Do Psychic casters even stand a chance during a horror-based game? It seems like 90% of the things in the new book relate in some way to granting a fear-based effect. I'm not surprised by this; it's the way it should be, and Class selection IS a worthy discussion when it comes to running a horror game (albeit on the other end of the spectrum - Paladins). So what chance does a Psychic caster stand in a generic campaign themed by Horror Adventures?
I think a Houserule to change up the psychic casting rules a little to allow casters a Concentration check while under Fear effects wouldn't be unreasonable. Or perhaps creating a feat to overcome the issue. Also, you don't want to really overdue the fear effects, because then it starts to lose its potency.
Some basic staples, like Command and Suggestion, get around the issue. Spooked shouldn't prevent casting Psychic spells. Every psychic class has options for dealing with fear or contributing without; simply require not passing them up or trading them out.
Psychic has Pain (swift removal of shaken and greater), Abomination (temporary immunity to fear), and one or two others.
Mesmerist has swift-action fear removal through Touch Treatment.
Medium is either 4/9 with other abilities, or has arcane/divine spells to fall back on.
Occultist has tons of SLAs and good proficiencies.
Spiritualist has a pet to fall back on.
The Absurdity spell in this book helps mitigate the problem. You can pick a Psychic discipline or occult class that has fear negation abilities, there are several. Or you can be sure you have useful spells that are V (thought) components only. There are several on most of the lists.
Two suggestions that I like are that spooked spooked does not prevent you from casting psychic spells with an emotional component and using fear effects sparingly. Another idea is that things like being scared do not prevent you from casting spells with an emotional component, but have a risk of going out of control. This would better reflect media such as Carrie.
Just make sure you have a good will save.
Fear has always been there. Nothing really changes with horror other than you may need to roll a few more saves again lesser fear affects. That will get dull quick if over used. So I don't expect you'll be rolling fear saves ever other round.
