I want to get it, and I'm just wondering what thoughts people had on it.
Discuss!
Do you mean Psionics Expanded?
I won't give my opinion, as I'm pretty heavily biased, but I just wanted to avoid confusion. :)
Yes, my bad.
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It's "Dreamscarred" Press.
If you're asking about Psionics Unleashed, the first book, it's amazing. I love the classes, as they feel like perfect Pathfinder equivalents to their 3.5 counterparts. It's also a DM's dream. I can make a 10th level Wilder NPC in half the time I can make a 10th level Sorcerer NPC, and they're going to play essentially the same as far as the players are concerned.
If you're asking about Psionics Expanded, the second book, I haven't been too impressed with it. Granted, it's not completely released yet. I preordered the entire thing, expecting greatness like the first, but... it just.... feels like a book that's being made just to be made. Nothing in the beta documents really got my attention, so when the first section of the book was actually released, even though I preordered it I had to push myself to read through the whole thing. I think I've used two, maybe three things from the entirety of Psionics Expanded thus far.
However, as a saving grace, Psionics Expanded has a great price-point. At least the preorder did, not sure of the current price. Even just up to now, I've gotten a metric crap-ton more content than any other RPG PDF for a similar price. Psionics Expanded is split into 5 different sections, each its own PDF. Each of these sections has about as much content as most of the PDFs in Paizo's store that go for the same price as the entirety of Psionics Expanded. Thus, if I use only 20% of all the stuff in Psionics Expanded, I'm getting a great deal.
I really don't mean to be insulting or raw, especially with Jeremy Smith already checking out this thread, but Unleashed was so awesome I suppose it pumped up my expectations of Expanded.
All that said, I still love my copy of Unleashed. I love using it as a DM's Secret Weapon to throw a curveball, or to change up the boring stereotype of "Oh, the BBEG? Yeah, he's an evil wizard hellbent on taking over the world with powerful magic."
So, if you have any interest at all in psionics, pick up Unleashed today. You won't be sorry you did.
Dreamscarred. Sigh.
Anyway Jack, quality-wise it's top-notch. PE is based largely upon the 3.5e SRD content, so it's solid, tried & true material. It's then been updated to fit the PFRPG design guidelines. That process was completely open, allowing multiple playtest cycles. A lot of eyes were on this product during development and it's very, very good.
That said, it is what it is. That's what LazarX was getting at. Not everyone likes how psionics work, or how they're desscribed. People who didn't like the 3.5e psionics materials won't like this either because its core is the same.
If you've never tried it before, unhesitatingly I'd recommend get the PDF at the very least. We don't play primarily psionic campaigns but it's flavor that we dip into frequently. Don't leave home without it.
Austin - no apologies needed - we can't make material that's going to excite everyone, much as we might try to.
That being said, a lot of folks were excited about the Aegis class, in particular, but I realize that's not everyone's cup of tea. :) And Master the Battle is adding a ton of support for the existing classes - 3 soulknife archetypes, core base class archetypes, crystal hilts, etc. The soulknife in particular now has a host of new ways you can take the class (manifester, defender, ranged, sword & board, unarmed), while staying true to the core concept of the soulknife.
It's also 6 parts:
Mind Over Body - healing / shapechanging
Find the Mark - ranged combat
Unlimited Possibilities - kind of a hodge-podge, including the sort of advanced options found in the APG
Pawns and Powers - tactical options
Master the Battle - melee combat (hopefully out this month)
Hidden Intentions - stealth and subterfuge (hopefully out by April)
Then all 6 will be consolidated into 1 book - Psionics Expanded: Advanced Psionics Guide.
The price point - 9.95 - is not changing for the final PDF / preorder / subscription. That's the price we've always planned to sell it at, just like the price point for Psionics Unleashed in PDF. :)
I always thought that 3.5 psionics was a much more balanced system than the vancian system, and far easier to manage on a daily basis. The Dreamscarred version takes this to Pathfinder level, ironing out a few problems, and finally making the Soulknife decent in combat! Though the Thrallherd prestige class remains as broken as ever (or even more so with the two new specific feats for it!)
I got mine right away, and I have been jumping at the bit for it to be fully converted to hero lab... then I got the book :)
The books are great! No offense but I can't believe you were not excited about the first expanded book. It introduced the most awesome, amazing, versatile feature I've ever seen. The collective. Psionic characters used to be super selfish with barely any group buffs. Not anymore my friend. Now with the handy dandy collective not only can I enlarge my friend(as a standard action instead of full round like vanician fools) I can enlarge my entire flipping party with one action. This is on top of being able to share animal affinity which is an incredibly versatile power, and many others that were previously reserved for the psionic alone.
There are also a bunch of great new feats and they have even started experimenting with psionic themed core classes. I personally check almost every day in anticipation of the next book, and will most definitely be getting the beautiful mash up of the two books when it comes out.
So yeh. Psionics is great. Dreamscarred is great. Jeremy is great(and super responsive to feedback). Get the book! Best $10 you'll ever spend on roleplaying.
Austin - no apologies needed - we can't make material that's going to excite everyone, much as we might try to.
Just so you know... some of us are happy with PE so far. At this point it's at least as useful (to me) as the classes in say... the APG. Dude with a horse. Dude with a... thing. Oracle, Witch, Inquisitor. There's the new classes.
Don't get me wrong... I'm not really down on APG... it's good stuff. I'm just saying that what I've seen so far in PE is even better.
