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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vanuslux" data-source="post: 2011426" data-attributes="member: 937">I'll just disclaim right up front that I didn't pay for this PDF.  I was given a copy to review...the first time I've had such a luxury.  Having never read a product by DaemonEye Publishing I had no idea what I was in for and was a bit nervous about offering to do this review.  I'm not the sort of person to pull punches in my reviews and getting a free copy of the book isn't going to affect my opinion of the material.  I consider a reviewers job to be not just raving about good products, but giving consumers fair warning about products that suck.  Fortunately, Psionics Ascendant doesn't suck at all...in fact, I was rather pleasantly surprised.  Appearances - The first thing that made me breath a sigh of relief about this product was that I noticed right away that the PDF was well formatted as I skimmed it.  Thorough bookmarks and nice layout made it really easy to jump right in and hop to the parts I was most curious about in my initial breeze through.  The artwork, sparse as it is for a book this size, is overall above average, with most of the stand outs being Benjamin Richard's illustrations.  On the flip side, though, there are some images that hurt my eyes with their terrible and often excessive coloring.  Contents - The book starts with a nicely laid out table of contents and a brief introduction to the book before quickly diving into the meaty chapters.Chapter 1 - Psionic Races (12 pages): The title of the chapter is a bit of a misnomer.  It isn't really so much about races that are innately psionic so much as mostly going over where psionics fits in with various races, most of which aren't typically known for psionics.  This makes it far more useful in my opinion than if it had really been focused on "psionic races".  There are a lot of races covered and each gets a fairly nice bit of detail.  All the standard races and their sub races are accounted for, as well as several monstrous races...including a new gnollish sub race that has been "bred for generations to harness the powers of the mind".  There are a few crunchy bits here and there, but mostly this is informational, making this chapter quite handy regardless of whether on uses standard psionics or the psionics system presented in this product.  Chapter 2 - Core Classes (23 pages): Next, we're introduced to the Psionicist base class and its 7 core prestige classes.  The Psionicist is pretty buff compared to the Psion.  More bonus feats, better saves, more power points, better hit dice, more skill points.  What do they have less of?  Well...uh...their starting gold is lower...that's about all I can see.  On the other hand, Psionicists use a feat based system for their psionic powers so it really needs those bonus feats since they sort of replace the Psion's powers known and the slightly less flexible range of powers helps counter the other benefits.  It's hard to say without playtesting, but looking at the pros and cons I'd say that neither is much more powerful than the others.  The seven prestige classes in this chapter can be achieved at fairly low level and essentially represent disciplines.  We get the Creator (summons and shapes ectoplasm), the Fleshchanger (alters the structural makeup of their bodies), the Kinetic (applying physical force via the mind), the Mindbender (mental communications), the Seer (divination type stuff), the Sensei (meditative martial artists), and the Traveller (mental transportation).  Nothing particularly radical but more interesting and flavorful than the way disciplines are handled in EPH.This chapter also has Spark feats, which can only be taken at first level and only if the character's first level is Psionicist, and feats specific to each of the prestige classes.  Each class also gets an example character, all 6th level, a small feature I appreciate.  Chapter 3 - Skills (4 pages): This short chapter gives us a run down of skills special to psionic characters as well how some general skills apply to Psionicists.  Pretty standard SRD stuff here, but I find the new skill Twist (which lets the Psionicist pump up their manifesting level but with no small measure of risk) to have a lot of dramatic potential.Chapter 4 - Feats (12 pages): Mostly psionic feats and knacks (minor psionic powers that don't cost power points but can only be used a limited number of times per day).  There's a pretty nice selection here and nothing jumps out as out of balance.  There are certainly some potent feats here, such as Mind Store (which lets you copy your mind in part or in whole to other creatures and such), but those have high requirements and often require XP expenditure to use.  Overall this was another particularly strong chapter.  Chapter 5 - Metapowers (9 pages): This chapter gives us the Psionicists feat based powers.  Each has a range of effect...the more power points you pump into them, the greater the effect, but the number of points you can spend on a metapower is limited by level.  I personally like this method of psionics better than psionic powers being treated like spells.  Everything seems pretty well balanced, which is important to me.  Chapter 6 - Prestige Classes (43 pages): In this large chapter we get 24 prestige classes.  It feels like a bit of overkill, but I suppose one has to figure that standard d20 psionics has several sources for prestige classes that use it.  I doubt the system in this product will receive much support out of its own company.  A few of these are variants on classes from the EPH but the mechanical similarities are few.  Speaking of mechanics, these prestige classes seem pretty sound...though I have to admit I only went over a few in detail and skimmed the rest.  