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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2011266" data-attributes="member: 18387">Expanded Psionic Handbook ReviewThe Good, The Bad and the UglyThe Good: All the old demons have been exorcized; Multiple Ability Dependancy, Psionic Combat and the complaint that the Psion was just a Spell Point Using Mage have been dealt with.Each Psionic class has a single ability modifier (Psion = Int, Psychic Warrior = Wis & Wilder = Cha) and all your powers manifest based on that ability. Also, the random aspect of setting the DC of the power is gone.Psionic Combat, the vestigial tail of 1st edition AD&D, is gone. The Attack & Defense modes are now powers.One complaint that Psionics just was not different enough from Magic has also been dealt with. Many powers can now be Augmented, or boosted with additional power points. For some this is a built in metapsionic feat (manifest as a Swift Action) for others it can enhance the power’s DC or damage and for others it can alter it’s effects. Consider psionic charm, at 1st level it is just like the charm person spell for 1 power point. But for +2 power points, you can now target animal, fey, giant, magical beast or monstrous humanoid. For +4 power points, you can target aberration, dragon, elemental, or outsider. For +4 power points, the duration changes from 1 hour / level to 1 day / level and for +2 power points, you can increase the save DC by 1. And yes, you can combine the above augmentations up to your manifester level in additional power points.With just one power, you get a great number of effects.There are two new psionic classes (three if you include the Erudite in Dragon magazine #319), the Soul Knife and the Wilder. The Soul Knife was a prestige class, but is now upgraded to a core class and it is an unusual psionic class in that it does not manifest any powers. His psionic potential is based through his Mind Knife, a blade of psionic energy. The greatest advantage is that his blade is always a thought away, especially after he gains the ability to create it as a free action.The Wilder is a wild psion, one who didn’t get or choose not to take the training of a Psion. They get fewer powers, but can do more with them, as they can use their emotions to surge their powers.There are several new races as well as a few old ones brought back. The new races are Maenads (D&D Vulcans), Dromites (First Man in the Moon), Elan (Born again Psychics) and Xephs (They are quick and agile). The old ones are the Githyanki and Githzerai, Duergar, Thri Kreen and Half Giants.Another new aspect is Psionic Focus. Instead of having reserve power points, now you just need to focus your mind to use your feats. I really like the concept, but will need to play with it more to really see how it feels. The problem is that so many of the psionic feats require you to expend your focus and it takes a standard action to refocus. The bad thing is that you really need three of the new feats ( Psionic Meditation: Refocus as a move action, Narrow Mind: +4 to Refocus and Expanded Knowledge: To gain a bonus power from any list and take hustle for a bonus move action) to make full use of this ability and after spending those three feats, you have few left to take the psionic feats.The Bad: Well, the first bad thing is that the new classes and races don’t get any support. There are no new feats for Soul Knives to use on their Mind Blades, nothing for Wilders to make them truly different from Psions, no racial or regional feats for psionics and the new races are virtual ciphers, with very little information to flesh them out. If Elans are reborn into their new bodies, how about a few feats to represent the residual knowledge from their old life?Another problem are the References in this book. Powers that are the same as spells are referenced to the Player’s Handbook, creation of new powers refers you to the DM’s Guide on creating new spells and the monster section only provides an errata like mention for Couatl, Illithid and Yuan-Ti, referring you to the Monster Manual for the rest. While it is expected that you will have all of these, having to constantly reference back an forth between four books is very annoying. The reference to the DM’s Guide is especially bad since the new rules for psionic powers includes a discipline list and augmentations. What decides if a new power is a general or specialist list power? How may a power be augmented? Can augmentation be added to an existing power? There are no answers since the questions are never asked in the first place.Many of the powers that are referenced to the Player’s Handbook could easily be augmented (psionic fly could add speed or maneuverability for example), but because they are referenced, they may not have been considered for augmentation.It is also a simple fact of gaming that there will be far more material made for Magic users than for Psionics, so a section on converting spells and prestige classes to psionics would have been especially helpful here.Next we have the prestige classes, and well, they are just bland. The Cerebremancer is a Mystic Theurge for Wizards and Psions and aside from the fact that they use the same stat, it is kind of *yawn*. The Elocator is based on motion and speed. The Fist of Zuoken allows a Monk to give up some very nice class abilities and get just 10 powers, all 5th level and lower, in exchange. The Illithid Slayer is still a great class, only losing one manifester level, but this makes the Metamind seem even worse, since it gains only 5 manifester levels. Oh, but he is a master at manifesting low level powers. The Psion Uncarnate is just plain strange, he is “unmaking” himself to become pure psionic consciousness. The Pyrokineticist is a waste of paper as he gains no additional manifester levels. This means that all his Fire based powers never get any stronger and his class abilities just don’t match up with what a Kineticist would get if he just stayed a Psion. The Thrallherd manipulates