
Deranged_Maniac_Beth |
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I use the new psionics content from Ultimate Psionics in my 3.5 campaign, along with DSP's soulknife and Wilder. I don't use the buffs they gave to the Psion, or the changes to existing powers, but I do use the original DSP powers and classes. (The parts of DSP psionics that I don't use in 3.5 are those which are redundant with the XPH.) I also have Third Dawn and a handful of the other DSP psionics products for 3.5.
In my Pathfinder campaign I use the entire Ultimate Psionics book as written, barring a small number of typos. I haven't bought all of the small Psionics Augmented expansions, though.
I really, really like the Psionics Embodied book. It's one of my favorite NPC collections (though both the Strange Magic NPC Codex and 30 Intelligent Magic Items probably edge it out of the number one slot).

QuidEst |

I find the flavor to be aggressively bland for the most part, centered around vague connections to crystals and ectoplasm. Instead of summoning creatures, they create vague blobs assembled from a menu. Instead of any number of animals as a familiar, they get a crystal that is associated with a personality type. That's easier to address than the classes being broken, but if the player or GM isn't providing a bit of a reskin, the psionic classes feel off.

Seven-Eyed Witch |
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I find the flavor to be aggressively bland for the most part, centered around vague connections to crystals and ectoplasm. Instead of summoning creatures, they create vague blobs assembled from a menu. Instead of any number of animals as a familiar, they get a crystal that is associated with a personality type.
Really? Astral Constructs are amazing because you can design them however you want. They're not "blobs," they're custom-order monsters. They're like eidolons. Blue-and-black-scaled sabertooth with a star-shaped web of burning eyes? Spider-legged bronze throne with a faceless iron king half-melted into it? Collection of floating crystal claws and teeth centered on a mass of soft pink unformed ectoplasm that sometimes giggles with a child's voice? Go nuts.
Ditto psicrystals, actually. Mine's a silvery little tentacle-willow-tree thing based on the children of that one Lovecraft fertility goddess that I can never remember the name of. It's all made of crystal, except the tentacles, which are a dark, dark green ectoplasm.
There's an aesthetic, sure, but there is no way it's bland.

QuidEst |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

Really? Astral Constructs are amazing because you can design them however you want. They're not "blobs," they're custom-order monsters. They're like eidolons. Blue-and-black-scaled sabertooth with a star-shaped web of burning eyes? Spider-legged bronze throne with a faceless iron king half-melted into it? Collection of floating crystal claws and teeth centered on a mass of soft pink unformed ectoplasm that sometimes giggles with a child's voice? Go nuts.
Ditto psicrystals, actually. Mine's a silvery little tentacle-willow-tree thing based on the children of that one Lovecraft fertility goddess that I can never remember the name of. It's all made of crystal, except the tentacles, which are a dark, dark green ectoplasm.
There's an aesthetic, sure, but there is no way it's bland.
Mhmm! There are lots of cool ways to skin the things, and those are some great examples. Unfortunately, I haven't seen anybody show up to a game I'm in with anything more than what's written. If a player (or the GM) isn't providing the flavor, the default is drab and out of place, where a flavorless Fighter is just drab. I'm likely biased by a small sample size of bad examples, but there you go.

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The Ultimate Psionics book is a great addition to the Pathfinder line, but every time I read it the same thing sticks out like a sore thumb; the artwork. It's the Achilles heel of the book for me. I find it inconsistent and subpar with most other third-party publishers, and it's the main reason I bought the book in PDF form only. If the artwork had been close to the other Pathfinder books I would have gladly paid the asking price of $79.99.

DungeonmasterCal |
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My biggest art disappointment comes not from a 3PP but from the Ultimate Equipment book. Some of that stuff is just pure crap on paper. Some of the Bestiary art is a huge disappointment, too. I mean, how hard is it to look up a pic of a Moa on the internet and just draw one similarly to it rather than make it look like a bloody Cassowary? Lazy, I tell you.