Does this power seem a little broken to anyone else ? Vigor
lvl: psion1, psywarrior 1
Manifest time : 1 standard action
Range: personal
Duration 1 min/lvl
gain 5 temporary hp. Using this power again merely replaces the remaining old temporary hp with new ones. Augment for ever addtional point the number of temp hp you gain increases by 5.
I know the orginal was horribly unerpowered but really - a 5th level psion basically doubles his hp for 5 psp.
Well, considering that he almost has to do it during combat (1 minute per level), it's not as bad, since it takes away an action, and he can only do it to himself. It would probably be slightly more balanced at 2 pp's per 5 hit points, I suppose.
The one I'm interested in is the psionic body feat: +2 permanent hit points with EVERY Psionic Feat you take, including itself? Any Psychic Warrior worth his salt is going to be hunting this one, since half of his feats are going to be Psionic. Add that to Vigor, and you've got a PsyWar with double or possibly triple the hit points of his fellow fighters wading into battle.
I made a 1st lvl PsyWar for fun last night - he had a 12 CON, and 15 hit points! If I had taken vigor, he could have entered battle with 20 hit points - that's more than a 1st level Barbarian with 18 CON and the toughness feat! His one-shot Psionic Weapon focus with a two-handed sword would net 2d6 + 2d6 + strength bonus if it hit. It's one-shot, but that's a lotta damage for a first level character. The scariest thing is he could probably withstand his own hit.
The one I'm interested in is the psionic body feat: +2 permanent hit points with EVERY Psionic Feat you take, including itself? Any Psychic Warrior worth his salt is going to be hunting this one, since half of his feats are going to be Psionic. Add that to Vigor, and you've got a PsyWar with double or possibly triple the hit points of his fellow fighters wading into battle.
I made a 1st lvl PsyWar for fun last night - he had a 12 CON, and 15 hit points! If I had taken vigor, he could have entered battle with 20 hit points - that's more than a 1st level Barbarian with 18 CON and the toughness feat! His one-shot Psionic Weapon focus with a two-handed sword would net 2d6 + 2d6 + strength bonus if it hit. It's one-shot, but that's a lotta damage for a first level character. The scariest thing is he could probably withstand his own hit.
Well, I guess the barbarian could take Improved Toughness, and maybe we should factor barbarian rage into the picture? Hmm. Still looking rather smackdownish in comparison.
Not to get too rantish or anything, but this is what makes me (and I imagine others) shy away from bringing psionics into a campaign. The notion that a psi-character's feats should be inherently superior to a non-psi-character's feats is lame and awkward. If they're better than feats, then don't make'em feats; make them class features. This is the third 3.5e book I've seen that wants to introduce feats-on-steroids (the other two being the regional feats from PGtF and the Exalted tripe from BoED). I can only hope the trend ends some time soon.
The notion that a psi-character's feats should be inherently superior to a non-psi-character's feats is lame and awkward. If they're better than feats, then don't make'em feats; make them class features. This is the third 3.5e book I've seen that wants to introduce feats-on-steroids (the other two being the regional feats from PGtF and the Exalted tripe from BoED). I can only hope the trend ends some time soon.
It's well established that feats with heavier prerequisites are allowed to be better than feats without. "Being psionic" is a prerequisite, and therefore it's OK for psionic feats to be slightly better than others, assuming other prerequisites are the same (the same would go for the Exalted feats). In addition, there's a balancing factor for psionic feats in that they are Supernatural rather than Extraordinary, which means they don't work in antimagic fields and the like.
Many of the psionic feats also have situational prerequisites, especially relating to psionic focus (having or expending). Getting +2d6 damage seems nice at first glance, but for most characters that will be a once/combat thing, with a few feats more and a high Concentration skill turning it into a once-per-round-without-full-attack-or-move thing instead.
I did not say the same power. Notice how the recall pain series in clairsentiece, the inflict pain in telepathy, whitefire metacreative, concussion in psychokinesis?
Ah, but access to the feat is a class feature. Does is bother you that only a fighter can access the weapon specialization feat chain? Same thing with psionics. I think psionic feats are a great tool to express the different nature of psionic characters.
Some initial impressions from my recent reading...
Overall, to me, a serious improvement over the original 3E PsiHB. Multiple ability dependency is gone, Powers are highly scalable and augmentable in a manner similar in many ways to the new Unearthed Arcana's spell point system, Psionic Feats are much saner than they were before, the Power Displays are much less annoying, and there's just plain more cool stuff.