the minds of others, well one thrall and a few believers and unlike Cohorts and Followers, you can’t chose who you get. A Telepath with the Leadership feat is better off. The last is the War Mind and I just can’t figure exactly what this is supposed to be. If it is for Psychic Warriors, they loose a lot of feats and instead of continuing their power progression, this class starts it all over from the beginning.The real problem with these Prestige classes is that they are no better or actually worse than just staying with your current class. Also, in the Complete Warrior, the PrCs have sample NPCs and this does help to visualize the new PrC. If there were some here, it might help me and others understand them better.As I come to the Psionic items I am reminded about another very annoying aspect of this book, name changes. For some reason Savants are now Kineticists, Crystalline armor is now Gleaming armor, Crystal Capacitors are now Cognizance Crystals. Exactly why so many names needed to be changed I cannot figure out. And along with the name changes are the Missing In Action powers and feats. Many mainstay powers are gone; Augury, Inkling, Foresight, Thrall, Sever the Tie, and many more. Do they think we will just let these go? Also in the item section, I am reminded again that there are no new items for Wilders and Soul Knives. This really stands out to me. When this book was first released, there were some that had problems with the Soul Knife and I think the biggest problem is the lack of support for it. No feats, skills, or psionic items just for them. Without some variation, all the Soul Knives out there might end up looking alike. The Ugly: I heard that this book has been over a year in the making, It is a pity that more of that time was not spent on editing it. There are a lot of editing mistakes in this book, starting with the Soul Knife’s Base Attack Bonus being off. The power psionic dominate seems like a terrible power because several of its augmentations are missing.This is the errata; 4. If you spend 1 additional power point, this power’s duration is 1 hour rather than concentration. If you spend 2 additional power points, this power’s duration is 1 day rather than concentration. If you spend 4 additional power points, this power’s duration is 1 day per manifester level rather than concentration.There are many more mistakes; Maenads get 2 bonus power points in the character section, but only 1 in the monster section. In a previous version, Kineticist had to specialize in an energy type. While this was dropped, the Astral Construct’s menu abilities still mentions it. The psionic moment of prescience power has a duration of 1 round / level instead of 1 hour / level (that’s 2 minutes vs. 20 hours at 20th level). The Soul Knife gets base 4 skill points in its class description, but base 2 in the Skill description. Blue Goblins have a level adjustment of +0 in their monster entry, but +1 in their “As Characters” entry. The Psicrown of the Crystal Mind is referred to as a Staff in its entry. The Elocator’s requirements include “BAB +3 & the feats Mobility and Spring Attack”, but Spring Attack requires a BAB of +4 and the Dodge feat as well as Mobility.I can easily forgive simple spelling and grammar mistakes, especially considering how many I am making just writing this, but when it comes to game mechanics, it is unforgivable. Yes, you and I have internet access and know which message boards to go to get answers and errata, but what about those who don’t? There are those who may never pick up this book again because of a stupid editing mistake that they think is an actual rule to the game.Lastly, there are those who have referred to psionics as “the red-headed step child of D&D” and this book continues that trait. There are several anti-psionic feats; Psionic Hole: Powers cost more against you and attacks against you cost a psion his focus, Chaotic Mind: Insight bonuses can’t be used against you. I wonder how well a feat that caused spells to “cost” more to be used against a PC would go over? In the back of the book are also a few anti-psionic spells; Psychic Turmoil: (5th level) leaches away power points, Mental Pinnacle: (6th level) gain power points and five powers (the old Attack Modes). But where are the anti-magic powers? How about a power that lets a Psion use scrolls? Too powerful and unbalanced? But a single spell that grants 13 levels worth of psionic powers is not?Final Judgement: It is hard to really give this book any grade other than Incomplete I gave it 4 {Good} for the content, but knock off one point for the lousy editing.  All in all, this book is a definite improvement over the previous Psionic Handbook, but there are just so many editing mistakes and areas where needed information is missing. I have to wonder if it is now Wizards of the Coast policy to push the books out before editing is complete, knowing that we gamers will finish the job for them on various message boards for their 2nd printing.Yes, we can just fill in what is missing, but you know after a while doing everything yourself, you just get burned out on it. Gaming is supposed to be fun, but I’ll bet when many people stop playing it is because it became more a chore and less a hobby.There is a lot of room for more material here, the races need more background, the new classes need feats, Prestige classes and some sample iconic NPCs. The new races could use the Paragon class levels from Unearthed Arcana, D20 Modern’s Agents of Psi now needs updating to incorporate some of the new rules and one thing I really liked in the recent Player’s Guide to Faerun, Psionics could incorporate stuff from the Book of Vile Darkness, Book of Exalted Deeds and the Manual of the Planes. But I do not see a Complete Psychic on WotC’s upcoming list.It is up to the other publishers to come through once the XPH goes OGL. We are out here just waiting to buy the books, just be sure to edit them first, OK?</blockquote>

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