I've skimmed the book, mostly from perspective of a 12th level Psychic Warrior I play.
Overall, the book seems nice.
Specific to Psy Warriors:
- Psy Warriors have lost weapon specialization
- Bonus feats are at 1st, 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th etc.
- Their casting stat is now wisdom. This drives me nuts. Sure you can rationalize any stat for anything... but when in the context of the game the other wisdom casters (rangers, druids, clerics, paladins) all use wisdom because it's the divine stat then using it for psy warriors is a bit weak. Psions are Int. Psychic Warriors who use the same powers are Wisdom... ? Weird.
It seems obvious that the only reason they made this change is because they wanted a psionic caster for each casting stats. Psions Int, PW Wis, Wilder Cha.
- Another thing about the casting stat change, it pretty much guarantees a major redo of existing Psy Warriors. I know for one that my 12th level psy warrior has an 11 wisdom... Time to swap stats I guess.
Under powers, they are nicely redone. Some look very juicy, perhaps too juicy given the scaling. Too early for me to tell, but some powers to take a look at and judge for yourself:
Biofeedback: 1st level, 1 min/level, gain dr 2/-, scales: dr +1/3 pp
Prevenom Weapon: 1st level, 1 charge of save or takes 2 pts of con damage, scales con dmg +2/6pp.
Detect Hostile Intent: 2nd level, 10min/level. What a headache for the GM! This is danger sense that detects "active aggression."
Dissipating Touch: 1st level, Touch attack, 1d6 of damage. Scales: +1d6 dmg/1 pp. ONE pp to scale this sucker? Nice. Good thing Psy Warriors don't have many PP.
Prescience, Offensive: 1st level, 1 min/level, +2 insight bonus to damage, scales: (assumed typo) +1 dmg/ 3 pp
Force Screen: 1st level, 1 min/level, +4 shield bonus to ac, scales: +1 ac/4pp
The list goes on... the scary thing is that scaling looks like you could stack some things pretty high. I will reserve judgement on whether the classes look balanced against the 3.5 classes.
There are lots of ways now to do D. Door type of things as a psy warrior now... including a very nice prc called Elocator optimized for that. Oh, how could I forget, for 6 more pp you can use D. Door as a move action.
There are also scary new powers that can be done as "immediate actions." These are somewhat troublesome to me, because some of them are defensive... ie- you get attacked and you can use an immediate action to activate a power to increase your AC, for example. I really like the idea. In some of my games it will work great. In other games though... it takes people forever to make decisions. You'd think those people would play simple characters... but in my experience those people always play the most complicated characters, and the groups are too nice to require different. Now everytime they get attacked, "Should I increase my ac?!"
The PRCs are pretty juicy too, there is one that is mystic theurge but it's Psi/Arcane. Can you say single stat goodness MT of Int/Int?
There are some [general] feats that will need to be expected for balance as well. Greater Manyshot is one...
There are my quick thoughts after spending 30 mins to skim it. My thoughts are kind of scattered cause I'm thinking of how my Psy Warrior is going to end up looking after conversion... it's making my brain hurt
Overall, the book seems nice.
Specific to Psy Warriors:
- Psy Warriors have lost weapon specialization
- Bonus feats are at 1st, 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th etc.
- Their casting stat is now wisdom. This drives me nuts. Sure you can rationalize any stat for anything... but when in the context of the game the other wisdom casters (rangers, druids, clerics, paladins) all use wisdom because it's the divine stat then using it for psy warriors is a bit weak. Psions are Int. Psychic Warriors who use the same powers are Wisdom... ? Weird.
It seems obvious that the only reason they made this change is because they wanted a psionic caster for each casting stats. Psions Int, PW Wis, Wilder Cha.
- Another thing about the casting stat change, it pretty much guarantees a major redo of existing Psy Warriors. I know for one that my 12th level psy warrior has an 11 wisdom... Time to swap stats I guess.
Under powers, they are nicely redone. Some look very juicy, perhaps too juicy given the scaling. Too early for me to tell, but some powers to take a look at and judge for yourself:
Biofeedback: 1st level, 1 min/level, gain dr 2/-, scales: dr +1/3 pp
Prevenom Weapon: 1st level, 1 charge of save or takes 2 pts of con damage, scales con dmg +2/6pp.
Detect Hostile Intent: 2nd level, 10min/level. What a headache for the GM! This is danger sense that detects "active aggression."
Dissipating Touch: 1st level, Touch attack, 1d6 of damage. Scales: +1d6 dmg/1 pp. ONE pp to scale this sucker? Nice. Good thing Psy Warriors don't have many PP.
Prescience, Offensive: 1st level, 1 min/level, +2 insight bonus to damage, scales: (assumed typo) +1 dmg/ 3 pp
Force Screen: 1st level, 1 min/level, +4 shield bonus to ac, scales: +1 ac/4pp
The list goes on... the scary thing is that scaling looks like you could stack some things pretty high. I will reserve judgement on whether the classes look balanced against the 3.5 classes.
There are lots of ways now to do D. Door type of things as a psy warrior now... including a very nice prc called Elocator optimized for that. Oh, how could I forget, for 6 more pp you can use D. Door as a move action.
There are also scary new powers that can be done as "immediate actions." These are somewhat troublesome to me, because some of them are defensive... ie- you get attacked and you can use an immediate action to activate a power to increase your AC, for example. I really like the idea. In some of my games it will work great. In other games though... it takes people forever to make decisions. You'd think those people would play simple characters... but in my experience those people always play the most complicated characters, and the groups are too nice to require different.
Now everytime they get attacked, "Should I increase my ac?!"The PRCs are pretty juicy too, there is one that is mystic theurge but it's Psi/Arcane. Can you say single stat goodness MT of Int/Int?
There are some [general] feats that will need to be expected for balance as well. Greater Manyshot is one...
There are my quick thoughts after spending 30 mins to skim it. My thoughts are kind of scattered cause I'm thinking of how my Psy Warrior is going to end up looking after conversion... it's making my brain hurt
.
