Psionic Dread: Psionics Unleashed

[Sorrowdusk]

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/dread


Got a few questions if anyones experienced, how is this class?

Campaign coming up and in this game there is a Nightmare God. He's NE aligned has the domains: Knowledge (Thought), Madness (Insanity, Nightmare), Rune, Void (Dark Tapestry)

I was thinking of being an Anti-Paladin(?) maybe or cleric, OR.....since psionics are in a Dread (or Dread Multiclass with the former two). Any thoughts?

I started googling around for peoples thoughts on this class and some people feel it's broken (or at least with Expanded Psionics it is). I have heard some people say a 15th lvl Elan can get +73 or +84 average on his intimidate check. I'm just wondering what in the world did they add in that book that made that possible (or already exists).

The class gets 1/2 it's class levels as an insight bonus to the Intimidate skill. (+10 @ lvl 20)
The class (if Elan) gets 1/2 level to intimidate as favored class bonus (+10 @ lvl 20)
Your max ranks in a skill cant exceed your hit dice (+20 @ lvl 20)

So that's +40 bonus (+50 average ). That seems like a lot compared to 3.5 (albeit I seem to recall at least having a few characters with +35 [or more] modifiers). Do you think the favored class bonus is too much (before charisma) ? I'm not sure how Epic works in Pathfinder, but IIRC in 3.5 a skill check had to have a modifier (not result) of at least +50 to be considered an Epic check.

Is the class "broke" in other ways, or breakable, and how do you do it?

I'm not actually looking to do that, rather to know how so as to AVOID doing it. Conceptually, it looks like a very fun class.

Does anyone have any advice for multiclassing with it?

EDIT: looking through here.

The Fear Incarnate terror gives a Dread his level as a bonus to intimidate.


@.o That's probably breaking the bank.

Probably shouldnt use that.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I'm a little concerned about this:

At 7th level, the dread gains immunity to fear (psionic or otherwise). This ability functions whether the dread is conscious or unconscious, but not when she is dead.

But I'm afraid of death!

***

That aside, the class as a whole doesn't jump to me as broken.

As to the Intimidate issue, what can you really do with Intimidate? Render opponents shaken. If you exceed the DC, it just increases the duration. Or you can scare people into a transient state of helpfulness. I see no other uses in PF or 3.5 for particularly high modifiers. Not to mention how many enemies are flat out immune to these things. I have a hard time seeing any Intimidate bonus as being game-breaking.

 

[Sorrowdusk]

I'm a little concerned about this:
But I'm afraid of death!

***

That aside, the class as a whole doesn't jump to me as broken.

As to the Intimidate issue, what can you really do with Intimidate? Render opponents shaken. If you exceed the DC, it just increases the duration. Or you can scare people into a transient state of helpfulness. I see no other uses in PF or 3.5 for particularly high modifiers. Not to mention how many enemies are flat out immune to these things. I have a hard time seeing any Intimidate bonus as being game-breaking.

Well I DID find this feat...........
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/feats/insightful-terror-psionic

Any others like it?

 

[Ahnehnois]

Well that is a concern.

However, I'd change the feat before I changed the skill bonus. Using a skill against a flat DC (not a saving throw) to cause paralysis has red flags all over it.

 

[knottyprof]

The feat does have some limitations:
first it requires a standard action to use it
second it only works on one opponent
third it only affects the target for one round
fourth it will not work on opponents immune to mind affecting fear (paladins for one)
fifth it cannot be taken until the character has at least 9 HD (9 levels total) as it requires an Intimidate skill with at least 9 ranks.

Biggest issue with the feat is the paralyzed condition which renders the opponent helpless (vulnerable to coup de grace at that point). If this is a concern just house rule in that instead of paralyzed the victim is either frightened or panicked instead (maybe increase the duration to 1d3 rounds).

 

[Ahnehnois]

Even given those limitations, it's possible to get a pretty high skill bonus without any class increases, certainly high enough to beat a DC of 10 + HD + Wis mod. Even if you nix the class's skill bonus and just take basic steps to get a good modifier (given that this is kind of your thing), we're talking an Intimidate of level + 3 (training) + 6 (Skill Focus) + 4 (Persuasive) + Cha mod (which is likely better than the target's Wis). This alone is likely to be successful greater than 50% of the time, and with an ally in position to CdG, would lead to a lot of really chip kills.

Paralysis without a saving throw is not a good idea.

 

[knottyprof]

Not disagreeing about the Paralysis question. There are some posts on the Dreamscarred press site about this feat as well that might be of interest.

Bottom line is Psionics in Pathfinder is not officially sanctioned by Paizo--though they pretty much leave it up to Dreamscarred Press--so the bottom line would be to discuss what your DM will and will not allow. Nothing wrong with house ruling in a mod to the feat to make it more manageable as mentioned above or granting Will saving throw for the target with a DC of 10 + 1/2 class level (possessing frightful insight class feature) + CHA modifier of the Intimidator.