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I like Unleash Psyche, or at least the idea and mechanical possibilities it offers. But I feel like the binary on/off dynamic it has going on could be made more interesting. I had a literal shower thought - what about a 3 stage mechanic?
Dormant stage: Your psyche is stable and protected. It only provides a very minor benefit (e.g. Autonomic Telekinesis for distant grasp) and has no drawback.
Awakening stage: Your psyche strains against its confines, granting you power, but also making you vulnerable to others interfering with your casting. You enter this stage when you roll initiative or if you choose to in a comparably stressful non-combat situation.
Moderate benefits. Minor-ish drawback - you could actually tie the downsides of your subconscious mind to this, as the barrier between your subconscious and the outside world thins. For Precise Discipline, at this Stage you are flat-footed against reactions during Cast a Spell, but aren't stupefied when disrupted.
Unleashed stage: You have mostly eroded the barrier between your mind and the world. You are employing the full extent of your power, but you are more susceptible to outside influences. Activated the same way and with the same requirements as it is now.
Major benefits. Major drawbacks plus the full drawbacks from you subconscious mind.
3 also has the advantage of being an important magical/occult number, just saying :)
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This feels rather like the Oracle's curse. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but we'd want to make sure there's a clear distinction.
Having certain features and feats that grow more powerful as your psyche unleashes is new. The idea that all of your powers come fully online in moments of stress (or whatever the triggers are) is something I like.
It's definitely an interesting path to explore.
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This feels rather like the Oracle's curse. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but we'd want to make sure there's a clear distinction.
Having certain features and feats that grow more powerful as your psyche unleashes is new. The idea that all of your powers come fully online in moments of stress (or whatever the triggers are) is something I like.
It's definitely an interesting path to explore.
Could maybe work as a full reset on a per battle basis. Curse kinda sticks all day, but round 1 round 2 round 3 would actually be kinda interesting and the scaling nature as combat progresses could be pretty interesting.
The interesting thing is that's actually close to the rule of 3 thaumaturge feat in concept.
This feels rather like the Oracle's curse. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but we'd want to make sure there's a clear distinction.
Having certain features and feats that grow more powerful as your psyche unleashes is new. The idea that all of your powers come fully online in moments of stress (or whatever the triggers are) is something I like.
It's definitely an interesting path to explore.
Fair point, this would need slightly more differences, maybe?
I think the manner of activation does a lot. I'm not super familiar with the oracle, but they only advance a stage whenever they use a revelation spell, don't they? With unleash, you would be permanently at the equivalent of minor curse, even if it works a bit differently. Awakening triggers automatically at the start of combat, bringing you into the equivalent of the moderate curse stage, but since it is an automatic stress reaction it doesn't feel quite the same. The last one is very close, though, with the major difference being that Unleash has a strict activation requirements, rather than just blasting a spell.
Resetting everything down to dormant after combat or awakening if combat isn't over would be a similarity that is unavoidable.
Nothing better comes to mind atm, though, so I'll leave that to the professionals :D
Actually, the "After combat" is one of the bigger similarities. In particular, the Oracle's Curse is tied to your focus points. It goes up as you spend focus points and it goes away when you refocus. This one increases to Awakening based on stress, Unleashes for a specific reason that's tied to the psyche in question, and then dies down pretty naturally once the fight is over... and then you have to refocus in order to charge it up so you can do it *again*.
If the party has two fights in quick succession with no chance to rest in between, the Oracle will be in full cursemode at the beginnign of the second. The Psychic will have spent their unleash and focus points and won't have access to either.
It's an interesting point - the psychic in general has real issues if for whatever reason they don't get a chance to refocus between fights.
Actually, the "After combat" is one of the bigger similarities. In particular, the Oracle's Curse is tied to your focus points. It goes up as you spend focus points and it goes away when you refocus. This one increases to Awakening based on stress, Unleashes for a specific reason that's tied to the psyche in question, and then dies down pretty naturally once the fight is over... and then you have to refocus in order to charge it up so you can do it *again*.
If the party has two fights in quick succession with no chance to rest in between, the Oracle will be in full cursemode at the beginnign of the second. The Psychic will have spent their unleash and focus points and won't have access to either.
It's an interesting point - the psychic in general has real issues if for whatever reason they don't get a chance to refocus between fights.
True, but isn’t that a problem that is avoided by deciding that two encounters with less than 10 minutes between are effectively a 2 phase single encounter?
That’s kinda videogamey, I know, but perhaps it’s a system constraint that needs to be considered in encounter design.
True, but isn’t that a problem that is avoided by deciding that two encounters with less than 10 minutes between are effectively a 2 phase single encounter?
That’s kinda videogamey, I know, but perhaps it’s a system constraint that needs to be considered in encounter design.
The issue is more that they run out of focus points. They pretty much have enough focus to handle one solid encounter - up to two before they unleash, and then 3-5 round from unleashing. Unleash is measured in rounds, though, and once it starts it doesn't stop. If there's a minute break between fights, they get to the next fight and they don't have an unleash and they're probably short on focus points as well.
Obviously, that's the case for anyone who really cares about their focus points or other "recover on refocus" resources, but it seems like the Psychic is built to be more that way than basically anyone else, and, by extension, to be hit harder by that issue.
Now, different classes hit pain points in different places. The classes that are defined by their spell slots, for example, suffer when they're forced to face too many fights over the course of a day. It's just that this particular issue is not one that anyone else is really running into just yet at the same level, and I think it worth noting.
I really enjoy the idea of psyche being a three stage effect. As for how it lasts and such not it might be an 'after x rounds, your mind has strained too much and your psyche goes dormant again. It can't awaken again until after you spend ten minutes to Refocus.'
It'd be interesting if the awakened state was different based on the subconcious mind/concious mind, but the unleashed state based on whatever psyches you have access to. That would bring it closer in-line with what the playtest has given us, so the current Unleash feats don't all get scrapped and that design space can also still be explored.