in that particular adventure (and would have been more likely to come to play in a few levels anyway).
It's mentioned briefly in her backstory, it's implied that Yoon was naturally a pyrokineticist but her fire became corrupted, making her a chaokineticist until she was purified.
Luthorne's linked reference is dead on (I won't give an official response one way or another on the exact wording of how Luthorne describes the situation, though ;) ). You can find out more breadcrumbs about Yoon's situation if you read very carefully in Occult Origins, Occult Realms, and Occult Bestiary. And of course, a little more appears in Psychic Anthology too. They're never directly stating anything about Yoon, you have to be all occult and read between the lines a bit in just the right sections!
Hey Mark. Here's an idea for a wild talent that you might be able to use in future books.
Sublimation
Element(s) Universal; Type utility (Su); Level 2; Burn 0
The kineticist can use a move action to teleport 30 feet. This action does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
By accepting 1 point of burn, the kineticist can instead use a swift action.
(The idea behind this is that the kineticist breaks up into its individual elements and comes back together again someplace else around the battlefield)
You think fast healing 1 is super game breaking but you gave them the ability to teleport at will at only level 4...dude..really!
At level 6 most kineticists get flight.
Arcanist at level 1 gets a teleport that is 10 feet per arcanist level and can move even after she uses this ability. She can teleport 60 feet at level 6 or 40 feet at level 4.
"The arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir to create a dimensional crack that she can step through to reach another location. This ability is used as part of a move action or withdraw action, allowing her to move up to 10 feet per arcanist level to any location she can see. This counts as 5 feet of movement. She can only use this ability once per round. She does not provoke attacks of opportunity when moving in this way, but any other movement she attempts as part of her move action provokes as normal."
The net gain of the kineticist ability is pretty much, "Move to a location without provoking attacks of opportunity." Not very game breaking.
Fast healing 1 is game breaking because it allows the player to pretty much be immune to the need for after combat heals.
Luthorne's linked reference is dead on (I won't give an official response one way or another on the exact wording of how Luthorne describes the situation, though ;) ). You can find out more breadcrumbs about Yoon's situation if you read very carefully in Occult Origins, Occult Realms, and Occult Bestiary. And of course, a little more appears in Psychic Anthology too. They're never directly stating anything about Yoon, you have to be all occult and read between the lines a bit in just the right sections!
This is all pretty obvious. Occult Origins tells us the black aura in her backstory indicates she had some chaokinetcist leanings as some in Minkai do, Occult Realms tells us she was purged of this by the Purging Flame talent at that volcano, and Occult Bestiary tells us her grandmother was Tychilarius.
This is all pretty obvious. Occult Origins tells us the black aura in her backstory indicates she had some chaokinetcist leanings as some in Minkai do, Occult Realms tells us she was purged of this by the Purging Flame talent at that volcano, and Occult Bestiary tells us her grandmother was Tychilarius.
If you're referring to this line in Tychilarius's entry:
Occult Bestiary wrote:
In recent years, a cell of Night Herald cultists uncovered a supposed relic that would draw Tychilarius from its prison into the body and mind of another being. Though the ritual failed and most of the cultists were slain, rumors insist the attempt was almost a success.
...it's actually a reference to Pathfinder's Journal: Dark Tapestry, the fiction from Legacy of Fire. ^_^
I can't actually connect anything in Occult Bestiary to Yoon's story. Anyone else? My initial theory was grandma as a Oran's ghost but it doesn't work.
I can't actually connect anything in Occult Bestiary to Yoon's story. Anyone else? My initial theory was grandma as a Oran's ghost but it doesn't work.
Combusted.
Occult Bestiary wrote:
Far from the Inner Sea region, in distant Minkai, those exposed to the black flames that consumed the Shojinawa manor—as well as their descendants—found themselves vulnerable to an odd form of spontaneous combustion that leads to combusted with the cold subtype instead of the fire subtype and that deal cold damage instead of fire damage.
Gom-Gom was the first to accept Yoon's new name. Eventually, even her grandmother gave in, though she continued to sniff at the impropriety. Yoon's grandmother had been a palace servant to the Shojinawa family once, and despite the fact that Yoon was determined to become a warrior like her mother, the old woman insisted on teaching her about things like poise, discipline, and self-control, arguing that they were just as important to a warrior as to a court scholar.
Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the little Psychic Anthology preview! (though it could be hard to figure out exactly what I was doing)
I doubt her grandmother actually was a combusted, it was just referencing events related to Yoon as an easter egg.
The preview was him playing a chaokineticist version of Yoon with talents from this book on Twitch. You can see the videos here, I believe, if interested.
