Opinions of Expanded Psi-handbook

[Thanee]

I for one am highly disappointed with the XPH.

I had hoped for a book of the 3.5 standard, but it's really not living up to that in my eyes.

While the designers tried (and partially succeeded) to do away with many of the uncountable design errors of the original book, they put in about as many in the new one IMHO.

Ok, that's not quite fair, the XPH is already a big improvement over the PsiHB 3.0, which is by far the worst RPG book I own (and I own quite a few of those). It's most horrible. The XPH isn't that bad at least!

About some of the classes: The Psychic Warrior was a very good class in 3.0, probably somewhat on the powerful side, but not overpowered (note, that I am judging from a version using the ITCK update rules and some MS stuff). I can only guess the 3.5 Psychic Warrior and the Soul Knife are similar to that still. I guess the Wilder will be quite boring with the extremely reduced amount of powers and not much else to do, but incredibly powerful, if used right (or rather wrong? ), nonetheless. Definitely no match to a Psion, tho. The better BAB, hp and skills probably don't help there either.

No comment about the Psion!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nifft]

I really like it. There's stuff that needs fixing, but the basics -- specifically the mechanics -- are excellent. I like the Psionic Focus mechanic, I like the Powers and the Power advancement, I like the new Psychic Warrior and Psion classes, and the Wilder has potential.

Basically, it's like 3.5e. The problems are far smaller than the previous version, my House Rules are far smaller than before, and the ideas inspire me more.

It gets the Four Thri-Kreen Thumbs Up award... even if I do change stuff.

-- N

 

[Dark Psion]

This book is a great enhancement over the previous one, but it does have it faults.

I think the real problem with SoulKnives and Wilders is the lack of example and support. When the PsiHBK came out, the Psychic Warrior was new but I had a character concept in my head (and her name was Xena) and that gave me a point of reference to work from.

For the Wilder, I started with Robin from Witch Hunter Robin and am working from that point of reference.

The other problem is the lack of Feats, Prestige classes and Psionic items just for these two classes. Without some Soulknife feats, they do all kind of look alike. It isn't that hard to come up with Soul Stones: Power stones for Soul Knives that boost their effective level with their Mind Blade or Wilder Amulets that protect from Psychic Enervation (10 charges).

As to the XPH, while the writing is great, the editing is unbelivably bad. The list of mistakes just keeps on growing. At first I was wondering if WotC has started hiring monkeys as editors, but even they couldn't make this many mistakes. I can only assume that is now WotC poilicy to send out the books and let us edit them on these message boards for their second printing.

How many errors?
Let's start 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.”

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.
Wilders are described in their background as being abandoned in the wilderness, but do not get the Survival skill.
The Dragon #316 psionic sneak peak had two feats that enhanced "phrenic" powers, but their are no phrenic type powers in the XPH.

 

[Caspian Marqine]

Funky.

Hmm woah, people responding neat. Post exam thinking, I'd have to say this

Psychic Warrior: Wuxia characters, damned fine for that that's what I've always thought. I appreciate Piratecat's cents on the powers, only skimmed through that section and I guess I'll have to get into that before being able to run that.

Soulknife: Second line fighter = I'd love to play one but with some mods. I designed a base class along those ideas and I don't think the 3/4 BAB progression or the light armor only was a good idea. Very restrictive base class, I can see how it should be a prestiege, but can't see how to cram all those powers into 10 levels. The design I think comes from the psychic weapon master in the mind's eye who was rather cool. I switching up some of the abilities to allow for heavier armor should account for everything, tho I guess you'd have to switch the skills down to fighter levels.



More 2 cents,
Jonathan

 

[Jack Daniel]

I'm a classicist myself when it comes to psionics. The rules in the XPH are definitely loads better than the 3.0 version, but I have no need for the wilder or soulknife classes (at least, as core classes). I combined the psion and the erudite into a single psionicist class, and replaced the psychic warrior with a 15-level battlemind prestige class, á la Unearthed Arcana. I'm very happy with the actual psionics rules, especially scaling powers -- that was sorely missing from v3.0.

 

[Greatwyrm]

I'm very happy with the XPH overall, for a number of reasons.

--No more psi-combat. As much as I liked psionics, I can't tell you how much I hated this.

--The new psionic races are cool. I especially like the Elan and the Maenad. I wasn't wild about the changes to the half-giant, but I'll survive. Not like I can get a Dark Sun game rolling anyhow.

--Psionics now seem more like a complete magic system and less like a bolted-on afterthought. I can actually see (and am trying to plan out) a campaign where psionics pretty much replace magic (at least arcane). Not sure I'd have tried that with 3.0.

--I like the Soulknife as a core class. I don't think it's quite right to hold it up against the fighter or rogue, though. I'd say it's more fair to compare it to the monk.

--Moving psionic feats from a required point reserve to an expendable focus. Under 3.0 rules, feat heavy characters would just give up on powers rather than lose access to their cooler feats. Now you can use your powers and your feats.

 

[Telperion]

Has anyone checked out the Wilders Powers Known? I mean to say that this class looked quite nice (I like the concept), but with a Powers Known progression like this who would actually take this? The Psychic Warrior gets more Powers for crying out loud!

At this point I'm looking at a class that has a single useful trick and then a few side-effects that may or may not be useful. At level 20 you have a total of 11 Powers. Now that bites, if nothing else.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Soulknife: Very restrictive base class, I can see how it should be a prestiege, but can't see how to cram all those powers into 10 levels.

Hey lets try it
most seem to agree that it would be better as a prestige class so ..

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1520890#post1520890

 

[RoastSlinky]

I'd just like to say that I quite like the soulknife... I think it has flavor and potential. If you say it's a one trick pony, well, then so is the Paladin... and not many people have a problem with it.

 

[Nifft]

Has anyone checked out the Wilders Powers Known? I mean to say that this class looked quite nice (I like the concept), but with a Powers Known progression like this who would actually take this? The Psychic Warrior gets more Powers for crying out loud!

This class screams NPC! NPC! -- it's what my Cranium Rat swarms are going to have levels in. It's a great class.

-- N