Homebrew Psion Race

[vrishnitu]

I'm new here, so if I missed the homebrew section, I apologize.

Anyway, I know Pathfinder hasn't released any psion classes, yet. But my group and I do a Pathfinder/3.5 mix. I want to build the race to fit more Pathfinder standards.

Any suggestions on level adjustment or balancing? Thanks.

I present the Mos'dra. I'm in the process of writing up alignment, religion, society, etc.

+2 Int +2 Con -2 Wisdom: Mos'dra are known to be intelligent and tough, however this quality has caused their race to evolve some foolhardy tendencies.

Medium: Mos'dra are medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size

Normal Speed: Mos'dra have a base speed of 30 ft.

Silent Communicators: Mos'dra have telepathy up to 30 ft.

Self Healing 1/day: Mos'dra heal 1/2 level + con mod for 1 round/level.

Naturally psionic: Mos'dra gain 3 bonus power points at 1st level. This benefit does not grant them the ability to manifest powers unless they gain that ability through another source, such as levels in a Psionic class.

+2 racial bonus against mind-affecting spells, mind-affecting spell like abilities, and mind-affecting psionics.

Vulnerability: Mos'dra have a vulernability to fire.

Languages: Mos'dra, given that they communicate telepathically with one another, begin only speaking common.

 

[White Wizard]

I can tell you just at quick glance they seem to get more than the other races. The stat adjustments look fine but I think you have to many extra racial traits/abilities. I would drop the self healing bit. I can't seem to recall a race ever getting healing racial abilities (I could be wrong as I never used any of the "races" splatbooks). Also while I understand the flavor mechanic, I'm not sure the telepathy part should stay. I don't think the ability itself is asking too much I just feel like something else should be dropped. Given the choice between +2 racial bonus against mind-affecting or telepathy, the latter would be my choice.

Either way, cool idea and I hope you enjoy your new race. Do you have any fluff figured out for it? Descriptions or anything else?

Edit: I just realized you said you were in the process of writing up the fluff so the answer to my last question is probably no

 

[vrishnitu]

I'm still working out the fluff, but in order to balance them I added a vulnerability to fire.

For a bit of reference. I wanted to make this race like a watered down Time Lord from the Doctor Who series.

I just bought Chronomancer: Time Travel for Everyone. Which is another reason I'm making this race.

 

[vrishnitu]

The Fluff

Mos'dra are an odd and mysterious race with only families occasionally cropping up in various places, typically in the cities of humans. They have an unusual silence about them and only speak when spoken to by someone outside of their race. To other races they just appear to have an odd genetic lineage, but their true nature is a a closely guarded secret. Those who have obsessed over their origin, to the point of moving when they move, have noticed a strange, and seemingly unexplainable aversion to fire. On top of that they have noticed extended life spans. Scholars have a few postulation about this strange bread of humanoid the first being that they communicate with one another telepathically, which would explain their silence. The second and more interesting hypothesis is that their ancestry spawned from the temporal plane.

Physical Description: Standing around 5' 8'' and weighing 160 pounds Mos'dra, the weight have a denser body than most races. Their facial structure is pointed with high cheek bones and sharp jawline. Most Mos'dra are born with black hair, but as they age this changes and it begins to possess a metallic silver sheen. A Mos'dra's eye color ranges from yellow, to green, to blue, but it is always flecked with silver specks on the edge of the iris. When found in cities of other races they wear the attire of that species, however when found on their own they wear silver stitched robes.

Society: Mos'dra when living amongst another race keep to themselves, only venturing out to buy food. When out and about they do tend to frequent apothecaries and other shops of magical nature. Most will find that Mos'dra have an unnatural obsession with time. They spend years studying its effects on the natural world, people, and how to control it. Mos'dra cities are generally found on isolated mountain peaks or in the hidden valleys of mountain ranges. Mos'dra cities are a rare occurrence however. All of their cities have temples at the center, here they study the movement of the stars and planets. It is also where they train their youth in psionics constantly seeking the youth who can alter time. Those successful at it eventually become Seers, their ultimate goal is to be able to travel through time at will. An interesting note is that within their cities you will never find a fire burning. Mos'dra Seers say that their aversion from fire comes from a time in their ancestry after they were ejected from the temporal plane, they were subjected to hell, before arriving on the material plane.

Relations: The secretive nature of Mos'dra has led them to have a standoffish relationship with other races. Also, given their longevity they have a pessimistic view about short lived races like humans. They are, however, friendly to other naturally psionic races.

