slobster
Hero
I've always kind of liked psions, and though I doubt they'll be included in core, I'll participate!
Psions should have a different mechanic than the other casters. Now that casters themselves have unique mechanics for each class, I suppose that's a given. The old power point mechanic seems to have been used on sorcerors, so instead of using that the psions could take a page from their 4E incarnations. The class uses entirely at-wills. There is a power list, and the psion chooses a few to learn, with a few more being unlocked as they level. Powers do things like small amounts of damage, or slow telekinesis, or adding skill bonuses to social rolls, and represent the class's mental powers.
The psion also has a focus pool, which represents their ability to exert extra mental effort when it really matters. They can spend a focus to enhance a normal power, charging up its at-will effects into something more powerful. The small amount of damage becomes a more powerful AoE. The slow telekinesis can fling a heavy object at lethal speeds, or push someone off a cliff. A power that normally grants bonuses to a charisma check can overpower someone's mind.
Focus is a limited resource that can be recovered by a few minutes meditation (basically an encounter resource). It can also be recovered in a fight, in different ways by different psion focuses. A pyrokinetic might recover focus when they score a critical hit with a fire power, while a clairvoyant might recover focus by causing an attack that should hit to miss using her powers, and so on.
The flavor of the psion should be kept tight, so that it excels in certain areas that make sense for the archetype but suffers deficits in others. Telekinesis, telepathy, and others make sense for a psion; shapechanging, demon-summoning, and sword enchanting can be left to the other casters.
Monks are also quite fun, and open to a little experimentation. One thought I had would be to give them a "combo counter". First off, the class would be great if it focused on the rapid shower of blows. Rather than doing it like 3.x, which penalized them for it, simply let them make two attacks per round, but don't increase the damage for unarmed attacks (or at least not by much). The small damage dice should counteract the increased number of attacks. There could be additional balance concerns with riders and crits and so on, but hey, this is a brainstorm.
Next, every time they hit an enemy, their combo counter increases by 1. They add their combo counter to damage on a successful hit, making them more deadly as they rain more blows on their enemies. They can also use up some or all of their combo counter to do things like leap across the room, snatch arrows out of the air, and unleash deadly finishing moves. You know, crazy wuxia martial arts stuff.
The result is a class that is fun to play, has some encounter management and tactical depth built in, and is distinct from other classes while staying true (in my opinion) to its fictional inspiration.
This is fun! Maybe I'll come up with more wall-of-text wishlists!
Psions should have a different mechanic than the other casters. Now that casters themselves have unique mechanics for each class, I suppose that's a given. The old power point mechanic seems to have been used on sorcerors, so instead of using that the psions could take a page from their 4E incarnations. The class uses entirely at-wills. There is a power list, and the psion chooses a few to learn, with a few more being unlocked as they level. Powers do things like small amounts of damage, or slow telekinesis, or adding skill bonuses to social rolls, and represent the class's mental powers.
The psion also has a focus pool, which represents their ability to exert extra mental effort when it really matters. They can spend a focus to enhance a normal power, charging up its at-will effects into something more powerful. The small amount of damage becomes a more powerful AoE. The slow telekinesis can fling a heavy object at lethal speeds, or push someone off a cliff. A power that normally grants bonuses to a charisma check can overpower someone's mind.
Focus is a limited resource that can be recovered by a few minutes meditation (basically an encounter resource). It can also be recovered in a fight, in different ways by different psion focuses. A pyrokinetic might recover focus when they score a critical hit with a fire power, while a clairvoyant might recover focus by causing an attack that should hit to miss using her powers, and so on.
The flavor of the psion should be kept tight, so that it excels in certain areas that make sense for the archetype but suffers deficits in others. Telekinesis, telepathy, and others make sense for a psion; shapechanging, demon-summoning, and sword enchanting can be left to the other casters.
Monks are also quite fun, and open to a little experimentation. One thought I had would be to give them a "combo counter". First off, the class would be great if it focused on the rapid shower of blows. Rather than doing it like 3.x, which penalized them for it, simply let them make two attacks per round, but don't increase the damage for unarmed attacks (or at least not by much). The small damage dice should counteract the increased number of attacks. There could be additional balance concerns with riders and crits and so on, but hey, this is a brainstorm.
Next, every time they hit an enemy, their combo counter increases by 1. They add their combo counter to damage on a successful hit, making them more deadly as they rain more blows on their enemies. They can also use up some or all of their combo counter to do things like leap across the room, snatch arrows out of the air, and unleash deadly finishing moves. You know, crazy wuxia martial arts stuff.
The result is a class that is fun to play, has some encounter management and tactical depth built in, and is distinct from other classes while staying true (in my opinion) to its fictional inspiration.
This is fun! Maybe I'll come up with more wall-of-text wishlists!
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