[WKSHP] The Psychic Samurai

[Macbeth]

My proposal for the Psychic Samurai class, based on the Psychic Adept from the Psychic's Handbook:

Hit Die: d8

Requirements:
Feats: Psychic Ability and Psychometabolism
Intimidate: 6 ranks
Enhance Ability: 5 ranks
Concentration: 3 ranks
Kiai Smite class ability
Alignment: Any Lawful
Special: Must be in service of a Lord with a Samurai's oath of service.


Skill Points: 4 + Int Mod

Class Skills:
Balance (Dex), Concentration (Con), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Psychic) (Int), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (Int), Listen (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Wis), Tumble (Wis), and any two skills with the Psychometabolism feat as a prerequisite of the Psychic Samurai's choice.

Level   BAB   Fort Save   Ref Save   Will Save   Special
1       +1    +2          +2         +2      Psychic Stamina, Battlemind,
                                             Intimidation Focus
2       +2    +3          +3         +3      Imbue Weapon
3       +3    +3          +3         +3      Show of Skill, Body Equilibrium
4       +4    +4          +4         +4      Up the Walls
5       +5    +4          +4         +4      Psychic Leap
6       +6    +5          +5         +5      Psychic Speed
7       +7    +5          +5         +5      Improved Psychic Healing
8       +8    +6          +6         +5      Improved Ability Enhancement
9       +9    +6          +6         +6      Notoriety
10      +10   +7          +7         +7      Body Mastery

Intimidation Focus: Psychic Samurai levels stack with Samurai levels for the purposes of gaining the Staredown, Mass Staredown, Improved Staredwn and Firghtful Presence class abilites. So a Samurai 4/Psychic Samurai 10 would have the Staredown, Mass Staredown, And Improved Staredown abilites as if he was a 14th level Samurai.

Psychic Stamina: The Psychic Samurai gains the Psychic Stamina feat.

Battlemind: The Psychic Samurai applies his Wisdom bonus to armor Class, just as a Monk would.

Imbue Weapon: The Psychic Samurai gains the Imbue Weapon feat.

Show of Skill: At 3rd level a Psychic Samurai's can discourage others through a show of his abilites. Any time the Psychic Samurai uses a Psychic Skill or takes a full attack action, he gains a +4 bonus to Intimidate checks for the following round.

Body Equilibrium(Su): The Psychic Samurai can move across any surface (sand, snow, quicksand, water, etc.) without sinking, provided he moves at least 5 feet each round. He is invisble to tremorsense.

Up the Walls(Su): The Psychic Samurai can use his innate Psychic abilities to adjust the effect of gravity on himself. By slipping some of the pull of gravity, the Samurai can move across a vertical wall as part of his movement for a round. If he ends his movement on a vertical surface, he must make a Climb check to avoid falling.

Psychic Leap: The Psychic Samurai can make jump checks without a 20ft. running start. He suffers no increase in DC for standing Jump checks.

Psychic Speed (Su): The Psychic Samurai can increase his speed by 10 times for 1 round as a full round action which costs 5 points of strain. This multiplies his jump distance by 5.

Improved Psychic Healing: The Psychic Samurai can make a Psychic Healing check as a move action. He can use the Psychic Healing skill twice as often as usual (Heal hit points twice per hour per subject, and ability damage twice per day per subject)

Improved Ability Enhancement: The Psychic Samurai can always take 10 on Enhance Ability checks, and may make Enhance Ability checks as a move action.

Notoreity: The Psychic Samurai's service and power give him a reputation that attracts followers. The Psychic Samurai gains the Leadership feat. (I would actaully like to replace this with the other feat we discussed that is like Leadership, but without the Cohort, and represents running a school of some type. However, I do not know the name of the feat off the top of my head, and I don't have the book it is in.)

Body Mastery: The Psychic Samurai can take 10 on any Psychometabolism skill check.


I am a bit worried the class is too powerful, but it I tried to keep all the abilites equal with the Psychic Adept. If it is too powerful, here are some of my ideas to balance it:
-Make one save a Bad save, Probably Reflex or Fortitude.
-Remove Intimidation Focus.
-Remove the two Psychic Class Skills.

So, what does everybody think?

 

[Kultar]

For as low of a level that the PrC can be taken at I agree with what you said about it being overpowered. Even with the suggestions that you made it still looks like it is going to be an extreamly strong PrC IMO. Maybe two bad saves or the reworking of some of the abilities.

I'll edit this later to go into more detail for you sage but I have to run otherwise I'm going to be late to class.

