Psionics in Pathfinder RPG


Races & Classes

Liberty's Edge

I already posted my ideas on how the Psionic races would fit into Golarion, and I've copied it here;

Spoiler:
Once psionics was almost as common as magic, but as the Runelords rose to power, they viewed any power they did not control as a threat and they targeted anyone who manifested psionic powers.

The most powerfull manifesters were a tribe of Dwarves in the Mindspin mountains, but a combination of magical diseases and curse magic forced the dwarves to retreat into the Deep Earth and become the degernerate Duergar known today.

This attack did not go unobserved among the Human manifesters. A large group decided to flee to the Astral Plane for their safety and it is believed that they became the Githyanki and Githzerai races over the next 10,000 years.

The last group who tried to leave were attacked by agents of the Runelords and their gate malfunctioned and flung them to some Far off Realm. It is believed that they were changed by this Realm and became abominations beyond description.

The remaining psionic users were forced to retreat to a mountain monestary of a powerful Seer. When the Runelords made their move, they found all of the manifesters dead. Even the Runelords were puzzeled by what they found and the mystery of the deaths has remained for 10,000 years. But in the last few decades a possible answer hs appeared in the form of the Elan. No one knows exactly where they come from, they are normal humans untill their "awakening", after which they are Elan. Some belive that those ancient Psions attemped a form of Psionic Reincarnation and the Elan are the result of this power.

The insect races of Dromites and Thri Kreen are found to the far south and have little to do with most other races. Recently it was decided among the hives that they need to know more about these strange speaking animals to the north, so explorers and spies have been sent to these strange northern lands.

Half Giants are similar to Ogrekin, as the result of crossbreeding with humans, but in their case, they have avoided the mutations and inbreeding of the Ogrekin. Many Half giants want nothing to do with thei giant kin and have fled to try to live among their human cousins.

The last two psionic races Maenads and Xephs are liiterally the children of the Runelords. The Maenad race was created by Alaznist, the Runelord of Wrath, and survived the fall of Bakrakham by becoming masters of the seas.
The atheletic and artistic Xephs are the children of Pride and their homeland, a dark forest in a deep rift was believed to be a sanctuary hold of Xanderghul

Now, to do the same with the psionic classes.

Psion: I have always had one problem with Psions, All Psions are specialists, yet they really are not special. But with the way Pathfinder does the Arcane Schools, the Psionics Disciplines can make psions special.

I would make the following changes;

1: Bring back Zero level talents

2: Fold the Discipline power list into the Psion/ Wilder list.

3: Certain powers need to be redone; Astral Consruct needs to be split back into 9 separate powers. The augments for these powers should augment the size, nature and numbers, but only Shapers should be able to augment the level of the construct.
Other powers need to be split up into separate powers; Psionic Charm for example, but again, I would let Telepaths augment all of them in ways other Psions cannot.

4: Metamorphosis will get the same treatment Polymorph gets, personally I would split it into several powers; Alter Self, Animorph, Aberration, Elemental Form, Giant Form, Faerie Form, Inanimate Form, Dragonmorph, etc. Again, I would allow Egoist to augment these in special ways.

5: Psion Disciplines would give them access to many of the powers on their 3.5 discipline power list. I would also add augments to many powers that are exclusive to the specialists.

6: I would add a generalist discipline, similar to the Erudite. I would base it off the 3.0 power Emulate power, allowing them to emulate powers they do not know. Other special abilities would be based off powers like Feat Leech and Power Leech.

Psychic Warrior

I once played in a Arcana Evolved game using the Ritual Warrior as an Akashic Warrior. Instead of training riuals, his special abilities came from taping into the Akashic for tactical knowledge. Personally, that is how I would prefer to do Psychic Warriors. I would let them keep their power points so that they can still learn powers by way of Expanded Knowledge and they would be able to augment their rituals with power points as well.

Soul Knife:

The one problem I have with them is the lack of powers, but this can be fixed by replacing Wild Talent with Hidden Talent and giving them Power points. Then they can use Expanded Knowledge to gain select powers.

Wilder:

The Wilder does need something to set it appar from Psions and the Enervation aspect of Wild Surge needs to be redone, it gets worse as you level.

The lingeing effects of the 4E Sorcerer sound interesting or theme-based powers like the Ardents Mantles would also work. I personally see Wilders as "Theme Casters", Like Robin from Witch Hunter Robin using fire and destructive powers.

Other classes;

The Akashic from Arcana Evolved can make a great Psionic Bard and many of the classes from Dreamscarred Press can be used as is.

The Morphean is a great psionic rogue, the Marksman is a psionic archer, and the Halo Knight, Enlightened Monk and several Soul Knife variants are all great additions to your psionic rules and almost all of them would work as is, no conversion needed.

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