Gom-Gom was the first to accept Yoon's new name. Eventually, even her grandmother gave in, though she continued to sniff at the impropriety. Yoon's grandmother had been a palace servant to the Shojinawa family once, and despite the fact that Yoon was determined to become a warrior like her mother, the old woman insisted on teaching her about things like poise, discipline, and self-control, arguing that they were just as important to a warrior as to a court scholar.
Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the little Psychic Anthology preview! (though it could be hard to figure out exactly what I was doing)
Hey Mark. Question. Will we ever get alternative kinetic defenses? It seems like the option was left open or available for future kinetic defenses for already existing elements.
With that said, can we get different/better scaling defenses for void and wood?
I doubt her grandmother actually was a combusted, it was just referencing events related to Yoon as an easter egg.
The preview was him playing a chaokineticist version of Yoon with talents from this book on Twitch. You can see the videos here, I believe, if interested.
I doubt her grandmother actually was a combusted, it was just referencing events related to Yoon as an easter egg.
The preview was him playing a chaokineticist version of Yoon with talents from this book on Twitch. You can see the videos here, I believe, if interested.
In theory, her grandmother (and father) should have been in big trouble after this much time, possibly becoming combusted, but mysteriously, they didn't, and Yoon didn't even experience the black flame until that fateful day...you'll have to check out Psychic Anthology for another hint or two about what was going on.
I doubt her grandmother actually was a combusted, it was just referencing events related to Yoon as an easter egg.
The preview was him playing a chaokineticist version of Yoon with talents from this book on Twitch. You can see the videos here, I believe, if interested.
Which video is it?
This one at about 3:03:39, I believe. Before that is the Starfinder stuff.
Powers used:
Kinetic Blade, but with no burn
No Breath
Something like Kinetic Whip, but for one burn (despite being level 4)
Basic Chaokinesis
Blade Rush- standard action charge-like effect, usable after a regular move.
Somehow able to gather energy while using a heavy shield.
Wearing full plate with full 30ft. movement and making exclusively melee attacks (to the point of moving up rather than shooting while enemies close in). Probably an archetype?
Rolling 3d6 (despite being level 4)
So as far as I can tell, it's an archetype that by level four has:
Shield and heavy armor proficiency.
Armor training, or something similar.
Reduced cost versions of Kinetic Blade and Whip.
An extra d6 of damage (unless that's through a feat or something).
Keeps Gather Power, the basic utility talent, fourth level utility talent, and probably the second level utility talent (since Mark said that he didn't use something on his sheet).
I was actually level 5 because it was a 4-5 and 5 was a better demonstration of a few things.
Ah, that makes things a LOT simpler. Whip is just early access, not reduced cost, and there's room to fit Blade Dash in a bit better. No need for an extra d6, either.
It has already been said that wood and void will be getting a lot of love in this one.
I am also hoping for no archetypes for kineticist in this one or in general.
I would love to see new kinetic defenses for every element but I doubt there will be room even in this one. Especially air, fire, water, and void because I would love energy resistance 5 that goes up by 5 with each point of burn(max 30).
It has already been said that wood and void will be getting a lot of love in this one.
I am also hoping for no archetypes for kineticist in this one or in general.
I would love to see new kinetic defenses for every element but I doubt there will be room even in this one. Especially air, fire, water, and void because I would love energy resistance 5 that goes up by 5 with each point of burn(max 30).
That's sort of already available.
Cold Adaptation
Element(s) fire or water; Type utility (Sp); Level 1; Burn 0
You are constantly protected by endure elements against cold temperatures only.
You gain cold resistance equal to twice your current amount of burn.
Heat/Cold adaptations are a joke, you only get 2 resistance for each burn and you don't start with any resistance to begin with. Also it doesn't say it stacks with any resistance from racial abilities.
Energy resistance would be a fun alternate elemental defense ability but instead of increase through burn maybe based on level maxing out at 20 but stacks with any resistance gained through burn from those utility abilities.
Heat/Cold adaptations are a joke, you only get 2 resistance for each burn and you don't start with any resistance to begin with. Also it doesn't say it stacks with any resistance from racial abilities.
Energy resistance would be a fun alternate elemental defense ability but instead of increase through burn maybe based on level maxing out at 20 but stacks with any resistance gained through burn from those utility abilities.
Why not just a level 6 or so utility wild talent that makes you immune to cold/fire/lightning and the like?
Aether streams in the sky.
I can throw twice as high
Take a look
I'm in a book
A Murder Rainbow
I can sense everything.
Rogue's in flank
But his plan stank
He got murder rainbow'ed.
I can dodge everything
Bullets and rays
They just don't phase (me)
I'm a murder rainbow....
(A murder rainbow....)
(A murder rainbow....)
(A murder rainbow....)
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