Low-level characters can get a good suite of iconic "signature" Powers very early on. A first-level Telepath can start with a mental communication Power (Mindlink), a mental attack Power (Mind Thrust), and either a mind control Power (Psionic Charm) or a quite decent mental defense Power (Empty Mind, apparently the old "Mind Blank" defense mode renamed so as not to cause confusion with the Mind Blank Power that is similar to the Spell of the same name). Telekinetics get level-1 Powers that move objects at a distance (Far Hand, similar to Mage Hand), deflect attacks (Force Screen and Inertial Armor), and shape energy into attack rays (Energy Ray); an actual kinetic-force attack (Concussion Blast) is a level-2 Power, and the Telekinesis Spell itself (level 5 for Wizards and Sorcerers) has been broken up into 3 seperate Powers, two of which are level-3 and one of which is level-4. Seers get lots of precognitive combat and skill tricks early, and the equivalent of 3.0 (i. e., unlimited range) Clairaudience/Clairvoyance as a level-2 Power. Psychometabolism offers scads of cheap Temporary Hit Points as a level-1 Power, with Damage Resistance at level-2, and psionic self-healing at level-3. And Nomads can get their first Teleportation-subtype Power as a level-2 Power now.
The Psionic Talent Feat makes it possible for very low-level psionic characters to use their Powers quite often; a first-level human Psion with slightly above-average key ability who spent all three Feats on Psionic Talent has 12 Power Points, and can thus, in theory, manifest the equivalent of twelve level-1 Spells in one day. This is somewhat balanced by the fact that many level-1 Powers are the equivalent of level-0 Spells, and is more harshly balanced by the fact that as the costs of higher-level Powers rise, those extra Power Points start to lose much of their relative value compared to the benefits of the Feats forgone to get them - especially the nice Psionic Feats passed up. Decisions, decisions...
The Psychokinetic Powers seem to have much more emphasis on manipulation of non-kinetic energies than is typical in most psi-genre stuff I've read. This, though, was the case in the original PsiHB, too, so it's not really a change. I do find it very interesting that they've given the various energy types the PK'rs can pick from slightly differing game effects beyond simply getting past different forms of energy resistance or immunity. Cold "energies", in particular, are nasty in that they change the half-damage Save to a Fort Save from a Reflex Save, getting around the Evasion/Improved Evasion of Rogues and Monks. I'd love to see similar flavor-tweaks for energy types done for magic, for consistency's sake, if nothing else.
The Wilder is an interesting class, its position relative to the Psion roughly analogous to that of the Sorcerer compared to the Wizard. They get FAR fewer Powers Known than a Psion - about a third the number, consistently to level 20, when they know a total of eleven powers of levels 1 through 9 (not counting any they may have learned with Feats). Even Sorcerers are not nearly so limited in their options. And Wilder Power Point progression is the exact same as a Psions. Their main advantage lies in being able to "Wild Surge" at will, getting a boost in effective Manifester Level and "free" Power Points to pay for the boosted Power, at risk of temporary slight debilitation. Wilders who avoid the debilitation can also get minor morale-based combat bonuses for a little while from the "rush" of channeling the extra power, and their seething emotions also drain Telepaths who touch their minds and give them an intuition bonus against touch attacks. It's a way cool concept, but the very limited list of Powers Known, and the slow rate of acquiring them, is an exceedingly harsh balancing factor, especially considering that the Wilder is the only Power-Manifesting Class to get no Bonus Feats (which can be spent to learn new Powers), and the only Class at all, normal or Prestige, which gains no Bonus Feats for Epic Level progression. I'm hoping that the lack of Epic Bonus Feats is a Halfling Outrider BAB/Soulknife BAB-type outright error.
Speaking of limits on Powers Known, I was under the impression, from stuff I'd read on these boards, that study and spending XPs would allow characters to gain new Powers in excess of the normal limits. This is mistaken - you can research Powers, existing or all-new, but this will explicitly NOT allow you to exceed the normal limits on Powers Known by Class and Level - only the Expanded Knowledge feat, and certain Epic Feats, will allow that. Not sure whether the scuttlebutt around here was wrong, or if I just misinterpreted it.
The Duodimensional weapon abilities have been toned down into simply the psionic equivalent of Keen weapons; I'm not sure how it was done in the original 3e PsiHB, but I seem to remember a time when these things ignored all armor bonuses to AC.
There's a bigger assortment of psionic "enchanted" items, of which my favorites right now are probably the Masks and Third Eyes - nice to see more stuff that takes up the eyeglasses/lenses/goggles slot on a character's body.
