EPH House Rule Feats

[Zack2216]

There are some things I like about the book (now that I own it and have had a weekend to read through it). The only major qualm I have is the psionic focus expenditure.

I was thinking, "Hey, I like this mechanic, but how can I improve it so it doesn't completly break the system?" So, I came up with this feat

Autorefocus [Psionic]
Prerequisites: Psionic Meditation, Concentration 13 ranks, Wis 17
You can regain your psionic focus after expending it
Benefit: When you expend your psionic focus to use a psionic feat, you may pay 3 power points. If you do, you may make a concentration check DC 35 to regain your psionic focus as a free action. This feat can only be used when you expend your psionic focus.
Special: If this feat is used after you expend your psionic focus in conjunction with a metapsionic feat, the 3 pp is counted against your maximum allowed pp expenditure per power manifestation. IE: If Eli manifests an empowered energy ball, only to find that the oponent didn't die, he can, with this feat, pay 3 pp to make a concentration check. Assuming he succeeds, he may now use a quickened energy ray aswell.
Normal: It takes a full round action to regain your psionic focus as part of a concentration check.

Also, I was considering considering a feat that could allow a wilder to either ignore psychic enervation with an autohypnosis check or partially reduce the chance of psychic enervation to occur. A non epic version would reduce the result by either 5% or allow a check of some sort to reduce by 5% for every 5 above twenty. It would look something like this:

(Input nifty name here)
Prerequisites: Psychic enervation, cha 17, Autohypnosis 4
You can decrease the chances of psychic enervation
Benefit: by expending your psionic focus, you may make an autohypnosis check. For every 5 above 20 in the result, you may decrease the chance of psychic enervation by 5%.


So, what do you think? I like my first idea, but my second was sort of spur of the moment. Any ideas/advice?

 

[Greatfrito]

(Input nifty name here)
Prerequisites: Psychic enervation, cha 17, Autohypnosis 4
You can decrease the chances of psychic enervation
Benefit: by expending your psionic focus, you may make an autohypnosis check. For every 5 above 20 in the result, you may decrease the chance of psychic enervation by 5%.

I actually like this one more than the first one. We're gonna start a game at 1st level with a bunch of psionics use, and until then, I'm thinking that the Psionic Focus expenditures are almost always a good balancing / flavor thing (and frankly, I don't understand the "But you always need to recharge between every action!" argument I saw on the Wizards boards a few days back).

I would say, instead of making it happen as you use your psionic focus up, just make it so that refocussing is a free action all of the time. It just seems less confusing.

The thing that really gets me is that refocussing in general is not a sure thing at all at lower levels, so blowing your focus prematurely (no comment) is really gonna mess you up. At higher levels though, it's almost always a sure thing. Just seems kinda odd to me *shrug* though I guess that's how it works, eh?

 

[Zack2216]

I didn't want to give it as a free action for free because feats like Psionic shot/fist/weapon and the like would become broken. I wanted it to be a difficult check aswell, I wanted it to be a risk. It would be simpler to allow it as a free action, but I wanted to make it so that they could only do it in conjunction with expending it. That way, if they don't, it would be difficult to get it back into the motions, such as using multiple metapsionic effects in a round.

 

[Greatfrito]

Why not just make it "Once per round, you may attempt to regain Psionic Focus as a free action."

Heck, if that seems too powerful (and really, as a second [or is it third?] tier feat, it isn't that bad), just slap a penalty to the concentration check. Say like "You take a -5" or "-10 penalty on the concentration check to become focused when using this feat."

It doesn't seem too powerful to allow it like that. Not bad at all, really.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I was thinking, "Hey, I like this mechanic, but how can I improve it so it doesn't completly break the system?" So, I came up with this feat

Autorefocus [Psionic]

Just thinking about this, couldn't you obtain the same effect more easily by taking the feat that allows you to refocus as a MEA and activating the burst power (3pp) as a swift action to do the refocus in?

A psywar archer could then be using his 3pp to snipe away with psionic shots and basically get +2d6 damage for 3pp each time.

 

[Zack2216]

It's possible, but it will be fuitless because you can only do that once a round, having a limit of one swift/immediate action per round.