Alignment and Religion: Mos'dra have no real reverence for the gods, in fact, many feel that the gods forsook them and ejected them from the temporal plane. While Mos'dra believe in the gods, they do not have a respect for them. The only thing that Mos'dra revere more than time is fate. They feel that no matter what they do they'll never be able to master fate. Since most Mos'dra seek to control time they are typically lawful since a number of rules exist governing time. Those that possess the abilities to see through time or alter in some way sometimes fall to the chaotic side, because they feel that the laws have no effect on them. Mos'dra are rarely neutral in that regard. Mos'dra can be good or evil, but most just seek to master time with no real intent to do anything for or against anyone with it, they typically remain neutral in terms of good and evil.

 

[Chronologist]

The guys at Dreamscarred Press are doing a really good job with making Pathfinder Psionics, you should take a look.

Self healing is pretty strong, assume a 16 CON (+2 racial), at first level that's 3 point of healing (assuming you round down), but by 6th level it's 36 points (and even with only 16 con at 20th level it's 260 points). I'd make it an instant heal of Con+2xLevel, personally (making it 5-43 healing over 20 levels, assuming 16 con)

Telepathy is pretty strong, not sure I'd put it on a +0 LA race, but as long as it isn't abused, I don't see anything wrong with it.

Most psionic races don't give 3 PP, they give 2, so I'd reduce it to that.

Personally, I would add another class feature instead of telepathy and/or self healing.

Psychic Boost: At 1st level a Mos'dra selects either Psychometabolism or Psychoportation. Whenever a power of the selected type is manifested targeting them, all level-dependent effects increase as though their manifester level was 1 higher.

 

[vrishnitu]

I was actually wondering where to put a LA. As of now I'd go +2 given the self healing and the telepathy.

 

[White Wizard]

I still think I'd drop the self healing, keep the telepathy, and make it LA +1. I was working under the assumption you were trying to balance it with the core races. Another suggestion is to make it have a -2 to Cha rather than wisdom. It would seem to make a lot more sense with the description you gave. A race that keeps to themselves and speaks only when spoken too would have a negative impact on Cha.

I like the fluff. You said they are humanoid. Do they look like regular humans? Also, what campaign setting are you in (homebrew)? I'd like to know how they fit in your world. Mainly because I spend alot of time on these boards reading but rarely posting but there is a lot if good info/ideas on here.

 

[vrishnitu]

It's a homebrew setting. my group doesn't do much of the pre-made stuff. A while back we tried The Heart of Nightfang Spire, but no one was enjoying it. So, we just homebrew campaigns. One of my friends created a pretty cool questionnaire that gauges what kind of campaign everyone wants.

Anyway back to the original stuff. Mos'dra are exceptionally rare or at least well hidden. There's one important NPC of this race and then a brief arc dealing with his people. I think I may just axe the self healing, because as mentioned previously no race gets it. I basically built this race for a story arc and then a few battles.

 

[dammitbiscuit]

Hooray psionics!

I thought that Pathfinder had banished the idea of LA? However, I could see your race being reasonable with a little bit of LA on it.

I think the reason people take issue with your healing power is that it scales exponentially, whereas hit points scale in a generally-linear fashion. I would only base one of the ability's variables on the character level - note that most racial powers give flat bonuses and do not scale in the first place. If a player uses items or levels to increase their con, an equation that includes half their level, their con, and their level again is a lot of scaling! I'd recommend character level plus Cons for 3 rounds, myself. Mayyyybe 4 rounds. Easy to calculate, grows linearly.

Access to the Mindlink power would be more interesting than just giving away telepathy for free within 30 feet. From a fluff perspective, the ability to "get into people's brains", even if it's just for a chat, generally implies vast mental power. They could manifest Mindlink at will for free, but have the option to augment it with their power points, maybe even with a 50% discount on augmentation. Or, they could manifest it a limited number of times per day with free-of-charge, max-level augmenting (just like Duergar with the racial Expansion power).

I think the above changes make the healing more useful at low levels, and less crazygood at high levels. I could solidly call it a mere +1 LA at that point.

The folks at Dreamscarred Press aren't just dabbling with psionics for Pathfinder, I might add. They're doing a total conversion and update of the Expanded Psionics Handbook for Pathfinder, tackling glaring balance issues along the way as well as making the soulknife and wilder less one-dimensional and more interesting.

Their conversion of the XPH is currently ten bucks to preorder.

To try before you buy, check out the alpha and beta versions of the material available to play with here: Dreamscarred Press - The Definitive Source for d20 Psionics › Forums › Rules & Mechanics › Pathfinder

 

[dammitbiscuit]

If you did throw out the self-heal entirely, I'd drop the fire vuln, too. But who says your race can't have that power uniquely? Racial "balance" is a subjective affair. Goliaths wield crazybig weapons. Gith and kalashtar have scaling racial powers. Gnomes get cantrips without having to be a spellcaster. Dwarves get a big +2 to almost every saving throw that matters. Elves get good weapon proficiencies regardless of what their class is limited to. Etc.