No one is paying me to spend three hours picking apart prestige classes bit by bit and I figure that I could get a fair feel for the general competence of design with a small sampling.  This chapter also has a large number of class specific feats.  The prestige classes found here are Academy Scholar, Alchemical Addict, Arcanologist, Crystal Savant, Crystal Warrior, Dabbler, Dweomer's Disdain, Force Warrior, Grave Mind (A cool class, but can we ever get a prestige class that deals with undead that doesn't end up emulating or becoming undead?), Hypercognative, Intellus Guild Member, Living Weapon, Metamind, Mind Reaver, Mind Walker, Naturally Talented, Psychic Artificer, Psychic Savant, Pyrokineticist, Shadowed Mind, Slayer, Soul Knife, Spirit Bow, and Spirit Medium.  Chapter 7 - Psionic Combat (3 pages): A brisk run down of psionic attack modes and psionic defense modes and how they're used, as well as attack mode alterations.  It's nothing revolutionary but straight forward and functional.  Chapter 8 - Psionic Rules (6 pages): I can't imagine why this chapter wasn't more towards the beginning of the book since its main purpose is explaining what all the mechanics and terminology in the previous chapters of the book mean.Chapter 9 - Psionic Lore (6 pages): This chapter talks about different ways psionics can fit into a setting, how different cultures are apt to perceive psionics and stuff like that.  Excellent food for thought. Chapter 10 - Psionics In Society (5 pages): Pretty much a continuation of the previous chapter.  It covers various levels of commonness of psionics and how they might affect aspects of society. We also get a couple of new cleric domains (Mind and Psionic) and some new spells from those domains.  Lastly there are a handful of optional feats that would only be relevant to certain campaigns.Chapter 11 - Cultures and Organizations (21 pages): This chapter delivers just what the title promises...cultures and organizations.  It does so quite well, too.  For cultures, we get the Obsidian Elves (remnants of elves cast out of elven society long ago in an overreaction to the earliest displays of psionic ability among elves), The Shadow Mirror (a jungle that has been conquered by the Yviss), and The Valley (home to psionic human refugees from another plane who have a strong relationship with the dwarves, who control the mountains surrounding The Valley.  Despite the weak names, the cultures themselves are well described, complete with descriptions of settlements.  The organizations are the Aerie (a collective of mutated creatures that were once men), Darkling Guild (a notorious group of assassins), Intellus Guild (a loose group whose members share a mutual telepathic bond), Shadow Watchers (a group of people bent on banishing or destroying everything undead or extra-planar, regardless of whether they're good or evil), Synaptic Order (a militant group seeking perfect union of mental and martial abilities), and White Masters (a group motivated to help others, mainly through healing...too bad their name invokes a much less benevolent real world organization).  The organizations aren't as well described as the cultures, but what's here is sufficient to give a usable basis.  Chapter 12 - Psionic Hazards (5 pages): This chapter gives us psionic diseases (Brain Worms, Cascade Flu, Cerebral Parasites, Cerebramorph Sickness, Consciousness Shards, and Flesh Consumption), psionic poisons (Crystal Catalyst, Hawthorne Extract, Mindjack, and Obsidian Dust), Menes (pure mental data transmitted through telepathic contact...sort of like a psychic STD), and mindstorms (incorporeal clouds of psychic energy that really mess up anyone they come in contact with).  There's plenty of stuff to really mess with players here, which makes it one of my favorite chapters.  Chapter 13 - Psionic Items (23 pages): This chapter provides rules for psionic item creation under the psionic system presented in this product, complete with examples.  There are also the obligatory specific psionic items.  A solid offering.Appendix A - Terminology (1 page): A short glossary of terms.Appendix B - Psionic Monsters (52 pages): This chapter consists mostly of standard psionic monsters revised for the new psionics system, though there are a few new critters to be found.  It would have been nice to have had all the SRD psionic monsters revised here, but oh well.  Can't have everything.  Character Sheet: Obviously a completely different psionics system is going to need a new character sheet to accommodate characters using it.  This one is pretty basic but it gets the job done.  Who needs their character sheets to look pretty anyway?In Conclusion - This product rounded all the bases and made it home. What complaints I have about it are minor (some horrid pieces mixed in with the mostly good art, not translating more of the standard SRD psionic monsters to the new psionics system, some chapters in unusual order, little stuff like that).  Anyone looking for a self-contained psionics system to add to their games that replaces the SRD system (at a much nicer price than the EPH) should give this product a shot, as should anyone who simply prefers a psionics system that doesn't make psionics users seem like just another spell caster.  The only serious drawback to this system is that it doesn't have a lot of support out there like the SRD system.  Despite being a better system in my opinion, the things that make it better also make it pretty much incompatible with all the other psionics supplements in existence without significant work.  Still, at the $7 price (for 238 pages) there's not much reason not to give it a chance.  I don't have any qualms at all about giving this product a solid 4-Star rating for what it is on its own.  It delivers everything it promises with excellent execution.</blockquote>

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