[Dreamscarred Press] Naturally Psionic Racial Trait with Soulknife

[Kartissa]

All the psionic races in Ultimate Psionics have the Racial Trait:

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Naturally Psionic: (Race)s gain the Wild Talent feat as a bonus feat at 1st level. If (they) take levels in a psionic class, (they) instead gain the Psionic Talent feat.

Obviously this means changing Wild Talent to Psionic Talent when choosing a psionic class, which I'm happy with.

However, the Soulknife has:

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Wild Talent: The Soulknife gains Wild Talent as a bonus feat at 1st level. This provides him with the psionic power necessary to manifest his mind blade. A character who is already psionic instead gains the Psionic Talent feat.

Again, on its own, it's fine. A Vitalist taking a level of Soulknife gains a bonus Psionic Talent feat.

The quandary comes from the Wild Talent feat:

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Benefit: Your latent power of psionics flares into life, conferring upon you the designation of a psionic character

An Elan has Wild Talent, and is therefore a psionic character. She takes a level in Soulknife, a psionic class. Do both Wild Talent feats convert to Psionic Talent, or just one of them? If the former, she now has 5 PP (2 from the first Psionic Talent feat, and 3 from the second). If it's the latter (which is how I would play it, personally) then she only has 4.

Granted, it doesn't matter too much - it's only 1 point, after all - but as an Elan, 1 PP is an extra 2 damage resisted or one more save augmented per day at 1st level. And then you can add the Psionic Aptitude trait:

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When an Elan takes a level in a favored class, she can choose to gain an additional power point instead of a hit point or a skill point.

Said favored class needn't be Soulknife, or any of the Psionic classes, as written.

[Changing Man]

Kartissa wrote:

An Elan has Wild Talent, and is therefore a psionic character. She takes a level in Soulknife, a psionic class. Do both Wild Talent feats convert to Psionic Talent, or just one of them? If the former, she now has 5 PP (2 from the first Psionic Talent feat, and 3 from the second). If it's the latter (which is how I would play it, personally) then she only has 4.

Granted, it doesn't matter too much - it's only 1 point, after all - but as an Elan, 1 PP is an extra 2 damage resisted or one more save augmented per day at 1st level. And then you can add the Psionic Aptitude trait:

Quote:

When an Elan takes a level in a favored class, she can choose to gain an additional power point instead of a hit point or a skill point.

Said favored class needn't be Soulknife, or any of the Psionic classes, as written.

As per the rules, both would convert to Psionic Talent.

Having 5 PP's to pump up saves or resist damage isn't really that big a deal- it may sound like a lot, but it's limited to a number of times per day. The major advantage is that it's flexible and can apply to any kind of damage, but there are other races (tiefling and aasimar, for example) who have better resistances (granted, to fewer things) which they get each time, every time, all day long.

Long story short, it's great at low levels, but certainly doesn't break the game :)

[Jeremy Smith]

Yeah, that's a scenario that needs an official ruling...

[Kartissa]

Changing Man wrote:

As per the rules, both would convert to Psionic Talent.

The problem I have is Psionic Talent has the prerequisite:

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Having a power point reserve.

Soulknife is the only class that doesn't grant power points per level. Only the Wild/Psionic Talent feat. If they both changed, you'd have 2 feats with prerequisites that you don't meet, since they are what is granting you the power points you wouldn't otherwise have. If a bonus feat allows you to ignore prerequisites, it will say so in the class feature text that explains it. Soulknife doesn't say that.

Changing Man wrote:

Long story short, it's great at low levels, but certainly doesn't break the game :)

True. Compared to some of the things I've seen in my games, it's nothing. Just awkward.