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
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Overall a good book with lots of options for all 6 six psychic based classes.
The Good
-A lot of wild talents for kineticist.
-The kindness phantom emotional focus.
-Some awesome prestige classes for the spiritualist.
-Cool feats for the mesmerist.
-Outsider spirits for the medium.
-Some great new spells and magic items.
The Bad
-The kinetic Invocation feat.
-Some other design issues with the kineticist options.
-No new psychic disciplines and/or phrenic amplifications.
First up, getting the worst part out of the way: Psychic gets spells and items, and that's it. There, it's over, and everything after is better news. (That said, they're basic quality-of-life items for all psychic casters, and the spells include two new undercastable spells. It may be more practical for most Psychics, even if it isn't as shiny as a new archetype or some disciplines.)
Spiritualist gets an awesome phantom with a distinct play style, and it includes support for the numerous archetypes that require special treatment. (High-five to the writer!) On top of that, it gets two very nice archetypes, one for ghostly animal companions and one for Magus-like combat with psychic in-combat casting addressed. (High-five to the writer!) Really cool to see past issues addressed!
Mesmerist gets some love for tricks. Not getting use out of more than one or two? Want a Mesmerist that isn't forced to pass out tricks to be useful? Playing a spontaneous caster to avoid morning preparation? Solved in one feat. (High-five to the writer!) Gets a nice variety of archetypes, covering transformation (offensive and defensive), possession (mostly of the object variety), and heavier trick focus. The new stare feats are significantly stronger than equivalent level stare feats. Blind is a MUCH harsher condition than fatigued, so GMs, you might want to take a close look at that.
Occultist panoplies and an archetype focused on them. By far the most stand-out option is being able to trade in some flexibility for increased BAB. Full BAB and 6/9 casting? Don't mind if I do! That said, the others are useful, especially in particular campaign types. Solidifies Occultist's ability to fill major roles without needing to be a 9/9 caster.
Kineticist gets a ton of talent options. A sizable chunk has an extra feat tax for most races, but that's okay- if you need a bunch of extra options, they're there. There are a lot of weird little editorial issues here- incompatible requirements, mislabeled elements, and extra mechanics that have no actual effect. For those who wanted Kineticist crafters, you're good to go. For those who wanted a melee Kineticist without giving up all your utility talents (or any of them, for that matter), Kinetic Knight is great.
Medium gets one archetype, which is huge and has a bunch of options.
Pros: Heck yeah, I want a familiar with free Improved Familiar and bonus shapeshifting! Awesome flavor, too, with (mostly) different abilities for all sorts of outsiders.
Cons: "You must pay for the atonement spell if you make even a tiny violation" is a terrible way to run a Paladin. Baking that approach into an archetype is not pleasant, even with your code being "pick one restriction out of these three". Replacing all intermediate abilities with the same ability puts a LOT of importance on that ability. Also, delayed summoning for all three evil outsider types lacks the flavor good alignments get.
Verdict: Tough call. Not for me, but there are cases where it's a good fit. Anybody who wants a character that HAS to do something can fit that pretty well here- being deep in debt with outside forces, for instance. It's a very nice pick for caster Mediums, since you get abilities that can be used without relying on granting influence.
Bonus: awesome corruption for psychically inclined characters!
Overall: If you like Spiritualist, Mesmerist, or Occultist, this is a great book for you. If you find yourself struggling to find Kineticist talents you want to take for your element, or want a utility-preserving martial Kineticist, this will help. If you like getting in deep with outsiders, want more items for psychic casters, or need some additional Psychic spells, it's worth a look.
I want a Solipsism discipline for Psychics. Discipline power that boosts self buffs, and Subjective Reality has to be a bonus spell.
There's a lot of room for new disciplines; Superiority (good at overpowering Spell Resistance), Materialist (object focused psi), Competitor (bonuses to opposed checks, caster level checks, concentration checks, etc.), Dualist (mind/body focus, perhaps able to use Somatic component in place of Emotion component when affected by a fear effect or something), Hedonism/Sensation (better able to handle concentration checks involving damage / distraction as she 'rides the wave'), Individualist/Solipsist (bonuses when not near another ally, or when using group abilities on herself alone), etc.