 

[Macbeth]

Hmm, I was thinking about making the requirements a bit stiffer. As is, it requires at least 3rd level Samurai (for Kiai Smite). 5 Ranks in Enahnce ability requires either 7th level Samurai (for max 5 ranks cross-class) or Some levels in Psychic (so that it has max ranks as a class skill). The requirements also carry a strong roleplaying element, since the character must actually serve as a Samurai, not just have levels in the class. The Minimum evel requirement is 4th level (taking 5th level as Psychic Samurai), as is, assuming Samurai 3/Psychic 1. Li would not be able to take it until his 6th level (meaning his 6th level would be in Psychic Samurai), given his current skill ranks.

 

[BSF]

Actually, I am not sure the class is very overpowered. If it is, I think it is through strong BAB and all Good saves. The abilities themselves are not that overpowering.

The prerequisites might be a bit too easy. I'm not sure, I am going to need to crunch on that a little bit.

The biggest problem for me is the focus of some of the class abilities. See, not every Samurai in the game world uses the samurai class from Complete Warrior. In fact, I have been thinking that there is no real reason why a fighter build couldn't follow the Code of Bushido and be considered a Samurai. So, why couldn't a straight psychic build?

The question then is what audience should the Psychic Samurai PrC appeal to? Should it be CW Samurai / PsyHB Psychic multi-class builds exclusively? Should there be other builds that are viable? Sage, what kind of role do you see the PrC playing? Will this be a long-term style that will (hopefully) withstand the rigors of time? Will this be a pre-existing style that Li is passingly familiar with? Perhaps a long forgotten style? Should it be a relatively unique PrC, one that has a member once a century at best? What are your thoughts?

Hmm, regarding the power scale of the class. The more I think about this, the BAB & Save combo does seem a tad on the overpowered side. If we compare with a ranger, the HD & BAB is the same. The ranger has two good saves, but the ranger also has more skills. However, the monk has the same HD, Saves and skills, with a medium BAB. It's a close call.

OK, I can also see where the PrC could be considered a little front-loaded. I think we are pretty close and a little tweaking can make it pretty golden. I'm going to give it some thought. But I would like to hear what everyone else is thinking and why as well.

 

[Macbeth]

Glad to be getting some feedback. My thoughts:

As for being front loaded, that was one of my concerns. I think weakening one save (maybe Fort?) would help. It is also worth noting that one of the first level abilities (Intimidation Focus) will only rarely actually give a benefit at first level, it is more of a long term effect.

The more I think about it, the more I think dropping Fort to the bad progression might be a good idea. Why not Ref or Will? Well, I would say an Iron will (so to speak) is a key ideal of the Samurai, and the Ref save reflects the crazy action style I want to go for.

I think I really want this to be a realtively unique style, but to still have it accesable to non-(CW)Samurai. I'm thinking of replacing the Kiai Smite requirement with some other ability or feat, with my current idea being Weapon Focus.

My other idea to open up the class is to Change the requirements to "Either the Kiai Smite Class ability OR the Kiai Shout feat." This would let any Fighter (or anybody else with a +1 BAB) with 13 CHA qualify. I think this may be the best action: any character can qualify, but if you have CHA < 13, you have to be at least 3rd level (CW)Samurai.

I would like the PrC to represent a relatively new style being developed by Li, but based on an ancient style of legend from Li's homeland. The PrC will not be amazingly rare, but finding somebody who learned the style from the original source (not from Li's revitilization) would be rare. So essentially it is an ancient style that is being reinvigorated by Li. Anybody might know it, but Li at least thinks he is the only one blending the ancient martial arts with the Samurai's sword and the Psychic's mind.

I think the requirements aren't too bad (let's remember this is a 10 level class, the requirements can't be too high, or nobody would be able to take it through all 10 levels). Perhaps higher skill requirements, or another required skill would be a good way of raising the bar a little.

 

[Macbeth]

Oh, and by the way, I do see the style living beyond Li. The style is just Li's own take on an ancient style, which he would teach to others (and others might develop on their own).

 

[Macbeth]

Posted the Psychic Samurai for general discussion in house rules. You can find it the Psychic Samurai thread here.

 

[Kultar]

here is a question for you sage...if the character has taken the leadership feat already what happens when he gains the Notoreity feat. Just a question.

 

[Macbeth]

Well, I thought leadership could be taken multiple times, with each time giving a bonus to your leadership socre, but that isn't the case, now that I check. I'd say a +2 bonus to leadership score, if they already have Leadership

 

[BSF]

Notoriety = Master Instructor from Beyond Monks. It's a feat similar, but distinctly different from Leadership. In this case, the two could exist simultaneously. Bumping Leadership by +2 would not achieve the desired results. Nor would it necessarily make the feature very useful since a Cohort can never be closer than 2 levels of the PC's level.

Multiple instances of Leadership are generally disallowed, but some people will houserule it as acceptable. Personally, I think I would avoid that since I play a high Cha character and I can see lots of ways to leverage that type of houserule. As it is, Stephen is generally a level higher than the rest of the party (despite spending exp on magic item creation) and his cohort ends up being 1 level lower than most everyone else in the group.