Considering how many dozens of non-core classes have been created for 3.5e and beyond, coming up with new and useful ones is darned hard. I'm pleased with Dreamscarred's results so far.
Just so you know... some of us are happy with PE so far.
Oh, I know. I actually get emails on a fairly regular basis about it - sometimes giving critiques or recommendations or ideas, sometimes just praise for putting out psionic support. It's not an every day thing, so don't think I'm saying that, but it's at least once a month or so, just a random message out of the blue.
I'm happy with how Psionics Expanded has turned out thus far. Have I learned from some mistakes? Sure. Do I wish there was less errata? Absolutely. But unfortunately, doing this as a hobby, rather than as a full-time job (maybe some day, if I hit the lotto jackpot...), I don't have the luxury of 40+ hours a week to spend on it, and if I tried to get that same amount of time in, it would just never get released.
That being said, I've had a huge amount of fun working on Psionics Expanded - even when we took the Exemplar and scrapped the class entirely because it was too boring. Or when we had to completely overhaul the Tactician. Or when we had to do the same with the Aegis. Or when Paizo beat us to the punch on the name Chirurgeon and we had to rename to Vitalist. That's the main reason I do Dreamscarred Press - it's fun. And hey, I get paid to have fun, so why complain?
It's not for everyone - psionics never has been, and I learned years ago that some people just won't like it, and that's OK (playtesting on Mind Divine taught me that...), as long as enough folks do like it and it's balanced, then it's all good in my book.
But, I've rambled on long enough. :) I'm just passionate about psionics - I could (and have) talked about it for hours - check out my interview on Know Direction from last year if you want to hear me go on and on about the topic. :)
My group loves the rule set, and we have happily purchased everything that has come out for psionics, now if I could get Hero Lab files for everything.....
James
I will say this..I hated 3.5 psionics, it always felt to me the powers were just reworded spells when compared to the 2E stuff.
The new stuff is just that..new and different, with much less crossover. As such, it is in my home game, where the 3.5 was discuraged
I ran psionics in ever system it's been published (except 4E), and I liked the 3.5 psionics ok, 2nd ED was fairly complex but worked okish, but the psionics advanced? I like it. I've used it for a few characters (one in a strange Charle's Angels only with female Goblins short shot campaign, and the others have been NPCs), and I liked it. However, one thing I did not like about 3.5 was cleared up nicely in Psionics Advanced (the you can't spend more power points than levels, and overchannel only adds up to 3 levels; it may have been in a rule in 3.5, but I missed it and one of my players REALLY cheesed it on me).
I bought PU because I felt like a tool just using the PFSRD. I figure if you want people to support a flavor you love, then you have to support them. Haven't used PU yet, but hopefully, I will be, soon.
For the same reason, I'll be picking up PE once it's finally compiled into one book.
(the you can't spend more power points than levels, and overchannel only adds up to 3 levels; it may have been in a rule in 3.5, but I missed it and one of my players REALLY cheesed it on me).
That was a rule in 3.5, and one of the most commonly overlooked / ignored. That's partly why we so highly stressed it in Psionics Unleashed. :)
I bought PU because I felt like a tool just using the PFSRD. I figure if you want people to support a flavor you love, then you have to support them. Haven't used PU yet, but hopefully, I will be, soon.
For the same reason, I'll be picking up PE once it's finally compiled into one book.
And believe me, your support is appreciated. It's why we've been able to pay other people who love psionics to make material for it (Bestiary project, From the Deep adventure path, and some other projects in the works). We love doing psionics, but there's only so much we can get done by ourselves - the support we've received has allowed us to expand our offerings nicely.
Dreamscarred has done one heck of a job so far in bringing our group some of the most used character classes, races, and rules used within our game. Their open play-testing, like Paizo’s, gives chance for everyone’s views and idea’s to be heard. Yes, it has been a little more contentious at times with the Psionic’s Expanded Guide, but in the end that will work in its favour, in my view. So as has been said above, if you liked 3.5 rules you must jump head first into Dreamscarred Presses version of Psionics and expand your mind.
P.S. I am looking forward to Dreamscarred’s psionic world (Third Dawn), for it will fit so very well within Golarion’s Solar System that is outlined in the Distant Worlds Campaign Setting from Paizo.Jeremy don’t forget to give use a drawing of the planet itself, eh.
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I'm using PU for my current PbP game here on the boards. I've done something pretty ambitious -- not as ambitious as third dawn though. I created a psionic city, and I'm testing it's modularity concept by placing it in Qadira.
All four of the players involved in the Playtest use classes from PU. While there are some things I don't agree with, PU works fairly well with Pathfinder. I must agree that Jeremy has done some good work. As for PE, I'm not picking it up. I'm waiting for the folks over at PFd20SRD.com to add PE's content to their SRD so I can review the raw rules before picking it up.
:)
Y'all have a bestairy project?
Yeah, we had the Bestiary Contest last year - link - and we're starting to release it in serialized fashion as work finishes on the 20+ pieces of artwork.
Along with it's great looks and professional quality, the rules are great. I've seen the new stuff and the stuff coming down the pipe (the Dread) and it's all fantastic.
I give it 5/5 stars.
When you say "serialized fashion" do you mean like psionics expanded?
Yes, but in much smaller releases. I'll be posting an announcement for our first release in the series - it's 4 pages with 3 monsters.