Berselius wrote:
I'd also like to see a Mesmerist archetype that gives access to Psychic class only spells. :D
Definitely. All the spells derived from 1st edition AD&D psionic attack/defense modes (Ego Whip, Mental Barrier, Tower of Iron Will, Id Insinuation, etc.) totally belong on the Mesmerist class list anyway, IMO!
DeciusNero wrote:
I'd like some more mesmerist tricks.
I'd love to see a Mesmerist Archetype that sacrifices some other stuff (less spells, perhaps? No touch treatment?) for a *much* more generous ability to apply Tricks (more tricks / day, ranged application of tricks on allies, reapply a trick as a swift action?, more tricks at once time, etc.).
I'd like a Spiritualist that can have a phantom animal companion.
Seconded!
Set wrote:
I'd love to see a Mesmerist Archetype that sacrifices some other stuff (less spells, perhaps? No touch treatment?) for a *much* more generous ability to apply Tricks (more tricks / day, ranged application of tricks on allies, reapply a trick as a swift action?, more tricks at once time, etc.).
Maybe such a one could be called 'stage magician' or 'hypnotist'?
I could really go for a Mesmerist archetype with a bit more offensive punch to be honest. I find it bizzare that a mental master of manipulation doesn't have access to spells that only the Psychic class seems to have available to it.
So, yeah, an archetype for the Mesmerist that gives it access to Psychic class only spells in exchange for something else would be cool. Or has that been done in a 3rd party book already?
Actually, I was referring to a Mesmerist archetype that has limited access to the Psychic class spell list. In other words, giving up something to gain access to psychic class only spells like Ego Whip, Id Insinuation, Intellect Fortress, Mental Barrier, Mind Thrust, Psychic Crush, Thought Shield, and Tower of Iron Will). Basically something like that.
However, your question intrigues me. Is there a 3rd party archetype for the Mesmerist class that gives eye beam or deadly gaze attacks that do some sort of lethal damage? Maybe causes opponents to suffer bleed damage or energy ray eye beams dealing energy damage of some kind? Or perhaps the deadly eye gaze of death (aka save or die)?
Well I'd prefer would prefer the first idea (a Mesmerist archetype that has limited access to the Psychic class spell list) as I'm trying to make an NPC that's like a Emma Frost (aka Hellfire White Queenish) Mesmerist who struts around in revealing clothing / feather boa while psi-blasting her enemies when she isn't mentally dominating them. :D
Honestly I'd settle for just having a Mesmerist archetype that can access some of the spells that are only on the Psychic class's spell list. Here's hoping.
The content for this book is probably mostly, if not completely, locked down, but... I'd seriously love to see a psychic bard with an origami familiar/"eidolon" and summoning abilities inspired by Kubo and the Two Strings.
If they do do some more feats to improve kinetists viability, or create some interesting variety with kineticist, including some Varient single element kineticists, similar to the blood kineticist, but exploiting different aspects of their powers(like earth kinetics that specialise in Crystal based abilities, or Phytokinetists that Can unleash a variety of toxic pollen and spore effects).
Personally kineticist could use a lot more wild talents. We only got 7 new ones in the last two hardcover books. We don't need anymore archetypes/variants of the class. Also ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester all those abilities could just be standard wild talents.
Feats for kineticist would nice, especially a extra simple blast feat that can be taken at level one(with very little requirements) and you can take any simple blast from any element. Also at level 7 you would get the composite blast(s).
No thanks on the Kineticist combat-focused feats. One of the nice things about Kineticist is that it only needs two feats, and something as overpowered as a second basic blast would be a new requirement. Certainly nothing available at first, where it competes with your starter feat tax.
Please please please let there be options that allow for better mixing between arcane and psychic magic. Let wizards have more of a share of the mystical, mysterious and esoteric. I'm tired of the trope where non-arcane spellcasters get all the mystical flavour and wizards are relegated to be compared to scientists and "they use magic in a almost scientific way". I hate that, and I understand some people may like it, but I'm tired of it, we've already had too much, a change would be great.
An archetype that puts wizards in the meat of psychic magic and, for instance, allows them to cast some psychic spells, would be amazing. I'm hoping the release of Doctor Strange will help my case here down the line.
A great (and sadly, one of the very few) examples of introducing esoteric themes to the wizard was the Spirit Whisperer archetype (although it's sad that it does away with the spellbook).