Alternative PSI Classes?

[Errant]

I'm pretty new to the d20 Modern scene but I've decided I really don't like the official Telepath class prerequisites & charisma base.

Whats with the requirement for 6 ranks in 3 skills that are ONLY class skills for the Charismatic basic class? Who decided Telepaths all had to be good liars to have psychic powers? Bluff, Diplomacy & Gather Info seems ideal for someone who wants to perform lounge acts in vegas etc to con people out of their money by pretending to be psychic, but they don't seem to be skills ALL psychics would share.

Before I run off & make my own alt Telepath I thought I'd ask the community, are there any PSI Supplements or other popular classes around presenting more flexible psychic type characters?

 

[Moe Ronalds]

I'm pretty new to the d20 Modern scene but I've decided I really don't like the official Telepath class prerequisites & charisma base.

Whats with the requirement for 6 ranks in 3 skills that are ONLY class skills for the Charismatic basic class? Who decided Telepaths all had to be good liars to have psychic powers? Bluff, Diplomacy & Gather Info seems ideal for someone who wants to perform lounge acts in vegas etc to con people out of their money by pretending to be psychic, but they don't seem to be skills ALL psychics would share.

Before I run off & make my own alt Telepath I thought I'd ask the community, are there any PSI Supplements or other popular classes around presenting more flexible psychic type characters?

I was under the impression that the Telepath was a charisma-based class because the Telepath discipline was charisma based in the Psionics Handbook. However, in that same book there were 5 other disciplines presented, each focussing on a different ability score. The most logical way to go, then, would be to make five variant "telepaths", each based around the other disciplines. Unfortunately, I can't remember what the other disciplines were but I'm sure someone else here can give you a hand.

 

[Errant]

Thanks Moe, I hadn't got around to checking the Psionics Handbook for equivelants yet but that looks like the way to go.

I do like the Telepath class abilities, so in the short term I was going to just change the entry prerequisites to:-

Skills: Sense Motive 6 ranks and Either Knowledge (Arcane) 6 ranks Or Spot 6 ranks.
Feat: Wild Talent

Plus, allow the Telepath's 'key ability' to be the highest of either Charisma or Wisdom (& maybe Intelligence) for the purposes of determining Power Points and selection of powers.

 

[Von Ether]

Funny that you should keep using the word "psychic" ... There's a new book out for d20 Modern/d20 that lets you use the d20 Star Wars Force "feats and skills" powers system. The only downside is that it has quite a few typos for a Green Ronin product.

"The Psychic's Handbook provides a completely independent system for adding psychic abilities to your campaign, abilities which are at once more subtle and wider-reaching than magic, powers with their own applications and limitations that separate them from the spells of clerics and wizards, and even the powers of psions. The core of the system is the psychic, a new class whose mental powers are based on skills and feats. The Psychic's Handbook, by award-winning game designer Steve Kenson, provides you with everything you need to integrate the class into your game, including prestige classes, new equipment, campaign advice, and conversion notes for Modern games.This winter, discover the true powers of the mind."

I especially like the rules on giving locations Psychic Impressions and creating Psychic Constructs (think custom made ghosts with Psychic powers.)

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

I've been pretty damn impressed by the Psychic's Handbook.

I picked it up a few days ago, and have been reading through it fairly thoroughly. I think it would make a fine basis for a d20 Modern Psychic campaign. It's really a shame that they dropped the defense progression on the d20 Modern advanced class though...

One of the great things about the system is how wide ranging it is. You could easily have a group of psychics who all had fairly independant abilities. One could be a telepath, one could be a telekinetic, one could be a teleporter, one could be a clairvoyant, one could be a physical adept, etc, etc.

These are not classes mind you (there is just one Psychic class), but ways that you can customise that class. One thing to keep in mind is that pretty much every psychic ability is a Skill with a Feat requirement. For example, there is a Psychokinesis Feat, once you have taken it, you can start buying a number of skills based off of it (such as Telekinesis, Telekinetic Blast, Telekinetic Shield, Pyrokenisis, Cyberkinese, etc).

The Pschic class gets 6+INT bonus in skill points, so your average psychic character will have 4-7 actual psychic skills (which, with the number of options, can get used up pretty qucik). This pretty much forces the Psychic to focus on the few skills that they really want.

Like I said, I'm pretty happy with it on paper, I have yet to see how it would work in play.

p.s. the Psychic Grappling rules seem pretty cool too...