So I just got the Psionics Unleashed and am reading through it. I keep coming upon the phrase 'maintaining your psionic focus' but cannot for the life of me find any information relating to what this is.
Any ideas where I can find it?
I'm sorry if there is a psionic thread somewhere else, I looked but could not find one.
Thanks
Um, in 3.5 it had to do with the meditation skill, I think; dunno if they kept that. Check for concentration checks in the index; betcha one of those listings will have to do with achieving/maintaining your psi focus.
It's in the Feats section.
PSIONIC FOCUS
Many feats detailed below, as well as many psionic class abilities, work either by maintaining or expending psionic focus.
Gain Psionic Focus: Merely having the ability to hold a reservoir of psionic power points in mind gives psionic characters a special energy. Psionic characters can put that energy to work without actually paying a power point cost—they can become psionically focused.
If you have a power point pool or the ability to manifest psi-like abilities, you can meditate to become psionically focused. Meditating is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity.
When you are psionically focused, you can expend your focus on any single concentration check you make thereafter. When you expend your focus in this manner, your concentration check is treated as if you rolled a 15. It’s like taking 10, except that the number you add to your concentration modifier is 15. You can also expend your focus to gain the benefit of a psionic feat—many psionic feats are activated in this way.
Once you are psionically focused, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep (or enter a meditative trance, in cases such as elans or elves).
You may still gain psionic focus even if you have depleted all of your power points.
Expending your psionic focus to power a feat, class feature, or any other ability only powers a single effect. You cannot gain the benefit of multiple abilities that require expending focus by expending your psionic focus once; each effect requires its own instance of expending psionic focus.
Thank you. I couldn't figure it out. Now it makes sense. Anyone used them in a Pathfinder game yet? I'm wondering how they are balanced. I am looking to start up a new game here in a few weeks and wanted to know if it was going to unbalance to party if i opened it up for play.
by the way do you still make a concentration check to gain psionic focus, or do you simply expend actions (full round or move).
Thank you. I couldn't figure it out. Now it makes sense. Anyone used them in a Pathfinder game yet? I'm wondering how they are balanced. I am looking to start up a new game here in a few weeks and wanted to know if it was going to unbalance to party if i opened it up for play.
Psionics was fairly well balanced assuming the DM could control the group and not get bullied into a 15 minute adventuring day. If the DM couldn't manage avoiding that, the "nova" potential of spellcasters and psionic casters tended to be "overpowered" due to the lack of micromanagement needed to stay useful during a real 4-7 encounter adventure day.
As for the psionic focus, it was hardly ever an issue with our gaming group. The action economy is still roughly the same, you are using a standard or move action to gain some minor persistent bonus, or expending it to gain a more meaningful bonus and having to regain it the next round. At worst the feat to get the action bumped down (standard to move) is available earlier because of the additional feats in PFRPG. This just means some of the abilities might become accessible/useful a level or two earlier than the were in 3.5 barring level or other prereqs.
Thank you. I couldn't figure it out. Now it makes sense. Anyone used them in a Pathfinder game yet? I'm wondering how they are balanced. I am looking to start up a new game here in a few weeks and wanted to know if it was going to unbalance to party if i opened it up for play.
Yes, here. They work well. If you manage to avoid the 15-minute adventuring day with wizards and clerics, you can avoid it with psions and wilders.
My biggest problem? Not the psionics, but the half-giant with the Large halberd dishing huge loads of damage. That said, I have seen just as bad from a fighter with a greatsword, so I am not overly concerned.
Thank you. I couldn't figure it out. Now it makes sense. Anyone used them in a Pathfinder game yet? I'm wondering how they are balanced. I am looking to start up a new game here in a few weeks and wanted to know if it was going to unbalance to party if i opened it up for play.Yes, here. They work well. If you manage to avoid the 15-minute adventuring day with wizards and clerics, you can avoid it with psions and wilders.
My biggest problem? Not the psionics, but the half-giant with the Large halberd dishing huge loads of damage. That said, I have seen just as bad from a fighter with a greatsword, so I am not overly concerned.
I solved that problem by not allowing the half-giant. :)
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I looked at the half giant today looking for options for an upcoming campaign and cannot help but think it is too much. I want to see how it stacks up against the point menue in the upcoming ultimate race book. I am in a struggle just to get anything beyond the same old boring core/base classes so I may not even be able to play Psionics let alone a half giant . If I do get the go ahead, I think I will voluntarily trim it down. Or play the other races I like, the elan or synad from dragon magazine and later put into complet psionic. Maybe a human if I have too.
All I can say is that the half-giant was probably the race that had the most focus during Psionics Unleashed development, and after going back and forth about if it needed to be toned down or left as-is, the mechanics compared to other races indicated that, while it might be a good race choice for a melee-based character, it was not overpowered.
I'm sure you can find some threads in this forum discussing the topic, and if you'd like, I'm sure I could find some on the Dreamscarred site. :)
EDIT: Fixed a typo. Changed classes to races.
All I can say is that the half-giant was probably the race that had the most focus during Psionics Unleashed development, and after going back and forth about if it needed to be toned down or left as-is, the mechanics compared to other classes indicated that, while it might be a good race choice for a melee-based character, it was not overpowered.
Naturally. Some races feeling better suited to certain combat styles is flavor that's been around forever, and even if some races are better suited to certain styles, it also comes down to personal preference. I'd much rather play a Half-Orc than a Half-Giant any day, even if I was playing a psionic class.