All the "essential" psionic beasties (that is, to me, a non-Dark Sun fan) are covered: mind flayers, githyanki/githzerai, duergar, aboleths, intellect devourers, brain moles, thought eaters, couatls. Even the cerebral parasites are back, after a fashion, as a disease you can catch from the brain moles. Only critters I halfway miss are shedu and psionic molds and oozes. Intellect devourer has this cool thing now where it can actually
crawl inside a skull and animate a body - if the owner is alive when this happens, he instantly dies
. There are a bunch of other creatures I'm less enthused about, as well.
Posted by Shard O'Glase: The discipline powers are a good idea but I think poorly implimented. For telepathy there are too many of the things I'd conisder basic telepathy powers that all psions and wilders should have access to. I mean powers that are basically detect thoughts are the basic bread and buter powers of telepathy all should be able to master. Death urge seems more of a discipline power but its a general.
I don't know that I'd go so far as to call them "poorly implemented", but there are certainly some things I'd have done a little differently. Read Thoughts as a Telepath-only Power is likely one of them, but the one that surprised me the most was Dimension Slide - not only not on the Nomad list, but not on the Psion/Wilder list at all; only Psychic Warriors can take it without blowing a Feat on it.
Posted by Evilhalfling: Does this power seem a little broken to anyone else ?
[ - snip description for "Vigor" Power - ]
Not to me; certainly no worse than the massive curing capabilites of a Cleric of similar level. The THP's may help keep you alive in a spot where the healer can't get to you, but the cured points are back forever, where the THP's are gone essentially after one fight, and can only be used for the one party member with the Power.
Posted by Henry: The one I'm interested in is the psionic body feat: +2 permanent hit points with EVERY Psionic Feat you take, including itself? Any Psychic Warrior worth his salt is going to be hunting this one, since half of his feats are going to be Psionic. Add that to Vigor, and you've got a PsyWar with double or possibly triple the hit points of his fellow fighters wading into battle.
This doesn't really seem all that bad. If you took Toughness over and over instead of Psionic Body and your other Psi Feats, you'd get 3 HP per Feat, a 50% improvement. Since D&D combatants fight at full efficiency until they lose their last Hit Point, that handful of extra HP will come into play only in real emergency situations. The same could be said, though, of many Psi Feat abilities, which often require expenditure of the jealously-hoarded-for-emergency-use Focus, or simply provide options that are unneccessary in the large majority of orc bake/mook thrashing combat situations. So, while it's certainly a nice feat, that will likely make it into many min-maxed psi-warrior builds, it doesn't seem either essential or unbalancing to me.
Posted by Felon: The notion that a psi-character's feats should be inherently superior to a non-psi-character's feats is lame and awkward.
As I've mentioned above, this aspect actually seems seriously toned down to me in this book compared to the 3.0 PsiHB. Some truly egregious Feats (like Inertial Armor) have been turned into Powers, many others have been chilled out with Focus and the need to maintain or expend it, non-psis get their own Feats to add a bit more balance, and, at worst, the Wild Talent Feat lets anyone play, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em".
Hello,
[*]All the "essential" psionic beasties (that is, to me, a non-Dark Sun fan) are covered: mind flayers, githyanki/githzerai, duergar, aboleths, intellect devourers, brain moles, thought eaters, couatls. Even the cerebral parasites are back, after a fashion, as a disease you can catch from the brain moles. Only critters I halfway miss are shedu and psionic molds and oozes. Intellect devourer has this cool thing now where it can actually
crawl inside a skull and animate a body - if the owner is alive when this happens, he instantly dies
. There are a bunch of other creatures I'm less enthused about, as well.
I find the Cloak Dance feat interesting. It's a general feat, & only prereq. is 10 ranks Hide & 2 ranks Perform (dance). Granted, you can't get it until 9th level (have to be 7th to get the Hide ranks, then next feat at 9th), & I guess by then maybe you'll have enough items that expending a move action each round of combat to gain concealment wouldn't be worth it... or would it? I haven't hit those levels yet in my return to D&D, but I have to say this looks really pretty sweet.
Oh, one thing I think is funny about it -- there's no mention that you actually need a cloak in order to cloak dance. This raises the question (with a /nod to Order of the Stick)... if a bard cloak danced naked in the forest, would anyone see him?
If I had taken vigor, he could have entered battle with 20 hit points - that's more than a 1st level Barbarian with 18 CON and the toughness feat! His one-shot Psionic Weapon focus with a two-handed sword would net 2d6 + 2d6 + strength bonus if it hit. It's one-shot, but that's a lotta damage for a first level character. The scariest thing is he could probably withstand his own hit. 
