Hi! I have some questions and feedback
Questions:
p.13 - Psychic Focus - This power refers to a 'chosen discipline'. Does this mean the discipline associated with the power chosen at 1st level (I'd actually prefer to see the player just choose one rather than linking them)? Also, when you expend your psychic focus with a power, do you loose the specific benefit like 120ft Telepathy until it's regained?
p.14 - Boggle Mind - When you use this on a creature for a second time, do they become Rattled instead of Frightened, or Rattled as well as Frightened?
p.14 - Fling Foe - Am I correct in thinking that you can move the first creature without them getting a save? For example, can I toss a Lich into a sphere of annihilation or off a cliff without it being able to resist?
p.14 - Psychic Scream - If I'm reading this correctly, I can use it on my allies to cancel the 'Frightened' or 'Rattled' conditions at the cost of them taking a small amount of damage? Or is it that you can cancel the condition on yourself and potentially inflict it on your foes? If so, does it only apply those conditions if you have one yourself that gets cancelled?
Feedback:
Please accept the below in the constructive spirit in which they are intended. Firstly let me complement you on the psi-dice that don't automatically get spent when you use powers. It's much more interesting to me than a resource pool that you expend in a linear fashion. I also like that you recover them by spending Hit Dice on a short rest, and entirely on a long rest - it strikes the right balance between the rapid recovery of a warlock and the full recovery of other spellcasters. I also like the structure of the psychic powers, providing different uses with different expenditures. It seems thematic to me.
p.7 - Mind of Mayhem - In my experience the word 'Impossible' leads to nerds arguing. I'd update the Nedraz ability to use the same language as Intellect Fortress.
p.13 - Psychometry - Love this power, and I can see the benefit in the 'Places' and 'Things' options. The 'People' option seems less useful than the other two though. Casting Speak with Dead as a ritual takes 10 minutes, and most people aren't going to want you to be in physical contact with them for that long unless they are a friend. I'd love to see this power changed similar to the other two where there is a list of information you can get by touching them (eg a handshake) - would be great for roleplay.
p.14 - Choking Grasp - The Restrained condition seems very powerful; all my allies get advantage for the rest of the round, friendly rogues can sneak attack, and the target can't move and makes attacks and reflex saves at disadvantage. I'd recommend the 'Grappled' condition instead, since it doesn't hamstring the bad guys quite so badly.
p.14 - Id Insinuation - I love the reference to the old school psionic power, but I feel this needs some tweaking. The first line of the description makes it seem more about insight than influencing others. As written, as long as I relate my lies, coercions, or persuasions to a base desire (which I think I could do most of the time), I always get to re-roll these three skills. The power isn't bad or unbalance, but I feel something simpler like gaining expertise on these three skills, unless the target is immune to psychic damage, might be less open to interpretation. Appealing to base desires could still go in the descriptive text for it.
p.15 - Mind Over Matter - I appreciate the aesthetic but I think this might be too strong. As a reaction being able to immediately spend Hit Dice to gain back Hit Points and Psychic Dice would seem more reasonable to me.
p.15 - Clairvoyance - I think that anything which blocks Scrying should also block this too. I know the GM can just make that ruling, but I always prefer it when sensible limitations are in the base text.
p.20 - Psychic Warrior - This is the main reason I bought the book. I'd really like to see access to at least one other combat tradition other than awakened mind. As it currently stands, I'd only ever build a psychic warrior by first taking a level in fighter so that I got all armour and martial proficiencies, two extra traditions, etc, which I'd then be able to use with the Psychic Warrior levels. I think if the Psychic Warrior had +1 other Combat Tradition, and either heavy armour or a mage armour equivalent (like Bladesinger), it would make more sense to have a pure Esper build. I'd also like to see the requirement to have a zero pool in Mind and Body go, since I can't guarantee emptying a psi dice pool on any given round, and the ability is already protected from abuse by it's limit of once per long rest. Lastly, if you look at the extra attack feature that Bladesingers get, it allows them to cast a cantrip instead of one of the attacks - I'd love a similar mechanic for psychic warriors, perhaps with a limitation on attack modes.
