New Psionics Balance

[Eltern]

So, got the Expanded Pscionics Handbook, and it's awesome, except for some feats and what not that strike me as completely unbalanced.

Pscionic Body: Give me ONE WAY in which Improved Toughness is not better than this feat, presuming you're playing past level three.

Soulknife: Give it a d8 for HP, and give it a fighter BAB and it'll be ok, but at this point it's like a cleric that doesn't have to worry about buying his weapon. I realize he gets more abilities, but shoot, it's really lame with the cleric BAB as ALL HE WILL EVER DO is hit things. No SA damage, no spells, no powers, he HITS. Give him the good BAB.

Psicrystal Affinity: I'm glad I don't have to get a familiar, it's good to make it a feat, but DANG look at what you get for one single feat:
Alertness (if it's next to you)
Skill Focus or a save feat
All the other snazz, including delivering touch attacks to big nasties you don't wanna get near
No drawbacks (Can't see a penalty if it dies anywhere)

The one feat is worth three other feats, maybe more!

BTW: Swift and immediate actions are awesome. Yay for Bursting Up the Walls.

 

[Particle_Man]

"Pscionic Body: Give me ONE WAY in which Improved Toughness is not better than this feat, presuming you're playing past level three."

Sure. I took Psionic Body, and will take Psionic feats (mostly Psionic Talent multiple times, actually, with the exception of Boost Construct) for all my nonhuman Psion's other feats (including bonus feats). Those 12 feats give me 24 hp by 20th level, while Improved Toughness would give me only 20 hp by 20th level. Ta-dah!

Of course, nothing is stopping me from taking both Psionic Body AND Improved Toughness.

 

[Eltern]

Well...ehh...ok. There's one But it seems it's only useful if you max out on Psionic feats, and then only by 18th level or so.

 

[Quaestor]

As to the soulknife, comparing it to the cleric is a hard comparison to make (straight combat vs. combat caster,) not to mention that the cleric is arguably the most powerful basic class. Comparing it to the monk is much easier.

SOULKNIFE
-More hp (d10 vs. d8).
-An incredible array of offensive abilities, including things such as:
-Whirlwind attack
-+5 weapon with +4 enhancements by level 20
-Can throw mindblades, monks have no ranged attacks
-+5d8 Psychic strike damage
-Can take psionic feats.
-Can wear armor. And since you don't need to spend anything on weapons, you can wear very nice armor, indeed.

SAME
-Comperable skills.
-Equipment costs are low.

MONK
-Better saves (3 good saves vs. 2).
-More mobility (though the SK still has some mobility enhancement).
-Flurry of Blows.
-More defensive powers.

All in all, I would say that the two classes are roughly balanced. If you gave the class full BAB, it would be very superior to both the Psychic Warrior and the Fighter.

You didn't mention this, but another common complaint is that the soulknife should have been a PrC. I would say that having it as a basic class is possible because it is popular enough that people will take it. I would say that it is a better idea because it would be hard to make this class work correctly without the full range of mindblade enhancement scaling, and it would be hard to fit a +9 weapon equivalent into a 10-level class with a straight face.

Quaestor the Wanderer

 

[hazmat]

I'm a little annoyed about the metapsionic feats. Having to expend your psionic focus to use the feats is horrible.

 

[Particle_Man]

Well...ehh...ok. There's one But it seems it's only useful if you max out on Psionic feats, and then only by 18th level or so.

Actually, if you are a Psion and max out on Psionic feats, then it is useful at every level.

The Psion cannot take Improved Toughness until 6th level. So comparing the nonhuman Psion who takes Psionic body and other Psionic feats to one that takes Improved Toughness and not Psionic Body, we get the following:

6th: 5 feats = + 10 hp (vs. +5 hp for IT)
11th: 8 feats = +16 hp (vs. +11 hp for IT)
17th: 11 feats = +22 hp (vs. +17 hp for IT)

In short, there is no level at which it is better to take Improved Toughness than Psionic Body, if one is a Psion that takes exclusively Psionic Feats (and while that restricts what feats you can take, they are not that bad -- Stackable Psionic Talent adds to the goodness)).

About that Metapsionic expend focus deal -- hmmm...it looks like those who take that route will need to get a psicrystal, so that they can get the feat or power that lets it have a focus too. Then you could use a "Expend focus" feat twice in a combat instead of once, without losing an action.

 

[James McMurray]

Expending psionic focus is defintely painful, but you also get to use your metapsionic feats more effectively, as they all cost one level less than their magical counterparts. Empower Power is only +2pp instead of +4.

 

[The Souljourner]

1.) Having to take ONLY metapsionic feats to make Psionic Body useful means Psionic Body is ass.

2.) Having the ability to expend your psionic focus in order to cheapen the cost of using a metapsionic feat would be cool. Having no choice in the matter and *always* expending your psionic focus means that metapsionics are ass. Anything that requires a full round action that draws attacks of opportunity ought to be very powerful.... and saving 2 power points does *not* qualify.

Only being able to use a single metapsionic feat in a battle (which is essentially what that restriction is doing) is crap. Especially with all the other things that require either having or expending psionic focus.

Man... you would think that they would playtest these damn rules and listen to the people whine about how crappy they are!

-The Souljourner

 

[reiella]

So, got the Expanded Pscionics Handbook, and it's awesome, except for some feats and what not that strike me as completely unbalanced.

Pscionic Body: Give me ONE WAY in which Improved Toughness is not better than this feat, presuming you're playing past level three.

Same way Mind Over Body is. It's not meant to be better, it's meant to be a different benefit .

Also, Quasetor forgot to mention that the monk gains more DR piercing abilities .

[ Add Ack ]
Well part of the theory for actually having different mechanics in play for MetaPsi than MetaMagic, and for the Psionic Boosters than Magic Boosters (Spell Focus/Power Focus) is erm, so that they would have a mechanical difference. After all, if you play with transparency, it isn't too difficult at all to just "copy and paste" the magic feats to psionic feats.

 

[Eltern]

I just want to know if you can expend your focus for multiple affects at one time, such as with Greater Psionic Fist and the melee touch attack one (don't remember name). If so, good! If not..well, it makes it pointless to take more than one or two of them, I think.

Eltern