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Hey all! With more of DSP's older playtests moving from "sitting for a while" to "finally released," Dreamscarred Press is moving on to some new material! Today I've got a playtest doc for a brand-new psionic class, the Highlord. This 6-level manifesting class uses their collective both for leading their allies and destroying their enemies, drawing foes into their mental network to force them to do their bidding... or merely crush their minds.
In the following document, you'll find the highlord base class, including many customization options and seven different subpaths. In addition, there's new feats both for the highlord and for other users of collectives, and a set of racial favored class options for the class!
To check it out, click on this link.
Thanks for taking a look! We hope you enjoy.
Good to see some free Highlord playtesting stuff out there. ;)
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Hello, all! It's been quite a while. Over the past nearly-a-month, a lot has gone on our end, including receiving a decent amount of feedback on the highlord. There's been a couple recurring topics when it comes to the class; we hope that the large update we're posting today will help address them (along with many other issues, especially readability and wall-of-textness).
"Why does this class exist? What makes it unique/not just a tactician/etc?"
Overall, we want the highlord to have its own niche; from the start, we intended it to have a particular... callousness about the use of its collective, in a way. More than just a tactician, the highlord is a class that uses its allies as raw materials to win the fight, much like a kineticist (psion, not occult firebender) uses energy and matter to blow things up, or a shaper uses objects and ectoplasm as materials to bring their imaginations to life. Even a good-aligned highlord will often use their collective as a cudgel to beat their enemies with instead of just a network for directing their allies, and with that in mind, we've made some adjustments to the fluff, crunch, and direction of the class.
The core thing we want to express with the highlord is that they use their collective as raw materials; this is possible for them because of a slightly closer bond created by their collective. Instead of just touching the minds of creatures in the network, a highlord shares his mind, either assisting in a deeper manner, or overwhelming others through this stronger connection. This is represented in a couple abilities, including Open Heart, Lifeblood Siphon (formerly Siphon Servants), and their decrees. We hope that the adjustments made to the class' fluff and crunch will help it stand taller on its own, as its niche of a tight bond isn't a thing anywhere else in psionics yet.
"The class is really boring; it doesn't do anything of its own, and the tenets are underwhelming."
On the mechanical side of things, we've made some major adjustments to the highlord's tenets. Previously, they were a bit underwhelming; overall, they were focused on numerical boosts to the highlord or his allies, and while they might have been good from a mechanics standpoint, they didn't really grab many people. After going back over the class and revising it, we have changed the abilities of the tenets slightly, and added seven brand-new psionic powers, one for each tenet.
Unlike most psionic powers, these are unique to a given tenet, and can only be manifested by a highlord of the proper tenet. In a way, one might be better off thinking of them as unique "class features" that tie more heavily into the psionics subsystem than most features, and they exemplify each tenet's goals and thematics in their own ways. Where beforehand, many felt that the highlord was forced to scrounge for meaning through feats (or not taking the class at all), this
is no longer true—the tenets bring powerful, unique abilities for every highlord, alongside the rest of their progression and advancement.
"The class doesn't feel like it does enough to justify picking it."
With all of that in mind, we've also adjusted many of the abilities, including the siphon (changed to work better with the 6-level manifesting of the class), tribute, various decrees, and the resonance effects of each tenet. We hope that the new highlord catches your fancy in ways the old version didn't. As always, thanks for reading! We're using the same playtest document as before, which can be found here or through the link in the first post. :smallbiggrin:
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Hello, all! We've just finished up and reviewed a new archetype for the highlord; we've got several in the works, and this one is the first that's deemed ready for public eyes, so without further ado, the Cherished.
The Cherished is a highlord with a custom, more expansive tenet that makes them much more focused on their allies than enemies. Instead of a conscription method, they've had their chassis and manifesting slightly revised. Better at supporting the party with psionic powers (particularly through the collective), and armed with the ability to empower a chosen champion to fight for them, the cherished is well-suited to playing as a backline support class. Enjoy!